The New Kid

Jacob frowned as he stared at the brick wall between platform nine and platform ten. He wasn't exactly sure how this was going to happen. He was told to simply run into it. How embarrassing, that would be, if he didn't go through. He would hit the wall and fall on his bum in front of everyone; in front of his dad, mom, and sisters (not to mention all the muggles around). He leaned forward tentatively and poked the brick. It seemed solid indeed.

"Go on, dear," his mother said with doubt in her voice. Even she thought it wouldn't work. She was a tall woman with black hair. Even though she was a witch, she blended in very well with the muggles in her Sunday dress. His father on the other hand was wearing his best robes. They were pitch black and matched his black hair perfectly. He had hard eyes and was quite tall himself. "Give it a go, Son," his father said gesturing toward the brick wall.

Jacob backed his trolley away from the wall so he could get a running head start. His little sisters began to giggle at the notion of him crashing into the wall. "Au revoir Frère," said the youngest one. Jacob smiled at her. She hadn't learned much English yet. With a final wave and goodbye to his family, he rocketed himself into the wall. Expecting a crash he closed his eye but when he opened them he was surprised and incredibly glad to see a magnificent train. Painted on it's side said 'Hogwart's Express.' Jacob slid his hand through his messy black hair in amazement. He loaded his luggage onto the train with the help of some workers. He kept his young barn owl, Trenten, with him.

He walked down the corridor of the train looking for an empty compartment. His icy blue eyes surveyed everything about the students. He peered inside one compartment full of girls. One of the girls had long blonde hair and grey eyes. Her pale skin seemed almost perfect. She stopped talking to her friends and looked at Jacob. She and the other girls started laughing, for he had been standing in the doorway staring at her. He blushed and was about to continue walking when the girl called him back.

"Hey," the girl said with a sneer. She looked him up and down and frowned disgusted. He was wearing old torn jeans and a black shirt with a French flag. She obviously didn't like his style. "Erm … what's your name?"

"Jacob…Jacob Énigme," he stammered. The girl gave him a patient look waiting for him to ask her the same question. She finally gave up after about a minute and rolled her eyes.

"Well, Jacob, my name is Ariel Malfoy," she said sneering again. "Remember it. You may leave now," she said waving him away. Some of the girls snickered. Jacob turned to leave. "Oh, and don't trip on your way out," Ariel said, and before Jacob could comprehend what she had just said, a force seemed to drag his feet out from under him and he collapsed in a heap on the corridor floor. The compartment door slammed behind him and Trenten gave a loud owlish scream. Jacob stood up carefully, wiping the owl feathers from his pants. Some students where laughing at him. Trenten made agitated clucking noises as if to lecture Jacob on charms that girls use to make him fall.

"Oh, shut up, Trenten," Jacob said under his breath as he hurried down the corridor of the train.

He finally reached the end of the train and still hadn't found any empty compartments. He decided to just pick the own nearest him with less people. The only compartment fitting this description had only two occupants: a boy about his age, around fifteen, and an older girl. He opened the door timidly and poked his head in.

"Sorry about this," he said "but may I sit with you? There's no place else–"

"If you must!" said the older girl impatiently. She had straight red hair and a small amount of freckles around her nose. She was lying across one of the seats reading the newspaper. Jacob sat down on the other seat across from her, next to the boy. He also had some freckles on his face. His curly brown hair was even messier than Jacob's. The boy smiled sheepishly at Jacob.

"Sorry," the boy said. "My sister's always like that. It's nothing against you." The sister turned the newspaper page loudly and took a second to glare at them both while doing it. "My name's Oliver Weasley," the boy continued holding out his hand. Jacob shook it cautiously. "That's my sister, Dawn."

"Nice to meet you," Jacob said as he slipped Trenten a treat. "I'm Jacob Énigme and this is my owl, Trenten." Trenten clicked his beak happily.

The rest of the train ride was rather uneventful. A woman came around with a snack trolley, but nobody bought anything. Jacob explained how he was a transfer student from France. He told Oliver that he knew English because he had lived in England until he was five, when he moved to France. They had just recently moved back to England over the summer vacation. Towards the end of their voyage to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dawn sat up and stuffed her Daily Prophet into her bag and stood facing the two boys.

"I'm going to go say hello to some of my friends. Hopefully, by the time I get back, you will be dressed in your robes." She quietly walked out of the compartment closing the door softly behind her.

