hello! this is my first time properly writing for this fandom. this idea came to me and wouldn't leave me alone, so now i'm dropping it here! the main characters are my own, but the originals will definitely pop up from time to time.
also, to make it clear: if you are a supporter of jk rowling, i suggest you leave. this is not a place for terfs.
i hope you enjoy!
"Hey, Ella. Here."
Ella opens her eyes, frowning at Dennis. He sits opposite her in the train compartment, holding out several small boxes, all with a frog design on them. Her eyes flicker between them and his face.
"What are these?" she asks.
"Chocolate frogs," he says, as though those two words are supposed to go together. "Just try some, they're great."
Ella cautiously takes the packets, not breaking eye contact with her brother once. "They're not actual frogs, are they?"
Dennis laughs. "No, of course not."
Lips set into a thin line, she opens the first box and is promptly met with a faceful of frog.
Screeching, she grabs the frog before it can jump from her face to her blonde hair, levelling a glare at Dennis, who isn't bothering to hold back his laughter. The glare continues even as she ferociously bites the chocolate frog's head off. It tastes good, but he doesn't need to know that.
When his laughter dies down, Dennis says, "Check the box again. There should be a chocolate frog card inside."
"It's not going to attack me, is it?"
"No, I promise."
With one last suspicious glance at Dennis, she digs the card out. She doesn't know what she expects to see, but the face of Harry Potter (albeit older than the photographs she's seen — and she will not think about that right now, not a single thought about the person who took them) is not it. She turns it around and reads the small blurb, as if she doesn't know who he is already.
"So, who did you get?"
"Harry Potter," she says, not looking up.
This, of course, gets Dennis very excited. "Oh, is it the new one? I didn't know those were in print already!"
"Considering that it talks about him defeating the most evil wizard in history for the second time, I'd say it is."
"Lucky!"
She doesn't see how collecting a random card is lucky, but doesn't argue, setting the card beside her and opening the rest. Half an hour and many chocolate frogs later, she's gathered quite the collection. She'll probably give them away by the end of the week.
The compartment door opens and a blonde girl steps in, a bright smile on her face. She's familiar somehow, and Ella thinks she's seen a photograph or two of her, usually accompanied by Dennis and their friends. "Dennis! There you are. I was wondering where you'd gotten to."
"I wasn't exactly hiding," Dennis says.
"I know, but I didn't have time to look for you since I was looking after my brother."
"Where is he, anyway?"
"He made a friend on the train, so I left him be for now."
"Maybe I should send Ella to them, then. Get her to make some friends."
Ella crosses her arms, making a point of looking away and staring out the train window. Despite the situation she's in, the sight of rolling hills as they chug through the countryside is comforting. If only she could open the window, jump out, and fly away.
She's made it clear that she doesn't want to be spoken to, yet Dennis' friend either doesn't notice or ignores her wishes completely. "Are you excited about coming to Hogwarts, Ella?"
When Ella turns her head to look at her, she catches a glimpse of Dennis' expression, his eyes wide and hesitant. He knows just as well as she does that isn't the question to ask her right now.
"No," she says. "Why would I be excited about living in the place my brother died in for seven years?"
The girl's smile falters and she sneaks a glance at Dennis, who is apologetic when he returns it. "R-Right, of course, um… I'll go check up on my brother now, okay? I'll see you later, Dennis."
The compartment door shuts behind her as she leaves, and Ella prepares herself for the scolding when Dennis turns to her with a frown. He doesn't look particularly fearsome, more like a disgruntled puppy, but it isn't the first time she's been on the receiving end of it in the last few weeks.
"Look, Ella, I know how you feel," Dennis starts, and dread pools in Ella's stomach. She hates it when he does this, when he tries to relate to her (because he does, because she's not the only one who lost a brother), because it makes her feel terrible. "But that doesn't mean you can be rude to my friends. Or anyone else for that matter."
