I don't know how I feel right now, my mum's stressing over the fact that it's 9am and the train leaves at 11am. I'd say I'm nervous but the truth is, I'm not. I'm excited but I'm scared. I don't know how to feel right now.

"ISABEL! Get up, you're going to be late the longer you stay in bed! Do you want to miss the train?" My mum screeched up three floors below.

This time last week, I wanted to go so bad, I'd wished time had sped up and I was on that train there and then but now, It was Wednesday September 1st. I kind of dreaded saying it, it was like being condemned or something. I'd been waking up numerous times during the night thinking about all the negative things that would happen.

I finally plucked the courage to heave myself out of bed and drag my trunk from underneath it, of course, fully packed. I slumped down the flights of stairs as though I had been shot in both legs, my mum giving me a disapproving look as she neatly arranged flowers on the table outside of her bedroom door, meters from where I was stood.

"Oh darling, I thought you were excited for today, the look on your face begs to differ" she managed to get out through a curved smile on her face.

"I am, I'm just really tired, I was up all night thinking about it and right now I'm starving, what's been cooked for breakfast?"

"Hanna has cooked toast and eggs, there are many things, go down, take a look. But it's 9:15 and we're leaving at 10:30" She turned round, attending to the delicate flowers.

Once again, I slumped down the remaining stairs until my wonderful little house elf, Hanna greeted me.

"Oh hello miss! It's wonderful to see you this morning, I thought you'd never get out of bed! I hope you're all packed, I wouldn't mind doing it for you at all!"

"No no, it's fine Hanna, I was up last night packing the final pieces, could I just have breakfast please?"

"Of course miss, right this way"

She led me to the dining room and to where a large array of food lay before me, but me being me, I had suddenly lost my appetite and felt a sudden wave of nausea overcome me. After I had finally managed to eat some toast and jam with some fruit I felt somewhat better and slowly walked back up the stairs to where my bedroom was. I didn't know what to wear, I now felt awkward, what if everyone wore lovely clothing or they all wore school robes? Urgh, I stopped overflowing my mind with questions not even worth pondering anymore and settled on a cream jumper with grey and pink fair-isle pattern, it was indeed a very pretty jumper. I paired it with a pair of navy blue converse and dark blue slim leg jeans. I must say, for my attempt, I looked pretty good, it was simple, but nice. I cleansed my face and neatly tied my wavy brown hair into a side fishtail plait. I hair never seemed to grow, it was what I considered a 'medium' length, it wasn't longer than my chest but was past my shoulders, about collar-bone length and it wasn't dark nor light, it was medium. Everything about me was medium. Average. Nothing special. I wasn't small nor was I tall. My eyes weren't green, blue or hazel but a combination of all three.

I stopped analysing myself when I heard another shrill call of my name from my mother.

"ISABEL! It's 10:15, have you got everything? Don't you dare be late!"

That was my warning call. I quickly applied a little lipgloss and rummaged around my bedroom for my bag, I found it, a lovely little pouch bag, my mum charmed it for me so I could carry a number of large things and it wouldn't expand or weigh any more. It was a brilliant gift for an 11 year old considering I didn't have much to put in it.

Time seemed to be going slow, every time I looked at my watch, it seemed as though it was stuck at 10:17.

I proceeded down the staircase, to meet my mother at the bottom. Trunk in hand, we both walked down the hall and to the drawing room in which stood a majestic fireplace, I knew what this was, we were going Diagon Alley and from there, we would walk to Kings Cross Station, not far from Diagon Alley at all, about 15 minutes away.

I took the powder in my hand and clearly spoke the words Diagon Alley, as did my mother shortly after. We had both arrived at Diagon Alley and made our way through the crowd and to Kings Cross.

The time read 10:50. My mum didn't think we'd make it in time even though we were at the platform wall. She gave me directions to run through and she would follow straight after. Indeed she did.

She wished me good luck and said to write the day after I'm sorted into my house and not to be worried about the sorting. My mother, Ophelia , was in Slytherin but wasn't what she called the 'typical' Slytherin. She was graceful and proud. She thinks she was only in Slytherin due to her Pureblood family and that her parents were in Slytherin, yet her younger sister and brother were both sorted into Ravenclaw. My father, Jonathan, however was in Ravenclaw, he too was Pureblood and later went into joint the Aurors, but 3 years ago, he was killed. It was awful, but me and my mother have gotten by to live with it.

I was pacing up the train as I couldn't find a compartment that wasn't empty or at least, not full. Until I came across one, it only contained two girls, one with brilliant auburn hair and the other had dark, nearly black curly hair. I opened the door gingerly,

"Um, hey, I was just wondering, could I erm, sit with you, everywhere else is really full." Damn me for being so awkward.

"Of course you can, there is plenty of room here! Come sit!" The girl with auburn hair spoke.

"Oh by the way, I'm Lily Evans and this is Mary MacDonald." Lily spoke, once again.

"Hi, I replied. I'm Isabel Clifton, are you first years?"

"Yes, both of us are, do you have any idea of what house you're going to be in? I'm muggle born so, I have no idea."

I spoke once more, feeling more at ease than I expected.

"Well, my mothers family have been in Slytherin for as long as I know and my father was in Ravenclaw, how about you Mary?"

"Oh, well, I'm a half blood, my mum's a muggle born, she was in Gryffindor and my dad was a muggle born too, he was in Gryffindor as well, are you a Pureblood then?

She made it sound so bad, being a Pureblood but the only thing I could say was, yes.

"Yes" I mumbled.

"Oh don't worry, I didn't mean it offensively at all, it's just… oh nevermind! I always say the wrong thing."

We all laughed at Mary's shyness, even Mary herself.

"So, where are you from?" Lily piped up

"Oh, I'm from London, but I live in Berkshire, you?"

"I'm from a place called Mill Town, have you hear of it? I met a boy there who's also coming to Hogwarts, Severus, he's from Spinner's End, not far from where I lived. We met in the park and he told me about all sorts of magic!"

Mary then proceeded to tell us she was from Scotland but spends the second half of the summer with her grandma in Kent, hence why she get's the train to Hogwarts.

Time seemed to pass quickly and it started to get rather dark outside, when a shady looking boy walked past our compartment, his long black hair hung over his face.

Lily perked up and put down her book, suddenly rushing to the door, flung it open and shouted to him.

"SEVERUS!"

The boy turned around instantly.

"Lily! How are you?"

"Sev, come meet my friends, they're brilliant, you'll love them."

Sure enough, the boy shuffled to our compartment and sat with us. We all greeted him, he seemed nice enough. We engaged in a conversation with him until two boys walked past and stopped to look at the boy.

"Haha,James, look, it's Snivelly. Obviously couldn't find any friends so he resorted to girls, how touching."

The boy called James the proceeded to open the door and was the first to sat with us, followed by his haughty counterpart.

"I'm Potter, James Potter and this is Sirius Black."

I couldn't refrain myself, I snorted so un-ladylike in which Sirius whipped his head round and glared at me.

"Something funny?" He snapped.

"No, no not at all" still giggling as Mary joined in.

Still glaring at me he turned to James,

"Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

" 'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad" James replied proudly.

A muffled snort came from the corner from where Severus was sat.

James turned to look at him

"Got a problem with that?"

"No. If you'd rather be brawny than brainy…" Snape retorted.

"Where're you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" Sirius snapped.

Silence overtook the next few minutes. James and Sirius stared at Severus until Severus decided to go back to his compartment in which Sirius and James said there good-byes and said they'd see us at Hogwarts.