Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friends: Victoria - Eve Orwell, Ryan - Joseph Boeker; Internet friend: Destati - Blaine Newcomb

Leaving Home

Alice sat in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express. She was hanging out the window of her compartment, saying good-bye to her parents and her little brother, Richard. He kept complaining that he wanted to take a ride on the train.

"Just wait two more years, son," said Alice's father. Mr. Bint looked up at his daughter. "You make sure and get that window closed when the train starts moving," he cautioned. "It wouldn't do for you to start the year off with a cold."

"I'm not that dumb, daddy," said Alice, rolling her eyes.

"Will you write us tonight?" asked her mother. "We'll want to know what house you're in."

"You say that like you're not sure," said Alice. "I'm sure I'll be in the same house as everyone else in the family." Mrs. Bint raised her eyebrows. "Oh, alright. I'll write you tonight to let you know that I'm in Ravenclaw," said Alice shortly.

"Good," said Mrs. Bint.

"Alice!" someone yelled. Alice leaned out of the window even further, turning her head in the direction of where she had come onto platform nine and three quarters. A brown haired girl stood there, waving hugely at her.

"Ava!" said Alice, surprising herself that she could even remember this girl's name. The girl was walking beside her father who was pushing a loaded down trolley. For a moment, Alice was sad. Did Ava only have her father? No mother or siblings?

"You know her?" snapped Alice's father.

"Yeah. I met her when I was getting my robes."

Mr. Bint turned to his wife, his eyes asking for a confirmation. "I seem to remember the girl," said Mrs. Bint. "Is there something important about her?"

"Her father…" started Mr. Bint, but he didn't finish whatever he'd been about to say. He looked up at his daughter and said, "Just be careful in the friends you choose dear."

Richard began jumping up and down, trying to see over all of the people around him to get a glimpse of the people his parents and older sister were talking about. "Who's Ava?" he asked in midjump.

"Never you mind," said his father, placing his hands on his son's shoulders to stop him from jumping again.

Alice's compartment door slid open. She spun around to see who it was. A boy who looked to be a few years older than her stood there blushing. "Sorry. I thought this compartment was empty." Before Alice could tell him that she wouldn't mind if he sat with her, he was gone.

"Who was that?" asked Mrs. Bint.

"I don't know," said Alice. "But he's gone now."

"Can I sit with you?" called out Ava. She had just helped her father to load her luggage onto the train.

"Sure," said Alice. "I'm in the third compartment I think."

"Ok! I'm coming!"

Alice looked down at her parents, giving them an all-too-familiar stare.

"Alright, we'll leave you alone now," said her mother. "But you'll miss us later. This is your first time being away from home." She looked near tears, watching her oldest child riding off to Hogwarts.

"Don't mind your mother," said Mr. Bint. "Have a wonderful year Alice! I guess we won't be seeing you till Christmas."

"Yeah," said Alice absentmindedly. She was already closing the window.

Not a moment too soon. Ava slid the door open and tumbled into the compartment. And she wasn't alone. A tall boy stood at her side, wearing a smug expression.

"Hi Alice!" said Ava, plopping down on the seat after shoving her bag with her robes into the carrier over their heads.

But Alice was still looking at the boy.

"This is my friend, Blaine," said Ava, noticing where Alice's attention was. "We've known each other all of our lives. Our parents are close friends."

Blaine extended his hand. Alice shook it. "Nice to meet you," he said. "Ava says that she really doesn't know you but that she does know you. She wouldn't explain what that meant. Maybe you could enlighten me."

"Well, um, we don't know each other," said Alice. "I mean, we met when we were buying our robes, but I left right after she got there. We didn't even get to talk."

"But we should know each other!" said Ava. "We're going to be friends!" She said this with such conviction that Alice found herself staring at the girl. Her hair was extra frizzy today and her cheeks were flushed from helping her father with her trunk and then running to the compartment, probably dragging Blaine along.

"She gets like this sometimes," muttered Blaine, only loud enough for Alice to hear. "Just go with it." He sat down next to Ava, by the window. He stared outside, watching the people milling about on the platform.

"You said your parents knew each other," said Alice, sitting down across from Blaine. "Did they go to school together at Hogwarts?"

"Yes!" said Ava. "My dad was in the same year as Blaine's mother. His father was in the year before them. All in the same house."

"Which house?" asked Alice.

"Slytherin," said Blaine, though he hadn't taken his eyes away from the window.

Alice's next words caught in her throat. That's what daddy meant. Ava's father was a Slytherin. And already I've been introduced to another Slytherin offspring!

"She'll never be a Slytherin," said Blaine, indicating Ava. "Too cheerful for her own good."

"So what?" said Ava.

Alice swallowed before saying anything. "There's nothing wrong with being cheerful," she said.

"See!" said Ava. "And you say that as if you'll be in Slytherin. Is that where you want to be?"

Blaine shrugged.

