Lucy, Ron, and Harry all huddled together as they exited the train. Taller students bustled past them and towards lone carriages in the distance, and it left Lucy feeling smaller than ever. Two students brushing past cast Ron an odd look; he and Harry had stuffed their pockets full of sweets, and it left their robes looking lumpy. When Lucy told them this, the boys were quick to dump the candies onto the ground.
One boy slipped on a peppermint and fell to the ground. Lucy didn't bother her laugh and the boy fixed her with a glare. "What gives?" he scowled, his face turning a deep shade of red.
She only continued snickering and Harry had to tug her along by her robes because she was laughing so hard.
She was such a git.
He and Ron were heading for a tall, wide man who looked like would be about the height of two Mrs Cole's stacked on each other. Lucy recognized him from Diagon Alley and beamed at him. "Firs' years over here!" he was calling. As they walked into a clearing, the man beamed down at Harry from behind his thick beard. "All right there, Harry?"
Harry nodded at him happily. "That's Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts," he whispered to Ron and Lucy as they followed the giant man closely. "He's the one who took me to Diagon Alley."
"He looks awesome," Lucy repeated, staring at Hagrid. She wondered how someone could get that tall and if it was normal for wizards. She shuddered a bit, imagining Ron and Harry growing to the size of the gamekeeper.
They headed down a steep path that was ridiculously narrow for a large group of eleven-year-old children. Lucy found it a bit hard to enjoy the scenery when it smelled like some kids had not heard of deodorant, and she finally pulled her robes over her nose. Draco Malfoy, who just so happened to look over his shoulder at that moment, gave her an odd look. She pulled down her robes just long enough to pull a face at him, and he rolled his eyes as he turned back to face the front.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid pointed at the curved path ahead of them. The trees were thinning. Lucy could see some lights from beyond the brush. "jus' round this bend here."
The children around her gasped collectively; a huge black lake had come into view the moment they rounded the corner. The trees came to an abrupt halt, and sitting atop a great mountain across the lake was Hogwarts. She'd been expecting a normal boarding school, but this was a magnificent castle with lots of towers and windows. There was another forest nearby. From what Lucy could see, it was connected to the one they'd just walked out of.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid yelled, and he stepped into one boat, taking up the entire space and then some. Lucy didn't follow Harry and Ron into a rowboat, instead heading over to an empty one. Something about the night air made her feel adventurous. She was joined by three others in a matter of seconds; there was the boy she'd laughed at earlier, a girl with long, brown hair, and finally there was a boy with olive skin, and he looked awfully nervous.
The brown haired girl beamed at Lucy. "Hi! I'm Megan Jones. I'm so excited to be here! Do you see how amazing the castle looks? I bet it'll take years just to walk around it. Do you think they'll have a map? Or a tour? Or even golf-carts?"
Lucy blinked at her. Megan Jones reminded her a bit of that Hermione girl, but she seemed less stuck up and more genuinely happy to share her excitement. "I'm Lucy, Lucy With-No-Last-Name."
The boy she'd laughed at was glaring at her. Lucy stared right back at him, and they held their gaze for a long time. Their eye contact was only broken when Lucy pulled the funniest face possible, and it made the boy duck to hide his grin.
"That was weird," Megan commented, staring in between them. "Do you know each other?"
"No —" the boy began.
"Yes, known each other our entire lives—" Lucy said at the same time.
Megan grinned. "So you don't know each other."
"How do you know I'm the one lying?" Lucy demanded. "Have you seen this boy? He's a menace. Real git, he is. Dumped candy all over the floor and laughed when I slipped on that."
"You did that," the boy rolled his eyes.
"See? Lying again. You can't trust men, Megan Jones."
Megan laughed at this as the boy gaped at her in disbelief. She simply turned back to admire the scenery, watching the undisturbed water pass by. She leaned over — ignoring the boy's protests as the boat rocked — and stuck her hand in the water. There were no ripples, not even when she moved her hand back in forth in attempts to disturb the peaceful water.
The boats docked themselves underground. There was a dark tunnel they had to head through, and the only sounds were the hushed whispers of nervous students. Lucy stepped out of the boat with ease, and she just managed to catch Megan before she face-planted into the rocks.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid asked Neville, who held out his hands to take Trevor with glee. They had to trek up a passageway with only Hagrid's lamp to guide them, and a few minutes later they finally reached the dewy, flat grass laying in front of the castle.
