Chapter 2: A Setting For Years.

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The first years made their way over to Hagrid and Hagrid smiled his big smile. He lead the first years onto the boats while they got in them four at a time. Jessica, Tara, Sarah and Oliver all made their way into a boat and sat down. The wind nipped at them and they huddled together close so they weren't as cold. They made the way across the water slowly, the only real lights they saw were the moon and the lights from the castle. Tara's eyes were wide as she watched the boat move. She was muggle born and had never seen magic in her whole life other than on t.v. but that didn't compare to what she was seeing. She put her hand over the boat to let her fingers trail but Oliver grabbed her hand and shook his head. She decided to put her hands in her lap and just gaze around her happily. Jessica shook her head and just giggled a bit. Sarah's neon green hair stood out and everyone from the other boats watched as she bounced up and down. She was singing a song she made up herself at the medium volume that basically went like,

Hogwarts, Hogwarts what a place to stay

Hogwarts, Hogwarts hey I'm on my way!

Hogwarts, Hogwarts yippie yippie yay!

I'm here I'm here, no need to run away!

Jessica felt the boat began to rock as Sarah began to rock back and forth on the boat, singing the sound getting louder and louder. The boat began to rock violently as she kept singing, her eyes closed and her notes way off key. Tara and Oliver put their hands over their ears while Jessica tried to get Sarah to stop rocking back and forth. Finally she reached the end of the song and at the end she jumped up and shouted, "HEY!" With her sudden jump up and the rocking the boat tipped over, everyone in the boat screaming. The boat turned up empty and the kids from the other boats watched at the empty boat, waiting for four figures to pop up. The first to pop up with Jessica. She gasped for air and grabbed the side of the boat.

"I'm going to kill you Sarah! Just you wait! I swear!" she exclaimed at the water as she climbed into the boat. She looked over and began to panic a bit. No one else was popping. Finally another head popped up, and Tara gasped for air. She grabbed ahold of the boat and Jessica helped her into the boat.

"Where's Sarah and Oliver?" Jessica asked. Tara began to ring out her robes.

"Last thing I saw, Sarah had her arms around his neck and kicking violently," she explained, wiping her hair out of her face. A little bit later there was a lot of splashing going on. The two girls turned and noticed arms waving about and legs kicking. Finally one shoved the other person down and the person on top was Sarah. She swam noisly over to the boat and grabbed onto it.

"Lets do that again!" she exclaimed. Tara groaned and Jessica glared at Sarah. "Wot?" she asked. Finally Oliver popped up out of the water, his arms flying around with some words coming out of his mouth that sounded like, "I'm going to get you Sarah." He swam over to the boat and was helped out of the water.

"Thanks for trying to drown me Sarah," he said, shaking his head to get the water off.

"No problem," she responded.

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The boats reached the land and all the students began to pile out of the boats. The four drenched ones were the last ones to get off and they all got into a group. It looked like it had rained on only four of them for everyone else was totally dry. Several kids looked at them, snickering and saying soft little replies and compliments. A lot of them were watching Sarah's hair for it had went from neon green to bright yellow and spiky.

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They walked into Hogwarts and began their way up the staircase that lead to the Great Hall. The huddled group exchanged aw's, ah's, oo's, and neat's along with many other gasping noises. Their shoes clicked softly and they reached the top where an aging Wizard stood. She was wearing emerald type green robes and her hair was up in a tight little bun. Her glasses were on the bridge of her nose and she looked over them. She gave them a warm smile.

"Welcome to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In a few moments you'll be taken into the Great Hall and be sorted into your groups." explained the professor as she smiled and turned to see if they were ready for the first years. A few moments later she motioned for them to come in.

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The scared first years slowly walked into the Great Hall. They gasped as they saw four long tables which were meant for Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Up at the front of the room was the teachers table, an old humble looking man sitting on the highest chair representing that he was the headmaster of this school. There were floating candles everywhere and the ceiling looked like the night sky. The older students watched as the small first years made their way to the front. Jessica could hear several murmers about them and how that they were wet while everyone else was dry. She heard falling out of the boat by someone and her cheeks turned red and she hoped that this had happened before. They stopped and looked at the stood with a hat on it.

