Golden (FRED WEASLEY)

Chapter 3:

Students pour into the Dining Hall, and I am pushed in with the crowd. I see a table highlighted with yellow, knowing that's where I belong. I turn around, and spot Jocelyn in the crowd. I wave goodbye to her and sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

Across from me sits Delilah, one of my friends from my house. Her brown hair falls over her face as she hunches over a paper.

Her head snaps up, and as she sees me a smile spreads across her face. "Sof!" She exclaims, and I give her a small wave.

The dim room starts to fill up even more, as Hagrid leads the first years in. They all look so small, I can't believe my friends and I were that small at some point.

I step on to the train, tugging my trunk over the small step. The wheels don't want to cooperate, and the bag is much too heavy for me to lift. Suddenly the bag lifts up, and I look behind me to see a girl even smaller than me lift it on to the train.

She has long dark curls, and her freckles stand out against her tan skin. Her shirt is much too big for her, it hangs down to mid thigh. She sticks out a hand, presumably for me to shake.

"I'm Jocelyn, nice to meet you." Jocelyn says, and I shake her hand letting out a laugh.

"I'm Sofia. Spelled S-O-F-I-A. And thank you for helping me with my trunk."

"You're welcome. Want to find a place to sit?"

I'm shaken out of my memory by Dumbledore starting his yearly speech, which by now I've basically memorized. I know for sure that the twins have. I look over at the Gryffindor table and see them lip syncing along.

The sorting begins, and each little first year goes up to the stool, each one a bit shakier than the next. Whenever a student is sorted, the house cheers for their new member.

One small girl, Violet Mitchel, walks up to the stool. She almost trips, multiple times but makes it up to the stool without falling. The sorting hat takes a very long time figuring out what house she's in, but eventually screams "Hufflepuff!"

Cheers erupt from our table, and a smile spreads on her face as she sits down beside me. She has almost white blonde hair in two little pigtails, and smiles up at me.

"I'm Sofia," I say to the small girl, "I know you're going to love hufflepuff. I do."

"I have a question," She says, her cheeks turning rosy. "I have a friend who was put into Slytherin. Can I still be their friend?"

"Of course! Don't believe anything anyone says to you about slytherin being evil. It's a complete lie, they just are home to more dark wizards then other houses."

The room goes silent as Dumbledore calls for attention. All the teachers are stone faced, and I'm wondering what is so serious that they look so upset.

"As most of you know, Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban. Hogwarts is the safest place to be, so I don't want any students fretting about their safety. That's our problem. The reason I bring this up is because Dementors will be stationed outside Hogwarts. They will not harm you if you don't bother them, so I advise students stay away from any dementors."

My stomach drops, as well as my jaw. Sirius Black, the mass murderer who helped kill Harry Potters parents is free roaming as we speak? Why did no one tell me?

I guess I don't really know who would. My parents are both muggles, my dad being a squib and my mother having no relation to wizards other than my fathers family and me. My grandmother is a witch, but she doesn't look at the current news very much. I at least thought my friends would tell me in our letters throughout the summer. I look over at Jocelyn, my brows furrowed. She mouths "can we talk after" and I nod my head.

I go back to paying attention to Dumbledore, and he dismisses the students. Our table stands up, and the Head boy, Cedric Diggory starts to lead around the first years.

Delilah walks over to me, and sighs at Cedric. I roll my eyes at her, knowing that she's always had a thing for him.

"C'mon! We've got to go so we can get good beds!" I exclaim, pulling Delilah down the stairs into the common room.

It's empty, since most of the hufflepuffs are with the first years on their tour. We run up the stairs to the fifth year girls dorm. Delilah shoots on to the bed closest to the stairs, and I pick out the one in the corner by the windows. I grab my trunk from the side of the room, and start organizing my space. Delilah does the same, and in minutes it looks amazing.

The other hufflepuff girls in our year who we've always dormed with come in, and set up their bed as well. We exchange greetings, and talk about our summers.

I look down at my watch an see it's almost nine. I change into some pajamas, and then start to walk to Jocelyn and I's meeting place.

We found it in second year, and since it is in between our two common rooms it works perfectly. Even though it isn't very hidden, it still works well.

I walk through the dark halls, trying to stay as hidden as possible. We technically aren't supposed to leave our dorms after nine, but no one pays attention to that rule.

I turn a corner and bump into someone. I let out a small scream at the surprise. They slap their hand over my mouth and push me over to the wall. I stick my tongue out and lick their hand, and they retract it quickly.

"Lumos!" I whisper, and my wand lights up revealing the figure. Fred wipes his hand on his pants trying to get my saliva off.

"Why did you pull me to the side? I thought you were a murderer!" I whisper yell, as he still looks disgusted.

"Why did you lick my hand!" He yells, and I laugh.

"You still didn't answer my question, but I licked it so you would let go of my face. It worked, didn't it?"

"Nice pants," He says smirking, looking down at my cloud pajama pants.

"Thank you," I laugh, giving a curtsy, "now I've got somewhere to be."

I continue walking, and finally make it to our spot. I see Jocelyn sitting on the window ledge and I plop down beside her.

"Why didn't you tell me about Sirius Black?" I blurt, biting my lip.

"Hello to you too Sofia," She says crossly, and I laugh, "you know how you get. I thought that it would be better if Dumbledore told you."

She's right. I do get anxious very easily and quickly, and it helped hearing that I could die this year from a teacher.

"I guess I understand," I sigh, playing with a loose string on my pajama pants.

"What took you so long to get over here?" She asks, looking out the window.

"Oh, I bumped into Fred and though he was a mass murderer so I licked his hand."

"What?!" She exclaims, and I shush her, "you have to give me more context than that."

"It's late, and I don't want to get in trouble. Don't worry I'll tell you tomorrow," I whisper, waving goodbye and heading back down the hallway to go to bed.

This chapter isn't my best work, but soon the story starts to pick up don't worry! love you all and remember to get a drink of water and eat something!
written-october 1st
1280 words