The Beginning

Zaelie's Mistake~*Caedis*

Zaelie’s Mistake

Caedis

Caedis wished she was in Ravenclaw with Zaelie and Helena, after having dinner sitting next to a Hermione Granger. That Know-It-All did not know when to shut up! Seriously, she should’ve been sorted into Ravenclaw. And Caedis could tell she wasn’t the only one who thought this. Krisseline Garberg (who prefered to be called Krissy, and threatened to bite off the heads of anyone who called her by her first name), Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and just about every other first year in Gryffindor seemed to think the same thing.

It was even funny sometimes. Although no one liked to admit it, seeing Professor Snape shoot down her hand every time Hermione raised made them all laugh at her inwardly.  

All the first years were learning some things about Hogwarts that their older siblings had conveniently forgotten to mention. First there were the changing staircases. They kept swinging to different landings and if you didn’t specifically know what you were doing, you could get lost easily for an hour trying to find the right one to go up to get to class.

Oh, and there were the house portraits, who refused to let you in without the password, even if they knew who you were.

Then there was Mr.Filch, the evil caretaker who patrolled the hallways looking for students to punish. And then there was his cat, Mrs.Norris. She was, if possible, even worse than Filch. Mrs. Norris seemed to find more students doing wrong things than Filch, and he was always a few steps behind her, so basically, step one toe out of line, and you’ve got detention for a month.

Zaelie and Caedis were walking down the hall to Charms together when Zaelie tripped over someone’s lost toad. Being deathly afraid of all things amphibian, she started screaming. Of course, Filch picked that exact moment to walk turn the corner.

“Students disrupting the peace!” he shouted, a gleeful smile on his face.

“Oh god. Zaelllieee...,” Caedis pleaded. All the other students in the hall were watching them. Not in a good way. The frog hopped towards Zaelie again. She shrieked.Caedis heard people snickering throughout the hall and let out a sigh of despair. “Please, Zaelie. It’s just a toad. It’s not going to kill you.”

“How do you know?”

“Zael...” The toad moved towards Zaelie again. She cried out in terror.

“That’s it. I’m leaving this school. I am not suffering through this again.”

“Oh come on Zaelie, it’s not that bad” Caedis sighed. Suddenly they heard a shout coming from the other end of the hallway.

“Trevor!” Everyone’s head turned to face the newcomer. It was that clumsy first year from Gryffindor, what was his name again? Oh, Neville Longbottom. I feel bad for a kid with a name like that, thought Caedis.

Anyway, he ran down the corridor, to where Zaelie was inching away from the toad. He picked it up and looked up at Mr.Filch with an expression like Filch was going to kill him. Instead Filch just said “Detention, Halloween, 6:00.” to all three of them.

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“Good going Zaelie,” Caedis said sarcastically, “My one dream when coming to Hogwarts was to get detention on Halloween!” She shook her head. “Lucky idiots who get to trick or treat right now,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Sorry!” Zaelie shrieked. Caedis just sighed, shaking her head. What would my parents say? she thought. She blew the fringe of hair out of her eyes irritably. Zaelie started apologizing frantically. Even though Caedis was boiling inside,she sighed.

“Zaelie!” she snapped. “Shut. Up. I’m over it. You should be too.” Caedis  exclaimed while gripping Zaelie’s arms to keep her still. Zaelie kept murmuring sorry over and over again under her breath. “And now we’re late for Charms.”

They rushed into class and grabbed two seats in the back as Professor Flitwick, a short man with glasses, was explaining the charm on how to make objects fly. “Wingardium Leviosa!” he exclaimed while making a feather float upward. “Now, the movement is sort of a swish and flick. Now, try it!”

Zaelie and Caedis finally had a chance to look around and see who was in the class. They noticed Helena glaring at them from a seat in the front next to a girl with dark hair who Zaelie remembered as Cassandra Moon from the train. They also noticed that boy, Harry Potter, sitting next to that red headed boy from the train. Neither of them seemed to be having any luck at all.

“I wonder if I should go over and help them” Caedis mused.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” said Zaelie, “You haven’t even tried it yourself yet!”

“Oh, now I’m ridiculous?” Caedis said looking at Zaelie with outrage. “I’m not the one who wanted to leave Hogwarts because I saw a frog!” And she got up and stomped out of the classroom, leaving Zaelie sitting all alone.