They entered the great hall from a door on the side, Dumbledore leading the way. 

  Panic rose inside of Lucia and Hazel, however Estelle didn't care. She didn't see a reason to panic at that moment, she'd panic later but not just yet.

   The crowd slowly quieted to watch them enter, quieted, not silenced, their whispers echoed, finally making Estelle nervous.

  She had always hated whispering, especially when it was pointed towards her. It made her insides crawl. She felt like everything inside was out, painted of her skin for the world to see.

  Estelle liked to keep her secrets deep. She kept them so deep that if under veritaserum she would probably still be able to lie about it, overcoming the potions affects. Not that that had been tried of course.

  Dumbledore held up his hand, the whispers stopping immediately, most of the panic in Estelles head with it.

  "Students of Hogwarts!" He started. "I am glad to announce the arrival of three new students to Hogwarts. They come from Durmstrang and have been sorted into Gryffindor house. Please welcome Lucia Reed..." Applause rang out as Lucia waved lightly, her shyness from when she was younger returning. "Hazel Potter..." This time there was more gasps than applause, which sounds scattered. Hazel rolled her eyes and quickly put her hand up and down again, as if she was raising her hand for attendance when there was a sub that you've had a thousand times before so your hand barely goes above your shoulder as you say hello instead of here. "And finally Estelle Lewis." More applause as Estelle stuck her hand up and down again, not liking the feeling of her arms above her head.

  "I hope you will treat them kindly and help them out if they get lost, now, let's eat." Dumbledore waved the three girls to the red table as good appeared and every student dug in.

  Estelle took the lead, Hazel and Lucia trailing behind looking around the hall.

  "There's some spots." Lucia pointed near the end of the table.

  The girls picked up their pace to get there faster but not run. They dropped down onto the bench and for the first time today, had a break...

  "Is anyone else just now realizing that all that we went through was a lot. Like a lot a lot." Hazel asked staring down at the table.

  Lucia started slowly nodding. "Yeah." Said Estelle. "It almost feels like a dream or impossible, this is crazy."

  "So, Durmstrang eh?" A voice asked from beside them.
  "They came here last year for-"
  "The Triwizard tournament-"
  "They had Krum here-"
  "But none of you. So,"
  "What did you do?"
  "Start a fire and ruin the school?"
  "Do dark magic too dark?"
  "Kill a student?"
  "Release a magical snake to kill students?" The two red headed boys beside them went back and forth, completing each other's sentences.

  The trio stared at the pair. "No..." Hazel started, unsure how to respond.

  "We didn't kill anyone, if we did we wouldn't be here... It was just a prank, a prank gone terribly wrong." Estelle finished, knowing her friend was at a loss.

  "Oh a prank you say."
  "We pull lots of pranks."
  "Some small"
  "Some large"
  "Was it good?" The duo asked.

  The trio looked at each other. "It could have been better, and if we had known he was going to expel us because of it we would have went bigger. It was alright though." Lucia explained.

  "What's your names?" Hazel cut in to ask before the row could interrupt again.

  "I'm Fred." The one farthest from them.
  "I'm George." The one beside Estelle replied.
  "So who are you?" They asked in sync.

  "You heard what Dumbledore said." Estelle stated, partly insulted that they were asking when it was just announced.

  "No we didn't."
  "We weren't paying attention."

  Estelle rolled her eyes as Lucia introduced herself.

  "Okay then, I'm Lucia,"
  "I'm Hazel."
  Estelle glared at the boys for a moment. "I'm Estelle."

  "Great, I'm so glad we're all introduced-"

  Estelle,  partly out of spite and partly out of curiosity, turned to the across from her, a round faced brown haired boy.

  "So what's your name then?"
  "O-oh I'm Neville..." The boy panicked.
 
  Across from Fred and George, to Neville's left, two other boys introduced themselves.

  "I'm Seamus!"
  "I'm Dean."

  Estelle nodded, hoping she was upsetting the Ginger boys but refusing to look at them.

  Estelle looked at the girl to the right of Neville.

  "What's your name?" She asked with a Smile.

  "Talia, Talia Rain." She said quietly.

  Talia Rain was in fact a quiet girl, often overshadowed by louder voices around her. She had many older siblings but being the youngest made her the quietest. When her siblings moved out the house sat quiet. If you passed it on the road, you wouldn't have guessed that a girl and her father still loved there, that the house had been so loud that they had many noise complaints before. Her mother had passed on when she was five. Talia remembered a little of her mother but not much. With lots of siblings she always seemed to be able to slip off, be forgotten for a minute. Talia Rain's whole life had been a downpour of loneliness and quiet.

  "Nice to meet you." Estelle smiled at Talia.

  Talia smiled back, then returned to her food with a small smile. Few people actually talked to her, she didn't really have any friends, people assumed she did so they just didn't go to a lot of effort to talk to her, assuming they would just annoy her. Something about Estelle gave her hope, a good feeling.

  Dinner soon finished, Hazel and Lucia talked a bit with Neville and Talia and Estelle had taken a liking to Fred and George.

  Soon they rose from the table together, Fred and George leading, Hazel, Talia and Estelle talking directly behind them and Lucia talking with Neville about herbology.

  One this Estelle, Hazel and Lucia did not know about themselves is that they held a certain air around them, making people attracted to them and making them popular.

  None of the girls would consider themselves popular, just know but they were well liked by other students at Durmstrang and this air followed them to Hogwarts.

  Hazel and Talia were so deep in conversation that they didnt realize they were at the Gryffindor common room until the door swung open.

  "Welcome, to Gryffindor!" Fred announced throwing himself down onto the couch in front of the fireplace.

  "I'm in a dorm with you guys to even it out a bit, would you like me to take you to it?" Talia offered the trio of girls.

  Hazel nodded great fully as Lucia replied "It has been a long day, some rest would be nice."

  The group of four headed up the stairs, waving goodnight to the twins and Neville. They walked up some stairs and into a long hall, many of the doors either wide open with people inside, slightly cracked or completely shut.

  "This room is ours, beside us is the other 5th year Gryffindor girls room if you ever need them, we land to leave our doors unlocked, especially if we're in, but if someone's upset at us, we always charm the door to protect us."

  Talia opened the door to a room with four beds, large windows and a sense of peace.

  Talia had already claimed one of the beds farther from the door, beside the window. Lucia took the bed beside her, nearer to the door and Hazel across from Talia. Estelle was next to Hazel and across from Lucia, also near the door.

They nodded happy with their bed locations, figuring if they we're happy later they'd simply trade.

  Then one by one each former Durmstrang student passed out from exhaustion and then Talia got ready and went off to bed. 

  Who should show them around Hogwarts? Preferably not Slytherin, not ready to get into that yet, still planning...

~April 13, 2024~