Finding Neverland | George Weasley ✓

Chapter Thirty-Four

Thea was one of the first people off the train. She hurried over to a carriage and tried to wait patiently while some other students that she didn't know climbed on. Once enough students had got into the carriage, it began moving pulled by an invisible force otherwise known as thestrals. 

Thea was trying not to notice her friends sitting in the carriage behind her. Despite the short distance, she could still clearly see the concern on their faces. 

Once everyone had arrived at Hogwarts and was waiting in the Great Hall for the first years to be sorted. Thea tried to tune out the whispers, stares and the pointing once again. It certainly didn't help that she was sitting on the end of the table closest to the teachers at the front of the hall, her back to everyone else. Thea turned her attention back to the first years being sorted clapping her hands absentmindedly when someone was sorted into Hufflepuff.  

The only times she really clapped for the students was when Laura, Skye, and Scout were sorted. Despite the newspaper article that they had read out had hurt her and made her cry, she couldn't help and not be excited for them. 

Laura was sorted into Slytherin to no-ones surprise. She just had that look about her. 

Scout was sorted into Ravenclaw and seemed really happy with himself. 

Skye found a home in Hufflepuff and smiling broadly she almost skipped over to Thea and giddily sat beside her.

"Good job, Skye," Thea said holding her hand out for a high five.

Skye slapped Thea's hand before thanking her. "Thanks, Thea." Skye attention was suddenly turned back to the sorting. 

Once the sorting had finished, Dumbledore stepped up to the podium and addressed the students with his usual speech. The hall fell silent as Dumbledore began his usual list of banned items and places which had been written by Filch. He then continued to explain the staff changes that would be occurring this year. 

One of them was that Professor Grubby-Plank would be taking over Hagrid's position as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher leading to plenty of groans echoing from around the hall, a frown was brought to Thea's face as she wondered about the reasons behind this staff change. 

However, Thea's senses were completely assaulted when Dumbledore began to introduce the next staff change and a woman dressed in pink from head to toe. The woman stepped forward and completely interrupted Dumbledore leading plenty of people to stare at her in disbelief.  

"Who on earth is that?" Skye whispered in Thea's ear.

"I'm honestly not sure, but Dumbledore did say her name was Professor Umbridge," Thea whispered back.

"She looks like she was dragged through a field of pink flowers. I hate pink. It's my least favorite color." Skye whispered back before falling silent as Professor Umbridge stepped forward and began to address the school.

It was completely unexpected for a teacher other than Dumbledore to address the school at the beginning of the year feast. But once the initial shock had worn off everyone settled in expecting to hear Professor Umbridge give a short speech introducing herself however her speech went for a lot longer than expected. It was a whole speech about how she came here to restore order and balance to the school and how the students were unruly. The students began whispering among themselves and the teachers behind Professor Umbridge raised a questioning brow and looked quite amused. 

Eventually, all the ruckus died down, Professor Umbridge stopped speaking and sat back down in her chair her legs crossed perfectly and her hands clasped together. Dumbledore stepped forward once again to continue to speak. 

"My final thing before you all get to stuff your faces and bellies with food is to share something with you all. At the end of our last school year, we lost someone that was very special to our school, Cedric Diggory."

If people weren't watching Thea before they were certainly watching her now. Thea slumped over the table in defeat as Skye rubbed her back comfortingly. 

"I just wish to let you all know that if you ever feel alone or upset about Cedric's death or other matters. We have a faculty here at our school that would love to help you with any matters you may have. If you don't want to turn to the faculty I hope that everyone had someone that they can turn to if they ever feel upset or lost. Now enjoy!" Dumbledore finished his speech and held his arms wide as food appeared on the tables and people began to dig in. 

"That was strange," Skye said.

"What was?" Thea replied reaching for the bowl of mashed potatoes. Thea's entire life may have completely changed in the last few months but something had stayed the same, her love of mashed potatoes.

"Dumbledore was staring at you the entire time during that speech. Isn't that weird?" 

Thea smiled slightly remembering Dumbledore when he found her in the forest straight after Cedric's death. 

"Yes, Skye. That's really weird, I wonder why he did that."

Skye let out a small shriek of excitement which caused Thea to jump in shock. 

"What is it?"

"This meat is delicious!"

"That's all?" Thea asked confused. 

"Yep." Skye grinned showing half-chewed bits of meat. 

"Ew! Skye! That's disgusting!" 

George sat with his brother over at the Gryffindor table after having a very interesting summer to say the least. He grimaced when Dumbledore started to talk about Cedric and watched as Thea slumped over on the table as the newly sorted first year comforted her. George wondered how those two had met because they certainly seemed quite close. He watched Thea while Dumbledore finished his speech and his attention was turned to the food that suddenly appeared in front of him. George was caught up by the conversation until a loud voice sounded from the Hufflepuff table. He looked up to see that the voice belonged to Thea as she joked around with the first year. 

George smiled at the sight of the slightly happier Thea before uttering a few words under his breath so the people around him couldn't hear anything.

"The first step to recovery."