Chapter Five: Hufflesuck

How the shock of five people could fill a room so fast was beyond me.
As I walked to the clapping Slytherin table, jaw still dropped, I noticed my brother laughing...laughing so hard in fact, that he fell onto the ground. I turned to look at the Hufflepuff table and saw Ernie looking at me as if I had just slapped his mother.
I took a seat in between Addeline and Pansy, Malfoy and his companions in front of us.

"Well...uh...it's better than Gryffindor Taylor..If you want to be a real shame to your family, join Gyffindor.." Addeline said with a pitiful smile.

"Actually, I think it's fantastic, you have far too much potential to be in HUFFLEPUFF anyway." spoke Draco.

I couldn't speak.

After a few more people were sorted, the feast began.

What was I going to tell my parents? Should I lie to save them the humiliation?

I looked over a few rows and saw Nathan..still laughing. When we made eye contact he motioned his hands as if he was writing a letter home to mom and dad. I felt my stomach drop.

Maybe this was some kind of big joke. Maybe Dumbledore had a sense of humor. Yeah, I thought, maybe this is some kind of silly tradition where they place a first year in a house they CLEARLY don't belong in and just switch them out after they freak out. Yeah..that...that seemed pretty plausible.

Wrong-o.

After the feast, the prefects led us to our new dormitories. Slytherin House roomed in the dungeon. Why, when you have an entire castle...would you choose and put a dormitory in a cold, dark, nasty dungeon? My rooming situation really wasn't my biggest of concerns.

The room I ended up in was with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and the one guy who's seat I took on the train [who didn't end up coming]. I didn't do much talking that night compared to the other three. I just laid there...more or less in shock..

"Oh calm down Taylor...it's really not that big of a deal. Imagine... You're going to be so popular in a few years...my father.........CRABBE?! Did you gas?!!" shrieked Draco

"Sawrry Draco, I ae tew mach roasted behf et deenuh.." replied Crabbe

"That is....revolting.....aim that towards Goyle next time..really.. Anyway Taylor, what I was saying, I KNOW everyone is going to love ME as soon as the word gets around who my father is, and since I am going to give you the glory of being my mate, everyone will be bound to love you. Nothing makes a man more happy than popularity..so...you're welcome in a way."

Draco kept going on and on and on, but I managed to drown his voice out and fall asleep..

I didn't dream of anything that night. You know when you fall into deep REM sleep.. The type where you only see pitch black, the back of your eyes, when you finally wake up you've felt like you've been knocked out for a year.

I woke up, and everyone had already in the dorm had already went down to breakfast.

I yawned, sat up, and stared at the dungeon wall. It must be a lot easier for the other houses to wake up, seeing they actually have windows and sunlight streaming through their windows every morning.

After a minute, I hopped out of my bed, dragged my feet towards the end of my mattress, grabbed my robes out of my trunk, got dressed, and headed out.

As I walked down from the dorm room, to the Slytherin Common Room, I recognized a rushed looking silhouette, they seemed as if they were running late. They were freaking out so much that they tripped on the area rug and nearly fell into smoldering fireplace.

It was Addeline.

"What...are you okay...? You wanna head down to breakfast with...?" I tried, but before I could finish she spoke.

"We're late! Breakfast stopped serving forty-five minutes ago!! We're late to our first class! Do you have any idea how to get to Potions!?!" she spewed.

"Um..no...I have no idea where anything is in this castle.." I yawned.

"Oh god....Professor Snape teaches Potions!" she screamed, "He's going to take off points from Slytherin House! We'll be disgraces!!" she dragged on.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

"Yeah..yeah..alright, let's go I guess, we'll find a prefect and figure out where it is." I replied.

For some reason I just didn't care, I could not feel a single thing. I've never experienced this at all before. A thought though that swam in my mind...Why should I let a piece of enchanted fabric determine how I view the rest of my wizarding career?

I've decided. Screw Hufflepuff and screw the Sorting Hat.

I might as well do Hogwarts MY way.

Chapter 6>>

Chapter Four: Hellwarts School of Witchcraft and Misery

I had accidentally fallen asleep on the train ride and was starving when I woke up. I should have finished breakfast..I apparently wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Goyle kept complaining about being hungry and wanting to buy thirty bags of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. Addeline stopped the lady with the sweets cart in the isle, but then quickly noticed that it was empty.

