"Well done," she said. Or that was at least what Ari thought she said, because she could only read the professor's lips amid the tumultuous applause in the hall.

Ari beamed. She wanted to tell Professor McGonagall about the conversation she had with the hat and the houses it had considered and the reason she chose Gryffindor in the end. But she couldn't get a word in, because the professor was beckoning her to sit down at one of the tables.

And so Ari hopped off the stool and ran to the table where everyone was clapping the loudest. They were all grinning at her and thumping their fists against the table. A tall red-haired boy stood up to congratulate her and wring her hand, then introduced himself as the Gryffindor prefect, Percy Weasel or something. Another pair of grinning redheads clapped right in her face before gesturing to her to sit down. Those redheads introduced themselves as twin brothers Fred and George. She felt welcomed and happy all at once. The only problem was it was kind of hard to tell all the redheads apart, but at least she managed to differentiate Percy by the "P" badge on his chest. The twins on the other hand — it was impossible to tell who was Fred and who was George.

"Great job," one of the twin redheads said to her as the applause died down. "I think that was the first true hatstall I've ever seen. Your name's Ari, then?"

"Yes," she responded. "What's a hatstall?"

But the boy didn't have time to answer, because that was when Professor McGonagall announced the next name off her list.

The ceremony continued on, and now that Ari had been placed in a house and had sat down she was starting to get bored again. And hungry. Her stomach was empty and twisted-up, and she was ready to faint from starvation. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone so long without food. The last time she ate was this afternoon, and all she had was some chocolate and jellybeans. While it had been good, she was really craving some real savory food. Like Dad's yummy pasta. But thinking of Dad made her feel all tight and prickly inside, so she shoved the thought down and tried to concentrate on the rest of the ceremony. But her attention kept slipping, and before long she felt her eyes slipping shut… she was ready to slip off the chair…

The hat's yell of "Ravenclaw!" jerked Ari out of her torpor, and she shook her head and straightened up in her seat. And then she started to nod off again… and then another round of applause shook her awake. It continued on like this for a while, the endless cycle of her dozing off and then jerking awake… and then during one of the names, the redheads beside her cheered and clapped exceptionally loud… They were chanting a name — "Ron." Did they know him? Was that their friend? Maybe they were happy that their friend had gotten sorted into Gryffindor, too. And what was funny, Ari noticed their friend was also a redhead!

Soon after, the last student was put in their house and the ceremony was over. Finally! Ari watched as Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment and put the stool and hat away. She watched it rather sadly, wondering if she would ever get a chance to talk to the hat again.

Just then, the man with the long beard, sitting in the center of the staff table, got to his feet. And he had the longest, whitest beard Ari had ever seen!

"Welcome!" exclaimed the big beard man. He beamed and spread his arms out wide. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everyone clapped and cheered, and Ari clapped and laughed along with them. "He's funny!"

"Funny?" repeated one boy beside her, looking uncertain. "What did he mean, though?"

"Dunno," she shrugged. "I thought it was some wizarding talk?"

"He seems a bit mad," the boy said.

"Mad?" Percy exclaimed. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Ari looked at the table. Her mouth dropped open when she saw that all the golden plates, which had been empty just moments before, were now filled with more food Ari had ever seen in one place. And it all looked delicious. There were buttery potatoes, golden-brown pies, grilled meat, round peas, and tender carrots. It was really different from the usual stuff they had at home, but it all looked regardless.

There was so much stuff Ari felt completely overwhelmed, not even sure where to begin. And you could just take whatever you wanted from the plates! But she sure wasn't going to miss out on anything, so she loaded her plate with a bit of everything. Then she began to eat. It was an explosion of flavor and texture for her taste buds, nothing she had ever tasted before. For a few minutes she lost track of all sense of time and place and just stuffed her face with the delicious food.

She barely noticed when the other students started chatting about their summers and their relief to finally get sorted, but she did perk up when a ghost named Nick-something floated to their table. And what was more, he had a magic trick where he pulled off his near-decapitated head for all of them to see!

"Whoa, that was so cool!" Ari gasped, almost spitting out her mouthful of food in shock. "How did you do that? Why's your head like that?"

"I'd prefer not to disclose that particular detail," Nick replied stiffly as he righted his head back into position.

"But what's it like being a ghost?" Ari demanded. "Do you get to just float past things? Doesn't it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't hurt," Nick replied. "In fact, we barely feel anything. For us, anything with matter is simply another part of the air."

