The Music Still Plays On

Chapter 2: No Surprise

Finally, the long train ride was over, after an argument by my cousins about whether sherbet balls or fizzing whizzbees make you levitate higher. We stepped off the train and onto the ground by the lake, me looking around frantically for Victoire. Maybe she'd understand how I feel about Scorpius. Finally, I spotted her, chatting frenetically with a group of her friends.

"Victoire! I need to talk to you!" I shouted.

"It'll have to wait, Rosie. I'm really busy right now," Victoire said as she continued to talk with her friends.

"But it's important!" I whined. Victoire motioned her friends to go on and stooped down to my height, as she was very tall for her age.

"Listen, sweetie, now is really not a good time. I haven't seen any of my friends since June, and believe me; I have a lot of catching up to do. And frankly, being seen talking to a first-year really isn't that cool. Even if she is your cousin," Victoire said icily.

"But James talks to me!" I protested.

"Him? He's an immature boy. He doesn't understand half the rules of this place, believe me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to apply some more lipgloss. Besides, Hagrid's already calling the first-years to the boats," Victoire pointed out. She was right. Hagrid, as old as ever, was leading me and my fellow first-years over to lit boats on the lake. By this time, I had lost track of both Al and Isabella, so I climbed into a boat at random. To my surprise, the boat contained Scorpius Malfoy, along with Blair and Blaine, who took up most of the rest of the boat.

"We meet again," Scorpius said. His golden hair shone beautifully in the glow of the lanterns that were hanging from the boats. The two of us stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. How I wished that we could spend the entire boat ride just like this, both of us unable to say a word but still enamored by each other's presence. Unfortunately, Blaine had to spoil the moment.

"Guys, you will not believe how many cockroach clusters I ate on the train ride over here. I think I'm gonna barf," Blaine announced as he suddenly turned green.

"How many?" Blair asked.

"Probably around three hundred...maybe four hundred, I don't know. I lost count at ten," Blaine admitted.

"Bloody hell!" Blair said.

"Yeah, I know. I don't think I ever ate that much. Well, maybe I did yesterday," Blaine said. Scorpius and I looked at each other. I could tell that both of us thought that Blaine and Blair's behavior was outrageously sophomoric, but we were both forced to endure the gross-out humor throughout the boat ride. After being forced to hear Blaine and Blair dare each other to eat various amounts of disgusting things once they got to their common room (undoubtedly Slytherin) the boat docked at the castle. For some reason, I hadn't thought of a single thing to say to Scorpius during our boat ride. Whenever I saw him, my usual ease at conversation seemed to fail me, leaving me a faltering mess. He probably thought I was just another hopelessly idiotic first-year. As we left the boat to head to the sorting ceremony, I knew that I had to say something to him before we were separated once more.

"Hey!" I shouted in Scorpius's general direction.

"What?" Scorpius asked, turning around to face me. Suddenly, the words that I prepared became jumbled in my mouth as I looked into his gorgeous eyes once more.

"Um, I'm Rosie, and...well, I guess you already know that, and...I just wanted to say that I hope we see each other again...cause you seem like a nice guy," I stumbled through my words, as nervous as if I had just made a speech in front of the whole school.

"Whatever," Scorpius replied. Great. I just succeeded in making yourself look like an idiot in front of the first new student I met at Hogwarts. Scorpius probably won't look twice at me now. I should've just kept my mouth shut.

"Rosie! Over here! Come on, everyone's heading into the Great Hall! The sorting's about to begin!" Al shouted at me. I ran to catch up with him, as he was much nearer to the castle than I was.

"Where were you? I wanted you to end up on the boat with me, Liam, and Isabella, but then Marie went and joined us. Come on, we're going to be late!" Al pulled me into a line with the other first years as Professor Longbottom began explaining the sorting to us. Having learned all about it from my parents and other relatives, I tuned out most of his instructions. After that, I started to wait until the sorting began. Most of my fellow first-years looked nervous. What did they think we had to do, wrestle a troll? Even Al looked nervous, as he was petrified about being sorted into Slytherin. I guess I was too, a little bit, but I certainly wasn't going to show it. Besides, if Scorpius was so sure he was going to be in Slytherin, then maybe being in that house wasn't so bad after all.

Finally, the Sorting Hat had ended his song and the Sorting began.

"Abington, Loraine!" Professor Longbottom called out as a short, mousy-looking girl with braids placed the hat on her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat proclaimed. Loraine then walked to the Hufflepuff table as "Ackerley, Julio" became the first Ravenclaw. Soon after "Bronder, Eleanor" joined the Gryffindor table, Scorpius's friends ran up to be sorted. Unsurprisingly, both Blaine and Blair Carrow became Slytherins.

After "Goldstein, Chandra" became a Ravenclaw, it was Isabella's turn to try on the hat. The hat took over a minute to decide, but before Isabella became impatient, it declared her a Gryffindor and, with a squeal of delight, she ran over to join Eleanor, Christian Coote, Liam Finnegan, and Hugh Hooper at the Gryffindor table.