“Sorry dear, some 1st year bought the entire trolley. You’ll just have to wait until we get to the castle.”

Draco was very upset. He didn’t want to have to spend another hour and a half listening to Goyle complain about hunger pains. Enraged he asked the trolley woman,

“WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY AFFORDED THE ENTIRE LOT?!”

“Now Mr. Malfoy, don’t raise your voice at me. You won’t want to have to spend your first night in detention would you? It was some young chap with glasses and his red head friend.”

I died on the inside. Why, of all the people on this train, would it have to be him?!

“POTTER!” I said under my breath.

“What was that Tanner?” asked Goyle.

“It’s Taylor…Harry Potter, he’s the one that bought it..”

The cart lady got tired of our bickering and walked off. Everyone looked at me in complete shock. Whispers of "Potter" swarmed around the room. I waited for someone to say something.

After a minute Draco said, "Harry Potter....are you sure?"

I nodded.

Pansy turned towards me and whispered, "The Boy Who Lived? The one who defeated You-Know-Who?"

"I've heard the stories about him, I mean we all have...but I thought he had already finished school, he couldn't be our age could he?", asked Addeline

"I thought 'array Pottuh was a myff." said Crabbe

"No...god Crabbe, are you mental, of course it's not a myth-thhh." replied Draco
"I have to meet him...with such power he's bound to be in Slytherin."

"I don't think you're going to like him Draco...he's such a.." I tried saying but was cut off by the squeal of the brakes from the Hogwarts Express.

We were finally here.

We left the train and went down to the lake to get to Hogwarts in row boats. Draco forgot that he had the toad in his lap, and it had managed to hop away somewhere after we left. Malfoy pushed other 1st years out of the way spouting something about how he was somebody and that they should respect him. Addeline, Pansy and myself got into one boat, and Goyle, Crabbe, and Draco got into the other. Instantly we were sailing towards the magical place that was Hogwarts. As I gazed at all the beautiful lights and the structure of the castle, something large and....AND HAIRY blocked my view!! Who was this beast man, and why is he everywhere!? After my boat docked and the three of us got out, I tried finding Sir Beasty to confront him about his repulsion. Alas, in a crowd of first years, he managed to disappear.
An old woman with a pointed hat waited by the door to the castle. She told us to line up for the Sorting Hat ceremony. Her name was Professor McGonagall, and she told us that this was a Hogwarts Tradition. She explained that all first years had to go through this process. I started getting dizzy. As I started walking up the stairs to Hogwarts, I found Ernie who tried calming me down while going towards the corridors of the Great Hall.

We finally made our way to the corridor. I convinced myself that I would easily get into Hufflepuff. I was nice, I was caring, I was good at heart, why on Earth wouldn't I get in. I kept whispering, "It's in your blood..it's okay.." I had completely zoned out during some song the Sorting Hat sang..I'm sure it wasn't important. As McGonagall pulled out a long parchment, I made eye contact with Addeline and Malfoy who were in front of us. I nudged Ernie, and we moved beside them. Professor McGonagall started listing off people to go under the sorting hat, I hadn't noticed until now that everyone looked nervous. Well except for Draco and Addeline..they knew perfectly well that they'd get into their desired houses.

Draco turned towards Addeline and whispered, "I'm excited you know....now that we're going to be in the same house, we'll be seeing a lot more of each other.."

Addeline blushed.

I tried listening to the Sorting Hat to see if there was some sort of pattern, but Draco's voice kept muffling it out.

"I can't wait to be put into Slytherin. Everyone will respect me EVEN MORE than they do now.."

"Autumn Armstrong....GRYFFINDOR!"

"But really Taylor, have you given any thought into what house you want to be in?"

"Ilza Muller....GRYFFINDOR!"

I hadn't noticed he was talking to me, "Hufflepuff...", I mumbled.

"Sarah Donovan....RAVENCLAW!"

"HUFFLEPUFF?!" he scowled.

"Taylar Kesley.....GRYFFINDOR!"

I tried pretending it wasn't a big deal. "I guess", I shrugged.

"Ernie MacMillan", I patted him on the back before he went to the hat. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

I clapped. He pointed to me and mouthed the words, "You're next!" and winked.

"Ronald Weasley..." Malfoy made a disgusted face. That was Harry's ginger friend..I had hoped he wouldn't get into Hufflepuff. "...GRYFFINDOR!"

