when i saw her standing there -- louis weasley

chapter six

Just as she had promised, Lucy entered the Hufflepuff girls dorm the morning of the Hogsmeade at exactly eight, with Dominique and Roxanne close behind. Naya was awake and stepping into her white Margo boots. Only three of the beds were still occupied and the shower was running in the bathroom. While the three girls split up to wake the other three still in their beds, Naya pulled her legs in to sit with her legs crossed on her perfectly made bed. She was dressed perfectly for a cool autumn day, with her ripped jeans and a mauve jumper. 

Lucy and Dominique successfully woke up Emory and Hadley, but Roxanne, who was stuck with waking up Ava, had no such luck. Ava slept like a rock, much to their dismay, and it took all six of the girls to get her out of bed and splash her face with a glass of cold water.

"Wha- why am I awake?" Ava asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Hogsmeade, Ava," Naya reminded her, taking the empty glass back to the bathroom. At this, she immediately brightened up and darted over to her trunk.

"Okay, so Saylor helped me pick out two outfit options last night, but I'm not sure which one to go with. What do you think, Lucy? Dominique? Roxanne?" The three older girls looked at each other before joining her on the floor in front of the open trunk. Before long, they had Ava dressed and ready in a pair of black leggings, a black-and-white striped crop top, an oversized red cardigan and her favorite white Chucks.

"Perfect! I love the clothes you've got, Ava! And I love your style!" Roxanne gushed.

"Thanks! Alright, so what's the plan?"

"We," Dominique motioned to herself and her cousins, "are giving you 'Roxy, Dom, and Lucy's Grand Tour of Hogsmeade' today. We've been doing this since fourth year for all our younger cousins."

"And yes, we are adopting all five of you and making you honorary Weasley cousins."

"Well, where's my red hair then?" Hadley joked.

"Hey, you can have mine!" The girls all laughed at Dominique's joke before eventually heading out of the dorm.

"Wait, are you guys in Hufflepuff too?" Ava asked.

"Lucy is, but Dom and I are Gryffindors."

"People from other Houses can go in other common rooms?"

"Well, technically we aren't supposed to, but at this point we have all been in every common room because we have cousins and friends in literally every House," Roxanne explained. "Hey, are we meeting Lou and his other friends?"

"Nope, I specifically told him to go hang out with them, this is a girls day," Lucy replied.

The group of girls chattered for a bit, but fell silent as they walked through the corridors and outside the castle down to the village.

"Alright! The first stop is the Three Broomsticks, famous for its butterbeer!" The eight girls came to a stop in front of a large pub with tilted window frames and doorways, laughter and warmth radiating from inside.

"I'll go get us a round of butterbeer and some raspberry tarts!" Naya volunteered, opening the door as she headed inside. Ava walked through the door for the first time, in awe of her surroundings. A bell dinged above her, adding to the noise of students laughing, taking a well-deserved break from their studies. The atmosphere reminded her of Christmases spent at her great-grandma's house with all of her relatives and she automatically decided that she loved it.

She joined Emory, Hadley, Saylor, and the three older girls at a booth, which was a bit too small to squeeze eight girls into, but they made it work. Madam Rosmerta came over with their drinks, Naya trailing behind her carrying a tray of tarts.

"These tarts might be my favorite thing in the world," Naya explained as she passed them out, earning a huge smile from the woman. "Go ahead, try it, Ava!" she urged.

She cut a bite out of it and tasted it, the sweet raspberry flavor bursting in her mouth. She washed it down with a gulp of butterbeer and a warm feeling spread through her stomach, and she gave a thumbs up and a wide grin, showing that she liked it, which prompted a loud cheer from her friends, startling the people around them.

Once they finished their drinks and desserts, they moved on to Gladrags Wizard-Wear, where Naya and Hadley split off from the group to go pick up mail at the Hogsmeade Post Office. Ava gasped and drooled over the large collection of brightly colored and patterned socks the shop had to offer.

"I guess we know what to get you for your birthday," Emory remarked with a smile, before dragging her away to go to the next shop.

After that, Zonko's Joke Shop, where they found Finley and Caspian standing over a table of Nose-Biting Teacups.

"I hope you aren't planning on using those on us," Ava said from behind Caspian, as she and Emory had snuck up behind them. The two boys jumped and nearly knocked over the table, Finley turning bright red in the process.

"Definitely not," Caspian replied, "although I still want that rematch. You'd better bring some better insults, "blonde" isn't exactly hurtful," he smirked at her.

"Neither is "American"! Maybe it's hurtful if I call you a "fake blonde"?" She covered her mouth in a fake-gasp and held out her other hand to Emory for a high-five, which she gladly gave. "Name a time and place, Smith, and come with some better insults!"

The two girls rejoined their now-smaller group, and after looking at a couple shelves, moved on to Dervish and Banges, then Scrivenshaft's, where they each bought a new set of quills. Last, they visited Honeydukes, as the sun began to set, which meant that the students would have to be back at the castle in less than forty minutes.

"This is heaven," Ava murmured, marveling at all the sweets.

"Pick your sweets and meet back at the front so we can head back up, I think Naya and Hadley already went back," Roxanne told Saylor, Emory, and Ava.

"Which one should I get, guys?"

"You should get the mix, you can try all of them and then when we come back right before Halloween, you can get your favorite out of those!" Saylor suggested. Emory agreed and the three girls each got a mix of a bunch of the sweets, and on the way back up to the castle, Emory started a conversation with Ava.

"So you like Hogwarts?"

"Oh, definitely. Everyone is so nice, with the exception of Caspian, sometimes-"

"Oh trust me, he's flirting." Saylor interrupted.

"Yeah probably," Ava agreed. "Does he flirt a lot?"

"Sort of. I dated him last year for a couple months, broke up with him after figuring out that I don't like boys."

"Oh, that's fun. Good for you, though, how did he react?"

"Oh, he understood. Most people at Hogwarts now are very accepting, y'know. It's not just me, there are quite a few of us who have come out and been supported by our friends. There are definitely still some closeted, but that's their choice, and whenever they decide to come out, they know they have a huge group of people there to support them."

"Oh my gosh, I love that! Ilvermorny was definitely not that way, sadly. America is kind of divided politically, and some people think that who you love is political. I had a friend who came out, and he was bullied so bad that his parents had to take him out of school and sent him to Beauxbatons instead."

"That's horrible!" Emory gasped.

"I know, right. Oh, hey, there's the castle." Up on the horizon, the outline of the dark castle with tiny lights all over it shone against the midnight blue sky. Ava sighed, content that it was her new home and she was surrounded by her new friends.