Chapter 15

After making sure that Arianna was alright from the trip, Minerva lead her to the front door of the burrow. Arianna was sad to leave Hogwarts, but she knew that she would be back in a weeks time for the rest of the year. It was just after that she didn't know where she would go. She certainly wasn't going back to the winters' farm.

Minerva knocked on the door. Arianna heard a woman yell "Just a minute" before the door opened. There stood a plumpish red headed woman, with a kind face and warm smile.

"Oh, hello Minerva, and you must be Arianna Winters." She said and Arianna nodded.

"Come in, come in!" She said and they followed her into the house. Arianna looked around, she had never seen a house this, homey, it was great. As she looked around, she noticed a pot stirring itself, a clock that showed where each member of the family was, and many other magical things going on all over the house.

"Our guest is here!" Mrs. Weasley yelled up the stairs, soon several footsteps could be heard making their way down the stairs. When everyone was down, Mrs. Weasley started the introductions, pointing to each family member and saying their name.

"This is Arianna Winters everyone! Arianna, this is my husband Arthur, my sons Fred, George, Percy and Ron, and my daughter Ginny." each said hello in their own way, whether nodding or actually saying hello. Arianna smiled and politely said hello to the large family.

"Thank you again Molly for taking her in on such short notice. Here are your school things Miss Winters, I will see most of you in a weeks time, enjoy the remainder of your holiday." She said before she left, back to Hogwarts.

After she left, Molly came up to Arianna, "you'll be staying in Ginny's room, she'll show you where, while Arthur takes up your trunk." Ginny smiled and began to go upstairs, Arianna followed. The house wasn't much bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. But Arianna didn't mind, in fact she quite liked it, it reminded her of the space she had in the chicken coop back at the Winters' farm, but here was more lively and welcoming.

"This is my room," Ginny said after climbing what seemed like 20 floors of stairs, "You'll be sleeping on this bed here." She said pointing to a cot near Ginny's bed. Arianna smiled and thanked her, a moment later Arthur came in with her trunk. She thanked him as well. She started to sort out her things, when she noticed a book that was piled amongst her text books, confused she picked it up, it was a wizarding fiction novel.

"Ginny is this yours?" She asked, holding the book up for Ginny to see, Ginny read the title and shook her head. Arianna opened the book and a small slip of paper fell from the pages. Picking it up she read,

Arianna,

I thought you might like to read something other than your textbooks; it's a favourite of mine, so I hope you enjoy it as well.

Professor McGonagall

Arianna smiled, it was so generous of her Professor to buy her a book. It was the first gift she had ever gotten, she set the book beside her bed, and finished sorting her things, while keeping in mind the wonderful gift she had been given.

Just then Mrs. Weasley hollered up the stairs that dinner was ready. Ginny, Arianna and Arthur all made their way down to the kitchen to have a nice home cooked meal.

The week was passing quickly, and Arianna had made friends with the Weasley's very quickly. She learned that Ron was her age and would be going to Hogwarts with her this year, she also learned that he had two more older brothers who had moved out already.

The Weasley's had introduced her to many new things in the magical world, she was taught all about quiddich, and even had a go at it, though she wasn't very good. Ron taught her to play wizards chess, she wasn't good at that either, and after she had finished reading all of her textbooks for the year, and the book Professor McGonagall had given her, Ginny lent her The Tales of Beetle The Bard a book of Wizarding Fairy Tales, which she finished very quickly.

As the week had progressed she continued to learn new things about magic. Traveling, performing, uses of magic and much more. Arianna was incrediable excited to learn more, and couldn't wait until she would be at a school with other witches and wizards, where she wasn't considered a freak.

The next morning she was woke as she usually did, with the sun, but today was different, Ginny was groggily standing from her bed.

"I was just going to wake you," She said tiredly, "Breakfast is in 20 minutes, you'd best get dressed, don't worry about your trunk, Dad will get it." She said before leaving the room for the restroom. Arianna smiled, she was going to Hogwarts today. She would see Professor McGonagall again, she had grown extremely attached to the Professor, she didn't exactly know why, but Professor McGonagall had really been the first person to care. Sure Mrs. Hutchinson cared, but not like Professor McGonagall did.

Arianna dressed for the day, and double checked her trunk before heading downstairs for a delicious breakfast. After everything was finished and cleaned up, the trunks were loaded into the rented cars, and the group was heading to King's Cross Station in London.

They arrived at the station at around 10:45 AM and rushed through the station to get to the platform.

"Packed with muggles of course!" Mrs. Weasley was saying, "Now what's the platform number?" She asked and Ginny piped up, "Nine and three-quarters, mum can't I go..."