"Harry Potter."

The entire room fell silent. The boy who stole my owl walked up and sat in the chair. Everybody in the Hall just stared at him, their jaws dropped. Draco looked positively pleased at the live sight of the kid. He was still determined to befriend the him. I would think for being such a 'legend', his sorting would go by quickly..but no, it was completely opposite. First the kid takes all the candy away from the trolley, and now he's taking his sweet time trying to confuse the hat by saying "NOT SLYTHERIN, NOT SLYTHERIN, NOT SLYTHERIN" postponing the feast. It took an unnecessary 5 minutes for him to get his sorting finished. After he had finally shut up, the hat gave in and put him in Gryffindor...I have no idea if that's a good or bad thing.. noticing the look on Malfoy's face it was horrible.

"Addeline Jones", after about three seconds the hat shouted "SLYTHERIN!"

This was taking forever. I just wanted to get sorted into Hufflepuff, eat, and go to sleep.

"Draco Malfoy.....SLYTHERIN!", obviously...

"Taylor Valentino.",

I walked towards the hat, as I looked around my friends smiled at me. Addeline waved at me and mouthed "Wish ya luck" at the Slytherin table. Ernie let out an awkward yell of support. Malfoy nodded at me, and Nathan motioned that I wasn't welcome at his Hufflepuff table, I figured I just sit with Ernie at HIS anyway. No big deal.

As I sat down in the chair my stomach growled, "Hurry and put me in Huffhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflepuff, I'm STARVING."

As soon as the brim of the Sorting Hat touched my scalp, it shouted the most preposterous thing imaginable.


"SLYTHERIN!!"

Chapter 5>>

Chapter Three: Pureblood Comrades

I hardly got any sleep that night. I was so nervous about the day to come and the whole ruining my family’s legacy problem, that I didn’t really touch my breakfast. Nathan sat down in the wicker chair beside me and stole the rest of my cold sausage links.

“I’m surprised you got in Squib, I thought they only let gifted students into Hogwarts.” he said while chomping on a biscuit.

“Heheheh….” I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.

I put my syrup covered plate in the sink and headed back to my room. I had about an hour left to waste before we left to King’s Cross Station. I wondered who I would sit with on the train, obviously Ernie, but who else? Oh god, I hope he doesn’t sit with Hannah and Cedric...they’re insufferable. The next thing I knew, it was time to go. As the last trunk was thrown in the back of the ‘car’, I said my last goodbyes to my home, and we headed towards the train station.

It took around 30 minutes to get to King’s Cross; it would have taken 10 if my mother actually knew how to work a car. As we arrived I noticed there was a great heap of muggles walking around. Such oblivious creatures these muggles. I’m sure if somebody opened a howler in here, none of them would even notice. After backtracking a little bit, we finally found gate 9 ¾. My mom made me go first through the portal; said it was some sort of (outlandish) family tradition. My dad had to get back to St. Mungo’s, and my mom had to drive him. So I said my last goodbyes to them and took a running start towards the portal.

“Be sure to mail us when you get sorted into Hufflepuff sweety!” yelled my mom.

“Ah…ye…”

Right then, before I could get through the wall, Nathan decided it would be cute to stick his foot in front of mine and trip me. I skidded through the gate into Lee Jordan, a third year boy with dread locks. He looked quite irritated and didn’t bother to help me up. I heard him mumble something about hating 1st years, but then turned away. I quickly got up before Nathan could come through and embarrass me a second time. As I brushed myself off and picked up Oliver, I saw Ernie and Addeline standing with their parents. I walked towards them and was greeted with a warm hug from Mrs. MacMillan and a “How-da-ya-do” from Uncle Drew. The train’s whistle blew indicating that it was time to board the platform. Ernie and Addeline said their last goodbyes to their parents and we went aboard the train.

Nearly all of the seats were taken. We walked past four more cabins until we heard Ernie’s name being yelled.

“Ernie!! Come on mate, come sit with us!”

Cedric Diggory and Hannah Abbott were sitting in the cabin with a few other aspiring Hufflepuffs to our right.

“We saved you the last seat, c’mon!” shouted Hannah.

