This is it.
The beginning of rebuilding a new life.
Wish me luck….trust me, I'll need it.

The train I am sitting on gives a slight jolt, sending me forward slightly. I peer out of the window and through the darkness I can see something light, but not enough to make it out. The train finally comes to a complete stop allowing me to slide open the compartment door and wanders into the hallway.

Walking alone through the silent train with my bags trailing behind me, I make my way off the train and onto the quiet, lonely road. i manage to spot a carriage that doesn't appear to have a horse, although it is really dark out at the moment, so I could just be momentarily blind. I threw my bags into the carriage with a loud thud that echoed through the valley and made a very graceful stumble into the carriage for some more sitting and waiting.

Sorry, I should really introduce myself,

My name is Isabel Jenkins, although I prefer to be called Is. I am starting a new school at this place called 'Hogwarts' which is apparently "magical". So I guess I am going to learn to pull fluffy white rabbits out of hats…great. Sorry about the sarcasm, it is a bad habit.

To tell you the truth, I really don't want to be here. I would much rather be looking after my little brother and sister like I should be. They really need me at the moment because our parents died in a car crash a few months ago. I try not to think about that too much because it just makes me want to cry again, and I am trying to be brave.

My brother and sister were taken away from me last week, by the authorities, and I was banned from seeing them for 3 months. They claimed that I was unfit for guardianship and that I was a bad influence on them.

But I know that they really need me and I really need them, although unfortunately that is not enough. They have been sent to my bitch of an aunt who hates my guts. Too put it simply… life sucks at the moment.

The carriage stops, and I climb off it with my bags. When the carriage continued down the road by itself, it showed the boarding school at which I would live at. Turns out it was a castle, a FUCKING SCARY castle at that.

The castle looked as though it was made entirely of stone, with countless windows and towers sticking up at all different directions. The most amazing part of it would have to be the doors; they were magnificent and absolutely MASSIVE!

Well here I go, through these unnecessarily huge doors and into this deserted hallway. I stood quietly with my bags for a few moments, allowing my eyes to adjust to the light.
I thought someone should come and greet me by now.
Maybe if I cough someone will come.

Cough cough

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Wait I think I can here some footsteps heading my way, holy shit, I hate horror flicks and this is exactly like one.

An old lady appears from one of the many doors, she has dirty blonde hair tied up in a tight bun. She has her glasses covering her green eyes and obvious frown lines.

"You must be Isabel Jenkins, I am Professor McGonagall, follow me please. Leave your bags they will be collected" the lady said in a stern voice.

"Ummm ok" I manage to spit out. What a great first impression.

So here I am following Professor McGonagall through the hallways of this spooky castle that seems eerily quiet, when I see two doors just as big as the ones outside. While I am standing like an idiot admiring the doors, yes the doors. Professor McGonagall opens them and beckons me to follow her, and that's when I see them… the students of Hogwarts School of 'pulling stuff out of hats' all staring at me in silence. I don't even have to look at them to know they are staring, I can just feel it.

They are all seated in four columns of tables, with a table along the front of the room that appears to be seating teachers. There has to be about 200 or 300 people, maybe even more, and they are all staring at me silently. Awkward much?

I hold my head up high so I can look confident, with my long, brown curls bouncing as I walk. As I am walking confidently through the hall I hear someone wolf whistle, I turn to see where the source of the whistle came from, I did the unthinkable…

I trip.

Not a full head first into the concrete trip, but a trip all the same. Damn these long legs. As the shock of doing something stupid wears off and I have regained my composure I have nothing left to do but giggle to myself. Well it is pretty funny, my life is screwed up and I just screwed it up further...so much for 'it can't get much worse than this', trust me it can.

The population of the students continues to stare, with the occasional snigger.

With my head still held high even though I should be crying in the corner, I head over to Professor McGonagall and a group of children that look about 10 or 11.

The man I know to be Professor Dumbledore stands up with his glassed slightly askew and says to the crowd

"Welcome back for another exciting year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"

It took every ounce of me not to snort; these guys really think that they are magical. Mental institution maybe?

"I would like to introduce the first ever new student to Hogwarts, Miss Isabel Jenkins"

He held for applause, although there was none although this gave time for all eyes to be on me again, wooo (notice the sarcasm)

"I would like you all to make here feel welcome no matter which house she is placed into"

I stare at him, house, what does that mean? I thought we were living in dorms. Why won't someone tell me what is going on.

It was then that I noticed Professor McGonagall was motioning me to come and sit on a stool with three legs on it, typically enough it was in front of the hall so everyone would be looking at me. But none the less I did, not knowing what was about to happen.