"But what do you even do as a ghost?" Ari continued eagerly, putting down her fork. "I mean, I'd get pretty bored if all I did everyday was float around and not get to eat or sleep or anything. Or maybe you could go around scaring people? I think that's what I'd do." She laughed. Ahh, she could almost imagine how much fun she would have if she could float into Sam's aka the big bear's den in the morning. Forget about knocking on his door, she'd just drift in and pull off her decapitated head for him to see. It would be a real holler, that was for sure.

Beside her, Fred snorted. Or maybe it was George. "Keeping your priorities straight, I see."

Ari beamed. Nick, on the other hand, did not look quite as impressed. "Don't be silly," he said. "Some ghosts may take pleasure in engaging in such frivolities, but not me. I, unlike them, am a man of culture."

And with that, a disgruntled Nick floated away farther down the table. Ari was still bursting with questions about ghosts and what it was like being one. She hoped Nick could come back later in a better mood so she could ask.

After sampling a bit of everything from the plates and tasting the diverse array of yummy goodness, Ari was seriously getting full. She didn't think she had ever eaten so much. But it turned out there was still more. Because when everyone finished eating and all the leftover food disappeared, a moment later new things popped up on the plates! From what she could see, there was ice cream and cake and chocolate and various pastries. She felt her head spinning all over again. Back at home they never had many sweet things; in fact, the first time she tried ice cream was back in Diagon Alley. She had since been reminiscing about the ice cream's unique cold, sweet, creamy taste. And now that it was in front of her again, she wasted no time in piling scoops and scoops of ice cream on her plate. It was just as delicious as it was back then, and even though she was full, she devoured everything on her plate with reckless abandon.

After finishing all that ice cream, Ari truly felt like she was going to burst, like one of those overstuffed stuffed animals. Everyone else was still enjoying their sweets and chatting merrily, except the boy beside her, who was quietly working his way through a treacle tart. As she watched him, he suddenly looked up and met Ari's gaze. She gasped.

"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed. The boy had the brightest and greenest eyes she had ever seen, like emeralds. And they were made even more pronounced by his huge owlish spectacles. "You have pretty eyes."

The black-haired boy set down his goblet and smiled slightly. "Thanks."

"They're so green!" she enthused, leaning her face close and peering into them so she could get a better look. He blushed and turned his head away slightly. "And so shiny. I like your eyes. I've always wanted green eyes or blue eyes or purple eyes, but I'm stuck with brown. Not just any brown — dark brown. See?" And then she pointed to her eye. "That's the boringest color, you know."

"I see," was all the boy said.

"Wait, Ari," George suddenly said. Or maybe it was Fred. "Do you not know who he is?"

"Hm?" Ari said, turning to the twins.

"Look at his scar!" Fred choked out. "On his forehead!"

"Forehead?" Ari repeated, and then turned back to the green-eyed boy. Her eyes roamed his forehead, and she gasped when she saw thin pink lines sticking out from underneath his long fringe. "Oh, wow! It's really a scar! And on your head, too!" She pushed back his fringe to get a better look at the scar. She gasped again when she saw the full scar. The raised bits of flesh formed a distinctive shape against his skin. "Oh, wow! That's such a cool scar! It's like a lightning bolt!"

"Oh, er, yeah."

She massaged the knotty welts. The boy blushed and the twins snickered behind their hands. "Does it hurt?" she asked, looking at the boy.

"No," he said.

"But how did you get it?" she asked in awe. "Did you get struck by lightning or something?"

"It's Harry Potter!" George hissed.

"Who's Harry Potter?" Ari echoed, letting go of the boy's fringe to look at the redheads.

"Wait a minute —" Fred said, his fork falling with a clatter as his eyes roamed between Ari and Harry. "Don't tell me, Ari — you really don't know Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Who?" Ari said, growing more and more confused. She looked between George and Harry, and she noticed the latter's cheeks had turned even redder.

George exchanged a quizzical look with Fred beside him, who snickered. "Ari, you… you're not from wizarding parents, aren't you?" Fred said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" she demanded.

"No, no, don't worry about it," George said to Ari, while jabbing his brother's side. "It's just that… Harry is sort of… famous in the wizarding world. But of course — not because he wanted to. Maybe… he can tell you if he wants?"

