The landscape flew ethereally outside the window, trees giving way to vast clearings spreading green and warm before the imposing mountains in the horizon. Far in the reddening sky, the Sun was beginning to set, tainting the sparse clouds in all shades of pinks as the blue mantel of the sky mixed with the red sun in a compromised purple.

Outside her compartment, students already pranced wearing their long schools robes, the first-years standing anxiously crammed around the windows, as if expecting to catch even if a glimpse of the magnificent castle. Sigrid let out a silent little laugh as she caught one student –clearly of the first year- standing on her tiptoes with her eyes glued to the crystal. Tilda must be somewhere around the train looking exactly like that young girl, eyes wide with excitement and anticipation. She did not know who had told the poor new students that the castle would be visible from the Hogwarts Express? Such a thing was impossible.

And yet, it did somehow lighten her heart to see the new students so excited about arriving to school. She too was excited, even if this would be her fourth year attending the school the ride of the train was always as exciting as it had been her very first time.

"You haven't changed yet, Sig?" A familiar voice made her look up from the book she had been obviously ignoring in her lap, her brown eyes darting up to find Elladan stepping inside her compartment, his twin brother at tow. Both of the twins were already wearing their school robes, the Gryffindor badge splendidly glowing on them.

"Are you reading?! Seriously, Sig?" Elrohir said before she had the change to speak, dropping himself casually next to her as his silver eyes mocked her, his long dark hair falling over his right shoulder and down his back. The twins were in her class at Hogwarts, and they had been close friends wince their first year. Both of them were chasers in the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and they were the living description of trouble.

"I was about to change before you two dropped in." She scolded them, placing a curl of her hair behind one of her ears and quickly throwing her book back in her trunk. She had not managed to read a single sentence through the entire journey.

"Do you think Tilda will be a Gryffindor too?" Elladan changed the subject, his eternal smirk always present on his face, never taking anything seriously.

"I want her to." She said, quickly throwing her school robes over her clothes as she felt the train slow to a stop. "I do know she's terrified of ending up in Slytherin. Besides, Bain and I are both in Gryffindor, so I bet she feels the pressure of that."

"Well, Dan and I are both in Gryffindor, yet Arwen is in Ravenclaw."Elrohir pointed out lazily, eyes focused on the first-years still piling over the windows, a very very familiar grin growing on his handsome face.

"You told them they would see the castle through the windows, right?" She accused, already knowing the answer. A new grin on Elladan's face, mirroring that of his twin, was all she needed as a confirmation, and she slapped a hand to the elder twin's shoulder as a reponse.

"Ouch!" Elladan complained, even if his victorious grin never left his face, on ehand rubbing his shoulder exaggeratedly.

"You are horrible." She scontinued to scold, even if she could not hold back a laugh. Mean as it had been, watching the new students piling on the windows had been funny.

"You enjoyed watching them run desperately to the windows, Sig, I know you did." Elrohir's eyes narrowed in her direction, the train now coming to a full stop, and the students started descending into the moon-lit pavement in a slow, almost lethargic manner.

"Come, let's get out of here before we get stuck behind Hagrid and the newbies." Elladan said, stepping out into the corridor and easily making a way for them through the mass of students. Then again, making way had never been hard for the twins, she was sure they knew positively everyone in the school, so evidently all of their friends would easily let them throw and get ahead in the crowd. She wished she had even half of the popularity the twins had, her life would be so much easier if she did.

It was starting to rain outside, the thin drops of water splattering on her head as she quickly drew up the hood of her robes hurrying to one of the horseless carriages through the crowd with the twins following close behind her.

"First-years, this way!" She could hear Hagrid roaring over the noise, his bulky figure standing out even in the absence of light as a small crowd of nervous kids started to gather around him, some staring at his enormous figure with wide, unbelieving eyes – muggle-born kids most probably. She caught sight of Tilda for a second, standing almost awkwardly among the new students, large blue eyes staring at Hagrid with fascination. She caught her young sister's eyes for only a moment, and she used to wave at her quickly, a gesture that was returned before Hagrid starting to lead the first-years away and towards the boats. She did not envy any of them in the slightest – they would all be soaked once they reached the castle.

