"MINISTRY'S INTERFERENCE"

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THEADORA NOTT has every right to feel a bit of resentment towards the school, ok? She's not a bad person, she does love it here at Hogwarts, but can you blame her? She'd been taught by a teacher who had Lord Voldemort in the back of his head, she'd gone through the horror of the insane basilisk, she'd been scared for her life because of the serial killer Sirius Black on loose, and then the Triwizard Tournament came marching forward like it was no one's business, this all has bound to do some damage to a kid's mind, and especially with her being a 'bloodtraitor' in Slytherin, she was on the short end of it all, yes, she gets that she may have some advantages because of her bloodline, but it didn't make the experience any less shitty.

Don't get her wrong though, she does love the place — it's where she grew up, and matured into a muggle-lovin-bloodtraitor that she is now, Hogwarts is where she met Daphne, Astoria, Fred, George and... Cedric. This is the place where she learned how to defend herself and do it well, to brew potions to heal something of hers after a nasty 'prank', to ride a broom, and to tie a tie, so truth be told — she'd be a wreck without Hogwarts, but you can't lie — it's a lose-win situation with Hogwarts.

Though the good often does cancel out the bad, and she was happy to be back home with Daphne and the rest of her friends, she just hopes this year doesn't turn out to be the mess that her previous years did. She really hopes.

"Aw, man we have only one carriage left" Thea grabbed her trunk, and then Daphne's — Daphne believed that carrying her trunk to Hogwarts was bad luck for her, like the first year she carried her trunk she tripped on the stairs, the second she had broken her ankle so Theadora offered to carry the trunk for her, and she didn't trip, and then in third year when Daphne carried her trunk — she tripped again, and so being the superstitious girl that Daphne was — she would make Thea carry the trunk every year since. Thea does think it's just an excuse for Daphne to make her carry the trunks, but Thea doesn't mind it that much.

"I hope it's empty, come on, hurry up!" Daphne said rushing forward and Thea passed her an exhausted look, "Come on, Thea!"

"Oh, no, don't worry about me" Thea almost stumbled on a rock trying to make her way to the carriage, "It's not like I'm almost carrying twice my weight here" she said satirically.

"Hold it" Daphne yelled and she ran towards the carriage, both the girls definitely didn't want to walk all the way to Hogwarts — too much sweat, too much walking and too much work. Thea rushed after the girl before she managed to trip over thin air and the girls stepped besides the carriage — Thea got weirded out by the thestrals again, she remembers asking Hagrid about the animals that pulled the carriage and he told her about how only certain people who've witnessed death could see them.

Thea set the trunks in the back of the carriage and then when she opened the door she found two Hufflepuffs sitting there — to be more specific, Leanne and Susan, Leanne immediately rolled her eyes at the Slytherin girl, Thea passed her an awkward look, and then got up on it — on one side of the carriage were Leanne and Susan and on the other Thea and Daphne.

"So, the weather?" Thea laughed awkwardly, and Daphne passed her a look making her shut up, "Listen, Leanne I'm—"

"Sorry?" Leanne raised her eyebrows, "Save it, Nott, we don't have to do this right now, or any time...at all, in fact we don't even have to look at each other, we don't even have to—"

"Alright" Susan said in a high-pitched voice, "Daphne, how was your summer?"

Daphne plastered a smile on her face, "Great, Susan, how was yours?" the two friends decided that since their friends were not going to be civil, they might as well try and help them out.

"Splendid" Susan grinned, "My parents and I went to a vacation in France, well, I guess it wasn't more of a vacation — my sister was getting married there, it was a destination wedding, but I treated it like a vacation—"

From there on Daphne and Susan handled the conversation and Thea and Leanne did their personal best at ignoring the other, i.e. not giving each other death glares, rolling their eyes, giving them the stink eye, etc.

