"Have you got your robes?" Pam Fields eagerly asked eleven year old daughter Emily.
"Yes mum" Emily answered for the 80th time."And your books?"
"Yes mum"
"And you have money for food on the train, don't you?"
"Of course, Mum"
"And you have Pip?"
"Mum, how could I leave behind an entire owl?" Pam pulled her daughter in for a tight hug.
"I'm just worrying about you, dear" she almost sobbed into Emily's head "You're finally going off to Hogwarts." My baby heading off to the greatest school in the world" Emily rolled her eyes and nudged her mum off of her.
"You don't have to worry about me mum, I'll be fine" She insisted, moving closer towards the train when Pam grabbed her arm and turned her around.
"Now I was in Ravenclaw" she began to explain "But remember, Emmy, whichever house you get sorted into, your dad and I will be so so proud" Emily couldn't help smile at her mother's words.
"You remember the traits of each house, don't you?" her mother asked. Emily thought hard for a moment.
"Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the loyal, Ravenclaw for the intelligent and Slytherin for the ambitious" Pam kissed her on the head.
"Any house will be lucky to have you, sweetheart" she said proudly "Now hurry before the train leaves without you"
"Emily spotted her friend Hanna Marin a little way up ahead saying goodbye to her mum, who was sobbing into her sleeve.
"Bye mum!" Emily gave Pam one last hug before walking to catch up with her friend.
"Bye Emmy!" Her mum wailed back before disappearing out of sight. Hanna spotted Emily and urged for her to come over.
"Nervous?" she asked, when the two had reached the carriage door.
"You bet" Emily replied, hauling all of her luggage onto the train "I think my mum's more nervous than me though" Hanna laughed.
"I hope it's as wonderful as they're making it out to be" she said, joining Emily in the carriage.
"It's better" Emily replied.
The train doors closed abruptly as soon as Hanna had finished carrying the last of her luggage onto the train. Children were waving to their parents out the window and the sobbing parents were returning the waves.
"We better find a carriage" Hanna decided "We don't wanna be the losers that end up having to sit at the front with the driver"
"Good idea"
The two girls began lugging their heavy bags and animals through the train, desperately looking for a carriage. To their disappointment, they found that there was not a single empty one.
"We could sit in this one" Emily suggested. Through the window she could see that there were two small girls sitting opposite from one another in what looked to be an otherwise empty carriage. Hanna opened the doors and turned the heads of the two girls.
"Hey, mind if we sit here?" she asked in her sweetest voice "Everywhere else is full"
"Sure" replied the tallest of the two girls. Hanna and Emily looked at each other and exchanged a smile before sitting down next to each of the girls.
"Are you first years too?" The smaller girl asked Emily, who had decided to sit beside her. She had pink streaks in her dark brown hair and was wearing a huge grin.
"Yes!" Hanna replied, returning the grin "I'm Hanna, and this is Emily" Emily waved.
"My name's Spencer" the taller girl introduced "Spencer Hastings"And this is Aria" Aria gave the girls a small wave.
"Hastings?" Emily said "I've heard of your family. You're a pureblood, aren't you?" Spencer gave a small sigh.
"That's me" she chuckled "The second of the Hastings children to attend Hogwarts. My sister Melissa's in her 7th year here"
"Why aren't you sitting with her?" Hanna asked. Spencer scoffed.
"She's head girl" she explained "She's up in the prefects carriage or something. First years aren't allowed in the prefects carriage" Spencer looked annoyed at her own words.
"I'm Half Blood" Aria suddenly put in "Dad's a muggle, Mum's a witch. Can get a bit tense around the house" The rest of the girls laughed.
"I'm a Half Blood too" Emily eagerly said "Both my parents are muggleborn"
"I am muggleborn Hanna sighed "But turns out my mum's part of this organization that helps the coverups of wizards to ordinary people, so she's friends with alot of witches and wizards. As you can probably guess, she was absolutely thrilled when I got my letter from Hogwarts"
"The girls had been talking for so long that none of them had noticed the train had started moving. Their parents had disappeared out of sight and their journey to Hogwarts had begun. They had not been talking for very long, but already it felt like they had known each other forever.
"What house are you guys hoping to be in?" Aria asked, digging into a liquorice wand that Spencer had bought for all 4 of the girls using her small fortune.
"I don't mind" Hanna shrugged, munching on a chocolate frog "I don't really know a lot about the houses if I'm honest"
"My whole family's been in Slytherin" Spencer explained "So it's likely that I'll be put there, but you never know"/
"My mum was in Ravenclaw and my dad in Gryffindor" Emily said "So I could go anywhere. I'm hoping for Gryffindor, though" Emily suddenly felt a furry stroke against her leg, and before she knew it an animal had crawled out from under the seat.
"What the hell!" she jumped up onto her seat. Aria laughed.
"That's just my cat, Pookie" she explained, lifting the hairy beast onto her lap and stroking it gently "She's harmless I promise". Spencer rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, tell that to Atticus" she mumbled, shooting Aria a dirty look. Hanna and Emily exchanged confused glances.
"Who's Atticus?" Emily asked.
"Her rat" Aria sighed "She's convinced that Pookie's out to get him"
"I'm not convinced, I'm stating facts" she argued "Pookies been hunting for him all day. He got so scared he's curled up in my robes now"
"Speaking of robes..."
All four girls turned their head at once, as none of them had said this. At the door stood a small girl (presumably in first year) with wavy blonde hair. She was leaning up against the windows with a smug look on her face.
