The Forgotten One

Gryffindor Tower

-chapter 7-

I walk with the flow of people in the hall. No one talks to me, or even looks my direction. Suddenly someone grabs my wrist. I turn around and see Lily and two other girls standing behind me. They don't say anything to me, Lily just drags me through the crowd, in the opposite direction I was going. Lily turns a corner, and I find myself at the magical stairs once more.

Lily walks up the first flight. "You were heading to the Hufflepuff common room." Lily informs me.

"Oh." I say.

Lily leads me up the flights of stairs, the two other girls following closely behind us. We reach a painting and Lily stops.

"This is the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, got it?" I nod my head. "The password's Fortuna Major." She whispers to me. She says the password to the painting, which I notice is a fat lady, and the door swings open. Lily steps in, dragging me with her.

The Common Room is beautiful. It's a large, circular room with comfy-looking armchairs and couches. One wall has a big fireplace. The walls are covered with pictures of lions and other animals. There are two stair cases; I'm guessing one goes to the boys dorm and the other goes to the girls dorm.

I look around. There are multiple people looking at me, pointing, some even with surprised looks on their faces.

"Why are they all staring at me?" I whisper to Lily.

"You're a new sixth year... Who doesn't have on her robes. They're going to stare." Lily responds.

"Oh."

A blonde boy walks up to Lily. "Who's the new girl?" He asks.

"This is Astrid," Lily points at me.

"Hi." The boy says to me, sticking out his hand.

"Hi." I say, leaving my hand at my side. Lily nudges me.

"Don't be rude." She hisses at me.

"Uh... I'm sort of a germ-a-phobe." I explain to the boy, making up an excuse for not shaking his hand.

"Oh," he places his hand back at his side. "That's alright. See you around." He turns around and walks back over to his group of friends.

I look at Lily. "What was all that about?"

"I don't know." She responds.

"I know." I turn around and see one of the girls who was walking with me and Lily. She has light brown hair and eyes to match. "I've noticed how all the boys' eyes follow you wherever you go."

"What?" I ask.

She smiles a bit. "I've also heard that a bunch of them want to ask you out."

"Marlene's a bit of a gossip girl," the girl next to the brown haired girl-Marlene- says. "I'm Alice."

"Astrid." I say.

"There's also Emmeline, but she usually lives in the library all year." Alice says.

"Yeah," Marlene says. "She loves books."

"Anyway," Lily cuts in. "Let's get up to our dorm." Lily leads me over to a staircase and walks up. "This is the girls staircase. The other one leads to the boys dorm."

Lily continues walking up the staircase, explaining more about Gryffindor and blah, blah, blah.

"Hey, Lily?" I interrupt her.

"Hmm?" Lily stops at a wood door almost all the way up the staircase.

"Do you know Sirius Black?"

Lily glares at me, her blue eyes glinting with- is it anger? I can't tell. "Yes." She answers sharply.

She opens the door into what I assume to be our dorm. She walks in, Alice, Marlene and I following. I look around our dorm. There's five beds, all with maroon colored sheets. I see a door off to the right-probably the bathroom.

Lily points to a bed. "That's yours."

I walk over to the bed and see all my school supplies. I plop down, making me bounce a bit. I turn to face Lily. "So what do you know about Sirius?"

"Not much," she says, sitting down on her own bed. "Just that he's a player."

"A player?" I say, shocked. "He doesn't seem like one."

"You've talked to him?" Alice asks.

"Yes. On the train."

"What'd he say?" Marlene asks.

"Did he hurt you?" Alice asks.

Before anyone else can say anything, there's a knock on our door. I get off my bed and walk over to the door. Before I can open it, Lily rushes over and pushes me back.

"Hey!" I say.

"You might not want to open that." She says.

I fold my arms over my chest. "And why not?"

"It's probably the boys playing a prank on us."

"But Lily," Alice says walking over to us. "The boys can't get up the stairs, remember?"

"What? Why can't they?" I ask.

"The girls put a spell on the stairs so that whenever a boy tries to walk up them, they turn into a slide."

"Wicked."

"Listen, Astrid," Lily says. "We've gotta go to the library. Can you handle yourself being here alone?"

"You think I'm two years old?" I ask sarcastically. "Yes, I can handle myself."

"Just checking," she says. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I won't." I promise.

Lily, Alice and Marlene walk out the door, leaving me alone.

Or so I thought.