Chapter Four

First Year

Over a month passed. It was Halloween, or better known as my birthday. My family never made a big deal about my birthday, but always made a big deal about Halloween. When I was little they used to throw a massive Halloween ball for all of their work friends, unfortunately forgetting about me. I used to pretend the ball was my birthday party. Silvius was normally the only one who remembered. Today I turned twelve. I was one of the oldest in my year because most of them will still be eleven.

I've spent most of my time with Jake these past few weeks at Hogwarts. He's basically become my best friend. Although he was older than me, we had a lot in common. We went swimming in the Black Lake one hot day. It was his idea, he said that he misses the Hawaiian waters so the cold lake would have to do. Dasha and Eowyn were the best roommates you could ask for. We got along so well despite having such different personalities. I've also become 'acquaintances' with Harry Potter. We didn't go out of our ways to speak to each other much but the friendly smile in the hallway was always there. Harry was a really cool guy for being famous. I would have pictured him to be rather arrogant, but he was just the opposite. I've gotten threats from Draco every time I was seen near Harry. So we never got around to hanging out much. Whenever Draco wasn't around, I would go over to talk to Harry if he was alone.

The only person Draco never said anything about is Jake. My guess was that Draco is rather intimidated by Jake because he never said anything when I was around him. I could see why though. Jake was tall and muscular for only being in fourth year.  As for Draco, he got worse every day. I tried to avoid him but it seemed impossible. He used the blackmail against me daily. "Do my Potions essay." "Go get me this book from the Library." "Move out of my way." Although they were minor, most of the time, they were still enough to drive me insane. He was always making fun of me in the common room, but I couldn't respond which drove me crazy because I have a response to everything.

I also beat Jake's record of getting more than twenty-four detentions in the first month. Unintentionally speaking out of line in class, forgetting to doing my homework, destroying classroom items by accident, and being late or not even showing up to my morning classes. None of this was on purpose. Missing homework was normally Draco's fault anyway, because he would make me do his if he was running behind. Luckily, the teachers never owled my parents, not yet anyways.

It was a Sunday morning. I got up actually in a good mood today considering it was my birthday. It was my first birthday away from home. When I opened my eyes, I saw Eowyn and Dasha sitting at the end of my bed. "Happy Birthday!" they yelled. "Now get dressed and come open your presents downstairs!" Eowyn said. Presents?

I walked downstairs dressed in my dark jeans and a plain maroon sweater. "Carlie!" Eowyn called. "Over here. Open mine first!" She said thrusting a box into my hands wrapped in shiny green paper. I sat down and opened it up. Inside the large box was a very small red eraser and a container of ink. Eowyn looked at me wide-eyed.

"Er, thanks!" I said trying to sound happy. She was obviously fooled by it.

"It's the new edition revealer," she said in a gleeful tone. "Isn't it great? They haven't reached the public market yet. My dad got it! And that's a bottom of invisible ink."" A revealer? Well I guess it's better than an eraser. I wanted to laugh, leave it to Eowyn to buy me invisible ink, what is the point of it if you can't see it. Even if it was an eraser, I was still happy to be remembered.

"What does it do?" I asked them.

 "A revealer shows invisible ink when used like a typical eraser," Dasha said. Then I realized that was what the invisible ink was for. Very clever of Eowyn.

"Now we can pass notes during class without getting you in trouble!" Eowyn said happily. "I have a revealer and some invisible ink me self."

"Thanks Eowyn!" I said giving her a hug.

"Now open mine," Dasha said handing me a box wrapped in silver paper. I opened her package and inside was a pile of books. The books were, A History of Magic, The Healer's Helpmate, The Salem Witch Trials, and Quick Make-up and Hairstyle Spells. "Now you have your own copy of the first one. The second one I thought would come in handy, because you're always getting hurt." She laughed. That was true, I have taken a few spills off the moving stairs in the past few days. Nothing too serious though, just a few broken bones and cuts. "I thought you might like the third one because you're from Salem. And the last one will hopefully help you get ready faster in the morning." How thoughtful of her.

"Thanks!" I said and hugged her. "I'm going to go take these up into my room and then we can head down to breakfast?"

