Seer of the Keys ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Nine

After lunch, Ananya quickly slipped away to do her afternoon prayer, then headed to Transfiguration. It was the last class of the day for her, which was surprising but appreciated, and she had a pep in her step as she hurried across the castle and into the classroom. She gave Professor McGonagall a smile and sat in the only open seat, next to Susan Bones. Susan was nice, and had a round face surrounded by soft brown hair in loose curls. When Ananya sat down, she slid over her notes for Ananya to borrow while they practiced turning matchsticks into needles. It was no easy task, even if it seemed so, and Ananya spent a good fifteen minutes just to do one of them. After both her and Susan had finished, the girls spoke quietly about what had happened before Ananya had arrived: mainly going over the syllabus for the rest of the year and the background of the spell.

Finally, with around ten minutes until the end of the class period, Professor McGonagall stood from her desk and charmed a piece of chalk to write on the board. "Your assignment is to write one page on what we did in class today and explain thoroughly the background of the spell. It will be due on Wednesday, when we meet again. Please make sure you are finished by then, or you will serve a detention with me. Have a nice day, and I will see you all at dinner." She just missed getting cut off by the chime of the bell, and frowned approvingly as the group streamed out the door.

It was officially the end of Ananya's first full day at Hogwarts. At dinner, she sat beside Gabriel and his group of friends, who were welcoming to her and Penny. Plus, they had ideas for pranks that could rival the Weasley twins, so their antics kept the Hufflepuff table entertained all throughout their meal. As Ananya listened to Vishwa Laghari rant about Snape's antics from the first fourth-year potions class, she took a little bit of everything from the plates around her and started to eat.

"Ananya, how was Snape in your class?" Vishwa asked, expectant.

She swallowed a spoonful of vegetable soup before speaking. "He was alright. I like that he knows what he's doing, but he was a little rude to some people. Me and Penny finished our potion on time though, and he was pretty okay about it." She'd lost her posh politician accent over the last two days, and it comforted her to hear her own voice. It used to be that she felt like she was being snobby when she spoke, but not anymore.

"Seriously? Ugh. Maybe it's just because you're new or something." The group turned their attention to Lionel, a soft-spoken boy whose twin sister was in Slytherin. He was from Manchester, and nice to everyone, but Lionel didn't talk much.

This time, he gave a little cough and mentioned an anecdote from his class period, the first of the day, with Professor Snape's third-year potions group. They'd shared the period with the Snakes, so he had gotten to sit next to his sister. Her name was Leandra, and she was the opposite of her brother. She also sat at the Hufflepuff table with them, since the older students could, and Ananya had been introduced to her and a bunch of others whose names she couldn't remember. It was a big group, and consisted of most of the Hufflepuffs and a lot of people from the other houses.

Now Ananya had no clue what they were talking about. She tuned back in to the conversation and listened to Leandra, Gabriel, and Vishwa gossip about Harry Potter. Speaking of Harry, she realized that the five friends hadn't spoken since before the Sorting Ceremony yesterday. They didn't have any classes together until tomorrow, when Hufflepuff and Gryffindor shared History of Magic and Herbology with each other. Maybe they would have time to hang out then, or over the weekend when it wasn't so busy. She looked over at the red-and-gold-colored table, where the trio of friends sat with some other first-year students. Harry looked up and waved, eyes locked on hers, and she grinned at him excitedly. 

She really hoped they would talk tomorrow.