Clarke makes her way back to her train car with her arms balancing three chocolate frogs and a small sack of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Her mom, one of the wizarding world's leading healers, had made sure to give her enough coins to buy treats for her, Octavia, and Raven. Other first years whiz by her as she walks, too excited about starting school at Hogwarts and otherwise just hyper off of the sugar of all the treats. The buzz and the chaos would typically annoy her, but right now its sending surges of excitement through her for what's to come next.

She starts to fiddle with the handle to her car to return to her friends when she feels that electric feeling in the air change to something more sullen, and sinister. She looks up and catches the eye of a girl coming towards her with a braid in her hair and the greenest eyes she's ever seen. Who is that?

The girl walks by Clarke before she can think of anything to say, but she notices that all of the other kids are watching the mysterious girl. Clearly she's missing something. Raven slides the door open for her. "Watcha staring at? Ooooh, chocolate frog!" Raven snatches one of them from Clarke's arms before peering into the hallway to get a peek at what Clarke is so entranced by. "That's Lexa Goodrum," she whispers, seemingly not wanting to draw any attention to them as they stared. Clarke raises an eyebrow, wondering if that name is supposed to mean anything to her.

Just as Raven opens her mouth to explain, Octavia hops on her piggyback style, wanting to get a peak at Lexa. Being completely unprepared, Raven topples over into the hallway and onto the ground, landing with a hard thud as Octavia squishes her into the carpet. Lexa turns back to look at the commotion, and Clarke watches her in an attempt to gauge her reaction. The rest of the compartment bursts into laughter at the mess of limbs that they had become on the floor, but not Lexa. Clarke is sure she can see a twitch of her lips wanting to curve into a smile but it's gone before Clarke can be certain.

"They're just excited over the chocolate frogs," she says loudly enough for Lexa to hear. She's not sure why she feels like Lexa is owed an explanation, so she breaks eye contact finally and helps her struggling friends off the floor. She tugs them into the car and slides the door shut. "You two are so embarrassing."

"It wasn't me, it was Octavia! Warn a girl before turning into a spider monkey."

Octavia just grins and unwraps her chocolate frog. "It's not fun if I warn you. You're supposed to just catch me. It's a trust thing."

"That doesn't make any sense," Raven retorts.

"You don't make any sense."

"Good one." Raven sticks her tongue out at her and it starts a full on funny face war.

Clarke watches them for a moment or two before her mind drifts back to Lexa. Why did her presence stun a bunch of eleven year olds into silence? Goodrum. Goodrum. The name sounds familiar, but she can't quite place it.

"Raven," she interrupts finally, "Who is Lexa Goodrum?"

Raven abandons the war with Octavia, shifts forward, and lowers her voice dramatically. "She's from the Goodrum family. They're decedents of death eaters. Rumor is that Lexa's parents are part of the new death eaters wave."

Now she remembers the name. The Goodrums, Mark and Margaret, had a huge hand in the First Wizarding War. Lexa's grandparents, she presumed. Lexa couldn't be a death eater, though. There's no way Hogwarts would allow one in, would they? They'd have to know. They'd have to have some sort of defense against that now.

"I heard Lexa's brother was sorted into Hufflepuff, and they basically disowned him. Now they're counting on Lexa to take on their legacy," Raven adds, before sitting back in her seat and taking a bite out of her frog. "Or so I heard anyway. My mom never stops gossiping."

Clarke feels fear in her chest before it quickly turns into guilt. She has no idea what Lexa is like, or what her family is like, and judging her based on rumors is unfair. Her father taught her better than that. "Stop spreading that story, okay? It might not be true and it's not right that she's judged before people even get a chance to meet her."

A glimmer of mischief dances across Octavia's eyes. "Then maybe we should ask her what the real story is. I dare you to ask her to hang out with us."

Clarke stiffens, not liking that idea in the slightest. If she were to meet Lexa, she wanted to do it naturally. Going up to a girl and asking for her life story right out of the gate didn't seem like the way to make friends. Maybe it's the way for Octavia, but Clarke has more tact than that.

Then again, she knows she can't back down from a dare. Gryffindors are supposed to be brave and not back down from anything, and she wants to follow in her family's footsteps. If she doesn't do this, maybe the sorting hat will put her in the wrong house. "Fine. But if I do this, you have to eat every booger flavored bean in the sack!"

Octavia nods. "Deal." Clarke moves out of the car and can hear Octavia call out, "And no telling her that it was a dare! That's cheating!"

