Albus Dumbledore stood behind the desk in his office, looking like some benevolent patriarch as he smiled at the four heads of the four houses of Hogwarts.

"Good Evening" he said ignoring the irritated expressions on some of their faces. "I suppose you are all wanting to know why I asked you here?" He adjusted his spectacles and a tiny smile curled up on one side of his mouth as he noticed Snape practically mouth the word 'obviously.' "I know it is unusual for us to take a student in the middle of the year, but after much consideration I have decided to take on a Miss Clarissa Abelard from Amstax."

"What house will she be in?"

"That, Filius, is precisely why I have asked you and the others here. Miss Abelard should be joining us any moment, and then, Minerva if you would be so kind as to fetch the Sorting Hat, she will be sorted."

A light knock came on the office door.

"Come in."

"Am I late, sir?"

"No, perfectly punctual Miss Abelard."

She eyed the four houses' heads shyly, trying to figure out which one headed which house.

"Miss Clarissa, these are your prospective heads of house, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor Snape, and Professor McGonagall" he said indicating the tall grey haired woman in tartan who had just returned with the Sorting Hat.

" Nice to meet you all" she said shyly.

"You are familiar with the characteristics of each house I presume, Miss Abelard."

She eyed her questioner, Professor McGonagall, hesitantly.

"Yes, Hufflepuffs are hardworking and helpful, Ravenclaws are highly intelligent" her eyes flickered up towards McGonagall. "Gryffindors are brave and strong, and Slytherins are… are sly and power hungry?"

Professor Snape made a coughing sound as if to deride her summary.

He scowled. 'Sly and power-hungry' he thought, so this new student had already been poisoned against Slytherin House despite her transferring from the remotest of schools, Amstax, which was somewhere in the forests of the Northern United States. He folded his arms across his chest and waited as McGonagall explained the Sorting Hat to Clarissa. Standing next to him was Professor Sprout smiling kindly at Clare as she absently ran her fingers through her frizzy grey hair. Next to her Flitwick stood stock still, like a soldier at attention, his arms behind his back and his keen eyes watching Clare with interest.

McGonagall lowered the hat onto Clarissa Abelard's head and the room became quite silent.

'Well you're a difficult one to sort, must be your age has made you harder' the Hat said to Clare. 'You've got plenty of brains to go around, you're loyal and you don't mind hard work either, I even see traces of Slytherin virtues in you! You are very courageous as well, so what will it be? The mind, the labor, or the chivalry that dominates your destiny?…' The hat was silent for a moment. "I see bravery determining your course in life, far more than hard work or knoweledge, though you have a love for both. "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted.

Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall all applauded. Snape however, seemed to be intent on scrutinizing a small sparrow flying outside the window. His attention turned to Clare, and he looked down at her with instinctive dislike.

Dumbledore drew his wand.

"Here is your schedule" he said tapping a sheet of parchment that only seconds before had been blank. "congratulations, Miss Abelard."

She smiled politely and McGonagall escorted her from the room towards Gryffindor Tower. Minerva did her best to impart all the useful knowledge of Hogwarts Castle to Clare as they walked towards Gryffindor Tower.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the Common Room and dormitories, McGonagall asked; "have you had anything to eat, Miss Abelard?"

"Yes, my mum packed me a lunch."

"Very well, I would like to ask you a strictly insignificant question, it is simply for the sake of my own curiosity that I wish to know how it is that you are familiar with phrases and words that are uniquely British when you yourself are from America?"

"My parents are British, and I was born here, though I don't remember much of it from then. My family moved to the States when I was only three or so."

Minerva's eyebrows rose as she took in the information that Clare had just shared with her.

"Well, have a pleasant evening Abelard."

"You too, Professor."

"Incidentally, the password to enter the common room, is, Fairy Lights"

"Thank you!" she said happily as she wound her way up the stairs to the common room.

She was exhausted, but sleeping was out of the question! She had been through much excitement that day, her mind traveled back tot that morning when her mother had bade farewell when the Knight Bus had had come to pick her up, to the time she had spent in Hogsmeade, to meeting the renowned Albus Dumbledore, her day had been full of dizzying excitement and fantastic experiences, unlike the magical experiences she had had in America. Still she had been painfully aware of her father's absence, on this, maybe the most important day of her life! 'He could have taken off work!' She thought bitterly.

She came to a halt in front of a plump lady dressed in pink silk.

"You're either new, or you've lost your way?"

"No, I'm new, Fairy Lights!"