"You're not old enough Ginny, now be quite, all right Percy you go first." Mrs. Weasley said, Arianna watched as Percy nodded and ran towards to the wall of platforms 9 and 10. She gasped as he ran through the wall instead of into it like she had expected. She watched again as Fred and George ran through as well, after tricking their mother of course, then a boy with messy black hair, and round, broken glasses in front of bright green eyes, approached Mrs. Weasley.

"Excuse me." He said shyly, Mrs. Weasley turned and smiled at him kindly.

"Hello dear, First time at Hogwarts? Ron and Arianna are new as well." She said pointing to Ron and Arianna.

"Yes." Said the boy, "The thing is- the thing is, I don't know how to-"

"How to get onto the platform?" She said kindly, and the boy nodded.

"Not to worry, I was just going to explain it to these two as well, all you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, don't stop and don't be scared that you'll crash into it, that's very important, best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on now, before Ron and Arianna." She explained, Arianna could feel her heart start to race.

"Er- Okay." Said the boy as he ran towards the barrier and didn't crash into it.

"Alright, now Arianna, your turn." Mrs. Weasley said, Arianna looked up at her and took a deep breath and pushed her trolley in line with the barrier. Taking another deep breath she ran at the barrier, shutting her eyes just before she was going to crash into it. To her relief and surprise, she didn't crash into the wall. When she opened her eyes, she gasped, in front of her was a giant steam engine, The Hogwarts Express written on it.

Ron and Mrs. Weasley came through behind her, and they all made their way towards the train. Their luggage was put onto the train, and Mrs. Weasley hugged them before pushing them towards the train.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley." Arianna said before getting on the train.

"For what dear?"

"For everything." She said, Mrs. Weasley smiled before hugging her again and pushing her onto the train telling her to have a good school year.

Arianna quickly caught up with Ron who was looking for a compartment they could sit in. They found one compartment that was empty with only one person in it. It was the boy, Arianna noticed, that Mrs. Weasley had helped through the platform.

"Do you mind? Everywhere else is full." Ron asked, the boy shook his head and the two sat down.

"I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley, and this is Arianna Winters." Ron said motioning to himself and Arianna.

"Harry, Harry Potter." The boy said with a smile. Ron's face turned to shock.

"Bloody hell! Have you really got the, you know?" He asked pointing to his fore head. Harry laughed and nodded, then lifting his hair, he showed them a lightning bolt scar on the right side of his fore head above his eye.

"What happened?" Arianna asked, oblivious as to how the boy had gotten his scar. Harry was about to tell her when Ron beat him to it.

"What happened? He defeated you-know-who when he was one! That's what happened!" He said and Arianna looked confused.

"The darkest wizard of all time." He said, hoping to jog her memory, but when she still didn't seem to understand, he explained about you-know-who.

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry!" Arianna said as soon as Ron had finished his explanation.

"It's alright, what about your family? What are they like?" Harry asked her, her face grew sad.

"I don't know them. I was left on a muggle's doorstep when I was almost 2 months old. I've lived there ever since. I guess it's not so bad, I sleep in the chicken coop, with the chickens of course, and I take care of the animals, I like animals so it's not so bad." She said shrugging her shoulders.

"You sleep in a chicken coop?" Harry asked a little shocked. Arianna nodded as if it were nothing. Harry was about to say something else when a lady pushing a trolley of sweets came by the compartment.

"Anything from the trolley dears?" She asked. Ron pulled out a sandwich his mother had made for Arianna and himself and held it up.

"We're good thanks." He said, even though he didn't mean it. Harry took one look at those sandwiches and bought the whole cart of sweets.

"This is Scabbers," Ron said pointing to the rat on his lap, "Fred and George taught me a spell as to turn him yellow, want to see?" He continued.

"Yeah" Harry said enthusiastically, Ron cleared his throat, his wand out and pointing to Scabbers when a bushy haired girl walked into the compartment.

"Have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one." She asked looking around the compartment, her eyes rested on Ron.

"Are you going to do magic? Let's see then." She said, Ron cleared his throat again.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" Ron chanted, waving his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers didn't even wake from his nap.

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well it's not very good, is it? Of course, I've only tried a few simple spells for practice, but they've all worked for me. No one in my family is magic, so it was a surprise when I got my letter, but I was so pleased. And to think that we are going to the best school of witchcraft and wizardry there has ever been! I've learned all my course book by heart, I just hope it'll be enough, I'm Hermione by the way, Hermione Granger. And you are?" She asked after finishing her speech it seemed.

"Ron Weasley" Ron said proudly.

"Arianna, Arianna Winters." Arianna said shyly.

"Harry Potter" Harry said with a smile, Hermione's went wide with shock.

"Are you really!?" She asked.

"I've read all about you, I bought a few extra books for background reading. You're in a few of them." She replied, Arianna was sure that this girl was going to be the top of her class.

