How the Other Half Lives

"Truth or dare."

"What?"

"You heard me, Hermione. Simple question. Truth or dare."

Hermione Granger frowned across the carriage at her roommate, Lavender Brown. "Isn't that kind of a Muggle game?"

Lavender grinned. "Sure, I suppose. But what else are we supposed to do here, in this carriage? Play tag?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest as the horseless carriage bumped along the path to Hogwarts. "Truth, I suppose."

"Wimp," Lavender chided as she sat back to think of her question. "All right. How far did you get with Viktor Krum?"

Ron Weasley jerked his head up in the corner and glared at Lavender. "Just what kind of game is this, anyway?"

"We didn't get anywhere!" Hermione spluttered, glancing edgily at Ron who was grinding his fist into his hand. "We just went to the dance together. That's all." Lavender and Parvati Patil both grinned knowingly at Hermione from their seats. "Honest!"

"I don't know, a dance can be pretty meaningful, can't it Parvati?"

Parvati blushed crimson, as did Harry Potter, who was sitting across from her in the carriage. "It was just a dance, Lavender. I'm sure Hermione didn't even have time to do anything with Viktor, what with Snape prowling around and all."

"Fine, whatever. You're turn, Hermione."

"Do we really have to play this?" Hermione asked. Lavender smiled cheekily at her. "Okay, fine. Umm, Ron."

Ron whirled his head around to face her. "What?"

"Truth or dare."

"Why?"

"Don't you know how to play, Ron?" Lavender asked.

"Come on, Ron. It's simple, even I know this one." Harry turned to look at his friend. "If you pick truth, you have to answer a question truthfully. If you pick dare, you have to do the dare."

"That's stupid." Ron glowered. "I've better things to do."

"What?" Hermione asked. "What else is there to do?"

"Oh, leave him." Harry glanced warily at Ron. "Let's just talk about something else. We're practically to Hogwarts, anyway."

Lavender sighed, frowning over at Ron. He didn't notice, having taken up staring out the window at the passing scenery. Parvati glanced at Hermione, both noticing the tension in the small carriage.

Finally, Harry spoke again, "Did you all see what happened on the train? We were too far away."

"With Mariah, the Slytherins, and that psycho lady, Mrs. Figg, you mean? Yes, we all saw it." Lavender grinned. "In fact, if it had gone on a second longer, we might have been part of it," she said, indicating Parvati and herself.

"Mrs. Figg?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"A crazy old lady named Mrs. Figg used to babysit me sometimes. And," he paused, thinking. "Last year, I think Professor Dumbledore mentioned a woman named Figg."

"I'll bet it's the same woman," Hermione began, but was interrupted by Ron.

"And I'll bet you'll be running off to the library to research her the moment the feast is over. Too bad Viktor won't be there this year." He turned back to the window while Hermione sunk further into her seat. Parvati glanced at the other occupants of the compartment, all of whom were making mental notes to steer clear of Ron for a while as the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the castle.

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"What was wrong with Ron just now?" Parvati asked Harry as they climbed the steps to the castle. Padma Patil came running up beside her twin sister as Mariah Everett and Lindsay Calderdale stepped to her other side, watching as a bunch of Slytherins hurried into the castle.

"You mean there's not normally something the matter with him?" Padma asked.

"Just because you had a bad experience at one Ball..." Parvati muttered to her sister.

Harry sighed. "It's the Viktor Krum thing," he glanced back at Hermione and Ron, walking in step but with several feet separating them. "He likes her, though he'd never admit it."

"And she likes Viktor," Padma grinned. "Classic."

"Cool off, Padma," Parvati snapped.

"Fine," Padma shrugged. "I was just going to go catch up with Lisa anyway. I didn't get to see her on the train at all." Padma quickened her step, leaving the Gryffindors in her wake. Soon, she fell into stride with Lisa Turpin, one of her roommates, and Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw boy in her year.

The students crowded noisily into the Great Hall and shuffled amongst their friends until all were seated at their house tables. Padma seated herself between Lisa and Lindsay and across from Mack Tanner and Spencer Cunningham, another seventh year boy.

The boys were, as usual, chattering on about the latest Quidditch matches. Padma rolled her eyes as Lindsay pointed to the first years entering the Hall.

