2

She needed to find a compartment. Everyone else was doing it, the train was quickly filling up and already, there were few compartments available. She wandered down the train, eventually finding an empty compartment. She entered, and laid her trunk down to remove her book. After taking it out she attempted to lift it up onto the luggage rack. After a moment of struggling, she heard two familiar voices behind her.

"Need some help with that?" It was the red-haired twins from the platform.

"Yes. Thank you." She replied gratefully. They each took one end, and together they hoisted it up.

"I'm Fred Weasley."

"And I'm George." They introduced themselves.

"My name's Luna. Luna Lovegood." she told them.

"Nice to meet you Luna Lovegood." George said, offering her his hand to shake. Luna took it and shook the outstretched hand.

"Is it your first year?" Fred asked her kindly.

Luna immediately had no trouble telling them apart, and she nodded in response to Fred's question.

"It's our sisters first year, too" George told her.

"Speaking of which, where is she? Mum told us we had to keep an eye on her." Fred said to his twin. He then leaned out of the compartment and looked around. He bellowed "Ginny?!" And a moment later, a red-haired girl of about Luna's age scampered in.

"Have you seen Ron and Harry?" she asked her brothers breathlessly. Then she noticed Luna. "Hi." she said, still somewhat out of breath from running through the train. "I'm Ginny Weasley."

"Luna." Luna said, sticking out her hand for Ginny to shake, since George did the same to her. Ginny took it tentatively.

"Well Ginny, Fred and I have some matters to attend to." George said to his sister. "Nice meeting you Luna." and with that, they were gone, leaving Ginny behind with Luna.

"I'd better go with them." Ginny told her, almost regretfully. "My mum said to stay with them. But it was nice meeting you."

"You too." Luna replied, somewhat sadly, as Ginny Weasley followed her brothers and left Luna's compartment. After she left, Luna returned to reading, absentmindedly twirling her wand in her fingers. After three-quarters of an hour or so, she stopped. Reaching up towards her trunk, she managed to retrieve a textbook from it: The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1. She followed the book's instructions carefully and after an hour or so of trying, Luna could just barely illuminate the tip of her wand and then turn the light back off.

At some point, a girl with bushy brown hair and somewhat large front teeth slid open the door. "Excuse me. Have you seen two boys? One has red hair and freckles, and the other one has black hair and glasses. I can't find them anywhere, and nobody's seen them." the girl said this all fairly quickly.

"No, sorry. But did you mean Ron and Harry?" Luna said to her.

"Yeah. How did you know?" asked the girl, looking somewhat surprised.

"There were some people looking for him. Two brothers and a sister."

"Oh. Right. Well if you do see them, tell them Hermione's looking for them."

"Okay. Well, nice to meet you, Hermione. And I think you'll find your friends. People use to think there were no such things as moon frogs, but in the end, the frogs turned up and they were proved wrong."

Hermione gave her a strange look, somewhat bemused, but with a hint of a smile. "Um… it was nice meeting you too. And thanks anyway." and with that she was gone.

After Hermione left, Luna continued to pour over her spellbook, and by the time the lady with the lunch trolley rolled around, she was almost certain she had almost made her book levitate. Well, it had twitched a bit, but it seemed quite close.

"Anything off the trolley dear?" the lady with the trolley asked her.

"No thank you." Luna responded politely. "But do you know how much longer it should be before we arrive?"

"Should be around two and a half hours." the lady told her, and before Luna could thank her, she had moved on to the next compartment.

.oO0Oo.

By now it had grown dark outside. Through the window, it was visible that a slight fog was rolling in over the countryside. Luna quickly finished changing into her black school robes as Hogsmeade Station grew closer. By now, prefects were walking through the train.

"Leave all your belongings in the train." commanded a red-headed one as students streamed from the train in clusters. From not far away, a booming voice shouted "Firs' years over here! Firs' years come this way!"

Luna spotted the Weasley twins and their sister as she turned towards the source of the shouting. George nodded in her direction. Ginny, who was next to him, waved at her.

Luna followed the group of intimidated looking first years towards the source of the voice. It was a giant man, far taller and wider than anyone she had ever seen. He wore a coat with dozens of pockets, and had a thick, black beard that obscured the bottom part of his face. Despite this, his obsidian black eyes were kind, and they crinkled at the corners as he smiled and waved in the direction of the bushy-haired girl from the train. "A'right, firs' years, come with me. We'll be going across the lake. No more than four to a boat." he told them, gesturing towards a small fleet of rowboats that were bobbing at the edge of the lake.

The first years got into the boats, Luna found herself in one with Ginny, a small boy who introduced himself as Colin Creevey, who appeared to be bursting with excitement, and another boy with light brown hair and green-blue eyes. He didn't introduce himself as he seemed lost in thought, staring into the depths of the Black Lake.

Trying to make conversation with her otherwise silent companions, Ginny asked Luna "What house do you think you'll be in? I want Gryffindor, that's where my whole family's been."

"I want Gryffindor, too!" Colin added in eagerly. "I heard that Dumbledore was in it. And so is Harry Potter! Do you think I'll get to meet him? I'm a muggleborn, so my family never told me about him. But I've read about him and last year he saved the philosopher's stone from you-know-who."

"Oh! My brother, Ron, was with him. They're best friends, he was at my house over summer holiday." Ginny piped up.

Colin looked at her in awe. "That's wicked! Do you think you could introduce me to him? Maybe I could get his autograph! What's he like? Does he really have the lightning scar? I bet it's awesome looking. I hope I'm in the same house as him. I can't wait to be sorted." Colin continued talking to Ginny, who looked somewhat overwhelmed. Luna thought she looked rather uncomfortable trying to keep up with Colin's rapid fire questions.

Luna looked ahead. Hogwarts castle loomed above them. It was beautiful. Stone turrets and towers rose unbelievably high. All the windows and entrances were illuminated with the glowing light of candles and lanterns. The massive castle drew nearer as their boats drifted through a lit archway. The giant man who had been leading them got out of his boat, beckoning for them all to follow. The first years got out and followed him through the entrance, looking around in awe.

As they stood in the grand entryway, still becoming familiar with their surroundings, a stern looking witch came through a door to greet them. She had a harsh look about her, and her hair was twisted into a tight bun. Her robes swished gracefully as she walked to the front of the group briskly. "Good evening to you all," she said curtly. A few people mumbled "good evening." in response to her greeting.

"My name is Professor McGonagall. Before we enter the Great Hall, I would like to welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As you might know, before you may sit down for the start of term feast, you must be sorted into your houses. There are four houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. While you are at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. You will eat at your house table, and sleep in your house dormitories. Good behavior will earn you house points, but any misdeeds will result in the loss of points for your house. And I hope each and every one of you will all be a credit to whichever house you are sorted into. Follow me, please."

Luna knew which house she wanted to be sorted into. Both her parents had been in Ravenclaw, and she hoped to be the same. Though it seemed to Luna that any of the other houses would be quite alright, too. It would be nice to have a friend in the same house as her, though, so she hoped she could be sorted with Ginny. Muggles from the nearby village, whenever they saw her, had thought her strange, but hopefully it would be different here. As she contemplated this, she saw the boy from the boat, with the brown hair and blue-green eyes, smiling faintly, again looking lost in thought.

After the professor's short speech, the first years followed her through large wooden doors, and, whispering to each other with both nervousness and excitement, they entered the great hall.