The compartment door opened. Three heads turned to see who it was. A very pretty girl stood there. She had shoulder length red hair with highlights. "I'm sorry," she said. "All the compartments are filling up so fast. Could I sit in here?"

"Sure!" said Ava. "The more the merrier!"

"Unless one more would mean someone sitting on the floor," said Blaine sarcastically.

The new girl sat down next to Alice. She had clear green eyes and even her muggle blouse was a lovely shade of green, bringing out the color in her eyes even more. "My name's Eve Orwell," she said. She set her purse down beside her. A book (it didn't look like any of their school text books) poked out.

"Hi!" said Ava. "My name's Ava Mizar Borboa!"

"I'm Alice Bint," said Alice.

Blain introduced himself as Blaine Newcomb.

Friendly introductions done, the group became silent. A few moments later, the whistle of the train blew. Blaine checked his watch. "Eleven o'clock," he said. "And now it's started. We're really leaving home now."

"But we're going to a much better home," said Ava brightly.

"Where we'll learn about magic," put in Eve. Alice looked over at Eve. The girl looked as if she had just started a wondrous and unexpected adventure. She hadn't said the word "magic" in the way that someone accustomed to saying it would.

Alice wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing or not, asking such a question in the presence of Ava and Blaine, but she asked anyway. "Are your parents wizards Eve?"

"No. I didn't know such things existed. I've always been a bit different. Things would happen and I could never explain how, but now they're telling me that I have magic!"

"So your parents are muggles?" asked Ava, looking excited at the thought. "I've never met a muggle before."

Eve made a face at the word "muggle." "I don't think I'll ever get used to that word," she said. "It doesn't sound very nice."

"It's not meant to be an insult," said Alice. "Well, I guess you could make nearly anything into an insult, but it's perfectly alright that your parents are muggles. I've known a few muggles and they seemed alright to me." Alice looked at Blaine out of the corner of her eye. He was no longer looking out the window but at Alice and Eve. Alice noticed that he had blue-green eyes. His eyes looked so like her brothers that Alice was nearly caught off guard. "We were just talking about houses before you came," said Alice.

"Oh," said Eve. "I read about the Hogwarts houses in one of our books! I think I want to be in Ravenclaw. I'd fit in there."

"You never said what house your parents were in, Alice," said Ava.

"They were in Ravenclaw. That's probably where I'll be," said Alice. "I mean, I've been home schooled by my parents my whole life and they both say I'm really smart."

"I don't really know where I'll be," said Ava. "We'll just have to wait and see tonight."

"It'll be decided tonight?" asked Eve. She looked a little nervous at the thought. "Will they give us some sort of test?"

"I've heard it's some old hat that decides," spoke up Blaine.

"A hat?" asked Eve.

"Yeah, a magical hat," said Ava. "It's called the Sorting Hat. It tells us what house we belong to. My dad wants me to be in Slytherin like him, but it's not his place to decide."

A woman pushing a trolley stopped by their compartment, asking is they wished to buy anything, and the four of them left off further conversation about Hogwarts houses or their parents. Instead, they all bought a different treat and split everything four ways, introducing Eve to the wonders of wizard candy. Even Ava and Blaine seemed to enjoy showing her the chocolate frogs and telling her about their own collection of wizard cards at home.

Then Blaine took out his set of Gobstones and they all played together. Each time someone lost, the person who had lost had to eat a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean which the other people in the compartment chose. Eve lost more than anyone else, having never played the game before, but after a few hours, she started to get the hang of it. Finally, the group of girls got Blaine to lose (it had been obvious after game one that he was the best at it) and looked through a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans greedily.

"This isn't fair!" he said, watching them sifting through the beans, their eyes gleaming maliciously.

"Of course it's fair," said Eve. "I've eaten six of these stinking things already. And only one of them was a normal flavor: coconut."

"Yeah, we've all had to eat these things. It's your turn Blaine!" said Ava. "What do you think of this brown one?" she asked Alice.

Alice shook her head. "Just our luck and it'd be chocolate."

"I don't want to play anymore," said Blaine. "I hate Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. How do they even make money? Everyone knows they have horrible flavors."

"But we're not playing anymore," said Ava. "We're done playing and you're getting your just reward."

Eve picked out a gray bean, speckled with small brown spots. "What about this one? What flavor do you think it is?"

Ava leaned over to look. "I don't think I've ever seen a bean that color before. There's only one way to tell what flavor it is." She turned to look at Blaine who groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he said. The three girls grinned and Eve passed Blaine the bean. He took it, but didn't put it in his mouth. "Do I have to?" he pleaded.

"Yes," said Ava.

His face already a grimace, Blaine put the bean in his mouth. He chewed slightly and his face began to brighten.

"Oh no!" said Alice. "What flavor was it?"

Blaine swallowed. "It tasted like chicken dipped in gravy!" he said.

"Great!" said Ava. "We have rotten luck."

A knock sounded on the door before sliding open. A much older student stood in the doorway. "Are you first years?" he asked.

Alice and Ava nodded up at him from where they were sitting on the floor (it had been easier to play Gobstones down here).