No consideration these people, they act as though he’s not already with two other friends. He turned towards me and I gave him a ‘go ahead, it’s alright’ smile. He was warmly welcomed by the rest of his friends and Addeline nudged me to keep walking.

“Hey, my friend Pansy said she’d save me a seat, and her other friend Jacob never got on board, so you can sit with us.”

I was quite comforted by this thought. We walked through the isle a little more and I saw that Harry kid sitting with a ginger boy. I stopped to give him a nasty glare, but he didn’t notice. We walked past a few more isles until Addeline saw her friend.

“Addeline! How was your summer?! Ah…and who is your friend?” Pansy asked giving me a judgmental look.

“It was pretty good thanks. Oh this is my new friend Taylor, is it alright if he sits in Jacob’s seat? Why didn’t he come anyway?” Addeline asked her.

“Oh, he found out the day before that his family wasn’t purebloods like us and was too embarrassed to even leave his house...You’re not a mudblood…are you Taylor?” She asked me suspiciously.

“Nope, absolutely not, my family is completely pure.” I said immediately.

I needed friends...

“Well wonderful! Of course he can sit with us!” She replied.

Pansy was pale, with dark brown short hair, had a high pitched voice and wore a Slytherin pendant on the robe she was wearing.

“Who’s sitting there?” Addeline asked pointing at the seats across from us.

“Oh, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.”

They must have all been friends by the way Addeline smiled. As the two girls talked about their summers, I heard a croak. I looked down at my feet and there was a sickly looking toad. Pansy screamed and stood up on her seat. I picked it up and for some dumb reason tried looking for a collar on it. At that moment, a boy with platinum blonde hair came in with two larger boys behind him. He gave me a disgusted look and snarled

“What…is that fowl creature doing in here?” I wondered the same thing and replied,

“I have no idea, it just hopped in here. I think someone lost their pet.”

He laughed and took it from me. I didn’t really care that he snatched it, I’m used to it from Nathan. After a minute of examining it, he realized

“This toad is Longbottom’s…He’s not getting it back, not on my watch.”

Addeline smiled at the blonde boy and said,

“Oh sorry, this is my friend Taylor, Valentino right? Yeah.”

He took a moment to look at me, scanning me with his eyes for imperfections, something that could make him hate me. He couldn’t really find anything; there wasn’t a stain on my robes, not a hair out of place, and no scent of impurity. Finally he smiled and said

“Hello Taylor, I’m Draco Malfoy,” he motioned to his left, “this is Crabbe,” then he motioned to his right, “and this is Goyle. You’re lucky, not many people are able to sit with such magical potential. What house are you planning to ge...?”

I started to panic on the inside, if I say Hufflepuff I’m sure they’ll kick me out of their group...

Suddenly the door to the carriage opened. Malfoy quickly through his duffle bag over the toad in his lap. A frizzy haired awkward girl stuck her head in and asked us,

“Hello. A boy named Neville has lost his toad Trevor. Have any of you seen it?”

She was really snobby for someone who looked as she did. Everyone shook their heads no, so I just went along with it. She rolled her eyes and walked away. The entire carriage filled with laughter.

“Did you see her face Draco?! God I can’t stand her! I’m pretty sure the toad even croaked and she didn’t hear it! The sound must have been muffled by all that hair.”

Pansy was hysterical about her. I didn’t really think she was THAT bad, until the entire cart started talking about her.

“I heard her parents work on muggles TEETH!” “I heard she’s the only witch in her entire family!” “I just want to beat the frizz out of her hair..”

The last comment though was more shocking for me, I didn’t expect Addeline to say that about someone she hardly knew, but then again I didn’t know her very well..yet.

Chapter 4>>

Chapter Two: New Friendship

As Mr. Drew, Mrs. MacMillan, and my mom started talking about stories they read from the Daily Prophet, Addeline came over to talk to us.

“Hey Ernie, and err Ernie’s friend, I’m Addeline, and you are?” my voice cracked from lack of use, but I managed to muster the words,

“Oh, I’m Taylor.. Taylor Valentino.”

“Nice to meet you, hey can you guys come up to the counter with me,” she whispered, “Ollivander kinda creeps me out.”