"Whatever you want birthday girl," Eowyn answered. That made me smile. Until now Silvius was the only person who acknowledged my birthday.

We walked down to breakfast and unfortunately the only three seats left were next to Draco and his annoying friends. We all glanced at each other and then walked over to the seats. Nothing was going to bother me today. Nothing. He smirked at me as I sat down but ignored him. "Hey Carlie!" Jake said from behind me.

 "Wow," I said in a fake amused tone. I turned in my chair. "Approaching the enemy table? How brave of you." I smiled at him.

"Well considering it's your birthday, I had to force myself to come over here to give you this," he said and handed me a small box wrapped in red and gold.

"Gryffindor colors?" I laughed and he smiled back.

"Well I wasn't planning on wrapping it in the 'enemy' colors." I tore back the paper. Once again I couldn't believe someone else remembered my birthday. I think I've only told Jake once, a few weeks ago, that my birthday was on Halloween. When I opened the box, there was a silver necklace inside with a lion charm.

"Wow. Thanks Jake," I said smiling. It was so pretty. The lion charm made me smile, only he would do something like that.

"No problem. It just shows that you're not that much of a traitor."

"Oh how thoughtful," I said amused while admiring the necklace once more. I stood up and gave him a hug. "Thanks again, I really like it." I clipped it onto my neck right away.

"Welcome. Well, I better get over there before I catch some disease from this table," he said glancing at a few of the other Slytherins weirdly. "Oh yeah, and the guys say 'Happy Birthday'" I looked over at the table and saw that Cal, Nico, and Gabe were all waving at me. "They just didn't feel like walking over here." He laughed.

"I don't blame them." I laughed back.

"See you around," he said. I turned back around in my seat as he left. Everyone who was near me at table was staring at me. Draco was glaring in my direction with an unreadable look on his pale face. I looked at Dasha and Eowyn who both had surprised expressions.

"Woo, are you guys like dating? He's three years ahead of you, is that even legal?" Eowyn blurted out.

"What?" I asked choking on my food, and I mean literally choking. I coughed a few times to clear my throat. "He's just a good friend that's all." I had to take a drink of water immediately after.

"Seems like more than that to me," Dasha said smirking at me.

"Well it isn't," I said looking down at my food. "He's just a friend."

 After breakfast, Dasha, Eowyn, and I went outside and walked around the black lake a few times. Dasha was worrying about upcoming exams and Eowyn was worrying about which boy in her Charms to like. When they asked me what my parents sent me, I lied and said that they just sent me money. I never actually spoke about my family. They only asked once, I just told them that I had an older brother named Silvius and that my parents weren't around much because of work. We went back to the Great Hall for lunch. It was mail day. I never got mail, maybe here and there I would get an owl from Silvius asking how I'm doing, but it was rare because Salem is really strict about sending letters. I was even more shocked when I saw Silvius's owl, Redwing, flying towards me carrying a large package in my direction. It landed in front of me. I opened up the letter first.

Hey sis,

 Happy Birthday! Sorry I haven't been writing, you know how Salem is, one owl per month, but I got away with it this time. Anyways, get in trouble lately? I'm just kidding. I got your letter about your new friends. Wow, you made friends. Kidding again. Dasha and Eowyn seem cool. But the other friend made me remember I forgot something, I was going to warn you about hanging out with older guys when I'm not around...alright that's my last joke. They seem cool too. Wow Hawaii? That's farther away than you are. Well, I should probably start studying for this test on the Dark Arts before I fail out of school. Talk to you soon, and Happy Birthday again.

Silvius

I put the letter down and started ripping open the package. I gasped and Eowyn and Dasha's eyes widened. Before me sat a Nimbus two thousand and one, it must have just came off the shelf. "Who is this from?" Eowyn gasped.

"My brother," I answered still shocked. This was such an expensive gift, it only came out a few months ago. I held the broom up in my hands and I could already feel myself flying on this. It was completely black, different from all of the wooden broom's I've seen. A few other people in the room began looking up and staring at my broom from afar, even a couple of teachers were glancing, or glaring, in my direction. Then again, they always do that.

"Lucky!" Eowyn whined. "My parents won't get me a broom until next year!"