Lucy weaved in between students and caught up to Ron and Harry. Her legs felt like jelly and her heart was pounding in her chest as she walked up a large flight of stairs to stand in front of a giant wooden door.
"Everyone here?" asked Hagrid. "You there, still got yer toad?"
Gulping, Neville nodded his head.
"Good then," Hagrid said, and he turned around and pounded his fist on the oak door three times. There was not a moment's pause when the door swung open, and in the doorway stood Professor McGonagall herself. She eyed everyone suspiciously. Lucy thought she might be spotting out the troublemakers, and once her eyes lingered on Lucy herself, she was proven correct.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.
Professor McGonagall's features softened. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
They followed Professor McGonagall though the large entrance hall and they stopped outside a a large door. Hundreds of voices could be easily heard, which made Lucy think that the journey to the school was made extra dramatic for the first years.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall greeted. "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."
Hufflepuff, Lucy thought at once. At this point she was committed. She had to spite Draco Malfoy. She had to.
"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." Lucy wondered why it was called a House, but she didn't dare interrupt Professor McGonagall's speech. "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 you house points — " Professor McGongall's eyes lingered on Hermione Granger and Harry. "— while any rule-breaking will lose House points."
Lucy was quite miffed when Professor McGonagall looked directly at her.
"At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whatever House becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony itself will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
This time, Professor McGonagall looked at the state of Neville's robes and the dirt on Ron's nose. Lucy was quite to hand him a napkin she'd stolen off of the train, just in case she'd need to blow her nose.
"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly... and Lucille, I'll need to have a word with you."
She felt awfully sick all of a sudden. Had she already broken a rule? She couldn't be expelled before she'd even started, could she? The image of her being sent home on the train and Mrs Cole's disappointed look and Jennifer's sneers and her dreary, boring room made her heart pound in her ears, and she could feel Ron and Harry's eyes on her as she followed Professor McGongall into the Great Hall. She couldn't appreciate the wonderful star-grazed sky nor the bewitched candles, not when she was so nervous...
"What've I done?" Lucy asked at once, her posture tense.
Professor McGongall looked at her in surprise. "You haven't done anything!" Lucy could feel a giant weight lift off of her shoulders, but she was still wondering why she was out here. "Part of the Sorting Ceremony involves the calling of your last name before your first, and we cannot simply call you by your first name. Think very carefully, Lucy, because what name you pick now shall be your name for the rest of your Hogwarts career and may very well continue past your graduation."
At once, a flurry of horrific last names flooded into her mind.
Worter. Clorick. Bullocks. Gandish.
Lucy shuddered at the the thought of living with that.
She didn't want a common one like Smith or Jones, but she also didn't want a dramatic one like Fireshield or Griffinrider. They'd be a bit over the top, especially for the muggle world.
She thought long and hard, sifting through her mind for something, anything. She saw Professor McGongall grow impatient which prompted Lucy to spit out the first thing she thought of.
"Rochester!"
"Rochester?" Professor McGonagall repeated. She looked pleased at this answer, probably expecting something worse from an eleven-year-old. "Lucy Rochester," she tested it out. "Wise choice. Well, Ms. Rochester, I trust you can find your way back into the hall."
She hurried away to the questioning eyes of her peers, and immediately recounted what'd happened to Harry and Ron.
"Lucy Rochester," Ron tried. He grinned and elbowed her. "Sounds brilliant. Where'd you come up with that?"
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
She really didn't want to reveal to anyone why she chose the name she did. For one, it was a matter of suspense, and it was also a silly reason.
Lucy kept saying her own name over and over again. "Lucy Rochester. Lucille Rochester. Luc-y-ille Rochester. Lucille Eve Gina Esmee Naomi Diana Eleine Rochester."
"You have that many last names?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
"Nope. I just wanted to spell out Legender." Lucy grinned.
Hermione rolled her eyes from beside them. "That's not even a real word," she said, frowning at her. "Why did you pick Rochester? It's an odd name, isn't it? Why did you leave anyways? You missed the ghosts, and it caused quite a lot of unrest. Everybody was whispering."
"Your name is Hermione," Lucy reminded her, staring at Hermione blankly. "And if you'd really been eavesdropping as much as you were, you'd know I left to pick a last name."
Professor McGonagall walked back into the hall at that moment, saving Lucy from Hermione's response.
"The Sorting Ceremony's about to start," she announced. Everybody was silent at once. "Now, form a line, and follow me."