If I were in Ravenclaw...
by Elementary98

Disclaimer: For the disclaimer, check out Chapter 1 - An introduction to magic

Chapter 4 - The Chocolate Frog Card

My alarm clock rang. I groaned and turned around in bed. "Leave me alone, stupid thing. I want to sleep!" Seriously, why would I want to get up now? It was the 1st of September, the day my very first term at Hogwarts started. As you can probably imagine, I was more than just excited. But still... I just didn't want to get up. Blame it on the time I went to bed yesterday evening. It had been way after midnight when I had decided to lie down to rest. There had been so many books I had still wanted to read before leaving for Hogwarts.

I yawned and stood up, looking over at my bedside cabinet. A small Hogwarts Emblem gleamed in the morning sun.

Professor Snape had explained it was an official portkey that would bring me to King's Cross, from where I would train to Hogwarts. I still had no idea how this would work, but well... I had an owl now, I had bought it at Diagon Alley, so I could send a letter to Hogwarts if I somehow missed the train or had problems finding the 'platform 9 3/4'.

I had grabbed the portkey, and now I stood between platform 9 and 10, gazing from left to right. So what? Professor Snape hadn't explained how to get to this very special platform, so I had just assumed this kind of platform number was normal around here. Well, it wasn't. This just didn't make any sense. 9 3/4, 9 3/4... Oh no, what now?

I was lucky. Right then, Draco Malfoy appeared at the station. Next to him were two adults, probably his parents. "Excuse me, where is this platform 9 3/4? It doesn't make sense to me." Draco's father gave a sneer, looking down at me. "Go straight through the wall between platform 9 and 10 and you'll be there."

I frowned. "That doesn't make sense! The wall splits the two platforms in equal shares, so why platform 9 3/4, not platform 9 1/2?" Draco rolled his eyes. "Only a mudblood asks this kind of questions." The man focused on his son, a warning look in his eyes. "Well, we need to be going now, Draco. Pleasure meeting you, Ms..."

"Brandtstetter. The pleasure is all mine." I rushed past them, not wanting to talk to them more than necessary.

The Hogwarts Express started moving. I looked out of the window, sighing softly. For the first time of my life, I felt lonely. I would go to a school full of purebloods and people who had known everything about magic since they were little. I had been told only very very few muggleborns joined Hogwarts every year, so finding a friend at the same level of knowledge who accepted the fact I knew next to nothing about magic would be very difficult. The fact I sat alone in this compartment already told me everything I needed to know. I would be a loner once again. I was used to that already.

Suddenly, the door to my compartment slid open and two girls came in. "Hey", one of them said shyly, "may we sit in here? Everywhere else it's full." I gave a big smile. "Sure, come in. How are you?"

When I took a closer look at the two of them, I recognized they were twins. Wow. Awesome. "Fine, thank you. I'm Padma, and this is my sister Parvati. First year at Hogwarts as well?" I nodded eagerly. "Oh yes! When I got my letter I first thought this is some kind of joke, but when a professor appeared to bring me to Diagon Alley, I realized this is real."

They laughed. "Well, we grew up in the Wizarding World", Parvati said, "so it was all natural to us. I mean, we could have been squibs, but our parents would have noticed that very early." They sat down in the seats on the other side of the compartment.

"Have you ever eaten magical sweets?", Padma eventually asked. "Here, have one, it's a chocolate frog. There are cards in there you can collect, and the chocolate is charmed to jump around like a real frog." I grinned and took it, unwrapping it, eating the frog (it nearly got away, Padma had to catch it) and looking at the card.

Rowena Ravenclaw

Rowena Ravenclaw, a Scottish witch who lived in the early Middle Ages, was the founder of Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts.

Beautiful ,yet slightly intimidating, intelligent and creative, she was the most brilliant witch of her time.

A broken heart — cause unknown — contributed to her early demise

"Wow." I stared at the card and the woman in the picture, who gave a short nod and vanished a few seconds later. "Rowena Ravenclaw..."

The most brilliant witch of her time...

I want to be like her.

These thoughts probably changed my whole life.