Remind me to never try and play wing-woman ever again.
I sat beside Cedric, looking in between him and Cho, who sat across from him.
After Cedric had finished his meeting with the other prefects in the prefect's car, I pulled him into the booth with Cho and I.
They avoided eye contact like the plague, with Cedric suddenly very fascinated with the Hogwarts Express' carpets and Cho very intrigued by the clouds completely blocking the sky from view.
I sighed, leaning my chin on my hand. I hated small talk, but I was perfectly willing to start it if it meant I didn't have to sit in silence for the rest of the ride.
"...You know, solipsism is the belief that nothing outside of your own mind is 100% true, so does that mean that there's a possibility that you came up with each other?"
Yeah, no, I would never start small talk even if you held a wand to my head.
They both gave me the same look, with the ingredients of confusion and unsureness mixed into their pupils.
"So like... a simulation?"
Before anyone could continue, the Hogwarts Express came to an abrupt halt, nearly sending me off my seat. "What happened?" I questioned.
Even better, a moment later the light went out.
"Can the power go out in the Hogwarts Express?" Cedric asked, reaching out to grab my arm as if I'd be gone when the light went back on if he didn't.
The air suddenly went ice cold and Cedric pulled me in to put his hoodie around me. "What's going on?" Cho panicked. "This has never happened before!"
We all turned to the door and went deathly quiet as a hooded figure passed, towering to the ceiling of the train.
I clasped my hand over my mouth until it was out of sight and the booth was slightly warmer.
"What was that?!" Cho whisper-yelled, her hands trembling.
"Dementor," I answered, burying my hands in the pockets of Cedric's hoodie. "They're the guards of Azkaban - probably looking for Sirius Black."
"They think he's here, on the train?!"
The door opened and Cedric pulled Cho away from it, instinctively going for his wand.
"Wait, Ced!" I grabbed his arm.
Luna, who stood in the doorway, lifted her bright pink glasses from her face. "Hi Y/N."
"Hey," I said breathlessly, waving her into the booth.
She sat beside Cho and looked between Cedric and I. "Is he your boyfriend, Y/N?"
"No, brother."
"Ah, I see." She looked at Cedric's hoodie, then back at my face. "He seems very kind."
"Uh huh."
She placed her glasses on again and examined Cedric and Cho. "Your heads are full of wrackspurts."
"Naturally," I mumbled. I've come to realize that wrackspurts are things that fill your brain when you're confused, as she always mentions that my head is full of them when I'm confused.
I didn't know if they existed or not, but it was no use to try and ask anyone.
•••
We entered the Great Hall as usual and Dumbledore said something in regards to the Dementors.
"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," he announced, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave the school without permission. Dementors will not be fooled by tricks, disguises, or even Invisibility Cloaks."
I could only imagine how useful one of those would be.
"On a happier note," Dumbledore continued, "I am pleased to welcome two new professors to Hogwarts: Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Rubeus Hagrid, the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
I nearly jumped out of my seat in excitement.
Once the feast was over, I rushed to congratulate Hagrid.
"Congrats, Hagrid!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron joined in on the cheer.
"Couldn't've done it without you four," Hagrid said, ruby faced with joyful tears. "Dumbledore's told me that you'd made a good defence lawyer, Y/N!"
"That was along with all the evidence these idiots procured," I reminded him, gently elbowing Hermione, whose face still displayed unsureness about how many rules were broken the year before. "Anyway, I need to scold Cho about something, so I'll go ahead."
•••
When I entered the common room, Cho sat on the couch with her face buried in her hands in shame.
"I tried," I claimed with my hands in the air. "I sacrificed sitting with Padma for that, and it just turned into a conversation about solipsism led by me!"
Roger laughed in the corner, turning the page in his magazine. "Leave it to Cho."
"Oh hush, you got punched in the face for entering the girl's lavatory, Mr. Charisma." I tossed a decorative pillow at him and it smacked him in the face before it knocked a book off the shelf and onto his head.
"Listen," I continued, "Cedric isn't going to realize that you like him unless you go out and say it, because at this point, if it wasn't clear that you like him because I forced him into a booth with you, I don't even know. He's rather daft in certain areas."
I breathed, the kind of breath that someone takes in when they truly feel like they have nothing left inside of them.
"Alright," I sighed. "I'm going to bed."
