Shifted: Book One

Chapter Five - New Beginnings

"Who is she?"
"I swear she teleported or something!"
"That's some advanced magic, I bet she's an amazing witch!"
"Oh please, there's something about her I don't trust!"

Hazel woke up to the sound of loud gossiping and talking. Though her eyes were still shut, the voices sounded familiar to her, she could picture which face belonged to which voice. Slowly, she rubbed her weary eyes and opened them, allowing the bright rays of light to gleam through the stained windows behind her bedside table. It took Hazel a moment or two to really wake up, she stared up at the ceiling, and, happily to her surprise, she recognised that she was still in Hogwarts. She was joyous, and immediately threw her body to sit up in bed. Whilst doing this, she was greeted by some happy faces, some relieved faces, and even some skeptical faces.

"Hazel, isn't it? I'm Hermione Granger", a brown haired girl spoke, with an excited tone in her voice.

Hazel turned to Hermione, who had a wide grin painted on her fair skin, her eyes slightly squinted but expressed pure happiness and interest.

"How was your first night? Did you sleep well?", Hermione asked before being interrupted by a colossal of other questions.

"How did you get here?"
"Are you a pure blood? Who are you parents?"
"Why didn't you join at the start of the year?"

Hazel couldn't comprehend the hundreds of questions being thrown at her like darts as though she was a dart board. However, one question caught her attention.

"How did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?", a dark haired girl asked bluntly. She had dark but wide eyes, and a dark, golden and glowing skin. Her hair was put in a low ponytail and she was closely accompanied by a small group of girls with dubious expressions.

"I didn't put my name in the Goblet of Fire", Hazel replied, taking a breath of annoyance a second before.

"Give Hazel some space, Parvati. She must still be in shock from waking up here!", Hermione said.

Hazel remembered the envelope that was left on her bed last night. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, the floor, her bedside table, her eyes wandered from object to object until Hermione held the envelope in front of her, and passed it to her. Cautiously, Hazel ripped the envelope and revealed the letter inside.

Miss Hazel Jane Jones,
Welcome to Hogwarts, and congratulations for making it into the Gryffindor House!

To our surprise, we have no previous records of your past information such as your family, education and location. This is not a problem for now. To start off at Hogwarts on the right foot, you'll need your equipment first.

Firstly, head to Ollivander's Wand Shop, you can't do much magic without your wand!

Afterwards, head over to the pet shop and pick out a creature to take with you on your journey at Hogwarts, this is optional.

Finally, make sure you take your money with you! Normally, we wouldn't hand out galleons but, due to no history of your family, we must offer you some to start!

Rubeus Hagrid will take you to Diagon Alley for all these essentials. We hope Hogwarts makes you feel at home.

~ Ministry of Magic ~

Hazel beamed with excitement.

"Well, what does it say?", the ginger girl asked.

"Hagrid is taking me to Diagon Alley for my stuff! Where is he?", Hazel asked excitingly.

Hazel got out of bed as the girls surrounding her moved away and went on with their day, they knew they wouldn't get any answers out of Hazel just yet.

"He'll be in his hut I assume, I can take you there. But first, you need to get dressed", Hermione replied, handing Hazel her new uniform and robe.

Hazel respectably took them off Hermione's hands and walked to the bathroom to get changed. She entered the clean and fresh room, which was elegantly decorated with white and gold tiles with hints of red to add on the Gryffindor aesthetic. She looked in the crystal clear mirrors to find a happy expression looking back at her. Her hazel eyes glistened with serotonin. She inhaled and exhaled carefully; she still couldn't quite believe she was here! Was this all a dream? It all certainly felt very much real to Hazel.

A few minutes went by, Hazel left the bathroom and walked down the steps to the common room to find Hermione sitting in front of the fire place. She was sat next to a boy with long, ginger hair; it almost blended in with the burning flames of the amber fire. Hermione turned around and greeted Hazel once again.

"Hazel, this is Ron!", Hermione exclaimed.

Ron stood up with a nervous but excited smile, as he extended his warm hands out to meet with Hazel's.

"Ron Weasley", he declared.

Hazel took his hand and shook it happily, as Hermione took ahold of her shoulders, gently squeezed them, and took her out the common room to Hagrid's hut.

"Let's find Hagrid, he's excited to meet you!", Hermione said.

The girls left the common room with happy expressions on their faces. Ron watched them leave with a small smile on his face.

A few moments after leaving the room, Harry approached a tall-ish, dark haired boy who was fixing his tie and looking in the mirror on the opposite side of the fireplace.

"Hey Neville, did Hazel leave already?", Harry asked, with a slight sadness in his tone of voice.

"Yeah they did, Harry. I think I heard Hermione and Ron mention something about Hagrid's hut", Neville replied, still concentrated on fixing his tie.

"Perhaps they went there?".

Harry glanced at Ron, who was now talking to a slightly shorter, brown haired boy. Ron saw Harry out the corner of his eye, still feeling angry with him, he nudged the boy, and they left the room.

Neville noticed the tension between Harry and Ron.

"Ron still angry with you? He'll move on eventually, I'm sure of it", Neville said, with a slight sense of hope in his voice.

Harry drew his attention back to Neville. His face grew disappointed, he had hoped to take Hazel on a tour around the school. He cleared his throat.

"Well don't be sad Harry", Neville said, now looking at Harry after fixing his tie.

"You'll see her later, shouldn't you be worrying about the tournament anyway? It's supposed to be challenging and dangerous!"

Harry sighed.

"Thanks Neville", Harry replied, slightly annoyed, as he walked out of the room.

Neville looked confused.

"Sorry Harry, was it something I said?", he called out just as Harry left.