"Right you are, and welcome!"

"Thanks" Clare said as the portrait swung aside to reveal a spacious and cozy looking common room. She looked at the large grandfather's clock in the corner and thought 'dinner time.' That explained why the room was deserted. She paused, recalling McGonagall's directions on how to reach the girls' dormitories. She made her way up the stairs, peering down corridors that branched off, wondering where her room would be.

"Missy Clarissa?" came a squeaky voice.

"Yes" she replied turning to see a creature only 3 feet tall, with big grey eyes and wearing a neat tea towel.

"Your room is this way, miss." he said pointing to the door behind him.

"Thank You!"

"You is too kind, bothering to thank poor Inky."

"Is that your name?… Inky?"

"Yes mistress!"

"Well, goodnight Inky" she said smiling kindly. She had only seen a few house-elves in her lifetime. They seemed some of the kindest, if not most misguided creatures in the world. The elf blinked slowly, smiled and then BANG! He had apparated out of sight, leaving Clare alone.

She entered the room and found her trunk sitting at the foot of the bed closest to the wall. She smiled, the wall had a window in it. 'Window seat' she thought recalling the trip to England via Muggle transportation on an airplane. Clare shed her sweater and her brown hair popped with static electricity.

"Ugh" she sighed as she smoothed it out looking in her hand mirror. She opened her trunk and pulled out a book to read, and then meandered back down to the Gryffindor common room.

It was not long after she had comfortably situated herself in a cozy chair by the fire that several student came through the portrait hole, chatting merrily.

Her face was hidden behind the rather large book she was perusing so they did not notice her immediately.

She lowered the book, swung her legs off of the arm of the chair and onto the floor, and rose gracefully to greet her new housemates. She smiled at the two identical ginger boys and a girl that was clearly their sister. She noticed a girl with light brown hair, another ginger, who was much more lanky that the twins, and a scrawny boy with glasses and black hair.

"Who are you?" one of the ginger boys asked bluntly.

"My name is Clarissa, Clarissa Abelard" she said offering him her hand.

"Ron Weasley" he said as he shook her hand and smiled rather foolishly. "these are my brothers…"

"Really, Ron, we try to avoid letting people know that embarrassing information."

"Embarrassing for you? Or him?" Clare said with a sly grin and a laugh.

The twins laughed.

"I'm Gred"

"and I'm Forge"

"Interesting names…" she said eyeing them with the knowledge that she was being pranked.

"They're names are actually, Fred and George, they just like to do that to people!" explained the ginger girl, who was obviously their sister. "I'm Ginny, their sister."

"I thought you might be, you look a lot alike, I mean for being different genders and all." Clare said.

"Oi! Would you mind letting me in?" came a thick Irish accent. "Oh… uh… hello" he said as he noticed Clare. "Who is she?" he whispered to the boy in glasses.

"Her name is Clarissa!"

"But you can call me Clare," she said coming forward to greet the boy with the Irish accent "most everyone does."

"I-I'm Seamus, Seamus Finnigan" he said as he took in Clare's petite form, curly short brown hair, and pretty eyes, that had flecks of green swimming in brown.

"Nice to meet you, Seamus" she said smiling "and I don't believe I've heard what your name is yet?" she said to the dark haired boy.

"I'm Harry Potter" he said dreading the gawking that he knew would come.

Clare's eyes widened in amazement, traveled up to the scar on his forehead, and then she became aware of what she was doing and apologized.

"Its alright, it happens a lot."

"I'm Hermione Granger" came the voice of the girl with brown hair. "And that is Neville Longbottom," she said pointing to a round faced boy who had just come in.

"So, where are you from?" Seamus asked.

"Amstax, it's the…"

"Western school of magic in America! I read about it in International Institutions for Magical Education. Its supposed to be the best school in either North or South America."

"It is, I loved it, its in the middle of this really nice forest, and you can see the northern lights sometimes."

"Northern Lights?" Neville said, but his question was drowned out by Ginny asking Clare…

"Why did you transfer?"

"My dad thought Hogwarts was safer than Amstax, it having Dumbledore and all, and my mum missed England."

"Well I'm sure you'll like it here" Ginny said in a reconciling tone of voice. She could somehow sense that Clare had left a great chunk of herself at her old school. Ginny hoped, as did everyone else, that Clare would learn to love life at Hogwarts, for she was very pleasant, and very pretty, and when a person has a good nature and good looks, they cant help but immediately commend themselves to those around them.