Finding Hogwarts

Laura walked quickly to the clapping table, and sat down. The people sitting closest to her slapped her back and congratulated her, she was the first to join the table for her year. She was, however, soon joined by two more girls, and three guys. After she was sorted the rest of it seamed to go a lot faster. Finally it was the twins turns, and they sat quietly on the chair; from her brief exposure to them on the train, she found that odd; and were both placed in Gryffindor, some boy called Yakkow was placed in Slytherin, and then it was Blaise. He sat under the hat for what seamed like an eternity, just sitting and sitting and sitting, some of the older students started whispering, this wasn't normal, to wait so long, why was it taking so long.

Laura looked over to the twins, who looked at her and shrugged at the same time. Her heart was pounding in his chest, what if the hat couldn't sort him? Would he be sent home? Finally, after what seamed to be a good five minutes the hat opened up and yelled, "Ravenclaw!" She let out a sigh of relief as she clapped loudly with the rest of her house.

Blaise, on the other hand, looked shocked as he sat down across from Laura. As soon as he was sitting he put his head in his hands and started muttering 'no' over and over again.

"What's wrong?" Laura asked, leaning in a bit.

"My father is going to kill me!" he said in a low voice. "He was expecting me to get into Slytherin. Now he's going to say I'm a disgrace to get into this house!"

"It could be worse," one of the older boys said.

"How could it be worse?"

"My father was the same you see, a disgrace I was – according to him – until my mother reminded him, as you should do to your father, you could have gotten into Gryffindor." Blaise half nodded until the boy was satisfied and looked away. The hall fell silent as an old looking man stood up. He introduced himself as Professor Dumbledore, listed off some rules – some of them sounded silly, like it was forbidden to enter the Forbidden Forrest, as if the name didn't sort of imply that – congratulated everyone and started the feast. Out of no where the tables were full off food. Blaise loaded his plate, but didn't shovel it in as she expected from his shoveling to get it on.

"Is there a problem with the Gryffindor house?" Laura finally asked Blaise part way through the meal.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Father says Gryffindor is a weak house, Mother says she knew a nice witch from that house. And you know, Harry Potter was from that house. Father says that's enough to turn anyone away from the house. When he's not around Mother will say Gryffindor is a fine house and that Father has to get over his school house grudge."

"But what do you think?" Laura asked.

Again, he shrugged. "Gryffindor and Ravenclaw always gets along pretty well, Hufflepuff is alright, and to be told Ravenclaw in general doesn't particularyly extremely hate Slytherin. However never put an armed Slytherin in the same vacinity as an armed or unarmed Gryffindor. They hate each other with a passion. Since I'm in Ravenclaw," he pouted slightly, "I guess I'll have to take on the Ravenclaw view. Besides," he shrugged when Laura gave him a blank look, "those twins we met on the train are in Gryffindor, and they didn't seam too bad."

Throughout the rest of the meal Laura endlessly questioned Blaise about anything in the hall that caught her interest, and in return he questioned her about 'crazy muggle stuff' that he had heard about. By the end of the meal she felt like her and Blaise were going to be great friends. When they were dismissed they were herded together by a fifth year, but got stuck behind some third, sixth and seventh years that were being slow. So they ended up waiting next to the Gryffindor first years, and their equally impatient Prefect.

"Knew we'd end up in Gryffindor," Fred said. "Knew it. But look at you two Ravenclaw. But don't you go trying to out study us there Granger."

"My name is Laura," Laura said with mock indignity. Neither of the twins caught onto the 'mock' part of it though, and they started apologizing like crazy. It wasn't until Blaise started laughing that they stopped.

"What's so funny?"

"She was joking."

"How do you know?"

"I have a sister, I know how girls act."

"So your name isn't Laura?"

Laura sighed, and shook her head. They must be dense. "Yes it is Laura, just don't call me Granger."

The Gryffindor line started moving, "Bye Ginger cookie!" the twins called before they left.

