➵ Choice ➵ {DM and HP)

➵ Chapter 5 ➵

"El!" I turn to see Quinn waving me over from the giant wooden doors. "Wrong way, new girl." She says, smiling as I approach. "Charms right?" I nod and she gestures in the opposite direction. "It's that way, but I have it too, let's walk together."

We walk through the hallways and arrive at the Charms classroom within minutes, thanks to Quinn's extensive secret passageway collection. The classroom has desks on either side of the room, facing each other and there's a large stack of books at the end. We look around and Quinn points to two seats on the left side of the room and I can't help smiling as we make our way over. This is the first time anyone has wanted to sit with me without bad intentions.

We settle into our seats and as I pull out my wand, I feel a soft gaze. I look up and instantly meet those forest eyes once again. He's sitting directly across from me, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, (I had learned his last name from Quinn at breakfast) on either side. He holds my gaze for a moment before looking down at the wand in his hand.

My eyes are pulled from his messy black hair by a waving Hermione Granger. She smiles wide and waves her hand enthusiastically. That's when I notice the glinting prefect badge on her cloak, and I'm not surprised in the least and I give her a tight lipped smile, not bothering to wave back. I see Harry give her a look and she instantly puts her hand down, turning to him and they whisper about something.

"Are you friends with Granger?" Quinn asks, having witnessed it all.

"Oh, no," I say, pulling out my Charms textbook. "They sat in my compartment on the train and she thinks that means we're best friends."

"Eh, Granger isn't too bad," Quinn explains. "She's nice, you could do worse, like Blaise."

I smile at this and am about to respond when the door opens and in walks a tiny man, with a long white beard and a textbook tucked under his arm. He introduces himself as Professor Flitwick and we begin the class.

We review many of the spells we learned last year, and I notice that, thankfully, Hogwarts followed a similar course study as Beauxbatons, so I didn't have to catch up.

After my charms class, I had transfiguration with Audrey and Benjamin and some Hufflepuffs, and then I had History of Magic with the Gryffindors. Throughout the morning, whenever I seem to look up, I always find Harry Potter's green eyes, soft and delicate.

I eat lunch with Quinn and Benjamin and as we leave the Great Hall Quinn asks,

"What do you have next?"

I pull out my schedule and peer at it before saying, "Potions."

Benjamin sighs, "We have Dark Arts so, good luck with Snape then."

They start to walk away and I catch up with them, "What do you mean?"

They stop and Quinn explains, "Snape is the potions teacher, he's ruthless. He hates everyone except the Slytherins, so, try not to mess up in his class, or you'll be on his hate list."

Benjamin pats me on the arm, "Anyway, good luck!"

They walk away and I stand there, slight fear rising in my throat. I force my feet to walk in the direction of the potions classroom, penetrating deeper into the castle as I descend staircase after staircase.

As I turn onto another staircase, I spot a familiar shock of platinum hair. I was a little surprised by the lack of Malfoy in my day, he seemed to always show up before the sorting. I take a breath, working up the courage, then I lengthened my strides, pulling up next to him. I don't look at him, all I say is,

"Potions, Malfoy?"

I get no response and I risk a look at him. His gaze is hard and he's staring straight ahead, refusing to let his eyes stray. Confusion fills me, but as I look at his eyes, I can't read them. They are steely blue, the ocean they were before now frozen over with ice.