"When I call your name, come up here. I will place this hat on your head so you can be sorted into your house. Adecal, John." called Professor McGonagall and a small blond haired boy walking up to be sorted. The hat shifted on his head and cried out,

"RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table clapped as the small boy walked over to the Ravenclaw table, being patted on the back by the other classmates. One by one the students were called up the hat shouting several combination of the four houses. Then finally Professor McGonagall called out,

"Ephoria, Tara!" Jessica and Sarah squeezed her hand as she walked up and sat on the stool. The hat slowly fell onto her head and thought a bit, mumbling softly.

"Hmm… This one shall be... GRYFFINDOR!" Tara got up and smiled as she hurried over to the table and sat down. Greg patted her back as she sat and she watched and waited for her other friends to be called up to be sorted.

"Weaver, Jessica!" Jessica hugged Sarah and walked up and sat down. As the hat touched her head it mumbled and shouted SLYTHERIN. Jessica got up a little disappointed, not wanting to be with her brother and being separated from her new found friend Tara. She joined Chris at the Slytherin table. As Sarah was called up she looked at the ground while the hat covered almost her entire head. Her feet fiddled with each other as she sat there, waiting. After what seemed to be a minute the hat finally spoke.

"Huffle... wait... no… What is this... ahh… then... GRYFFINDOR!" Sarah got up and almost leaped right onto Tara's lap, both of them laughing. Jessica looked down, watching the two hug each other. Finally Oliver was called up. As he sat down, he sat up straight. The hat cried out Gryffindor and he walked over to the table then Sarah and Tara hugged him. Jessica sighed and poked at the fork next to her empty plate. Sarah, Tara, and Oliver looked over at Jessica and gave her a sorrowful glance. She smiled the best as she could and looked at the new people around her and just sneered. She didn't like being away from her new friends one bit.

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Dumbledore stood up and addressed the new arrivals and their plates filled up with food. Her brother was already digging into the food and making loud chewing noises. She groaned and stabbed him with her fork. He yelped and looked at her.

"What was that for?!" he exclaimed, food almost covering her face.

"You're embarrasing me!" she hissed. She turned to get some food when she let out a high pitch scream. The figure infront of her laughed loudly and began to fly around. Several students called out that it was the Bloody Baron and Jessica was still scared beyond belief. Her brother was laughing so hard, he began to choke on what he was eating. With a big, hard slap on his back the peice of meat he was eating popped out and fell into the glass of another slytherin across from him. The slytherin screamed and leaned over and slapped Chris for spitting in her drink. She picked it up and she poured it on him and got up. She moved down the table away from him and it was Jessica's time to laugh. He looked over at her.

"Ha ha ha, very funny," he said dryly.

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Over at the Gryffindor table, Sarah was hitting Greg with her chicken leg. Greg put his hands up trying to block it.

"What are you doing? Ahhh damnit stop stop!" he cried. Tara was giggling as she watched her friend beat up her brother with her food.

"This is what you get for telling me that Hogwarts was a run down, filthy, no good rotten place that smelt like eggs!" she exclaimed. "I almost didn't come because of that!" she shouted and she kept hitting him with the chicken leg. Greg kept telling her to stop and he grabbed a chicken leg and tried to hit her back. "Ahh! No! You can't do that, thats cheating!" she exclaimed, shoving her brother. She turned back to her plate and reached for a roll when a gray figure rose out from the table.

"Hello!" the figure said, smiling down at Sarah. Sarah let out a yelp and fell backwards off the bench. Her legs were still on the bench but her bum was on the ground. She looked up at him.

"Are.. are you a ghost?" she asked a little surprised.

"Indeed I am, I am Sir Nicolas but they call me Nearly Headless Nick around here," explained the ghost. Sarah got up and squealed.