So Ernie and I walked her up to the counter and after two tries at different wands, she found the perfect one, 12.5" Yew, Dragon Heartstring. After ‘Uncle Drew’ bought Addeline’s wand, we walked outside. Some hairy giant oaf nearly ran us over trying to clear the way for his dorky charity case boy. Everybody kept staring at that kid; he had obnoxiously round glasses, brown messy hair, and a confused look upon his face, as if he never had seen the magical world before. Ha loser. At least I wasn’t THAT guy; poor kid will never accomplish anything. At that moment I heard a bunch of people whisper the name ‘Harry Potter’ with such excitement. I know I’ve heard that name before, but I just could not put my finger on it. I’d feel like a moron if I asked who he was so I just stared and pointed like everyone else.

My mom and Mrs. MacMillan wanted to go to Flourish and Blotts to get our books but the three of us wanted to pick out our new owls. After of what seemed like forever, they let us go off on our own with a bundle of sickles. We made our way through the crowd to Eeylops Owl Emporium where a bunch of, well, owls were sitting in their cages squawking.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’m set for Slytherin, it’s in my blood, well on my father’s side of course Ernie. Everyone knows your mother’s side is purely Hufflepuffs. What about you Taylor?” Addeline said turning towards me.

“Well…” I sighed looking at a snowy barn owl I was thinking of buying.
“All my family has been in Hufflepuff...at least six generations, except for my great aunt..she was sorted into Slytherin.. But my whole family was so ashamed that nobody ever invited her to the holiday reunions again…SO, hopefully that stroke of bad luck won’t grace itself upon me. No offense of course!”

“That’s alright mate, I can tell you’ll be in Hufflepuff just like me, and we can be the best in our house. You’ll see”, reassured Ernie.

I felt like Addeline should have been offended by my rant, but it didn’t seem to faze her.

One of the owls had reached through its cage and had bitten Ernie making his drop his entire sack of gold. Quickly we picked up the fallen coins and dropped them into the leather pouch. As Ernie cursed at the tawny owl, I noticed the snowy barn owl I was going to buy was gone. I was kind of disappointed about the disappearing owl, but eventually I ended up buying a smaller tawny owl that was beside it. Ernie bought a black and white barn owl, and Addeline bought the one that bit Ernie. She thought it was hilarious and kept joking about how she’d make it nip at Ernie in his sleep. While we waited for our parents to meet us, we decided to name our new feathered friends. I named my owl Oliver, Ernie named his Gandalf, and Addeline named hers MooMoo.

After a few minutes, our parents found us and greeted our new pets.

“We picked up your cauldron and other supplies too, that’s why we took a little bit longer than we thought. Are you ready to go home?”

We all shrugged with indifference and walked back towards the entrance of Diagon Alley. That hairy giant from early bumped into me again and I flew into the counter of Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, and do you know what he was holding in his dirty meat claw hands? The owl I was going to buy..

“Oh my gosh Taylor are you okay?!” shrieked my mom.

“Yeah…I’m fine...”

But I wasn’t. I was so mad; such anger has never filled my body. The only thing I could think was, though I didn’t know who Harry Potter or his giant friend was, I knew now, that I didn’t like them..not one bit.

At the Leaky Cauldron, we said our goodbyes to Addeline and her father, and headed back to my house. After tons of begging, and a horrific car drive home, our mothers allowed Ernie to spend the night. We had about one week left of summer until school started, we might as well make the most of it. That night we stayed up until 2AM talking about all of the possibilities, the mysteries, and the adventure that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We kept making up scenarios of him and me leading the Hufflepuff Quidditch team to victory, and being the coolest first years in the history of the school. Eventually though, we passed out on my old bunk bed. The following week went by oddly fast. Monday my dad showed me how to properly mow the lawn with magic (3 more days..), Tuesday I tried studying for a while but got bored and painted a picture of the garden patch (2 more days..), Wednesday I spent the day getting ready for tomorrow, my first day at Hogwarts. I packed all of clothes and supplies thinking that it would make time go by faster, but it didn’t. Now all I could do was sit and wait until Thursday…I had managed to completely erase the thought of Sorting and the pressure to get into Hufflepuff until now. What if I don’t get in?

Chapter 3 >>

Chapter One: The Fear of the Squib

I woke up to a sound of running down the hall, and the site of my maroon comforter shoved off the bed. It’s too humid in July for such thick bedding, but my mom didn’t agree, she still thought I could miraculously catch a cold in the middle of summer. I sat up after a few groggy moments and slipped on my badger head house slippers. My uncle Dan had given them to me for Christmas, but I’m pretty sure it was just regifted. It seemed that my family had an obsession with badgers; everything from our carpet, to our soap dispenser in some way resembled a badger.

