Isabel woke up very early on September 1st, and in her nervousness about going to Hogwarts that day quickly tripped over her trunk that she had put at the end of her bed the night before. Quickly getting up, she ran downstairs, out the door, and knocked on Katrina's door for a full minute before it was opened by a very tired and yawning Oliver Wood. "Good morning, Mr. Wood! Is Katrina awake yet? IT'S SEPTEMBER FIRST!"
"Yes, she's very excited and didn't get any sleep; I'll get her." Then he closed the door to find Katrina. After waiting four minutes, Isabel got tired of being outside and let herself in the Wood's house and walked right into Katrina who was about to open the door.
"Hi Izzy…guess you woke up early too?"
"Yup! So who's gonna drive us to school? My dad said something about refusing to be in the same car as a muggle loving moron…so we're either going to go with your Dad or mine"
"Let's go with your Dad...I don't want hundreds of fan girls to try to be friends with me because of him."
"Okay, oh my God, I just remembered, where are we meeting Danny and Alec? We don't know anyone else, and I really want to get a compartment with them on the train."
After calling the Finnigans and agreeing to meet them at the platform before going through the barrier, Isabel and Katrina both went inside their houses to get ready for their first day.
Three Hours Later (or 8 AM/ a reasonable hour)
Isabel walked down her stairs and heard a loud thumping noise outside, so being the curious person that she was, she opened the door and saw Katrina dragging her trunk from her house to the Zambini house. Laughing, she called out, "Hey Kat, do you want any help with that? You kind of look like your trying, and failing, to run away…with both of your parents watching you."
"Yeah some help would kind of be helpful, seeing as everyone else is just watching me! And don't call me Kat!" Isabel just laughed and walked casually over to her and picked up the other end of the trunk, and after many times dropping the trunk on each other's feet causing Katrina to become quite annoyed, they both eventually gave up and called Katrina's dad, who picked it up one handed and walked over to Isabel's house and dropped it off in their front hallway. Then he turned to say goodbye to Isabel and Katrina.
"Okay, this will be both of your first time away this far from home for such a prolonged period of time, so I want both of you to watch out for each other. If any boy gives either of you trouble, just write a letter to me and send it with either Spero or Pearl, and I'll come over and beat him up for you, even though knowing you two he wouldn't live long. I'll miss you both, and even though you're not my daughter, Isabel, both of you are required to write at LEAST once a week, including tonight after you find out what houses you'll be in, no matter how obvious it is." After giving them both hugs, he walked out the front door and walked back into his house just as Blaise Zambini walked downstairs. After much yawning he brought both of their trunks and put them in the trunk of his car, which was on loan from the Ministry because he thought they were 'Muggle Death Traps' that cost more, and caused more trouble then they were worth, and would be ashamed to own one. After he ate a very large breakfast he finally walked outside and followed the anxious girls into the car.
The entire car ride to the train station was filled with the girls asking Blaise questions about Hogwarts and after each answer nervously talking to each other about what he had just said.
"Dad, do the houses hate each other? What if me and Katrina are in different houses?! She's my best friend!"
"Uhm…honey, I'm sure everything will work out fine, and yes Gryffindor and Slytherin…okay EVERYONE and Slytherin hate each other, but that won't come between you and Katrina." After hearing that answer, the girls looked nervously at each other, then promptly started promising each other that they wouldn't let house rivalry get between them.
After an hour long car ride, they FINALLY arrived at King's Cross station, where they got a cart and followed Blaise up to the wall in between platforms 9 and 10. He was about to tell them to go inside when Isabel said, "Wait! Dad, we're waiting for Alec and Danny!"
Having never heard of them, and as a father being overly protective and concerned he said, "Who are Alec and Danny?"
"Our friends that we met when we were shopping at Diagon Alley! They're really nice…Oh! I see them! Dad, you can go now." Isabel knew how much her Dad had hated their father, and she wanted him to leave before he started a scene that would embarrass all of them. Thankfully, he just hugged her and Katrina who grimaced (Katrina wasn't too fond of hugs) and left. They then ran over to Alec, Danny, their Dad, and their Mom. Katrina, being the more outgoing and polite one spoke first.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Finnigan, I'm Katrina Wood, and this is my friend Isabel Zabini. We met Alec and Danny a few days ago at Diagon Alley, and we agreed to meet to ride to Hogwarts together."
