Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I don't even own Stella, only Éostrǽl.
Éostrǽl was nervous. She had never been this nervous in all her life. It was the 1st of September and she was walking down the Hogwarts Express, looking for a compartment she could sit in. She wasn't sure if she wanted to sit on her own or if she wanted to meet some new people. Eventually she settled for the latter and started looking into the compartments she was passing to see if she could find some nice looking people. She was so occupied with gazing into the compartments that she didn't pay attention to where she was going and bumped into a blonde boy. She apologised immediately but he just glared at her and said she'd better watch where she was going next time. Being the little rebel she was she forgot all of her nervousness at once. "Usually when somebody apologises you accept the apology. And also it was as much your fault as it was mine." With that she left him standing there and walked away. She didn't get far though. She was pulled into the next compartment by a red-headed girl about her age. Inside were too other girls, a pretty black-head and a blonde who was looking a bit absent-mindedly.
"That was amazing. Not many people stand up to Draco Malfoy.", the read-head said. "I'm Ginny Weasley by the way."
"My name is Éostrǽl and I simply do not like people who think they are superior to everybody else."
"Neither do I, but Malfoy usually gets his way since his father is quite important."
"Not to mention rich.", said the black-headed girl. "I'm Stella Hedland and this is Luna Lovegood."
The dreamy girl awoke out of her trance when she heard her name.
"It's nice to meet you Éostrǽl. You have a very unusual name.", she said.
"Not where I come from."
"And where do you come from?", Ginny asked curiously.
Éostrǽl hesitated for a second. Should she tell them who she was? She had intended to keep it a secret because she wanted to be treated like everybody else but these girls seemed to be nice and she felt like they might end up being friends.
"I will tell you but only if you promise to keep it to yourself."
"We would never betray a friend.", Luna said and Éostrǽl smiled when she called her a friend.
"I come from Middel-Earth, I don't know if you have heard about it." Dumbledore had told her that witches and wizards knew about Middel-Earth and that they learned about it in school but Ginny, Luna and Stella could be muggleborn and in that case they wouldn't know about Middel-Earth.
"Really? That's so cool!" They all said simultaneously. So apparently they had heard about it.
"Where on Middel-Earth do you come from?", Ginny asked at the same time as Stella said: "Do you know any interesting people?" and Luna questioned if she had ever seen a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.
"I am from Rohan, Edoras more precisely and I do know interesting people as you call it. My older brother is Éomer, third marshal of the Mark and my older sister is Éowyn. But what is a Crumple-Horned Snorkack?"
"It's a horned creature living in Sweden. Sadly I have never seen one myself."
"So hasn't anyone else.", Stella mumbled, then added more loudly and with slight incredibility in her voice: "You're a princess of Rohan?"
"I am, but I do not want anybody to know that, I want to be treated normally."
"Your secret is safe with us.", Ginny promised.
The four girls kept on talking for the rest of the journey. When they got to Hogsmeade they went up to the castle with the boats and curiously awaited their sorting. Éostrǽl came first and was sorted into Gryffindor, then it was Stellas turn, who came into Slytherin, Luna ended up in Ravenclaw and finally Ginny joined Éostrǽl in Gryffindor. Though they were in three different houses Éostrǽl knew this was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
