“I expect that you all will give Miss White the utmost respect as she is a very new student here and if I am under even the slightest of impressions that there are jokes being played I will sort it out and the punishments will be severe,” Professor McGonagall warned.
She led Addalynn over to the table where the red-headed girl was stationed. She rose from her seat and looked up expectantly at the towering professor. She was a pretty thing with long, thick, and wavy hair of the most fiery and deepest of reds. Her almond shaped eyes sparkled with emeralds against her fair skin; though Addalynn's face was far paler.
“Miss White, I would like to introduce you to Miss Lily Evans; she will be your official escort for the next few days until you get your bearings. Oh, and, Lily, dear, there’s a late-notice Prefect meeting tonight immediately after dinner. Everyone should meet in front of the Headmaster’s office; the password is ‘strawberry ice cream’.” McGonagall turned her rectangular glasses to Addalynn with great admiration accompanied by a healthy dose of dread. She nodded a final goodbye as if they would never see each other again.
Lily placed her parchment into a leather messenger bag and tossed it to the foot of the girl’s dormitory staircase. The petite girl stood up and gave a warm smile to Addalynn, who shyly smiled back.
Suddenly a foreign feeling crept into Addalynn’s stomach and spread through her inner core. It was the strangest feeling she’d ever experienced. It seemed to crawl up her throat and into her mouth causing her to stutter and fall short of breath. Then it spread to her heart, sending her into a state of panic as its steady rhythm quickened its pace. It took her a moment to identify the feeling because she had never experienced it before now. She thought back to all the books she had read and found the word she was looking for; she was nervous.
Determined to conquer her nervousness she instinctively took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out as unnoticeably as she could through her mouth. She was able to retain her normal character for the most part, masking her underlying emotions.
“Well, what do you want to do first Addalynn? I could give you a tour of the school…really it’s up to you. Do you know much about Hogwarts?” asked Lily. She was just standing there as kind as person could ever be; a smile still plastered to her face, but it didn’t seem abnormally stuck there, it appeared to have come rather naturally.
Remembering how Professor McGonagall didn’t hint that Addalynn already knew her way around Hogwarts like she knew the back of her own hand, she took up on a quick tour of the school. Obviously the Headmaster knew she would pick up the hints and don a façade of false innocence. She couldn't reveal that she had been privately schooled at Hogwarts for years; instead she would have to act as if she had never even been to a magical school.
“Oh! Before we do that, let me introduce you to your fellow sixth year girls,” Lily said while grabbing Addalynn’s hand and leading her up the spiraling staircase.
They walked down a narrow hallway until they reached a door with a shiny gold number '6' nailed on it. The two had just walked in on five other teenage girls who were already getting ready for the long day ahead. They were chattering merrily without a care in the world. Addalynn heard bits and pieces of ‘summer love’ and ‘old boyfriends’ floating around as she was led deeper into the wilderness of 'girl talk', which of course Addalynn never had the chance to partake in.
“Hey everyone listen up!” Lily shouted. “I would like to introduce to you all our new friend this year; Addalynn White.”
It was like a stampede except there was no running involved. Instead of the other five teenage girls running at Addalynn, it was their questions. The volume was immediately turned up with every given breath and Addalynn was feeling quite overwhelmed that she had to resort to covering her fragile ears with her abnormally long, elegant hands.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You nosy little gossipists!” screamed Lily to get the lioness’s attention.
“Uh, Lily, hun; ‘gossipists’, isn’t a word,” smarted one girl that was sitting to Lily’s left looking quite comfortable as she was pulling on her socks. Lily looked at her from the corner of her eye with the slightest hint of annoyance.
“Well it’s a word now,” taking a deep breath she continued now that she’d regained her composure and introduced everyone.
The girl that had mouthed off to Lily, was actually Lily’s best friend and turned out to be very nice. It just so happened that her boyfriend of two years broke up with her the night before at the feast. In a way she looked very studious, but very fun; kind of one of those sporty/feminine girls. Addalynn suspected she was Italian, noting her dark complexion and thick copper hair and her light blue eyes gave her a very exotic appearance. Her name was Rebecca, but everyone else in Gryffindor had taken to calling her Ruby.
