Emilia struggled to force her eyes open, the sunlight coming from the window making her eyes water, as she heard the girls were already up and talking while getting dressed.

It took a minute before her brain fully processed where she was or what were the events from the night before. A faint smile rose on her face as she sat up on the bed and greeted her new friends.

She grabbed whatever pieces of clothing were on the top of her open suitcase and went down the stairs and then into the girls lavatories. Her nightgown dropped on the floor as she entered the shower and sprayed her face with cold water to wake herself up.

Emilia took her time to wash her body and hair thoroughly, as the realization of that day being her first proper day at school sent shivers down her spine and caused the overwhelming anxiety to return.

After finishing her shower she stood in front of one of the mirrors and brushed her hair while looking back at her own reflection. Her mind wandered back to Jaz’s comment from the day before, about her being gorgeous.

Was she actually? She never really thought of that before, whether she could be considered attractive or not. She looked at her pale, freckled face. She had heart shaped, slightly too small lips, while her blue round eyes seemed to be too big compared to the rest of her facial features. Her soaked, white hair was already coming back into it’s original, wavy structure as she brushed through it slowly. It was extremely long at that point, as she haven’t had a proper haircut in years, it almost reached her bum when straightened out. Her body was wrapped around in an old towel, that seemed like more of a rag rather than anything else and it kept slipping off, almost revealing her top.

Could someone actually look at her and consider her beautiful? Maybe. The truth was, she had no idea what the ideal girl her age would be or how close she was to someone conventionally attractive. She definitely thought that both Jaz and Rosie were extremely beautiful, however they looked so different from her. The only word that came to her mind to honestly describe herself, was ordinary. She looked ordinary. The only unique thing about her was her white hair, it made her stand out a lot which she truly hated. She quite liked the whiteness of it, it was quite enjoyable to look at, but she despised the attention that came along with it.

She never knew what was the reason behind this unusual hair color. Everyone in her family had dark blonde hair, both of her parents as well as her brothers. As a child, she would often wonder if she might’ve been adopted. But her mother would always reassure her that it wasn’t true.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the door to the lavatories opening as Rosie and Jaz walked in, chattering about their schedule for that day.

‘Nervous?’ – Jaz asked while standing by the sink next to Emilia’s to brush her teeth.

‘Very.’ – she answered truthfully, with a slight shiver in her voice.

‘Oh, Emilia, don’t be. I promise you, today will be great.’ – Rosie exclaimed as she walked up to the girls and squeezed Emilia’s shoulder supportively. – ‘What’s your first class today?’ – she then asked.

‘Uh.. Divination, I think.’

‘Ooh, that’s awesome then, I have advanced Divination as well! You won’t have to go through your first class alone after all.’ – she cheered excitedly.

It did genuinely comfort the girl slightly, knowing she would have her new friend to accompany her, so she smiled back at Rosie with gratitude, before gathering her clothes and getting dressed.

‘What about you, Jaz? What’s your first class today?’ – She asked curiously as she struggled to fit her heard through her red sweater.

‘She’s the captain of our Quidditch team, so she takes advanced flying, which takes place every morning at 8.’ – Rosie answered for her, as Jaz’s mouth still was full of bubbling toothpaste.

Emilia just then noticed her broom resting by the door alongside with the heavy flying equipment which she had yet to put on. She nodded to confirm Rosie’s statement and spat the toothpaste out into the sink. She then put her locks up into a high ponytail to keep it out of her face and started buttoning up her maroon flying attire.

Rosie and Em said goodbye to Jaz as she picked her things up from the floor and rushed out to make it on time to the Quidditch field. Meanwhile, the girls finished up getting ready and left to get to the top of the Divination tower, which consisted of endless spiral stairs, causing both girls to lose their breath and be forced to take multiple breaks before finally reaching the top of the tower.

‘You truly never get used to all the walking… and climbing…’ – her new friend gasped out in between breaths as they stood there by the ladder leading up to the class, leaning tiredly against the metal railings of the stairs.

After a minute or two they finally found the strength to climb up the ladder and entered the classroom through the round hatch on the floor. The classroom was round and very dark, as all windows were covered up by heavy, amethyst curtains, reaching all the way up from the high ceiling. There were about 10 small round tables placed in a semicircle around the hatch which they had come from, with the teacher’s desk being behind them, hidden behind even more heavy, dust covered curtains. The classroom smelled like incense and herbs mixed with the scent of freshly made coffee and it was awfully quiet, despite the class being almost full by then, as there was no echo in the classroom and the chatter of sleepy students seemed to get lost in the air which seemed to be just as heavy from all the dust and strong smells which the room was filled with.

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Rosie immediately spotted a friend from Slytherin and came up to her to exchange hugs and greetings, but after the girl offered her to sit with her she looked back at Emilia with guilt in her eyes.

‘Go ahead.’ – she reassured her blonde friend with a faint smile. – ‘I’ll be fine.’

Ros nodded, still seemingly unsure, but took a seat next to the girl on the other end of the classroom. Meanwhile Emilia plopped down on the puff by the farthest table to the right and started searching through her bag to get her parchment and quill.

Overhearing the conversations of the students in the classroom, she had come to the realization that their Divination teacher wasn’t going to be there, and instead a substitute would lead that day’s lesson. Professor Onai, who as Emilia had heard from Rosie, was the mother of their roommate, Natty, would not be present during the first week.

