It was almost 11:00 by the time she got to King's Cross, past the barrier, and onto the large train.
She walked past many compartments full of laughing and talking friends, until she reached the last compartment. She sighed. She would have to go inside, because everywhere else was full. When she opened the door, about to go in, she stopped in her tracks. It was Ron Weasley. And his two friends Harry and Hermione. She stood there staring at him for a minute before Harry told her to come in. She sat down next to Hermione and continued staring at Ron who was across from her. She tried to smile but she could barely breathe. He took her breath away and she wasn't exactly sure why. She had never felt that way before.
She immediately took her gaze to her hands that were sitting on her lap. The trio and her sat silently for a bit, and the whole time she could feel his eyes burning into her, but she didn't dare look up at him.
Harry finally broke the silence by saying, "I'm Harry, that's Hermione, and this is Ron. And you are?" He pointed to them as he said their names.
"Yeah, I know," She told him. "And I'm Emily." She smiled weakly at him, then turned back to her hands.
It was silent again for a moment, and then Emily said, "Oh, God!" and took her feet off of the dirty compartment floor.
"What is it?" Harry asked, concerned.
"Spider!" She said, pointing to it crawling on the floor.
Ron brought his feet up too, but his eyes never left Emily. She's perfect. And she actually hates spiders, too, He thought.
Harry muttered a spell and the spider vanished.
"I'm sorry, I just really hate spiders." She told them. "They're just so…..gross."
"Ron hates spiders, too." Hermione said.
She then took the book Hogwarts: A History out of her bag and started reading it.
"Oh God, Hermione! We're not even at school yet and you're already reading."
Emily couldn't help but laugh. The two of them looked over at her, and while Ron smiled, Hermione gave her a not-so-nice look and then turned back to Ron.
"What is so bad about reading?" she asked. "It's quite fun, you should try it for once, Ronald."
Ron scuffed. "First of all, don't call me Ronald, and secondly, what was that supposed to mean?" he asked, taken aback.
"You know what I mean," she replied, starting to raise her voice. "You never do your homework or read, and you need to. You never know, you might actually learn something."
"Are you calling me stupid?" he asked, anger rising in his voice..
Hermione was about to say something but Emily interrupted.
"I don't like reading myself either," she said to Ron and then turned to Hermione. "But doing your homework gets you good grades, so that's always nice."
Both were still upset, but not as much anymore. Neither of them said anything.
"Hey, you're pretty good at that!" Harry said, surprised. "I might need you for further reference." he laughed.
"If you say so," she said, blushing.
She hates reading, too. That's another thing we have in common, Ron thought, liking her more by the minute.
The rest of the time Harry, Ron, and Emily talked about quidditch and their selves, while Hermione sat off to the side, asleep. Harry and Ron were surprised, and impressed, that she liked quidditch. She was turning out to be a great person.
After about an hour and a half of talking, they finally arrived at King's Cross. Emily was about to pick up her carry on bag when Ron picked it up for her.
"I'll carry that," Ron said, smiling at her. She smiled back and thanked him. All the while, Hermione was staring at him, wide-eyed.
Ron actually has manners! I can't believe it!, Hermione thought.
They got off of the train and the four of them got into a small, black carriage together; Harry and Hermione sitting on one side while Ron and Emily coincidently sat next to each other on the other side, the whole time, Emily saying, Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! , over and over in her head.
Every few seconds, they both kept looking over at each other, surprisingly never meeting eyes. Harry and Hermione noticed this and tried not to laugh.
Hermione whispered, "We should try to get them together," in his ear, loud enough for only them to hear. He nodded and smiled.
The carriages stopped and after Harry and Hermione got out, Ron got out and held the door open for her, even holding out his hand to help her down.
Emily blushed at this, but took his hand and thanked him again.
Once inside the magnificently huge candle-lit castle, they sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"So you're in Gryffindor," Harry said.
"Yeah, and surprisingly that didn't come up in the long conversation we had on the train." She laughed along with Harry and Ron.
After all of the students were seated and the first years were standing in the middle of the room, waiting to be sorted, Dumbledore stood up and the hall got quiet.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," He started. "I'll have you know, the Forbidden Forest is still, well, forbidden. And Filch has added a few more rules and regulations which you will find posted on the house boards in your common room, along with information about quidditch try-outs. Now, let's get the sorting started." He sat down and everyone clapped, some only out of politeness, and others didn't even clap- mainly the Slytherins.
After the excruciatingly long sorting, Dumbledore stood up and said the usual 'Tuck in' and an enormous amount of food appeared on all of the tables. Ron had, as usual, grabbed all the chicken and potatoes that he could fit on his golden plate, and started stuffing it all in his mouth. Emily had to admit. He looked kind of cute with a mouth full of food.
"I'b trd frm te lond tain rid" Ron said with a mouth full of food, spitting some on the table at every other word.
Emily snorted, causing the pumpkin juice that she had in her mouth a moment ago to spray all over the table . Harry and Hermione laughed at this and then Hermione asked,
"What was that?
He blushed, swallowed the food, and then repeated, "I'm tired from the long train ride."
"Me too." Emily said.
After the deserts had disappeared, the four of them stood up and walked up the seven floors to the Gryffindor common room. Emily and Ron sat down on the couch while Hermione and Harry stayed standing for a reason Emily didn't know of. She watched as Hermione whispered something in his ear.
"Well, I'm going to go to the library to get a head start on homework." She said. "Harry, can you help me find some books?"
"Yeah, sure." He said, and they hurriedly walked out of the common room.
"But we don't even have homework yet…" Emily yelled after them. Ron and Emily looked at each other, not knowing what was up. There was an uncomfortable silence, neither of them knowing what to say.