Chapter 8 ~ A Warm Welcome...

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Maxine tried to ignore the murmurs and whispers of conversation as she made her way to the Ravenclaw table. Sh caught snippets of the talk, not that she was surprised by it. Most of them were something along the lines of;

 ''Lestrange! As in - Bellatrix Lestrange?''

''Never knew she had a daughter.''

''Granddaughter you mean.''

''She must be really evil.''

''Yeah, but she's heading for Ravenclaw.''

And so she was, striding along, face set in stone. Maxine glanced at the Gryffindoor table, and for a second felt warmer when she saw Lily and Albus' smiling faces. Then James' expression caught her eye.

Maxine resisted the temptation to hold up her middle finger at him and turned to sit with a group of Ravenclaws her age. Most of them were staring at her stupidly, though a boy and girl who appeared to be twins were simply smiling arrogantly at her and whispering between themselves, and a guy with dark hair and grey eyes who was sat next to her was silent.. She turned to the food, which looked appetising, but found it was impossible to eat anything with more than half the school staring at her.

''You know, you can leave if you want.'' A voice in her ear made her jump slightly. Maxine realized it was the dark boy next to her. Casting dirty looks at her surrounding students, she put down her knife and fork.

''Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.'' Rising, she stepped over the bench she'd been sat on and strode down the hall, sweeping a scornful and partonising glance across the four tables. The whispering died down a bit as she exited, but she could hear it increase once she was out of the Hall. Sighing, she began to climb a staircase - before realizing that she had no idea where she was going.

''Maxie! Maxie wait up!'' Maxine spun round at the voice, smile immediately dawning on her face. Lily was running up the stairs towards her, slightly out of puff as her shorter legs struggled to get up the stairs, looking worriedly at Maxine.

''Hey Lil, how you doing?'' Maxine tried to make her voice light, but it didn't fool Lily, who was looking at her worriedly.

''They were horrible to stare at you like that.'' She said gravely. ''Even my friends whispered about you.''

Maxine shrugged it off as if she didn't mind, though in fact she was aching inside. ''I suppose it's like that with everyone.''

Lily took Maxine's hand. ''I can show you where you're common room is if you like, but obviously I can't go in it.'' She began to lead Maxine up the stairs. ''I wish you were in Gryffindoor with me.''

Maxine smiled gratefully but couldn't bare to answer the last question with ''Me too'' because it was such a lie that it would be a sin to speak it, especially when she still wanted to punch James' face in. 

Lily chatted non-stop on the way up the strange staircases, and Maxine began to drift into a better mood as they walked through the silent castle. Lily explained the way the staircases moved, the paintings that talked, and also went on about what she was doing in her classes at the moment, what she had done with her friends; even gabbling away about the teachers.

"And there's this weird teacher for Transfiguration - she never speaks to anyone, just mopes around. I think Dad knows her. She's Irish, you know? Apparently James used to talk to her as well, and she was involved in the mystery that happened when I was little. Oh, and we have this really cool woman who teaches DADA - defence against the dark arts - but she's away at the moment - her name's Professor Fairweather. Oh and..."

 Maxine didn't really contribute to the talk much, but her little sister didn't seem to mind. Finally though, after many flights of stairs, they arrived at the end of the corridor where a large, ornate door stood. Upon the door was a notice, reading;

''You use a knife to slice my head

Then weep beside me when I'm dead.''

Maxine turned to Lily. ''I think it's a riddle.'' She said, reading it once more.

Lily nodded. ''Yes, you have to answer it to get into the common room.'' 

Maxine raised her eyebrows. ''Well, this one's simple.'' She turned back to the door. ''Onion.''

The door opened, revealing a brightly lit room with elegant blue seats and carpet, a dark blue ceiling studded with stars that actually seemed to glow. There were large, high windows from which golden beams of the evening sunset poured in, and coppery bronze edging to the carpet, ceiling and rug. Maxine could only gaze dreamily upon the sight for a few seconds, before hastily turning back to Lily.

''Well, see you then.'' She said sadly, wishing Lily could enter the room with her. ''Thanks for helping me, Lil.''

Lily stepped forwards and gave Maxine a hug. ''No problem.'' She drew out of the embrace. ''See you tomorrow Maxie.''

Maxine nodded. ''Bye!'' Lily turned to wave and then was gone, disappearing round a corner. Maxine went fully into the common room and the door closed behind her. Well, time to do some exploring.

It was a beautiful room, very elegant and plush. There was another room built on, filled with books of all kinds; the Ravenclaw's personal library. At the entrance to the library stood a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, or so it read on the name plate beneath the marble figure. Maxine was a little ignorant about the house, and with shame after forgetting who Rowena Ravenclaw was for a moment, she picked up a book titled ''Ravenclaw House''; which apparently would tell her all she needed to know about it.

She found the entrance to the dormitories, entering the girl's to find a long corridor and seven doors marked with the different numbers, presumably for years. She opened the one marked ''5th'' and went through the doorway to find herself in another Lavishly decorated room, with four beds that were very medieval in style, four posters. There were four windows also, providing a beautiful view of the peach sunset. Maxine found her trunk awaiting, and was pleased to find a large set of draws in which she could put most of her belongings, space under the bed where she could stash her trunk and a four built-in wardrobes at the end of the room, one for each resident. She liked being high up as well, it reminded her of her attic.

Even by the time she'd unpacked her entire trunk and settled it, no one had arrived, so she got ready for bed, using the small bathroom at the end of the dormitory corridor. She didn't mind that she went to sleep alone, her classmates didn't matter.

To be honest, she was dreading the hour when she'd have to meet them.