Ch 5 - Apart for the First Time in a Long Time

When Celine and Alex had been sorted, Alex started getting nervous. Sitting next to Fred and George, they could instantly tell that he was off from the short time they knew each other. Alex kept poking at his food occasionally putting only one or two bites of food in his mouth. "You-" Fred started. "Okay?" and George finished.

"I'm worried about my sister. She isn't exactly the most social person, nor the most talkative," Alex sighed putting down his fork and put his right hand on his forehead and ruffled his own hair.

"Yeah... we kinda got that on the train," said Fred shaking his head. George added, "But we can tell that she's got her own fire in there somewhere. And look on the bright side! We're finally at Hogwarts!" Alex chuckled and shook his head. Maybe they were right. His sister may have been quiet but when she wanted something, she got it. And when she was mad, she could make almost anyone within a 10-foot radius shake with fear. After all the saying goes, "Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned."

After they were finished eating, one of the Gryffindor prefects led them to the common room. Hogwarts was a confusing maze of halls, rooms, and moving staircases. Finally, they arrived at a portrait of a woman. "Quidditch," was the password given. Alex then went to his dorm and unpacked everything. He was sharing his dorm room with Fred and George, with another kid named Lee Jordan.

Once done with unpacking, he got out a dragonhide travel journal and went to the common room. Alex sat by a window and started writing. As surprising as it seemed, ever since his parents died writing his feeling into poems was the only thing that kept him sane. There were hundreds of poems in the dragonhide bound book, and all of them filled with emotions and memories. The book was special to Alex, while it kept him sane with each poem, memories were also put in each poem. It worked as a sort of a Pensieve in a way. All one needed to do was touch a poem and mutter a password. Tonight was a special night, so he wrote two poems. The first:

"It isn't the red ribbon that binds us together

The root that unifies us, does not derive

From a tree on the wall

This bond knows no genetics

Friendship is a peculiar seed

No matter the season, the weather

nor the time of the day

When planted on a nourishing soul

It will always bear fruit"

The second:

"Those we love don't go away

They walk beside us every day

Unseen, unheard, but always near,

so loved, so missed, so very dear,

Even miles apart"

Where his sister distanced herself, Alex hid behind a smile and laughter. But because of a pair of redheaded twins, Celine was smiling and Alex had made genuine friends. Alex closed his journal and sat by the window gazing at the crescent moon. A breeze blows at his face whirling his hair around, and he smiled and got up to go to bed. Stepping into his dorm he saw Fred, George, and Lee softly snoring in their sleep. He put his wand and journal on his bedside table and crawled under his sheets. As soon as his head hit his pillow, all Alex could see was black.