The Mind and The Heart

Chapter 3

Maia's P.O.V:

I walked into the small common room to find two students already here. The Gryffindor with long dark hair turned to me, her green eyes watching me cautiously. Not that I could blame her for the distrust, our houses have been seen as enemies for a long time. 'Oh, don't you worry Nashi, I'm not plotting against you..at least not yet', I finished with a smirk. Without another word I pushed past them and entered the circular dorm room.

Inside there where four beds, all with dark purple comforters and pillows. Clearly it was another pathetic attempt to create more 'unity' between us. Well, at least the house elves had the decency to place my belongings near the bed furthest from the door. How annoying would it be to have people walking past me constantly walking in and out?

Just then a Hufflepuff walked in, her eyes searching for her possessions. Unfortunately, they were near the bed next to mine. Upon further thought I decided it was better her than that obnoxious Gryffindor. Might as well learn her name, I could get information about her from my house mates later.

'Hello, my name is Maia, what is yours?', I inquired, trying my best for a pleasant smile. The girl looked uncertain for a moment, as if deciding whether to trust me or not. Nothing new, it came with being a Slytherin. 'Hi Maia, my name is Cassiopeia, but you can call me Cassi', she replied, apparently knowing I would figure it out anyway.

Before I could comment, we were alarmed by a blinding light from the other end of the room. Turning around I realized it was a fire, and it wasn't coming from a candle. Without a second thought I grabbed Cassi's arm and dragged her out of the room. 'Quick! Get a professor, there's a fire in the dorm!', I yelled, I'm sure that even their simple minds could process that information. There was silence for a moment before they both burst out in laughter, neither moving to go get help. Are they mad? There's a bloody fire and they start laughing! 'Are you out of your minds? Do you want the room to burn down?', I don't know what to say, don't they have any reason?

'And I thought Slytherins were supposed to be smart!', laughed the Ravenclaw I assumed was Alya.

What is that supposed to mean? 'What has that got to do with anything? Don't you care about your things?', were they that dull?

'You know', Alya said,'for a Slytherin you aren't very observant of your surroundings'. That's when I noticed I didn't smell any smoke and there were no traces of the door being burned down. Hesitantly, I walked back into the room, wand ready to put out any flames. Nothing was on fire, there were no traces other than a small pile of ashes in the area where it flickered not minutes ago. When I got closer I noticed some of the ashes start to shift and a (quite hideous in my opinion) baby bird poked it's head out.

A pheonix. I was panicking because of a pheonix being reborn. Great, just great. I'm never going to hear the end of this.

Refusing to go back into the common room and facing them, I took my potions book out of my trunk.

An hour later I felt someone sit on the corner of my bed. 'What do you want?', I inquired, looking up to see Cassi holding out a sugar quill.

I accepted it, offering a genuine smile, then I got suspicious.'How did you know these where my favorite?', I asked, starting to nibble at it. The Hufflepuff shrugged her shoulders, 'I didn't, I'm just good at guessing what type of sweets people like'. Mother always said to be polite,'Okaay, what's your favorite type of sweet then?'. After pausing for a moment to think she replied,'cauldron cakes'.

Making a mental note of that, I put my book down. Sure, I could just buy another one if it got dirty, but no point in wasting money that could be used for something else. I suppose this year won't be too bad since there was at least one sensible being in this dorm. I should get her a gift, maybe a box from Honeydukes. Speaking of, I realized that I forgot to ask the professors something. One, where were we supposed to check for announcements for clubs and trips, and two.'Hey, do you know when the next Hogsmeade trip is going to be?', why hadn't I thought of it? They were my favorite weekends. 'Yeah, I think my friend told me it was next Saturday, want to come with us?', I stared at her in shock, someone from another house that's not Ravenclaw wants to hang out with a Slytherin?