stardust ⋮ george weasley

three :

T H R E E

⋮✰⋮

Adeline had always loved singing with the choir. Despite the oddness of having to sing with a frog beside her, she nevertheless enjoyed the experience. Music had been her one solace growing up, and Adeline had always loved to sing. When she first arrived at Hogwarts, she tried to find anything recognizable to her as almost everything was so out of the ordinary. Fortunately, her head of house happened to be the choir director so everything just fell into of place from there.

The choir hit their final note, and the Great Hall burst into applause. Adeline placed her toad inside their cage and sat down next to Estelle, who had fortunately saved her a spot amidst the crowded table. She spotted Melanie at the next table over, who sent her a thumbs up for her a performance before turning back to an eager conversation with Cedric and Amelia Figgins.

Dumbledore stood on the phoenix podium, bringing the hall from a loud chatter to near silence. He eventually started giving his normal Welcome Feast announcements, ranging from warnings about the dementors to the new professors. Adeline was over the moon to learn that Hagrid was the new Care of Magical Creatures professor, as was most of the hall. Ophelia seemed to be to, as she was able to hear her whoops and hollers from all the way across the hall.

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor looked relatively normal this year, which was a relief to Adeline. Especially after the nightmare that Lockhart the previous term, Adeline was more than ready to have a professor who knew what they were doing.

After a few more minutes of speeches, the dinner dishes appeared on the tables and everyone dug in. As Adeline piled her plate with lamb chops and vegetables, she dove into a conversation with Estelle and another boy in their year named Patrick about their summers and the upcoming school year, and Adeline found herself laughing much more than she was eating.

Dinner and dessert came to a close, and just as Adeline was about to walk off with Estelle, she remembered that she had been assigned to take the first years up to the dorms. So instead, Adeline waved goodbye, promising to be up as soon as possible, and made her way over to the group of small children.

"First years! First years!"

The recently sorted Ravenclaws all turned towards the short-haired girl, who was attempting to gather them all together amidst the mass of students leaving the Great Hall. Adeline greeted them all with a wide grin, trying to put them all at ease. "Hi! My name's Adeline and I'm the fifth year prefect for Ravenclaw. I'm going to take you all to the Ravenclaw Tower and at the same time give you a small tour of Hogwarts. Are you guys ready to go?"

The group nodded eagerly, excited to see where they would be spending the next seven years. Adeline led them through the halls of Hogwarts, pointing out the different areas of the castle and giving her best advice on passageways to take to class. The first years looked positively freaked when they encountered the moving staircases, but once they saw Adeline handle them with such ease, their worries subsided for a little while.

Eventually, the group all found themselves outside the large wooden door with a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. Adeline turned to them, who all seemed to be expecting her to open up the door and let them in. "Now, most of the houses have a passcode to get access into their common room. However, Ravenclaw is a little bit different because we have to answer a riddle in order to be let in."

Adeline began to hear them murmur out of worry, which she was fully expecting. She remembered being so afraid that she would be locked outside of the tower all night because she was too stupid to answer the riddle. "Now, what we're going to do tonight is we're going to answer this riddle together. You may have to answer it alone sometime in the future, but remember that you're never really alone when you're at Hogwarts. No matter how much you feel it so."

She then turned to the door, giving it a gentle knock. The one who has it does not keep it. It is large and small and can any shape.

The group all began murmuring together, and while Adeline had figured it out in a few seconds, they still had yet to figure out what the answer to the riddle was. "Any ideas?" She asked, trying to prompt the group to all start talking together.

A few guesses were shouted out, but no one in the group had been able to say the magic word that would open up the door. Adeline noticed a quiet, small boy in the back with his hand raised halfway in the air as if he was hesitating to commit to his answer. She gestured for him to speak and he looked a little surprised when she called on him. "Well, when someone is not keeping an item, they're usually giving it to someone else. And my mum always says that presents can come in all shapes and forms. So would it be a gift?"

Very good.

After the knocker spoke, the door creaked open, earning several loud cheers out of the group. The young boy looked overjoyed to see that he had been the one to solve the first riddle, and Adeline sent him a smile to congratulate him.

The excitement was soon replaced with awe over the gorgeous common room. It was an airy, open circular room filled with plushy chairs and couches that students were often found spending hours on end in, poring over a fascinating book from one of the many bookcases. The windows, which normally had an amazing view of the Quidditch Pitch and the Hogwarts grounds, had the rain pattering against it just as hard as it was back on the train.

"Girls dormitories are up that staircase, and the boys are up that." Adeline informed them, making sure to point out both entrances. "I hope you all have a lovely first night, and please find me or one of the other prefects if you have any troubles."

After making sure all the first years had made it up the stairs, Adeline walked quickly up the girls staircase to the fifth year dormitory.

When Adeline pushed open the door, she found all the girls sitting in a circle, laughing and passing a familiar brightly colored candy box around the room.

"Adeline!" Delilah, one of her fellow fifth years, cheered. She grabbed her hands and pulled her into the circle. "We're playing a game. Close your eyes, grab a couple of beans from the box, and put them all in your mouth at once."

"That sounds absolutely disgusting." Adeline grabbed the box from Delilah's hands. "I'm in."

As Adeline bounced around the room with her fellow Ravenclaws, giggling over Bernie Botts beans and their absolute ridiculousness, she felt the happiest she had been since she had left Hogwarts back in June.

Adeline was home.

⋮✰⋮

a/n:

hi guys!!

i'm really trying to update a lot right now, as i have finals in a couple weeks which may result in me putting wattpad on hold for a week or so.

i hope you all enjoyed this short little chapter!! thank you all so much on the support for this book and i hope you have a lovely day!!

- g ♡