Outside Hagrid's Hut.

Theresa walked passed the lake, stopping when she saw Hagrid's hut. She smiled to herself as she skipped towards it, wondering if he was in. As she got closer, she realised that the lights were off and there didn't seem to be anyone there. She was about to walk back to the lake when she saw the biggest pumpkins she had ever seen. She walked over to them and wondered if there was a spell on them to make them so big. She grinned before she took out her sketch book, the punmpkins were a great way to practise her drawings.

Shelby spotted her friend walking down towards Hagrid's Hut. With a sly smile, she crept behind her, being careful not to make any noise. For a moment she thought Theresa might have heard her when she stopped at the giant pumpkin, but when she pulled out a sketch pad Shelby knew that she hadn't and continued her sneaking. As silently as she could, she got right behind Theresa and whispered in her ear. "What are you doing, Resa?"

Theresa jumped when she heard a voice, she had thought that she was alone. She quickly turned around and relaxed before pretending to glare at her friend. "You scared me" she accused before sticking her tongoue out and closing her book. "Besides getting scared half to death, I am not doing anything" she said, smiling at her friend.

Since Jen finished her homework, she figured she might as well visit Hagrid. If truth be told, she hadn't made many friends at Hogwarts yet. Even though she loved being here, she was lonely. At least with visiting Hagrid she'd have one friendly person she'd be able to talk to. She raised a fist to knock on Hagrid's door when she realized that all the lights in Hagrid's cabin were off. Was he not home? She looked around the area to see if she could spot Hagrid or anyone else around the area. She noticed two girls sitting by the overlarge pumpkins. Maybe she should ask them where Hagrid was, or try and just introduce herself. Perhaps she would even make new friends! Gathering up her courage, she approached the girls.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but do you know where Hagrid is? I wanted to visit with him, but I don't think he's in his house. I'm Jen by the way, what's your names?"

"I was practicing being sneaky," Shelby said with a laugh, sitting down next to Theresa. "I have a feeling that I'm going to need it. Lauren just might kill me after that dare I gave her yesterday."

Shelby's face immediately flushed as she remembered the deal she had made with Lauren. She wondered if Lauren had told Resa about it. She tried to hide her rosy cheeks from her friend.

She looked up as the other girl approached. "I don't know where he is," Shelby said, "But you're more than welcome to sit with us if Theresa doesn't mind. I'm Shelby," she said with a smile.

Theresa smiled at the girl "of course, your more than welcome" she said. "I wonder where Hagrid is though, I wanted to say hi to him, oh well" she said with a shrug. She turned to Shelby "if you want to practise being sneaky then try and give other people heart attacks, not me" she joked, sticking her tongue out at her friend.

Jen smiled at the girls and sat down. These two seemed really nice. "It's great to meet you Shelby and Theresa. Are you enjoying Hogwarts so far? How have your classes been going? I'm a Hufflepuff first year, so everything is so new to me, but I really love it here," she said. "What subjects are you guys taking?" Jen was still a bit nervous about meeting new people, and she hoped she didn't scare these girls away with her unintentional game of '20 questions.' Her mum always did tell her she had a knack for talking too much.

Theresa smiled "I am enjoying it, classes are good especially Defence Against the Dark Arts, that has got to be the most fun" she said, giggling slightly. "Briliant another Puff, I am a Hufflepuff too" she said cheerfully, she hardly ever met other Hufflepuffs outside the common room. "I am taking Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms and Transfiguration, what about you?" she asked. This girl seemed nervous, it reminded her of herself back when she first arrived at Hogwarts a few days ago.

Shelby smiled at the girl. "I'm a Ravenclaw. I really like everything so far. I'm taking Charms, DADA, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, and History of Magic," she said proudly. As a Ravenclaw she felt it was her academic duty to take as many classes as she could. In fact, the only class available to first years that she wasn't taking was Astronomy, which she felt would be quite useless to her.

Jen started to feel a bit more comfortable around the girls, they seemed really nice and there was no need to be shy. She turned excitedly to Theresa, "DADA is my favorite class too! I really enjoyed our first lesson, although my group still hasn't responded to our discussion yet. Hopefully Professor Hunt won't take points off... It's great to meet another Hufflepuff, too!" She then turned to Shelby, "It's so nice to also meet a new friend from a different house. You sure are taking a lot of classes! Both of you are taking more than me. I'm only taking DADA, Charms, and Astronomy." Jen was then reminded of something that had been bothering her. What if she couldn't find a good career after Hogwarts because she was taking so few classes? "At first I thought it would be a good idea to only take a few classes," she told Shelby and Theresa, "this way I could just concentrate on those classes and do well without having too much of a work load, but now I wish I signed up for more. Hopefully in my second year I'll be able to sign up for more classes!"