There were two girls sitting in the far corner with their heads together exchanging the newly developed gossip, as of last night. Alice was the petite girl with shortcut strawberry blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes and the other, Meisha, was African. Her parents moved to England to help out the Ministry, as her father is an Auror, when Lord Voldemort started brewing up trouble. She was one of the prettiest girls in the group actually; shiny black hair, soft dark skin, and gorgeous dark eyes.
The fourth girl, with her nose pressed deep into a book, was sitting on her bed already dressed. She had smooth, reddish-brown hair hanging loosely down to her shoulders, and blue-green eyes that were intensely focused on the fantasy unwinding in front of her. Her name was Elizabeth; the girl that was quiet at first, but would warm up when the atmosphere relaxed.
Then the last girl who sat in the midst of everything, brushing her soft hair, seemed to be off in dream land. Her name was Nicole: or Nicky for short. There was only one thing that everyone knows about her; she was orphaned at a young age when Dumbledore found her and humbly accepted her to Hogwarts. Since then he’s found her a good home to live in. She had straight, dark chocolate brown hair and bright brown eyes. She seemed an intensely focused individual.
“Ooh, I’ve got a fabulous idea!” sported Ruby with a mischievous glint haunting her angelic eyes. She stood up with her attention-commanding posture and circled around everyone like a vulture eyeing its prey, making sure that the girls were all hers to manipulate. The first day back at school was prime time for those of gossiping lips and prying ears; summertime romances were either true or false, still on or broken up, or just dreamland fantasies waiting to happen during the school year.
“How about we play the ten questions game? I’ll ask all of you ten questions and you all must answer with the truth or it’s up to me to condemn you to a dare card that is at my disposal throughout the rest of the year,” Ruby suggested. This perked everyone’s to full attention except for Lily and Elizabeth; the most sensible in the group. “Now, who wants to ask ten questions first?”
The game went on for some time before Addalynn came up with an excuse to retreat back to the common room (she had dodged as many questions she could handle). She shook her head as she gracefully fled down the stairs at the nonsense of gossiping, smiling to herself nonetheless.
She stood at the window and gazed out upon the grounds. She watched as the sun lit the sky, alerting the flowers to their fullest attention as their colorful blooms turned to the welcoming light. The lake began to sparkle as midday approached with the last of summer warmth and the water rippled under the influence of the cool breeze. God took his paintbrush and filled the skies with streaks of crimson and gold with the occasional lavender cloud.
Addalynn took in a deep, calming breath as she gazed upon the peaceful painting. She could feel that fall would bring crisp breezes and the leaves would float from their home, leaving a rainbow upon the ground. The days would be cut shorter and the moon would see more of her as the winter neared, for the nights would be longer. But for now, it was still summer and the warmth of the sunny skies were still reluctant to say goodbye.
Wondering where everyone else had run off to, she decided to go exploring. Through the portrait hole and down a long corridor there was still no one in sight. She walked down the staircases and spiraled downward to the first floor. For the second time in a week she wandered outside.
She walked aimlessly across the grounds with no intention of going anywhere in particular. The wind picked up her hair most gracefully behind her as she descended down to the lake. She glided gracefully to the lake’s edge, close enough to put her foot into its mysterious blue-gray depths. Her long red robes billowed around similar to that of a fairytale princess; all that was missing was a crown and a prince.
It wasn’t until a young man about her age walked up to her, did she notice that she wasn’t alone. She was startled by his sudden appearance to her side, causing her to start backwards.
“I’m terribly sorry; I didn’t mean to frighten you…”he started, his face pure of apology.
“Oh, no it’s alright…I…um…. I just didn’t realize there was anyone else out here,” she said quickly. She nervously looked down at her feet and fiddled with her hair behind her back.
“So, I’m assuming that you’re the new student that Dumbledore was talking about last night?” he asked politely. She looked up at him quickly and gave a shaky nod and looked back down at the pebbles imbedded in the sand. “Well it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Remus Lupin,” he finished with an outstretched hand.
“Addalynn Rose White, it’s nice to meet you too,” she said, cautiously shaking his outstretched hand. She bit her lip for a moment, and then her jaw clenched into place.
