Julia followed the crowd of first years. She looked to her left and right to see everyone following a huge shadow. She strained her eyes to see who it was, but she could gather nothing.

The booming voice came out again. Julia assumed the voice to be coming from the shadow.

"Firs' years, this way!"

She felt someone tread on her foot, and looked to see a young black haired girl quickly look at her, then run off with the rest of the crowd. She shrugged her shoulders, thinking that this was just a shy person like herself. But she soon found that many people were looking at her very oddly.

She started giving them equally questioning looks as she passed them. Some of them seemed slightly afraid of her. Others seemed in awe of her. Most seemed to be a mix of both.

She couldn't figure out what was going on. She was only taken out of her thoughts by the arrival of a voice saying "Careful there!" and found that she had nearly walked right into the lake.

She looked up to see several boats. They had no oars or motors attached to them. She gingerly stepped into the boat nearest her, and was followed by three other people.

All three of the people, she noticed, were girls. They had a variety of different features, yet each seemed to have trained their features so that they looked almost exactly alike. Their hair was all dyed purple, they all wore hideous amounts of makeup, and they all wore the exact same pin on their robes, although Julia couldn't read what was on the pin.

All three of the girls were staring at her. One seemed rather close to her, while the other two stood in the back like bodyguards. Then the one closest to her smiled. It seemed to be a challenge for her though. Julia was not surprised. It looked like she had a pound of lipstick on. Finally, the girl spoke.

"Hi." she said.

It was only one word, but the girl seemed to put every ounce of her strength into that "Hi" as if she had been practicing it for years. It was long and drawn out, and sounded almost like a question. Julia wasn't sure how to react. But the girl spoke again.

"I'm Angie. And this is Mallory and Nadia."

"Uh, hi." said Julia, awkwardly holding out a hand. No one took it.

"Only boys shake hands." said Mallory and Nadia at the same time. They put every ounce of rudeness into their words, and Julia quickly withdrew her hand.

"Now now girls. We don't want to put off anyone, now do we?" asked Angie. Julia instantly figured she was the leader of this group.

Angie then sighed, as if everything in the world bore her. Then she said "We wanted to talk to you because of what happened on the train."

"You mean when I was attacked by Nate?" asked Julia.

"Oh my GOD! Nate is so…." started the two behind Angie, but Angie quickly turned around and shushed them. Then she turned back to Julia.

"Not exactly when you were attacked. No, afterwards."

"Excuse me?" asked Julia.

"We saw you go into the same compartment as the king pranksters of the school, Fred and George Weasley."

"Yeah…. so?"

"Well, let's just say that anytime you need help, you just come to us." said Angie. There was a certain condescending tone when Angie said that, as if Angie was talking to a baby. Julia didn't like it.

"What?" asked Julia, now very confused and slightly hurt.

"Let's just say that if you want to succeed in Hogwarts, you need to hang out with the right people." said Angie.

"Such as us." said the two behind Angie.

Julia was about to say "What, and become another clone amongst you guys?" when suddenly the boat bumped on dry land.

"Welcome ter Hogwarts!" exclaimed the giant shape a few boats over.

Julia looked up. And she gasped.

It was more beautiful than she could have ever dreamed. She felt extreamly small against the giant castle. But if the castle could talk, it would have never boasted its enormous size. The castle looked warm and inviting. And Julia felt hungry and tired, even after eating two chocolate frogs and a box full of Every Flavored Beans.

Behind her, the three girls were moaning. She looked around to see that Angie was staring at her fingernails. She then looked up and said, "It's just an old castle." and walked off with the rest of the first years. Julia was shocked. How could anyone not be entranced by this great castle?

She then felt the crowd behind her pushing her, and she walked.

They soon reached the castle. Then they walked up several flights of stairs. Julia, with boundless energy, practically skipped up the stairs. She felt so happy after all that she had been through. The taunts at school. The coldness of her father. The greediness of her brother. And the lack of her mother. She was finally happy.

