"Prim! Come on! It's SEPTEMBER THE FIRST!"
Gasping, Primrose Clearwater shot up straight in her bed. Her sister, Penelope, threw a pleated gray skirt at her and exited the room in a flurry of long brown hair.
It was Prim's first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she could not have been more excited. Prim had already packed everything aside from her books, potions kit, file folders, school robes, and parchment before they had even gone to Diagon Alley for school supplies.
In less than an hour, the Clearwaters stood on Platform Nine-and-three-quarters. Penelope had rushed off to admire her friend's new set of enchanted quills, and Prim stood awkwardly with her parents.
"Don't worry, sweetheart," Mrs. Clearwater said with a reassuring smile at Prim. "There's no way you couldn't make Ravenclaw. You were born for it."
Her father nodded, and they departed.
Prim took a deep breath, grabbed her trunk, and stepped onto the bustling train.
Chelsea Calica fingered her brown curls nervously as she one-handedly hoisted her trunk into an empty compartment.
After lifting the trunk onto the luggage rack and plopping into the window seat, her fingers traveled from her hair to the golden Gryffindor pendant lying on her chest, hanging from a gold chain. You're going to be in Gryffindor, she assured herself, trying not to feel nauseous. Maybe she did have a bit too much bacon this morning…
Prim hefted her trunk down the corridor. The compartments were starting to fill up slowly, and panic was beginning to rise in her chest. What if she got stuck with a few mean, burly fifth years?
She pulled her luggage down the corridor, peeking through compartment doors in search of an almost-empty compartment.
Prim came to a stop in front of a compartment containing a nice-enough looking girl with rather messy brown curls. Sliding open the door, she poked her head in and asked, and "May I sit here? Every where else is a bit full."
Smiling nervously, the girl nodded and tugged at a necklace hanging on a golden chain.
Prim smiled back and hoisted her trunk up onto the luggage rack. She sat down across from the girl and started searching through her book bag for her Charms textbook, which was the only one she hadn't started reading.
Chelsea watched as the rather pretty girl started reading a book. She suddenly regretted not brushing her hair this morning.
"So, er, what house do you think you'll get sorted into?" Chelsea asked the girl, breaking the silence.
"Huh? Oh, Ravenclaw, definitely." The girl still hadn't looked up from the apparently fascinating book.
"I'm Chelsea. Chelsea Calica."
The girl finally looked up with a smile. "I'm Primrose Clearwater, but usually people just call me Prim. Nice to meet you."
"What're you reading there?" Chelsea asked, curious.
"Oh, this is the Charms textbook. It's the only one I haven't started reading. I've finished at least three chapters of all the other ones," Prim answered happily.
"Oh. We weren't supposed to do that, were we?" Chelsea squeaked. "My father is a Muggle, and my mother has never really told me anything about Hogwarts…"
Prim giggled. "Oh, no, I just really love reading. I'm hoping to go ahead in some classes, that would be fantastic!"
Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, the compartment door was thrown open once again. A girl with long, blond hair, a fringe, and green almond-shaped eyes. Grinning, the girl practically threw her truck up to join Chelsea and Prim's, then plunked herself down a seat away from Chelsea.
"Hello! My name's Calista Carrow. Nice to meet you!"
Prim lowered her book a bit but didn't look up. She nodded and said, "Prim Clearwater. Ravenclaw."
"Chelsea Calica," Chelsea introduced herself. "What house do you think you're going to be in? We were just discussing that."
"Oh, probably Slytherin," Calista answered cheerily. "Most of my family's Slytherin. But I don't mind if I'm in any other house." Then a disgusted look came over her face. "But not Hufflepuff. I cannot stand that house!" She fished a magazine out of her bag and flipped it open to a page she apparently wanted to read.
Chelsea and Prim exchanged glanced warily. They both knew that Slytherin housed most of the well-known Dark wizards and "bad guys" of the wizarding world.
"Oh, don't look like that," Calista sighed without looking up from her magazine. "I know you people don't like Slytherin, but c'mon! There's nothing in the description of the house that says the students in it are all evil! Ambitious, cunning, and smart. Nothing wrong with that, right?"
Prim just shrugged and returned to her textbook.
…
A few hours later, the Hogwarts Express pulled up at the Hogsmeade Station. The children all stepped off, leaving their luggage behind in the compartments.
"Firs' years over here! Firs' years, c'mon then, firs' years! You! You dropped yer scarf there!" A huge (and I mean HUGE) man with a frizzy mane of hair and big, puffy beard called the first years over to him, swinging a dim lantern from his dragon-hide-gloved hand.
Without much event, the first years were shipped off across the smooth-as-ice Lake and herded over to the great front doors of the castle.
Hagrid, the giant man, knocked three times on the doors, which immediately opened slowly to reveal a tall, imposing witch in emerald robes.
"Welcome," she said in a stern voice, "to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."