Sucked In

chapter 4

***

Fred shuts the painting behind him, and I take a moment to take in the surroundings; students lounging on rich velvet couches, the aroma of nutmeg in the air, and the rising chatter that was coming from all corners of the room. It seems like a place I would hang in at home. I smiled.

"It was good meeting you, Miss Goblin." Fred says, to which I roll my eyes at. "So, girls dormitories are up that staircase. Anyways, I've got to run. Homework calls!" He yells, while bounding up the opposite staircase two steps at a time.

"Bye?" I call after him. There's no way that boy is doing homework. I get a few stares, given I'm the only one not in uniform, but otherwise most of the students seem absorbed in their own activities. Shyly, I make my way over to the staircase where the girls' dormitories were. I was making my way up the stairs when I heard someone call my name. Or something along the lines of it.

"Jade!"

I turn around, and a small girl is running up after me. Her black ponytail bounced with each step she took. "Jade? Hi, I'm Parvati. McGonagall just assigned me as... your buddy, I guess." She made quotations with her fingers when she said buddy. "So from what I've heard I have to give you some robes, give you a rundown of the school, and set you up with a place to sleep tonight. Sounds good?"

She spoke incredibly fast. "Yep! Yeah, sounds good." I say, smiling. "And also ... its Jaida."

Her brown eyes fell. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. Anyways, what are you doing here? C'mon, I'll take you to the dorms."

"I thought this was the way to the girls dorms?" I say.

Parvati smiles. "Uh, no. That's the boy's rooms."

Wow. Honestly, how did I even fall for that.

"Someone gave me wrong directions." I say, smiling, silently cursing Fred in my brain.

"Been there, done that." Parvati says. "It's this way!"

I follow her up a different path, until we reach a row of doors. She pushes one open, and inside is a massive room with four beds. It's empty, apart from one girl bent over a desk. "Come in," Parvati says. "I'll get you your robes. Hey, Mines. The new girl is here."

The girl at the desk stands up and makes her way over to me, smiling. "Hi, I'm Hermoine," she says warmly. Suddenly her face falls. "We only have 4 beds." she says apologetically, gesturing to a mound of quilts and pillows on the floor.

Oh thank god. "No! No, that's completely fine. Great actually!" I exclaim.

She seems surprised with my reaction, the hint of a grin playing at her lips. "Ok, well here's your schedule. Every class you have, you'll be with Gryffindor. I'm not really sure how that's supposed to change when you move houses. What's the deal with that, anyways?"

"Oh, I didn't fit into any of the houses. But I fit into all of them at the same time."

"Wow. That's incredible." Hermoine says. "That's never happened, actually. You're one of a kind!"

I smile, but the reason I'm not in a house is because I'm not supposed to be here. I wonder how much longer I can keep this up for.

"Dumbledore found some spare robes for you, Jaida." Parvati says, handing me a folded pile of red and black fabric. "You don't need to get changed now, everybody's just about to go to bed. But keep it someplace for tomorrow."

I take the pile of robes out of her hands, gratefully. There was something spiky inside of it, and I unfold the robes to find a wand.

"Did you leave your wand in Dumbledore's office?" Parvati asks. "That's nice of him to bring it back to you like that."

"Yeah, I did." I say, tracing my fingers along the cold emberwood of my wand. My wand.

"Are you tired, Jaida? We have potions first thing tomorrow morning. Joy." Parvati says sarcastically.

I nodded. My eyes were feeling heavy again. Last time this happened, I woke up someplace where I was not supposed to be.

"I suppose you don't need pyjamas," Hermoine says, chuckling. "Looks like you're all set." She gestures to my shirt. This damn shirt, it's caused me so many problems since I've come here. I smile back, nervously. Parvati squints at the design.

"Nirvana." she says. "What's that?"

"Uh, it's a music group." Do they even listen to music here?

"Oh. I've never heard of it." Hermoine says.

"Yeah, they're not very popular." I reply, trying to swallow down a laugh.

"We should probably get to bed." Parvati says, walking to turn off the lights. "Sophie and Lavender can find their way back up here. Goodnight, Mines. Goodnight, Jaida."

I called goodnight back in response, and crawled into the mound of blankets that was my bed. I was so tired, I started falling asleep almost instantly. Which meant I had no time to consider the outcome that I could possibly wake up back in my own home.