Throughout the sorting, I looked at Scorpius, who, unlike the other students, didn't have a touch of nervousness on his face. He remained calm and seemed to view what the other students saw as a nerve-wracking exercise as just a walk in the park. When it became his turn to be sorted after "Macmillan, Kelly" was made a Hufflepuff, he walked up to the hat and placed it on his head like it was something he did every day. To no surprise, the hat was on his head for barely a second when it shouted "SLYTHERIN!" Scorpius then promptly sat down next to Blaine and Blair at the Slytherin table.

I glanced down the line to Al, who was shaking with fear. It was almost his turn; after "Oles, Clinton" and "Pierro, Karina" were sorted, he walked slowly up to the hat and, trembling, placed it on his head. After what seemed like an eternity, the hat declared him a "GRYFFINDOR!" Al, jumping for joy, nearly knocked down Professor Longbottom, who was standing behind him about to read the next student's name, in the process. Blushing, he ran to the Gryffindor table to join my cousins.

I gulped. The number of students in line in front of me slowly diminished as they were sorted to their prospective houses. Finally, only one student stood in front of me: "Valenza, Darren" who was quickly made a Gryffindor. I suddenly realized why the other students had been so nervous. Slowly, I walked up to the hat, placing it on my head.

"Another Weasley, eh?" a small voice inside my ear said. "You guys multiply like rabbits! I know just where to put you. GRYFFINDOR!" I watched my cousins clapping from across the room as the hat announced my house to the entire hall. And then I glanced at Scorpius, over at the Slytherin table. It might have been my imagination, but I could've sworn I saw a look of disappointment flash across his face for just a second.

"Nice work, Rosie!" James said, patting me on the back as I joined the Gryffindor table.

"All I had to do was try on a hat. It was really nothing," I admitted as "Zabini, Jordan" was made a Slytherin.

"Just trying on a hat? More like upholding the family name! You know Uncle Ron would've disowned you had you been made a Slytherin," James reminded me.

"But Dad said it didn't matter!" Al pleaded.

"Oh, they all say that, but we all know they'd be disappointed if we were in any house but Gryffindor. But, luckily, there were no surprises here today. You and Rosie are in Gryffindor, and Scorpius and those filthy Carrow twins are where they belong- in Slytherin!" James said.

"Be quiet, James! Headmistress McGonagall's about to speak!" Al said.

"Welcome, students!" McGonagall announced. "I'll start my proper speech after the banquet, of course, but it looks like we're going to have a great year ahead of us here at Hogwarts. Now, I know all of you are anxious to start enjoying the banquet, so I'll start it with a few words from one of Hogwarts's most famous headmasters, Albus Dumbledore: nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak! Thank you." McGonagall sat down as the plates in front of us became filled with delicious food. In between bites, Isabella started to tell me about how she almost left her pet rat, Cyrano, at home by mistake. As usual, her story was filled with several unnecessary details.

"We were almost out the door when I realized that I had left him in his cage- my mother insists I keep in a cage, she hates rodents- and so then I ran up to my bedroom, only to realize that he had escaped again, like he usually does every month..." Isabella continued. In the meantime, I overheard Marie Kirke and Christian Coote discussing Quidditch.

"My Dad said he'd let me use his old broomstick if I make the Gryffindor team," she explained.

"Mother and Father took me to the World Cup last year- you should've seen Puddlemere United's new Keeper!" he said.

Apart from Isabella and my cousins, no one seemed to want to strike up a conversation with me. I glanced at Scorpius at his table across the room, watching him sigh as Blair and Blaine shoveled seemingly endless amounts of food into their mouths. Somehow, I was sure that if he was in Gryffindor, sitting at this table, I'd find something to talk to him about. Isabella was now wrapping up her story.

"But now he's here with me, thank God. Ooh, dessert!" Isabella exclaimed as our plates began to fill up with rice pudding and other assorted sweets. After pausing to munch on a chocolate éclair, Isabella launched into another anecdote about the cake she had for her most recent birthday. James noticed my silence.

"What's with you, Rosie? Normally you're really talkative, but I've barely heard you say a word all day!" James remarked.

"Just...overwhelmed, is all," I lied. In reality, I was more worried than overwhelmed, though I couldn't quite figure out why. Here was the day I had dreamt of for years, and nothing had turned out quite like I expected. James had said that there were no surprises today. Maybe, for him, that was true. But for me, the day was full of surprises. Who would've thought that the one person I spent most of my time thinking about today was the one that Dad told me to stay away from? I thought I would have no trouble making friends at Hogwarts, but the only person who's shown an interest in talking to me besides my cousins is an annoying chatterbox. "Relax," I told myself. "It is only the first day, after all. Maybe tomorrow will bring about better things."

Still, all through the banquet and McGonagall's speech that followed, I couldn't stop thinking about Scorpius- and how I felt that, with him around, my time at Hogwarts would be filled with even more surprises as the days passed on.