A/N: Thanks to Aspieturtles for putting me on their Alert list. No reviews yet, but I would really, really appreciate them. Now, on with the story.
"Whoa."
That was all Drew managed to get out as she stared up at the great castle looming across the lake. It seemed that every window was lit, and the reflections danced across the pitch black water.
"Alrigh' everyone, into the boats!" Hagrid called as he sat himself in the boat in the very front. The graying half-giant was a lot less active as he used to be. Pretty soon, he would have to pass the tradition of taking the first years across the lake to someone else.
Drew, Rusty, Danny, and another girl that they didn't know climbed into one of the waiting boats. As soon as everyone was settled, the small vessels began their yearly journey. Most of the students were content just looking up at the castle, but not Danny.
"Hey, look!"
"What?" The other three in the boat clamored to get a better look at the black water, nearly capsizing the whole boat.
"I saw a merman!"
"No way!"
"I thought they were legends!"
Murmurs floated across the water as everyone strained to get a good look at the faint yellow faces peering up at them from the dark depths of the lake.
"Cool!"
"There's one!"
"Where?"
"Pay attention everyone! As soon as we make it to shore, I want everyone to stick to me, understand? I'll not be havin' anyone get lost out here."
Everyone nodded and waited until they hit the slowly approaching shoreline. As soon as the boats were emptied, Hagrid led them inside the castle, up a few flights of stairs, and left them with a silver haired wizard in front of two great wooden doors.
"Hello. I am Professor Huntington. In a few minutes you will go through these doors and be sorted into your houses. For those of you who may not know, these houses are your family, your support system. There are four: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Follow the rules, and you will earn House points. Break the rules and you will lose House points. Now that you know this, we shall begin."
The grand wooden doors behind the professor opened of their own accord and Professor Huntington led them inside the Great Hall.
The nervous first years walked between two tables, one with canary yellow and black hangings above it and another with scarlet and gold. All of the older students were turned to watch the new arrivals make their way towards the sorting hat. Drew spotted Elise off to her left and gave her a nervous smile. Elise smiled back encouragingly.
"When I call your name, please come up and sit on the stool."
Any and all murmurs around the hall hushed as everyone waited. After a short and happy song sung by the Sorting Hat (Drew hadn't known where the voice was coming from at first), Professor Huntington began the sorting.
"Arney, Kevin."
A scrawny boy with short light brown hair scrambled up the steps and eagerly plopped himself down on the three legged stool. The Professor put the hat on his head, which slipped down until it covered his whole face.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat shouted.
Kevin tore the hat away and joined his clapping housemates, sitting a few seats down from Carter Alverson.
"Baker, Leo."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Baker, Luc."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The two boys, twins, made their way towards the table with the scarlet and gold hangings above it.
Professor Huntington and the Sorting Hat slowly made their way down the list of names. Anju Carver (the first female Gryffindor to be sorted), Tori Cawley (Slytherin), Noelle Lewis (Ravenclaw), Tanya West (another Ravenclaw), and many more. Professor Huntington was nearing the end of his list.
"Quinn, Drew."
Drew made her way up the steps, nervously tucking her chin length dark brown hair behind her ears, and sat on the stool. The professor placed the Hat on her head, shrouding her eyes in darkness.
"Well, well. A young witch. Hmmm. You don't know much about the wizarding world yet, do you?"
Drew jumped at the unexpected voice. The Sorting Hat chuckled.
"But with the right friends, you'll catch up quickly, won't you?" Here the Hat paused. "A fast learner, but not very studious. Hmmm. I do believe that you belong in..."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Drew grinned and rushed down the steps to join Danny and Rusty, who had also been sorted into Gryffindor.
After the last two first years were sorted (Max Wallace, a Slytherin, and Everett Warner, another Gryffindor) the Headmistress stood up.
