September 1942
The first thing that Ro noticed upon waking was that there was no light shining in the window anymore and the light inside the compartment had been dimmed to a dusky glow. Realising they'd been asleep for hours, she looked up from where she lay with her head on Poppy's lap to see if she or Minerva had woken. Both of them were still asleep, so she attempted to sit up slowly without disturbing their rest.
Her plan was foiled when the train jerked to a halt and the whistle blew loudly. Ro was thrown off the seat onto the floor and Minerva's head shot up with a sharp intake of breath, sending her glasses clattering down on the floor beside Ro. Poppy lifted her head with a yawn, and Ro was pleased to see that the colour had returned to her face and her eyes had lost the look of despair.
"We nearly there yet?" Ro asked, making Minerva and Poppy look down at her with identical expressions of confusion. She propped herself up on her elbows and handed the glasses back to Minerva, who kneeled up on her seat to look out the window as she'd done earlier.
"Ro," Poppy said, wincing a little as she rubbed her evidently stiff neck, probably caused from spending the past six hours with her head on Minerva's shoulder, "Why are you on the floor?"
Ro shrugged. "I dunno, to be honest. Not too bad down here actually, there's more room than there was up there with you two!"
"Everyone's getting off, I think we need to go." Minerva reported, standing up and holding out a hand to pull Ro to her feet.
The three packed away their belongings that had fallen out of their bags during the journey, before leaving their compartment and joining the crowd in the corridor. Ro could feel Poppy's hand grasping the sleeve of her robes as they battled through the throng of people and she did the same to Minerva's robes, trying to minimise the chance of them getting separated. Once on the platform they could hear a booming voice calling for the first-years, so they set out in that direction.
"Right then." The owner of the voice was a broad-shouldered man dressed mostly in furs and leather, and he addressed the crowd of first-years as the platform slowly cleared. "M'name is Ogg, 'n' I'm the gamekeeper 'ere at 'ogwarts. You all follow me please!"
Still clinging onto each other, Ro, Minerva and Poppy followed Ogg off the platform and down to the edge of the lake. There were boats scattered across the surface, and beyond them stood the magnificent Hogwarts Castle.
"No more than four to a boat please!" Ogg shouted as he climbed into boat himself; Ro watched in amazement as he began to float towards the castle without so much as oars or paddles to propel him. Eager to get onto the lake, Ro started running towards an empty boat with Poppy by her side, but they stopped and looked back upon realising that Minerva hadn't moved from where they'd stood a moment ago.
Ro sent Minerva a confused look as she watched her shoulders slump slightly, heading towards them with a reluctant look on her face. "I hate water." She muttered quietly but clambered into the nearest boat all the same, leaving Ro and Poppy to climb in after her.
Ro took Minerva's hand in bid to comfort her as the boat started moving across the lake, the castle slowly growing nearer. Once they'd crossed the lake they climbed out to stand on the shore, Poppy's small stature meaning that she toppled over the side and had to rely on Minerva's quick instincts to prevent her falling into the sand.
Ogg led them through a huge set of doors and into a stone-walled corridor, lit only by the flaming torches hung either side of the corridor. "The first-years, Professor Dumbledore." Ro heard Ogg's voice say, and she stretched her neck upwards in an unsuccessful attempt to see who Ogg was talking to.
"Thank you, Ogg, I'll take them from here." The man who must have been Professor Dumbledore replied, and as he moved towards them Ro saw a wizard with a long, slightly greying ginger beard. "Arrange yourselves into a nice line, yes that's it, and we'll go into the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony!"
Ro had heard a little about the infamous Sorting Ceremony from her older brothers, all of whom had already left Hogwarts. She knew that she would have to wear the Hat, but had no idea how this led to the decision of her House being made. Standing with Minerva and Poppy either side of her, they and all the other first-years followed Professor Dumbledore through another equally large doorway and into the Great Hall. She couldn't help the nerves that suddenly appeared when she felt the eyes of hundreds of other students on her as they processed through the gap between two of the four tables, coming to a halt before a fifth one at the very end of the Hall. There was a wooden stool placed in front of the fifth table, and on it sat a very old and very ragged hat.
"Now, when I call your name, you will come forward, sit down, and I will put the Sorting Hat on your head." Dumbledore addressed the first-years, before peering down at the long list in his hand. "Bagnold, Millicent!"
A dark-haired girl shuffled past Ro to sit on the stool. Dumbledore placed the Hat on her head, covering her eyes, and the Great Hall fell into silence for a few moments before it shouted out "RAVENCLAW!" Millicent handed the Hat back to Dumbledore with a smile as applause broke out from the tables behind them, but they were hushes when Dumbledore said the next name.
The butterflies in Ro's stomach grew worse as he neared H on the alphabet, twiddling her fingers in anticipation. She was watching Wilhelmina Grubbly cross the Hall and sit down at the Hufflepuff table when the call of "Hooch, Rolanda!" startled her. She took a deep breath before walking up to the stool and sitting down, reaching up to take the Hat from Dumbledore and dropping it over her eyes.
"Now let me see..." A voice sounded in Ro's ear, startling her for the second time. "There's a lot of cunning in you, young lady, but also a lot of bravery. Reckless bravery, some might say, and a burning need to carve your own path in life."
'Is that a good thing?' Ro thought, instantly thinking of her dislike mother's plans to get her a job in the Ministry of Magic, and was surprised when the Hat answered her.
"Oh yes, you'll go far with that attitude. And on that note, for you it'll be GRYFFINDOR!"
As the applause started up again, she slid of the stool and left the hat behind as she ran towards the table full of beckoning people. She took a seat next to an older boy, though in Ro's opinion he looked to be more Giant than person. This was confirmed when his handshake felt like it could take her shoulder off.