The steps of the ladder screeched loudly as the substitute teacher, an old and very tall wizard with a giant stomach stretching out the buttons of his black shirt entered the classroom. He introduced himself as Professor Russel. Using a monotone, sleepy voice he greeted the class and immediately began going over the subject, which was going to be covered during the lesson. Suddenly, the hatch door, which was already closed by then, opened and landed on the floor with a loud thump, as a late student climbed out of it.

‘Mr. Evergreen, punctual as always. Please take a seat’ – the substitute scolded the boy before going back to the topic of the lesson.

Emilia looked up at the boy. He had medium-length, curly hair which was as black as the night, same as his attire. He wasn’t wearing the required uniform, instead, he had a black turtleneck with matching pants and shoes. Over that, he only had on his untied house robe, with dark green insides and a serpent, the symbol of Slytherin, placed on the right side of the chest area. On his curved nose he had a pair of black, round sunglasses, that covered his eyes. His eyebrows were thick and black, giving him an almost annoyed or angry look. But on his lips he had a cocky smile, despite a huge scar going straight from his forehead, right through the center of his right eye and almost all the way down his cheek, ending right by the right side of his extremely sharp and defined jaw.

He took a quick glance around the classroom before his eyes met Emilia’s. His smile grew even larger and he walked up to her table and sat down right next to her. He then picked up her Advanced Divination book and began flipping through the pages of it. As professor Russel kept lecturing the class with his monotone voice, the boy moved on his puff closed to Emilia.

‘Hey there, Vay.’ – he whispered with an arrogant grin on his face.

The girl gave him a questioning look, but asked nothing. Instead she just replied with a ‘Hey.’ and returned to taking her notes.

The substitute, surprisingly tired after just a couple of minutes of teaching the actual class, ordered them to open their books on the page 14 and simply note down whatever they find on there. He then excused the class and climbed down the ladder with slow and wobbly steps without any further explanations.

The students looked around at one another with confusion, and the majority of them simply closed their books and went straight to chatting with each other, with only about three of them actually doing the work as Professor Russel had ordered.

Emilia froze, with the quill in her hand and looked up at Rosie, who, instead of giving her a confused look, that the rest of the classmates were exchanging, she looked at her and then her desk mate with a genuine worry.

The boy took the quill right out of her hand and began spinning it in between his fingers. As the girl looked back at him she saw that his glasses were now resting on their table and he was staring at her with a one sided grin on his face.

One of her brows raised as she silently grabbed her quill back from his hand and got back to her notes. However, he made it very difficult for her to focus. He ran his fingers through her hair and began twirling one of her hair strands around his index finger. She tried to ignore him, despite feeling the eyes of all of her classmates on her and quiet giggles and whispers, as everyone was already focused on them and kept looking over to their table curiously, awaiting what was going to happen next.

For several minutes, she was actually able to keep writing her notes down on the piece of parchment, however the boy got bored quickly and decided to gain back her attention by closing her book and sliding it away from her.

Emilia breathed in loudly, beginning to feel irritated, as she slid it back to her side of the table and opened it back on the 14th page. But before she could finish another sentence on her paper, the quill flew out of her hand and was placed on the open palm of her new tormentor, who smiled even wider, seeing her annoyed expression.

She reached back for it silently, however he moved his arm away from her quickly.

‘What? You’re not even going to talk to me, Vay?’ – he questioned her.

She froze for a second, rethinking her approach.

‘Fine. Could you give me back my quill?’ – she answered back, with slight anger in her voice.

‘No, that’s not the kind of talk I meant.’ – he grinned mischievously. – ‘Don’t you want to ask me my name? I already know yours, hell, everyone knows your name and it’s only your first day here.’ – he chuckled. – ‘Not bad, for a new girl, Vay. Now, ask me.’ – he looked down at her as he moved his face closer.

‘Alright.’ – she gave in with a sigh. – ‘What’s your name?’

‘It’s Atticus.’ – his smile that moment seemed actually sincere. – ‘It’s nice to meet you, Vay.’

‘Uh huh.’ – she mumbled. – ‘Can you give me the quill back now?’

‘Hmm.’ – he pretended to get lost in his thoughts as he wiggled the stolen quill in between his two fingers. – ‘No, I think I’m going to keep it, actually.’

Usually, in a situation like that, Emilia would get embarrassed and be to shy to respond properly. But to her own surprise, at that moment, she was not intimidated by that cocky boy, she just felt annoyed.

‘Hmm.’ – she mimicked his previous reply. – ‘I guess I’m just going to keep those then.’

She then picked up his sunglasses and put them on without breaking eye contact with him for even a split second.

She did expect him to get angry. As he raised his hand, her body shivered with fear for a split second, but he just brushed her hair behind her ear and gave her the same, cocky smile.

‘Heh.’ – he chuckled. – ‘Alright then.’ – his gray eyes looked right into hers. – ‘They fit you well, actually.’

She just noticed how close his face had gotten to hers, and realized how silent the entire classroom had become. She backed out and looked around to see everyone just staring at them in complete silence. As her classmates noticed her glancing at them, everyone suddenly became interested in their Divination books and got back to chattering and taking notes.

A moment later, the loud bell rang and everyone got up to leave the classroom. Emilia picked up her books and parchment and stuffed it into her bag. She tried to move past Atticus but he stopped her.

‘What’s your next class, Vay? I’ll walk you there.’ – he declared, not asked.

‘Actually, me and Emilia have a free period now, so we are going to go and get some breakfast. Thanks for the offer though.’ – Rosie cut in, as she suddenly appeared next to them.

‘Alright. I guess I’ll have to see you around then. Take care of my sunglasses.’ – he winked and disappeared through the hatch, leaving both of the girls alone in the classroom.