ISABELLA TOPIN and the ANIMAGUS ASSOCIATION

Chapter Seven - First Day

Later in the morning, at the great hall, Isabella walked in with Maleki and ran into Tatum.

"morning!" They all shouted at once.

"How is the Ravenclaw common room?" Tatum asked.

"Awesome, so many books! And what about Gryffindor? " Isabella recoiled.

"You know, it's pretty chill, everyone's super cool." Tatum said, crossing her arms.

"Hey, hat stall."

"Morning hat stall."

"Watch it, hat stall."

"Ah!"

The boy from before, the Hufflepuff, Phoenix, was constantly pushed and shoved by other first years from Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor.
Isabella didn't know much about him, and to be quite honest, was a bit scared of him.

The boy collected his books and got back up.
He sat down, crossed his arms, and put his face in his arms.

Isabella was so worried she'd have to interact with him.
Maybe he was a mime, or an EVIL WIZARD she thought to herself.
Isabella had no plan on facing an Evil Wizard this year.

She sat down with Maleki and Tatum, and they started to grab some bacon from trays along the tables.

"So my sleep was nice." Tatum said.
Isabella, with a mouth full of bacon, replied.

"Same, Maleki woke me up early to watch the sunrise." Isabella explained.
Maleki nodded.

The two girls chuckled and laughed, Isabella looked on past them, to the hufflepuff boy, his shoulders whimpering, his face still buried in his arms, covered in his robes.

"Wait, Tatum, slow down!" Isabella shouted, running up the grand staircase, following behind Tatum, holding a map of Hogwarts.

Tatum looked up and pointed at a doorway.

"There!"

Tatum sped up and started to walk towards a grand arch at the top of the stairwell.
Isabella rushes up the stairs as quickly as she can to catch up with Tatum, who was speed walking up the staircase to the east tower.
Tatum took another bite of toast, oblivious to Isabella's panting behind her.

"Come on, Issy, down this corridor." Tatum echoedly shouted, still with a mouth full.

The two girls pushed open the doors and stepped off of the moving staircase.

Tatum wandered down the massive stone corridor, waddling along the long red carpet with large flames placed in a patterned row across the walls, looking at the map with Isabella trying to look over her shoulder at the map.

"Here!" Tatum gasped, stopping suddenly.

Isabella turned to see a huge wooden door.

She pushed the door open to see a small classroom with two rows of seating on either side of the room, facing each other.
In the middle of these seats, opposite the door, was a large pile of books.
Students flooded into the seats, on either side of the room, chatting.
Tatum and Isabella walked up and sat next to each other in the lower row of seats.

The large door flung open and a shadow swallowed up the long rug, going from door to pile of books.
The shadow got smaller and smaller.
The door slammed closed.

"Ok, good morning class, and welcome!"

Isabella looked everywhere but couldn't see the teacher.
The tower of books wobbled and shook, Isabella looked closely and saw a hand reach the top of the pile and then another, followed by the rest of a short man in a handsome tuxedo.