"That's her," she pointed Rachel out to Jillian Allaway, a sixth year sitting on her other side. "She was the one that slimy ass, Quincy Franklin, was abusing."

"How did he get to be Head Boy?" Jillian asked as the new students lined up in front of the teachers table.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore doesn't want to look like he's discriminating against Death Eaters, now does he?" Lena McCue smirked.

Jillian frowned. "Why ever not?"

"It's just not practical," Lindsay laughed. "He'd have to eliminate all of Slytherin House and, if he did that it would hurt the wizarding economy. Flourish and Blotts wouldn't make half the money they normally do on school supplies, for example. And, if he barred all of them from school, you can be sure You-Know-Who would want revenge."

Mack laughed, joining their conversation. "So, it's all very logical, is it?"

"Quite."

"You forget one point," Padma began. "You-Know-Who already wants revenge."

"No need to anger him any more than necessary, then, is there?"

Suddenly, the Great Hall got quiet as Professor McGonnagall opened her scroll of parchment and began the sorting. "Aldam, Lavena!" she called, and a small, red haired girl stepped cautiously up to the stool.

The hat rested on her head only a few seconds before bellowing, "RAVENCLAW!" The students already seated at the Ravenclaw table began clapping and cheering. Mack whistled as the girl made her way to the front of the table.

The sorting continued on as attention began to wane. Conversations popped up quietly at the various tables, but everything came screeching to a halt as Professor McGonnagall called another girls name a few minutes later.

"Dumbledore, Rachel."

Every head in the Great Hall whipped to the front as all eyes fixated on the blonde girl as she quickly climbed the steps and pulled the hat on her head. Even the teachers were paying special attention to this girl.

"Quincy Franklin's about to shit his pants now, I expect," Mariah whispered happily from next to Jillian. "The girl he was terrorizing was Professor Dumbledore's granddaughter or something!"

"More like great granddaughter," Lena whispered back. "Seeing as how young she is and how old he is."

"Same difference."

After a few minutes deliberation, the sorting hat reached its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a brief moment of silence and then the Gryffindor table burst into applause as Rachel made her way quickly over to her new housemates.

Once the cheers finally ended, the sorting continued. Jacklynn Fitzpatrick became another new Ravenclaw, while Caitlin Kavanaugh and Tina MacMillan joined Hufflepuff House. Nairi Khan, a sour faced girl with elegant stature and poise moved to the Slytherin table.

As the sorting ended, with Arragon Upshaw, an athletically built boy, joining Gryffindor house, Dumbledore stood up, spoke a few words of welcome, and declared the feast open. Food appeared on the previously empty plates, eliciting startled gasps from many of the first years.

"Excuse me," squeaked a soft voice from behind Lindsay.

Lindsay, Jillian, and Lena turned to see a small blonde girl standing behind them looking nervous. She shuffled her feet, wringing her hands together, her eyes downcast.

"You were just sorted, weren't you?" Lena asked.

The girl nodded quickly.

"Well, foods here, you can eat now, you know," Lena continued. The girl finally looked up.

"That's, um, that's the problem," she said. "There's not much here I can eat. I'm vegan," she went back to looking down to the ground.

"You're what?"

"A little courtesy, Mack," Padma glared across the table at the boy. "Don't make her feel stupid." She turned back to the nervous first year. "What's your name?"

"Jacklynn."

"Okay, Jacklynn. I'm a vegetarian. So the house elves know to make food for me that I eat, and to put it wherever I'm sitting. They'll do the same for you," Padma nodded down towards the area where the first year students were sitting. "Just go back down there, and something will pop up, I'm sure. If not, come back here and I'll get you some stuff, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks." Jacklynn scampered off back down to her seat.

Mack was watching Padma while stuffing his mouth with chicken. "Since when were you a vegetarian?"

"Would it kill you to swallow first, Mack?" she looked disdainfully at him. "And, for your information, I've been vegetarian all my life, thank you very much."

He gulped down his latest bite of food and grinned at her, food stuck in his teeth. "Very welcome!"

Padma rolled her eyes and went back to her own meal as the Great Hall continued to buzz with the excitement of a new year.

