Merope had taken to reading her "Hogwarts, A History" textbook over the next hour, becoming particularly interested with the story of the cockatrice that was turned loose during the Triwizard Tournament of 1792 when a knock came at her compartment door. Without hesitation, the door was flung open and a whirlwind of a girl burst into the cabin.

"Hullo, mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else looks full," She has straight auburn hair pulled up into a messy ponytail, with big brown eyes and a bandaid covering her left elbow.

"Er, go ahead," Merope said, moving Timtam's cage to make room for the new girl. She sat down opposite of her and put her owl's cage down.

"I'm Carla, nice to meet you," She said brightly, happy to have found a place to sit.

"Merope, nice to meet you too,"

"Well Merope, would you like a chocolate frog?"

"Sure," Carla fished in to her pocket and pulled out two boxes and handed one to the blonde. She opened the box to reveal the squirming confectionary and wrinkled her nose slightly.

"They're almost kind of gross to eat because it's like they're alive," Carla noted, finishing hers in two bites "but you get over it, they're delicious,"

Merope took a small bite of one of it's legs and the frog stopped squirming, she nibbled on the rest of it. At the bottom of the box was a card. She took it out and examined the person's busk on the front of it.

"Ooh, who'd you get?"

"Sacariss Tugwood, the potioneer who made those cosmetic potions," Merope put the card in her textbook to use as a bookmark, it was clear that she wouldn't be getting any reading done.

"I got Godric Gryffindor, I got him last time too," Carla grumbled, disposing of the card to her owl who picked at it happily.

For the next quarter of an hour they discussed what Merope was reading in her textbook so far. Well, rather Merope was talking fervently about the subject and Carla was more focused of what a cockatrice looked like.

"I bet theyre, like, a hundred feet tall! And- and they can breathe fire and shoot spells from their eyes!" A knock suddenly came at the door and a sandy-haired boy poked his head into the compartment.

"Mind if I join you? Everywhere else is full," he said in the thick Irish accent

"Not at all," The girls said, making room for another person in their small space

"I'm Seamus by the way, Seamus Finnegan," Merope and Carla said their hellos and Carla passed their new friend a Chocolate Frog, which he gladly took.

"So what house do you think you'll be sorted into?" he asked, finishing off his sweet.

"Gryffindor, for sure!" Carla said with fierce confidence "I've got the guts,"

"Me too!" Seamus beamed, glad to have found a common interest, " Me mum was in Gryffindor too, she loved it. Me dad is a muggle though, didn't know about her being a witch until after they were married. Gave him quite the shock,"

"I'm a muggle born," Carla noted "My parents thought the acceptance letter was a joke at first!" Seamus and Carla laughed at that and Merope cracked a small smile

"What about you Merope?" Seamus asked. She paused for a moment, considering what she had been told about her parents.

"Well," she began, "My mum was in Ravenclaw, and my dad was in Slytherin, or so I'm told. So it will probably be in one of those two,"

"Or so you were told?" Carla asked

"I never met them really, they died when I was really young. . . from Dragon Pox," She'd thought about the story she had been told for years.

"Me great aunt died from that, nasty disease," Seamus offered, "Where did you live after?"

"I live with my mum's best friend from school, she's like a godparent I guess. She was in Hufflepuff with at Hogwarts,"

"Well, maybe you'll be in Ravenclaw like your mother, no one really wants to be in Slytherin, loads of dark wizards and witches in there," Merope felt a little offended of what Seamus said, she was still hoping that her dad wasn't a evil.

"Well, we can all guess who is going to be the newest addition to Gryffindor this year," Seamus said with a big grin, leaving Merope and Carla looking confused. "Harry Potter of course! I heard he's on this train right now!"

"Who?" Carla finally asked

"What do you mean who?" Seamus said, raising his voice in disbelief, "The boy who lived, that who!"

"Oh, right," Merope muttered, remembering the stories Leora had told her.

"I still don't know what your talking about," Carla said, a little frustrated

"She's a muggleborn, she wouldn't know about this Seamus," Merope said plainly, "Carla, Harry Potter was a baby boy who supposedly defeated a very dark wizard who had tormented the wizarding world for decades,"

"Oh, well what was his name? The dark wizards?"

"We. . . aren't supposed to say it," Seamus said, fidgeting in his seat.

"It's supposed to be bad luck to say his name,"

"Right, well you two are a lot of pansies," She giggled, flicking Seamus' nose, "Afraid of a bloody name," The two blushed, it did sound a little silly when Carla put it like that.

Merope looked down at her lap, which still held a sleeping Timtam, all curled up into a tiny ball. She stroked his tail and he woke up, making a very big yawn. Suddenly, another knock came at the door and an older boy poked his head in.

"We'll be at school in about 45 minutes, so you should put your robes on soon," The children chorused that they would and he left. The three pulled out the plain black robes that all first years had to buy and pulled them on. After the sorting ceremony, however, they would receive their uniforms, decorated with their house colors.

The train soon came to a stop and everyone emerged from the train. The first years were all escorted by a giant man named Hagrid, who informed them that they would be traveling across the lake. They all got into their boats and glided across the pitch black water with only their small lanterns to guide it was only the beginning of September, it was quite cold and Merope was thankful for her thick wool coat. Carla was beginning to make her nervous, tipping the boat from side to side as her and Seamus were pointing things out.

"There! Something just swam by us!" She yelled, pointing at the water. "Maybe it's a mermaid! Do those exist?!"

"Yes, and they're not friendly," Merope said, pulling her friend's hand out of the water. "They will pull you in to the lake and drown you if you're not careful," Carla sat with her hands in her lap for the rest of the way.

When they reached the shore of the school, they got out of their boats and walked up the hill and made their way to the Great Hall. From there, a stern-looking woman stood in front of a set of massive wooden doors. She introduced herself as professor McGonagall and informed them that they would be soon going inside to be sorted into a Hogwarts house. She then left them so giggle and chat for a moment. Merope stood with Carla and Seamus, who were searching for the boy-who-lived.

"Ooh, there!" Seamus exclaimed while pointing at a skinny boy about 10 feet away.

"Him? He doesn't look like much,"

"He survived You-know-who, Carla!" he explained, nearly whining.

"Hey, I saw a mermaid today! It's gonna take more than some scrawny boy with a scar to top that,"

Suddenly, the boy was confronted by another student with pale blond hair and a pointed face.

'Draco' Merope noted, now paying attention to what was going on.

They seemed to be engaging in some sort of tense conversation that was offending the red head that was standing with him. Suddenly, Harry stepped away from Draco and the latter became the offended one. Before anything else could happen , McGonagall returned and announced to the first years "The sorting will now begin!"

Hello readers, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I would love some feedback if it's not too much trouble, and ill post as often as I can (: