AN: Not long after I posted the first chapter, I got at least 7 reviews from guest readers saying that I should have put Elsa in Slytherin. Thank you for your opinion, but this is my story and there is a reason why Elsa is in Gryffindor. Also, I understand where you're coming from by saying that Elsa's powers are 'too cool' to keep secret, but again, there is a reason that they are secret. Thank you for your reviews and have a wonderful day :) ~DancingAdventurer45
Chapter 2
The next morning, I woke up feeling happier than I'd ever felt. The sun was shining in through my window and the sounds of my dorm mates getting ready for the day drifted through my curtain. I smiled, excited for my first day at Hogwarts.
I quickly got out of bed, grabbed my robes and new red tie that had appeared on my bed last night, and entered the bathroom for a quick shower. Once I was all clean and dressed, I brushed and braided my long blonde hair, then ran back to my alcove to pack my bag with the essentials I'd need for class later. Since we didn't have our schedules yet, I didn't know what books I'd need, so I would have to make a quick trip back to the dormitory after breakfast to grab the books I'd need for the day.
As I emerged from my part of the dormitory, I found Ginny waiting for me.
"Hey," she said, her brown eyes glittering with excitement. "You ready for our first day?"
"I was born ready!" I replied enthusiastically.
"Then let's head down to breakfast – we need to make sure we have plenty of time to eat, come back here for our books, and then find our classes." With that, we started to head down the stairs.
"Wait!" I said, suddenly remembering that I had forgotten my gloves. I didn't normally wear them, but with all that was going to happen that day, I figured it was better to be safe then sorry. "I'll be right back," I said, turning and running up the stairs.
I threw open the dormitory door, jogged into my mini bedroom, opened my truck and grabbed the first pair of gloves I saw. As I ran back down the stairs I shoved them onto my hands, hoping Ginny wouldn't notice that I was wearing them. She smiled at me when I reached the bottom of the stairs, and together we headed out of the portrait hole.
Just as we left the common room, we both realized that we had no idea how to get to the Great Hall.
"Umm... do you remember how to get there, Elsa?" I shook my head.
"No... maybe we could ask someone for directions?" Just then, the portrait hole opened again, and out came two boys and a girl. The boy I recognized immediately: his hair was the exact same shade as Ginny's, which meant that the other boy must be Harry Potter, and the girl Hermione Granger.
"Ron!" Ginny called. The three of them turned around.
"What, Ginny?" Ron replied, looking annoyed.
"Can you show us the way to the Great Hall?" I spoke up shyly. Hermione's eyes softened at the sight of us, two lost first years.
"Of course we can," she said kindly. "Right, Ron?" Ron muttered something underneath his breath, but he didn't argue when we started to follow them down the stairs.
"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, introducing herself to me. I assumed she already knew Ginny because of Ron. "and that's Harry. What's your name?"
"I'm Elsa," I replied, again choosing not to supply my last name. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Elsa," Hermione smiled.
"So where were you two last night at the sorting?" Ginny asked the boys suspiciously. I hadn't realized they weren't there, but she must have seen that her brother was missing.
"Well... we kind of missed the train and flew Dad's car here but crashed it into a tree and got detention," Ron said sheepishly.
"How did you miss the train?" I asked.
"The barrier wouldn't let us through for some reason," Harry explained.
"That's strange..." I muttered. "The train hadn't left yet?"
"No, we still had ten minutes before it was supposed to leave. Odd, isn't it?" Ron answered.
"Only something with powerful magic could've closed the barrier before the train left..." I thought allowed. "Do you think someone tried to stop you from getting to Hogwarts?" Ron shrugged, but a strange look flashed across Harry's face, then quickly disappeared.
"Well, here we are. You can leave now, Ginny," Ron said when we reached the Great Hall.
"Thank you!" I said as Ginny and I headed off to find a seat.
Not far down the table were the rest of our dorm mates.
"Why did it take you so long to get here?" asked Noelle.