"Forget it," Harry said quickly. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Fred yelped. "Harry, you defeated the most powerful dark wizard in all of history, how is that not a big deal?"

"Whoa!" Ari exclaimed, gaping at Harry, who by now had turned scarlet. "You defeated a wizard? A real wizard?"

"Yup, and not just that, he did it when he was a baby, too!" Fred added eagerly. "We call the bad wizard You-Know-Who, and You-Know-Who tried to curse Harry with the deadliest curse known to wizardkind — a curse nobody has ever survived, but Harry survived it! And in the process, the curse rebounded onto You-Know-Who and he scarpered. Defeated by his own hand! It's in all the history books!"

"Wow!" Ari grinned at Harry. "You were a baby when you did that? That's amazing! But what did you do? How did you defeat the bad guy's curse thingie? Did you just knock him over with your lightning bolt or something?"

"Ah… I dunno, really," Harry mumbled, squirming in his seat.

Ari didn't know why he was giving all these short responses. If she had defeated a bad wizard when she was a baby, she would want to let the whole world know! But before she could ask Harry any more questions and get him to talk more, George suddenly said, "but Ari, you've already made quite an accomplishment for yourself too, eh? Your hatstall had me at the edge of my seat!"

"What's a hatstall?" Ari asked.

"Ah, it's when the hat gets indecisive and takes longer to decide on someone's house," George explained, "since a student has qualities that fit in one or more house."

"True hatstalls aren't very common," Fred said. "They happen usually once in fifty years or something — well, I dunno the exact statistic, but it's rare, just know that."

"Ooh, cool!" Ari exclaimed. "I'm rare!"

"You sure are," Fred grinned, leaning in eagerly. "So what happened while you were under there? Did you hear the hat talking to you and all?"

She nodded. "It was nice. A load of gibberish, I forget what it was now. Something about having wings, I think. And then it let me choose what house I wanted."

"Oh, nice," Fred said, raising his eyebrows. "I've heard of that happening, when the hat gets really indecisive. Or if you just want a house you want in particular, it lets you choose."

"Why did you choose to be in Gryffindor, Ari?" George asked.

"'Cause the hat said Professor McGonagall's the head of the Gryffindor house," Ari explained, "and she was a Gryffindor, too! And she gave me my letter and went to Diagonally with me, and she's really nice! So I thought I could go to Gryffindor and be with her, too."

"Nice choice," Fred said, grinning. "Yeah, Professor McGonagall's pretty decent. Even if she can put a damper on our pranks sometimes but hey — I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, never in my dreams. Gryffindor's the best house out of the bunch, by a mile."

George snickered. "Slytherin could never."

"What's Slytherin?" Ari asked. "Oh wait, that's one of the other houses, right?" she answered her own question, suddenly remembering what the hat had said.

"Yep," Fred said, and a pained look sort of crossed his face. "And where Gryffindor's the best, Slytherin's the worst house out of all four of them. By a long shot."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

George grimaced. "Well, you see, Slytherin has sort of a reputation of being… well, what's the word?"

"Evil," Fred cut in promptly.

Ari gasped. "Evil? How?"

"Just look, and you'll see," Fred said darkly. He nudged his thumb slightly. "They're over on the other side of the Hall. The table with the green and silver banners. See 'em?"

Ari looked over her shoulder and followed Fred's gaze until she saw the table with the green and silver decorations. "Don't they look like a rotten bunch?" Fred grimaced.

Ari inspected their faces closely. She couldn't see anything particularly weird about the Slytherins — they looked about the same as everyone else around her. But she did notice the Slytherins were noticeably more subdued than the rowdy Gryffindors.

"You're telling me!" there was suddenly a thick choking sound on the other side of the table. Ari turned back around to see the other newly sorted redhead, who had been so busy stuffing his face he had barely spoken more than a few words. But now he was ranting and glaring furiously, his cheeks still bulging with food. "This prat named Malfoy and his friends barged into our compartment on the train and they were insulting us and being completely horrible — and no surprise, they got sorted into Slytherin!"

"Who's Malfoy?" Ari asked.

"The blond one!" the redhead said furiously, gesturing with his jam-covered fingers. "The one who looks like a rat, beside the fat idiots—"

Ari's eyes scanned the Slytherin table and sure enough, she noticed a pointy, blond-haired boy, so blond his hair looked almost white. On each side of him were two humongous blobs that Ari would've mistaken for boulders if they hadn't been shoving fistfuls of food into their mouths.