"I'll behave how I want," Ella says, and this isn't the first time she's said it. She just didn't think she'd have to defend herself to Dennis. Doing so to her father over the summer was bad enough. "I don't even know who that person was."
"Her name is Evangeline and she's one of my best friends," Dennis says, and while the name is familiar to Ella, what she said still stands. She doesn't owe this girl anything.
When she doesn't respond, Dennis sighs and says, "Come on, we should change into our robes."
"First years, over here!"
The gruff voice is loud over the crowd, but not unfriendly, and Ella stands on her tip-toes in order to find the source. Being so young, most of the other students are taller than her. It isn't hard to find the person calling her over, not when he's taller than everyone else around him, a lantern in his hand and shaggy hair on both his head and face.
"That's Hagrid," Dennis says, ushering her forward. "Don't worry, he's a gentle giant. Literally. He'll take you to the boats."
"The boats?" she asks, but Dennis only gives her a smile before heading in another direction.
With a huff, she approaches Hagrid and finds herself standing in the middle of a crowd of first years. She does her best not to stare, but she can't help it, searching for anything unmistakably weird about them. No matter how many times she's been assured that wizards look like normal humans, she hasn't quite believed it.
"Alright, that everyone?" No one answers, but a few people look around. No other first years are coming. "Alright, then. Follow me. To the boats!"
The boats are bigger than Ella expected, though this pleasant surprise comes with the sour realization that she will have to share with several other students. She climbs into the one nearest to her, behind a set of brunette twin boys and a girl who's folded in on herself, clutching a book in her hands. With the twins already in the middle of a conversation and the girl not even daring to look up, she assumes herself to be free from meaningless conversation.
They set onto the water and Ella is about to let her hand skim the top of it when Hagrid calls out behind them, "Mind your limbs, by the way! You don't want the giant squid to get ya."
She quickly retracts her hand.
She told herself once she'd received her Hogwarts letter that she wouldn't be drawn into this new world, that she wouldn't be taken in like her brothers, that she would keep a clear head. This all goes to hell once she sees the castle.
It looms before them, but rather than finding it intimidating, Ella finds it beautiful. There is something dazzling about it, the light hypnotizing. She can't look away. Dennis told her the castle was big, but she'd thought he'd been exaggerating when telling her just how much. Perhaps there is some plausibility to her brothers' grand stories after all.
They dock at a boathouse that sits lower than the rest of the school grounds. Hagrid abandons his lantern in favour of the boathouse's lighting and leads them upstairs, presumably towards the castle interior. Ella runs her hand across the stone wall, stopping when she passes an empty portrait. She squints at the namecard.
'Severus Snape'.
A shove forces her to keep moving before she can inspect further and ask why her brothers' mean potions professor has an empty frame named after him.
They head up a flight of stairs, then another flight of stairs, and another, until they come face to face with a woman wearing a long dress and a witch's hat. Her posture is straight and her lips pressed together, but she smiles briefly at Hagrid as he drops the children off and disappears behind a set of double doors.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," the woman says, her smile for the students this time. "I am Headmistress McGonagall. Behind me are the doors to the great hall where the rest of the students are, but before you can join them, you must be sorted into your houses — Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin."
One of the first years snorts at the last name and McGonagall narrows her eyes at them. It's a small gesture, but it's effective, and the student is immediately silent.
"Your house is similar to a family," McGonagall continues, as though she wasn't rudely interrupted. "You earn points for your house when you achieve, and you lose points for your house when you misbehave. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the House Cup. Now, the sorting will begin momentarily. Please wait while I ensure everyone is ready for you."
McGonagall slips through the same double doors as Hagrid, leaving the first years to their own devices. People begin talking amongst themselves, all of their words and sentences blending together, and Ella attempts to tune them out, leaning on the staircase railing and gazing at the portraits lining the walls.
Her gaze falls to the floor beyond the staircase. Is this where her brother died?
Before she can entertain that thought any longer, McGonagall reappears, and with a firm nod, says, "We're ready for you."
