Elizabeth Roxanne Andrews sat up, blinking as a ray of sunlight hit her. This was it! She was going to Hogwarts. She checked her calendar, just to be sure. Yup, September 1, 1971. She made her way out from underneath her Ravenclaw blue and light yellow comforter. Yes, Ravenclaw blue. Her mum had chosen them, in hopes that her daughter would be sorted into Ravenclaw. Elizabeth, known as Roxanne or Roxi, slowly walked to the washroom with her nicest muggle outfit and a towel. On the way she passed her brothers room. Her brother, Jonathan, was a third year Gryffindor, and as a Gryffindor, his room was red with gold trim. Originally he had just wanted it red, but his mother wanted her house to look like it was decorated by someone who was not colorblind.
"Jonathan!" she spoke softly for fear that he was still sleeping. He had been known to wake up at the slightest sound, and if you woke him up, you were in for a nightmare. Thankfully for her, he was already awake and playing on his DS. At first her mother had refused to allow "useless muggle things" into their house, the result of visiting her Lestrange cousins, who believed that muggles were filth. Elizabeth had never gotten along with them. They were little dark robots.
"Jonathan! Jonathan!" she repeated in a much stronger voice. "Today's the day!" Jonathan looked up with a flicker of annoyance in his eyes. He waved her off. Oh well. Nothing could spoil her happiness.
After the shower, Roxanne quickly dressed. She decided to curl her thick strawberry-blonde hair, which to her dismay took half-an-hour. She could not wait until she learnt a few beauty spells. That would save a lot of her time. Roxanne looked in the mirror, taking note of every feature on her face. Her light brown eyes, her dainty lips, her delicate eyebrows, her softly sloped nose, and her fair complexion. In her opinion they suited her very well. Grinning, she stepped out of the washroom and ran right into her mum.
Roxi!" said her mother, Elizabeth, in a sing-song way. "Are you excited? I remember how excited I was on my first day, and that was with your uncles writing me every other day about how awesome it was, and how I was missing out on so much!" she then proceeded to recite passages from their letters. "Elizabeth, you won't believe how grand Hogwarts is! It is the most awesomely magical castle ever! We wish you were here! Love, Broderick and Jack Peltier-Lestrange, your fabulous brothers. I desperately wished I had a younger sibling to write to about my experiences at Hogwarts."
"Elizabeth! I hope you are not boring Roxanne with your glory-day tales of Hogwarts!" shouted her husband Mark, having been woken by her voice which had been rapidly increasing in volume.
His comment went unnoticed by the intended, as Elizabeth had already gone to the kitchen to make breakfast. Jonathan, however, had heard his father's comment.
"It's not as if we listen long enough to be bored, Dad." he said, wryly.
After the initial excitement wore off, Roxanne felt a nervous apprehension. The jolting of the car certainly had something to do with it. Her thoughts turned to the sorting. She had so many questions! First of all, how do they tell what kind of a person you were? How did you find out what they said? Was it safe? Did it require any effort on her part?
"Mum? How am I going to be sorted?" she said, quietly voicing her concerns. It took her mother a moment to reply. When she did, it wasn't helpful.
"I'm not sure I can tell you, honey. When I went, nobody knew. Even the people with families who knew, so there must be some tradition of not knowing." her mum replied hesitantly. "But it is easy, nothing to worry about."
"What if I get sorted into Slytherin? I don't want to go to Slytherin!" Roxanne was worried that underneath, she was a bad person. And no one else in her family was in Slytherin! Her mother had been in Ravenclaw, her father had been in Hufflepuff, and her brother was in Gryffindor!
"Then we will have had a family member in each house." her mother replied, skirting around the obvious issue. The issue if they would know if you were bad! Then you would find out and it would be public!
Her mother sighed, knowing exactly how she felt. "Just because a number of dark wizards were in Slytherin, it doesn't mean that all of Slytherin are bad. The Sorting H-. Whoops... Slytherins are only "cunning and ambitious". Many other wizards are just as bad as some Slytherins, they just lack the ambition and cunning to actually act upon it." her mother said, with impeccable logic, as they arrived at King's Cross Station.
While unloading the car, Roxanne's mother ran into an old schoolmate. "Roxanne, Jonathan! I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine, Maria Potter. Her son is starting school this year too. His name is James." Mrs. Potter and Elizabeth were too immersed in old memories that they didn't notice the arrival of a boy Roxanne presumed to be James, who was laughing with another boy, who had a curly mop of hair.
"Ha! That was-"
"hilarious!" They were both gasping for air. Roxanne got her first real look at them. James had messy dark brown black hair, hazel eyes, a straight nose and an air of mischievousness about him. The other boy had curly dark brown hair, gray eyes, and even more mischievousness!
"Hello Mrs. Andrews!" said the boy and James in unison.
"Hello!" this time the boy spoke to Roxanne. "And what would your name be?" he arrogantly drawled. Or at least in the 11 year old sense of the word.
"I'm Elizabeth. Well Roxanne. Elizabeth Roxanne, but you can call me Roxi." Roxanne somewhat stammered, in awe that this, this obviously popular boy was talking to her.
"Well Roxi, I am Sirius Orion Black, at your service." he said with a small bow. Roxanne was slightly stunned, having never met a boy her age as formally-mannered as he was.
"Jamie, do you need me to go with you?" asked Mrs. Potter, worrying about her little boy. Having a husband for an auror tended to make you over-cautious and slightly paranoid. Harold Potter was the Assistant Head of the Auror Department, and one of the most experienced aurors as well, resulting in him being sent on the most dangerous assignments and cases. Maria also wanted to make a sentimental moment of it.
James was quick to refuse. "I'm not a child Mum." He said with his nose in the air. A second later though, he was in his mother's arms, proclaiming how much he would miss her. Maria was crying. Roxanne was glad that her mother was not the kind of person who tended to make goodbyes sappy. Seeing that James and his mother were nearly finished their farewells, Jonathan ran ahead, for he had seen his best friends, Godric Pendragon and Loxias Black.
"Hey Sirius! I didn't know you were coming to Hogwarts this year! You should hang out with Jonathan's little sister! Unless you get sorted into Slytherin. She won't of course, she is too brave." shouted Loxias, Sirius' cousin. "Even if you do, though, first year will be the best year of your seven years, there is no pressure and teachers are more lenient."
"Come on! We should be already on the train, relaxing in our private compartment!" interrupted Godric, the bigheaded one of the group.
With an exaggerated eye-roll, Jonathan agreed, and with that they headed off into King's Cross.