Daria Owlyear Boating Across the Loch

DISCLAIMER: Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Wizarding World and Warner Brothers. I own neither franchise. I neither expect nor deserve any sort of financial recompense for this work of fiction: such rights belong to the original owners. I am writing for my own amusement.

Author's Note: I meant to have this chapter before I uploaded I lost track of it and uploaded the following chapter without uploading this chapter to my story. My apologies.

Daria Ravenclaw: The Hogwarts Years*Daria Ravenclaw: The Hogwarts Years* Daria Ravenclaw: The Hogwarts Years.

The girls didn't exit their compartment immediately. Instead, they waited for the crowd of students to thin, then opened their compartment door and left the train.

The area around Hogsmeade station was dark and gloomy, despite old-fashioned gas lamps illuminating the station and the platform. Daria noted that he station platform was damp with rain-water. There was now a crowd of students on the platform. Some seemed to be drifting to the edge of the platform where Daria thought she could see a path leading downhill.

"This is where we part ways, Dahlia," said Violet. "You'll be going with Hagrid and the First Years; I'll be going with the older girls."

So, thought Daria, the first years will be making their way separately to the school from other students.

Daria could follow by context. She, like Dahlia, was also a First Year. She'd also be following the other first years.

"First years! First years this way!" boomed a loud male voice.

Daria had been facing away from the station to see a couple of late-comers descend from the train. She turned around to face whoever-it-was who was giving instructions. He was looked like a giant. The guy was huge, not just tall, but broad, too. He was also holding a lantern. She decided to trust him and followed him and the crowd of first years he was leading down a path leading away from the railway station.

They went down a little path down from the railway station to the pebbly shores of what to Daria looked like a huge lake. She again saw the castle she'd glimpsed from the train. It was what dark castle with brightly-lit windows sitting across a dark, wide lake. The effect wasn't Disney, but it was beautiful anyway.

There was a large fleet of small boats waiting for them there, each with its own lantern to provide light.

Daria looked dubiously at the fleet of small boats, then sidled up to Hagrid. "We don't need life preservers with these things, do we?" she asked.

"No, you don't need 'em," Hagrid replied. "Safe as houses, these boats are."

"That's what they said about the Titanic," thought Daria darkly.

"Oi!" shouted Hagrid, shouting to some students who had already clambered onto a nearby boat.. "No more than four in a boat!"

Daria saw that the boats nearest Hagrid were already filling up. Daria wondered if some of the kids already knew what was coming as opposed to kids like her who were coming at all of this cold. Probably; Violet and Megan told her that magic tended to run in certain families and parents and sisters probably told younger members what to expect when they got to Hogwarts. Daria carefully walked down the pebbly beach and went to the first boat that wasn't already full-up.

"This boat is reserved for Purebloods. No mud-bloods allowed," the girl at the front of the boat said haughtily. The other girl in the boat sniggered in amusement.

Daria looked at her, scowled, thought of a phrase she'd heard from Cole Snopes back in Highland that would have gotten her mouth washed out with soap several years earlier, and walked on. She thought of a phrase she'd heard from Cole Snopes that might still get her mouth washed out with soap if her mother heard it, and walked on.

And if I hear any crap about Purebloods, I'm going to reach into the boat and throw her butt onto the beach, she thought darkly.

Daria started walking down the beach to find a boat with space in it. She was not finding a boat she liked. Full, Full, three guys, I don't like the looks of those kids, maybe one of the empty ones on the end…, she thought.

She almost passed the next boat when a familiar voice called to her: "Hallo, Daria, why don't you join us?" She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Megan, Majda and Dahlia in a boat smiling at her.

"Thanks," said Daria, and got in.

Daria was going to keep the hat off, but it was chillier on the water than she thought it would be, so she put it on anyway.

"I'll take the lantern," said Megan.

By now it looked like just about every kid had found a boat and boarded it. Daria wondered if one of them would have to get out of the boat and risk getting their shoes wet. Daria was just getting ready to step out of the boat and give it a shove when it slid into the water.

The boats began moving across the water towards the castle on the opposite shore. No propellers, no motors, thought Daria. The effect was better than Disney. It wasn't just beautiful, but magical, and lacking that saccharin element that Hollywood directors put into kid's movies that drove her up the wall.

The fleet of small boats drew closer and closer to the great castle. Now this was something, thought Daria, who impressed a lot less easily than most eleven-year-olds. The fleet of boats passed more than halfway across the lake drawing closer to the castle itself. The castle didn't just look magical but it looked like it belonged here, which a lot of buildings in Highland didn't. Daria smiled in contentment. She'd seen bigger hills and rock formations even in Texas, but the view of the window-lit castle perched atop the sheer cliff face was so marvelous that she was sure she'd remember this for the rest of her life.

It briefly rained again. Fortunately, the shower was brief, although it was more than enough to dampen her outer robe and her jacket.

The cliff face made her worry. She didn't see anything that looked like a beach or landing below the castle. Surely they weren't going to smash into the cliff face, were they? She briefly had a vision of some idiots throwing down ropes and then expecting her and her classmates to scale them like some idiotic exercise her Dad had had to go through back at Buxton Ridge.

Surely not, she hoped.

"Heads down!" boomed Hagrid as the first boats drew close to the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening she hadn't seen. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

Hagrid's attention seemed split between the boats on the beach and the crowd of first-years forming around him.

"Oi, you people," shouted Hagrid. "Everybody out of the boats?"

There was a scattered chorus of yeses as the children finished clambering out of the boats and clumped together. He waited a couple of minutes, then shouted "Firs' years follow me, then!"

They followed the lantern-carrying giant up a narrow rocky passage coming out onto a small. Neatly-trimmed lawn leading to a set of steps. A pair of big, iron-bound doors were just beyond them. Everyone, even the snobby Purebloods, were too awed to say anything.

The door swung open almost immediately. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Daria felt cowed. She decided that she wasn't going to give this woman any trouble, at least not tonight.

"I brought the firs' years," said Hagrid. "A little wet, but not much the worse."

"Thank you, Hagrid," said the witch. "I'll take them upstairs."

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because while you are here your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will cost your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points earns the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as best you can while you are waiting."

"I will return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait here quietly."

-(((O-O)))—

Note: I pilfered the Snopes family name from William Faulkner, although Cole Snopes is not meant to be any character in Faulkner canon. Still, Cole was named much the way most late nineteenth and twentieth-century Snopes were named. His full name is Colmar Pocket Snopes and, as you can guess, his father was a World War II veteran. His younger daughter's name is Mekong Delta Snopes, and she will start babysitting Quinn and Veronica Morgendorffer this year.