Edde pointed to everyone behind him. Not counting all the house elves there seemed to be about twelve of them. A boy stepped forward. “I’m Faolan.” I knew who he was. I had met him before. “My brother told me.” A happy smile appeared on his face. The poor boy. A younger boy besides him seemed upset. Smart boy? Maybe…. seems more like sad boy.
Edde waved me in. “The benefit of being in Hufflepuff is that we get all the butterbear we want.” He smiled as he looked at the barrels. Edde turning to me. “Plus, you get in tight with the house elves.” He turned to wave at one of them. The elf nervously nodded his head. “That’s Molbey.” I turned to the house elf and waved. He seemed very skiddish, hiding from me. Edde pointing to a female one. “And that’s Beeny. The two of them are in charge of the kitchens.” So they were responsible for the food. If I get them to like me maybe my brother and I could get food we like. I smiled at Beeny. “Nice to meet you.” She was also skiddish but didn’t hide at least.
I turned back to Edde. “Did you ask me to come here to meet them?” He laughed and turned back towards the students. “Actually, Faolan and I thought you might want to meet a few others.” I looked around him at the students. They were also waving… This was a very wave friendly house… Perhaps it may be better to say warm and inviting. It was more enjoyable than the Ravenclaw area. “Hi?”
One of the boys laughed. “Don’t be so anxious. The names Miguel.” I nodded my head at one of the older ones as I walked over. He gave me a run down on himself willingly. “6th year divinations expert. I heard from Edde you have an interest in it.” I did… How did Edde know? I turned to look at him. “I’m in your class.” Oh… That’s awkward. My brother is right. I’ve slipped a bit since being here. Miguel laughing. “Anyways, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or want to have a fun time you can find me.” Fun time? As in…. No. By the looks in his eyes he really just meant having a fun time.
The older girl besides him stuck out her hand. “7th year. My name is Geranium. I don’t know how much I can help you two but if you have questions in herbology I can try to help.” I shook my head and nodded. I next met the others I didn’t know: 7th year Myrtice, 6th year Ryland Bays, 6th year Samuel Asp, 5th year Pembrooke Buckling, 5th year Avis, 4th year Augusta Longbottom, 3rd year Jack and 2nd year Lorcan. Lorcan was Lysander’s twin brother… Augusta was the herbology teacher’s daughter… Jack was the boy who looked up to Faolan and seemed to not like my brother… Emily was also there. Head Girl approved?
I smiled at everyone and turned back to Edde. “Am I here to just meet everyone?” They seemed to laugh for a bit. Faolan shyly handed me a mug of butterbear. I thanked him and the house elf who gave it to him. It seemed the one who really had the pull with them was Edde though. Most of the time they watched him when no one was looking. Emily walked over to me. “Actually, I asked Edde to help me put this together.” I looked at her confused. “…”
Emily smiled at me. She had very sweet smile. I wonder if Cena ever wanted to destroy that. I wasn’t sure of his tendencies yet. “Well, you see. Some of us are worried.” I nodded my head silently. “I see…” Is this how they do public shaming in their house? Warm drinks smiles and then BAM you did wrong. Miguel jumping in. “We don’t mean about you.” I looked up at him confused.Wait… What? Wasn’t Emily still friends with Florence?
Geranium shook her head in sympathy. “You see every plant has their own environments they need to grow.” A plant metaphor? “It is especially challenging to create a proper atmosphere when uprooting one plant to move it to a different location.” Okay, so we are really going with a plant metaphor… The stark difference between glowing confetti and plant metaphors was just too much. What was this evening? I nodded my head slowly.
Pembrooke jumped in. “What she means to say is we all were informed that you were suddenly in a very new environment.” Avis nodding her head as well. “And were asked to be more open and explanatory with you.” Did the professors make us out to be pity cases? I mean more than we assumed. Ryland jumped in next. “And when you were sorted into Slytherin a lot of us felt uncomfortable.” Clearly, he was one of them. Ryland was looking away guilty.