Here I am sitting on a stool that creaks, which is not a good sign, and I have this old manky (I don't think manky is a word but it is the only way to describe it) hat on my head and to top it all off I have every single student staring at me. God, I hope I am not flashing.

Just then I heard the hat say something, I swear it was the hat. I am not insane.
There it goes again

"Where to put you
Where to put you…
You're quite the interesting character.
The placement of your house will determine how you will overcome your…little issues I believe you call them"

That is weird, maybe there really is magic…or it's a radio or maybe my imagination.

"Hmmmm Gryffindor or Slytherin, both seem a good choice to me.
Yes, you could be smart in Ravenclaw or humble in Hufflepuff.
But in Gryffindor your bravery could help tackle your problems or Slytherin could allow you to use the situation you are in to your advantage…your best option would have to be

GRYFFINDOR"

Maybe it was not my imagination, I don't think I can make up words like that.

Cheers erupted from one end of the room; I guess that is where the Gryffindors sit. The hat is lifted off my head and I walk with my confident walk over to the Gryffindor table. I hear a loud whistle and

"HEY! Hot new girl come sit with us"

I turn to see the source of the whistle; it was the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen. He has longish black hair that falls gracefully over his face with intense grey eyes. He seems a bit overly confident though, you can just tell with the way he sits and the fact that he just pushed a 13 or 14 year old guy out of his seat so I could sit down next to him.

I frown at him, I know he is gorgeous and obviously every girls dream (including mine) but he shouldn't have pushed the kid out of his seat like that.

As I continued to stand there, someone began to speak

"Ha padfoot buddy she isn't falling for your charm. Hey Evans" the guy next to him said, calling out to a girl a few seats down with fiery red hair. "What Potter?" she retorted back sounding slightly annoyed.

"I have a new friend for you; you know how you somehow don't fall for my irresistible charm? Well this chick isn't falling for Sirius's slightly irresistible charm" 'Potter' said laughing like it was the greatest joke in the world.

I heard a cough behind me and saw that Professor McGonagall was glaring at me to sit down, so I had no choice (not that it was horrible) but to sit next to the gorgeous guy.

As the hat was calling out the houses of the 10 or 11 year olds up the front, turns out the hat took the longest for me (typical), the guy next to me started talking to me.

"So…" he casually whispered "got a name sweetheart?"

"Isabel, but I prefer Is" I began "how about you or should I call you 'random guy who pushed some poor defenseless kid out of his seat so you could get me to sit there', and before you ask, yes I do think I am quite witty" I whisper back

"Ho ho we have a live one miss 'I like to trip over in front of the whole school'" I blushed, but tried not to show it "well that seems like a bit of a mouthful so what if we stick to Sirius and besides that 'poor defenseless kid' as you so kindly put it, is 16 and one of my good mates"

Shit

"Oh… well Santa Claus I think Sirius suits you better, you do seem quite the party pooper"

'Potter' started chuckling while Sirius was looking at me dumbfounded, so I thought it was best if I started smiling innocently.

The red headed girl giggled and whispered "wow Sirius has met his match"

That's when Sirius lost it. He yelled out through the silence "I AM NOT A PARTY POOPER!!!"

The hall burst out into laughter. Including me, it felt nice to laugh instead of all my stupid crying.

"Sorry" I whispered when the laughter died down "you just make it so easy".

He began to pout and I giggled again.

The boy 'Potter' whispered over to me, "I am James Potter, this is Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew" he said motioning to each person as he said their names, "and of course you have met the second hottest guy at Hogwarts behind me, Sirius Black"

Sirius interrupted in a little louder than a whisper "THE hottest"

"And before I was rudely interrupted" James gave a fake glare to Sirius who smiled innocently and continued "I was going to say, Miss Is I do believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

I smiled "indeed it is"

James Potter was quite good looking like Sirius although he had messy black hair and warm hazel eyes; he also had an obvious amazing body that was quite noticeable through the school shirt. The one who was Remus Lupin had caramel coloured hair and big brown eyes and seemed very quiet and calm.

Peter Pettigrew, the one who I though was 13, looked exactly like that, 13. He had blonde hair and nice blue eyes. He was slightly shorter and rounder but had an amazing smile which made up for it.

Just then over the sound of our previously quiet whispering I heard two simple words that brought great fear.

"Tuck in"

SHIT!!!!!

I jumped so high into the air.

The food just appeared in the middle of the table. It looks delicious I must admit, BUT IT APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE!!!

And apparently it is perfectly normal for this kind of thing to happen because everyone is eating like nothing happened apart from a few startled 10 year olds at the other end of the table.

Sirius snorted.

I just sat there speechless with my mouth hanging wide open.

I suddenly saw a hand waving in front of my face making me dizzy. I turned and looked at Sirius.

"Was that… was that….magic" I manage to croak out.

