Clara had felt excited when she had gotten her letter to Hogwarts, but now- on the Hogwarts Express- she felt like she was only a small part of the magical world. Not only was the platform flooding with people, it had taken her what felt like forever to find an empty compartment. Just as Clara closed the compartment door, someone opened it again.
"Hello!" greeted the intruder-or in this case, intruders. They were both girls around the same height as Clara and about the same age.
"Hello." Clara mumbled, a little shy at first.
The curly haired girl spoke up. "I'm Sandra and this is Lahna."
A girl behind Sandra waved a little when introduced before sitting down on the seat opposite Clara, Sandra soon joining her.
"I'm so excited to go to Hogwarts!" Lahna squealed, then she blushed "Sorry, over-excited." Sandra shrugged.
"My dad says it's the best wizarding school." she said "Slytherin is the best house." Lahna laughed.
"Agreed," she said "but any house is better than Gryffindor." The compartment door opened to reveal an older boy.
"Sandra, Mum told me to give you your owl," He held up a noisy cage that had canvas pulled over it.
"Go away, I'm with my friends, Roland." Roland just shrugged and handed Sandra an owl cage before leaving. The owl inside hooted gently and nestled under it's wing.
"I'm guessing that's your brother?" pondered Clara. Sandra nodded, placing the cage safely under her seat.
"He's a third year Hufflepuff, this is why I want to be in Slytherin," she mumbled. The rest of the journey went quickly as the three told stories and chatted.
Sandra stared at Clara, who had fallen asleep sometime within the hour, then at Lahna, who was blinking drowsily on her shoulder.
"Candy from the trolley, dear?" the elderly trolley lady called into the cabin.
Sandra nodded, careful not to disturb Lahna, and paid for a packet of Redvines and some chocolate frogs. 'Let's just hope this can last me 'til the train arrives to the School.' she thought, inching her shoulder back under Lahna's head.
She couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts.
Nervously, Sandra watched as the sorting commenced. Clara had gotten Ravenclaw, as she would expect. Clara did seem to have an air of intelligence about her.
Her breathe caught in her throat as she heard Lahna's name called. Quickly, she grabbed her hand. Lahna looked reassuringly back at Sandra and she let her go. Professor McGonagall set the old and ragged sorting hat on Lahna's head.
It hesitated before saying, "Slytherin!"
After a few more students, Sandra knew she was next on the list. Her name was called and she numbly walked onto the platform. She could hear her heartbeat drumming in her ears as the hat was placed upon her head.
Sandra was worried it wouldn't say anything until a low voice mumbled into her ear. "Ah... Quite interesting. You may be as hard to sort as that Muggle-born Slytherin back there."
"Don't speak about my friend like that." Sandra hissed at it. "Loyal, Brave, Fiery, seemingly Intelligent... Very difficult indeed. Tell me- what house do you want to be in?" the hat drawled.
"Slytherin- please." She whispered urgently. People had begun to stare at the silent hat upon the frantic witch's head.
"Very well. Slytherin!" the hat bellowed confidently.
She stifled a sigh of relief as Sandra made her way to the Slytherin table, where a shady crowd awaited her company. 'Maybe I should've gone with Ravenclaw...' she mentally facepalmed.
Clara grinned as hoards of food appeared. Her sister had told her there was a huge feast at the beginning of the year, but she didn't mention that there was such a variety of it! Just then she saw her sister, Leah, waving at her from the Gryffindor table. Clara waved back and felt a pang of disappointment. It was Leah's final year at Hogwarts, Clara would only get to spend one year enjoying the school with her sister.
Clara's attention was moved to the table where the professors sat.
In the middle, next to Dumbledore, was a thin witch with round spectacles. That must have been Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher. Clara's eyes wandered down the table until they landed on a very short professor.
'That must be professor Flitwick, the Ravenclaw head professor,' thought Clara 'who is the man sitting next to him?' The dark haired man looked up from his conversation with Flitwick and gazed sharply at Clara. Clara shifted her gaze away from the dark haired teacher and to the more golden haired one.
'My mum has a picture of him on one of her cleaning books,' she thought 'Gregory Lockliver or something. I know his last name has a vital organ in it.' Clara started sorting the teachers into categories in her mind. When she returned to Lockliver (whatever his last name was, she honestly couldn't care less) she didn't hesitate before putting him in the category of useless.
"First years!" called two older Ravenclaws. Clara got up and started following a group of fellow first years over to the shouting prefects.
"Your head is the only one besides mine that isn't infested with nargals," commented a dreamy voice. Clara turned to see a light haired girl standing next to her.
"Thank you," she said "I've read all about nargals in the quibbler," she responded "I'm Clara Bishop, who are you?"
"Luna Lovegood."
Clara gasped in delight.
"Is your dad the author of the quibbler?" she asked in excitement. When Luna nodded, Clara's face broke out in a huge grin.
"That's so cool!" she said "tell me all about it!" Luna happily complied and started telling Clara stories about her and her father exploring exotic places in search of strange creatures. Clara listened intently, but she never interrupted and gasped in all the right places. The two kept chatting until someone put a hand on both of their shoulders.
"So sorry to interrupt my dears," said a cheery voice "but I think you need help finding your common rooms." Both girls turned to see Albus Dumbledore standing there. The great hall was empty.
