Chapter 5: New Family, New Friends

Kayla got off the train, leaving her things on it, as the other kids were doing. She followed them to where horseless carriages laid waiting. She watched as they left when they were full and another one took its place. While wondering how the carriages moved she thought she heard her name called, but looking around and seeing no one, diced she must have imagined it. Moving along the line of carriages Kayla heard her named called again. She was sure she hadn't imagined it this time but still, she couldn't find the source. She continued walking beside the transportation when someone yelled right beside her.

"Hey Kayla!"

"What?" she yelled back whipping around to face them. It was James Potter. "Oh it's you. You don't have to yell in my ear you know."

A sly grin slipped on his face again. "Obviously, I do."

"Careful James, you saw what she did to Lucy," teased Sirius with mock seriousness.

"You...you saw that?" They laughed.

"Everyone say that! Now, get in, you can ride with us." Kayla climbed in.

"Where'd you learn the spell Accio from? You look no more then thirteen," asked Remus with enthusiasm.

"A book I read."

"A book eh. What year are you in?" said Remus, impressed.

"I'll be starting first year."

"A first year that knows Accio? That's some serious stuff," said Sirius.

"Yeah, just think of the curses you must know..." chuckled James. Peter quivered. "Don't worry Peter, she won't curse us!"

"I wouldn't depend on that James Potter. Never know what I might do." Kayla grinned wickedly and put on a fake evil laugh. Peter squeaked.

They stepped out of the coach, still talking, now about houses when the three boys stopped. "Hello Professor McGonagall." Kayla looked up, the name clicking in her mind as the lady she was supposed to meet.

"Good evening Mr. Potter." A young woman stood in front of them. Her black hair was in a tight bun and her hawk-like eyes were looking at Kayla. "Ms. Riddle, I presume." Kayla nodded. "Follow me please." Kayla whispered goodbye to her new friends and followed Professor McGonagall up a couple flights f stairs and towards two stone gargoyles.

She jumped as the gargoyles sprang to life at the word `Daily Prophet` and revealed a spiral staircase. Professor McGonagall led her up the stairs to a door and knocked.

"Come in," a voice said. Kayla walked into a room full of glittering objects.

"Wow, shiny," she whispered to herself.

"Thank you Minerva, could you go and supervise lunch for me?" Kayla looked at who was speaking. An old man with a long white beard sat behind a large desk at the opposite end of the room, he smiled at her.

"Yes, Headmaster." Professor McGonagall left.

"Hello Kayla, would you like to sit?" Kayla sat in the chair indicated. It was really squishy. "Shall we get to the point then?" He grinned at her and began to explain how she would be introduced to the rest of the school, as new students were normally sorted at the beginning of term. "I will be introducing you to the rest of the school at dinner. There, you will be sorted by the sorting hat into your house." He indicated a tattered hat on a shelf. "Your house will be your home and family while you're at Hogwarts. You will sleep, eat, and learn with the fellow first years of your house and usually one other house. He went on to explain the rules of the school, the classes, est. In no time at all it was time for dinner. Kayla was to stand outside the Great Hall until the doors opened and she would then walk up to the front of the hall to be sorted. After sorted, she would sit at the table with the students of the same house.

She now stood in front of the doors, very nervous. She could faintly hear the hall go silent as Professor Dumbledore stood up. Her nervousness grew.

"Before we begin our feast, I have announcement to make," she heard him say. "We have a new student to our school. Her name is Kayla Riddle and she is new to the wizarding community.

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE HER THOUGH!" a student shouted from inside causing the others to laugh, Kayla blushed. She continued to listen.

"Thank you Mr. Potter," the Headmaster chuckled. "But as I was saying, she's new so we shall have small sorting ceremony for her." Kayla took a deep breath. "Everyone, I would like you to meet, Kayla Riddle." The doors took only seconds to open but it seemed like minutes to her.

She walked into the hall and gulped. There were a lot of kids! She walked forward quickly, staring determinedly away from the students. She stopped in front of Professor McGonagall, who stood beside a stool and held the ratted old hat Kayla saw in the Headmasters office earlier. Kayla turned to face the school and sat down on the stool. She could feel her face begin to burn as everyone was looking at her.

"Ohhh, stop, stop, stop, stop!" thought Kayla as she felt the hat slip over her head.

"Stop?" someone said.

Her eyes widened in surprise and slight fear. "Who was that?"

"I am the sorting hat. I was about to sort you into Slytherin but you said stop." It voiced in a confused manner.

"Slytherin?" asked Kayla, disappointed.

"I suppose you don't want to be a Slytherin?"

"Not really."

"Well then, how about Ravenclaw?"

"I guess it's better in Slytherin."

"So no to Ravenclaw too, then," chuckled the hat. Kayla grinned slightly. "Perhaps Gryffindor then?"

Kayla's grin grew. "Would you?"

Kayla thought for a moment she felt the hat smile, then she heard "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted out and the hall erupt into cheers. Grinning, Kayla lifted off the hat and went to join the table where James, Sirius and Remus were sitting at. There, she was welcomed and congratulated her.

Only a few minutes after sitting down, two girls came up to her. Both were very pretty compared to others.

