The Fools Who Dream

Chapter 7

Whether it was nerves or not, Cynthia was annoyed to find herself awake at half past six the next morning, despite knowing that she didn't need to be awake for another hour, at least. She stared at the top of the bed boredly, her hands behind her head, and sighed heavily, twiddling her toes under the covers.

"Is anyone else awake and really bored?"

She glanced up to see Alice propped up on her elbows in her bed, looking around the dorm, and to her surprise, the other three girls also all began to sit up.

"We should probably unpack, or we'll never get another chance." said Ceri, swinging her legs out of bed, but as soon as she set foot on the stone floor, she quickly jumped up and sat back down on the bed. "The floor is so cold!" she cried.

"It is stone." said Christi pointedly. "Put on some slippers."

"They're in my trunk." said Ceri, groaning.

"We'll probably get used to it." said Alice, standing up on her bed. "Maybe we could use the curtains to swing over to our trunks and not have to touch the floor at all?"

"You do what you want, but I don't know the spell for healing broken bones." said Cynthia, rolling her eyes and getting to her feet. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. The other girls all stared at her in shock as she showed no problem with the cold floor.

"How do you do that?" asked Alice in shock. "How can you bear cold floors?"

"My room at home didn't have a great heating system." said Cynthia, shrugging. "And it had wooden floors. I'm kind of used to cold things. Where are your slippers?"

Once Cynthia had handed out slippers from trunks to each of the girls, she headed over to her own trunk and began unpacking things, and so did the others.

She hated mess. Organisation was a key part of Cynthia's bedroom at home, and everything had its own place, its own shelf, or its own drawer. So, looking at the six shelves she had available in front of her and the belongings she had brought with her in her trunk, she began thinking of how she was going to put all her things in their orders.

The bottom shelf, which was technically the floor, would be left for her trunk, but her shoes would live in the trunk to save space – not that she had many shoes: just a pair of trainers, a pair of slippers and her school shoes. The next shelf up was for her uniform: shirts were neatly folded, ties laid out at the edge, skirts folded and stacked up, and tights rolled up into little bundles next to each other. The third shelf was for her reading books: she hadn't managed to fit in many from home along with all her other things, but she'd managed to bring ten of her favourites that had been weighing her trunk down for all of the previous day. Shelf number four was for her school books, just to keep the books all vaguely together; second to top quickly became reserved for any stationery: quills, ink pots, pencils, charcoal, as well as some envelopes for the very rare chance she would have to write any letters. Lastly, she placed the clothes that weren't for school on the very top shelf: a few leggings, t-shirts and hoodies, as well as a few other warmer things for when winter would finally creep up on them.

Within half an hour, she was completely unpacked, as were the other girls, although they all had much less organised systems than her.

"What lessons do you think we're going to have today?" asked Ceri. "I really hope we have potions."

"I quite like potions." said Verity quietly. "My Dad got a PhD in chemistry, and my mum liked it the most when she was at school."

Cynthia stayed quiet. All she really hoped was that she didn't have to see James at any point in the day. She was almost scared enough to not even bother going to breakfast and claim she wasn't hungry, just to avoid him.

"I'm quite hoping for Transfiguration." said Alice, shrugging. "They say it's the hardest subject in school, but also the most useful."

"We've got an hour until breakfast." said Christi, sitting back down on her bed. "What should we do until then?"

"We could play Two Truths and a Lie." Verity suggested.

"What's that?" asked Alice curiously, kneeling on the end of her bed.

"It's a game that my friends and I used to play at my old school." said Verity, blushing slightly. "Someone says three statements about themselves, two of which are true and one of which is a lie. Everyone else has to guess which one is the lie."

"Sounds tacky. Very muggle." said Ceri, wrinkling her nose up.

"Do you have a better suggestion?" retorted Alice sweetly. "I think it sounds fun. Why don't you go first Verity?"

"Oh – uh – okay." Verity mumbled. She had clearly been quite hurt by Ceri's insult, but she flushed under Alice's kind smile. "I have two brothers, I have a golden retriever, and my grandma packed a large box of sweets and cakes because she didn't trust Hogwarts to feed me properly."

"Well I know which one I want to be true." said Cynthia. "I think the brothers one is the lie."

"What's a golden retriever?" asked Christi curiously, lying down on her front and resting her chin on her hand.

"It's a type of dog." Verity exclaimed, and Cynthia noticed she was being very careful not to reveal any details that could give herself away.

"Oh." said Christi, kicking her legs up and down on the bed. "I agree with Cynthia. You don't have brothers."

"I think it's the dog." said Alice. "I really hope that the sweets one is true."

"I think the sweets one is the lie." said Ceri. "Because otherwise we would have heard about this last night."

"I think we were all too tired for sweets last night." said Cynthia, grinning. "What's the answer?"

"It's the sweets." said Verity, blushing. "Sorry. But one of my brothers did tell me how to get to the kitchens and get anything we want."

"So how old are your brothers then?" asked Alice curiously.

"Oscar is eighteen and Kenneth is twenty one." said Verity. "And I also have an older sister, Joy, and she's twenty six. Okay, it's Ceri's turn."

"I'll go, but only if Christi isn't allowed to answer because she'll know." said Ceri, narrowing her eyes at her twin sister. "And she also has to bury her face in a pillow."

"Why?" protested Christi.

"You giggle."

"I do not!" exclaimed Christi, giggling. Ceri glared at her. "Fine, fine." she said, sighing and placing a pillow over her face.

"Okay." said Ceri, tapping her chin in thought. "We have three house elves... my favourite colour is green... and I love horse riding."

"Can I giggle now?" asked Christi in a slightly muffled voice.

"I think the horse thing is a lie." said Alice. "Don't know why. I just do."

"I'm going for the house elves." said Cynthia.

"Then I'll go for the other one and say your favourite colour is not green." said Verity, shrugging.

"Cynthia is right." said Ceri. "We've actually got seven house elves."

"Not giggling is so hard." said Christi, sighing and flopping onto her back. "Is it Cynthia's turn now?"

A/N

Verity has been cast - Holly Earl! Go check out the cast list if you don't know who that is, she's at the bottom of 'The Snakes'.

Also, just wanted to let you know that I've changed the general timeline for this story a little bit and made Regulus two years younger than Sirius as opposed to one so he's closer to Cynthia's age. Also just makes some things a bit easier.