CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-three

  Aurora entered the train and tried to find her friends. She kept walking through the crowds of students until she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw her cousin.

"Cissy! Oh merlin, i've missed you!" Aurora exclaimed, as she gave her cousin a hug.

"Woah, are you sure you're not trying to suffocate me?" Narcissa said, but her voice was muffled as she was still trapped in Aurora's hug.

They both pulled away and laughed. She
had only seen her a few times in the beginning of the summer, and that was during their family gatherings.

"Anyways, how's your summer been?" Narcissa asked, but she was careful not to mention Sirius. Everyone in the Black family knew what had happened with him over the summer and how he was now disowned.

"The same old stuff. Mostly staying at home. Oh! But I did get a few new books!" Aurora replied, as they walked.

"Books? Really? I swear you're always so wrapped up in a book. You need to live a little." Narcissa said, while nudging Aurora's shoulder.

"Whatever." Aurora scoffed.

They both kept walking until they found a compartment with the Rosier siblings, and Regulus.

"RORY!" Veronica screamed as she pulled her friend in for a hug.

"Ronnie! Ugh I missed you. Why didn't you reply to any of my letters?" Aurora was now squished into a hug by her best friend, and she hadn't seen her since the last day of school. Almost every year, the Rosiers would go to visit their family in France, so Aurora and Veronica tried to write to each other whenever they could.

"Oh, sorry, I may have sort of, gotten grounded and mother wouldn't allow me to write to my friends." Veronica told her with a small frown.

"We thought you died or something. " Aurora gestured to herself and Narcissa.

"Well how have you been, Cissy?" Veronica asked.

"My summer was 'okay' I guess. I had some family come over, but nothing really fun or interesting happened." Narcissa replied.

"Oh is that so? Are you sure nothing happened, nothing to do with a certain Malfoy?" Aurora said, smirking.

"Oh shut it will, you?" Narcissa playfully smacked her friend's arm , trying to hide the blush that rose to her cheeks, while smacking her cousin's arm.

"You know, I exist too, right?" Evan chimed into the conversation.

"And me." This time Regulus spoke up.

"Right, I almost forgot that I had a whole other cousin." Narcissa said, sarcasm evident in her voice.

"And I almost forgot that my best friend has a brother." Aurora added, playing along. "But anyways, how have you been, Evan?"

"Ooh guys! He's found himself a girlfriend!" Veronica interjected.

"What?! I have not!" Evan quickly shut down his sisters little 'rumor'.

"Oh yeah? So why were you writing and sending so much letters this summer?" Veronica raised an eyebrow.

"Well in case you forgot, I have friends too." Evan retorted.

"I don't know mate, we haven't really written to each other that much this summer." Regulus spoke up, causing Evan to send him a glare that clearly said 'are you serious right now'. And that made Regulus rethink what he said. "W-What I actually meant was; Evan and I didn't write to each other that much in the beginning, but then we wrote a lot—well not like that but—I— you know what? Let's just drop it?"

The rest of the train ride was filled with laughter and jokes. But, Aurora mostly read, unlike the others, who were being obnoxiously loud.

They soon reached Hogwarts and the castle became more visible.
The train then stopped and they all got off and rode in the carriages, which seemed to be pulled by invisible horses, all the way to the castle.

When they were in the great hall, Dumbledore gave his speech and the first years were sorted. A few kids got sorted into Slytherin, but no one seemed to cheer or clap for them besides the Slytherin table. Slytherins weren't the most favorite out of all the houses. They were deemed as cold and rude. While, in reality, they were all just misjudged. So, that's why the Slytherin table always made sure the first year Slytherins felt welcome.

That being said, it still didn't mean that all those rumors about the Slytherin house were not true. In fact, most of them were quite true. A lot of the families in the house had dark reputations, such as the Black family. And after a few years, most of the kids eventually did turn out to be just like their parents. And so, they fit into the stereotypes perfectly well.

As Aurora proceeded to eat, she couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes staring at her. She searched to see who the eyes belonged to, until she saw them sitting in the Gryffindor table.

It was her. The girl that she bumped into.

She was sitting next to two girls. One was a red-head that seemed to have an annoyed expression on her face. And the other was a girl with short, dark brown hair.

But the girl noticed that she had been staring at Aurora for a bit too long, and she quickly looked elsewhere. Does she have a staring problem or something? Aurora thought to herself. But then she decided to ignore her and continue eating her food.