The ride in the horseless carriages was uneventful, Arwen and Eowyn sitting with them in silence, the latter with her eyes lazily skimming through the newest edition of the Quibbler, seeming to be mocking the articles rather than actually reading them.

Inside, the castle was as warm and welcoming as it always was, feeling like the home she had abandoned for the few months of summer. Long lighted torches illuminated the old stone walls, so old she swore she could hear them whispering to each other of all the things they had seen and witnessed. Luckily, this year Peeves was not waiting for them at the Entrance Hall with one of his many tricks – which sometimes could prove to be extremely annoying really. Instead, all the students marched with tired feet and hungry stomachs into the majestic Great Hall, were the thousands of candles floated already lighted with warm flames underneath he enchanted ceiling high above their heads. She absently noticed that it was raining too on the enchanted ceiling, as if to perfectly imitate the weather outside.

Sigrid silently made her way to the long Gryffindor table, taking a seat next to Eowyin – her closest friend. She was much too hungry to even think of starting a conversation, only silently wishing for the sorting ceremony to be over soon so that she would enjoy the welcoming banquet. Elladan and Elrhoir sat nearby, next to their friend Aragorn, and she held the urge to roll her eyes at the three of them. They were inseparable, and they were never up to any good when together.

"I'm starving!" Eowyn complained to her right, dropping the Quibbler unceremoniously over the table.

"Yeah, me too." Was all she said as her eyes wondered about the quickly filling up Great Hall, students already chatting loudly among each other as the four tables started to get more and more packed.

"Do you think we will get some good new students? We haven't won the House cup for the past three years." Eowyn kept on talkin, her gorgeous blond hair spilling over her shoulders and onto the table as she leaned her elbows onto the wooden surface.

"I hope so." She replied absentmindedly, her attention suddenly caught by another group of students at the Slytherin table, the farthest from them. He sat in his usual spot, always looking like the King of the table, and surrounded by his minions. Pale face, with features more apt to be in heavenly marble statues rather in actual living beings, staring disinterested around him, perfectly composed and cold. Long platinum hair spilled down his perfect back as his ice colored eyes, of an impacting blue like no other she had ever seen, gazed at the high table for a moment. Sigrid saw the fiery-haired Slytherin girl who seem to always be next to him saying something to him quietly and he turned to answer her, an haughty smirk that made her stomach twist forming on his too perfect face.

"Ugh." She heard Eowyn to her right, her eyes too staring at the Slytherin table. "Another year with Thranduil around. He thinks he is the greatest thing to happen to Hogwarts, and all because his father is stupidly rich."

She let out little chuckle, turning her attention back to the Gryffindor table. She was very well aware of Eowyn's particular hatred for Thranduil ever since the Flying class in which he had by far exceeded her talents. She was the Gryffindor seeker and there was nothing that could put her friend in a sourer mood than admitting that someone could fly better than her. Still, there was something about Thranduil that made him feel absurdly powerful, his face always unreadable, impenetrable, as if merely the way he carried himself, always so graceful, demanded respect and admiration from the fellow students. He was in his sixth year, and had been Prefect of his house and was now Head Boy of his house. He did not seem to have many friends, she had noticed, and yet students always moved out of her way as he walked, the younger ones staring at him in awe.

Thankfully, she did not have much time to ponder on her thoughts, for the large doors of the Great Hall opened once more and a stern-looking McGonagall marched inside in long strides, followed by a line of awed and nervous looking first-years. They stood in a messy line in front of the steps that rose the high table from the rest of them, staring with frightened eyes at the Sorting Hat and stool already waiting form them at the front.

Silence fell over the Great Hall almost immediately, heads moving from left to right to tried to get a better look at the scared new students crammed in front. McGonagall started speaking, but Sigrid was too busy trying to find Tilda in the crown to listen to the speech that she heard every year before the Sorting Ceremony. Her younger sister was one of the closest to the stool, staring at the Hat with fearful blue eyes, next to a boy with long blond hair only a couple of inches taller than her.

"Archer, Alana." McGonagall started calling names, and a chubby, freckled girl sat on the stool, nearly trembling in fear.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat roared almost instantly, and a round of claps and cheers erupted in the Hufflepuff table, eagerly welcoming their new addition.