They continued on until they reached a pair of solid oak doors. Waiting there stood a woman. At first glance, she looked exactly like the kind of woman who would expect you to write a four page essay and would mark you down if one word was misspelled. She wore her hair in a tight bun and had a short, pointed nose. She was also very tall and imposing, and standing on the stairs that led up to the doors made her seem like a giant.

She looked at all the students, gave a short, quick nod, and said "Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor Mgonogal. Shortly, you will walk through these doors and be sorted into one of four houses. They are Griffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflpuff, and Slitherin. In order to be sorted, you will undergo a test. Do not be alarmed. This test will be simply a matter of studying your qualities to see which house you would best fit into. Thank you."

They were arranged in a line according to alphabetical order of their surnames. Julia was happy. She would be one of the first. Julia noticed that the students were a lot slower at walking than they were back outside. She figured they were nervous. She wasn't nervous. She was excited, and she ran through the crowd, tripping several times.

The woman than opened the oak doors, and the line came through.

They were greeted with warm, yet bright lights and much noise from the conversations of older students. Julia looked to her right to see four tables, all empty of food. Her stomach growled. How could the food be served fast enough?

She began looking through the crowd to find a fleck of red hair. She jumped when she saw one red head at first, but it turned out to be only Percy. She scanned the crowd again, and jumped again when she found two red heads staring at the stage that the first years had come out upon. There could be no mistaking the twins, even from here.

There were three people in front of her. She grinned. She was glad her name wasn't Julia Zaza or something like that.

A very tiny, bearded wizard came out holding a stool. He placed the stool in the middle of the stage, then the woman that had led the students through the door came out with a pointed, tattered old hat.

The hat sat still for a moment, then a rip opened in its brim and it began to sing.

Julia didn't remember what it had sung. Something about preparations that had to be made. She didn't know. All she knew was that next minute, a woman was calling the name of the person right in front of her.

"Abercorn, Jane." said the name. Julia perked up. She remembered the name. It was the same last name as Nate's.

She watched the girl in front of her. She had black hair and glassy blue eyes. She looked very frightened.

She sat on the stool, and the hat was placed on her head. A few minutes passed. Then a rip opened in the hat and it said "RAVENCLAW!"

One of the tables began cheering, and Jane quickly ran to that table.

Now it was her turn. Julia heard her name being called.

"Alley, Julia!" said the woman.

Julia almost skipped to the stool. She sat down, clutching the edges, as the hat slowly dropped over her head. Before it got completely over her eyes, she saw two red heads standing up at the table. Then her eyes greeted the darkness of the hat.

She heard a voice.

"Hm. A very eager one I see. Unusual. Most of the students I see under my hat are frightened to bits. Lets see. You have many qualities of all the different houses. Trouble is, you can only be in one. Which one is outstanding?"

Julia's heart skipped. She was now starting to get slightly panicky. What if she ended up in the same house as Nate?

"Ah. A little bit of adversary you'd like to avoid?" asked the hat, reading her thoughts. "Bear in mind you can still avoid him, not matter which house you are placed in. Ah yes. I do see one outstanding quality. And so it is GRIFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the last word to the hall, and Julia saw the same table that Fred and George were at applauding. Grateful, she placed the hat back on the stool and ran to the seat where the twins sat. They made room for her as she sat down.

"Great job." said Fred quietly. Quietly because of course the applauding had stopped and the next student had to be sorted.

The line became shorter as more students went to respective houses. Julia looked up when she heard "Ditador, Angie" being called up. She was sorted into Huffelpuff.

Soon, the sorting was over. Julia stared at the empty platters. She was very hungry, and there were no signs of food being handed out.

She saw that every head was still on the stage, and so she looked there. She hadn't noticed before, but there was a long table where several adults sat. There was also a speaking podium, and currently there was something standing on it.

A man in a very long white beard looked out amongst the students. His hands clasped the edges of the podium. His nose was so bent and long it nearly touched his chin. He was apparently very old. However, he was not feeble. He did not stoop over, nor did he seem to be slowed down by the force of age. He began to talk.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. For those returning, welcome back. You will be happy to know that I, as usual, will save my speech for after you are all fed and watered. And so, let us begin the feast!"