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THEA AND THE REST MADE THEIR WAY TO THE SCHOOL GATES. Thea was still carrying their trunks and Daphne was talking excitedly about Quidditch this year — Thea didn't really care much for Quidditch, she wasn't bad at it — she had Nott blood in her system, but she just didn't like it that much, and Daphne? She loved Quidditch, she lived and breathed the game, it was like Quidditch was all that mattered to her and sometimes Thea got a bit tired of it.

"Daph, I could really use some help with the trunks here" Thea said as she cracked her neck a bit and felt her shoulders stiffen up, she was getting a bit tired of it now, but she was almost there she guesses.

"Names?" Professor Flitwick asked the two girls, he had a clipboard in hand and he was doing the regular checkup that wizards of age went through, it started when a seventh year sneaked in a lot of stuff into the school.

"Really, Professor?" Daphne said blankly to the Professor who tapped his foot impatiently, "You've know us for seven years, I was the one who scored the highest in charms last year!" Daphne looked offended to say the least.

"No exceptions, Miss Greengrass" Flitwick said with an impatient tone, "Come on, names?"

"Daphne Greengrass" Daphne said with her arms crossed as she moved forward waiting by all the baggage for Thea.

"Name?"

"Timothée Nair" Thea said with a smirk as she watched Professor Flitwick almost write that in, he looked up from his clipboard, "What? You asked for my name, I gave you it" Thea shrugged.

"Good try, Miss Theadora Nott" Flotwick shook his head as he scribbled the name down on his clipboard and Thea immediately put down all the baggage down with the others' and made her way to the castle with Daphne, both of them edging closer and closer until they arrived at the castle — they were crazy scared of the Forbidden Forest, and what was in there, they were told stories as a first year and everyone used to be, but then Harry, Ron, Hermione and that ferret kid went ahead and made them all look like losers by spotting someone drinking unicorn blood and ever since kids weren't scared of the Forest that much — making Daphne and Thea uncool for being scared of it.

It's pretty stupid if you ask Thea, it's a rational fear. Who's to say that a centaur won't just sweep in and just kick her off her feet and then next thing you know she's clutching her wound and bleeding out in the forest with no one there to help her, or what if she's allergic to any shrub or something there and she dies with her throat closed up and her eyes swelled shut — who even knows what could happen in The Forbidden Forest, and between you and Thea? She doesn't like those odds.

"What kind of freak do you think they brought in this year?" Thea asked as they walked into the Great Hall and were immediately surrounded by the smell and feeling of comfort — there was just something about Hogwarts that made you feel something and though sometimes that 'something' may not be 'safe' per say — it is something.

"Who knows" Daphne shrugged and the sat down at the Slytherin table with Astoria on the other side of the table, "Oh, hey sis" she greeted Astoria and then turned her attention back to the Front Line.

"Hello, Astoria" Thea passed the younger Greengrass a smile, and then focused on the Front Line same as her friend, though this time — she could make out a pink blob out there with the other teachers, the lady was covered in pink everywhere from head to toe — Thea was surprised that she hadn't dyed her hair pink, so she guesses that's the DADA teacher of the year.

"Yikes, look at that disaster" Daphne muttered in Thea's ears and Thea nodded with agreement — it certainly was a disaster to say the least, "Wait, do you reckon she's from the ministry? I can swear I've seen her a couple times on the days I went to meet with father there"

"Wouldn't put it past the minister" said Thea, "With The dark lord coming back and the minister trying everything in his power to prevent the word from spreading out, and then when that didn't work he started spewing some bullcrap about Dumbledore being crazy and Harry Potter doing this for attention — like please, I've met the boy and the last thing he wants to do is grab literally anyone's attention"

"Right?" Daphne said.

The rest of the night went by pretty fast — the feast was great, having a single father for a cook isn't that great, so Thea loved that part, sorting was extremely boring as always, imagine spending the whole year in a room coming up with a song like that if it were Thea? She'd be kind of embarrassed, now it was the time for the speech Dumbledore gives as always, but plot twist? The pink toad lady had some other plans—

"Hem-hem" she said, stepping forward and smiling at everyone displaying her pearly teeth and unsettling smile, "I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends..."