As soon as I reach the Slytherin table they start to shout at me.
"Hey, over here! We've got a free place here!", that's a dark-haired boy, a perfect if I recognize his badge right.
"Hi." I am unsure what to say. "Nice to meet you."
He smiles at me. "I'm Howard. It's an honor to have you in our house."
"Thank you."
"And you are a Bergknecht? Are you relative to Gottfried Bergknecht?"
"He's my great-grandfather, but I never meet him." I am unsure what to make out of his interest. "Why do you ask?"
"Well my grandpa meet him in the war. He's dead know", he answers as if he blames himself for his old grandparents.
"The second world war?", I ask and he nods. "Always said that Bergknecht saved his life. My grandpa was a prisoner, somewhere in southern Germany."
"Uh.. I don't know much about the war."
"Why not?"
I shake my head. "Don't know. It's a quite difficult subject in Germany. We mostly learn that it was wrong to kill those Jews."
"But that has nothing to do with the war", a girl comments from my other side. "I am Eleonore, by the way. Elly for you."
"Thanks. I know that, but well I guess it better define yourself as Jew killers, than having nothing to define your nation with . At least the Muggles seem to think so, and I have been on one of their schools. Falkenstein is not that good, so my parents taught me at home."
"I heard that Falkenstein is rubbish. Why didn't you come here earlier?"
"I have friends and family at home. Never liked the idea of a boarding school."
"You will love it here", Howard promise me and in this moment tones of food appear on the tables.
"I am starting to believe it", I say smiling.
The food is amazing I spend a couple of minutes just trying to decide what to eat. Finally Howard placed a couple of potatoes on my plate. "At some point the dinner will end, you better start eating."
"Thanks. It's just …" I stop and look around me. "A bit to much."
"Obviously. Never mind, everyone feels so."
"I am flashed whenever I come back." Elly says. "It's just amazing here. And I live in a great house as well, but I believe that Hogwarts is the most gorgeous castle in the world."
"Don't let that hear one of those Beauxbatons." Howard says smiling. "They are all in Gryffindor and Ravenclow aren't they?"
"Sure they are", a boy from the other side of the table says. "I am just glad that you are here. No one needs those Gryffindors."
"Well, if you are looking for a Prince Charming you will probably find him there", Elly says laughing.
"Never dreamed of one", I say and smile at Elly, bevor I recognize that Howard is looking at me.
I turn around. "Did I say something wrong? If so, just believe me that I wanted to say something else and just mixed up my vocabulary."
"It's all fine", he says but there is something in his eyes that I can't understand.
We do not stop talking until McGonagall gets up about an hour later.
"Just let me use this moment to great you all back in Hogwarts." She looks at us and smiles in hundreds of faces that glow in the shine of even more candles.
"Let me assure you that you will have a lot to learn in this year, and that there will of course be interesting activities for everyone. We will have some more Quidditch matches this year, as we will found a team of or guest students."
I stop breathing for a moment. I will not play Quidditch. I will not fly a broom anyways, my cousin broke his arm on one.
"Oh, no, no, no", Elly whispers next to me. "We need you for our team."
"I don't know the rules anyways." I whisper back.
"You will learn fast."
McGonagall ends her speech and we can get up to go to bad.
"We are not enough to build a Quidditch team", I say looking at Elly.
"But there are some Americans coming next week. They had some problems with their flight, I guess. And we have six pupils from Ljóshalla, they have similar houses, so they did not need to be sorted."
"You do not know much about this exchange project. Do you?", Howard askes.
"Well ..." I do not quite know what to say, I had read the small pamphlet my father gave me, but I was tired so I forgot most of it.
"Never mind" Howard says and lays an arm around my shoulders. "We will take care for you. Make sure that you are not bullied by Gryffindors or something."
I flush and do not know what to say so I just nod and finally say "Thank you."