She finds Lexa holed up in a car by herself reading some kind of book. It's big and heavy and Clarke wonders if it's one of the textbooks they were required to get. She knocks on the window and waves eagerly with a smile that's slightly too big. She looks like a total creeper, and Lexa's expression hasn't changed since she looked up. "Alrightie then," Clarke murmurs to herself. "At least she didn't tell me to go away."

Gathering all the courage she has, she slides open the door and steps inside. "Hi, sorry to bother you. Those were my idiot friends flopping around on the floor earlier. I thought I'd apologize to everyone who had to witness it."

Lexa studies her, looking like she's deciding if Clarke is worthy to speak to. "I'm Clarke-"

"Griffin. I know who you are."

Clarke wonders if she knows who she is because of her mother or father. Death eaters were responsible for her father's death, so asking that question out loud is too scary a thought, even for her. "Right. Well. I was wondering if you wanted to come hang out with us. It'd beat sitting in here alone reading a book. I promise we don't bite. Well, okay, sometimes Octavia does when she's bored but I promise she'll behave."

Lexa takes so long to answer that Clarke thinks she's being ignored, but she finally closes her book and picks up her bag. "Lead the way."

Clarke's smile brightens, and she reminds herself again to stop being such a weirdo. She just met this girl, and she had so many questions for her, but she felt like they could be good friends if the circumstances were right. She really wants to get this right. It feels important for a reason she can't come up with.

As they enter, Raven is already sorting out any jellybean that might be booger flavored for Octavia to eat. "Lexa, this is Raven and Octavia."

Lexa gives them a curt, but respectful, nod. It's clear her parents don't tolerate childlike behavior.

"Hi," Octavia says brightly. She grabs a fistful of jellybeans and holds them out to Lexa as a peace offering. "We got all the booger ones out already, so don't worry."

Lexa looks almost suspicious as she stares at Octavia's outreached hand, but with a reassuring look from Clarke she picks up a red one. "Thank you."

"So have you ever seen a dead body before?" Raven's question is tactless and Clarke is immediate to reply with a stern look. "Raven!"

Lexa seems unaffected, and she says seriously, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Raven and Octavia's faces drop as they shift uneasily. That is until Lexa's lips turn up just enough to indicate a smile. All four fall into a fit of laughter, which only grows louder when Octavia starts her task of eating the booger jellybeans.

"What house do you want to be in?"

"Slytherin," Lexa answers without missing a beat. Her tone is unchanged, but Clarke can tell it's a practiced answer, not a truthful one.

"I don't believe you."

"I don't care."

Clarke knows she cares. She can tell by the way Lexa's eyes flicker over to a sleeping Octavia and Raven. They crashed from their sugar high, leaving them a few moments of quiet to talk.

"I won't tell anyone," she promises.

Lexa's quiet, and Clarke realizes that's a pattern of hers. Whether it's a defense mechanism, or if she just likes the extra time to think, she's isn't sure.

"Ravenclaw," she finally admits. "If I had the choice, I'd want to be in Ravenclaw."

Clarke wants to hear more, but a bump in the train jolts Raven and Octavia awake.

"I'm awake," Octavia shouts. "Are we there yet?!"

Clarke sits at the Gryffindor table with her pulse still beating in her ears. It was an unimaginable adrenaline rush as she waited for the Sorting Hat to sort her. Some people try to play off house sorting as not a big deal, but those people are Hufflepuffs.

Raven gets into Ravenclaw unsurprisingly since she's been a mad genius since she was seven, but Clarke is especially bummed when Octavia is sorted into Hufflepuff. She thought she had a shot at sharing houses with at least her.

Clarke watches as Lexa steps up to the stool and the hat is placed on her head. Clarke holds her breath in anticipation. If Lexa gets Slytherin, there is no way they can be friends. After the Second Wizarding War, Headmistress McGonagall made better attempts at intermingling the houses, but it was still rough going. Any Slytherins that were attached to the dark arts in any way stuck together and didn't mix with houses they saw beneath them.

The Sorting Hat seems to be contemplating between two houses, and Clarke has hope for a fleeting moment.

Ravenclaw, please pick Ravenclaw.

"Better be, Slytherin!"

Boos ring out from the other houses as the Slytherins whoop and holler their approval.

That's it. It's over. Any chance Clarke had to be friends with Lexa is gone as she disappears into the sea of green.