CHAPTER 1
"ELENA!"
"Yeah?"
"Get dressed, somebody's here!"
Pulling out my "The Great Gatsby" sweatshirt and jeans, I slid into and buttoned up jeans. I rebraided my hair and brushed my teeth before adding some mascara.
Hustling down the stairs, I saw my auntie standing with a taller woman in emerald green robes.
"Elena, this is Professor McGonagall," Aunt Cheryl said, looking at the woman beside her.
"Hi?" I said. "Aunt Cheryl, did I do something wrong at Salem?"
"No, dear," Aunt Cheryl laughed, but even to me it sounded wrong. "Situations have… changed, and we need to transfer you to Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?"
"That's where I teach, Miss Johnson," Professor McGonagall said.
"I went to school there, too. I was a Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff? What's that?" This was all making no sense to me.
"Like the houses at Salem," Professor McGonagall said, "I'll explain it after we arrive."
"Arrive? Where am I going?"
Looking at Aunt Cheryl I could see tears in her eyes. "Aunt Cheryl?"
"I'm going to go pack your bags," she said. She turned and bustled upstairs without any further ado.
"Am I leaving for somewhere?"
"You're going to come to Hogwarts this year," Professor McGonagall said.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked. "I told Principal Pierce that frog prank wasn't me, I was studying in the library-"
"I have been in close contact with Athena, but she has not mentioned any behavioral problems." She paused. "Cheryl Johnson is your foster mother, did you know that?"
"Yeah," I said, "I had a biology project a couple of years ago in sixth grade and I asked her why I never looked like her or Uncle Tom." I shrugged. "She told me right away."
Her eyebrows rising, she leaned back slightly. "A move I might not have expected of Cheryl," she remarked, then we both turned as we heard a thud from the stairs.
"I still can't believe I have to say goodbye so early," Aunt Cheryl sniffed, dragging my obviously overstuffed trunk behind her. "You're just thirteen, and here I was thinking that I'd get to have you here until you're eighteen."
I chuckled. "Aunt Cheryl, I'll come back over the summer. I'm not going off to college… yet."
She and Professor McGonagall shared another look, and I felt like sighing in exasperation.
"We have made arrangements for where you are to stay over the summer," the professor said, and I felt my shoulders drop. I ran over to Aunt Cheryl, wrapping my arms around her.
"I'll let you know how I'm doing, I promise!" I cried. "Somehow, I don't know, but I will!"
"Be sure to write!" Aunt Cheryl cried. "And - and do be honest about how you're doing, I will write Minerva but I simply couldn't stand it if I didn't know how you were doing-"
"Thank you Cheryl, don't get the girl worked up," Professor McGonagall said, inclining her head at her. My focus went to the tip of her feather as it bobbed and flicked through the air cleanly like a knife.
"Now, Elena," Professor McGonagall said, "let's get going so you can get your supplies before start-of-term."
She reached into her bag and pulled out an ornate pen. She held it out to me, and I grabbed. "Don't forget your trunk!" Aunt Cheryl cried, and I took hold of it just as it felt like I was being sucked into a pipe.
After a few moments of breathlessness, we were suddenly standing on a hill facing a large castle. "That is Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall declared, and began to walk.
"Oh," I sighed, taking in the warm light shining from the castle. When Professor McGonagall's form was outlined against the glowing form of the castle, I panicked.
"Come along now," she said softly. She saw my hand on the leather strap of the trunk, and suddenly understood. "Oh, I see. Locomotor cistam."
And, before my very eyes, my trunk began to float through the air.
I walked alongside the professor, not going to be the one to start the conversation.
"We will leave your trunk in the Headmaster's office," Professor McGonagall began, setting my trunk down outside a set of tall, wrought-iron gates. "Expecto Patronum."
A silvery cat leapt from the end of her wand and ran off, towards the school. "Hopefully, my patronus can get someone's attention," she said, "and we can get into the school."
"Is there no other way into the school?" I asked.
"There are, certainly," the professor answered, "but here's somebody."
A form in dark robes moved down another set of stairs toward them. "Minerva, back so soon?" he drawled, drawing a wand out of the arm of his robes.
"Of, course, Severus," she answered with a chuckle. He lifted his wand, and as he slowly drew it towards the ground he seemed to pull an invisible sheet off of something.
They didn't say anything else as we moved towards the castle, and in the silence I was left to examine the castle looming above me.
We entered near a huge hall where four long tables were set up. "This is where we hold meals, and where you will be sorted into one of four houses before the term officially begins."
"Houses?" I looked around, and "Severus" seemed to have disappeared.
"There are four," she began, looking up as if to try to remember. "The first is Gryffindor, the house of the brave and chivalrous. Their colors are red and gold, and their animal is a lion."
We passed a set of four hourglasses that hadn't spilled their contents yet, but somehow didn't seem to be blocked by anything. Professor McGonagall placed a hand on the upper bulb of one that was filled with something red. On closer examination, the "something" seemed to be gemstones.
"Before you ask, yes, these are rubies," she said. "As well as diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds." She cleared her throat and then continued with what she'd been saying before. "There's Hufflepuff, the objective and loyal, whose colors are yellow and black and are signified by the badger. The next is Ravenclaw, the wise and creative, whose colors are blue and bronze - silver, to some - and are signified by an eagle."
"Hang on," I said, on the verge of laughter, "they're named Ravenclaw and their animal is an eagle?"
She cracked a grin. "I didn't make the Houses." She paused, then continued. "The last house is named Slytherin, the cunning and ambitious." She looked at her feet and seemed unhappy with what she saw there. "They are green and silver, and are represented by a snake."
"Is there something wrong with Slytherin?"
She shook her head. "I'm just not partial to their attitudes towards certain student bodies," she answered calmly.
I nodded, not sure what to say to that. "Okay."
We continued on deeper into the castle. After continuing up staircases and through hallways, where I paused to rest my arms, we eventually stopped at a tall statue of a gryffin.
"Lemon Drops," she pronounced, stepping up to the statue. It began to turn, and she looked at me. "Well? Come on."
I stepped onto the staircase as though it were a strange, circular escalator, being careful not to have anything get caught between the wall and the staircase. Finally the staircase stopped with a stony grinding sound and a jolt.
"Here we are, the headmaster's office," Professor McGonagall said.