"Welcome new students, and welcome back older students. I am Professor Hewitt. I believe a brief overview of the rules is in order. Please do not use magic in the corridors; the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all students, and Mr. Filch, our caretaker asked me to tell you to look at a list of contraband items posted on his office door. These items include but are not limited to: Weasley Wizard Wheezes, any objects enchanted to harm another person, etc. Now, I hope you have enjoyed the Sorting ceremony. I know that all of you are hungry, so eat up! " The Headmistress clapped her hands, and all of the empty dishes and goblets filled with food and drink.
Immediately the hall was abuzz with chatter as everyone began serving themselves. Drew neatly took salad, bread and butter, and some fruit as most of the boys around her dug into the chicken and steaks and potatoes.
"Hey, you a vegetarian or somthin'?
Drew looked up to see one of the first year twins talking to her. She assumed he was Irish, judging by his accent. After chewing and swallowing her mouthful of food and answered him.
"Yes, I am." She wondered if she was going to get teased about it like she had in grade school.
"Don't see how you can live with it," the other twin piped up, "but okay. Name's Luc, by the way. You're Drew, right?"
"Yeah."
"Cool. Leo an' I knew we was going to be in Gryffindor right from the start, didn't we Leo?"
"Yup. What about you, Drew?"
"I didn't know until Danny Crenshaw told me on the train what Gryffindor was. He said I was muggle-born, or something." Drew replied.
"It's not a bad thing." Danny defended himself, hearing the uncertain tone in her voice. "It just means your parents aren't magical."
"Oh." Drew nodded in understanding. So that meant Rusty was muggle-born too. Speaking of Rusty, she hadn't heard a single thing from him. Drew turned to talk to him, since she'd sat down right next to him.
"So how did your parents react when they found out about your letter?"
"They thought it was some big joke or something, but then someone from the Ministry of Magic showed up." Drew nodded. She'd also had a representative from the Ministry come to her house. "They didn't believe him until he took us to Diagon Alley. What about you?"
"My parents were a bit skeptical at first, but then we went to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies. My father didn't really like it, but my mother accepted it. She took me to King's Cross station this morning, but she wouldn't come on to the platform. My older brother doesn't even know. He thinks that I'm going to an all girls boarding school in Whales, just like I used to." Drew finished and took a bite out of a pear on her plate.
"I wonder what will happen when he finds out!" Danny laughed.
"I don't know. He's away studying at Oxford University. Brian, that's his name, has always been very down to earth. He didn't even really like magic shows."
"Magic shows? Like pulling a hat out of a rabbit or something?" Luc asked.
Rusty and Drew laughed for a moment.
"Yeah," Rusty said, "Except they rabbits out of hats."
"Wow. Those muggles sure do think of everything." Danny said thoughtfully.
Rusty snorted.
"So you really don't know all that much about us?" Drew asked.
"Not about muggles, no. You don't count, because you're a witch now." Leo said.
Drew was surprised. "I just thought, that even though you stayed hidden from us, I mean the muggles, that you would know everything about us." The new term sounded odd to her as it rolled off her tongue.
"Even though we live around muggles, we usually don't really associate with them much. It's less of a chance that we're found out."
Drew nodded, and went back to her salad. At least she would have, if it was still there. "Where –"
"Oh cool!"
"Look at all those desserts!"
The entire main course had disappeared and all sorts of dessert foods had appeared. There was ice cream, éclairs, cakes, pastries, lollipops, gummy foods and more.
"Oh look, jelly beans!" Rusty used the silver scoop to shovel the multicolored treats onto his plate. When he was done, he looked them over. "I've never seen so many different ones before!"
Danny looked up from his white chocolate cake. "Oh, those are Bertie Botts every flavor beans."
"And they've really got every flavor." Leo grinned.
Rusty picked up a light greenish yellow one up and popped it into his mouth. His face contorted.
"What'd you get?" Drew laughed.
"Lemon." He spit the offending bean out into his napkin. "You try one. Let's see what you get."
