It's Nice To Have A Friend

1 - We've Just Begun

Mallory Schmidt walked into Hogwarts. It would be her first year at the foreign boarding school. Not only was she halfway across the world from her family but she was also being thrown into a wizarding school for the first time. She would be behind in every class by four years.

Students buzzed around her in excitement. She followed the flow of students into a large room. There were four long tables, each decorated in a different color: red, blue, yellow, and green. She had no idea where she was supposed to go and the students around her weren't helping as they evenly split between the tables. They shoved her slightly as they passed. She was sure they didn't mean to but it would've been nice if they had offered her help.

"Hello," a girl said, walking up to Mallory with a boy behind her. They both had incredibly fake smiles plastered across their faces. "Are you Mallory Schmidt?" Her British accent startled Mallory who wasn't used to the strange accent.

Mallory nodded slowly. "Yeah," she quietly replied to the girl who seemed to be towering over her. She seemed to be staring into Mallory's soul, searching for dark secrets, with her black beady eyes. Her blonde hair fell perfectly over her shoulders. Mallory uncomfortably crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're new here, right?" the boy asked. Like the girl, he also had blonde hair and seemed to be judging Mallory as he stared down at her. He wore glasses and had bright blue eyes.

Mallory turned her attention to him at the sound of his accent. She had to remind herself that everyone in the school would have an accent. They weren't strange, she was. She slowly nodded again.

"We're the head girl and boy here at Hogwarts," the girl said. "I'm Lydia Hopkins and he's Andrew Smith." 

Mallory nodded although she had no idea what Lydia Hopkins had said. Not only was it hard for Mallory to understand her because of her accent, but she was sure that Lydia had made up words to throw Mallory off.

"Here at Hogwarts, there are four houses that students are separated into, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin," Andrew Smith explained to Mallory.

Like Lydia, Mallory had no idea what he was trying to say.

"You will be spending a lot of time with your housemates, so it's best that you get along," Lydia Hopkins added.

"You're a fifth-year, correct?" Andrew Smith asked.

They spoke so fast that it took Mallory a while to realize he had asked her a question. "I think so," Mallory quietly replied.

Andrew Smith laughed. "Hopefully she doesn't get Gryffindor," he remarked to Lydia Hopkins.

Lydia Hopkins let out another laugh before she looked back at Mallory. Her gaze flickered across Mallory with a smirk. "Look at her, Drew. Do you really think she would be in Gryffindor?"

Although Mallory had no idea what Gryffindor was and what that meant, she knew she would get into Gryffindor to prove the girl and boy in front of her wrong. "Where should I go?" Mallory asked them, bringing the two teenagers out of their laughing fit.

"Follow me," Lydia Hopkins stated. "McGonagall will call you up for the sorting soon enough."

Mallory followed Lydia to the green table. Her gaze fell further down the table where a group of boys sat. One of which was the boy she had met on the train. With relief, she escaped Lydia's judgments and walked toward the only familiar face around her.

He looked rather bored as his friends talked excitedly beside him. And when he felt someone sit beside him, he jumped slightly and turned to face Mallory with a scowl. It quickly disappeared as he saw her. "Oh. Hi," Regulus softly said.