Panic was racing through every vein in my body. My breath hitched tight in my chest and my eyes shot around every corner of the halls for some form of direction, I was lost.

I spun towards a classy looking man in a painting. He was reading an old Latin book about herbology through a looking glass.

"Where's the Gryffindor common room?" I puffed out a frantic breath of words.

"Carry on down this hall, two turning staircases to the left and then your immediate right." he matter of fact recited like it was a common question asked around about this time of year.

"And girl?" he questioned "Why the tears?" I ignored his concern and started marching in the direction that he lead me down. No one was allowed to see me cry, not even a painting and a new set of tears were brewing in my eyes.

As I got to the first staircase, I heard in the distance the sound of students emerging out of the great hall, the feast must have finished and I must have taken much longer rushing around the castle than I had thought.

I finally got to the fat lady's portrait, which I knew from stories that Sirius once shared around the breakfast table after his first year, was the Gryffindor entrance.

"Can I be let in please?" I sighed, letting go of the tension in my body, with relief that I had finally found where I was supposed to be.

"Password?" She sung annoyingly to me, glancing down at my hunched over frame.

Shit I hadn't stuck around long enough to be told the password for the Gryffindor dormitories "I-I don't know it" the tension in my shoulders returning to its stiff, panicked state.

"Then no entry I'm afraid, dear." she hummed and turned towards a wine glass in her hand "Go on!" she looked back at me "Get!" she shooed me like a stray animal. I walked over to an opening opposite the lady's portrait and sat on a stool, hidden in a shadowed area.

I waited until a mass of Red robed students crammed into the portrait, before the last one entered I quickly bounced up from the stool and bolted towards the painting to sneak in "Uh uh uh" she tutted and quickly slammed herself shut, almost trapping the small girls robe in the door "No password, no entry." she warned again.

"But I didn't hear the-" I was cut off quickly.

"No 'buts' it's the rule" she smirked, obviously she was having fun teasing someone after a long break from seeing students.

I blatantly showed her my robe, that was now laced with red details.

"Gryffindor." I stated, moving closer towards her as if perhaps she was blind. She shrugged in response and I knew she wasn't budging anytime soon. Being petty, I slid up against her painting and sat on the floor leaning against her.

"Oi" She gasped "Don't damage my paintwork!" Vanity was spiked in her voice.

"Let's hope I don't dribble in my sleep!" I sweetly smiled, but narrowing my eyes at her shocked looking face.

"You wouldn't!" She inhaled sharply, her hand slapping her cushion looking chest.

"It's not uncommon for me to wake up in a puddle of my own spit, lets pray you don't get stained" and with that I closed my eyes, wrapping my robe around myself tightly in an attempt to ignore the cold breeze whistling itself around the stairs.

*

Roughly an hour had passed and I was shivering in my spot, in and out of uncomfortable sleep. Until I heard muffled voices behind the portrait door.

"Where could he be?" a familiar sounding voice spoke harshly.

"I don't know Mar... but it's late we should just go back to bed" another voice tried reasoning with who I knew must have been Marlene, the girl with a lion's mane of hair from the train.

I heard some more inaudible whispers and then a sudden stressed-

"I bet you any money he's fucking sneaked into Slughorns again to find his fire whiskey that was confiscated last term!" She hissed.

"He hasn't come to the common room yet though, do you think he's been caught?" the other voice spoke, sounding slightly worried.

"Knowing Sirius, there's no chance he's been caught...yet" and then suddenly the portrait swung open and I fell backwards onto the floor, looking up at Marlene and her friend Lily.

"Hi" I smiled, laying on the cold stone.

They both looked down upon me with confused expressions.

"Gotta give it to you, I thought you were lying when you said you were a Gryffindor. Quite an impression you made there" Marlene helped me up off of the dusty floor. I laughed awkwardly feeling another pang in my chest as a reminder that I wasn't Slytherin (even though I didn't expect to be, I thought perhaps I'd get sorted into Ravenclaw if not Slytherin).

The red-haired girl tucked her hair behind her ears. Shuffling in her spot as if she was cold.

"I didn't get to introduce myself before, I'm Lily" She smiled brushing off some dust from my shoulder.

"Yeah I overheard" I motioned towards Marlene "Arty." I replied, pointing towards myself.

"What were you doing on the floor?" she asked, checking over the still sleeping fat lady.

"I didn't k-know the b-bloody password and she wouldn't let me through" I hushed my voice as the fat lady stirred, mumbling something incoherent.

"Bubbling boggarts" Marlene spoke, starting to nibble on her thumb nail.

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"The password. Bubbling boggarts" she said again a little clearer. I took a mental note in my head, sure to rub it in the fat lady's face tomorrow.

"Now I hate to be that bitch but-" she shrugged at me and turned to Lily "I've got to go find him, he's in so much trouble for cursing all my shoe laces and if he's not careful I personally will tell Slughorn that he's the one stealing all of his liquor. I heard he's been blaming Filch, the poor sod." She frowned deeply.

Lily rolled her eyes and I noticed she was shuffling in fluffy purple bunny slippers as if she had just rolled out of bed and threw her robe on over the top of a night gown.

Suddenly, without warning or a word from Lily, Marlene was almost sprinting down the stairs and out of sight.

"I've got to go" Lily sighed, looking back over at me and holding the door open for me to sneak in.

"We're third girls dorm up, we've got a spare bed if you want it?" and with that she also flew down the stairs a flash of orange hair was all your saw as she sped around a corner chasing after Marlene.

Like offered, I made my way up to the third-floor girls dorm quietly. Making sure I didn't wake anyone up. As I made my way into the room, the door creaked slightly causing a stir from a dark-haired girl, snoring softly in her bed. I shuffled over to the bed next to her, the only one that didn't seem like someone had just rolled out of it. I looked at her bedside table, a card with a smiling couple waved holding up a sign "Good luck Alice, we love you!" then I looked to the other bed on the other side of me and noticed a hairbrush thick with matted blonde curls, obviously Marlene tried to smooth out her hair earlier but failed.

As soon as I claimed the bed as my own, at the foot of the frame my trunk appeared as if it had been waiting for me there all along. I quickly got changed into my pyjamas and crawled into the cold sheets, feeling how soft the mattress was beneath my aching muscles and chilled bones.

It wasn't until morning when I woke up to the girl Alice scrambling beside her bed for something in her trunk, that I even fully processed I had actually tried sleeping on the fat ladies frame the previous night.

Clothes had been thrown across the room in the attempt to find certain objects from their belongings and Lily seemed to be bickering with someone through a half-opened dorm door.

"James I'm not even dressed yet, can't this wait?" she sighed hiding her kitten print pyjamas out of view.

I had obviously just joined the most chaotic girl dorm I could possibly choose from.

"Morning sleepy head" Marlene jumped out of nowhere, looking pissed off at the sun outside and flicked my ear with her fingers. I rubbed the side of my face...this is going to be interesting.