As moonlight slowly faded into sunlight, Ariella pulled her body and felt the rays of the sun kissing her skin. She stretched out her body and released a morning yawn. At the start of every year, she had to get used to waking up in her common room rather than in her Grandmother’s house in Doncaster; the room was beautifully decorated in colors of sapphire blue and cool silver. A beautiful stoned fireplace prompted up against the cobblestone wall emitted a faint dull orange; a fire was just put out.
As Ariella scooted out of bed, she noticed her journal wedged between her end table and bed; she grabbed it and examined the last thing she wrote before she dozed off.
“I wonder if anything else will change.”
She released a gentle sigh. Last night events were still lingering in her memory, Oliver’s touch, her name being called by numerous people and the emotions that made a home in her heart.
She placed her book deep within her trunk and prepared for her first official day of her Third Year. She straightened up her appearance with a freshly pressed uniform with the Ravenclaw emblem on her robe and satin blue tie. Her hair required no effort at all as she ran her fingers through the crown of her hair and down the left side of her face; she cared quite a bit for her appearance even if no one paid any attention to her.
She made her way to the main part of the common room where there, books awaited to read, fellow Ravenclaws discussing what they’ve recently learned over the summer break and the Head Girl, Penelope Clearwater awaited to distribute the class schedules.
“Ariella!” Penelope called out as soon as she caught sight of Ariella at the bottom of the staircase.
Penelope was the only person Ariella felt comfortable to be around, she thought of her as an older sister despite the obvious change in appearance. Penelope has long wavy blond hair that shined brightly in the sun; her facial expressions were gentle even if she was furious and when she smiled, her smile complimented her blue eyes.
“I was wondering if I was ever going to see you since we’ve got back!” Penelope smiled. She held a stack of parchment close to her chest and ran her fingers through the top; she pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it over to Ariella.
“Here you are!”
Ariella thanked Penelope and quickly scanned her schedule once it was in her hands. Penelope walked away to deliver the rest of the schedules leaving Ariella wishing she held a longer conversation.
“Great. It’s the start of the Third Year and we have Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins! Is it too much to ask NOT to have a class with Malfoy?” A Third Year spoke out as he headed out with his friends.
“It’s Slytherins AND Gryffindors! At least we get the benefit of stealing away House Points to every question we get right!”
“Don’t forget Granger! She’s the reason Gryffindors for the majority of their House Points.”
Ariella couldn’t help but to eavesdrop as they were heading to class; she really didn’t mind having Slytherins in a class but that was when no one noticed her.
As she arrived in class, the desk were pushed aside, Gryffindors, Slytherins and Ravenclaws were clustered together as they stood in awe of the rattling armoire in front of them. She joined the crowd after placing her textbooks to the side, she opened her ears to the murmur that surrounded her but amongst the chatter, not a soul decided to greet her a good morning.
“Intriguing, isn’t it?” A voice broke the silence. It was loud but not the least bit frightening.
The crowd turned their heads to the side where sitting by the window sill was the new Defense against the Dark Arts Professor, Professor R.J Lupin. His appearance was tattered yet no one seemed to judge, his light brown hair was the only part of his appearance that seemed tamed. His most prominent feature were scars across his face which the students voluntary created rumours to guess how those scars came to be.
He gave a welcoming smile but it vanished as he stood up and took a step closer to the students, “Would anyone like to venture a guess,” He hesitated as he looked back to the armoire. “…as to what is inside?”
Dean Thomas, a Gryffindor student raised his hand and answered. “That’s a boggart!” He said confidently.
Professor Lupin praised Dean for his answer and brought up a follow up question “Now, can anyone tell me what a boggart LOOKS like?” He emphasized.
“No one knows.” A voice from the crowd spoke out.
Ariella stretched her head past the bodies of other students and noticed a Gryffindor student with bushy brown hair and a confident posture. It was Hermione Granger, the most clever and brilliant witch in Ariella’s year. There was a lot of fuss that Hermione should have been sorted into Ravenclaw but the Sorting Hat argued that her bravery is far greater than her wit.
“When did she get here?” Ariella heard as she saw Ron drew his head away from Harry’s ear.
Her body tensed up as she remembered Ron smiling at her before she ran off last night. Professor Lupin cleared his throat which straightened up Ariella, he smiled at her as his eyes flashed from the corner of his eye and over to Hermione.
“Boggarts are shape-shifters. They take the shape of whatever a person fears the most. That’s what makes them so--”
“So terrifying, yes, yes, yes…” Professor Lupin interrupted Hermione in mid-sentence but was quite impressed to Hermione’s brilliant display of knowledge.
“Whatever a person fears the most?” Ariella thought to herself. She wondered if she were to ever encounter a boggart what form it will take.
“Luckily,” Professor Lupin walked into the center of the classroom, standing in between the students and the armoire. “A very simple charm exists to repel a boggart.” The armoire shook viciously and captured Professor Lupin’s attention but he did not seem to fret. “Let’s practice it now.” He smiled.