"And that," Blaise said in her ear as the they started walking again, "is why Gryffindor is annoying." Laura couldn't help but giggle. The giggle stopped abruptly when the staircase they were on started moving. Instantly, without thinking, she grabbed Blaise's arm.

"Be careful always," their prefect said farther ahead, "the staircases like to move. Some are particularly fond of doing it when you are late, and they want to lead you in the wrong direction." There was some muttering amongst all of them as they continued, the staircases moved.

"Blaise," Laura said looking around, "on the wall, are those... pictures?"

"What else are they supposed to be, pink elephants?" He looked at her like she dense.

"Why are they moving?"

"Would you like to just stand in one pose all the time?" Blaise asked her. She gave him a very blank look. Realization started to dawn on him. "Do pictures, move in the muggle world?" Laura shook her head. "Wow, that must be very dull for the photo. Could you imagine, never being able to move. Just stand in one spot for all eternity." He shuddered at the thought.

"I guess not," Laura said. They stopped in front of a statue of some woman, holding out her arm, on the arm sat a raven.

"This, the prefect said, is Lady Ravenclaw, who our house was founded by and named after. Now Lady Ravenclaw valued knowledge above anything else. So, unlike most entrances to common rooms she does not ask for a password that changes once per term, she will ask you a question and if you answer it correctly you may enter, if you don't she won't let you in. However the question varies in difficulty between different years as well as how your marks are in class, even this statue is as bright as Lady Ravenclaw once was. To make it easier though, each month there is a topic that her questions will be based on. On the last two days of each month there will be a posting on the bulletin board telling you what the next months questions will be based on. This month, her questions are about summer." At this he turned to the statue, "Lady Ravenclaw," he said, "I, and these first years, would like to enter the common room."

The statue smiled, and moved her head to look down to the Prefect, Laura and a few others jumped. "What," she asked in a clear voice, "is very small, exists for only a second, but can effect a whole forest in summer?"

Before answering, the prefect turned to see if any of them knew the answer. Laura thought about it for a second, all the years of fire safety they taught in school clicked, "A spark," she said, "it's very small, cools off in a matter of seconds, but can start a forest fire." Lady Ravenclaw smiled at her before stepping aside to show a large entrance way. They all entered. The room was beautiful, all dark blue and light blue. The prefect instructed them how to get to their rooms and left them.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Laura said to Blaise, who nodded and they both left for their rooms. Even the bedrooms were blue. She looked at her altered uniforms, now having the Ravenclaw crest, and the two shades of blue tie. It was a good think she didn't think blue was an aweful colour, otherwise this would be horrible.

She met the other Ravenclaw first year girls. There was Ramia, a Pureblood and youngest of six children of which there was only one other sister; Serenity a muggleborn like herself who was also an only child, and Kathreen a half blood and the oldest of three and the only girl.

"You two better watch out," Kathreen said looking to Serentiy and Laura, "and not get to many of the guys mad at you." Ramia nodded.

"Why?" Serenity asked.

"Because then no one will want to marry you and you'll be kicked out."

"What?" Laura asked.

Kathreen nodded, "It happened to my mom and dad. Mom's a muggleborn see, like you two, and Dad's a pureblood. When they started their seventh year here at Hogwarts a law was passed that all muggleborn witches that were of age, had to be married by their next birthday, to a pureblood wizard. Now all muggleborn witches after to marry sometime between their seventeenth and eighteenth birthday!"

"You can say no of course," Ramia said nodding along with Kathreen, "but then you have all your memories erased and your wand snapped and you'll never be allowed to practice magic again! It's happened a few times, the girl would say no." Kathreen nodded. "But those were only in the first year of the law. I heard in like ten years, they are going to get ride of the law because there won't be any purebloods left," she sighed with a slight scowl.

"Do you know who said no?" Serenity asked.

