The sun shone through the hangings around my bed as I sat there, the letter still clutched in my hands. I hadn't slept at all last night, thoughts of whoever wrote that letter staying in my mind as I wondered if I should tell anyone.
I mean I would tell Ginny... but I don't know what happened between us last night...
And it's just probably a joke... right? I don't know who would do that... but it still has to be a joke...
Shuttering slightly while rubbing my tired eyes, I quickly shoved the letter under my pillow and opened the scarlet hangings around my bed.
"Hi!" a bubbly and loud voice practically shouted at me as soon as I stood up.
Quickly looking over towards the sound, I saw a girl with night black hair and pale blue eyes. She was smiling widely and waving while bouncing from foot to foot in obvious excitement.
"I'm Fiona Sterling! What's your name?" she asked with her eyes lighting up and her smile never fading.
"Erm... Aelynn Reyner," I slowly said with a bit of confusion in my tone, my eyebrows rising at this unrefined excitement... about meeting someone.
I'm not going to say it's weird... but it's weird...
"Nice to meet you, Aelynn!" Fiona said loudly... while still smiling.
I looked over at the other beds in the room and quietly wondered how this wasn't waking either of them up... but that was deemed unnecessary as both hangings were drawn at almost the exact same time.
"Can't you two keep it down?" asked a girl with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, her face drawn in a slightly grumpy scowl.
I opened my mouth to respond, but never got the chance.
"Sorry, Iris." Fiona said, still quite loudly but her smile dimmed slightly... only to grow wider than ever as she continued. "But they're the ones who flew to Hogwarts! With Harry Potter!"
The other girl, Iris, quickly changed her expression to shock and then to awe as she looked from me to Ginny. "Ooh! Tell us what happened! Did you really follow Harry Potter?" she said with slight excitement in her voice.
"You must like him as much as we do..." Fiona added in a dreamy voice.
Looking over at Ginny, I saw her face turn bright red and her eyes staring at the ground. Grimacing in annoyance back over at the other girls, I shook my head. "Ask Harry if you really care..."
Gesturing for Ginny to follow me, I opened the door and walked stiffly out of the dormitory. Ginny followed me, her face still bright red and her eyes still pointed directly at the floor. I quickly shut the door, leaving the two girls frozen in their excitement.
"Sorry," I muttered to Ginny as we began walking down the stairs towards the common room. "I guess I got kind of annoyed... I mean followed Harry? Like him? What do they think we're stupid or something? The platform closed."
I mean seriously... but whatever I have bigger things to worry about...
Ginny nodded and shook her head as I spoke, her face slowly shifting back to its normal color... only flushing red again when I mentioned liking Harry.
Oh yeah... I forgot about that...
"Sorry I-" I started, but Ginny cut me off.
"I know. It's annoying... them saying that stuff I mean." she said in a tone indicating she was attempting to be casual.
I just nodded and smiled slightly as I changed the subject. "So... do you know where we're supposed to go?"
Ginny nodded. "To the Great Hall... everyone should be going there at least to get their schedules, so we can just follow people."
With that we reached the common room, seeing several people heading out and likely towards the Great Hall. We followed, walking down several spiral staircases... that moved.
Okay... will someone please tell me the purpose of a moving staircase... How does it even work? How will I know where to go if they're always moving?
But Ginny didn't seem overly concerned, so I just followed her and the others several steps in front of us until we reached the Great Hall. It was a massive and vast dining hall with four long tables where I assumed each house sat... since they all had different colors. There was a High Table for the professors at the front, and hundreds of floating candles lit the majestic ceiling that mirrored the cloudy gray sky.
"Wow..." I heard Ginny whispered as she stood there for a second, taking in the view.
We walked over to the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione all sat, sitting down a couple seats away from them.
The table before us had mounds of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and piles of eggs and bacon. Ginny and I looked at each other for a second before reaching for the mounds of food before us.
However, a few moments later, when suddenly there was a loud rushing sound overhead, causing me to look up... and then my jaw to nearly hit the floor.
A hundred or so owls soared above me. They all streamed in quickly, circling the huge hall and dropping all sorts of letters and packages to many awaiting students.
Well there's something you don't see everyday. Actually this may happen every day at Hogwarts... so then I would see it everyday... or some days...
My mouth was still hanging open, so I quickly closed it as I looked towards the other part of the table as Ron gave a terrified shout.
"Errol!"