**A/N** Hey guys! The above image is of Josie Carmody, you'll meet her in this chapter! Lots of love xx
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Waking up before everyone else is one of my favourite things. Especially when I'm at Hogwarts.
I manage to get dressed for the day and get out of my dorm without waking up any of my dormmates, not like they would wake up anyways. They're all heavy sleepers. Then I walk up to the common room. Our common room is in the basement of the castle so everyone thinks that it's dark down here but it's really not.
The roof of our common room is made out of glass, and from the outside, it looks like just another Herbology greenhouse. Sure our actual dorm rooms are pretty far underground but the wallpaper mimics the weather outside. So if it's sunny then the wallpaper is a soft yellow and sort of warm; if it's raining out then it's a dark grey colour with little raindrops moving along it.
And while all that sounds great, the common room is my favourite spot in the entire castle. The entire back wall is lined with plants, any plant you could ever think of (yes, the seventh years do grow weed), and there are little plant tables and workspaces so that you can work on compositions or you can grow new plants for the room. And because we have so many plants, pure oxygen is pumped into the room. And while I can't say that air tastes different cause it's air and it doesn't have a taste, I'm gonna say that the air in the common room feels so much cleaner than any other part in the castle.
Cause it's so early in the morning, the is just starting to peek from around the clouds, making the entire common room a pale pink colour. I go over to the tea bar in the middle of the room and start to boil some water.
Because we have so many plants around, us Hufflepuffs are constantly creating different teas and leaving them at the tea bar for people to test. The popular ones are made in bigger batches and named after the kid who created them. One of the best ones was created by Molly's fiancé Bridgit actually, it's made out of apples, raisins, carrots, hibiscus blossoms, cherries, and beetroot. Sounds absolutely disgusting but you've got to trust me on this one.
Once my tea is ready I pick up the cup carefully, I always seem to fill my cup just a little too much and I'm the worst when it comes to spilling it all over myself, and I walk over to the plant wall and sit in the big yellow sofa that is right beside it.
I have Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning. Not going to lie, it's one of my least favourite classes. Not that there's anything wrong with learning to defend yourself against things, but I've never really been a fan of things like that. A lot of people in my year take it too far, they make it aggressive when it's not really supposed to be. Maybe I'm just being oversensitive or something... anyways.
I take a sip of my tea; so that it's not threatening to spill all over me anymore and get a little more comfortable on the sofa, sitting cross-legged and bringing my cup right up to my face so I can smell the fruity aroma.
"Morning Weasley," a girl in my year, Josie Carmody says as she walks barefoot into the room and over to the tea station.
"Morning," I say before taking another sip of my tea.
Josie comes over to the sofa and sits beside me once she's made her tea, "Why are you up so early?"
I shrug, "Early riser. I'm used to waking up early and helping out in my parent's shop I suppose."
We both take a sip of our tea, the sun is starting to warm up the room slowly, peeking over the clouds.
"Could you braid my hair for me?" Josie asks, " I've never figured out how to do it and you do it better than any of my friends."
"Yeah totally! Do you have a hair tie or something?" I put my cup on the coffee table as Josie takes a hair tie out of her pocket and slides down the sofa and sits on the ground. I move over a bit so that I'm sitting right behind her.
"Who taught you how to braid hair?" She asks as I run my fingers through it.
"Well I have three sisters," I make sure that there aren't any tangles in her hair before I start at the top of her head, parting it into three different strands, "But it was my Dad who really taught me. My Mum sucks at doing other people's hair so it was always my Dad who did my sister's hair when we were all kids." I add more hair to each of the strands, careful not to pull too hard and be wary of possible tangles.
"Can I ask something?" Josie says after a minute. I hum in response and she takes a breath before asking, "So I know that you changed your pronouns last year, but does that mean that you're not attracted to girls?"
I think for a second, trying to figure out the right words for it all, "I'm attracted to femininity, whether that be in a guy, a girl, or someone who's non-binary. It's called gynesexual, where you're attracted to femininity and the female anatomy regardless of how they identify."
I continue to slowly braid her hair, careful not to make any mistakes as she thinks about what I said. I finish her hair and tie it off on the end. She stays sitting in front of me for a little while longer before she gets up, turns around and pecks me on the lips.
As fast as she did it she pulls away, "Uh, yeah. Thanks for doing my hair." She says before turning around and high-tailing it back into the girl's forms. Her teacup, still half full and sitting on the table in front of me.
"What the hell was that?"
Lucy walks out of the girl's dorms and stands in front of me with her hands on her hips.
"I – uh, I don't really know?"
"She kissed you."
"Yup."
"So that was..."
"My first kiss? Yeah."
Lucy and I look at each other for a minute then she bursts out laughing, "Leave it to you of all people to have your first kiss without knowing what was going on." She goes over to the tea bar and gets herself a cup before sitting down beside me. I pick my cup back up and bring it to my lips but I don't take a drink.
"Has she... talked about me before? Cause we've never really had a conversation other than 'can I borrow your potions notes."
