"Hey! Eve!"

I spun around in the direction of the familiar voice to see Ivy Lang pushing through gaggles of people.

"Ivy!" I grinned and met the hufflepuff halfway. She drew me in for a hug the second I was in reaching distance and squeezed the air out of me. I returned the gesture.

"Girl, I've missed you so much," she whined and pulled away. We followed the chaotic stream of students to the carriage boarding area just behind the train platform.

Before we could walk over to one the carriages, however, the caretaker - an eerie homeless looking man - stopped us. He informed us grumpily that all of the students had to have all of their belongings checked before entering the school.

We complied and handed over our bags. I suspected the new arrangement was because of Voldermort's continuing rise to power. The fact that the school was taking some extra precautions to the danger which approached provided some reassurance but also brutally re-enforced the fact that our world was heading into a war.

After the caretaker confirmed that we were not, in fact, Death Eaters or any other threat to the school, we found our way to a carriage and hopped on. When it was evident nobody else was going to climb aboard, the carriage jurked into motion, I gripped onto the side to steady myself.

"Did you go to Scotland this year?" I inquired. Ivy went to Scotland almost every year to visit her fathers side of the family, the oblivious muggle side.

"Nope, we decided to go abroad for once with them instead. We went to Greece and, girl, it was beautiful. So warm and picturesque and the food! Oh Merlin, it was heaven!"

I laughed at the dreamy expression that coated her face and leaned forwards to try and catch a glimpse of Hogwarts Castle through the forest. "I'd love to go abroad. Paris would be nice or perhaps Athens."

"What did you do in the holidays, Eve?" Ivy began after shifting for a minute in the silence.

"Not much," I hummed, "I bought tickets to see the muggle band Red Hot Chilli Peppers, learned some songs, wrote some songs and read some books."

She nodded, "You'll have to play the songs for me some time. Did you bring your guitar this year?"

"I did, actually. Do you think you could paint the back for me?"

Her face light up at the prospect, "Of course! Mum bought me some new paints and brushes for my birthday so I've brought them with me."

- - -

When we pulled up outside the entrance to Hogwarts, Ivy and I battled through the storm with our trolleys of bags. Chatter filled the hallways to the arched ceiling as everyone made their ways to their dorms.

"Girl, I've got to go to the toilet. I'll see you after dinner in the library." Ivy tells me and veered off to the left.

I made my way through the buzzing castle, up walls of spiraling staircases to one of the tallest towers in the castle; ravenclaw tower. At the stop of the last staircase, I saw two ravenclaws waiting outside the wooden door with only a bronze knocker in the shape of an Eagle. They must have answered their riddle incorrectly.

"You go at red, but stop at green. What am I?" the Eagle asked in his usual pretentious voice.

"A watermelon. You eat the red part, and you stop eating at the green part." I answered after a few good minutes of mulling over the problem.

"Welcome," said the eagle and the door swung open. All three of us sighed and climbed through the passage into the airy common room full of bookshelves, coffee tables, armchairs and sofas. The room was a dome shape, with many arched windows winged with either a deep, dark, lushious blue or a shimmering bronze silk.

I walked straight through, past the marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, who stood proud and guarded the door to the dormitories, up another set of small stairs to the girls dormitory. I located my bed in the corner by the window and started to unpack my clothes into the draws below the four posted bed. The midnight blue curtains pooling on the floor by the post the were tied to. When the streaks of silver weaves in-between the blue velvet, it shone like the bewitched night sky in the great hall.

I pulled out my guitar stand, placed it next to the wooden chest that I'd filled with books and stationary and placed my guitar carefully in place. Next to my guitar, I throw down Jose's bed and place the sleek black cat onto it. As I did every year, I threw my blanket over the bed, removed one of the pillows cases and replaced it with my own.

By the time I'd unpacked, all of the Ravenclaw girls had arrived and started unpacking, the sound of gossip and laughter colliding from wall to dark blue wall.

"Hey Cho," Padma Partil called across the room. Cho. Chang's bed was opposite mine.

She stopped her unpacking and looked up, "Yeah?"

"Are you going to the beginning of year party in the Slytherin common room tonight?"

"Yes," she grinned, "I'll help you find something to wear if you help me."

"Deal."

I rolled my eyes at how excited people got over stupid little gathering where you listen to loud music and get drunk. Although a small part of me wanted to go, just for the experience of course.

Luna, in the bed next to mine, scattered a few crystals on her bedside table. "Hello Evangeline Willard," she began in her melodic voice, something clasped between her hands.

I hummed in response.

"I noticed last year you seemed anxious and had trouble sleeping." I nodded once, curious to see where this conversation was heading, "I thought this might help."

She held up a necklace with a rectangular, deep, dark forest green crystal, carved to a point at the end that hung from a thin, gold chain. My lips parted slightly.

"Its a bloodstone. It will help ward off negative energy, help your creativity and help your bloodflow. Here, take it. It'll help you with your song writing too."

She took my hand softly in hers and pressed the cool crystal into my palm.

"Are you sure," I whispered, peering into my hand.

"Of course. See you later, Evangeline," she replied with a smile and skipped out of the bustling room before I could inquire where she had got it from, how she knew about its capabilites and who ever I should repay her?

I turned the crystal between two fingers and inspected the different shades of the same colour it possessed, how it reacted with the light. When I looked closer, I caught sight of tiny red curves running along the surface like rust. I'd heard of such things, muggles seemed to be obsessed with them. Could this seriously help with my worrying just by wearing it?

I shrugged and closed the clasp around my neck. I supposed it was worth a try, after all what harm could a rock do?