Meanwhile, the redhead was ranting on, "and then Malfoy came into our compartment and insulted us — insulted our family, literally calling us riff-raff! Isn't that right, Harry?"

"Yeah," said the green-eyed boy.

"But are you riff-raff?" Ari said to the redhead, leaning in conspiratorially.

"Of course not!" the redhead spat so forcefully mashed-up bits of food flew into Ari's face. "Malfoy's just an idiot, trying to throw dirt on anyone who he doesn't like — and trust me, he doesn't like anyone. He's so bloody annoying, just thinking of his face makes me wanna—" he punched the air violently.

Fred sighed and lowered his goblet. "It's true, though. Lucius Malfoy is a snobby prat, and knowing his history… well… I'm not surprised his son's the exact same. And he's a Slytherin too, of course." He gave a disgusted grunt.

"So all Slytherins really are bad?" Ari demanded, looking at the others around her in confusion. She had a hard time believing this redhead's story and how they were all saying Slytherins were bad. This castle seemed too good and beautiful for such bad people to come here. "But how can that be possible?"

"Because all the scum get sorted there, that's what," the smaller redhead growled, glowering at the Slytherin table. "And look at their smug faces — they're all so proud of it, too!"

"Well, it's more complicated than that," George said. "Slytherin had a real dodgy history, so that's why it's got such a bad reputation today. Its founder was a real piece of work, let's just put it that way."

"And don't forget Snape," Fred growled as he viciously stabbed his knife through a cake. "He's a Slytherin too. Their head of house, actually, and he favors the Slytherins over everyone else. Sometimes I get the feeling that he's the reincarnation of Slytherin's founder himself."

"Who's Snape?" Ari asked.

"Only the worst professor known to wizardkind," George paused from licking his ice cream to grimace. "He teaches Potions — well, not teach, more like he yells at people and takes off points to people who aren't Slytherin."

"He's always wanted the dark arts position, though," Fred muttered. "That's another class we have, only right now it's being taught by Professor Quirrell. But Snape never got the job. Dumbledore never let him."

"I reckon he doesn't fully trust Snape," George muttered back. "Snape knows a bit about the dark arts, you see."

"What's the dark arts?" Ari asked.

"Evil magic, basically," Fred responded. "The type of magic evil wizards use to kill other people. Or torture them."

Ari gasped, dropping her fork in shock. "No!"

"Yep," Fred said gloomily. "It's rough."

"But — but Professor McGonagall said that magic people don't use their magic to kill people!" Ari protested.

"Well, it's different for certain kinds of wizards," George explained. "Some people just can't control themselves and turn to evil. People like Snape. He used to work for You-Know-Who himself, in fact."

Ari gasped again. "You-Know-Who? You mean the same wizard that Harry defeated?"

Fred nodded. "And Snape was pretty well-respected by You-Know-Who, from what I heard. But then when You-Know-Who got defeated, Snape ran off and joined our side again and pretended like nothing happened." He made a disgusted sound in his throat. "But he's not fooling anyone. He can try all he wants to pretend he's changed and is on the side of light, but he can't erase his past."

"But why's he teaching here, then, if he's so evil?" Ari demanded.

"Dumbledore wanted to give Snape a second chance," George answered, shaking his head, "and saying that he's changed — as long as he's not tempted by the dark arts position, that is. But I call it rubbish. Nobody who does something so evil could ever change."

"Yeah, and Snape's just a prick in general," Fred growled. "Class with him is hell on earth, I tell you. Can't even do anything without him flipping out on you."

George nodded emphatically. "Once Fred and I exploded our cauldrons and got our potions all over his room. He yelled at us and gave us detentions for three weeks straight."

"And then he threatened to blow our heads off," Fred added.

Ari listened to them with her mouth hanging open. How weird! She had a hard time believing that someone so mean and evil could exist — this Snape professor sounded even worse than her brother. And nobody could be more annoying than that idiot. And besides, Ari didn't think there could be something or someone so bad in this beautiful castle in the first place. Just as she had seen in her dream and with what Professor McGonagall had told her, everyone here was good and kind and just wanted to make pretty sparks fly from their wands.

At the same time, Ari had to admit Fred and George's descriptions were making her more and more curious about this strange Snape person. Maybe Snape was the kind of person Dad had been warning her about, the bad wolves who wanted to hurt people and she needed to be careful of. "Is Snape up there?" Ari asked, pointing up to the table where the grown-ups were sitting.

