Serenity | 1

TEN

"A rude awakening"

The first day of classes started off rough. For starters, none of the girls in the Hufflepuff dorm were early risers and their only wake-up call was when Professor Sprout stormed into their room in all of her bumbling glory to wake them up. Despite the scowl on her face, the curly-haired woman shook the five girls awake one by one.

"Come on, ladies!" She exclaimed in exasperation, "you'll be late to breakfast!"

Groaning into her pillow as the Professor left the room, Lakita reaches up and tugs her drapes open, seeing that Serenity was already climbing out of bed. The brunette was rubbing her matted hair tiredly with the extended sleeve of her cotton pyjama top. Smacking her lips with a tired smile, she offers Lakita a small wave before standing and trundling over to the bathroom. Glancing around, the other three girls were already taking their pre-stacked uniforms from the top of their trunks and disappearing back behind the drapes. Knitting her eyebrows together, Lakita flops back on her bed, draping her arm over her eyes and pleading for an extra hour of sleep.

"Are you going to get up?" Peeking out from under her arm, she acknowledges Serenity piecing through her trunk with her toothbrush settled in her mouth. Lakita shrugs,

"Maybe tomorrow." The brunette snickers and stands back to her feet, now holding her uniform and hairbrush.

"Suit yourself." She mutters around the brush, retreating back into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Lakita had somehow managed to drag herself from the warm embrace of her comforter and into her uniform. She was leaving the dormitory as Serenity skipped down the stairs ahead of her.

The Fat Friar was pacing the common room and wringing his hands, his ghostly eyes constantly gravitating back to the clock in the corner of the room. At the sound of footsteps on the stairs, he spins and sighs at the girls.

"There you are!" He exclaims, moving to float alongside Serenity. "Professor Sprout sent me to ensure you get to the great hall without any delay. Apparently, you two are this years late few. We get some every year." The round ghost led the girls out of the Hufflepuff common room and down a long corridor, while he chatted the entire journey in his soft voice. "There's one lad in the fifth year who skips his first lesson each morning." The Friar shakes his head with a tut. "Professor Sprout is always having to wake him up or give him detention. But the poor boy always stays up past curfew studying down here." The grand doors to the great hall were looming up ahead, yet the girls were happy to continue speaking with the friendly ghost of the Friar. "I try to tell him every night: 'you need to sleep, Thomas, the number of detentions you're having won't do you any good in the future.' Not to mention Pringle's a bit of an ars-"

"Pringle?" Lakita smiled curiously up at the Friar as she and Serenity took their seats at the end of the Hufflepuff table. Serenity helped herself to the stack of toast and looked back to the Friar who 'squeezed' between Lakita and a third-year.

The entire hall-long table was decked in breakfast delicacies ranging from oriental to cooked. Pastries, fruits, cereals and yoghurts were evenly distributed among the steaming dishes of egg, meats, toast and beans. The goblets sat beside the shining silver plates filled themselves up with pumpkin juice as soon as they got so much as half empty.

"Apollyon Pringle." The Friar stated in a little under a whisper. "He's the caretaker here and an evil one at that. There was one boy, a Gryffindor, who was caught in the corridors after dark; you can still see him grimace from the lashings he got." He raised a translucent finger and pointed to the Gryffindor table.

Sat beside a plump ginger girl, an equally ginger boy was trying to stand from the bench, his mouth downturned in a grimace as the girl hesitantly held his arm to help him up. Serenity pursed her lips, the idea of being whipped so harshly for simply being out of bed seemed absurd.

"What's his name?" Lakita asked hesitantly, shock laced with her tone as her eyes followed the boy and his friends as they moved to leave the room.

"Arthur Weasley." With that uttered name, Serenity threw herself to her feet. Her feet carried her faster than she'd anticipated and, soon enough, she was tapping the fifth-year on his shoulder.

"Arthur Weasley?" He spun too quickly for his own good, an evident grimace on his features as he looked down at the first-year with an attempt at a smile. He nods as Serenity involuntarily mimicks his scowl. "I- uh- I'm sorry about your back." Arthur pursed his lips, murmurs a 'thanks' and turned back to the door again. "Wait!" Her voice had projected itself much louder than anticipated, silencing the hall and stunning the fifth years in front of her. She hesitantly reaches her hand back out to Arthur, ignoring his confused expression. Within seconds of making contact with the boy, Serenity was channelling her magic into him, willing every part of it to alleviate his pain so he can heal peacefully. She smiles kindly and returns to her bench without a word.

The hall erupted in a flurry of whispers, the loudest being the ginger girl asking him what had happened. Arthur narrows his eyes on Serenity's back, never before had he been more confused.

"I... My back doesn't hurt anymore." He suddenly broke out into a relieved grin and looks down at the ginger, cupping her face as he laughed. "It doesn't hurt anymore!"

Serenity peered up at Lakita and the Friar, the spectre pointing to the teacher's table where Headmaster Dumbledore was staring on at her with ten fingers held up. She watches as he gives her an appreciative nod and smiles back. Bowing her head once again, the Friar floats through the table and whispers to her.

"I suspect you'll receive a lot of questions after that display, Miss Rier." Her cheeks flushed, yet, the swell of happiness in her chest as Arthur happily chased his friends from the hall was enough to quell any anxiety on what anyone else would have to say.