(S.V.P)

After our eight-hour journey on the Hogwarts express we finally pitched up at Hogsmeade Station to be met by a big giant of a man calling us all to get into a boat and then, apparently, we would make our way across the big lake to Hogwarts. Before Ginny and I had had time to even think about dashing in front of the crowd of newbies, we were stopped by Ginny's twin brothers who said to us in not too blunt terms:

'Hey you two snot faces! Have fun on the boats lets just hope you don't drown and Ginny if you don't get into Gryffindor we are all disowning you!' They said whilst standing there beaming at us and then they ran off in the opposite direction giggling like two over-sized schoolgirls.

'Seriously Scarlett, those boys will do everything in their power to annoy me won't they?'

'Trust me on this on Ginny. My sister will do a heck of a lot worse to me… I just know it!' I replied while we ran to get to the good boats, which we did!

Once we got off the boats we were told to assemble outside the big wooden double doors that would open into the Great Hall. I was getting more and more nervous as the minutes dragged on and that was when I saw her, out of the corner of my eye, standing to my left…

'Hello Alyce, and how are you on this fine evening? It was lovely to see Daddy helping you with your trunk, even when we were five you were his favour-…' I trailed off as I saw the most murderous look plastered on my twin sisters face

'Oh just shut up will you! I don't give a flying car what you think of Dad and me that's mine and his business so JUST STAY OUT OF IT! GOT IT?' With that she turned on her heel and walked towards a group of sour faced looking boys and girls.

'W-W-Well if that's the way you want to play it then fine! I don't need you and him anyway; I've got Ginny now!' As soon as I had said that I turned around to scan the crowd with tears running down my cheeks looking frantically for Ginny, any of her brothers or even Harry. My eyes immediately met Ginny's and she ran towards me with her arms outstretched and pulled me into a tight hug and whispered into my ear

'Your sister is so mean! But hey like you said you've got me and my whole family, including Harry, and we won't let her hurt you so just stick by us OK?'

'Thanks Ginny, you truly are the best friend a girl could ask for' I gave her a watery smile back whilst wiping the tears from my eyes.

Whilst this was all going on a stern looking woman with her hair in a bun but a kindness in her eyes came outside to the crowd of us nervous first years introduced herself as Professor McGonagall and started telling us what we would expect when we entered the Great Hall; once she had finished the doors swung open to reveal four big tables and lots and lots of glittering candles hanging in mid-air! As we were walking down the middle of the hall I also caught a glimpse of the ceiling – it looked exactly the same as the night sky outside, this school really was magic! I felt eyes on us from all angles, especially as we reached the center of the room, I stood up straighter and walked slightly closer to Ginny, soon we reached the front of the hall where we all assembled ourselves into a neat-ish huddle to await our fate with the battered old witches hat sitting on the stool in front of the long staff table – my heart was in my mouth by this point I was so nervous I thought I was going to pass out; I grasped around until I found Ginny's hand and we both held onto our hands nice and tightly so as to reassure one another that we would be fine – then Professor McGonagall produced a very long piece of parchment and started to recite peoples names and one by one they walked up to the stool, had the hat placed on their head (which then shouted the house name at the whole hall) and then moved to sit at their respective table. Before too long the little huddle had grown smaller in size and I was convinced I could feel a distinct breeze because of it…

'Lovegood, Luna' Professor McGonagall announced from next to the stool and we all watched as a girl with white blonde hair, literally, floated towards the stool and sat on it had the hat placed on her head and after a few seconds we heard;

'RAVENCLAW!' and with that the girl called Luna jumped down off the stool and made her way over to the table with the blue banner with a Raven on it to sit down.

After this I noticed that there was nobody else after Luna so that meant it would go straight to:

'Paiper, Alyce' so there went my twin sister up to the stool and practically snatched the hat from Professor McGonagall and slammed it down on her head, after a few antagonizing minutes the hat finally decided on:

'SLYTHERIN!' so my sister got off of the stool, shot a smirk in my general direction and went off to the table with a green banner hanging over it and sat down next to a pug-faced girl and a boy with slicked back blond hair and a devilish expression all over his face – hmmm maybe that house wasn't so bad after all if they had boys like him in it I thought to myself – suddenly Professor McGonagall's voice shook me out of my wandering mind because she said to the silent hall the second thing I'd been dreading all evening;

'Paiper, Scarlett' - OK lets just get to the get to the stool and please don't fall over! Just get to the stool and sit down; that's all you have to do… - I thought this to myself over and over as I made the walk up to the stool. I made it without making a fool of myself – yay! – As the hat was placed upon my head it started talking to me in a whispered tone

'Hmmm…. Where am I going to place you? Seeing as you have the same surname as your sister Alyce I could put you in Slytherin… But then again you have a kinder mind and heart then she does so are you a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor? Hmmm… OK well as everybody knows in this hall the Slytherins and Gryffindors have a massive history of rivalry and that much is obvious of you and your sister, which means you are the new member of… GRYFFINDOR!'