"One girl, dissolved into tears when she found out who she had to marry, so the story goes anyway, Hannah I think. Hannah Abby, or Abby Hannah," Ramia shrugged. "Anyway she refused to marry him. She was a Hufflepuff, they don't have a spin, not one Hufflepuff. Um..." she looked to Kathreen.

"I heard, from mom, about her best friend Brianna Schloot," Kathreen said. "She was supposed to marry this Rikkulus Ronford fellow, he's a creeper if you ask me. He was like, fourty at the time. Sent out marriage application to every available muggleborn he could. He wanted a lot of younger wives I guess," they all gagged. "Yeah, the ministry would only let him marry one though, and the first application to get through was to Brianna. She refused, and Mom said it was rightly so, Dad agrees he said it was disgusting and disturbing. Anyway she no longer has any memory of growing up at Hogwarts, she was told she went to Mildred's Boarding School for Girls, they're all told that in that year. Each year they change the school's name, their even told the school shut down and burnt down right after they graduated. Mom and Brianna are still friends though."

"How?" Ramia asked, "If her memory was erased?"

"Mom started attending Brianna's aerobics class. And they 'met' and 'found out' how much they 'had in common' and started going for coffee, and such and became the best of friends again. Although when she comes over all the pictures have to be frozen in place, and our house-elf has to hide, and Dad puts away all of his 'magic' stuff. Muggles, whether real muggles or thinking they're muggles, aren't allowed to know about magic."

"What about the third girl?" Laura asked, genuinely interested. She wondered how her own mom would react to this news.

"She was cruel," Kathreen said gravely, "she waited until they were at the alter before she told him no. There was rumors around that he forced her to stay and sure, the Malfoy's aren't the nicest wizards around, but even he wouldn't lower himself to that."

"His father might have made him," Ramia said.

Kathreen shook her head. "You basing this off of him now," she said. "He's nice now, ya, but according to Dad who grew up with him, that didn't happen until after his father died."

"What was her name?" Serenity asked.

"Harmonica or something like that," Kathreen shrugged.

"Draco Malfoy?" Laura asked.

"Yeah," Ramia nodded.

"I know him!"

"How do you know him? He still doesn't associate with muggles."

"My mom dated him when I was nine," Laura said, than yawned.

"She dated, actually dated him?" This had both those girls attention, Serenity's too, although she didn't know what all the fuss was about.

"Yeah, but she claims they weren't right for each other. She wouldn't even tell me who broke it off." Laura yawned again. "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight." The other girls protested but she was quickly asleep.

She was up early the next morning, before any of the girls were up. After she got dressed she went down to the common room to write a letter to her mother, and tell her all she had heard about Mr. Malfoy. It was a bit of a shock to see Blaise downstairs as well.

"Morning," she said, sitting next to him, he was writing a letter as well. "Are you writing to your parents?"

"My father, yes," he nodded. "He is going to be furious, may as well get it over with. Mother won't be thrilled to be sure, but she won't be as mad as Father."

"So write to her," Laura said.

"Father doesn't like being side-stepped," Blaise shrugged. "Are you writing to your mother?"

"Yeah. I wanted to tell her about last night. The sorting, although I don't think she'd understand all about it. And Mr. Malfoy being a wizard, I'm sure she'll be shocked to hear that. Then last night the other girls were talking about some stupid law that says a muggleborn witch –"

"The marriage law?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah," Laura said. "I think Mom is going to freak when I tell her."

"Then don't," Blaise said.

"But..."

"It's something lots of muggleborn do, they just don't inform their parents of the downsides of wizard life, and their parents are better off for not knowing," Blaise said.

Laura thought it over. "Yeah. Yeah, that could work." She bent over the paper and started writing. She started off telling her mom about the three boys she met on the train, the giant of a man that took them across the lake, and the sorting. She told her how the hat said she could have fit into Gryffindor and Slytherin, and told her the pro's and con's of both from what she's heard, before saying she was placed in Ravenclaw, and told her all she had heard about it up till now. About this point people started coming downstairs. After that she started telling her mom about last night, skipping the marriage law talk, and how they were talking about Malfoy; the story about how they got onto that topic was completely fabricated.