Lucy takes a deep drink and shrugs as she does it, "She brings you up on occasion but I never thought she'd just go and kiss you." She looks over at my teacup, "She didn't put anything in your cup did she?"
I look down at the dark red tea, "I don't think so?"
"I wouldn't drink it if I were you. For all you know she put a love potion in it."
"Josie doesn't seem like the kind of person to do that though."
Lucy shrugs again, "She also doesn't seem like the type to randomly kiss people but here we are."
"But here we are."
We take a drink at the same time, Lucy pops her lips, "How was it?"
"How was what?"
"The kiss idiot. How was it?"
"Honestly? I'm not sure. It was... soft?"
Lucy laughs loudly, a few more students come out of the dorms and start to mill around the common room, "That's what everyone says."
"Everyone? How many first kisses have you asked about?"
She shrugs again but doesn't say anything else. Oscar comes practically crawling out of the boys dorms and plops down beside Lucy, "Give me some of that," he says taking the cup from Lucy and finishing off her tea.
"You bastard," she says with a smile.
"Theo, what's wrong with your face? You're all red and awkward." He says peering around Lucy at me.
"They just had their first kiss," Lucy says putting her cup down on the table.
"Please don't tell me that you gave it to them. I get having a close family but that's a line I will not cross."
"No you twat! It was Josie."
Oscar scrunches up his face, "Josie? Josie Carmody, Josie?"
"Say it any louder why don't you?" I say to him finishing off my tea.
Once I've finished my tea, my friends and I head off to the great hall for breakfast. We bump into Gilbert, Jordan, Annie, and the Longbottom twins on the way there.
"What did you two do to Theo?" Annie says looking at me.
"Cause that's the way to greet your sibling eh Annie? Haven't seen you in like two weeks and the first thing you say is 'what did you do to Theo.' Not a hi, hello, oh my goodness my favourite sibling I haven't seen you since our detention?"
She rolls her eyes, "I'm just saying you look weird."
"Who looks weird?" Ophelia says coming over to us, her friend Chandler walking beside her.
"Theo, they look weird," Annie says.
"I really needed this this morning. Thank you all so much." I groan.
Ophelia and Chandler stand with us, right outside of the great hall. I know that as soon as Ophelia learns about Josie then she's gonna take it and run like she's in a relay race and I really don't want to deal with all that.
"Theo had their first kiss this morning," Oscar says to Ophelia.
She raises her eyebrow, "Oh they did, did they? And who was their first kiss?"
I shoot Oscar a look, begging him not to say anything to her, but of course, he does it anyway, "Josie Carmody."
"Carmody... isn't that the name of the driver that works for Dad?" Leah says to me.
Yeah, yeah it is. But I play dumb. We all know what happened with Freddie when Dad found out about his ex-girlfriend Petunia or whatever her name is. Freddie's Bears are one of our best selling products right now, "Uh, no. That's Pucey."
Ophelia sucks her teeth and Chandler laughs, "No, well yes. But I'm pretty sure that Carmody is the other one. That's Jason's last name isn't it?" She looks at Annabeth, "I'm right, right?"
"I think so. But there's Cassie, let's ask her!" Annie says pointing down the corridor.
"Please don't." I groan.
Gilbert waves over Cassiopeia and Darcy, and the Hufflepuff quidditch captain Bailey Chang who is walking with them.
"Pia, that guy that works for Dad, what's his name?" Ophelia says to her.
"What did I say about that name?" She squints her eyes at Leah, something's going on between them I can tell. But also when isn't there something going on between them?
Ignoring Cassie completely, Ophelia repeats her question.
"Adrian Pucey?" Cassie asks.
"No the other one," Annie says. She looks at me with only what can be described as an evil smile before looking at Cassie again.
"Uhh, Jason Carmody? Look I have to get something to eat before I go to History so can we not discuss who works for Dad and who doesn't? Next thing I know you're going to ask me the name of our cashiers or something."
"You don't know the names of our cashiers?" Annie asks, "You're joking right?"
Cassie just shrugs.
"Adrian Pucey and Jason Carmody are our drivers. Then Lance Montgomery, Verity Blanton, Jackson Koontz, and Richard Evans works with Uncle Ron at the Hogsmeade location..." Annie lists off the employees.
"And Anderson Green and Charlotte King work at the Diagon Alley shop." Ophelia finishes. "You seriously don't know that?"
"Whatever, why do you need to know Jason's last name anyway?" Cassie says, clearly getting annoyed with everyone.
"Cause his daughter kissed Theo this morning," Jordan informs her.
"What're you going to do? Write to Mum and Dad about it next?" I huff.
Ophelia smiles, "I wasn't, but that sounds like a good idea."
"Please don't."
"Wait, wait, wait, It's like... seven in the morning. You're telling me that Theo has already kissed someone?"
"I've already kissed someone. More than kiss someone actually but there are children present." Ophelia says which makes Chandler burst into laughter.
Cassie ignores them both, "Colour me impressed."
"Don't colour yourself anything. It wasn't a big deal." I say.
Everyone in the circle looks at me.