As soon as the hat spit the name of the house out to the hall the table to my right let out a massive cheer and so off I jumped to join them, I caught the eyes of Fred and George who winked at me as I slipped in next to a boy who was looking nervous but still smiled and introduced himself as Neville Longbottom as I joined him at the table; I returned the smile proudly. I then turned around to watch as Professor McGonagall called out:

'Weasely, Ginerva' and there was my best friend walking semi-confidently up to the exact same stool I'd just been sitting on moments before and before the hat touched a strand of her hair the hat had already made it's decision:

'GRYFFINDOR!' Loud cheers could be heard from every angle of my house table and as soon as Ginny stepped down from the stool I ran at her and took her into a welcoming hug, which she returned with equal excitement.

'YAY! We're both Gryffindors go us!' She said whilst still hugging me; I caught a glimpse of my sister out of the corner of my eye and took my opportunity to stick my tongue out at her (oooo was that the best evil expression she could muster?) we eventually finished hugging and sat down and it was then that I realized who was missing…

'Erm… Where exactly is Ron? I haven't seen him all evening…' I asked despondently.

'Yeah that's a good point! I haven't seen Harry either… Oh I hope they're both OK…' Ginny replied with equal disappointment in her voice

'Oh cheer up you two! The boy's will be here soon, and if not then you will definitely see them at breakfast; that's one thing Ron will never miss!' The twins piped up from opposite us 'now come on! Tuck in! The food's gorgeous!'

So that was that! We tucked in and then were lead out by the prefects up to our dormitory and slept like two very sound logs… Yet my dreams were plagued with nightmares of both Ron and Harry out in the big wide world lost and alone – perfect!

(A.H.P)

'Paiper, Alyce' Oh gosh this was it, my life stops for this moment, this could shape my future or end it… no I can't think like that - wait, why would it end it? I left the thinning line of first years slowly, the time seemed to be slowing down so I could consider my fate. Which house did I want to be in? Ravenclaw like my father? Gryffindor like my mother? Or one of the others? Would I be in the same house as Scarlett? Or would we be enemies forever? I thought back to what had happened outside of the hall:

I walked up the stairs and stood nervously alone in the centre, I had seen Scarlett ahead of me at one point to the right so I inched slowly away to the left. But then her voice came to my ear:

'Hello Alyce, and how are you on this fine evening? It was lovely to see Daddy helping you with your trunk, even when we were five you were his favour-…' Anger raged in my already dry, nervous throat and I couldn't help but shout out at her

'Oh just shut up will you! I don't give a flying car what you think of Dad and me that's mine and his business so JUST STAY OUT OF IT! GOT IT?' I turned and walked away to the other side of the staircase angrily; I heard Scary-Scarlett shout something else at me but in the effort to keep my legs from wobbling with nerves I didn't take in anything of what she had said.

Just then a women joined us in the hallway, she stood authoritatively at the top of the staircase. She was a thin-lipped, stern woman with her hair in a bun so tight it almost looked as if it was holding up her face, she looked generally unpleasant but many of my fellow first years scattered around me seemed to be impressed rather than detested.

I reached the hat at last, conscious of how long it had been since I left my space in the now tiny huddle of children I tried to partially take hold of the hat as I sat down and tried to hide in it - unfortunately it never worked and it just fell to the middle of my ears, resting on my nose like a pair of oversized glasses. As my dad had promised the hat spoke softly into my ear

'ooh quite a cunning one, aren't you? Makes my life a lot easier-if that's what you can call it, a life-, you've had a bit of a difficult life I can see but don't worry you'll be fine at Hogwarts. You have gone through a lot, courage lies in your heart and mind even a bit of loyalty but I feel that you'd clearly fit best in… SLYTHERIN!' it yelled the last word over the hall and I knew people were judging me now more than ever. I took off the hat and joined the table laden with Green decorations, fortunately green is my colour, one of the few differences between Scarlett and I is that I have slightly greener eyes. I had sat in the first empty seat to the left side of my was a seemingly younger first year complaining that she had hat hair, pathetic, but straight away I had someone next to me on my right trying to get my attention. I looked towards them, it was a girl in one of the older year groups sitting with a lot of boys.

