The train was cold. And therefore, I was cold, because I had stupidly chosen to wear my thinnest coat and my fingerless gloves instead of things that actually keep you warm.
I walked up to a compartment that held two boys. They were both red-haired, and when I looked closer, I found that they looked exactly alike. "Um, can I sit here? All the other compartments are full."
The boys looked up. "Oh yes, come sit down," they said in unison. "We're first years, you?"
I grinned as I sat down. "First year too." When I sat on the bench, a loud farting sound emanated from under me. "Oh!"
The two boys laughed. "Perfect!" They said together, slapping hands. "Sorry about that, just wanted to try it out. I half smiled, half grimaced at them.
"Wonderful." I officially sat down. Nothing farted, thank gods. "So who are you?" I set my small brown satchel down on the bench.
"We're the Weasley twins," they chorused. "I'm Fred," one said. He was wearing a green sweater with a large blue W knitted on it.
"I'm George," the other said. He was wearing the same thing. I was privately groaning. There went my only hope of telling them apart. Oh well, at least I knew what sides they were sitting on.
"Nice to meet you. I'm….Titania…" I didn't know how to end that sentence. Father and Mother often talked about "those wretched Blood traitor Weasleys," as if they were as far below the Malfoys as Muggleborns were. I assumed the Weasleys knew about this, and consequently felt a rather strong aversion to the Malfoys.
"Last name?" I think it was Fred who asked this.
"Umm…I'm a Malfoy. Adopted." I let it all out in one breath.
"Whoa! Mum and Dad hate them!" George (maybe) said.
"Met Lucius yet? Dad says he's an awful git, but we've never met him." The last sentence was in unison.
"Oh yes," I replied. "He is a git, if you can call your own 'father' that. I've been a…how do you say…foster child of a lot of wizarding families. Mostly Purebloods. The Wizarding Foster Care Office is a little prejudiced."
The twins nodded knowledgably. "Yes, we know. We're Pureblood, but our family are considered Blood traitors."
"People say they aren't biased as to how they look at Muggleborns or Purebloods or the in-between ones, but you spot them sneaking glances at you when you do magic to see if you're as horrible as they think you'll be," said George.
"Or maybe they want to test your blood for impurities," added Fred. "We had one crazy Ministry officer come to the Burrow-our house-and ask to test our blood."
"Mum had to fight him off," said George, laughing.
"Are you serious? That's crazy. There's never been any question about my Blood status, as all of the families I was fostered in were both Pureblood and willing to blast you apart if you questioned their heritage." I laughed. "So, I grew up sheltered and I never really knew about much of this 'I'm so pure' and 'You're so not pure' stuff."
"Ah," said George. "Well, you'd better get ready. We've heard from our older brothers-"
"We have five siblings, and three older brothers among them," interrupted Fred.
"What he said," George continued, "Is true, so don't dispute it. Anyways, we've heard from our…sources that there's a whole bunch of this Pureblood stuff at Hogwarts, especially among the Slytherins." I gulped. There was no one to protect me from scrutiny of my Blood at Hogwarts.
"Yup, if I get sorted into Slytherin, I'm backing out of this whole school thing," Fred said, like there was no question about it. "So what house do you think you'll be in? I'm hoping for Gryffindor."
"Me too," added Fred.
"And if we're not in the same house," they said together, "We're dropping out."
"I can see that," I replied.
"So, we asked you a question. What house d'you think you'll be in?"
"Don't know, to tell the truth. I...I'm just going to wait and see." I stuttered. They didn't know it, but I was a Slytherin for sure if I got my say in the Sorting Hat's decision. Otherwise…well, I'd be on the streets in no time.
"Hope you're in our house," Fred said thoughtfully. "You seem nice enough." Unless they were in Slytherin (and even knowing them as little as I do, it seemed almost impossible), that was…improbable to say the least.
"Yeah…me too. Hope I'm in your house, I mean."! How was I going to stand seven whole years at Hogwarts in Slytherin? And if I wasn't in Slytherin, how was I going to survive on the streets by myself?
Time passed, and soon enough, we arrived on Hogwarts. "Just look at it!" Fred exclaimed. "All that castle! All that space!"
"We could put a trip wire in there and no one would step on it for weeks!" George said excitedly.
"Wanna bet?" Fred asked.
"Done deal," replied George, flashing a Sickle out of his pocket. Fred grinned.
We got out of the train, me almost tripping on my long robes which I had put on only minutes before. "Firs' years, firs' years! All of yeh, come on." A gigantic figure stood in the middle of the crowd of students. He waved his arms , trying not to hit the taller students passing by. His figure was burly, but he was taller than anyone else I had ever seen before. His face was covered by a long, thick, dark brown beard. "Firs' years, get in the boats. See here?" He ushered the other first years into small wooden boats floating on a large body of water separating us from the main body of Hogwarts.
Fred, George and I all fit into one boat. "Who are you?" I ask as he crams himself into the boat next to us.
"Me? I'm jus' the groundskeeper for Hogwarts. Nothin' special. Me name's Hagrid."
"Oh," I said. "Nice to meet you. I'm Titania."