He was a few inches taller than her and was very thin (almost ill-looking), but appeared very strong. He had shaggy sandy-brown hair that kept falling into his captivating eyes. They were curiously dark brown at the rim of the irises and farther in towards the pupils they began to glow a fiery gold. He smiled kindly at her as if giving her a sign of encouragement. His face was very good-natured and well-meaning; so much that it reminded her of her father.
“So, Addalynn...did you just arrive this morning?” he asked earnestly in an attempt to break the ice of the silence.
“Oh no, I, uh…I’ve been here awhile…”she stuttered.
She still couldn’t quench the feeling of her heart making its way every so slowly up to her throat. He was just standing there, smiling, and appeared to be very calm.
“Well, for how long? Surely no more than a few days…” he ventured.
He was slowly trying to lure her out of her little shell that she had spent so much time in and was completely unaware of it. They stood there for some time, neither of them sure of what to do or say next.
“Who have you met so far?” he asked.
“Only the other sixth year girls,” she said softly. Quite shy and well aware that it was only the two of them standing by the lake, her voice didn’t thunder from her lips as she thought it would. Addalynn had thought that she would be quite normal around other people her age, once she had gotten over the initial shock.
But really, what was normal for her? She had not been in contact with many people for the past few years of her life except for her private tutors inside the Hogwarts walls.
“Only the sixth year girls….my, my…we’ll have to fix that now won’t we?” he said playfully. He smiled brightly at her which received an almost unnoticeable curve in the right corner of her lips as she looked down, blushing.
He held out his hand like a gentleman, gesturing her to lead the way back to the castle, and he followed on her left side. They engaged in light conversation as they took their time making their way back up to the castle.
The wind let out a sigh that ruffled Remus’ hair, causing more of it to fall into his strange eyes. She smiled at him, and with a maternal instinct, she reached out her hand and brushed the stray locks of sandy hair out of his face.
He did not seem too perturbed by this gesture. His face was as calm as ever and his lips turned upward as a sign of gratitude. She once again blushed and continued to watch her feet as the two of them walked to the castle.
Finally stepping through the massive oak doors that shut out all who did not belong, Remus turned to her and kindly asked if she would mind taking a tour of the school.
“Of course, that would be great,” she said. The more time she spent with one person, the closer they would become. Maybe this was the startling beginning to a lasting friendship. But only time can tell how long and how well friends are together.
Remus and Addalynn walked beside each other quite comfortably as the day went on. Their conversation slowly eased from that of two strangers, to one of two best friends. Knowing what to say next, Addalynn didn’t stutter or hesitate as much as she did a few hours ago. She slowly started to elaborate more on her answers rather than only letting out a few simple words.
“Oh my, it’s almost time for lunch! We’d better get back to the common room and see if my friends are even up yet…would you like to eat lunch with us Addie? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. ‘The more the merrier’ is one of their favorite things to say after all,” Remus said.
“Addie?” she asked, cocking her head to the side in inquisition.
“Oh, I’m sorry; I don’t know what I was thinking. My friends and I sort of share nicknames…it comes naturally now, I guess,” he explained. The rose color of embarrassment crept into his cheeks as his hand rubbed the back of his neck.
“It’s all right Remus, I like it. Thank you,” Addie smiled.
He seemed quite relieved as they continued to walk down the stone corridors until they eventually arrived at the infamous moving staircases. They started to ascend on one of them and so far everything was going smoothly, until they were up about halfway.
The stairs jolted to one side to link to another causing both the bewildered students to grab hold of the elaborate railing. Remus turned around to see if Addalynn was okay. Her bangs were laying in a very unkempt manner across her forehead, covering her right eye. She was frozen stiff in a hunched over position and her hands were glued to the railing. Remus almost laughed out loud before he remembered that she probably wasn’t used to moving staircases.
“Are you all right Addie?” he asked concernedly as he moved towards her.
He gently helped her hands release the railing and stood her back up. She brushed her bangs back from her eyes and they fell properly back into place. Taking in a deep breath, she looked at Remus as if searching for an explanation.
“I probably should’ve told you that these move around sometimes…” he said.