The double doors open at the same time without anybody touching them, and Ella keeps her head down as the other students all stare in their direction. A poke at her shoulder almost makes her jump, but Dennis' cheeky expression calms her down, though she still swats his hand away as she walks by. No one else bothers her on her way to the front of the room.
When all of the first years are standing before what Ella can only assume is the infamous sorting hat, she expects McGonagall to say something else. What she doesn't expect is for the hat to start singing.
"Oh, I'm torn and I'm battered,
quite frankly, I'm knackered,
but I've got a job,
before you stuff your gob,
so listen to me real well!"
Ella looks back at Dennis, who laughs silently at her expression.
The song continues for several stanzas before the hat belts out one final note, something about his nonexistent toenails. Ella doesn't know. She tuned him out two verses in.
McGonagall stands before them again, this time with a scroll of parchment in her hand. "When I call your name, come take a seat on this stool here and I'll place the sorting hat on your head. When your house is called, head to the correct table." She clears her throat. "Willow Astarac!"
A girl with brown skin and dark curls makes a beeline for the stool and sits on it, gaze flickering upwards as McGonagall sits the hat on her head. The hat is, miraculously, silent, but a myriad of expressions cross her face until the house shouts loud enough for the entire castle to hear.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
With a smile, Willow jumps off the stool and is taken in by the overjoyed Hufflepuff table with a pat on the back.
"Theresa Burke!"
Another girl, this one long brown hair and cat-like eyes, sits herself on the stool. It isn't long before the hat comes to a decision.
"SLYTHERIN!"
The applause Theresa receives is nothing compared to Willow's, and when Ella glances around the room, she sees a few students from other houses throwing dirty looks at the Slytherin table. Theresa either doesn't notice or isn't bothered, joining her housemates without looking back.
"Aurelia Carrow!"
Just as Ella is thinking that she could very well be next on the list and that she should prepare herself, the room becomes silent. It isn't the same silence as with the previous two sortings, full of anticipation, but something uncomfortable and stifling. What is everyone's problem?
The subdued girl from the boat trip cautiously steps forward, her head down. Someone behind Ella whispers, "Slytherin, no doubt."
But the hat sounds incredibly confident when it yells, "RAVENCLAW!" not thirty seconds later.
Aurelia is quick on her feet, head still down as she rushes to the Ravenclaw table, many of whom are only clapping half-heartedly. She sits a decent distance away from everyone else and doesn't look at any of them.
Seriously, what is everyone's problem?
"Ella Creevey!"
A knot ties itself in Ella's stomach, but she ignores it as she steps forward. Without realizing, her eyes search for Dennis' in the crowd, and when she finds them, he gives her a thumbs up. She takes a deep breath as the hat is placed on her head.
'So, what have we got here, aye?'
'Oh, so you talk to me in my head? Wonderful.'
'Hey, I need to know what's going on in here so I know where to put you.'
'Alright, have at me, then. Do your worst.'
'Hmm, bold, I like it.' The hat hums. 'Courageous, but also a bit of stupidity. No survival instinct whatsoever.'
'Excuse me?'
'Better make it—'
"—GRYFFINDOR!"
The word echoes throughout the great hall and the hat is plucked from Ella's head. She's ready to grab it back and throttle it for calling her stupid, but is distracted by the grin on Dennis' face, as well as his ridiculously overenthusiastic clapping. She rolls her eyes as he makes a spot for her beside him.
The sorting continues, a pattern emerging. People are happy until a Slytherin is sorted, and people suddenly treat these green-tied eleven year olds as something they should forget or something that's offended them in some way. Some students' names are more than enough for people to look either uncomfortable or downright furious.
Marius Gold is the next first year to be sorted into Gryffindor, and he takes a seat across from Ella. Yeoreum Kim sits beside him, and Torian Shafiq in front of her, and so on and so forth until the end of the table begins to fill out.
