Chapter Text
stevie crouched down into the chicken coop to grab the eggs that the hens had hatched. when stevie was 5-years-old, she went into the chicken coop for the first time and got pecked. she told her parents that she would not ever go back to the chicken coop again.
of course when stevie came back from hogwarts, her parents put her back in the chicken coop. by then, stevie had to take a deep breath and face her fears. like stevie going to hogwarts for her first year.
it was the middle of august, school didn’t start for another few weeks; stevie had already gotten her items for school and was just waiting for the day.
“move over, pepa!” stevie snarled as she grabbed the eggs.
when stevie came out of the coop, her hair was covered in feathers as she marched back into the house.
“here, eggs” stevie said blowing a feather away from her face
“ah..yes, i see” amara said taking another feather out of stevie’s hair
the teen rubbed her face as she said she was going to wash up for breakfast.
stevie climbed up the stairs and into her bathroom where her black cat, salem lodged on the toilet seat.
“hi salem”
the cat meowed back in response before stretching out and hopping onto the counter where stevie was washing her face and hands from being in the chicken coop.
“hey chickadee” her dad greeted walking by
“hi papa” stevie responded finishing up drying her face.
“did those chickens give you a hard time?”
stevie shook her head as she followed her dad down the stairs back to the kitchen where her mom was making scrambled eggs; the young teen grabbed the kettle and started to put in water to boil while her father started to set up the table.
after everything was set, they all sat down and started to chat about upcoming plans and weeks to come. stevie was munching on her toast and petting salem when her mother brought up hogwarts, bringing up that stevie was going back to the school in a few weeks, back to the magic and whatnot.
“yeah, i got everything packed” stevie said as she brushed off the crumbs from her shirt
“you gonna miss the old farm?” her dad asked
stevie nodded once more before sharing she wasn’t ready to leave cork once again for the school year but she knew that she had to go to hogwarts in order to actually learn something about magic.
and if she wanted to be a magizoologist, working with magical creatures. the thought of it was just accelerating. stevie smiled to herself as she finished up her breakfast.
“is there anything else you need before heading off to hogwarts?” asked her mother
“nothing comes to mind, although salem is requesting some catnip”
“is he now?”
stevie nodded as she sipped her tea while salem meowed right next to her.
as the summer came to end, stevie sat out on the farm with one of the lambs; she was currently feeding them and gently petting them.
“i have to go away for a little bit, flora” stevie whispers
the lamb just kept sucking on the milk bottle before she was all done and hop out of stevie’s arms. the young girl watched as the lamb trotted off back to her flock while stevie got up and dusted herself off.
she stared out to the field, they looked like they went on for miles. it was so quiet and peaceful, sometimes stevie wishes she could stay here forever. sometimes stevie wishes to stay in the muggle world post hogwarts.
“stevie!” shouted her mother
“yeah?”
“time to go”
stevie nodded as she ran off to meet her mom.
platform 9 and ¾ remain to be as busy as usual with every family saying their farewells to their loved ones as they board the train to hogwarts. stevie watched as her peers boarded the train, others saying their goodbyes; some were first years trying to grasp the fact they were going to a magical school or were first years who had family who either currently went to hogwarts or did in the past.
“alright, everything is set?” asked stevie’s dad
stevie turned to face him
“yup, i got it all”
“you’ll be okay?” asked her mom
“i always am, mam”
stevie finally kissed her parents goodbyes before boarding onto the train to hogwarts. before stevie can find her seat, she peeked out the window to wave bye to her parents; the train started to pull away.
many students started to shout goodbyes to their parents. stevie stayed watching hers before they were just a dot in stevie’s eyes. she pulled away from the window and went to find her seat. the young ravenclaw shuffled through with her cat carrier; as stevie moved through the train, she was met with a traffic jam.
stevie peered over to see the candy trolley.
“oh, sorry stevie” cho chang’s voice said as her and her friends passed her with their treats
“it’s alright…” stevie whispered but cho and her friends were already out of ear shot
stevie shimmed past the trolley before moving on and running into a certain gryffindor.
“oh sorry” harry said
“it’s fine, i was trying not to get run over by the trolley, so…yeah”
“right”
it was an awkward silence before stevie kept moving on, wanting to hide in a corner of the world and never appear again. once the ravenclaw found an empty compartment, she flopped on the seats, and groaned heavily into the cushions in her attempt to be funny in front of harry.
the time to change into hogwarts uniform came; stevie grabbed her ravenclaw uniform and shuffled over to the girls’ bathroom. the young girl waited in line as she fiddled with her tie, thinking about what this year would bring and what she could expect.
stevie was so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize the bathroom was free till lavender brown cleared her throat; stevie snapped out of her thoughts, muttering a sorry before rushing into the bathroom.
stevie was never a fan of the welcome back dinner, actually she was never a fan of eating in the dining hall. perhaps it was because of the fact that stevie didn’t really have friends to eat with, so she would disappear with a plate of food back up to her dorm. which also gave her an advantage of picking a dorm bed prior to everyone else.
she ate her food, flipping through her book as salem was asleep on the window still. it was currently pouring rain outside, stevie liked the rain, she liked it better when she was inside watching the rain.
after finishing up her plate, stevie made her way downstairs to the kitchen, to clean it up. as she left ravenclaw tower, she noticed that the hallways were filled with students which meant that the welcome back dinner was done.
stevie notices the new first-years looking scared and anxious around as they follow their prefects up to their dorms. all while that’s happening, stevie is pushing through the crowd to get to the kitchen.
just as stevie reaches the kitchen, she bumps shoulders with someone causing her to nearly drop her plate.