"Yep," George muttered. "The one in all black — beside Professor Quirrell. He's the one with the purple turban."

Ari's gaze roamed over the table. She found Professor McGonagall with her pointy witch's hat chatting with the big beard man. Beside them was a man with a ginormous purple headcloth. And beside him was a man dressed in all black, as George had said.

Though, Ari wouldn't have been able to tell he was a man upon first glance. He had long black hair as long as hers, and he was as long and scrawny as a giraffe. Ari wanted to laugh. That was the person they were supposed to be afraid of? Talk about a real disappointment! Sure, he looked kind of weird, but Ari had been expecting the villain of the school to be real big and brawny. But this guy — her dad could've probably taken him out with a single punch!

The moment Ari thought that, however, Snape suddenly turned his head and looked in her direction! At once, her thoughts came to a screeching halt and she could only stare frozen at him. His eyes were as deep and dark as the lake, but with none of the reflected light from the moon and stars. Just looking at his eyes made Ari feel all cold inside, like she was diving into the lake itself.

"Ouch!" Harry suddenly yelped. Ari jumped and looked at the boy, who was cupping his forehead.

"What?" she demanded.

"Oh — er, nothing," Harry said, quickly letting go of his head. Then he turned back to his plate and busied himself with his treacle tart.

Ari looked back at Snape, who was now staring at the other side of the hall. She felt a prickle of discomfort in her stomach. Okay, maybe he really was someone to be reckoned with after all. She hadn't gotten a good feeling when she looked at his eyes. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. So weird and uncomfortable. She stared at him hard, trying to feel the coldness again, but he kept his eyes in the other direction.

She marveled at this quick clean up and wondered if it had something to do with magic. She wanted to ask Fred and George about it, but that was when the big beard man stood up again and everyone fell quiet. Ari expected him to make some more weird noises, but this time he made a fully-fledged, coherent speech about the policies and rules of Hogwarts. It wasn't as funny nor was it as concise as his first speech, and before long Ari found her attention wandering again. And it was worse because she was feeling too full and tired after her meal, and her eyes kept slipping shut.

She did wake up, however, when the headmaster stopped rambling and made them sing the school song. Even though she had no idea how the song went, Ari still had fun listening to everyone else sing and watching the golden lyrics fly above their heads. Everyone sang at a different pace and finally, only Fred and George were left singing the song at a funeral's march, which Ari got a good laugh from.

Finally, the Headmaster dismissed them so the prefects could lead them back to their common room. Ari didn't know what a common room was, but Fred and George told her it was basically the place where all the Gryffindors hung out to chat and relax. And so she followed them up a marble staircase, then a series of winding corridors that made Ari's head spin. She tried to memorize the route, but her head was already so overwhelmed with new information it was hopeless. She could hope that the prefects would be here to lead the Gryffindors to the common room all the time, because she sure didn't think she could remember all these complicated routes. She was made even more distracted by all the sliding doors and moving tapestries and talking portraits. Ari gaped at the paintings. They were just like regular portraits, only the people moved, and this time they actually responded to her, unlike the people on her chocolate frog cards.

But Ari couldn't talk to them for long, or else she would get swallowed by the crowd, so she had to trot to keep up with the rest of the first-years. After a long, toiling journey made up of mountains of staircases and winding corridors, Percy led them to a portrait of a fat lady with a silky pink dress. Like the other portraits, she could talk, but Ari didn't have much time to be impressed before Percy said some weird-sounding words and the portrait actually swung forward, revealing a big hole in the wall. Ari widened her eyes as everyone climbed through the hole, and when she got through the other side herself she gasped.

It was the nicest, prettiest, and coziest room she had ever seen. She didn't think anything could be nicer than any of the rooms back at home, but apparently she was wrong. There was a large, crackling fireplace with squishy armchairs. There was also an ornate rug and lion tapestries on the walls, and the lions actually moved and roared! There was a big window that gave a good view of the vast, darkened grounds and the mountains beyond. They were even higher up than Ari's home on their lonely little perch, and her mouth dropped open again when she saw the view outside. She didn't think it'd be possible to be so high up! She felt like she was standing at the edge of the world. She was the bird who had completed their journey across the mountains and was perched atop the world's tallest peak. And now that she had come so far and high could she fully appreciate the scope of the world's beauty.

