Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

Ⅲ. 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐲𝐲𝐲 𝐉𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲

Professor McGonagall opened the doors to the Great Hall and marched in. Eyes turned to her, the noise must have been loud and, looking past her, Virginia saw an old man standing behind a podium. Whispers carried through the hall as soon as people saw Virginia. She scanned the room, four long tables stretched to a stage where another table full of Professors sat perpendicular to them. She found the Gryffindor table, marked by the sea of people with red on their robes. Virginia found herself shrinking in their eyes.

"She's already been sorted then, hasn't she mate?"

"Them's Gryffindor colors, ain't they?"

"I heard she might as well be a muggle."

"Her hair would look so much better down."

"Wonder if she's good at Quidditch..."

She took deep breaths in and out, as she picked out a few of the louder whispers. She followed Professor McGonagall where the other man greeted her with a firm handshake and twinkling eyes. He looked like a softie but something about him made her uneasy. He was slightly aging with numerous strands of white in his brown hair and a few wrinkles on his face. She assumed he was Professor Dumbledore.

He stopped with whatever he had been saying and introduced her, "this, Students of Hogwarts, is Virginia Waters. She's a new student and I trust you'll be very welcoming, as you might have seen she's a Gryffindor but all houses are encouraged to show her good tidings." He looked down at her, lowering his voice, "you may go take a seat at your new table, I recommend the young boy with brown hair and one lengthy scar across his face." He winked, which set Virginia more at ease. Virginia nodded, thankful she didn't have to introduce herself and put herself on display anymore.

She scanned the Gryffindor table and luckily found the boy he'd mentioned. He looked innocent enough but incredibly bedraggled with curly hair and more than one scar on his skin. Three other boys sat around him, leaning in and whispering. He seemed to be listening to them but pretending like he was paying attention to the stage. He made eye contact with Virginia, she had a feeling he'd known that he'd be mentoring her, if that's what Professor Dumbledore had wanted. She took a seat next to the boy, wondering if she ought to kiss him. She shook the thought from her brain.

"Please the games of trying to touch the whomping willow must be stopped," Professor Dumbledore was saying, at the last moment the boy shifted in his seat. "Also Mr. Filch would like to remind you that the use of any sort of spiked treats is strictly prohibited." The lot of boys around Virginia and the other boy snickered in response to this. "Now eat up."

"I feel like we're back at the Sorting Ceremony, that was so long," one of the boys said, he had a fair face, brown eyes and pink lips. He was a little on the stout and flabby side but he wore it well.

"To be fair to him it was all our fault," the boy with the scar said with a smirk, reaching forward and grabbing a sandwich. It was then that Virginia noticed the empty platters and pitchers had been filled with food and liquid. She could imagine her mother pointing one of boney fingers and screeching. Her eyes unconsciously flicked to the door, wondering if she'd come bursting in.

"And hers," one of the other boys said, he too had brown eyes, a head of messy black hair and circular glasses. He was pointing one finger at Virginia. She didn't notice that all four of the boys were looking at her now, she was too busy trying to get the last of the Mac and Cheese off the serving spoon. She shook and tapped it against the plate to no avail. After a few moments, the boys got tired of waiting and the one with glasses flicked his wand, the Mac and Cheese slid off cleanly. She looked up.

"As you might have just heard my name is Virginia Waters, what about yourselves?"

"Remus Lupin," the boy with the scar, introduced.

"Peter Pettigrew," the stout boy chirped.

"James Potter," the boy with glasses said.

"Sirius Black."

She looked at the last boy, the one she had yet to truly notice. She swallowed forcefully. He had longish black hair draped around his face which suited him perfectly. His gray eyes looked directly into hers and a smirk lingered around his mouth.

Someone nudged her side and she jumped practically out of her seat. She turned to see who it had been, ignoring the raucous laughter from behind her. As well as one of the boys, who sounded like it might have been Sirius, saying, "keep that in mind guys, veryyyy jumpy."

"And I'm Dorcas Meadows, now you won't want to go wasting your time with those buffoons. But for some reason Dumby's picked Remus over me to mentor you... guess that means he's on more of a prefect track than me and..." she stopped herself, "but it doesn't matter. The rest of the lot are somewhere else down the table but I wanted to sit near you."

Dorcas had a strange way of talking. Her British accent was more posh and pronounced than most, she sat with the most perfect posture, napkin in her lap. The type of girls who didn't bother with relationships, kissing and all that nonsense, instead focusing on their schooling. Virginia took a liking to her immediately.

The rest of the meal went by quickly. Dorcas talked for the majority of it. Occasionally Remus would try to strike up some sort of conversation but Dorcas would shut it down pretty quickly. Virginia was beginning to wonder why she hated the four of them so much, they seemed like perfectly fine people.

When Dorcas had finished she stood up, "I'm going to go chill with the other ladies, s'pose these idiots are accompanying you back to the dorm." And with that she strutted down the table. She sat with a few other girls.

"Yeah... uh I am," Remus said with an awkward smile. Virginia nodded and sat waiting, hands folded in her lap. When the four had finished eating they stood and Virginia did so with them.

"Why do you suppose they haven't put me with a prefect?" she asked Remus as they walked down the aisle with Peter, the other two boys were on the other side of the table.

"Probably want you bonding with some of the people in our year, you're in First Year classes right?" he didn't look at her when he said this, she assumed he already knew the answer.

"I am indeed," she said, keeping her head high and not letting her shame show.