Miss O'Riley

JULIET

The sorting ceremony had continued, more and more students called, all being placed into their proper and significant house. Me, I couldn't haven't been more relieved, a weight had been taken off my shoulders, allowing me to create properly as I hopped off the stool and towards the Gryffindor house table. A table where I was welcomed into a scarlet and gold family.

I had been pat on my back, given multiple congratulations, all just for been told that I fit this piece. However, the words that the Sorting Hat had spoken to me were still sticking, holding a continuing amount of value over the fact that I could have been placed in Slytherin, that I contained those properties in my blood, that scared me.

Who knew how much a silly amount of adjectives could hold over someone's thoughts, how much impact they could create into one's brain.

The ceremony ended, and many toasts of commemoration were to be held. Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat and looked down at each of the students with a face of great leadership and modesty.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak, Thank you!"

He then sat back down, with a small smile visible. I looked over at Harry, searching for answers to the words he just spoke.

I rose my eyebrows, as Harry leant away from my face and to Percy, who I learnt was one of the many older brothers of Ron.

"Is he- a bit mad?"

"Mad?", said Percy easily, "He's a genius, best wizard in the world, but yes, he is a bit mad. Potatoes, Harry?"

Harry took the bowl of food, then passed it along to me. It was crazy, the amount of food that had just appeared in front of us, enough to feed a village, I do suppose you could call Hogwarts a village though.

A boy named Seamus started up a conversation with another boy to my left, who appeared to be called Dean.

"I'm half and half. Me dad's a Muggle. Mam's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out"

I stifled a laugh, overhearing some of the words being shared amongst my fellow Gryffindors.

Harry engaged in conversation once again with Percy, asking about our Defence against the dark arts Professor. I looked around the table, a girl across from me seemed to be speaking to no one, all though, she didn't seem bothered about it.

"Hi", I started, "I'm Michelle O'Riley. You're Juliet Chase, right?", I asked, recollecting some memory from the Gryffindors sorted.

"Yeah", she smiled, sticking out her hand. "Nice to meet you"

"You too. Say, where are you from?"

"Oh, just North of London. My family lives on a property just on the city borders"

"Wicked. Must be nice for quidditch"

"Oh yeah, my older brothers play all the time. Me, not so much"

"Huh, they in Gryffindor?"

"No", she responded, sighingly. "Ravenclaws. They're twins"

"Cool. Did your parents come here?", I asked, trying to get to know Juliet better.

"No actually, both my parents are non-magical. My dad's a muggle, and my mom's a squib. My Grammy, however, she was a Gryffindor"

"Sweet. So were my parents"

Juliet and I went on to engage in conversation, Harry and Ron joining every once in a while. It was easy to tell that Juliet was going to become a really close friend of mine, for the next seven years.