"We forgot how to find the Great Hall and had to ask for directions," Ginny replied. "How did you three get down here?"
"I've got a photographic memory," Chiara said. "I remembered the way from here to the common room, and so all I had to do was reverse the direction."
"Lucky! I wish I had a photographic memory," Ginny said wistfully.
"Well, if we all stick together when we head to class, I can memorize the routes and then we won't get lost," she offered.
"That would be amazing!" Sophia cried. "We probably be the first first years to never get lost!"
The next fifteen minutes were spent eating breakfast and talking about which classes we thought we would like the best. I was looking forward to Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts the most, with Transfiguration and flying lessons coming in a close second.
Professor McGonagall soon came walking down the table, handing out schedules for the year. When she handed me mine, I saw that the first lesson of the day was Charms. After that we had Herbology, a fifteen minute break, double potions with the Hufflepuffs, lunch, and then double DADA with the Ravenclaws. Lastly, we had a study hall in the library, dinner, and then two hours in the common room before bed at nine o'clock sharp.
"We'd better hurry back to the common room to get our books," Noelle said. "We don't want to be late to Charms."
Following Chiara back to the common room proved to be much faster than asking for directions. In only five minutes we were back in the dormitory. I grabbed my textbooks for Charms, Herbology, and Potions, then realized I'd almost forgotten my wand on my desk. I picked it up and stuck it in my pocket, then hurried after my friends.
Since we didn't know how to get to Charms, we walked down to the Entrance Hall to see if we could find someone who could give us directions. Luckily, one of the ghosts was there, and happily led us to class.
When we finally reached the classroom, I saw that the first year Ravenclaws were waiting outside. The first year Gryffindor boys were no where to be seen, and still hadn't shown up when Professor Flitwick, the extremely short Charms teacher, called us inside.
Once we sat down, Professor Flitwick took a quick roll call. When he noticed that the boys were missing, he said "Well, I do hope they find their way here quickly, or they'll miss the fun!"
The lesson consisted of us practicing 'swishing and flicking' our wands a certain way. I found it fun, though some of the others became bored after an hour of swishing.
As we practiced and Professor Flitwick walked around making sure we didn't poke someone's eye out, Ginny, who I was sitting next to, asked, "What kind of wand do you have, Elsa? Mine's yew wood and fourteen inches."
"I have a maple wood wand with a phoenix feather core, and it's twelve and a quarter inches."
"Woah, you have a phoenix feather core? That's so cool!" Just then, Flitwick came over and asked us to demonstrate our swishing and flicking, so we had to stop talking.
Our next class was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. I'd never really cared for gardening, but the first class wasn't so hard.
After that, we had a quick break, which my friends and I used to clean the dirt off of ourselves, then double potions with the Hufflepuffs.
Potions wasn't horrible, but it wasn't my favorite either. I was paired with Noelle, who loved potions, and so the class was spent getting to know each other more and making our potion, which turned out almost perfect. Every once in a while, though, I'd look up to find Professor Snape, the potions teacher, giving me a strange look. I brushed it off, thinking he was probably wondering how a Malfoy got into Gryffindor.
Lunch came next, and the entire time my friends and I talked about which class was the best so far, and who was the best in each subject, and which teacher was the worst. In the end, we decided that Charms was the best, and that Professor Snape was the worst teacher.
As we neared Defense Against the Dark Arts, I started to get a strange feeling in my stomach. Am I just nervous? I asked myself. No... this is different. Something isn't right... but what is it? The feeling got worse as we sat down in the classroom. Ginny and I sat together again, and I almost told her I was feeling weird, but something in my mind told me not too.
A few minutes later, Professor Lockhart came into the classroom and began to brag about himself to the entire class.
"Welcome, first year students, to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I assume you've all heard of me: Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin First Class, and many more titles – but we haven't got time for me to tell you about all my amazing achievements, have we?" On and on he talked, however, about his books and award-winning smile. Finally, he said, "Right... where was I? Ah, yes. Defense Against the Dark Arts! Today we will be reading the first chapter of my book, Break with a Banshee. Go on, open your books!"