Seamus was slightly concerned upon hearing Isabel's surname, because her father had tormented him relentlessly at school, and so he was not very sure if he wanted his sons to spend time with her.
"Zabini…are you related to Blaise Zabini?"
"Yes, sir, he's my father."
"And your friends with a Wood?" Alec nudged his father in annoyance, this wasn't going as he hoped it would.
"Yup, she's my best friend, and I've known her my entire life, our fathers finally got past their hatred, and let us spend time together."
"So, I guess you'll be in Slytherin?"
"I think so, but I'm not going to let house rivalry come between me and Katrina, or me and your sons, if you're worried about that." After that she, Katrina, Alec, and Danny left the Finnigans and took off into a run heading straight for the border between them and platform 9 ¾. Alec, Katrina and Danny were running for it like their lives depended on it, while Isabel ran towards it more hesitantly and screamed the second she should have hit the wall. Instead she opened her eyes and saw that she had come out in the Wizarding world, and that her owls had been thoroughly shaken by being a second away from what should have been its death, or a severe injury. Katrina and Alec snickered slightly as everybody inside the platform stared at Isabel who glared at the two. Alec was suddenly running the opposite direction and Danny closely followed. Confused, Isabel went over to where she found Alec and Danny meeting up with some of their old friends. Alec motioned them over and introduced them.
"Isabel, Katrina, these are some of our old friends from when we went to a camp for wizards. This is Thomas, Alexandria, Arjun, and Julia." He motioned to each of them when he said their names, and they could tell he slightly blushed when he said Julia's name, while Danny glared at him and Katrina's blue eyes twinkled in amusement. Isabel watched as her friend's eyes gradually turned back to their normal grey, and turned to study Danny's friends. Thomas was a short, thin blond boy who looked rather mousy, Alexandria, a black girl next to him, was also short, and had a quill in her hair, Arjun, an Indian boy who was about Katrina's height, and Julia was very beautiful with brown hair and hazel eyes.
Everyone said hi, and then quickly got onto the train since they didn't want to be stuck at the station with no way to get to Hogwarts. Since there were too many people to fit into one compartment they decided to split up into three groups. Group one was Isabel and Katrina, group two was Alec, Arjun, and Julia, and group three was Danny, Thomas, and Alexandria. After five minutes everyone realized that the third group was not such a good idea after hearing loud screams and crashes caused by Danny and Thomas doing something dangerous and stupid, so Julia and Thomas switched groups.
Isabel and Katrina were nervously sitting in silence while waiting for the sign that they should change for Hogwarts when they heard a knock on their door, Isabel got up and opened it, and when she saw the guy standing on the other side of the door she almost fainted.
It was Draco Malfoy's only son, Scorpius. At eleven he was already a heart throb and had a large amount of money in his savings courtesy of his father and mother. He calmly looked inside, and took notice of Isabel's star-struck appearance, and Katrina's strangely annoyed appearance and spoke.
"Hi, I'm Scorpius. Normally I wouldn't walk into some random person's compartment, but the group I was with were so abysmally dull and annoying, so I had to leave. Can I hide out in here? They're going to look for me, and when they find me I'll have to listen to a lecture about not running off." After he finished his rant, he flashed them both the signature "Malfoy smirk," and Isabel just nodded while Katrina snorted slightly and after an hour, went into Danny, Arjun, and Alec's compartment.
After many snacks and a lot of getting to know each other, Izzy kicked Scorpius out of her room to change and Katrina ran in the compartment, not eager to change with the three boys. She told of how she and Arjun were planning on tricking the two Finnigan twins later that year, and asked how Izzy's time was. She was soon listening to a long speech about how perfect Scorpius was.
At the end of Isabel's long rant, Katrina said, "So, you like Scorpius, I guess?"
"Yeah…he's just so hot, and nice, and…yeah"
"Well we've got to get dressed, and I can already see the castle!"
"It's…HUGE! I'm going to get so lost, and fall down the stairs, and and and…something bad will happen to me and they'll never be able to find my body in time because it's too big!" Katrina's response was to just roll her eyes and look at the castle that was going to be their home away from home. She wished silently that her friend got better taste in guys as their time at Hogwarts would go on.