September 1st, 1971 (3 hours later)

After my encounter with Lynette, the rest of the boat ride was uneventful. An older girl, who looked about sixteen, announced that we were almost to the academy.

"Come on, Lils. We need to go change before we get there."

I looked around for Magie, but couldn't find her. "Rye, have you seen Magie?" I asked concerned.

"No, I thought she was with you."

"She was earlier, but I can't find her now."

"She probably went exploring. The boat is charmed to keep people from getting lost or falling overboard. She'll probably pop-up in a little bit."

"Are you sure? She is just a kitten."

"If she doesn't turn up, we'll go ask a teacher to help us find her. Come on, we should go change." Rye sped down to the storage compartment.

"Alright," I mumbled still worried.

When we arrived, it was easy to locate our trunks. The student's trunks were in ABC order according to last name.

"I realized I don't know your last name, Rye."

"Oh, it's Knoll. Lynette, the wonderful girl you meet early, is my older cousin." She said pointing to the trunk above hers: Lynette McMillan-Knoll.

"Wow, she is you cousin? I never would have guessed." I said shocked.

"Pureblood families are all related in some form or another. I have family in England, too. They go to Hogwarts."

As we talked, I found my trunk. It took me a couple of seconds to go through my neatly stacked clothing and find one of my blue robes. When I went to Diagon Alley originally, I had gotten black Hogwarts' robes. The letter that Hogwarts sent about Beauxbatons stated that I would need different robes. It turned out that they were similar robes just in blue. The lady at the robes shop quickly transfigured my robes to the correct ones. I was glad when I found out that Beauxbatons didn't require the students to wear a tie. I had been dreading it because when it came to tying a tie I was utterly hopeless. I put my trunk back and glanced over to Rye.

Her trunk was over flowing with clothing and perched precariously on top of a pile was a muggle binder. It slid off the stack and paper went everywhere. Rye's search was undeterred by the paper chaos. To help, I went around the compartment picking up all the papers. When I had them all, I curiously looked over the papers. They were stories.

"I love to write." Rye said quietly. She walked over to me, grabbed the papers, and put it back in her trunk. "Don't tell anyone, please."

"That's awesome, why don't you want to tell anyone?" I asked wondering why she wouldn't want to share her stories.

"I can't tell you. Please, don't tell anyone." She begged somberly.

"Okay, I won't tell anyone." I promised.

"Thanks," She came up and hugged me.

"Um…can I read your stories sometime? I love to read." I asked carefully.

She started laughing, a sudden change from her solemn mood. "Of course! It would be nice to have someone to talk to about my stories." Rye started walking towards the door, "Let's go get changed."

When Rye and I were dressed, we went to the main deck to wait for our trip to end. The boat pulled into a single harbor and students gathered around the railing.

"Rye, I still haven't found Magie." I begin looking for my kitten.

"Um, is this your kitten?" A girl with light brown hair and gray eyes asked with a French accent. The girl pointed down to Magie. Magie was circling the girl's legs.

"Oh, yes. Thanks, I was getting worried about her."

Magie sat down between the girl and me. She looked at the girl and then me waiting.

The girl bent down and petted Magie. "Hello, my name is Elise Hunter. What's your name?" She looked up at me and asked.

"I'm Lily Evans and that's Magie. How did you know she was mine?"

"You looked like you had lost something. I found Magie while I was on the third deck." She picked up Magie and handed her to me.

"Hey, Lils, I was looking for you. Oh, who are you?" Rye asked noticing Elise.

"My name is Elise. People call me El."

"Well, El, my name is Ryndon. Lily, here, calls me Rye." Rye said pointing to me.

"Enchantée."

"Um…" Rye said confused. She looked at me and I just shrugged.

"It means 'nice to meet you' in French." El explained. "I have lived in France my whole life and English is my second language."

"Students, we have arrived!" An intercom announced.

Rye, El, and I followed the throng of people off the boat. We talked and got to know El more. We were startled, when we looked up and saw a gorgeous palace. It was set back a little from the water and had a brightly lit path leading up to it. Upperclassmen lead us up the path and knocked on the door. A tall slim man opened the door to let us in. We shuffled into a big foyer and the man spoke up in a small raspy voice.