"Sorry Professor," said Clara "we just got swept up in our conversation. I guess we didn't notice." Dumbledore laughed, his eyes twinkled in a way you only read about.
"I'll help you to Ravenclaw tower only this one time, deal?" he bargained "just so you won't get lost." Both girls nodded and followed the headmaster out of the great hall and into the maze of a castle.
Sandra chuckled gleefully as the Slytherins, now proceeding with a lighter mood after the sorting, began to bicker about the newest professor, Gilderoy Lockhart. She felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle, as if under someone's gaze.
A ghost whom was covered in blood was indeed staring at her.
"What? Haven't got anything on my face, have I?" She twitched her nose.
The bloody ghost scowled. "No- you don't."
"Then stop staring. It's impolite." Sandra suggested. "A little cheeky for a first year, are we?" the ghost scoffed. Sandra looked up at the transparent man. "Nothing wrong with that now, is there."
Sandra and the ghost were now silent and unblinking. Suddenly, the ghost broke into a wide grin. "Haha- not at all. You've got spirit, lass. You've been sorted well. I'm the Bloody Baron."
As the feast wore on, Sandra and the Bloody Baron had become completely engulfed in their chat.
"Sandra, the prefects are calling for the first years." Lahna interrupted, tapping her friend's shoulder. "Right. Let's go then." Sandra stood up, linking arms with Lahna.
The prefects showed them a large amount of forbidden hallways, doors, rooms, wings, and some rules. They'd finally gotten down a long staircase, and were now bustling around in the dungeon.
"It looks so unsanitary!" Lahna exclaimed, looking at the niter and algae covered stone walls.
"It gets better once you get inside the common room." a third-year boy assured them. Sandra rolled her eyes, recognizing the boy as one of Roland's friends.
"Well, Sandra. It's a surprise seeing you here! I was sure you'd be put in Gryffindor! Guess I owe Treck 12 Galleons." he sighed jokingly.
"Oh, like I'd want to be in the same house as that guy." Sandra grumbled. Matt shrugged and returned to talking to his friends.
The prefects stood before the growing group of Slytherins.
"Listen up, because we are only going to say this once!" the female called. "The password is pureblood, got it?"
As the password was announced, a door swung open. "Well that password is a little easy to guess, isn't it?" Sandra whispered to Lahna.
The common room was nowhere remotely near to what it seemed from the outside. The walls were well polished stone, draped with banners of green and silver, that dawned the house mascot, and with torches that cast eerie green light. The mantle of the fireplace was intricately carved from black marble and reflected the light of the flames it held perfectly. Green couches, poufs, and armchairs, as well as oak lounge tables littered the room.
"If you keep gawking like that all night, we'll have a new fly catcher." a voice scoffed from behind the girls.
Sandra whirled around, glaring daggers. "You'd think the place wouldn't need one, seeing as it has toads in it." She retorted, nodding to the two lumbering gargoyle-like students standing next to the boy.
"How dare you insult me like-" "No, no. I wasn't insulting you. I was insulting your bodyguards. You aren't a toad... you're more like a ferret." Sandra cut him off.
The boy scowled, stalking away, muttering something along the lines of "...father will hear..."
Sandra grinned at Lahna and they entered the girls' dormitory.
When they finally came to their beds, they could see their luggage had made it there safely. "Moofa!" Lahna gasped, picking her cat up.
Sandra opened the door of her Owl's cage. The speckled barn owl climbed onto Sandra's arm and stretched her wings. "We made it Chessy." Sandra whispered as she fed her owl a biscuit.
"There's an owlery somewhere... You'll be able to find it, I'm sure." Sandra said, opening a window for her owl.
Dumbledore led Luna and Clara up a spiraling flight of stairs and stopped into front of a door with an eagle decoration. He hummed merrily as a colored mist came out of the eagle's mouth.
'If you know me I am nothing. But if you don't know me I am something. What am I?'
Dumbledore gestured for them to answer. Clara thought for a moment and then it hit her.
"A riddle," she said proudly.
'Correct.'
The mist went back into the Eagle's mouth and then the door opened.
"That eagle has a flair for dramatics sometimes," mumbled Dumbledore "goodnight girls. Your dormitory should be on the right." With that, Dumbledore started descending the flight of stairs until he was out of sight.
"You heard the man," said Clara cheerfully "to the right we go!"
"Hmm, mumbled Luna dreamily "yes, to the right we go!"
AN- (Demigod notes): 'Ello fellow witches and wizards! I'm so glad you decided to read this fanfiction and I must warn you that it will be filled to the brim with silliness and strange adventures. The only characters me and my very short associate own are Clara, Lahna, Sandra, and a few other strange names such as, Braxton, Roland, and other whimsical beings. Now on to the Hobbit.
(Hobbit Notes): I am NOT that short! I'm still growing, you know! Ahem' anyways... This has been sitting in our documents for several months now, but we never saw it ready to publish. Hopefully we've combed out all the spelling and grammar errors. This first chapter is the only one that won't be in the characters' P.O.V. It's easier to write when it is, though. We based these Oc's off of people from our daily lives. For example, Roland and Sandra are actually me and my brother, but with different names! And those annoying friends of his? Oh yeah! They're real!
We can't wait for you to join us on this adventure!