Samuel continuing. “But…that wasn’t right of us. We are supposed to be better than the generations before us.” I looked at him confused. “Is this an apology meeting?” Emily shook her head no. “Just listen. They wanted to say something.” I nodded my head. I couldn’t really ignore the Head Girl. Cena would probably torture me for weeks over it.
Augusta was the next to speak up. “My father was in the D.A. All the stories of him was how hard it was for him with the Slytherin students… But he also taught me to not be like those people and be kind and open. To not judge people and give them a chance. I didn’t know what to do. The Potters and Weasleys are family.” I know. We all knew that. “I see…” She looked down awkwardly. “I didn’t know what to do when they told me the new student was sorted into Slytherin and causing problems with the Gryffindor students. So I decided to just watch and figure it out.” Figure what out? If I was a bad person? If I could be saved? Did we come here just to pop everyone’s bubble?
Mytrice put her arm around Augusta. “We all decided to watch. It was hard for us to see who was right. Jumping in would of made a bigger mess and hurt more people.” Okay? I looked at Emily confused. She said this was not going to be about apologies. All I heard were those and excuses so far. Miguel walking forward. He seemed to be very confident. “And we’ve made our decision.” Oh? A verdict has been made.
Lorcan, the youngest of the bunch, smiled nervously. “We think you were unfairly blamed for the recent situations.” Was I? They were so cute and trusting. Much more pleasable than the Gryffindors. In fact, I imagine if the world was mostly people like this it would of been a better happier place. Perhaps, my brother and I would of been different people. Emily pointed her finger at me. “But you certainly didn’t help the situation and egged them on a bit.”
I smiled at her. “You’re right. Smiling and bitter remarks is actually my nervous habit.” They all looked flustered for a moment. Edde cracking up laughing. “That’s your nervous habit?” I nodded my head. “My brother and I had to seem tough where we grew up so if anyone approached us we had to act dangerous and mean. I haven’t been able to fix that yet.” They all all of a sudden started to crack up laughing. “…”
Emily pulled me into a hug. “They’re laughing because all the drama started from misinterpretations and nervous habits.” I pulled away. My face bright red. “Anyways… Thanks for telling me that.” Edde smiled. “We just wanted to let you know not everyone was blaming you and you had people to talk to.” I nodded my head. “Thanks.” Avis smiled. “Pembrooke and I are in some of your classes so you have to talk to us now.” Do I? Am I spellbound? I nodded my head in agreement. “All right.” The two of them smiling.
Emily clapped her hands together. “Now, it is almost curfew. So we have to let her go.” Thank you. Thank you, Emily. I will try to repay the favor one. Maybe I can make Cena’s final scheme a little softer on you? They all nodded their heads and hugged me goodbye one by one. There was just so many hugs today. My skin was crawling nervously. This should of meant danger. Not warmth and friendliness. When it was done Edde turned to Emily. “Can I walk her a bit of the way?” She looked confused but nodded.
Edde walking me out of the kitchen and towards my dorm. He smiled softly. “That was a bit awkward in there wasn’t it?” I nodded my head. “That’s an understatement.” He sighed. “The thing is there is really no good way to go about it?” Well… I guess. I agreed with him. “That’s true.” Edde walking me all the way up to the entrance.
He put his hand on his shoulder. “Listen, you need to tell Rob that I approve.” Approve? Was he part of everything going on? Was he suddenly more interesting? Life returned to my dull tired eyes in the form of an evil shine. “Do I?” Edde smiled. “You do. You also need to tell him that whatever you got from Tir and Li their probably trying to make a copy of it.”
Were they? I nodded my head in understanding. “That sounds like them.” A version for Gryffindor, one for Ravenclaw and Slytherin. I guess to be fair Hufflepuff needed one as well. However, that sounded like way too many of the same thing being circulated. Edde looked up at the door, “Vengence.” It began to open. What. Edde know our password? I turned to look at him and he only shrugged. “Goodnight.” I watched him walk away.
After tonight is over I definitely telling my brother I am on vacation for awhile. I am pretty sure education does not go on in this school and kids dress up in robes to enact stupid drama on each other.
I wonder when I can leave and be done with this. All of this acting. Somehow it was more than everything we had ever grown up with. Sighing, I walked into the common room.
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