SCARLETT: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Chapter 3: The Mural

The Great Hall was packed already when we arrived. Hermione waved us goodbye, going to sit at the Gryffindor table.

Piper broke off from us as well, to speak to Professor Sprout, who was sitting at the front. She didn't tell us why. I was trying to read their conversation until Eliza pulled me to sit down.

Harry and Ron still hadn't turned up. Hermione was alone, staring at the table. I wished she could sit with us, but it wasn't allowed.

The sorting started, and I looked at all the first-year's scared faces. It seemed impossible that I had been one of them just a year ago.

It would be a while until Ginny's name was called, so Ron still had time before to get here.

-

McGonagall was at the letter 'L' and the boys still hadn't arrived. I couldn't work out where they could be, because as far as I knew the train was the only transportation to Hogwarts. How else would they get to Scotland?

"Ginny Weasley?"

Ginny walked up to the front, looking around at everyone's faces. Eliza and I each made predictions about the house she was going to be in. Eliza said Hufflepuff, but I thought she'd be a Gryffindor like all her brothers.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

My suspicions were correct. I gave her an encouraging smile when she turned around to look at the Hufflepuff table. It was a shame that Ron had missed it, but at least Fred and George were making a big deal.

"I wanted her in our house," muttered Eliza, still clapping.

"Family traditions, El. There's no way she wasn't going to be a Gryffindor."

Later, back at the dormitory, Eliza and I began brainstorming for the wall. Eden chimed in every couple of minutes with interesting contributions.

"So, an ocean..."

"With pink seahorses!"

"Eden, seahorses aren't pink—"

"They can be if I want them to be..."

Piper was laying on her bed, looking at the wall. I felt sorry for her until I realised she wouldn't want my sympathy. We'd tried to include her and it was clear that she didn't want to be involved.

-

Classes started again, and it was like I'd never left. My temper was kept in check by Eliza, although there were a couple of close calls. Snape was still horrible to anyone who wasn't a Slytherin, and it took all my self-control not to tackle him.

Theodore Nott and I became closer, helping each other out. It came to my attention that most of the Slytherins didn't like the favouritism either, as they were ambitious and wanted to earn their achievements. There would always be people like Draco, who is the type of person that makes someone want to pull their hair out, but it was important to remember that he was one bad Slytherin out of hundreds.

There had been no D.A.D.A. classes for my year group yet. Saying that I was dreading the class was an understatement. When Eliza and I had gone in to get our books, our supposed new teacher was in there being a cocky shit. We asked some of the assistants and were told that he had been there the entire week, giving out autographs.

"Big-headed twat..." I had muttered to Eliza and she nodded in agreement.

After dinner one night, Eden came running up to me, holding some tins of paint and some brushes.

"Hey, so I went ahead and borrowed some paint from those seventh years that want to be artists..."

"Wait, who?"

She blinked. "You don't know Maya and Shay?"

"No..."

"Oh, well, they paint. They also smoke a lot, so you shouldn't trust anything they say. I hung out with them a lot last year. Anyway, they said we can borrow their paint for the wall. Maya's Head Girl for Hufflepuff, so she can permit us."

I could tell by her expression that Eliza was trying to ignore her urge to question Eden's interesting friendship choices. Instead, she smiled. "Great! We can get started then. I'll sketch out the girl-"

"Make sure there are plenty of pink seahorses when you do the ocean."

And with that, Eden gave us a wave with her free hand and sprinted off in the opposite direction.

"Hopefully she'll be back at some point, we need the paint..." I thought aloud.

Shame on me for thinking Eden only had one tin. Our room was stacked high with painting supplies. Piper wasn't pleased.

"I don't want anything to do with this," she said, "You're so stupid to do this, you'll get detentions for months-"

"We have a Head Girl's permission," said Eliza, "I'd never do something without proper approval!"

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes, "It's fucking stupid. Keep me out of it."

She stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"I remember her being a lot nicer, for some reason," I said, looking for pink paint amongst all the tins.

"Something happened to her that made her determined to hate us." agreed Eliza, already sketching. She must've loved art more than I realised.

Eden did return eventually and was happy that her suggestion was being formed. The image showed a girl with her back to the wind, knee-deep in water. Sea creatures were swimming around her ankles.

"We can finish it tomorrow, after lessons," I grinned, "Not to brag, but I'm quite good at painting..."

-

sorry, it's been a while! i was busy with things... (and by things i mean animal crossing, oops)

more soon!