Charlotte spends most of her time at Hogwarts with our favorite side characters. Wonder what they were doing during those anything but normal 7 years? Lottie is Cedric Diggory's best friend, a Gryffindor ally and an all around adventure driven, snea...
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My study hours with the girls go by fast. We are some of the few people who are actually utilizing the library. I have to take out my glasses to read the potions assignment Lisa and I are working on. "Oh you look cute with glasses!" Lisa says. I chuckle. "Thanks, but I just wear them for reading." "Well I like them!" Mandy says with a smile.
We finish quickly and realize it's time for dinner. We say our goodbyes to drop our stuff off at our separate dorms.
As I leave the Hufflepuff dorms, I suddenly realize I have no idea how to get to the Great Hall. "Anna, do you know..?" I try to ask but she interrupts. "NO! I was going to ask you that." she whines.
We start to head downstairs, but as I'm ahead of Anna- the staircases move and we go in separate directions. "Lottie!" Anna calls. "I'll meet you down there!" I try to call back. "Crap." I mumble to myself. I end up in a hallway I don't recognize.
From the paintings, I can tell it's another houses' dorms. Just as I am distracted, out walks a Slytherin prefect. I sigh. This is not where I want to be. She looks at me with disgust. "You aren't suppose to be here." she states. "I..I..I " I stumble while wrapping my arms around myself.
The prefect holds out her hand as if to say 'I'm waiting.' I take a breath. "I got lost. Can you help me get to the Great Hall?" She sighs as if I asked to borrow money. "I suppose" she huffs. "But only, because I'm going there too. Otherwise I would never help a Hufflepuff."
She walks quickly down the stairs. I try to keep up with her. It only takes about a minute to get there. The prefect starts to walk towards her table. "Thank you." I say. She doesn't respond so I just start to walk towards the Hufflepuff table.
I see Cedric talking with some of the older boys. I almost sit next to him, but I remember that those boys are his real peers. On breaks home, Cedric is always talking about his guy friends. He seems to have a following, as most pretty boys do.
Either way, I see Susan and sit next to her. "Hi Lottie!" she says sweetly. "Hey, how was your first day?" I ask. Susan doesn't finish chewing before excitedly responding. "It was good! Everyone seems friendly. Turns out my cousin was right, it's not scary like I thought it would be." I smile back at her.
Anna appears out of nowhere. "Nobody told me how hard you had to work for your food here!" I just giggle.
I serve up my plate while Susan chats on about her day. I've quickly learned that Susan takes school very seriously. She also fears Snape slightly, but is excited for tomorrow's Transfiguration lesson. I nod my head in agreement. I wonder what McGonagall has in store for the trio tomorrow.
I turn my head to see the three of them engrossed in a Newspaper. Dean and Neville seem to be keeping it out of Seamus's reach. I shake my head. It'll be interesting.
"Excuse me." I turn to see Cedric getting up and walking towards me. "Excuse me." he says as he bumps into someone else. They all look at him like he's nuts, but he doesn't notice. He lets himself sit right across from me and Susan. After getting himself settled, he looks up. "Nice glasses, Charlie. You look 10x smarter than your usual dumb face does." I reach up and find I didn't take my glasses off. I groan. Cedric is one of the reasons I only wear them to read.
"Susan, Anna this is Cedric, the almost brother I never wanted. Cedric, this is Susan and that's Anna, they are my new roommates." Cedric reaches out to shake their hands, a formal habit of his. "My pleasure." Susan starts to instantly giggle. She's falling for his charm already. He only needs half a second with everyone.
Cedric turns to me. I have now taken my glasses off and put them in my robe. "I heard you're making loads of friends." I squint at him. "Where'd you hear that?" He shrugs. "Cho Chung. And she heard it from Lisa Turpin who heard it from Mandy Bro..."
"UGH. Okay I get it. You asked your little crush and she's well informed." I sigh. Cedric straightens. "I do not have a crush on her." I smirk. "Well good, because I don't think she knows you exist." Anna snorts. Cedric shoots her an annoyed little look. "I happen to be a great Seeker for Hufflepuff." He insists. I pick up my goblet. "If you say so." He ignores me and presses on. "Anyways, she also mentioned your new Gryffindor friends as well as your study date with the Ravenclaws." I roll my eyes. Cho and her big mouth.
"I don't see why some kids seem to think they are limited to their own house." I shrug and push my food around. "Because that's the case with Slytherin." Cedric whispers to me. Susan just looks on in amusement. "Huh?" I question. "Slytherin takes the house cup thing very seriously. Houses are supposed to be worlds divided and conquered by Slytherin." I chuckle at Cedric's assessment. "Right, because should we ever unite, we could take them." I chuckle at that thought. Anna laughs on with me.
Cedric leans in. "I know you think you're making lots of friends, but be careful you aren't making enemies too." I nod my head still kinda laughing. "Yeah, thanks Batman. I'll take it under consideration." He reaches across the table and grabs my hand. "I'm serious, Charlotte."
I kinda freeze at that, because I know he's serious if he's using my real name. "Okay, I will." I mumble. Cedric nods, just as teachers are announcing it is time for bed.
We all shuffle out of the Great Hall and somewhere along the way, I lose Cedric. Susan clings to my arm. "He's so cute." she says. I chuckle. "Yeah, I guess. I don't really think of him like that."
That night I stare up at the ceiling, thinking about Cedric's advice. Am I really taking a risk by befriending the Gryffindors? Why can't we just be nice to everyone, including the Slytherins? Wouldn't that solve the problem?
Over the next few weeks I felt like every class was a new adventure. Snape scared me a bit. Quirrell was just weird. Flitwick and Charms was fun. I really liked Transfiguration and Professor McGonagall. But Professor Sprout was by far my favorite teacher. She was kind and already knew all our names.
However, my favorite class (not teacher) was by far Flying with Madame Hooch. I didn't get to go that high, but I loved the feeling of the broom in my hand.
Cedric taught me to fly when I was young. Maybe 7 or 8 young. But I loved it. It was the first magic I had ever experienced.
I was learning a lot though. I wasn't as serious about school as Susan was, but I did find everything interesting. "Wingardrium Leviosa." Anna was mumbling next to me. I was suddenly brought back to reality. I was currently trying to levitate a feather in Charms.
We were all having a hard time, but especially Ron Weasley. "Stop, stop. You are going to take someone's eye out." Hermione insisted. "She's not wrong." Hannah said next to me in a whisper.
"Besides you are saying it wrong, it's Levi-OOO-sa not Levio-SAR." I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
After Ron tested her, she successfully levitated her own feather. Seamus then caught his on fire...again.
"Can we just go have a normal Halloween?" Anna whines next to me. I smile. "Yes, good idea. Let's go!"
***************************** Ohhh weird advice from Cedric - Is he right? Or overprotective?