"Azu, Lee"

"RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table cheered as the boy rushed in their direction, forgetting to take off the Hat and then having to run back to return it to the stool.

"Barnner, Greg" – "RAVENCLAW!" – "Blaine, Amanda" – SLYTHERIN!" – Her eyes darted to the Slytherin table catching sight of Thranduil clapping lazily there, a ghost of a smile present on his face as his icy eyes pierced through young Amanda as she ran to join them.

"Bowman, Tilda" Her heart stopped, eyes turning to stare as her young sister nearly stumbled up the steps in her rush to reach the stool. Her feet dangled over the floor as she sat, the Hat falling down her head and covering her eyes. Sigrid held her breath, cursing herself for being so protective of her sister, but how was she supposed to take care of her if she ended up in another house? And she waited…and waited…and-

"GRYFFINDOR!" She let out the breath she had been holding, jumping to her feet and joining in the cheers that exploded at the Gryffindor table.

"I did it!" Tilda nearly screamed as she threw herself in Sigrid's embrace, blue eyes shinning with excitement. "I'm a Gryffindor too, Sig! – Hi, Eowyn!" She waved

"I know!" She congratulated her, watching as she quickly took a seat at the table in one of the few empty spaces, already receiving words of welcome and handshakes from nearly every member of the Gryffindor House.

"Dorner, Frederica" – "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sigrid barely even joined in the cheers this time, still too preoccupied congratulating little Tilda to pay attention to the new dark haired girl that had come almost immediately join her sister. The list went on for a while, without her even paying much attention to the names that had bee called, Mariana Kinsar and Phillip Demetrius also joining the Gryffindor table.

"Lasgalen, Legolas." The blond boy that had previously been standing with Tilda sat hesitantly on the stool, blue eyes looking slightly scared as MacGonagall lowered the Sorting Hat onto his silver head.

"SLYTHERIN!" The scared boy visibly relaxed at the Hat's predicament, as if a pressure had been suddenly lifted from his thin shoulders, a small shy smile appearing on his face as he marched towards the cheering Slytherin table. Sigrid turned her attention to the cheering Slytherins, eyes almost immediately falling on Thranduil, surprised to find him smiling and clapping vigorously as young Legolas walked straight to where he was. And it was that she noticed the resemblance, it was almost impossible not to notice it, the same silvery hair that cascaded flawlessly over their shoulder and the same piercing silver-blue eyes porcelain skin. But while Thranduil's gaze seemed cold and impenetrable, Legolas' seemed shy, still touched by boyish innocence as he sat next to his older brother.

"Oh." She heard Tilda sighing almost sad. "He was nice. I hoped he would be in Gryffindor too."

"So there is a little Thranduil now." Came Eowyn's complain to her right, eyes looking at the Slytherin table with disgust. She shrugged turning her attention instead to the exquisite banquet that had magically appeared on their plates. They would start classes tomorrow, and no matter how much she had missed the castle and all of its enchanting halls, she was definitely not excited about all the work and papers that would soon fill her schedule. She chatted lightly with Eowyn and the twins for the remaining of the feast, both of whom did not look at all pleased to find that Snape was still teaching potions in the castle – both of the twins were terrible at potions, and that did not help with the fact that Snape seemed to like them just as little as they liked him. Only once did she turn her curious eyes once again to the Slytherin table, where Thranduil was chatting as casually with some fellows Slytherins. The air of haughtiness never left the perfect features of his face, the other Slytherins laughing when he did and silencing when he did. And then, as if he had felt her staring his eyes suddenly flew in her direction, piercing through her and holding her in place like glaciers, so penetrating, so cold and unreadable, a winter sealed behind the ocean blue crystals, making drop her gaze back to her food almost to quickly. She waited for a moment, testing again to see if it was safe to look again, not knowing if it was relief or disappointment when she once again found him chatting almost languidly with his fellow Slytherins, not really seeming interested in the conversation and yet joining along…

Hello Just a sotry I thougth of and wanted to try. Please let me know what you think or its worth continuing it… I know I changed some of the relationships between characters and the ages of them.

Beautiful Day!

ButterPen