"And who asked you?" Spencer spat at the girl, who afterwards gave a quite obviously fake frown.
"Don't be mean Spencey" she pouted "Anyway, I've been told to tell you that we're nearly at Hogwarts, so you should probably be getting changed into your robes.
"Told by who?" Spencer skeptically asked.
"Told by Jason" the girl insisted "I suggest you listen to me, darling. You don't want to end up walking into the great hall in jeans and a t-shirt now do you?" Spencer rolled her eyes.
"You can go now" she growled through her teeth.
"Ciao"
"The blonde girl walked off, leaving Spencer with a look of disgust on her face and the rest of the girls a look of confusion.
"Who in the name of Merlin was that?" Hanna asked, pulling out her robes from her overhead locker.
"And who's Jason?" Emily added.
"That's my cousin Alison" Spencer explained "And Jason's her older brother. He's head boy, opposite Melissa"
"She looks like a right piece of work" Hanna scoffed. Spencer nodded.
"Believe me, she is. And her brother's not that much nicer either" The girls laughed, changing into their robes as they did so.
"Firs' years follow me! Tha's it, come along ya little buggers"
An extremely large man holding a lantern stood near the edge of what appeared to be a lake, beckoning Emily, Hanna, Aria and Spencer to come and join him in whatever he was about to do.
"Woah, look at that guy" Aria nudged Spencer on the arm and pointed towards the man, who had hair and a beared the size of each of the little girls legs. He wore a huge inviting grin on his face, and didn't seem to scare any of the kids.
"I know you!" a small boy with blonde hair shouted up at him once all the first years had gathered around the man "You're Hagrid!" The hairy man looked proud.
"Right you are" he smiled "My name is Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now, I'll be takin' yeh to the Great Hall in a moment. Yeh'll be travellin' on these here boats in groups of either threes or fours"
The four girls immediately moved together as if they had all read each others minds.
"Boats?" someone said from among the crowd "Jason never said anything about boats!"
The girls immedietly recognized the voice at once, and all rolled their eyes in unison.
"Yeh'll be Jason Dilaurentis' sister, I take it" Hagrid glared at Alison "Real nice boy, tha' one is"
Alison beamed proudly.
"Dilaurentis?" Emily whispered to Spencer "Aren't they like, crazy pure bloods?" Spencer nodded.
"It'd be a shock if she got sorted into anything but Slytherin" Spencer whispered back "Mad, that lot are. Even more mad than the Hastings and that's saying something or other"
The four girls climbed into a small boat that Hagrid had laid out for them. As if by magic, the boats started moving slowly towards the castle with Hagrid as their leader.
"Wicked!" a boy with dark brown hair shouted to another boy in his boat.
"Trus' me, this is the least wicked Hogwarts has ever been, in literal terms" Hagrid grumbled from the boat's front.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aria questioned.
"Merlin knows" Spencer replied as they edged closer towards the Great Hall. From across the other side of the lake, the girls could see and hear Alison Dilaurentis whispering something to another girl in her boat.
"Isn't he a bit too hairy to be working here?" she giggled. "I know there are supposed to be some magical creatures around here, but I never expected one of them to be rowing us across the lake!"
The other girl laughed greatly, and the four girls again rolled their eyes in unison.
"I hope she's not put in whatever house I'm in" Hanna moaned "Can you imagine having to put up with her day in day out?"
"I can think of nothing worse" Spencer agreed
Finally, the boats came to the other end of the lake and Hagrid started helping the first years out of the tiny boats.
"Now if yeh'd like ter follow me, tha's it" he lead them into the castle. Emily looked around at the walls and lights of the castle. It was the most magical thing she had ever seen. Suddenly, Hagrid came to a stop outside two large doors and stood firmly in front of the first years.
"Now you lot wait righ' here while I go fetch Professor McGonagall" he ordered. All the first years (except Alison) nodded their heads obediently as the large man walked off in the other direction.
"Personally, I'm hoping for Slytherin" Alison Dilaurentis suddenly piped up, ignoring the fact that no one had actually asked. "Although I suppose any house is better than Hufflepuff. I suppose if I get sorted into Hufflepuff then I'll just have to kill myself"A crowd of girls laughed and looked admiringly towards Alison.
"Leave off, Alison" Spencer muttered. Alison walked closer towards Spencer.
"Sorry, what's that Spence?" she mockingly cupped her hand over her ear. "I couldn't hear you over that abnormally large nose of yours" the gang of girls laughed again as Spencer turned bright red.
"Leave her alone, there's nothing wrong with her nose" Aria protectively stepped in front of Spencer.
"I couldn't agree more"
The first years turned around to find an elderly woman with a tight bun and bottle green robes standing in front of them. She glared at Alison and edged towards the front of the crowd of children.
"Good evening, first years" she began "My name is Professor McGonagall. Transfiguration teacher, head of Gryffindor House and of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"
The first years gazed up at the Professor in awe.
"As some of you may know" she continued "After these doors open, the sorting ceremony will begin. You will be sorted into one of the following houses-Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw...and Slytherin"
Her eyes flicked towards Alison's as she said 'Slytherin'
"Whichever house you are sorted into, you must value. Your house will become your family, so I expect each of you to treat it like you would a relative of yours"
Spencer and Alison shot hateful looks at each other.
"And if that is all, these doors will now open"
And as if by magic, as soon as the words left her mouth, that is exactly what they did.