Theresa grinned "what was your discusion?" she asked. "Professor Hunt is nice, I am sure she wont, she has got to be the most generous Professor when it comes to house points" she said. "I am sure you can, I would never take as many lessons as the Ravenclaw here, she is just mad" she said making a slight coo-coo sound. "I missed the first lesson, it seemed like so much fun, although if I was partnered with someone, I might not have caught them, not on purpose of course" she said giggling.

"I think you'll be able to sign up for more classes," Shelby said with a small smile. "Plus, during third year we can take even more stuff, like Muggle Studies and Arithmancy."

Jen certainly was chatty. Shelby thought about making a joke of it, like she would have done if it was Theresa talking, but she didn't want to offend the girl that she had just met. Her and her friends teased each other a lot, but she didn't know how this new girl would take it, so she just settled for smiling warmly at her.

Jen felt relieved. That was true, she thought. She would be able to sign up for more courses in the third year, plus in the second year she could sign up for the courses she didn't get to sign up for this year. She smiled. "I had the make up discussion for DADA because I also missed the first class, so the topic was dark vs. light. I'm really looking forward to seeing the other people's opinions on the subject. I don't think there's much of a debate there, no offense if you guys don't agree, but I think any sane person would say the light is better than the dark," she smirked, "I'm sure you agree, but we just met, so maybe you guys aren't sane," she giggled to show the girls that she was just kidding. As Jen was starting to feel more comfortable speaking to these girls, she felt like she could joke around with them.

Theresa grinned at the girl's joke "oh trust me, we are deffinetly not sane" she said sweetly before falling back onto the grass. "I agree with you about the debate, the light is definetly better, it is more powerful and it isnt horrible which the dark magic obviously is" she said. She was glad the girl seemed to be less shy, she liked this girl.

"Hey, don't pull me into this!" Shelby laughed, poking Theresa in the side. "I'm perfectly sane. Resa is the crazy one here!" she giggled.

"I agree that light is better than dark. My group had to debate about which was better- magic or muggle technology. I think it ended up pretty good. Professor Hunt said that it sounded like we really did our research and put a lot of work into the debate."

Theresa laughed as she scooted away from her friend "no we both are and there is no point denying it because we all know it is true, even though we are not as crazy as Lauren the tiny brain" she said, crossing her arms. She thought for a moment "actually, you are more crazy than me by far" she teased before she stuck her tongue out at her.

"Don't let her hear you call her that again. She might make you sing that Hufflepuff punishment song again. And how am I more crazy than you? Only a crazy person would dare a Gryffindor to jump into the lake off of the tallest tree by there!" Shelby stuck her tongue out at Theresa in retaliation.

Theresa shrugged "it would be worth it, next time I see her I wont be able to resist calling her that now because you said dont" she said childishly. "Well Miss 'my life isn't as important as seeing that scary thing in the lake'" she said, grinning madly at the memory. She sighed and gave a sour look "you are never going to let me forget that are you? I didn't think she would really do it" she said, giggling.

"Okay, but you can't say that I didn't warn you," Shelby said in a sing-songy voice. "And you know that you wanted to find out what it was just as much as I did. Plus, I didn't die, so there's really no harm done," Shelby pretended to pout.

"I can easily forget about you making Lauren jump, but I think I will always remember you singing the 'puff 'puff song," she began to laugh at the memory so hard that her stomach hurt and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Theresa's cheeks burned red "I knew I shouldn't have picked dare from that evil Gryffindor and I shall call her tiny crain for pay back so forever" she said dramatically. She watched her friend for a moment going even deeper red "ok you can stop laughing now you meanie" she said crossing her arms. "I think I prefer you only remembering the jumping incident" she said.

Shelby stopped laughing but grinned from ear to ear. "So you'd rather that I remember you nearly getting our friend killed than singing a little song," she teased, inwardly laughing at how embarrassed Theresa had been to sing the other day. "I wasn't joking when I said that you have a lovely singing voice."

Theresa was absoluterly mortified about singing that weird song as loud as she could. She also felt terrible about the dare, she didn't think that the stuborn Gryffindor would actually do it. She smiled even though her blush deepend "could you please be a nice friend and forget about them both?" she asked hopefully, widening her eyes slightly. "I am so going to try and get Lauren and her tiny brain back" she mummbled.

Shelby smiled warmly. "Already forgotten," she said. "Unless you annoy me, in which case I might suddenly remember something embarrassing about you," she joked.

"What are you planning to do to get revenge on Lauren?" Shelby asked, rather amused by the back and forth dares that her friends had going.

"Meanie" Theresa acused, sticking her tongue out at her again before she thought. After a moment, she sighed dramatically "I have no idea, I am terible at revenge, she enjoyed my last revenge but of course Lauren would enjoy acting like a monkey and shrieking at people, I should have known" she said, giggling.

"I don't know how, but she seems to find the fun in everything," Shelby said, "I mean, even when she did that thing that you told her to do that I don't remember anymore, she was happy even though we had to save her," Shelby did her best to explain Lauren's tree jump without actually calling it that.