Notes

*Emma*

I didn't turn the light on, afraid of what I might see. I groped around the room and found the blanket I used this summer. Compared to the Gryffindor covers, it warmed me up as effectively as a tissue. Somehow I managed to fall asleep.
By the time I woke up, it was dawn. I slipped out of the room and decided to check on the others. Had they been adopted? Had they been mistreated? I had to know. I checked in my old room. No one was in there. That little liar. I moved down the hallway. James, Victoria, and Matt were here. 2 girls moved in. Poor them. I didn't see Arthur, Marisa, Olivia, or Sandy. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I went to the kitchen. My name was up on the breakfast schedule. I pulled out as much bread as we had and made 2 pieces of toast for all of us. Not much, but more than we used to.
"Planning to eat that all yourself?" accused a voice behind me. I jumped. It was cold, but not Ms. Hawthorne cold. I turned around.
"Sandy! I thought you left me!" I noticed the hard look on her face. "What's wrong?" She crossed her arms. Only because she was 9, she was the most adorable angry person on the planet.
"You're the one that's wrong here! Someone comes along and says he'll take one of us to an amazing life and you're too selfish to let anyone else hear about it before you leave! Then you come back and don't say hello to any of us." Her voice turned from angry to hurt. "Why?" I felt really bad. But I was also confused. I was about to explain about Hogwarts, that they only accepted witches and wizards, but I caught myself. No Muggles are supposed to know about Hogwarts.
"I'm sorry. But it's not like that. The man came from a boarding school, my parents signed me up for. It's better than here but the teachers are really strict, and they have awful punishments if you forget your homework. And I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye, it was Ms. Hawthorne's fault, she was telling my professor that I didn't want to come so I had to leave on short notice." I started venting. "I hate her! She made me come back for break." I paused. "That sounded really selfish, I'm sorry, but if you had the choice, would you get as far as possible from this place?" Sandy looked upset
"You should have stayed there. You deserve it." How lucky am I to have this girl as my friend. "Wait, which room are you in? All the other ones are taken."
"Not my old room, this morning I peeked in and no one was in there." Sandy frowned.
"That's my room now, you must have caught me when I was brushing my hair" Very true. The dresser would have blocked her from my sight. "Are you in the new room? Ms. Hawthorne said that the best kids would go to the newest bestest roo-" I cut her off.
"If by newest and best room you mean storage closet with a blanket and a light bulb in it, I have a better bed than anyone here." Sandy looked upset again, another lie Ms. Hawthorne told them. I changed the subject. "I'm only gonna be here for two weeks so I'm gonna have to build up the most credibility with the other kids as possible. They're gonna be just as bitter as you were with me before I told my side of the story." Sandy launched into an explanation of the two new girls.
"It's them you're gonna have to worry about. They've been listening to us be talk about you badly ever since they arrived. Plus they're the new oldest ones. One's a little older than you and the other's a teen." We discussed tactics to gain their trust until someone came wandering out in the hallway. It was James: he was my second best friend here, and was only a few months younger than me, but a different grade. James was yawning as he entered the kitchen, but when he saw me his eyes got wide.
"You!" he yelled. Probably waking everyone else up. "You left us for your own selfish reasons and leave us to deal with that horrible witch! You were the oldest! You were supposed to help everyone else! Most importantly, you were my friend!(A/N SHE WAS THEIR FRIEND! Comment if you get that) I thought you might tell me that you were planning to leave, or even after you left, send me a letter but NOTHING! I waited and waited for a better explanation to why you'd leave us, but you didn't even bother!" James was really screaming now. I waited until he was done to interject because if I interrupted him, he might think I was rushing to defend myself. And he was partially right. I should have sent them a letter. "Why didn't you send us anything?!" All the doors were open now to see what all the racket was. Surprisingly, the only door that wasn't open was Ms. Hawthorne's. If anyone wakes her up normally she beats them to a pulp, but not a warning from behind the door. As they kids realized why James was yelling, I had a full grown mob as they tried to interject their opinions.
"What are you doing back!?"
"You're just plain evil!"
I tried to call for silence, but no one would listen. It wasn't till Sandy piped up that it was relatively quiet.
"IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP SHE'LL WAKE UP AND ALL OF US WILL GO DOWN!" Sandy is always so straightforward.
"Okay," I started. "I didn't go to a palace. I went to a boarding school. My parents signed me up and I had no idea that they did. I really am truly sorry I didn't write. It's just..." I paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to casually explain owl post. I couldn't so I went with a different tactic. "I was so happy to be out of here I got carried away. The school is magnificent and it has a field with a lake in it it and..." I trailed off. Maybe explaining how amazing it was wasn't the right thing to do. But everyone looked entranced.
"Don't stop now!" said the youngest, Matt. "Tell us about the teachers! The students! The school!"
I was so happy they weren't mad. I launched into an explanation of the confusing passageways, the odd professors, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

-Christmas Day-
I couldn't believe it, but I was actually having a not terrible time at the orphanage. I mean, sure I still had to do all the chores, and I didn't really have a bed, just a blanket and a floor, but other than that, it was fantastic. Too fantastic. Ms. Hawthorne has ignored me since I moved in again. Under normal circumstances, it would be bad if a guardian left 7 children alone for 2 days, but in our case, we were better off. We could have whatever we could make for breakfast, and do the chores at our own pace. Life was decent. Until Christmas.
Christmas is the only thing we orphans look forward to, because ton of people visit because they're, "so sad orphans have no family with them on Christmas". Sometimes one of us gets adopted. But we all pretend we are lonely but happy because for once someone visits us. Someone with an extra room in their house preferably.
Anyway, on Christmas, we do ten times the amount of chores we normally do to make the space look fit to live in. It's hard, but worth it. The only chore I had left was to dust the light fixture. I asked James to hold the ladder while I climbed up on it. I should have known then that something would have gone wrong.
I reached out a little farther to get the last bulb and felt the latter wobble.
"Don't let the ladder go, James!" I called. No answer. I turned around, to see if he was even still there, and almost fell off in astonishment.
Ms. Hawthorne was holding the ladder. Ms. Hawthorne, who I hadn't seen in 2 days, the one who would be very happy if I fell off, was holding the ladder. If you've even been on a ladder and were worried that you were going to fall off, multiply your fear by ten because I knew I was going to fall off.
"Oh, hello, Emma. Sorry to scare you like that," Ms. Hawthorne said with no indication of sounding or looking sorry. "I just wanted to show you somethin-whoops!" She had taken her hands off the ladder for a fraction of a second and the ladder leaned dangerously to the left. She was toying with me.