"Am I?" Harry asked feeling dazed.

"Didn't you know? If I were you I would have found out everything I could." She said, and continued to talk about the houses.

"Well I should be off, I'm going to look for Neville's toad for a bit before we arrive, I suggest you three put your robes on, I believe we'll be arriving soon." She said and Arianna stood up.

"I'll help you look for the toad." She said, quickly grabbing her school robes first.

"Thanks, I'll wait for you while you change." She said as she left the compartment and stood in the hallway.

"I'll you two later? It was nice meeting you Harry, bye Ron." She said with a smile, the two boys nodded and as the girls walked away they continued talking.

Arianna changed and then helped Hermione look around the train. The two became quick friends, Hermione having learned that Arianna came from the muggle world as well, and that she to had read all of her school books. Soon the train came to a slow stop in Hogsmede station and all the students got off.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" They heard a voice yell. All the first year students walked towards the voice. Arianna and Hermione's eyes widened, their jaws dropping when they saw who the voice belonged to. It was a huge man, who was talking with Harry and Ron, he seemed quite nice really.

Once he was sure all the first years were with him, he guided them towards a lake, where boats were waiting. He told the students to get into a boat, four students per boat. Arianna was sitting with Hermione and two other students who she didn't know. Hagrid was in a boat all by himself, and once everyone was in the boats, he yelled Forwards and the boats propelled themselves forwards towards the beautiful castle that was in front of them.

Arianna smiled, even though her heart was pounding a mile per minute. The boats stopped at the shore line, and Hagrid led all the students up towards the castle and into the entrance hall, to Professor McGonagall.

"That's Professor McGonagall. She's very nice, she teaches Transfiguration." Arianna whispered to Hermione, as Professor McGonagall spotted her and winked.

"The Firs' Years, Professor." Hagrid said, McGonagall thanked him and he left through the door they had entered in. Professor McGonagall looked stern as she looked over the crowd of first years before she started to speak.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and has each produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House point, while any rule breaking will lose House points. At the end of each year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." She explained her eyes resting on Neville's robes which were fastened wrong, then to a smudge of dirt on Ron's nose, and then to Harry who was nervously trying to flatten his hair.

"I shall return for you when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." She said and walked off. Beside Arianna, Hermione was whispering all the spells she knew and what they did. Suddenly Arianna became quite nervous, and began reviewing her text books quietly in her head. Soon Professor McGonagall came back for the students, and brought them into the Great Hall.

As the walked in, many ooh and awes could be heard, Arianna looked all around her with an amazed look upon her face, when her eyes came to the ceiling, she gasped.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read it, in Hogwarts; A History. " Hermione whispered. They walked to the end of the hall, where a stool was waiting, with a dirty old hat sitting on top of it. When the students were all assembled the hat began to sing.

Arianna gasped, then she smiled, she truly did love magic. When the hat was finished its song, the whole hall broke out in cheers and applause.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool, I will place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted. Abbott, Hannah." She began and Arianna soon realised that she would be near the end as her last name began with W.

As the sorting continued, Arianna's new friend Hermione went to Gryffindor, a mean boy named Draco Malfoy went to Slytherin, and Harry went to Gryffindor, now it was Ron's turn, he too went to Gryffindor. Arianna's heart pounded as she realised they were in the W's now.

"Winters, Arianna" Professor McGonagall called, her heart fluttering a bit, as the girl who she had become fond of nervously walked up to the stool. Arianna sat down and Professor McGonagall put the hat on her head.

"Ah, difficult, very difficult, a great mind, a family history of Gryffindor, your parents you know, they were both in Gryffindor, very talented." The hat said, Arianna gasped as it mentioned her parents, she desperately wanted to know more, but before she could say anything, the hat interrupted her thoughts.

"In due time, in due time. But where to put you. hmm. Better be... GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared, Arianna smiled, she was in the same house as her friends, she ran over to the cheering table, and looked up at Professor McGonagall. She gave Arianna a smile before calling the next name. Looking up at the staff table, she noticed Professor Dumbledore smile and raise his goblet to her.

She turned towards her table and began talking with the other students as the sorting finished. After Professor Dumbledore said some odd words, mountains of food appeared on the table, and everyone began to enjoy the delicious feast.

Hello everyone! I'm back from Scotland! It was fantastic, quite Harry Potter filled actually, I saw where Hagrid's house was built, up in the Highlands, I saw a private school that was used for some of the filming for the movies, and I went to the Elephant House, where JK Rowling began the Harry Potter series! They have really good Hot Chocolate actually! but yeah, I'm on break for the rest of this week, so hopefully I can get at least one more chapter up, maybe two before I go back to school, then the updates wont be as frequent because I'll be getting ready for exams and such, but I will try! Anyway hope you like this chapter!