"Awesome! I've always wanted to see a ghost. I love ghosts. How can you be nearly headless, why are you still here, and are there other ghosts, are you the only one? How did you die?" she babbled out all in one breath. Nearly Headless Nick just kind of stared at her and laughed. Suddenly other ghosts began to appear and there was a high pitched scream that they heard. Greg rubbed his ears.

"I don't think Jessica likes ghosts," he said.

"How did you know it was Jessica?" asked Tara.

"Because of what Chris tells me about her scream."

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Once the feast had ended the houses began to file out, following the prefects of their houses. Each house had a female and a male prefect to guide them to their houses. Gryffindor began to make their way to their dormitories and at the front, the female prefect stood.

"This way please." her soprano voice rang as they walked along. "Watch the stair cases please, they like to move." she spoke, going up a staircase. Sarah and Tara had been talking about Jessica, sorry that she had no been put in their house. Oliver just shrugged as he listened, wishing he could be on the quidditch team already even though he knew he couldn't since he was a first year. Sarah turned to him and took a swing to his head, tired of all the quidditch talk. They were amazed as their staircase began to change and they all held onto the railing. They began to walk while Sarah tripped and fell up the stairs. The rest of the house tried not to laugh as Tara helped Sarah up. Sarah's face was red with some embarassment but it soon went away. They soon reached a portrait of the fat lady and the male prefect said the password. "Hipplebottem." and the portrait swung open. They all walked through the hole that was now presented to them and walked inside. "To get to your dormitories you go up the stairs. Guys will go up the stairs to the left, girls up the stairs to your right. Any questions?" asked the female prefect. They all shook their heads and pealed off from everyone else to get to their dormitories.

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Tara and Sarah followed a couple other girls in their year and looked around their dormitory. There were five four poster beds around the room and their possessions had already been brought up and placed infront of the beds they would be sleeping in. The windows were a little fogged over from the colder air settling in from outside hitting the warmth inside. They went to their separate beds and looked through their trunks. Sarah's cat Macavity was already lying on her pillow, a deep purr could be heard in the quiet room. Sarah grinned and walked over to him and picked him up. "Here is my little angel Macavity! He is such a sweetheart." Sarah purred, hugging her cat. Macavity's ginger colored eyes opened and he was squirming around in her grip. She finally let the poor cat go and he scurried off and disappeared. Tara walked around, her hands touching everything gently as she walked in a circle. Everything was amazing her, everything here. She was a muggle born with magical powers and her deep green eyes landed on her bed and she collapsed onto it. She took in a big breath of air and rolled over onto her back. Sarah laughed as she looked at Tara.

"Amazed dear?" she chirped, sitting Indian style on her bed. Tara sat up and gave a nod, looking around more. Sarah giggled. "Well we better get changed cause we have class tomorrow. Fun huh?" Tara laughed.

"Heap big fun." she said dryly, grinning. She got into her trunk and pulled out her pajamas, which was a shirt two sizes bigger than her and a pair of silky short shorts. She climbed into her bed and looked at herself then over at Sarah who was in a tank top and short boxer shorts. "Night Sarah." she called softly. She heard a mumbled nigh and she lay in the warm bed and dozed off.

Jessica sat on her four-bed post bed and stared out the windows. The girls in her room were still up and chatting, making a lot of noise. Jessica groaned. She hated a lot of noise and glared at them as she hugged her pillow and mumbled. 'Stupid girls, can't they shut up?' she thought, growling some. Her semi long hair was worn down and cascaded down her back and some down her front. The girls got louder and Jessica threw her pillow down. "God! Shut up! Cant you go to sleep or something or are you just a bunch of bimbos with nothing better to talk about?!" she snapped. The girls suddenly became quiet and crawled into their beds to fall asleep. The lights slowly dimmed and the only light that lit the room was a moonbeam and it cast everything in its path soft silver. Jessica's face turned soft silver as she sat on her bed and looked at the moon. 'Please, let me get through this and have classes with Sarah and Tara, please.' She thought softly and crawled into bed, grabbing her pillow and placing it at the head of the bed and fell asleep.