“There is nothing wrong with being a proud Hufflepuff!” shouted my mom when I questioned it at the family Thanksgiving luncheon.

I walked down the wooden flight of stairs to the kitchen where I could smell something reminiscent of bacon oil and old pancake mix. I could tell my dad tried cooking today. I saw my mom and dad out the side window jumping up and down holding something in their hand. I grabbed a piece of undercooked bacon and headed out the door to the vegetable patch to stop them before the neighbors started staring. As I headed down there, I could see my mom was nearly in tears, but they were happy tears, and my father looked as though I had won the Quidditch World Cup.

“Umm…what’s the matter?” I asked trying to look at the parchment in my dad’s hand.

“You’ve been accepted son…” tears now stream down my mom’s face.

“accep…”, I started but my dad cut me off

“to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”.

This was my parents’ dream you see, for me to get into Hogwarts, and I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t get in.

The only bit of magic I had ever done was that I made a pumpkin in the vegetable patch grow a few inches. I was starting to think that I was just another Squib in a house full of Purebloods. My brother Nathan would only address me as that actually.

“Hey, Squib pass the toast. What’s up Squib, did you get shorter? You need to just shut the Squib up.”,

I could see this made my parents uncomfortable, as if his taunts would become true. But I had made it, and now the pressure was on to get into Hufflepuff. I haven’t even heard of any other houses, all I knew was that Hufflepuff was the place to be.

“I’m so proud of you Taylor”, my mom said as she rubbed the remaining tears off of her face.

I pointed to the letter, and my mom handed me it. I just skimmed over the introduction and went straight to the supply list. My dad had given me his broom from when he was the Hufflepuff Quidditch Keeper at school, and I wanted to try it out this year. “Aha,” I as I found the list. It read,


Uniform:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One winter cloak (black with silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.
Course Books
A students should have a copy of each of the following:
Hogwarts: A History
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
How Not To Blow Off Your Fingers On The First Day by Julius Gummidge
Unexpurgated Copy of the Brother's Grimm
The Art of Potion Making by S. Snape
Introduction to Plants and Herbology by B. Mullohsa
Thurston Candlewick's Complete and Extremely Useful Field Guide to Dark Creatures
Defensive Spells and Theory by Virgil Vigilante
Hilary Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy
A Changing Subject: Transfiguration Basics by Dawnie Iris

Other Equipment:
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
1 basic potions ingredients kit
1 set of gloves

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad (optional)


PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

“No brooms for first years?! Why not?!” I asked my dad, but he didn’t seem to hear me.

My mom grabbed back the list and said that we needed to go to Diagon Alley.

“It’s just this quaint little shopping strip where we can get all of your school supplies and more!”,

I knew perfectly well what it was, I had to go shopping there when Nathan got accepted three years ago.

“I can’t really remember where the Leaky Cauldron is but I know the general area. How about we go in a few hours? We can just use one of those Muggle ‘cars’ that we keep in our drive way to get there. Let me just finish cleaning up that mess your father made in the kitchen and then we can go.” she gave a faint smile and strode off to the house.

A few seconds later, I went back up to the kitchen where I saw Nathan standing directly in front of the door so I couldn’t get in.

“What’s that smell mom? It’s pungent yet untalented and a hint of disgrace, ah, it’s just the Squib”, he smirked and moved aside so I could walk in.

“I swear it’s like he thinks he’s the Boy Who Lived or something”, I mumbled to myself as I walked back to my room to get dressed.

“Ah, fantastic”, I thought staring at my open closet, my brother had turned my entire wardrobe paisley.

I heard footsteps down the hall and caught my dad just in time before he walked into the bathroom.

“Hey, could you fix this?” I asked apathetically.

My dad walked into my room and looked pleased to my disappointment,

“Oh! He’s so talented your brother, good sense of humor, he’s going to make a great Hufflepuff prefect one day”, said my dad as he flicked his wand and all of my clothes became soft monochromatic shades yet again.

I was at least hoping for some sort of punishment, but no, not today. I pulled on my grey hoodie with the Hollyhead Harpies on it, and some brown wash jeans I had worn yesterday. I let out a great sigh and fell back on my bed staring at the ceiling.