I started up the stairs and heard Roger say, "Give that girl a whistle, because she's being a damn good coach to you, Cho."
I entered the dorm I shared with Sue, Morag, Padma, Lisa, and Mandy and fell onto my bed.
"About time," Lisa said, lying on her stomach with her feet swinging in the air.
"People older than me seem a lot dumber than me sometimes." I sat up to see that I wasn't the only one who thought that, with each girl nodding in agreement.
"Why?" Morag wondered as she moved a brush through her light brown hair. "What happened?"
"You know how Cho really fancies Cedric?"
"I'm pretty sure he's the only one that doesn't know."
Each girl let out their own reactions to my brother's cluelessness, from a pitying groan to a shake of their head.
I let out a dry chuckle. "Well, I had to start the conversation by talking about solipsism, and still, Cho refused to speak."
"What's— Never mind."
I opened my trunk and placed my bag on top of all the stacked books and neatly folded robes.
"So, did you spend the summer with Cedric?" Lisa asked, Morag and Mandy letting out entranced sighs at the sound of my brother's name.
"No." I kissed my teeth. "He was busy practicing his Quidditch skills because he was chosen to be captain this year. He's been stressing about it since the beginning of the summer and barely got off his broom."
"What about Draco?"
"Same thing. Lucius got all pissy that he fell off his broom the first time he played Quidditch and made him train so he wouldn't 'embarrass the Malfoy name.'" I scoffed, tossing an unnecessary decorative pillow onto the window sill. "Bollocks if you ask me."
"So neither of the dream boys of Hogwarts hung out with you this summer," Sue said with a grin.
I scoffed again, this time with a smile, and sat on my bed, burying myself in the blankets with a book in one hand.
Padma stared for a moment. "What's the point of tucking yourself in if you're not going to sleep?"
"Well, you don't read a book while doing a handstand, do you? I want to be comfortable."
After a good while, everyone's lamps went out and I heard Morag's soft snores, which normally meant that everyone else was asleep since one of them would come to me to complain.
I sunk deeper into my sheets and stopped, my foot touching something under the blanket. I lifted it and peered under, seeing a book that was most certainly not there before.
I pulled it from its place and grabbed my wand. "Lumos." The tip of my wand lit up and illuminated the title of the book.
Hogwarts: 1971-1972
"1971-1972... That when the Whomping Willow was planted, wasn't it?" I reached into my trunk and pulled out my copy of Hogwarts: A History and flipped the pages, finding that I was correct.
I looked around, trying to see if any of my roommates were still awake to try and watch me discover the book, but they were all asleep.
This year, with the media buzzing around Sirius Black's escape, there wasn't an interesting mystery for a while.
Now, I had one: who on earth keeps breaking into my dorm and placing things with my stuff?
•••
I moved a piece of a pancake around my plate with a fork, my mind occupied with the new yet repeating mystery that presented itself to me.
"Hey, you better eat that before Diggory notices and Cho faints when he comes over," Roger whispered, a teasing grin on his face as Cho hanged her head in embarrassment.
"Why would he care if I'm not eating a piece of a pancake?" I asked, deciding to finally eat it after letting it be my fidget toy.
"Dunno."
I sighed. "Good thing you don't have to be too sharp to play a sport, Davies."
"Hey! I'm plenty smart!"
"Whatever you say." I looked past him, seeing Neville stand from his seat and start making his way to his first class.
I jumped up and followed him, plunging my hand into my bag and grabbing a book my mom had sent me.
"Neville!" I called, earning both his attention and the group of Slytherins that were waiting for him down the hall. Seeing me approach him, they began to scatter, leaving my sight as they turned a corner or entered a classroom.
"Good morning," he said with a grin.
"I didn't get to send it to you since I sent something to Cedric with my owl on your birthday, but I got you a present! Better late than never?"
His face brightened at the sight of the book I held out to him. It was a herbology book with all kinds of remedies and ways to care for different plants, with all their uses and advantages.
"Amazing!" he exclaimed as he flipped through the pages. "Where'd you get it?"
"My mom sent me it. It was already in our library so..."
"Thank you!" He abruptly threw himself at me, wrapping me into a tight hug. "No one outside of my family's gotten me a birthday gift before."
My grin wavered. I didn't know what his view on pity was, so I just took his arm and began pulling him down the hall. "Come on, let's head to Care of Magical Creatures together."