Us and Them

Chapter One

Maya

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of a far off world where unicorns galloped, great big magical wizard men saved the day, and fairy princesses granted wishes to all the good little boys and girls. I longed to live in a world full of magic, unlike my world that was full of boring human things. I lived a simple life out in a small suburb.

All that changed in the blink of an eye, particularly on my eleventh birthday. My wish had been granted, but not by a beautiful fairy princess like I always imagined it would be. Instead, my savior was an old barn owl that carried my acceptance letter into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Being muggle born, I had no idea if this was just some sort of prank someone was pulling on me. I asked all my classmates if they have ever heard of this school, but every single one of them looked at me like I was some sort of whack-job. Kids started to think I was crazy and their parents told them not to talk to the "child raised to believe in witchcraft." And so, I became the outcast of the fifth grade; until I met her.

She transferred to my school halfway through the year. On her first day at school, she quickly made friends with my enemies, so I immediately pinpointed of her as someone to avoid. But when the bullies told her why they picked on me, I can clearly remember her saying, "Hogwarts? Oh my gosh! I'm going there this fall!" And she shot me the biggest smile I have ever seen.

Six have passed since then, and we settled into Hogwarts quite nicely. Both of us were sorted into Gryffindor and every year, we were roommates. Of course, we made other friends, but only three other real ones. I was fine with only three friends, though! We were a small, tight knit group, and nothing could break us. At least, that is what I had hoped...

"Oh goody, Defense Against the Dark Arts is first," I sighed as I looked over my new timetable.

"Hey, that's better than potions. At least we don't have to start our day in the dungeons!" Lucy pointed out.

A tall, blonde Ravenclaw jumped into the seat next to me, completely ignoring the Gryffindors giving him strange stares. "Oh my gosh guys. DADA is first!" he cheered, completely skipping a greeting. "Best morning ever!"

"Morning Will," Lucy and I monotonously said.

"Ouch, grumpy faces. What's gotten you so down?" he asked in between bites of a muffin. "Come on, lips curved, chins up! It's our third to last year already!"

I forced a smile. "Is that better?"

"Ohmysweetwizardinggod," Will gasped and turned his head towards his plate.

"Wow, I didn't know my smile was that bad," I joked, but instead of laughing, he grabbed the back of our heads and forced them to look down.

"Hunky hunk at 3 o'clock, coming our way," he whispered.

Sure enough, the seat across from us was filled by a lean, dark haired boy. He was far from hunky in my opinion, though.

"So, King... I heard that you have Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing after breakfast," the boy said smoothly, attempting to flirt with Lucy.

"Sirius, we're all fifth year Gryffindors. We have the exact same schedule," I rolled my eyes at him.

He completely ignored me and said to Lucy, "Well, hopefully we'll get paired up to duel. If we do, I won't go easy on you. I like it rough." And with a wink, he got up and left.

"Holy hell of a hunk." Will sighed after Sirius was out of earshot. "If I get paired up with him.. Oh ho ho ho."

I raised my eyebrows at Will. "I think you have problems."