"Well, we're getting close to Hogwarts. You should start getting into your robes. Don't worry about your luggage. It will be taken care of." He let their door slide back in place and moved onto the next compartment.

"Who do you suppose he was?" asked Eve, stretching as she stood up.

"I don't know. Maybe Head Boy," said Blaine, also getting up. He held his hand down to help Ava up as well.

Before long, they were all trying to pull robes over their muggle clothes in the small compartment. Eve shook her robes out, causing them to flick Ava. Alice started to get into her robe, punching her arm into the sleeve. Her punch ended in Blaine's arm. ("Ow," he said.) Blaine kept bumping into Ava and Ava into Blaine as the two of them shifted their robes into place.

"This room isn't nearly big enough for this," said Alice, stifling a laugh.

Eve wasn't even trying to hold in her laughs and ended up falling onto her seat, laughing loudly at the picture that the four of them made. Finally, they were all wearing their robes and had sat back down. Each of them sat up straight, their eyes directed toward the window. It had gotten dark without any of them noticing.

"What do you think Hogwarts will be like?" asked Eve in a whisper. Even though she spoke so quietly, everyone heard.

"It'll be loads of fun," said Ava. "We'll get to finally learn magic and we'll belong to a house of our own instead of just always being known by our parent's house and we'll get to watch Quidditch and go on adventures around Hogwarts."

Alice had never thought of Hogwarts in quite this way before, but Ava sure did make it sound fun! Butterflies filled Alice's stomach as she thought of walking into that building. All of a sudden, it hit her. She was a Hogwarts student now!

The train began to slow. You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. As the train finally lurched to a stop, the four first years inside stood up. Alice and Blaine's head smashed together as they both got up too fast.

"Ow!" said Alice, putting her hand over her forehead. Blaine was holding his forehead too.

"Are you two alright?" asked Ava. Once she saw that they both seemed to be alright, her face brightened. "It made a nick cracking sound when your heads hit!"

"Thanks," said Blaine sarcastically. "That's just what I wanted to know."

The four of them shuffled into the crowded hallway and slowly made their way to a door leading off the train into Hogsmeade Station. It took a while as they tried to shove their way through. Most of the other students were much bigger and older than the first years. Alice and Ava got separated from Blaine and Eve in the crowd. They were beginning to follow the main group of students out of the Station when they heard a voice yell above the clamor, "Firs' years! Firs' years come this way!" Alice took Ava by the arm and pulled her towards the voice. As the crowd began to thin, Alice and Ava found themselves among other people around their height and age, moving toward the voice which continued to beckon first years.

Nothing could have prepared Alice for what she saw next. The man calling for first years towered high above her, taller, surely, than was humanly possible. She could barely see his face, covered as it was with a wild mane of hair and beard, though she could make out his black eyes, shining a bit as he looked down at the little people surrounding him.

Seeing that everyone seemed to be assembled, the man turned and waved everyone behind him. "Firs' years follow me!" he called. They all followed him. Walking around a bend, they were met with an absolutely glorious sight. A few first years gasped. "That be Hogwarts," said the huge man leading them. "Your home for the next seven years!" Alice's eyes went wide at the sight of the place. A large lake stretched before them, the water still, not a ripple upon it. And across the lake, atop a mountain, stood Hogwarts. It's not a school, thought Alice. It's a castle! And sure enough, it looked like a castle. The whole building was topped with an assortment of towers and turrets. A few flags could barely be seen, flapping in the wind, causing the stars behind them to flicker in and out of sight. Many windows blazed with light, creating a perfect picture as if out of a fairy tale. Alice had seen pictures of Hogwarts before, but always in daylight. It looked entirely different at night!

"Now, we're gonna take a ride in these boats up ta Hogwarts," said the man. "No more'n four in one boat," he warned. He quickly began to shepherd the first years into boats, leaving one boat for himself alone. Alice and Ava stuck together, but they couldn't find Blaine or Eve in the crowd. Then they finally spotted the two, sitting in a boat with another girl and boy. Alice and Ava sat down in a boat, resigning themselves to the fact that they wouldn't get to ride with Blaine or Eve. Two boys got in with them.

"Alice?" asked one of them. Alice looked across at the boy.

"Josef!" she said, recognizing him easily.

"FORWARD!" they heard the man yell. All of the boats shuddered slightly before moving away from the bank, towards Hogwarts.

"You know him?" asked Ava.

"Yeah, I met him too when I was getting fitted for robes," said Alice. "Who's your friend Josef?"

Josef's friend shifted under the gaze of the three other people in the boat. It was hard to tell in the dark, but he looked as if he could have been Josef's brother, being just as thin and tall, but his face looked different enough, so they probably weren't related.

"His name's Joseph!" said Josef. "Can you imagine that? Josef and Joseph! Spelled differently, but sounds the same."

Everyone in the boat said hi before Hogwarts caught their gaze again. The rest of the boat ride continued in silence as they looked with awe upon their new home.