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"All right," Spencer Cunningham clapped his hands, gaining the attention of all of his fellow Ravenclaws seated around their library-like common room. "I am Spencer Cunningham. Seventh year, dashing good looks," a few girls snorted, but he continued unperturbed, "and head prefect for Ravenclaw house."

"Hey, wait a second," Connie Reilly glared at him from her seat on the bench of a grand piano.

"Connie here thinks she is head prefect, but I'm going to let you all in on a secret," he spoke conspiratorially. "She came this close," he held his thumb and first finger an inch apart, "to missing the Express this morning. And it's not the first time, either. So I ask you, who is the more responsible of the two of us?"

A few of the older students laughed while the first years watched, unsure of what their responses should be.

"Okay, okay, enough already. Just get on with it, Spencer."

"Right. Okay, so we're going to do what we do every year. Let's face it, the sorting is boring. Mine was boring, yours was boring, we don't pay attention." He paused. "To make a long story short, I can't remember too many of your names. So, we're going to do a little 'game'. We'll go around and each first year will say their name and what subject they think they'll like best."

"Why just us?" a skinny boy with large glasses asked.

"There's far too many of us for us all to go around doing this. The first years do it, and since us older kids will know you, we'll be able to talk to you more, and that's the first step to you knowing us better. Don't worry, nothing to be afraid of, we've all done it," Connie spoke from her bench. "Why don't you start," she pointed to a brunette girl sitting on the sofa nearest the fireplace.

The girl sat up straighter. "I'm Lillah. Lillah Rothschild. Yes, my sister is the horrible seventh year Slytherin. No, I'm not like her." A few people laughed. "And I think my favorite subject will be History of Magic."

"Yeah, right."

"Give it a week, kid."

"A week? Try ten minutes. We're Ravenclaws, the studious ones, and we don't even like that class."

"Hey, hey," Spencer interrupted. "Give it a rest, guys. Thank you, Lillah. Who's next?"

The boy with the large glasses spoke up, "I'm Davis Poole. No brothers, sisters, or relatives of any sort here. That I know of. And definitely my favorite class will be Defense Against the Dark Arts. I want to kick some Death Eater butt!"

"My name's John Gaines," the boy next to him said. "And I think I'll like Transfiguration best."

"Lavena Aldam," the first girl from the sorting spoke.

"Any relation to Julius Aldam?" Conley O'Feir, a seventh year boy, asked.

"Who's Julius Aldam?" a voice called out from the back of the room.

Conley turned to answer. "Top dog in the American Ministry. Well, pretty high, anyway. They're saying he's a shoe in for Minister soon."

"He's my uncle," Lavena answered. "My dad's older brother. And I'll definitely like Transfiguration best."

Jacklynn looked up, realizing she was next in line. She seemed to be summoning up her courage for a moment, and then spoke. "I'm Jacklynn Fitzpatrick. Umm, you could call me Jack or Jacklynn, it doesn't matter." She paused. "I don't know very well what classes there are. Is there a literature class?"

"Not really," Padma said. She was sitting in the chair next to the quiet blonde. "But we have some great books in here. Much better than the school library."

"Okay," she replied meekly.

"Don't worry about not knowing too much about the classes, Jacklynn," Spencer said. "You'll learn soon enough. You're muggle-born, I take it?"

She nodded quickly.

"All right. Well, moving on, there's the two of you left," he pointed to a pair of identical boys sitting on the floor in front of the piano.

The first boy grinned. "I'm Tomas Sebastian."

"And I'm Cowyn. And our favorite class is absolutely, positively..."

"...without a doubt..."

"Quidditch!" Both boys spoke at once.

"All right!" Mack Tanner grinned. "Which makes a perfect segue into my announcement. Try outs for the Quidditch team will be held in three weeks. All are welcome to have a go at it!"

"Mack is captain, by the way," Spencer added. "Well, is there anything else?" No one spoke and a few people nodded their heads no. "Okay then. It's late, I'm tired, I'm sure you are all tired, and I for one need my beauty sleep before classes in the morning, so if there are no further objections, off to bed I say!"

The meeting was adjourned as the girls made their way to the left and their dormitories and the boys headed en masse to the right. Connie, the last to leave the room, muttered a quick spell and the lights flickered off.

To be continued...