"Mood swings," Oliver said with a sigh and stood up to get his bag out of the storage area. "We must be getting close to Hogwarts." The two boys succeeded in getting dressed before Dawn returned. Oliver pointed to a crest on his robes of a lion. "I hope you're in Gryffindor with me. Jacob nodded.

"Do you know who Ariel Malfoy is?" Jacob asked as he turned bright red.

"Yeah, I do, why?" Oliver said screwing his face up with disgust. "You don't like her do you?"

"What if I do?" Jacob said defensively.

"Well, why do you like her?" Oliver questioned. "What's so great about her?"

"She's really pretty," Jacob said. "But she did trip me."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "What do you want to know about her?"

"What house is she in?"

"She's a Slytherin," Oliver said obviously disgusted with the idea of any one being in that house.

"Well, then I want to be in Slytherin, too."

Oliver shook his head solemnly. "Whatever, Mate. The sorting hat will figure it out."

"The what?" Jacob asked hastily. Oliver only laughed and told him that he would find out.

The train stopped with a screech only seconds after Dawn had returned. Oliver helped Jacob get his things and they walked up toward the castle together. The castle was breathtaking against the dimming sky. Its dark towers cut into the pink and purples of the clouds. Ominous, dark trees surrounded the grounds and Jacob could see a lake not to far off.

But most splendid of all, was the Great Hall. Jacob had never seen anything like it at Bobaton or anywhere else for that matter. The ceiling reflected the beautiful scene outside. Pink and purple clouds floated overhead lazily as the sun finished setting behind the mountains. Four long table spread out under this incredible ceiling. All the people from one house sat at each table, laughing and telling stories of their summer adventures.

Jacob sat down next to Oliver and listened to his story about some cat at home named Crookshanks who kept scaring the owls. After Oliver was done with his story the doors of the Great Hall opened once more. A professor led a group of younger students toward the front of the Great Hall were all the professors and the headmistress sat. Before the staff table sat a stool with an old decrepit wizard's hat. Patches covered the many moth holes it had received over time. In a way it seemed sad.

The Professor and the students stopped in front of the hat and the professor spoke up over the slowly quieting crowd. "Students, please hold your tongues," she said and scanned over her audience, which had become quite silent. "Good. Now we will sort the newest arrivals to Hogwarts this term. As some of you might already know by now, we have a transfer student from France joining us." At this everyone looked around curiously except Oliver, who grinned at Jacob. "If you could please, come up here now Mr. Énigme."

Jacob looked around the room, wishing he didn't have to do this in front of so many people. He stood up slowly and started walking forward. All eyes seemed to be on him as he walked up to the professor. He could hear murmurs and giggles, but tried to block it all out so as to not get nervous. He finally reached the professor and the crowd of younger students as they looked on in curiosity. The professor was an older woman with grey hair. Her face, although rather wrinkled, had a stern, yet comforting look to it. The woman seemed to attempt a smile but it didn't seem to work.

"Hello, Jacob, are you ready?" she asked warily. "Let's just get this over with. Come now sit down, sit down." She urged Jacob over to the stool and sat him down on top of it. He took a moment to look nervously out onto the crowd before the hat was dropped on his head. He wasn't quite sure why he had the hat on his head; the whole process seemed rather silly. As he tried to un-focus his eyes, so he wouldn't notice the audience of fellow students that much, the hat began talking.

Now Jacob had had many magical encounters: bewitched brooms, talking mirrors, dancing spider; but this topped them all. He was so surprised that the hat talked that he almost jumped right out of his seat.

"Well this is interesting," the hat said as he scrutinized Jacob. "You want one house but you fit best in another. Yet your past suggests the first house. But the best one seems to be …SLYTHERIN!" The hat bellowed so all the crowd could hear. One table at the end of the crowd started cheering. Jacob smiled to himself and looked up to look at the faces of the students at other tables. They all seemed to be looking at him in disgust. Jacob found Oliver's familiar face in the crowd. Oliver was shaking his head mournfully. Jacob didn't quite understand what was so bad about Slytherin, but he planned on finding out.

He stood up and walked over to the cheering students of Slytherin. All the Slytherin students gave him high-fives and congratulated him, except one. Ariel Malfoy sat surrounded by her friends. She grimaced at Jacob and turned thought after thought over in her head. She needed to have a talked about this boy with her father. He was becoming a flaw in their plans.