She had just signed it when the girls from her dorm were down. "Oh Laura, there you are!" Kathreen said plopping down next to her. The other two followed. "Blaise too! It's good to see you." She stuck out her hand to Blaise, who ignored it. "Cat got your tongue Blaise?" Blaise still didn't say anything. Kathreen leaned over to Laura, "His father and mine don't get along, he's not supposed to talk to me."

"Then why are you provoking him?" Laura asked. Kathreen gave her a a shocked look before getting up. "I'm going to breakfast, see you there." She turned and stalked away. Ramia followed quickly; Serenity hesitated long to give Laura an apologetic look before following.

"Thanks," Blaise said after the girls were gone.

"No problem," Laura shrugged, "so... ah... how do I get this letter to Mom?"

"Your owl."

"I don't have an owl, Mom doesn't like birds. She had a cat, Crookshanks, but it died. We haven't had a pet since then."

"Then a school owl," Blaise shrugged. "I'll take you after classes today to the owlery, that's were Brutis, my owl, is as well as the school owls. They're free to use."

"Thanks," Laura smiled. "Should we... ah, go eat?"

"Yeah, I'm famished. Race you there." And he took off.

"No fair," Laura said a few paces behind him, shoving her letter into her pocket, "I don't know my way around the castle."

"Me neither," Blaise called back. Laura laughed and skidded to a halt when he stopped in front of a large stone with names engraved in it.

"What is it?" Laura asked.

"A list of the dead," he responded. "It's almost twenty years old." Laura looked at him. "Back when my parents were still in school, sixth year I think. There was a battle between a dark wizard whose name no one ever says, most call him You-Know-Who, or something like that. Anyway there was a battle between him and his followers and those that didn't follow him, called themselves the Light, and another organization, but Father refuses to speak of it or hear of it. They battled at Hogwarts, and a lot of people died on both sides, but finally the wizard was killed by Harry Potter. Big surprise there, I know. These are the people that died. There," he pointed to one name, Marcus Zabini, "that was my grandfather. He was on the dark wizards side." Laura just nodded.

"And there, Ginger cookie," said a voice behind them. They both jumped, but she turned to see the Twins behind them. One was pointing at another name, "is our Uncle Charlie, our Aunt Fluer, and a friend of the family, Tonks."

"Thanks terrible," she said to all three boys.

"Yeah," one of the twins shrugged, "well it was before we were born, we never met them. Over here though," the twins dragged Laura and Blaise over to a different stone, "is those recognized for extreme bravery in the war." Blaise let out a scoff. "Their were brave people on the dark side too you know," the twin continued, "see, Marie Stustep, she spied on the Light and fed You-Know-Who. Very dangerous because there was a great deal of people on the Light who would have killed her if they found out, and You-Know-Who himself would kill her if she gave him information wrong."

"You know," Laura said looking at all the names, "I don't know who are talking about."

"What?"

"This, You-Know-Who, no, I don't know who," Laura said. Her eyes travelled up to the top of the stone, where three names sat in gold, all the other names where silver. She touched them, as she stood on tip-toes to read them. "Why are they gold."

"The Golden Trio," Blaise said with a laugh. "Harry Potter and his two best friends. They probably did the most dangerous stuff that one could in the war, and that started back in their first year," he sounded wishful.

"Harry Potter," she read the name.

"Yeah we said that," one of the twins said, "can we go? I'm hungry."

"Ron Weasley," she read the second name. "Her... no that can't be right."

"What?"

"The third name is Hermione Granger."

"Yeah, the third member of the Golden Trio. That's right." Blaise responded.

"It can't be."

"Why not?" Blaise again.

"Because my mother is a muggle."