Chapter 1

Arrival at Hogwarts

"I got the letter! I got the letter!"

I jumped downstairs excitedly, waving a piece of parchment in the air. It was the most important letter I'd ever received in my whole life, not that I received many important ones anyway.

"Sweetie, that's fantastic!" my mother cried, and hugged me so tight I almost suffocated. But I kept my acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry clutched tightly in my hand.

My father walked into the room with a huge grin on his face. "Well, we had no doubts, did we, honey?" he asked my mother, and she grinned as well.

"No. She's a born witch, this one. You saw what she did with her present last year. It just ripped itself open magically!"

I smiled widely. "So that means I get to go to Diagon Alley like Darren did and get all the supplies! There's a huge list of supplies here!"

They looked at the list. "You've got twice the amount of books on that list than Darren did a few years ago! Crikey, that school just changes as the years go by," my father said.

"But it's for the best, I'm sure. I mean, our sweetheart needs all the books and supplies she can get to succeed in Hogwarts," my mother said, lightly laughing.

"Your mother was a bookworm at Hogwarts too," my father said. "Either you'll be a bookworm or a rule-breaker."

Excitedly, I ran upstairs so I could pack all my clothes. I'm a huge fashionista and it would take ages before all of my clothes were successfully packed. I needed to ration it, because I'd only wear casual clothes on weekends. That was the downside. I loved wearing my own clothes. I lived in America until a few months ago, because we moved to London to be closer to Hogwarts so I could attend. My brother Darren is still in his seventh year now but he lives with his girlfriend and her family in London.

Hours later, I was still in my closet. It was the same size as my room. Our family was quite rich. Well, that's a understatement. We were extremely rich. So my room was massive, with an en suite bathroom and a balcony. Years ago I became obsessed with fashion, so my father had a closet built into my room and it's been there ever since. I'm pretty neat, so I keep all the shoes aligned in neat rows and the clothes hung up arranged in colour. If I want to wear black because I'm in a bad mood, I can head to the black clothes and if I'm wearing summer clothes I can get yellow or pink or some happy colours like that. My fashion depends completely on my mood, which is why I arranged it in colours.

I picked out some of my favourite tops and jeans, because they were casual but fashionable. I didn't want to be the frilly-dress kind of girl, nor the skirt girl, but I had a few skirts packed just in case. Summer usually calls for skirts and short dresses, but I also wear tops and shorts like the other kids in London. We're all obsessed with fashion in my school, but America was more fashionable, because we were allowed to wear casual clothes to school.

I hate school uniforms. They make me feel uncomfortable. But I wear them anyway because, well, rules are rules.

"Are you still in that closet?" my little sister Brooke said, walking in. She was nine, two years behind me, and that meant two years until Brooke came to Hogwarts. "You've been in there half the day! Don't you want to go down to the park and drink slush? I love the slush machine, watching it whirr around!"

"Ask Mom to take you. I'm packing for Hogwarts."

Brooke nodded. "Okay, I'll ask Mommy. When are you going to Diagon Alley? Can I come? Are you excited?"

"I'm going tomorrow. No, you can't come. And yes, I'm super duper excited for this trip! It's the first time I'll be publicly able to talk about magic! Why wouldn't I be excited? And I'm buying the coolest supplies."

"Robes," Brooke said.

"Yeah, robes. Only they seem quite plain. I wish it was like in America where we could wear whatever we liked to school. Then again, it's Hogwarts, so who cares? There's no Hogwarts in America."

"Britain is better," Brooke said, and I shushed her because it's rude to say that some countries were better than others.

"Go get some slush. Grab me some too."

"My hand will be cold!" Brooke complained, but she was already rushing downstairs, so I wasn't convinced that she wouldn't get slush.

The next day, we got dressed and cleaned up for Diagon Alley. I wore my summer clothes, a top and some denim shorts, and we left. Brooke was at home with Mom, I was going to the most exciting shopping spree of my whole life, everybody was happy!

"So, let's go to Diagon Alley!" my father said, and he tapped on the wall and it opened up for us. I gasped at this display.

He led me into a street with so many fascinating shops and people. Witches in robes, and wizards in...robes. Everybody seemed to be in robes except for the first years. I gasped as I saw everybody walk past. I seemed so small in this sea of witches and wizards.

I spotted a blonde boy across the street from me, and he seemed to have his eyes locked onto mine. But then a tall wizard walked past me, breaking our eye contact. I hurried to keep up with Dad.

We bought some robes, a cauldron, an owl, lots of books, and most excitingly, a wand. Then we went home and I was super excited for Hogwarts.

On the day of the train ride, I was up super early to get dressed and double-check everything was packed. I had loads of suitcases but Dad had a huge cart that I could pull along. I put them all into the cart and dragged it downstairs. Dad was already up, and Mom. They were cleaned up nicely, fresh faces, their best clothes, and Brooke was woken up by me. She got dressed into her finest clothes. They even bathed the baby and put her in her stroller to go to King's Cross Station.

We drove there in our car, like Muggles, but when we got there, I didn't hesitate to run straight into the pillar and be transformed to the Platform Nine and Three Quarters. There were so many students saying goodbye to their family and some just leaped straight onto the train. I gasped at the sight of all of these students. There were so many of them!

"It'll be okay. Darren will look after you." I spotted Darren with his girlfriend, waving goodbye to her family. Mom had her hands on my shoulders and said, "Goodbye, Tori, dear. Have fun at Hogwarts."

"Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad. Later, Brooke," I grinned. "I'll send owls to you every week and come back for every holiday, okay?"

"Have fun at Hogwarts! I have faith in you!" Dad said, and I waved goodbye as I dragged the heavy cart onto the train.

I picked an empty compartment and stole the seat by the window with the best view. Soon loads of people were in the compartment. Just one seat was left, and the blonde boy I'd seen at Diagon Alley plonked himself down in it.

"Hey. I saw you. In Diagon Alley," I said to him. "I'm Tori Rodriguez."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said, and we started to talk about our family's history at Hogwarts as the train whisked us away. I met another girl called Pansy Parkinson who seemed nice enough.

The sweet trolley came past and I ordered loads of fun new sweets, like Bertie Bott's every flavoured beans. I ate one that tasted of spinach. I hated spinach unless it was in chicken lasagne the way Mom made it, so I immediately spat out the bean and wailed loudly.

I collected some Wizard's Cards from the chocolate frogs and we all excitedly shared how happy we were to finally be on the train to the best wizarding school in the whole entire world. I talked about Darren, everybody else talked about any family members they had in this school and what houses they predicted they'd be in.

"Slytherin, easy enough," Draco said. "My whole family was in Slytherin. It's likely I will as well."

"Same here. Slytherin," I said.

"Slytherin, probably," Pansy Parkinson said.

We arrived at the boathouse and rode the boats. My first sight of Hogwarts made my mouth open wide in shock. "Wow!" I said to Pansy Parkinson. "The lights are beautiful here..."

Pansy's face showed equal shock, and so did everybody else's.

We arrived at Hogwarts. The sorting ceremony was about to commence...