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Part One / Chapter Four
The four long house tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless, black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the windows.
Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes.
Luna drifted away from them at the Ravenclaw table. The moment they reached Gryffindor's, Ginny was hailed by some fellow fourth years and left to sit with them; Constance and Venus found seats together about halfway down the table between Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown. They'd arrived earlier than the trio who'd stood outside, and started discussing something they couldn't with Venus, Constance, Luna, Ginny or Neville present. Parvarti Patil and Lavender Brown spoke in hushed voice next to Constance.
"I heard he was nearly expelled, using a curse outside of school, Lavender!"
"Honestly! How could Potter be that stupid!"
Venus' head turned toward them, both unbeknownst to the glaring coming from their housemate. She was angry, Constance could tell by the way her hands were shaking on the table. Venus felt her face her face get hot. Her fists clenching so hard into her palms that her nails cut into her skin.
"I don't remember you being so vile, Lavender." She snarled, Lavender squealed at the boost in Venus' voice, the students surrounding them stopped their own conversations. "Keep that up, and I'll give you enough detentions to last 17 lifetimes."
Lavender and Parvarti went silent; Venus rolled her eyes in disbelief. Gryffindor's were supposed to be loyal and kind-hearted. They were gossiping so ill-mannered behind Harry's back, it's like they were going against the values of their own house.. The thought reoccurred to her that she'd just threatened Lavender with lifetime detentions, feeling rather hypocritical at the moment.
Just then, Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the Great Hall. They settled on the other side of Lavender and Parvarti, the two giving Harry airy, overly friendly greetings. Venus figured they were making attempts at staying on her good side. And they were doing a terrible job at doing so. Theodore Nott brushed by the Gryffindor table, Constance stared up at him starry-eyed.
"Who is that?" Constance said.
She appeared to have disregarded Venus' rebuttal with Lavender and Parvarti to stare at her latest boy crush. Now her eyes fixed at the table where the Professors congregated. She pointed her opened lipstick as she was in the middle of applying it.
Venus' eyes followed hers. They lit first upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the center of the long staff table, wearing deep-purple robes scattered with silvery stars and a matching hat. Dumbledore's head was inclined toward the woman sitting next to him, who was talking into his ear. She looked, Venus thought, like somebody's aunt, that everyone found irritable: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet and her toad-like face made its first appearance.