'Did anyone say you could sit there?' she told me angrily

'did anyone say you could sit there?' I asked her patronisingly 'I can sit where I like'

'leave the kid alone, Pansy' one of the boys beside her said, I had been reluctant to break eye contact with her so I missed who had said it but when I looked away I noticed a young boy with slicked back blonde hair wink at me subtly, I suddenly felt quite nervous again, this really was a different world for me.

'alright, I like your attitude kid, you're ok with me' the girl called Pansy said 'I'm Pansy Parkinson, if you hang with me don't expect me to be nice to the other houses' well she sounded just like my type of friend.

'who's that?' the blonde boy asked quietly 'she looks so much like you' I realised suddenly he was talking to me; about Scarlett

'oh' I said shocked, 'my identical twin, we might look the same but we're completely different, she's atrocious as a person. We don't see eye-to-eye…at all' I added quickly. He didn't respond, most people don't when it comes to the identical twins hating each other sort of conversations… they're just awkward. I watched my sister's ginger friend get sorted into Gryffindor and share a hug with Scarlett, gross.

'and if you ever try that to me, I will hex you into oblivion' Pansy told me, not much louder than a whisper

'I wont believe me, I hate all that sort of stuff, she's a total girly-girl but I need my personal space!' I said

'sounds like my type of women' the blonde boy said laughing slightly with the thuggish looking boys beside him, I wasn't sure how to take it or even who he was talking about,

'good, have you got any mates in Hogwarts yet?' Pansy asked ignoring the boys behind her

'no, I met this girl on the train but I hated her' I told her sourly 'someone called Luna Lovegood, she tried to sell me the quibbler'

'why's she selling that junk?'

'that's what I said, I prefer teen-witch weekly and things like that, but it turns out her dad's the editor'

We continued to talk in hushed voices until food appeared on the golden plates in the centre of the table. We helped ourselves to food now talking more openly. Soon however the boys stole Pansy's attention away.

'Oh I forgot to introduce you' she told me quickly as she noticed I'd fallen silent 'these are my friends; this is Draco-' she gestured at the blonde boy

'Malfoy,' he added in a voice as slick as his hair 'Draco Malfoy'

'then there's Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle' Pansy continued 'but we just call them by their surnames… And Blaise Zambini' she added now gesturing at the darker-skinned boy, on the surface he looked skinny but I could tell that under his Jumper there were firm muscles already building on at least his upper arms. Letting the boys get quickly back into conversation Pansy quickly added to me in the quietest whisper I had heard that night, or at least it seemed so in the loud noise of the room:

'it's okay if you don't want to hang around with them much, I don't all the time. Draco's a bit of a womanizer and Crabbe and Goyle are just idiots at times, they can be quite difficult to talk to. Blaise tags along with them lot the most but he talks to me more than the others do generally.' As I took this information in she turned to the boys and continued the conversation she had been involved in. I scanned the room, there were a sea of ginger people at the Gryffindor table, clashing slightly with their decorations, among them was Scarlett with our blonde hair standing out and a boy with brown hair, I could only see the back of his head and so couldn't see what he looked like but he looked rather nervous as he was hunched and keeping himself to himself, well Scarlett does have that effect of people. My real interest was the boy directly opposite him, one of two identical twins it seemed, he was part of the group Scarlett was in but he was such a vision, I didn't care. Unlike his look-a-like he was laughing and was clearly centre of attention at this point. Soon I found myself in a day-dream and realised I had begun to stare at the starry ceiling, hypnotised by it. A shooting star flew across my line of view but it wasn't that which brought me back to my senses.

'aren't you going to eat?' Pansy asked me 'the food will disappear any min-' the food vanished replaced again by clean golden cutlery.

'I'll be fine, I wasn't hungry' I lied to her 'I ate a lot on the train'

Just then Dumbledore, the headmaster stood up at the front of the hall and made a speech -something to do with having a good year and some people going off into the village we had just came from, so I didn't really see the point. After that I just stopped listening although I did here his final words: off to bed; pip, pip' what IS he talking about? the mad raving lunatic, he's running the school? really?

The whole room exploded with noise, Pansy pointed me in the right direction to find the Slytherin prefect and I ran off to see the massive man in front of me telling all the first years to follow him.

He lead the group of us down into the dungeons it had a slightly eerie feel which gave me an adrenaline rush, I just knew I'd love strolling through these passages for the next seven years. Then he lead us through a gap in the wall guarded by a portrait, and told us where our dormitories are. I was sharing mine with three other girls but they were all annoying and too chatty so I didn't bother to learn their names. I just unpacked my pyjamas and changed, then drifted off into an easy sleep.