He then clapped his hands. Everyone gasped, and Julia looked at the table to see piles of food appearing on the platter. She stared in astonishment, then looked at the twins, who were just gathering food and putting it on their plates.

"Wha… how… why…"

"House Elves." said George. "They make the food, then it disappears from their kitchens and reappears here."

"Sometimes it doesn't even reappear here, mind…" said Fred.

"You mean these House Elves eat the food sometimes?" asked Julia.

"No, never." said Fred. "They'd throw themselves off a bridge before doing that. No, let's just say that the food often reappears somewhere else…."

"Namely, in our stomachs." said George.

"Really? How?"

"Well…" said George, waving his hands. "A little bit of poking around, and you might find a lot."

Julia nodded. There was much she had to learn.

She picked up a few small portions and placed them on her plate. This was habit. At home, if she took more than she was due, she would be sent to bed with nothing at all. And she wasn't due much.

The twins noticed the little bit of food on her plate, then George said "So…. did the candy from the trolley fill you up?"

"Uh, yeah…"

"Oh come on." said Fred. "Percy used to say that he would grab as much as he could get from the trolley, and he still would be hungry when he got here. That was before he turned all 'candy causes trouble' on us." added Fred, rolling his eyes. "Take some more. There's plenty here."

"Oh, no, really, I'm fine with this." said Julia.

"Oh, take some food!" said Fred. And he quickly reached across the table, took from a dish one of the largest turkey legs that Julia had ever seen, and plopped it on her plate.

Julia stared at the leg. Then she glanced at Fred. Then, forgoing all "ladylike" manners that her father had taught her, she picked up the leg and dug her teeth in.

Julia then began taking giant amounts of food. She was truly starving, and her plate was licked clean. Soon, dessert rolled around, and she wasn't picky with the pudding. Nor were her eyes bigger than her stomach. After dessert, her plate was empty.

All the plates emptied. Everyone's eyes turned to the podium, and the man with the long beard got up on the podium again. Silence fell as he began to speak.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. We have several new students to welcome here, as well as a new teacher. Professor Terry Podmer will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

A man with a bowler hat and a dark suit looked up and stared at the students with a one sided smile. Julia thought he looked a bit sly.

"I would also like to go over the rules, for those of you who are new." said the bearded man. "Filch has asked me to tell you of the list of banned items, which includes Fanged Frisbees and Zabar's Exceptionally Dazzling Dragon Fire in a Bottle. The full list can be found in Flich's office. Also, the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds, even though some students may think differently."

Julia could have sworn that his eyes flashed in the direction of the twins.

"Now than, I believe that I have said enough, and now it is time for you all to tuck in. Off you go."

Julia stepped out of her seat and started walking with all the other Griffindors. She could hear someone saying "Griffindors, this way please." and everyone followed whoever owned this voice.

"It's gonna be a great year." said Fred as they climbed the stairs that lead up to the dormitories.

"Yes." said Julia in her mind. "It sure will be."

1111111

Okay, I think I may as well post this so that everyone can keep track of everyone's ages.

Julia: One year younger than Fred/George. One year older than Harry, Ron and Hermione (important, even though the three haven't arrived at Hogwarts yet. They will in later chapters.) Currently a first year.

Fred/George: One year older than Julia, two years younger than Percy, two years older than the Trio. Currently second years.

Percy: Two years older than Fred/George. Three years older than Julia. Four years older than the Trio. Currently a fourth year (students can become prefects in the fifth year)

Nate: Two years older than Julia, one year older than the twins, one year younger than Percy. Currently a third year.

Before anyone asks, yes, Nate is based off Malfoy. However, I realized that Malfoy would not be coming to Hogwarts for another year, and I needed an adversary to last me until then. So I made up my own pompous and prideful Slitherin. Note that Nate is actually afraid of superiority.