"Rubeus Hagrid, but just call me Hagrid." He said as he grinned down at her, releasing her hand to her relief. "Welcome to Gryffindor, the best House there is!"
Hagrid fell quiet as Dumbledore kept calling out the names, clapping politely as students were distributed across the Houses. The next Gryffindor was a mousey-haired boy who introduced himself as Lyall Lupin as he sat down opposite Ro. She was about to reply with her own name when the proceedings by the stool caught her attention completely.
"McGonagall, Minerva!"
Ro watched intently as her friend sat down on the stool, the hat falling over her eyes as it had done to everyone before her. Every one of Ro's fingers was crossed for Minerva to be in Gryffindor as she waited for the Hat to make the decision.
And waited.
And waited.
The silence had broken into hushed murmurs, the minutes stretching out without a single indication that the decision was nearing. Ro didn't notice that her head was dropping towards the table until she was suddenly aware of enthusiastic clapping and cheering all around her. She looked around wildly and realised that she'd dozed through the Hat's verdict; to her delight, when Minerva got off the stool she headed straight in the direction of the Gryffindor table.
"That," said Ro as Minerva took a seat next to her, "was possible the most torturous wait I've ever endured."
"Five and a half minutes!" said a stern looking girl sat on the other side of Hagrid, looking closely at a pocket watch attached to the inside of her robes. "You're officially a Hatstall; very rare. I'm Augusta Brown, Gryffindor prefect."
Minerva leaned forward to see Augusta around Hagrid. "Nice to meet you Augusta." She said before turning back to Ro. "You're lucky I'm here, that Hat was close to putting me in Ravenclaw!"
While Ro and Minerva quietly discussed the Sorting Hat's decision, they didn't notice the names trickling past until Dumbledore called "Pomfrey, Penelope!" Ro was confused for a moment before she saw Poppy's blonde-haired figure approaching the stool, and realised that Poppy must only be a nickname.
As the now-familiar silence descended again, Ro found herself chanting in her head. 'Please be Gryffindor, please be Gryffindor,' she begged to herself, 'please be a-'
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Ro and Minerva cheered louder than anyone else on the Gryffindor table as Poppy ran towards them, sitting down next to Lyall with an overjoyed grin on her face. "I can't believe we're all together!" She said excitedly.
"Me neither," Minerva grinned back in response as the attention reverted back to the still-ongoing ceremony.
Once the ceremony ended with Septima Vector being placed into Ravenclaw, the Headmaster stepped forward to the podium. Ro recognised Professor Armando Dippet from a portrait she'd seen in the Ministry when she'd been there with her mother once. To her relief the speech didn't last long, and then to her utter amazement, food appeared on the plates in front of her.
"This is all for us?" Poppy asked in amazement, looking confusedly around at Ro and Minerva. "Surely we can't have this much each... the rationing?"
"The Muggle War doesn't apply here, Poppy," Lyall said between mouthfuls. "We're not allowed to help, so we don't have to follow their war rules. Seems fair to me."
"Well I suppose," Poppy said though hardly seemed convinced. Ro noticed that she merely picked at her food during the whole of the feast and ate very little, and at the end of the meal she gave her plate to Hagrid to finish off. After Professor Dippet dismissed them all from the Hall, they followed behind Augusta and the other Prefects up the seemingly never ending staircases to stand in front of a portrait.
The subject of the portrait, a very fat woman, leaned forward and addressed Augusta with a pompous look on her face. "Password?"
"Doorknob." Augusta said calmly, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a large and homely looking room with a roaring fireplace. She called over her shoulder "I expect you all to remember that!" before climbing through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor Common Room.
Before they had the chance to look around, Augusta was directing everyone to various staircases that branched off from the Common Room. "First-year girls!" she shouted over the talking, "That's just Rolanda, Minerva, and Penelope, you're in that dormitory." She pointed to the nearest set of stairs before moving away to address the first-year boys.
Ro pushed through a group of second-years with Minerva and Poppy right behind her, and together they climbed the stairs and opened the door. To their utmost surprise they were greeted by the excited hoots of three owls, each perched on the roof of a four-poster bed.
"Hello Nightingale!" Poppy smiled as she stroked the head of the little owl that had just swooped down onto her shoulder.
"Ironic name for an owl. And I wish Archer was that friendly." Ro muttered, looking up at the eagle own that had its wide amber gaze fixed on her. "He used to belong to my oldest brother Kurtis, but when he joined the Aurors, Archer became mine. Don't think he was too happy about that." As if in agreement, Archer let out an indignant sounding screech.
"Well this is Fergus." Minerva introduced her own owl who was sitting rather lopsidedly on the witch's hat she was wearing. "A tawny owl who took quite a liking to this hat I that was wearing in Diagon Alley!"
Minerva ended her sentence with a yawn, and Ro couldn't help laughing. "Tired much?" she asked.
"Aren't you?" Poppy asked with an identical yawn, and Ro suddenly realised she was exhausted.
"Yeah, I am actually. We should go to bed, or we'll end up dozing off in one of tomorrow's lessons."
It didn't take long for them to change from their robes into nightgowns, and with the owls settled on the bedposts they each climbed into their respective beds. Ro had hardly rested her head on her pillow when sleep engulfed her, dreaming of all the possibilities that would face them the next day.
Author's Note:
For any of you who haven't caught on with my character references, Wilhelmina Grubbly is Professor Grubbly-Plank (in this story she aquired the Plank surname through marriage), Septima Vector is Professor Vector (arithmacy teacher), Lyall Lupin is Remus Lupin's father, and Augusta Brown is Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother (since she married into the Longbottom family I found another supposed pureblood surname for her- according to the HP wiki, Lavendar Brown is a pureblood so I just used that).