The next two hours were spent reading, and the entire time, the strange feeling in my stomach got worse. Finally, only a few minutes before the lesson was over, I raised my hand and asked, "Professor, sir, I'm not feeling well. Can I leave now?"
"Oh, er- yes, of course, Miss Malfoy." I quickly packed my things and booked out of the classroom, ignoring the looks my friends were giving me.
The moment I was out of the room, I dropped my bag by the door, hoping my friends would see it and bring it back to the common room for me. The feeling increased, and I felt a strange pull, as if someone was pulling me with a rope. I followed it down the hall towards the staircases. I paused, then started climbing the stairs as quickly as I could, until I reached the twelfth floor.
There were two ways I could go: left, down a brightly lit hallway, or right, up a hallway that I couldn't see the end of. The pull came suddenly again from the right, and so I followed it into the darkness.
Though I couldn't see where I was going, the pull acted as a guide, turning left, then left again, until suddenly it stopped. I still couldn't see, but my hand was drawn out as I reached for something in the dark. Then I touched something cold – metal, by the feel of it. It must be a door handle, I thought. But why am I here?
I tried turning the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
"C'mon," I muttered, twisting it this way and that. Still, the hidden door remained closed. I let go of the handle, and just as I did, the pull disappeared.
"Well, this is a problem," I said. Without the pull, I had no idea where to go. I was lost in a dark hallway in the castle.
I have to get out of here! I thought, panicking. Okay... I'll try going right, since I turned left twice. So I groped my way down the hall, keeping my hands on the wall to keep myself from missing the turn. After what seemed like an eternity, I felt the wall end, and I turned right. Good, you're doing good, I encouraged. Almost there... just go a bit farther. Again, the wall ended, and I took another right.
Then I walked, and walked, and walked some more. I don't think it took this long... Just as I decided to turn around, I saw a speck of light in the distance.
"Finally!" I exclaimed. I ran as fast as I could while still keeping a hand on the wall. The light came closer and closer, and soon enough, I was back in the brightly lit hallway.
"That," I said, out of breath, "was interesting."
Somehow I managed to make my way to the Great Hall, where dinner was already taking place. I'd missed the study hall, and I was sure my friends were freaking out. After all, I'd basically left them in Loopy Lockhart's class – that was the nickname I had come up for him while walking down all those stairs – and left my bag by the classroom door.
Sure enough, when I walked into the Great Hall, my friends spotted me immediately and rushed over.
"Are you alright?" asked Ginny.
"We found your stuff by the door, don't worry, we put it in your part of the dorm-" Chiara started.
"Why did you leave it there?" Noelle finished.
"And where have you been?" Sophia cried. Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback. I'd only met these girls yesterday, and here they were, worried sick about me.
"It's okay, calm down!" I said. "Let's go sit down and I'll tell you what happened."
I lied. As much as I wanted to tell them what had really happened, I just... couldn't. It felt like something that should be kept secret, at least for now. So I told them I'd felt nauseous and managed to find my way to a bathroom, and had only just found my way back.
"The castle is huge," I reminded them. "It's easy to get lost in here."
Later, when the five of us were back in Gryffindor Tower, my friends helped me catch up on some of the homework they had completed in study hall. We practiced our swishing and flicking for Charms, read the next chapter in our books for Herbology, looked over the ingredients for the next Potion's class, and wrote a paragraph about the first chapter in Loopy Lockhart's book.
When I told them the name I'd come up with for Lockhart, they all burst out laughing, and we laughed so hard that Percy, Ginny's older brother, came over to tell us to quiet down. Even Fred and George, more of Ginny's brothers, came to see why we were laughing so hard. When we told them, they thought it was hilarious, and proceeded to shout it for the entire Gryffindor house to hear. All the other girls thought it wasn't funny, but the boys all agreed with me: it was the perfect nickname.
"I suppose the older girls only like Loopy Lockhart because he's famous," Sophia commented.