"Classes 2-7 may enter the dining hall. Will 1st years stay, please?" The majority of the students left through a door to the left. "Welcome to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic! My name is Monsieur Thornburg. I teach Transfiguration and my class is currently third years. I would like to explain a few things before we enter the dining hall. Our Headmistress is Madame Maxime. Class schedules will be past out tomorrow morning during breakfast at nine. We will offer a French speaking class for students interested, to join talk to your class head. Students are separated according to age. For meals, first years sit at the table farthest left and second years sit at the table to next table, etcetera through the age groups. When you get to class seven, you sit at the table farthest right. Your class head is Madame Ayers and she will continue to be your head through out your education here. After diner, she will escort you to your sleeping quarters. Do you have any questions?" No one spoke up. "Alright, follow me." He led us to the door the upper students had left through earlier. Rye, El, and I were the last to come to the door. My two friends entered, when Magie jumped out of my arms. She took off up the stairs. I started to follow when a voice interrupted.

"Don't worry; she will get to your room." I looked up at Monsieur Thornburg. "You don't want to miss diner." He motioned towards the dining hall.

I walked back to the door and entered. The door closed behind me and I wondered how Thornburg was going to get in. Then, I realized I should probably get to the Class 1 table and I went to the table farthest left. Rye and El had saved me a spot across from them. They were deep in a conversation, so I took a seat and looked around. The dining hall was elaborately decorated. The walls were a peach color and the ceiling was covered with a mural similar to the one Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel. The tables and benches were solid mahogany.

After examining the hall, I looked down at the plate in front of me. I figured that meals at the school were probably served the same way as they were on the yacht.

"Orange chicken and pork fried rice." I told the plate craving Chinese food.

"Lils, guess what El taught me?" I looked up at Rye. "Bonjour, Lily. Ça va? It means 'Hello, Lily. How are things?'" She told me excitedly.

"That's awesome. I was thinking about joining that French class." I said digging into my orange chicken.

After diner, classes 2-7 stood up and headed to their sleeping quarters. All of the first years stayed seated and soon a petite woman approached the head of our table. She had her curly, dark brown hair in a messy, half up half down hair style. She looked to be in her late 20's and was wearing dark purple robes.

"Bonjour, my name is Madame Ayers. I'm the head of your class." She said in an easygoing voice. "I'm also the Astronomy teacher. If you are ready to go, I will show you to your rooms."

Rye, El, and I stood with the rest of our classmates. Madame Ayers led us up the staircase that was in the foyer and took a left two stories up. We entered the West wing through a door that was about 10 feet tall. Inside were three doors a little smaller than the first one. Ayers turned and motioned for us to stop.

"The door to our right is the boys' dorm and the one to the left is the girls'. Boys' aren't allowed in the Girls' dorm and vice versa. If a boy tries to touch the girls' door, it will automatically lock until the boy is at least five feet away. Anyway, past these two doors will be a set of doors. The doors will choose who can sleep in that room. Three names will appear on the door when you read it. If your name is on the door, that will be your room. The door immediately behind me leads to the meeting room. Both boys and girls are allowed in there and curfew is 10 P.M. Older students aren't allowed into the dorms but prefects are allowed into the meeting room. I will see you tomorrow at breakfast. Have a good night." With that, Ayers left through the main door.

The students dispersed through the doors. "Hey, let's go find our rooms." I said to Rye and El. I walked to the door to my left and my two friends followed.

"I hope we are in the same room." Rye said.

"Me too, that would be awesome." El replied.

We searched for our names on the first three doors and didn't find them. We went to the fourth door and names began etching themselves in it like the past three had.

The first name that appeared said Lils Evans, "Well, this is my room." I said.

Following my name was El Hunter, "Hey, I'm in the same room. Now, the last name needs to be-" Rye Knoll

"Wow, we are in the same room!" Rye exclaimed

"Hey, did you notice that it says our nicknames? And I could swear that is my hand writing." I said examining my name.

"That's my handwriting, too." El said confused.

"Yeah, it's like we wrote it ourselves." Rye said.

We looked at our names a few more seconds, "We should go in and see what the room looks like." Rye opened the door.

We stepped in and gave a collective gasp. It was a rectangular room with three canopy beds on the left wall and three desks on the right wall. The beds linens were a dark plum purple and all the wood in the room was cherry. There was another door between two of the desks that led to a water closet. The most amazing part was on the far wall. There was a window surrounded by two bookshelves and a bench seat. The window gave a perfect view of the grounds, specifically the enormous garden.