By the time the last two students, the twins from the boat, are being sorted, Ella's stomach is rumbling. She wants nothing more than to eat and she taps her foot impatiently as the second last name is called out.
"Damien Worth!"
Damien all but runs up to the stool, sitting with his back completely straight as the hat is placed upon him. It doesn't take long for the hat to make up its mind.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Damien barely waits for McGonagall to take the sorting hat, zooming towards the cheering Gryffindor table with a bright smile. He sits at the end of the table and crosses his fingers.
"Lucien Worth!"
Lucien is the splitting image of his brother, at least physically. Both have curly brown hair and skinny arms and legs. It's the demeanour that makes them different. Where Damien was barely able to sit still, eager to be here and to be sorted, Lucien is more cautious, less expressive.
So really, it's no surprise when the hat yells, "SLYTHERIN!"
It's clearly a surprise to Damien, however, whose mouth drops open in shock, eyes following his brother as he moves to the Slytherin table. The shock becomes a frown, then a deeper frown, and soon Damien is glaring at the Slytherin table as though it gave him a splinter.
"Yikes," she mutters.
McGonagall steps forward and clears her throat. Everyone goes silent, a different sort of anticipation in the air this time, and Ella grips her robes.
"I know you're all tired and hungry from your journey, so I won't keep you waiting long," McGonagall says. "However, I would like to say a few things. The first is that I am so incredibly glad to see your faces, new and old. The past twelve months, and even longer than that, have been terrible to us all. But we have come out victorious. A new era has settled onto Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to which I welcome you all. That said, I want to remember the sacrifices made for the sake of the safety we find ourselves in today. Upon the reconstruction of Hogwarts, a memorial wall has been created adjacent to the main staircase that you may visit when you wish.
"The second thing I would like to say is that there will be many seventh years from last year who will be in and out of the castle as they do work to complete their N.E.W.T.s as they were unable to last year. Do not be alarmed if you see them wandering the halls or the library.
"And thirdly, a reminder for our students and a rule for our first years. The forest on the outskirts of the school grounds is forbidden for your safety. If any first years have questions, do not hesitate to ask myself or your prefects.
"Let us eat!"
McGonagall sits down, but Ella barely pays her any mind, gobsmacked by the food that appears before them. Everything smells heavenly and she doesn't know where to begin. Hogwarts is making it very difficult for her to remember that she's supposed to hate it here.
Dennis nudges her. "C'mon, eat up."
He doesn't need to tell her twice. She loads her plate with as many things she can reach and immediately digs in. She's halfway into her first slice of pie when first year conversation starts around her.
"When do you think we get to fly?" Marius Gold asks, staring longingly out the window.
"Soon! Please be soon," Yeoreum says, almost begging, though Ella can't tell who to.
Torian Shafiq laughs. "I think we have to wait a few weeks before we get our flying lesson."
Yeoreum makes a face. Some syrup from her treacle tart has made its way to her nose. "I don't need a flying lesson, I already know how to fly."
The conversation turns to Quidditch quite quickly after that, and Ella tunes them out. She doesn't know anything about the game, none of her brothers' explanations making much sense to her, and she doesn't know any specific teams. She focuses on her plate and continues to eat.
It's a few minutes later that Dennis nudges her again and leans over, keeping his voice low as he says, "You alright? You can talk to them, you know."
He nods towards the other first year Gryffindors. Yeoreum is telling a story with wild arm gestures, leaving no room for interruption. She's an outsider looking in.
As she should be. There is nothing to be gained from getting too involved with this world.
"I know," she says. "I just don't want to."
She ignores Dennis' worried look and is grateful that he doesn't say anything else, talking to some of his own friends instead. She eats in silence. Just because she isn't supposed to grow attached to the wizarding world doesn't mean she can't appreciate good food.
In the end, she eats her way through her food while taking turns listening to her brother's conversations and the first year conversations, though she never joins in, and she always keeps her body angled towards Dennis so her fellow first years don't speak to her directly. Both the food and plates disappear fifteen minutes after she's finished her food, and she blinks, but isn't as surprised as when the food first appeared.