James started to snicker, Remus looked at me with concerned eyes and Peter was stuffing his face with this magical food.

"Nooooo it was a dragon" Sirius replied in sarcastic tone.

"So magic is real?" I ask, terrified of the answer.

"Yeah…" Sirius answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

There was only one thing left for me to do…

"HOLY SHIT!!!"

"Relax, don't you know about all this magical stuff yet?" Sirius said as he began to smirk.

I shook my head.

Sirius's smirk grew into a huge grin.

"Well then I had better warn you about the dragons we have to battle before we can eat breakfast and the poison they put in our food, so we have to make an antidote before we die a slow and painful death…"

I started to feel sick

Remus cut across Sirius, "he is only teasing, but yes there is magic and dragons. This is where we learn all about that kind of stuff, it will take some getting used to but it is very interesting" he said with a kind smile.

I gave him a weak smile and glared at Sirius who just gave me an innocent look and then started shoveling food in his mouth. I stared at the food and felt my stomach rumble. I put a slice of meat loaf on my plate and gave it a nibble, it was delicious.

I began to notice the situation around me, there was Sirius and Peter wolfing down food while Remus was putting chewable pieces of food in his mouth. Next to him was James staring at the Evans girl, I swear I can see some drool.

I look further down the table where the Evan's girl is, and what looks like her friends. They are talking away, worrying only about their chipped nail polish, lucky bitches. I look at the next table and see a group of girls with their skirts too short and overly straightened hair. They seem to be barely touching their food while applying more make up, not that they need anymore.

In the far corner of the room there is a group of people with green ties who seem a bit up themselves for my liking, glaring across the room. I then noticed a guy looking at me and smiling, so giving my best flirty smile, I smile at him and turn back to my food, but not before seeing him excitedly talking to his friends and motioning towards me. Too easy.

I am brought back to reality but a loud shouting in my ear over the already noisy hall. "FUCK OFF POTTER! I will not go out with you, get it through your thick skull"

Apparently this does not discourage James, "come on Lily you know you love me, stop trying to deny it" he yelled back to the Evans girl, whose name was Lily.

"YOU…YOU" Lily began but turned around with an oomph.

"Wow James that was kinda harsh" I say to James taking another bite of meatloaf.

"Yeah poor old Jamesie here has been getting cut for years now, nothing new" Sirius chipped in.

"That must suck" I tell him.

"She'll see that we are meant to be, just you watch" James said confidently

The food that was previously in front of me was gone and was replaced by dessert. And if I have to admit anything it is that I have a serious sweet tooth.

So I piled my bowl up with ice cream and cake and began to dig in.

The rest of the night was filled with small talk and I was introduced to some people like the Lily girl and her friends. And some people around the room were pointed out. Before too long I was feeling quite sleepy and ready for bed.

Dumbledore stood up and dismissed us to bed which I was grateful for. It was then that I realized that I had no idea were I was going, so I just followed Sirius who was holding my hand and pulling me though the crowd. I am quite certain that I heard some girls saying things like "OMG he is holding her hand" and "if Sirius likes her, I do too" but it could just be my imagination because when I am tired I go into a death like state to put it in simple terms.

Sirius stopped me at this large portrait of a fat lady in a frilly dress, and if that sounds weird wait until you here the next part. She was moving, and she was a portrait.

I stare at her with my mouth open, yet again.

"Password?" she said, by she I mean the portrait

"Buttercup" said Sirius

The portrait then swung open showing a large red and gold room with a gently blazing fire and plush couches.

I stumbled in and Sirius led me over to one of the couches by the fire and sat me down. James, Remus and Peter walked casually over and fell down onto the couches.

"Well I am pooped" said Peter

I managed to get over my shock and was beginning to think that I could just expect anything.

"Where do we sleep?" I asked curiously

"In one of the dorms up those stairs to the left, you are in room number 6" said Remus. I was beginning to like this Remus even if he was a know it all, at least he was there when I didn't know it all.

"Trust Prefect Moony to know what's going on" said James with a smile.

"Moony?" I asked

"Yeah it's our nickname for him, just like that's Wormtail (he pointed to Peter) and that's Padfoot (he pointed to Sirius) and I am Prongs" said James matter of factly.

I fought down a giggle, "what cool nicknames"

"Why thank you" they said in unison

"Well I am going to hit the sack" said Sirius

"As am I" Said Remus

"Ditto" said James

"Um me too" said Peter

"Ok well goodnight" I said as I made my way up to the stairs.

As I headed up the stairs I heard one of the guys call up to me "love you sweetie, have a good night sleep"

I gave them a weak smile and felt my throat become tight. I fought back a tear and thought to myself

LOVE, how I loathe that word