My POV
“GRYFFINDOR!” the Hat shouted out loud. I'm in Gryffindor? But... Jasmine... and Draco... I ripped the hat off my head and tossed it onto the stool. The Gryffindor table cheered and I walked over to it. I looked at where Jasmine sat next to Draco at the Slytherin table. Jasmine and I shared the same sad smile and Draco just looked down, sullen for some reason. I sat down next to Hermione at the table and she gave me a hug. Neville just looked wide eyed and held Trevor closely to him. My mind registered what he was saying: Awa is going to eat him! I sent Neville an apologetic glance and reminded myself to promise him I'd keep her away from Trevor.
“Weasley, Ronald!” the red haired boy with the dirt smudge on his nose sat down on the stool.
“GRYFFINDOR!” Ronald made his way over to the table, grinning, and sat down next to Harry.
The last person standing there was “Zabini, Blaise!” and he was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment she had been reading off of and took the stool and hat away. Up at the High Table, a man with a silver beard so long that you it went down passed his belt stood up. I recognized the man as Professor Dumbledore, the Head Master.
“Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!” Professor Dumbledore said. He sat down and food appeared on all of the tables on the gold platters that were placed everywhere. Everyone clapped and cheered then began to eat.
I grabbed some sausages, bacon, fries, and even a few peppermint humbugs. Everything tasted so delicious but I didn't pay much attention to that. I was distracted because Jasmine got to be in Draco's house and I wasn't with either of them. The people around me were talking about where their magic came from when suddenly Neville spoke to me.
“What about you, Samira? How are you magic?” Neville asked me. Everyone turned their attention to me as I looked at him.
“Um, well, my mum, well she's not really my mum because she adopted me but still, she was born from a wizarding family but she's got no magic, I guess you call those squibs here. She told me that neither of my parents were magic and she'd know because she used to be pretty nice friends with them but they've faded over the years. So I guess I'm a muggle-born. Not sure where I got it from but I got it none-the-less! I was surprised when I got a letter, no idea what it was! And strangely enough my best friend, Jasmine, is a witch, too! But she just got sorted into Slytherin... Anyone know if we can visit other tables?” I said to everyone else. An older red haired boy looked at me with a pompous expression.
“Well, I'm Percy, Ron's brother, and I'm a prefect so I know the answer to that. You are allowed to socialize with the other houses at all times but it isn't the most respectable to do so on the first night since that's when you're supposed to meet your house and get to know them,” the boy named Percy told me. I stood up from the table and shot him a smile.
“Well thank you for that information, Percy but frankly I don't give a damn and was going to go over there even if you had said no.” I walked across the hall to the Slytherin table and sneaked up behind Jasmine. I wrapped my arms around her while she was sitting and she jumped.
“Samira! Oh, I am so upset that we aren't in the same house! How could this have happened?” Jasmine cried. She stood up and hugged me and then scooted her seat over so that I could sit next to her. I was then sitting between Jasmine and Draco who did not seem pleased about the seemingly bloody ghost sitting on his other side.
“I don't know, Jazzy. I really am not fond of this. I won't get to see you at all! Nor Draco!” I said. Draco looked over at the mention of his name and noticed me sitting there.
“Oh, Samira! I didn't see you there. Shouldn't you be at the table with all those other nasty Gryffindors?” He drawled, his steel grey eyes flicking towards my table.
“They're not bad, Draco. They're actually really nice. And I'm one of them, does that make me any different?” I asked him.
“No, you're not bad at all. I don't mind you it's that Potter kid that I'm not a fan of. Him and that blood traitor Weasley. That mudblood Granger isn't great either!” Draco sneered.
“Harry, Ron, and Hermione aren't bad at all! They're very nice people! And what the Hell is a mudblood?” I said.
“Mudblood is a nasty name for a muggle-born like you, Samira! Draco I can't believe you said that!” Jasmine shouted.
“Y-you're a m-mudblood?!” Draco cried out in shock, his cool demeanor breaking.
“What difference does it make if my parents weren't wizards?” I shot at him. My chocolate brown eyes found his piercing grey ones. If looks could kill Draco would have been dead.
“He believes that muggle-borns aren't good enough to be wizards. He doesn't like the lot of them,” Jasmine hissed.
“Is that true, Draco?” I asked him furiously.
“Y-yes, of course it's true!” Draco stuttered, his eyes looking anywhere but at me. I sent him a look full of fire and stood up from my seat at the Slytherin table.
“Once you get your head out of your arse, come talk to me! Until then, I don't want to see you!” I hissed at him, venom dripping from every word. I stomped back to my table and returned to my spot next to Hermione.
“What's the matter, Samira? Are you okay? You seem upset...” Hermione said to me.
“I'm just peachy Hermione now sod off before I explode!” I advised her harshly. Hermione gave me a look of shock and turned away from me. At that moment, the plates all cleared and Professor Dumbledore stood up again.
“Ahem- just a few more words now that we're all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well,” Dumbledore said, his eyes flashing to Fred and George Weasley, Ron's twin older brothers. “I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.” A few people chuckled at this thinking it was a joke, but I could sense the gravity of the matter. “And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song! Everyone pick their favorite tune and off we go!” Dumbledore had used his wand to send out ribbons forming into the words to the song in midair. I quietly sang along, while the rest of the school bellowed out the words.
“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now their bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.”
The entire school finished at different times until it was only the Weasley twins left who were singing to a slow and morbid funeral tune. Once they had finished, the school broke into applause.
“Ah, music,” Dumbledore said as he wiped his eye. “A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!” Everyone began to stand up from the tables and Percy instructed the Gryffindor first years to follow him.
They walked up many flights of stairs and through several hidden hallways. The people in the pictures moved and whispered. They even went to other portraits and visited their friends! At one point there had been a bundle of sticks floating in midair but it turned out to just be the poltergeist named Peeves the ghosts had been talking about earlier and he was cleared away by mentioning that Percy would go to the Bloody Baron. But as Peeves was leaving, he dropped the bundle of sticks on poor Neville's head which made him drop Trevor. Luckily I had near him and picked up the toad easily. I told Neville that I'd hold onto Trevor until we got to the dormitories, just in case. When we reached a portrait of a large woman wearing a pink silk dress, we stopped.
“Password?” the lady asked.
“Caput Draconis” Percy said importantly. The portrait swung open and we were led through a large hole in the wall. I helped Neville through the hole since it was a bit too high for him. The hole opened up into the large common room filled with many squashy armchairs. “Girls dormitories are that way, and the boys dormitories are over here.”
“Neville, here's Trevor. You might want to keep a good eye on him or else I'd fear for him. You never know what Awa might do...” I said and then followed the other first year girls through a door and up a spiral staircase. We came out into a room that had five four poster beds dressed in scarlet velvet curtains. Each bed had at least one trunk on it. I easily found mine and saw Awa already asleep at the foot of the bed. Hermione's bed was next to mine and we both sat down on our beds. I pulled my favorite pajamas out of my trunk and slipped them on. They were royal purple satin shorts and a matching kimono-like top. I set my dirty clothes in a pop-up hamper I had brought. It was one of the ones with an animal head on the top that made up the lid. Yeah, childish, I know. But that's just me! I'm still a child, anyway. I pulled the blanket on my bed down climbed into it. The lights got shut off and I got settled.
“Good night, Hermione. I'm really glad we're in the same house,” I said quietly.
“Good night, Samira. I'm glad, too. I think we're going to be great friends,” Hermione replied in a whisper. I set my head down on my pillow and felt little Awa move up to lay by my head. She curled around it and went to sleep. I followed suit not long after.