Book Smarts [D.M.]

First Day Dilemmas

I ended up staying later than I'd expected, only going to sleep at two in the morning. Because while I had helped the twins with their prank, I couldn't help but be inspired to make my own. It was ridiculous, admittedly, I wasn't even positive it would work. I'd seen spells in some of the advanced spellbooks, they seemed like they'd fit, so I'd set them up around the school. Perhaps the most brilliant part would be that - if it worked properly - I wouldn't even get blamed for the whole thing.

See, while they would be walking in after their original prank had occurred, it would set mine off. Paint would splatter upon everyone in the great hall, including me, and just narrowly missing them. It was amateur, and perhaps their mischief was rubbing off on me, but I still couldn't help but feel a bit of a thrill at the prospect of having a successful prank. My mind whirred as I layed in the red bed, no one else was up, and I wouldn't want to disrupt them by getting up myself.

After laying awake for another hour, the sun finally beamed into the room, it's rays casting a golden glow onto the walls. Hermione was the first to get up, Lavender getting up right after her, and as they began to get ready, I decided to get out of bed as well. We made small talk, Hermione, Lavender, and I. Each of us brushing out our tangled hair, messy from a night's sleep. Finally, once we were all ready, we walked down to the Great Hall together. Just as they'd planned, only minutes after we'd arrived the twin's prank was set into motion.

Everyone was covered in Troll Snot, including the teachers, who had to vanish the horrid substance off of us one by one. I hadn't expected it to reek as much as it did, though thankfully the smell didn't stick after the snot was off of us. Maybe I should have made the paint nicely scented, I thought, my brows furrowed. A hand tapped my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts and causing me to look to my left. There sat a smiling Harry, who looked relieved to see me.

"Fay," he began, a smile on his delighted features. Excitement still shone in his eyes, and I couldn't help but smile too. When he was happy, it was almost contagious. "I didn't know you were going to Hogwarts too."

My smile grew at his answer, crimson creeping up my neck, because while I had been blaming him for not telling me, I had ended up doing the same thing. I opened my mouth to apologize, the words at the tip of my tongue, though before I could speak Hermione butted in.

"Professor McGonagall said we couldn't tell muggles, or muggles that weren't our direct family anyway," her tone was intelligent and direct, something I admired about her. Because while this was someone new, a celebrity in the wizarding world, she was bold enough to interject a fact about a certain conversation. I could see the adoration in her eyes, looking over at Harry who was considered a hero - I wasn't daft, I'd read thousands of books on the wizarding world in preparation before attending Hogwarts. With that she slid away though, falling into deep conversation with Lavender, leaving Harry and I to talk again.

"So," I began. The silence slightly awkward, though I didn't know what to say to break it. "How're the Dursleys?"

Harry rolled his eyes, before shooting off into a long elaborate tale of how the rest of his summer had been. They had traveled around, letter following them for the entire summer, ending up on a deserted rock where the giant from the boats - Hagrid as Harry called him - came to get him his Hogwarts supplies. I was, admittedly, slightly envious, all I'd done over the summer was relapse into my episodes. Not that I would tell him that, Harry didn't know about my episodes, I didn't want him to worry about me too much. Or treat me differently. Hermione only found out because she had to search through my satchel once during one of them, but she'd not treated me any differently. Of that I was glad.

"You got an owl?" came my shocked and slightly envious voice, having never ended up getting a pet myself. He nodded, beaming over at me as he began explaining what the owl - Hedwig - looked and acted like. It was brilliant, and I was glad to have gotten conversation with him. We'd not spoken much since arriving, and it was good to be able to catch up. We'd gotten so wrapped up in conversation, that I hadn't even noticed Fred and George entering the Great Hall. Or not until paint had splattered all over Harry and I anyway. Commotion stirred about as people wiped paint out of their hair. And though random paint would have been brilliant, the colors I'd done were even more so. In my opinion anyway.