But her admiration was unfortunately cut short when the prefects forced everyone to go to bed. Reluctantly, Ari peeled her gaze away from the window and followed everyone up the staircase and into her dormitory.

The first-year's dormitory was a lot like the main room, and was even cozier. There were four-posters placed around the circular room, with silky red drapings and chests at the foot of each bed. The other beds' drapes were already pulled up, so Ari went to the last empty one. Ari gasped when she saw the luggage she had left on the train on her bed, and on the floor was Prince's cage. The moment she bent down to inspect him, he let out an angry squawk. She supposed that was his way of telling her he was okay, and was just hangry she had left him behind to starve.

She fished through her bag for the rabbit meat and threw a few pieces through the cage bars. As she watched Prince devour it all greedily, she heard an awfully familiar voice behind her. "Aren't you the one who had the hatstall during the sorting?"

Ari turned around and scoffed when she saw the jabbering nest-haired girl she had ridden the boat with. The girl was standing at the adjacent bed, her hands on her hips and a demanding look on her scrunched face.

"Oh, so it's you again," Ari rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"We share a dormitory, obviously!" the girl rolled her eyes back. Ari sighed. Great, just great. "But you had a hatstall during the sorting, right?" the girl repeated doggedly, narrowing her beady eyes at Ari.

"What? Hatstall?" Ari repeated. Then she remembered — "wait, oh yeah. I had the hatstall. Why? I mean, why'd you ask?"

"I was just curious, that's all," the girl said, scrunching up her nose some more. "You know, true hatstalls are very rare. They usually occur once every fifty years. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History. I suppose I was almost a hatstall, too, but not quite as extreme as yours. The hat was deciding between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for me, but I ended up in Gryffindor. I heard Albus Dumbledore himself was a Gryffindor, did you know that? And he ended up becoming one the most powerful and influential wizards in the world. But anyway, which houses did the hat decide for you?"

She rambled on even longer and faster than the big beard man, and Ari's brain could barely keep up. "Huh?" was all she responded with.

"What houses did the hat decide for you?" the girl repeated, slower this time.

"Hmm…" Ari thought for a moment, trying to remember the house's names. When she couldn't, she just replied, "all of them."

"All of them?!" repeated the big-haired girl, her eyes popping out to even greater sizes than her hair. "You mean the hat was considering between all four houses?"

"Yeah!" insisted Ari. "The hat said I fit in traits for all the houses! So it let me choose the house I wanted. So I chose Gryffinhouse."

"That's interesting," the girl remarked, sitting down on her bed and making a thinking face. "But why did that happen, I wonder? And how did the hat even allow that? I've never heard of anyone choosing their own house."

"Well, it can happen," Ari said proudly. "Obviously it can happen, 'cause it happened to me. I guess I'm just rare. Special. Not like you."

"Oh, please!" the girl rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if you're special or not. Yes, you might have had a hatstall, but in the end, you were still sorted into Gryffindor. Along with the rest of us. And now that we're in the same house, we've started out on the same footing, so it doesn't matter who's special and who's not."

"I'm not special?"

"No, you're not," the girl replied matter-of-factly. "And neither am I. Like I said, we're all the same when we've come to Hogwarts. We've all come here to practice our magic and gain knowledge."

"Yeah, I guess that's right," Ari smiled. Coming to school and making sparks fly from her wand was her heart's biggest dream, after all.

"I'm so glad you understand," the girl said, smiling back. "My name's Hermione Granger, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

Ari made a face. Mike-ranger? What a weird name. Then again, from the people she knew so far, a lot of them had weird names. Maybe weird names were just the norm in this world. "And what's your name?" Mikeranger asked pointedly.

"Ari."

"It was nice getting to know you, Ari," Mikeranger said. "Maybe we can talk more later. But right now, it's late and I need to go to bed, because I need to wake up early because classes start tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp, and I really can't be late." And with that, Mikeranger snapped up the drapes in a wink.

"What class do we have tomorrow?" Ari asked, still so busy processing the girl's words that she hadn't even noticed she had already disappeared behind the drapes. And then Ari rolled her eyes. Ugh, talk about annoying. Just trying to listen to that girl talk was enough to give her a headache. Thankfully, she could have some peace and quiet now and give her throbbing head some time to rest. She would need her brain in tip-top shape tomorrow so it would be able to absorb all the exciting new information.