"Meow," Magie called from the bed closest to the door.

"Apparently Magie chose my bed." I said running and jumping on the bed.

"Celui-ci est le mien," El said following my lead and claiming the middle bed.

"Awesome, I get the bed by the window!" Rye said bouncing on her bed.

"This bed is impressionnant!" El exclaimed.

"I don't know what you said, but I agree." Rye said laying down and sighing contently.

El and I burst out laughing and Rye joined in soon after. The laughter was interrupted by a scream coming from outside of the room. I ran out of the room with Rye and El on my heels. The scream, now joined by other screams, was coming from the meeting room. We slid in through the door. We were met by kids ducking and trying to avoid a brown-speckled owl. Some students tried to shoo the owl out of the room. The owl circled the room once or twice more and then landed on a chair next to me. It had an envelope tied to it leg that was clearly addressed to me. I reached out to take it off, when the owl jumped onto my out-stretched arm. To halt any further chaos, I walked slowly back to my room with the owl.

"What are you doing?" Rye questioned.

"It has a letter on its leg."

"A letter?" El asked for confirmation.

"Yeah, it's addressed to me. I think with all the students screaming it startled the owl. That's why I'm bringing it back to our room." I had gotten to the girls' door and El opened it for me. I quickly entered my room and my roommates followed. The owl hopped off my arm and settled itself on the back of my desk chair. I undid the letter from the owl's leg, sat down on the edge of my bed, and broke the seal. I barely registered that my trunk was at the end of my bed.

"Who is it from?" Rye asked curiously.

"It's from my friend in England. He goes to Hogwarts and wanted to know how I liked Beauxbatons."

"They send letters by owl?" El said confused.

"Yeah, he told me about the owlery at Hogwarts. How do you send letters here?"

"The school has a system setup like a muggle post office, only it's faster. There is a room on the first floor that has different sections for each country. I don't know how it works after that." El told me.

"How'd you know that? We have been here for one night." Rye asked.

"My grandparents and mum went here as kids. So, I know a lot of secrets about this place."

"Cool, like what?"

I zoned out while I read my letter from Sev.

Lils,

When I first saw the Hogwarts Express, it astounded me. It's gigantic, red and black. The ride was uneventful; I read most of the way. I was reading the muggle book you got me, the one by Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of Mystery and Terror. I liked "Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher". Thanks again for the book.

Remember the Sorting Ceremony I told you about? Well, anyway, I got sorted into Slytherin like my mother. Slytherins' are known for being cunning, so I'm not sure why I'm in here. I don't fit the normal description: pureblood and muggle-haters. I guess it's because my mum was in Slytherin. My house colors are green and silver

The only bad experience I have had so far happened on the boat ride to the castle (first years come in boats and the upper years come in carriages). A couple of boys named Black and Potter pulled a prank and ended up knocking me into the water. It wasn't too bad since it was already raining. The prats didn't even apologize though, they laughed.

Besides that, I will find out my schedule tomorrow.

How was the boat ride? How was your first night at school? Did anything interesting happen?

I hope to hear from you soon. You can send your letter with Conan; he'll find me.

Your, new Slytherin, friend,

Sev

I finished the letter and began looking for some parchment to write him back. El was still telling Rye what she knew about Beauxbatons. Out of the blue and nowhere, a voice said, "five minutes until curfew."

"Hey, we should probably get to bed." El said interrupting her previous conversation and getting her nightclothes. Rye nodded in agreement, while El went into the water closet.

"Lils are you going to write your friend…" Rye paused because she didn't know Sev's name. El came out of the water closet and got into bed.

"His name is Severus."

"Oh, are you going to write Severus back tonight?" She finished her previous question.

"No, I guess I'll write him back tomorrow."

She nodded, "Do you want to use the water closet first or should I go?"

"I'll go first," I grabbed my nightclothes and headed to water closet. A couple of minutes later, I left the washroom in my nightclothes and with recently brushed teeth. After my departure, Rye took my place in the water closet.

When Rye was back and we were all in bed, I mumbled, "Goodnight, Rye. Goodnight, El." Goodnights and sweet dreams resounded from my two roommates.