Making sure to avoid any beans the same color as the one Rusty had just tried, she plucked a light pink one off of his plate and put it into her mouth. She smiled.
"What is it?" Danny asked.
"Chocolate covered cherry. Why don't you go?"
After a while, another first year name Felicity Hunt joined in, pulling out a strawberry flavored one on her first try.
"The girls get all the good ones." Luc mumbled. Everyone learned he had a weakness for strawberries, and everyone pulled some more of the red beans out of the pile for him, to his delight.
For the rest of dinner, they made a game of it. Among the flavors they pulled were burnt marshmallow, red hot chili (Leo had had to take a long swig of pumpkin juice after that), toast, tripe (Drew was thankful she hadn't gotten that one, being vegetarian), milk, black pepper, coconut, and mango.
..x.X.x..
As the last remains of dessert disappeared from everyone's plates, Headmistress Hewitt stood up again.
"Time to head up to your common rooms. Prefects, please escort the first years when I'm done. Classes begin early tomorrow morning as usual. I want you all to get some good rest, so that you can do your best work. Goodnight, you are dismissed."
"Gryffindor First Years over here!" A tall black boy in his sixth year waved them over. "Follow me please, and stick together, I don't want anyone to get lost."
He lead them up the changing staircases, in the opposite direction from the Slytherins, who made their way down to the dungeons, Drew later learned. They came to a halt in front of a painting of a fat woman in a pink dress, whom Drew also learned was called, simply, the Fat Lady.
"Password?" she asked.
"Tiramisu."
Drew loved the common room, with its rich scarlet and gold furnishings. Before she could take a seat on one of the couches in front of the fireplace, however, the tall black boy, Dominic, reminded them how late it really was.
Drew yawned. She and Felicity said goodnight to Rusty, Danny, Luc and Leo, and let themselves be led up the stairs to the girls dormitories by Katherine, the female fifth year prefect. After being shown to their own dormitory room, the third door up the steps, Drew and Felicity met their dorm mates.
"Hi, I'm Anju Carver." A copper skinned girl with straight black hair grinned as she bent as she bent down to dig through her trunk. She had the bed closest to the right side of the door. Drew had the one next to it, Felicity had the one directly across the room from the door, a blonde girl named Cayla Lu had the next, and another girl with curly red hair and an American accent named Bailee Carter had the closest one to the left side of the door.
"I'm Drew Quinn."
"My name is Felicity Hunt." Felicity smiled as she pulled her wavy platinum blonde hair into a messy bun before pulling her pajamas from her trunk.
"So, what class are you looking forward to most?" Drew asked the others after she had changed into her light purple and white striped long sleeve pajamas.
Anju answered first. "I can't wait for potions. My mother taught me some simple ones and said I was a real natural at it."
Bailee went next. "Herbology. I've always been really good with plants, so I guess it will be my best class. I've already read most of the textbook. How about you?" Bailee looked at Cayla.
"I don't know." Cayla looked really confused.
"Are you muggle-born, like me?" Drew asked.
"Muggle-born?"
Drew let Anju, Bailee and Felicity explain it, since she knew they would know more about it than she would have.
"What about you, Felicity?" Drew asked.
"I can't wait to try Transfiguration! Mum says that we start out turning matches into needles and things, but I want to learn how to turn birds into brooms and things like that!"
Anju laughed. "I don't know if even witches and wizards can do that. Maybe a mop, but not a bird!"
Everyone giggled.
"Well, I'm going to bed." Cayla said. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"'Night."
"Sweet dreams!"
"Don't let the bed bugs bite!"
All of the girls giggled again as they climbed under the covers of their four poster beds.
A/N: Wow! 2,289 words! I didn't think I would break my record so soon. Only a day! (I usually can't update this fast, it just happened to be a long weekend. Thankfully, next weekend is also a long weekend, giving me a three day school week. Yay! So I should be able to get this story well underway before school really interferes.) Anyway, please review people! It would make my day, and it would make me write faster, too.
