The Hogwarts Diaries - Marauder's Era

The Common Room - Alexis

After the sorting ceremony the feast began and I must say they've really outdone themselves this year. The food was delicious and it most certainly filled me up! I probably won't be able to eat for a month.

I took a look around the Great Hall and found myself more than ecstatic to be back at Hogwarts; a place where I'm actually loved and where people notice me. It felt good to see all of those familiar faces talking and interacting and to see the ghosts hovering around and greeting all of the students.

It seems like the start to another wonderful year at Hogwarts! But this year I feel as though things are going to be a bit different from how they usually are every other year. For one, my older brother Daniel, who everyone seems to be crazy about (including my parents), is not here this year. That way I’ll be able to make a name for myself.

As I looked towards the other end of the table, I noticed a section of the table which was noisier than the rest. I knew instantly that that was where the Marauders were seated. I couldn't help but laugh to myself at the scene; Sirius seemed to be having a good old time with his large fan club of girls and Peter was beside him trying so dearly to get the attention of the girls but failing miserably; James was flirting with Lily, as usual, and naturally he failed to capture her interest.

But sitting next to James, all by his lonesome was Remus Lupin. He was a mischief maker like the rest of them no doubt, but he was a bit more enclosed. He didn't go seeking attention or entertaining swarms of girls; he was perfectly fine with being alone and reading a book that he seemed already lost in. There was something different about him but I wouldn’t consider him to be ‘strange’ or ‘weird’ like all of the other students do. And he wasn’t as quiet and most people thought. He’s actually quite good company as I learnt from the time we had detention together.

I heard laughing and felt an elbow nudge me. I turned to Jasmine who was sitting next to me. She and I weren’t exactly the closest of friends but we were still friends. "Stop staring," she whispered. Only at that moment did I realize that I had been staring at Remus for the past few minutes. My cheeks turned crimson and I awkwardly turned towards the group of my friends in front of me and struck up a conversation to mask my humiliation.

After the feast we were all led to our common rooms. As expected, the Gryffindor common room was very lively and full of excitement. Since it was just the first day of school, the teachers and prefects did not rush us to bed.

Hours later there was still a bunch of us who were awake. It could have only been the brilliant idea of James Potter to start a game of 'Truth or Dare'. But never-the-less, soon enough everyone that was awake was playing.

We gathered into a circle on the warm carpet and spun a bottle around. People were usually asked silly questions or dared to do the strangest of things such as eating an ear wax flavored Bertie Botts bean or to conjure a moustache on their face. Some people were lucky like Liron and were dared to do something that they were good at; in her case it was to sing a song.

When the bottle finally pointed to me I happily chose dare as I was a very daring and up-for-it person. But Lily argued and said that dares were too easy for me and that I should choose truth instead. I didn't see anything wrong with that and definitely couldn't disagree so I went ahead with truth. It was definitely going to be easier than dare, right?

Wrong! Jasmine asked me the worst possible question which I am sure she had thought of because of the incident at dinner today. "Who do you fancy? Which boy in the school really catches your attention?" she asked.

"Ooooooooh" cooed Sirius and almost immediately a blush appeared on Jasmine's face. She’s had a bit of a thing for him for quite a while now and I’m sure that he felt the same way as well.

I looked around and saw every eye locked on me. My gaze involuntarily turned to Remus who was already looking at me and he quickly looked away as if trying to avoid eye contact with me. "No one. No one at all" I answered quickly and hesitantly. The others begged me to answer or to mention the name of at least one person who caught my attention but I refused to answer.

Everyone else seemed convinced but I was sure that Jasmine knew I was lying. She nudging me every time Remus did something. After a while I started panicking and quickly woke up and rushed off upstairs to the girls dorms to my bed. That was it. I knew I'd done it then. Everyone would know that something was going on with me.

I don't know whether I did the right thing today. Maybe I should have confessed about my feelings or at least mentioned someone's name to humor them, but I knew that I just wouldn't have felt right if I did something of that sort and it could have caused problems.

Anyways, it's good to be back at Hogwarts. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us. My hands are hurting a bit now so I think I'm going to end this diary entry here. I'll read a bit more of 'Hairy Snout, Human Heart' (a book that a picked up during the holidays about a wizard's struggle against lycanthropy) and then I'll go to bed.

Nighty night,

Xoxo...Alexis