"I mean I've never kissed anyone before cause I'm literally twelve and my Dad works here, but I would think that a first kiss is a big deal." One of the Longbottom twins says. It's hard to figure out which one is which especially when I don't hang out with them.
"I didn't even know you fancied anyone," Gilbert says.
"I don't! she kissed me!" I say a little too loudly.
It gets awkward. Everyone but Ophelia and Cass head into the great hall, leaving the three of us alone.
"We're only joking Sunny," Ophelia says once everyone is gone.
I sigh really loudly, "All I was doing was braiding her hair and she asked me why type of people I'm attracted to and once I was finished she kissed me and ran away." I say all at the same time.
"She didn't ask you if it was okay?" Cassie says; I can tell that doesn't sit right with her.
I shake my head no, "But it's fine. Like I don't mind."
"People should ask before they kiss you." Cassie says, "That's not right."
I shrug, "It's whatever. It happened."
Ophelia looks mad but she doesn't say anything.
"Let me know if it happens again, cause then it's a lot more than whatever."
"Okay."
Cass looks at Ophelia, "You want to add to this or are you just going to stand there all dramatic?"
"If a guy randomly snogged Annabeth like that I'd make sure both his ankles were broken." She says in a hushed tone as a few professors walk by.
"It wasn't a snog, it was a peck."
"Same shit."
"You're not fighting a literal child Ophelia," Cassie says to her.
"Why the fuck not?" She snaps.
"Because you're literally a giant and this girl is like five-foot max."
"Hit her like a bludger," Ophelia says not paying any attention to anything.
I leave those two alone to bicker and walk into the great hall to find my friends.
"So Ophelia is planning to kill Josie now. Thanks a lot for telling her Oscar really appreciate it." I say glaring at him from across the table.
"Anytime," He says with a smile.
Cassie and Ophelia come into the great hall just as the post flies into the room. Our owl lands in front of me and drops a bright red envelope on my plate before flying off and dropping one off to each of my siblings.
"Howlers! I love when your parents send howlers!" Oscar says.
I give him a look before ripping it open. It jumps off the table and starts screaming in Mum's voice. "DETENTION!? ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS!?"
Dad is shouting from somewhere else in the great hall now, "ASKING MINNIE ON A DATE! CLASS ACT, I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT!"
Then Mum again from somewhere else, "ANNIE DARLING I THOUGHT WE TALKED ABOUT NOT BEING RUDE TO TEACHERS."
"THERE'S THINGS THAT YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR KIDS AND THERE'S THINGS YOU DON'T! SNOGGING IN THE CORRIDORS! I HAD TO BLEACH MY EYES!" dad shouts from Cassie's howler.
The entire hall is quiet except for my Mum and Dad's voices shouting at us all at the same time.
The howler in front of me has changed to Dad's voice, "NEXT TIME THROW A BOOK AT HER! REALLY SHOW HER WHO'S BOSS! WELL DONE KIDDO!"
"YOU'RE NOT ENCOURAGING VIOLENCE ARE YOU GEORGE WEASLEY?" Mum shouts next.
"COURSE NOT DARLING. SEE YOU AT CHRISTMAS THEO!"
My howler falls to the table.
"CASSIE THERE IS A TIME AND A PLACE FOR SNOGGING AND THE CORRIDOR ISN'T IT! ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE THE TALK?" Mum screams.
"OH GOD, NO PLEASE GOD NO! MY LITTLE GIRL! MY BABY CASSIE-PIE TOO YOUNG FOR THE TALK!"
"GEORGE WEASLEY! YOU GAVE THE TALK TO FREDDIE WHEN HE WAS FIFTEEN!"
Cassie's howler falls to the table. She's as red as a tomato, hiding her face in her hands.
"HEY MINNIE LOVE ARE YOU BUSY THIS WEEKEND? I CAN STOP BY?" Dad shouts from Ophelia's howler.
"GEORGE YOU BETTER NOT BE FLIRTING WITH MINERVA MCGONAGALL WITH YOUR WIFE IN THE SAME ROOM!"
"COURSE NOT MY DARLING. MINNIE YOU KNOW MY ADDRESS!"
"GEORGE! I THOUGHT WE AGREED THAT I HAD DIBS ON MINERVA!"
"YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE DARLING! MINNIE I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU!"
"WEASLEY!"
Ophelia's howler falls to her table. The dysfunctionality of my family really blows me away sometimes honestly.
"ANNIE PLEASE LET'S PRACTICE MANNERS IN OUR DAILY LIVES!" Mum says from Annie's howler.
"FUCK – AH SHIT – ER – BUN THAT! CUSS THEM OUT NEXT TIME!"
"GEORGE FABIAN WEASLEY!"
Annie's howler falls to the table.
The room says quiet for a little while longer before people go back to their conversations and breakfasts. Ever want to shut up a room of two-hundred ish kids? Have my Mum and Dad scream at their kids for a solid three minutes clearly unrehearsed or prepared.
"I love your parents," Gilbert says.
I poke the howler with the end of my spoon, nervous that it's going to start shouting again,
"Yeah, they're great."