“Argh! It’s too hot in here!” I quickly sat back up and looked in the mirror.

What stared back at me was a pale boy with flippy chocolate brown hair and rather unkempt eyebrows.

“Taylor! Come down here, Ernie’s here!” my mom yelled from the bottom of the stair case.

I got up and ran down the stairs, Ernie Macmillan was and has been my best friend since I can remember and I hadn’t seen him all summer due to the fact he was in Dublin staying with is grandparents. I ran to the kitchen and saw a tall, slender boy, with dirty blonde wavy hair talking to my mom.

“Ernie my man, my man, what are you doing here?” he smiled and said,

“We just got back from Ireland a few hours ago, heard the good news, your mom wrote my mom a letter as soon as she found out,”

I shook my head a little in embarrassment and he laughed.

“Oh don’t feel bad mate, my mom tried putting it in the Daily Prophet that I got in! Since we’re both needing our supplies, our mom’s thought we should go to Diagon Alley together.”

“Are you boys ready to head out? I just have to find those keys. Accio Keys”,

and like magic I don’t think I could ever conjure, the keys flew out of the farthest cupboard above the fridge and fell into my mom’s hand.

“Is dad coming? He said he’d take me to look at the sweets store down from Ollivander’s.” I asked.

“No dear, he was called into work, some problem with Ms. Longbottom not taking enough medicine”, replied my mom.

My dad worked at St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as a Healer and often had to go help patients after hours and on weekends. I was used to it. We headed out the door through the kitchen, around the garden, and up to the cobalt blue 1998 Honda Accord my dad received as a gift from a Ministry worker he had cured. We got inside the car, and it reeked of leather. It had only been driven once, and that was from its previous owner. With another flick of the wrist, a murmured incantation, and a vroom from the engine, the car started backing up by itself. After about thirty minutes of catching up with Ernie, and echoed shouts from passing drivers, we pulled into the Leaky Cauldron. We walked around to the entrance of the Cauldron, and we walked inside. I don’t believe that I have had to go to the bathroom that bad in a long time. I had held it all the way there and now I couldn’t wait any longer. I ran into the stingy two stall bathroom and did my business. When I went to wash my hands, there was a feeble looking man in his thirties trying to fix his turban around his head, I could have sworn that I saw what looked like a shriveled fetus’s face on the back of his head, but I’m sure it was just my imagination. I rubbed my eyes, and headed back out to the misty lounge.

There I found my mom chatting away with the bartender, which I know my dad wouldn’t like at all. So I tugged on her indigo sleeve and she said her goodbyes. We walked through the pub and into a small room. It was as I remembered, nothing but plain brick walls surrounding us. My mom walked up to the wall we were facing, pulled out her wand, and tapped a few of the rustic bricks. The wall magically opened up, and there faced Diagon Alley. As I walked through, I could hear gasps of what sounded like “Hairy Bladder!?” and “It’s the toy who fibbed”, I guess someone just drank too much Fire Whiskey. Ernie tugged my sleeve and I proceeded into the warm light that was Diagon Alley. It was crowded, but that was to be expected. At least mum had her gold with her so we wouldn’t have to go to Gringotts. She didn’t believe in keeping one’s money so far away. The first shop we came to was Ollivander’s. This was apparently the best place to buy your wand in all of Britain. As we walked inside, an old man with glasses who I assumed was Mr. Ollivander greeted us.

“Ah yes, hello, 1st year I’m assuming? Be needing a wand? Come on up here, I’ll see what I can do.”

He pulled out a brown box from the top shelf and brought it down to me.

“…..12.5” Holly with Veela Hair, the only one in the shop. This feels about right for you young man.”

I picked up the wand, after a few seconds there was a luminous glow coming out of the tip. “Ah yes, that’s the one”, said Mr. Ollivander. After Ernie got his wand (11" Ash, Hippogriff Talon) we headed toward the door when a girl with what looked like her dad came in. She was obviously a first year like us. She had big blue eyes and wavy ash blonde hair all the way down to her stomach. Mrs. MacMillan ran to the girl’s father and hugged him. Noticing the confused look on my face, Ernie nudged me and whispered,

“That’s my cousin Addeline, and my uncle Drew.”


Drawing (at the top) by: Abbey Thacker.

Chapter 2>>