"Hi, my names Lily Evans," one of the girls, with long red hair and large, bright, green eyes said. "And this is my friend, Hikage." Hikage was an obvious Asian girl, her short black hair and deep brown eyes. She smiled and shook Kayla's hand. "We just wanted to welcome you to Hogwarts," her voice had a hint of superiority to it, telling anyone listening, that she would have no immaturity or funny business near her. "And to warn you to stay away from...are you even listening to me?" Kayla wasn't. She had been staring at the ceiling which showed a beautiful clear night. Sirius, also noticing her bored expression, nudged James and they headed over.

James grinned at Lily as they walked over. "Giving people the, `Stay away from Potter` speech, Lily?" She was unable to reply as Kayla had finally noticed they had come over.

"Oh, hey guys!" she smiled. Lily huffed angrily and stalked to the other end of the table. Unfortunately, during that small ordeal, they had run out of time and everyone was heading back to there dorms. Kayla hadn't eaten anything.

Kayla followed the boys up the many flights of stairs to a portrait of a large lady in a frilly pink dress. As Remus was talking about Dragons, Kayla found it strange when he blurted out the word `Toadstools. ` She was about to ask what he was talking about but she stopped to watch the picture bow to him and swing open. Then Kayla understood. "Ah, a password," she thought.

Inside was a gorgeous room filled with tables and comfy looking furniture. She sat down next to Remus on a couch, James sat down in a chair opposite of the table in front of them, while Sirius and Peter sat in chairs on either side.

"So," said Sirius with a sly grin on his face. "What's your next plan James?"

Kayla was perplexed. "Plan?"

"Our end of the Christmas Vacation joke," said James with a big grin on his face. Kayla opened her mouth but her interrupted her. "Let's just say we're the pranksters of Hogwarts. We play a lot of Jokes. For our Welcome to Hogwarts joke on the sixth day of school we set up traps along the hallways, and then took pictures of the results. After that, we hung them up around the school." He laughed again.

"We weren't caught on that one because we made the traps look like normal coincidences," chuckled Sirius.

"What type of `Coincidences` were they?"

"Nothing much, just trip jinxes and one of us happening to be near with a camera."

"And what did you do to the victim school on Holloween?"

"Nothing!" said Remus indignantly.

"How dare you accuse us of such a crime!" James cried.

"Yeah! We only messed with Lucius..."

Kayla slapped her hand to her head and sighed. "And what did you do to poor...I mean rich, unsuspecting Lucius Malfoy?"

"Made signs that said "I love Flowers and Pink," then stuck it to his back with a permanent sticking charm," shrugged James.

"Ok..." said Kayla, thinking they were a tiny bit strange. "Well, I'm going to bed, let me know what you've planned in the morning." She let out a large yawn and climbed up the stairs and into the first year rooms.

Kiirby, the girl she saw on the train earlier, was reading a book. She looked up when Kayla entered.

"Oh, hi Kayla. Gratz on making Gryffindor..."

"Thanks Kiirby." She sat down at the bed with her stuff at it.

"How do you like Hogwarts? Any guys catch your eye?"

Kayla shrugged and smiled. "Not sure yet, only been here half a day, ya know."

"True," beamed Kiirby. "Well, we'll have to check out the boys in our classes then."

"Will we have classes together?"

"Sure! All the first year Gryffs have the same classes."

"Cool. So how about you? You have any crushes?"

The grin on Kiirby's face spread from ear to ear. "Tons! Hogwarts is like the keeper of cute guys!"

"So who are they?"

"Well the hottest first year Gryff by far is Vash Nolte, my boyfriend."

"Can't say I've met him yet."

"I'll introduce you to him at breakfast."

"Ok, so who else do you think is cute?"

"Well in Slytherin, Regulus Black is..."

"Sirius's brother?" Kiirby nodded.

"And I might have gotten to know him better...but...well...I'm kinda...kinda..." Kayla laughed.

"Well, what is it?"

"His best friends just too creepy to be around!" Kayla wasn't expecting this and tried not to laugh. "His eyes, like, see through you!" She shivered and Kayla laughed.

"Ok, so who else is cute?"

"Well, in Ravenclaw, Aerlin Keel is to drool over." Kiirby was happy to get off the subject of Regulus' friend. "And in Hufflepuff, I'd have to say the cutest is Cory Patil. Those are the cutest first years"

"Your not going all the way to seventh year are you?"

"Nah just finish second years."

"So only four guys left?"

"Well, not exactly, there's 2 cute guys in Gryffindor so...yeah. Sirius and James are to die over."

Kayla smiled. "Oh yeah! They're pretty cute aren't they."

"And your lucky enough to be friends with them," laughed Kiirby. Kayla joined her for a bit. "Ok, anyways, Midas Swartz is cutest second year Slytherin. In Hufflepuff its Chavon Springer, and in Ravenclaw, Erin Yoh is."

Kayla chuckled. "Well, Kiirby, you're going to have to show me these cute guys tomorrow."

"Well let's get some sleep so we can get a head start. You agree."

"Sure. Night then."

"Night."

Kayla pulled on her black polyester pajama dress and crawled under the covers. It was nice and warm and she soon fell asleep.