"This ends the night's feasts. Please head up to your dormitories. First years, follow your prefects to your common room," McGonagall says.
Students begin to rise and Ella follows suit. The first prefect she sees waving at them is Evangeline, and she ducks around older students to get to her, stopping right in front of her without another word. To her surprise, Evangeline smiles at her.
"Hi, Ella," she says, the incident on the train either forgotten or forgiven.
Before Ella can response with a brief greeting of her own, the rest of the first years arrive, and Evangeline addresses them all at once.
"Alright, it can be easy to get lost in the castle, so pay attention to where I'm taking you."
They are forced into two lines when climbing the more narrow staircases, and there are plenty of them. Ella loses count of how many floors they leave behind as they continue going up and up and up, and when she looks down, the criss-cross of staircases reminds her of a scene from Alice in Wonderland.
They eventually stop in front of a large portrait. A lady in a toga and berries in her hair stands front and centre and she waves when the first years look at her.
"This is the Fat Lady," Evangeline says, and Ella raises an eyebrow at the name. "To get into the common room, you have to know the password, and the password will reset from time to time, though we'll inform you if the password changes. Right now, the password is Fawkes."
The Fat Lady giggles and the painting swings back, revealing an entryway. Evangeline gestures to it.
"After you," she says.
The students all file in. The room is adorned in red and gold, tapestries and carpets and fluffy pillows strewn around the room. A fireplace sits in the side of the room, the fire going strong despite the tower's inhabitants just arriving. Magic's doing, most likely.
"Your dormitories are upstairs, just follow the signs on the doors so you know where you're going," Evangeline says. "Your luggage is waiting in your rooms for you. Come see me if you need anything!"
A few students stay to ask questions, but Ella doesn't bother. She heads straight upstairs and, after identifying the correct door, throws it open. Her bed has already been picked for her, it seems, her trunk sitting at the end of the bed in one of the far corners, a window overlooking it. All things considered, she could have done worse. The only thing missing from the picture is her cat, Jinxie, but that's hardly anything to worry about. Jinxie is an explorer.
She approaches her trunk and opens it, but stops short of unpacking. Unpacking indicates staying. She doesn't want to stay, especially not when she's alone and wondering where Colin stood in these dormitories, in the common room, where he went to class, which halls he passed by and who he spoke to. His classmates are in their final year, after all. Most of them are still here, even if he isn't.
It isn't fair.
Dennis would be upset if she leaves, however, and that is something she won't stand for. (And if she doesn't want to leave him alone in this black hole of a magic world in case she never sees him again, no one has to know.)
She does eventually unpack, starting with her pyjamas and toiletries. She's changed and is brushing her teeth in the ensuite when she hears the door open. Whoever it is must be in a good mood if the happy humming is any indication, and when she's rinsed her mouth out and returned to the room, she isn't surprised to see Yeoreum organizing her things.
Her intention is to return to her bed without engaging in conversation with anyone else, but Yeoreum has other plans, turning to her with a smile when she's halfway across the room and saying, "Hey! You're Ella, right? Ella Creevey?"
Back turned to Yeoreum, Ella closes her eyes. "Yep. That's me."
"I'm Yeoreum! It's really nice to meet you, especially because your brother, the oldest one? He—"
"—I'm really tired, I'm going to bed."
Ella doesn't give Yeoreum a chance to respond, jumping onto her bed and closing the curtains. At least Hogwarts allows their students to have some privacy. It's useful for isolating herself, in any case.
"Oh," Ella hears Yeoreum say from beyond the curtain, voice softer than before, "Okay. Goodnight!"
Ella doesn't reply, burrowing herself further beneath her covers, pillow clutched to her chest.
i hope you enjoyed it! i have the first three chapters done and am currently working on the fourth, so i'll post the second when i make a bit more headway. in the meantime, you can contact me at my oc/writing tumblr fictumlibrary!