Let's Blame Magic

Chapter Two

  As moonlight slowly faded into sunlight, Ariella pulled her body and felt the rays of the sun kissing her skin. She stretched out her body and released a morning yawn. At the start of every year, she had to get used to waking up in her common room rather than in her Grandmother’s house in Doncaster; the room was beautifully decorated in colors of sapphire blue and cool silver. A beautiful stoned fireplace prompted up against the cobblestone wall emitted a faint dull orange; a fire was just put out.

  As Ariella scooted out of bed, she noticed her journal wedged between her end table and bed; she grabbed it and examined the last thing she wrote before she dozed off.

   “I wonder if anything else will change.”

  She released a gentle sigh. Last night events were still lingering in her memory, Oliver’s touch, her name being called by numerous people and the emotions that made a home in her heart.

  She placed her book deep within her trunk and prepared for her first official day of her Third Year. She straightened up her appearance with a freshly pressed uniform with the Ravenclaw emblem on her robe and satin blue tie. Her hair required no effort at all as she ran her fingers through the crown of her hair and down the left side of her face; she cared quite a bit for her appearance even if no one paid any attention to her.

  She made her way to the main part of the common room where there, books awaited to read, fellow Ravenclaws discussing what they’ve recently learned over the summer break and the Head Girl, Penelope Clearwater awaited to distribute the class schedules.

   “Ariella!” Penelope called out as soon as she caught sight of Ariella at the bottom of the staircase.

  Penelope was the only person Ariella felt comfortable to be around, she thought of her as an older sister despite the obvious change in appearance. Penelope has long wavy blond hair that shined brightly in the sun; her facial expressions were gentle even if she was furious and when she smiled, her smile complimented her blue eyes.

   “I was wondering if I was ever going to see you since we’ve got back!” Penelope smiled. She held a stack of parchment close to her chest and ran her fingers through the top; she pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it over to Ariella.

   “Here you are!”

  Ariella thanked Penelope and quickly scanned her schedule once it was in her hands. Penelope walked away to deliver the rest of the schedules leaving Ariella wishing she held a longer conversation.

   “Great. It’s the start of the Third Year and we have Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins! Is it too much to ask NOT to have a class with Malfoy?” A Third Year spoke out as he headed out with his friends.

   “It’s Slytherins AND Gryffindors! At least we get the benefit of stealing away House Points to every question we get right!”

   “Don’t forget Granger! She’s the reason Gryffindors for the majority of their House Points.”

  Ariella couldn’t help but to eavesdrop as they were heading to class; she really didn’t mind having Slytherins in a class but that was when no one noticed her.

  As she arrived in class, the desk were pushed aside, Gryffindors, Slytherins and Ravenclaws were clustered together as they stood in awe of the rattling armoire in front of them. She joined the crowd after placing her textbooks to the side, she opened her ears to the murmur that surrounded her but amongst the chatter, not a soul decided to greet her a good morning.

   “Intriguing, isn’t it?” A voice broke the silence. It was loud but not the least bit frightening.

  The crowd turned their heads to the side where sitting by the window sill was the new Defense against the Dark Arts Professor, Professor R.J Lupin. His appearance was tattered yet no one seemed to judge, his light brown hair was the only part of his appearance that seemed tamed. His most prominent feature were scars across his face which the students voluntary created rumours to guess how those scars came to be.