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I take a deep breath and push my cart and myself into the wall. I don't even notice that I had indeed walked through a wall. In awe I turn around and behind me is a brick wall, just like any other platform in Kings Cross Station. Ahead of me parents were saying good-bye to their children who were boarding The Hogwarts Express. I grin. I push my cart forwards and board the train. I wait in a compartment and one of the young boys in that family that I saw walk through the wall enters the compartment.
"Hi." I say. "I'm Sheri! What is your name?"
"Don, Don Paisley." he replies.
"Well. That's a name." I smile a small smile.
"I guess. Can I sit here?" he asks, motioning to the seat across from mine.
"Yeah. It's just me in here. What year are you in?"
"I'm a first year." says the blonde boy. His hair is the light, light blonde that glows white in the sun. "Are you nervous for the Aptitude Test?"
"What?" I ask, completely confused. It turns out that first years have to take a test, called the Aptitude Test. Well, actually, it isn't a test. Don's older brothers told him that. An old hat is placed on your head and asks you a few questions, knows when you lies. Then sorts you into a house. Easy. Don also tells me that there are five houses at Hogwarts; Erudite, Amity, Abnegation, Dauntless, and Candor. Each has a particular personality and of course, a quidditch team, which is a popular wizard sport, kinda like America and football. And like all normal high schools and colleges in Chicago, each has a mascot. The Amity's mascot is the badger, the Abnegation has no mascot because it would "be too selfish", the Candor's mascot is the Snake, and the Erudite's mascot is the ravens. Don says the Erudite are the smart ones, I want to be in Erudite.
Later into the ride a girl pops her head into the compartment where Don and I are talking. "Have you seen a rat around?" asks the girl with crazy brown hair. "My friend lost his and can't find him anywhere." I shake my head, "Oh. Are you first years too?"
"Yeah." I say.
"Well. There is a huge group of us down the hall, you should come and join us! It would be so sick if you two did!"
"Yeah. Sure. We will be down in a few. Sorry, but what is your name?" I ask, but really all I can think about is how peppy this girl is.
"Oh. Right. Sorry. I'm Clarissa. And you are?"
"Sheri and this is Don."
"See ya'll later!" she says excitedly, she closes the glass door and leaves.
"Sheri, are you a Pureblood?" Don asks me as soon as the door slides shut.
"A what?" I ask, not knowing what the kid is talking about.
"A Pureblood?" he stops, obviously reading my face of complete confusion, "I suppose you aren't considering I have to explain every danged thing to you. A Pureblood is someone who's parents are both magical. Like mine. But yours aren't are they? I doubt even one is." He sneers. "I can't be around a Mudblood like you."
"Fine," although I hardly know the degree of this insult, I know it must be a pretty big one. I grab my trunk and owl and leave him, alone. I head down the hall. I hear the joyous laughter that I had assumed was some upper years, but when I look through the door I see a room crowded with black robes. I push my luggage up onto the luggage shelf and close the lid. I then hang my owl cage from one of the hooks and I slide open the door. I am immediately welcomed by cheers. I see Clarissa stand up and climb over some of the other kids stretched out on the floor.
"Hey! Where's Don?" she asks.
"He's to busy being too proud to be whatever a Pureblood is."
"Oh. That idiot." Louder she says, "Hey everybody, this is my friend Sheri and she is a first year too so introduce yourselves." Everybody listens to her. Honestly, I am amazed how much power she already seems to have. The other kids go around, rattling off their names so I could know who they were. I feel so honored. I plop down on the floor, criss-cross-applesauce and engage myself in the conversation. Unlike back home, in Chicago, there is one conversation that actually, successfully includes everybody. Back home among a large group of people, multiple conversations were shot around and people were often excluded from conversations. However, here, on the Hogwarts express, everybody could chip in and the conversation is rather interesting.
When the Hogwarts Express reaches Hogwarts a man calls all first years over to boats by the lake. The upper year kids went up a path to the castle. We are told to leave our belongings on the train and get in the small row boats to row across a huge lake up to the castle. And so Clarissa and I climb into one of the wooden boats. The boats start to move, magically, across the lake, towards Hogwarts.