"And handsome," Chiara added.
"True," I agreed. "But just because you're famous and handsome doesn't mean you can't be loopy."
It was late by the time the five of us finally got to bed. We'd stayed up talking and playing Exploding Snap, a card game that Sophia had brought with her. After a few rounds of that, everyone admitted that they were tired, and so we got ready for bed.
When I climbed into bed after closing my curtain, I found that I wasn't really tired. In fact, I was wide awake. Maybe I could write in that diary Father gave me... Oh! I could write down everything that happened today, and do the same every day so I'll never forget a single moment of my first year at Hogwarts! With that thought in mind, I slipped out of bed and pulled out my trunk from underneath it. I'd left the diary inside, just so no one would see it and ask what it was.
I opened the trunk, pushed aside the blanket Mother had made me pack in case I got cold – which was funny, since the cold never bothered me – and there it was: the small, black diary. I picked it up, then pushed the trunk back under the bed. Then I rifled through my satchel to find a quill and a bottle of ink and sat on the bed, wondering what to write first. Well, I suppose I should introduce myself in case someone reads this in a hundred years, I thought. So I wrote:
Hello! My name is Elsa Malfoy, and – Just as I started to finish the sentence, I realized that the ink was vanishing from the page. I stopped writing, the quill hovering above the page. I flipped to the next page, then the next, but the ink hadn't leaked through. It had just... vanished.
"That's odd," I muttered. "Maybe I should try again?" So I wrote my name again, and it vanished again. "What on earth...?" Just as I was about to write it a third time, something appeared on the page.
Hello, Elsa. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you find my diary? I almost threw the diary in shock. It was talking back to me! As I stared at the diary in my hands, watching the ink disappear again, I decided I should answer this... Tom Riddle.
My father gave it to me, I replied. How... how are you able to respond?
I enchanted the diary when I was sixteen years old, so I could reply to anyone who wrote in it. That is, anyone worthy enough of a response.
So... I'm worthy enough? I asked curiously.
Of course, he replied. Like I said, I wouldn't reply if I didn't think you were worthy. Would you like to be friends? I hesitated for a moment, then replied: Yes, that would be wonderful. I could tell you all about my time here at Hogwarts, and you can tell me what it was like when you were there!
You're at Hogwarts? Tom asked.
Yeah, it's my first year! I answered.
What year is it?
1992.
What house are you in?
I'm in Gryffindor, but the rest of my family is in Slytherin... what house were you in?
I was in Slytherin as well. Congratulations on getting into Gryffindor, though.
Thank you! I really love it here – I have four amazing friends, and all my classes are incredible, and the castle is so huge! Tom... can I ask you a question? It had just occurred to me that Tom might know why I had felt that strange pull that day.
You can ask me anything, he replied.
Earlier today, when I was in class, I felt a strange pull. It got worse and worse, so I had to leave class and follow it all the way to the 12th floor. It led me to a door, but I couldn't open it. Do you know why I felt that pull? Or what's behind that door? Tom took a few minutes to respond, but when he did, I was surprised.
I've heard about the pull before, he said. But it's been years since anyone has had it. Normally it happened only to those from the Silverwood family, but it's possible it happens to others too. I don't know what's behind that door, though. Maybe you need a key?
The Silverwood family...?
Yes, one of the most ancient wizarding families around.
I've never heard of them before...
Well, you should research them. I'm sure I've read about them in the library.
I think I will. Maybe I'll find out more about that room, and maybe I can find a key. Thanks, Tom!
Of course, he replied. I'm always here, if you want to talk to me again.
I'll write to you in the morning, I promised. Goodnight, Tom.
Goodnight, Elsa.
And so I fell asleep, thinking happily about what Tom and I would talk about the next day.
Okay, so this is a quick little author's note: I'm quite busy lately, as I have finals coming up and Christmas is getting closer, so I'll try to come up with an updating schedule, but in the meantime, please be patient! Thank you so much for reading this second chapter, and please leave a review! ~DancingAdventurer45