“i’m sorry!” said the voice
“it’s fine, i wasn’t looking where i was going” stevie says, before looking at up
of course, it was harry potter, himself.
harry stared at her before noticing the plate and utensils in her hands, confused. stevie cleared her throat before rushing off to the kitchen. she felt her face getting hotter as she sped walk into the kitchen.
she wasn’t sure whether it was because of the fact she was practically running into the kitchen or because of the fact she ran into harry and made a fool of herself again. life is so much easier on the farm, where she was dealing with her chickens and sheeps and goats. not here where stevie was making a bigger fool of herself.
once stevie rinsed up her plate and utensils, she headed back to her dorm, bracing herself for the first day tomorrow.
stevie made her way back up to ravenclaw tower, she took the long way, that way she admired the night walk back to her dorm. her hands tucked behind her, looking around at the hogwarts castle as if it was her first time in the place. every year, stevie learns something new or sees something different about hogwarts.
she finally arrived at the ravenclaw tower portrait door.
“already starting on your late nights?”
stevie waited for the riddle, silently. the portrait let out a huge sigh
“what has hands but cannot clap?”
“a clock”
the portrait swung open causing stevie to shuffle into the ravenclaw tower and quietly go up to her dorm to find padma and margaret sitting on the floor of the fourth year girls dorm. they quickly stopped when they saw stevie standing there.
“hello”
“where have you been?” padma asked
“kitchen…” stevie whispered
padma and margaret shared a look before looking back at stevie and asked if she had went to the welcome back feast. stevie shared that she didn’t and that she was up here in the dorm eating; padma and margaret shared another look again and stifled a laugh, causing stevie to feel awkward.
“you were eating up here alone with your cat?”
“yeah…he’s great” stevie said quietly
“god you’re weird” said margaret
“maybe weirder than looney lovegood”
stevie tried to stand up for herself: “she’s not weird, and don’t call her that”
“of course a weirdo like you supports another weirdo”
stevie ignored their comments as she climbed into her bed, while padma and margaret taunted her a bit more before going back to whatever. she felt her anxiety crawling over her body like an army of ants before it overtook her. stevie felt her eyes watering and her throat tighten.
at least tomorrow was a new day, right?
the following morning, stevie made her way to breakfast; her uniform was pressed and clean, her messenger bag hung over her shoulder as she rushed downstairs. there was a bustle of students also making their way to the great hall for breakfast. stevie made a beeline towards the ravenclaw table to grab a muffin and some tea. for a first day of classes, it wasn’t as sunny but more cloudy and possibly raining.
stevie observed her peers as she picked at her muffin and lightly munched on them. she was finishing up her muffin when someone came up to her.
“sorry, could you pass me a muffin?” it was cho chang
“oh sure, sorry…” stevie mumbled as she reached over for a muffin and handed it to cho
“thanks”
stevie just hummed a response before noticing a pair of eyes looking over at the ravenclaw table. when the teen glanced over she saw none other than harry potter staring over. she felt her face go red before coming to terms that he was possible just looking at cho chang.
his little crush on cho was a bit obvious, if not to many, then a good handful at least.
she went back to her breakfast before getting up to head off to her classes. the first class of the morning was potions with, as usual, professor snape. stevie made her way to the classroom, but as she was making her way over, someone had stepped on her cloak, causing it to rip.
“hey…” she whispered to herself before going off to the side to repair it.
“people ought to watch where they’re going” said a voice behind her
“i guess i’m that invisible” she mumbled before mutter ‘repairo’ under her breath
when stevie turned to see who was talking to her it was terry boot.
“oh hello terry”
“hey stevie, how was your summer?”
“it was alright…” she mumbled
“yeah? you seemed to have grown over the summer”
stevie furrowed her brows confused by what he meant; when stevie saw him staring at her chest she had an idea.
“i’m gonna head off them”
“wait, we’re going to the same class, why not we walk together”
stevie internally groaned before nodding at him.
some point during their second year, stevie picked up the fact that terry liked her, but she had expressed that she had zero interest in the ravenclaw boy. that didn’t seem to stop him from trying to persuade stevie though.
“did you hear about the other magic schools coming to hogwarts?” terry asked
“what?”
“weren’t you at the welcome back feast?”
stevie shook her head
“ah, that explains then…”
terry went on talking about a tri-wizard tournament and about these two other schools coming to reside at hogwarts starting october 31st. stevie wasn’t sure how she felt like other schools coming to hogwarts.
“what about classes?”
“we’ll still have classes but they said the academic year will be interrupted a few times so that we might not even have exams at the end. and we won’t have quidditch at all” terry said
stevie nodded as they arrived at potions. she scanned the room and saw a seat open before zooming over there, in hopes of losing terry.
and just as terry was about to sit in the seat next to her, harry potter took the seat.
“oh sorry, were you going to sit here?” harry asked
“uh…no, it’s alright”
harry nodded as he settled in. stevie stared at him for a bit before looking back down at her desk.
“sorry about taking your boyfriend’s seat”
“not my boyfriend” stevie grimace
“oh okay” harry said, sounding apologetic
this was going to be an interesting year.