“Now, without wands, please. After me, Riddikulus!”
The class echoed the incantation to repel a boggart, Professor Lupin smiled but he was not yet quite satisfied.
“Very good!” He examined the students and placed his hands into his pockets. “A little louder and very clear. Listen: Riddikulus.” He said with a tremendous amount of emotion.
The class reciprocated the feeling as everyone spoke as one, all except for one, Draco Malfoy who murmured a small side comment to his posse. Professor Lupin smiled and continued with the lesson, he planned for everyone to face the boggart inside the armoire and when it changes into what the person fears the most, they will have to repel it with the new charm they’ve learned to change what is feared into something humorous. Ariella was not expecting that she would have to face a boggart so soon, she feared that if it were to change that it would change into the class or worst, one of the people she encountered last night.
A wallflowers biggest fear is also their biggest wish, to be noticed. It’s a double-edge sword with no way to appear as humorous to others because for someone’s fear to be noticed, it can be seen as pathetic.
Luckily, Ariella did not get the chance to face the boggart; as Harry was next to face the boggart, it turned into a Dementor, one of the guards of Azkaban. Before the train arrived at the platform, last night, the train was attacked by Dementors searching for the notorious killer that escaped from Azkaban, Sirius Black. However, there were no signs of him on the train but they did psychologically damage some of the children, Harry Potter, that night.
The first class of the first day ended and it was off to the next one, as Ariella walked out of the classroom, someone called out to her. Her body froze, her fingers ran along the pages of her textbooks, she slowly turned around and was greeted by a Seventh Year Ravenclaw student.
“This fell out of your book.” She smiled and extended out a piece of parchment.
Ariella looked at her oddly but she thanked them and took back the parchment that “supposedly” fell out of her textbook. The Seventh Year walked away smiling and giggling causing Ariella to question the contents of the note further. Ariella unravelled the note and pressed it against her book, inside there was a message, she scanned it and her heart skipped a beat.
“Hey, I really want to get to know you. Let’s meet at the Three Broomsticks when the first trip to Hogsmeade comes around! I’ll see you around!”
She was shocked and her heart was rapidly racing. She questioned who could possibly be interested in HER, she thought of Neville Longbottom, who she came across during her Second Year at Hogwarts but he never spoken a word to her after that year. She also thought of Harry, Ron, the Weasley Twins, Draco and Oliver but those options seemed absurd. Her thoughts were everywhere, not a single proper thought could form in her mind but the only one that did was an alert to tell her she was late for second period.
It was becoming a habit of hers during times of encounter for her to space out until she could regain her thoughts and that didn’t happen till dinner. Ariella buried her thoughts in books, for that was the only way to settle her mind but it did not last long as she was nudged by a Third Year in her left rib cage, she turned to face whoever it was that nudged her and noticed it was a girl who she has spoken to multiple times, it was Ebony Carol.
“Hey Ariella, check it out. Ron and Harry are look at you and they’re whispering.” She said before she turned away to resume her conversation amongst her other friends.
Ebony’s words disrupted Ariella’s train of thought; the contents of the note came back as well as her assumptions of suspecting Harry or Ron of sending the note. Ariella quickly turned looked down at her book after meeting both Harry and Ron’s eyes. She prayed to get past dinner without any more distractions and also to get to the common room without causing a scene. Her prayers were answered, it was just the matter of getting to her common room but her prayers only accounted for dinner. After dinner, Draco Malfoy decided to fool around with Neville Longbottom, the involuntary kind.
“What’s the matter, Longbottom? Your Grandmother forgot about you and moved on to better things?” Draco laughed.
Ariella was not a fan of bullying and despite being a wallflower; she would stand up for anyone.
“Apologize to him.” Ariella said strongly.
Draco hesitated before he turned around; he slowly pivoted his body to face whoever dared to interrupt him. Ariella stared into his grey eyes and swore they softly widen once he saw her. He slowly opened his mouth; the sudden action of Draco gave anxiety to Ariella. She knew what he was capable of, she always tried to avoid Draco at all cost but now she got herself involved and she feared what he was about to say.
She closed her eyes and looked down but once she did a shadow casted over her; she brought up her head and found herself behind a Gryffindor with a manly built. He looked over his shoulder and caught Ariella’s eyes, it was Oliver Wood. He smiled and turned his head back to face Draco.
“I wouldn’t dare if I were you.” He said strongly.
Draco looked up with disgust but with a smirk, “Oh, Ariella, got an older boy to fight your battles?” Ariella quickly shook her head to Draco’s words but he paid no attention to it. “One day, I’ll get you alone.” He said as departing words before he turned around and walked away.
Ariella turned to face Neville who thanked her quickly before he headed to his commonroom, leaving Ariella with Oliver Wood.
He turned around and stroked his jaw; he released a quick laugh and looked over his shoulder.
“You have a thing for trouble,” He said and turned his head to face Ariella. “Don’t you?”