Ariana didn't know what she was supposed to do, so she followed Ginny, who was also starting her first year at Hogwarts. Hermione waved to them and went off to a group of carriages, and Ariana and Ginny walked towards a large man who was yelling for first-years to join him. They were instructed to get into a boat, and they were joined by a girl with long blonde hair and a boy with a camera.

"Hello", said the girl. "I'm Luna Lovegood. What's your name?"

"Ginny Weasley", Ginny said with a smile.

"I'm Ariana Clark", Ariana said. They looked at the boy. "What's your name?"

"Colin Creevey", he said.

"So what house do you all think you'll be in?", Ginny asked.

"I'm hoping I'll be in Ravenclaw", said Luna.

"I don't know", said Colin, "I'm muggle-born, I don't really know anything about this."

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor, cause if I don't get in I might be disowned", Ginny said.

They all looked at Ariana, who shrugged. "Anything is alright with me."

The boat came in view of the castle, and the children all gasped upon seeing it. They went for a bit longer before getting out of the boats and following the man - Hagrid, he'd said his name was, and walking into the castle. Ariana looked all around at the incredible-ness of it all, and saw a room on the right where 4 long tables were set up, with people sitting at each. Suddenely, she saw what must have been a ghost go through a wall into the room with the tables.

"Is that a ghost?", she asked quietly. Ginny nodded.

A stern woman with her hair in a bun walked up to them and introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. She told them about how the sorting would work, and then led them into the Great Hall. They stood in line and looked awkwardly at all the older students staring back at them. The names were being called in alphabetical order by last name. After what seemed like forever, but really couldn't have been long at all, Ariana heard Professor McGonagall say "Clark, Ariana."

She walked nervously over to the stool and sat down, placing the hat on her head.

"What's this?", it said in her mind. "Another Potter?"

"Potter?", Ariana replied. "What are you talking about? My name is Clark..."

"Right... yes, my mistake. Well anyway, it'd better be... GRYFFINDOR!"

There were cheers from the Gryffindor table, and Ariana nervously walked towards it. Thankfully, she found Hermione, and sat by her.

Colin, the boy from the boat, was sorted into Gryffindor, and Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw, as she had desired. Ginny was then sorted into Gryffindor, and joined them at the table. The headmaster rose up and spoke some words that Ariana thought made no sense, then the feast arrived. Ariana ate happily, noticing that both Hermione and Ginny looked distinctly worried. The repeatedly referred to the missing Harry and Ron. After the food and the dessert, Dumbledore introduced Gilderoy Lockhart as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and went over some rules which Ariana payed no attention to, then they were told to follow their prefects upstairs. Ginny mentioned that the male prefect was her brother, and rolled her eyes as they followed him upstairs to their dorms. Ariana found all her stuff miraculously by the bed, bid Ginny good night, and went to sleep.