Sunday 1st September Lonely Compartment People always say that if you want to be a writer, you should keep a diary. I’ve tried keeping a diary before, but in the end, I always got bored and went to meet a friend or something. Not this time, though. All my friends are back home; most of them left school. A few got into different schools, but not many. I was one of the lucky ones, I suppose. Though I wouldn’t exactly call my present situation ‘lucky’. Here I am, sitting in a lonely compartment on a lonely train, on my way to a school where I know no one. Yeah, very lucky. If only those Death Eaters hadn’t broke into the school. If only they hadn’t killed that little first-year. Then I’d still be at Templton Academy, laughing and joking with my friends. Instead, I end up going to Hogwarts. I heard that they sort you into houses there. Based on qualities you have. I have no qualities whatsoever. Everyone will laugh at me. I’m sure everyone will laugh anyway, though; me, some great big sixth-year, standing alongside all the tiny little firsties. Haha. Hold on – there’s someone standing just outside the compartment… They’re coming in… A girl’s saying “Can I sit here?” I’ll write more later... LATER Not-so-lonely Compartment The girl’s name is Lily Evans. She’s very pretty, with long red hair down to her waist and bright green eyes. She’s in sixth-year too, and says she’ll show me round and stuff. She’s away just now, trying to find someone who’ll explain what’s going to happen with me and the Sorting. She doesn’t think they’ll make me stand up there with all the first-years, and I cannot begin to describe how thankful I am. I guess I had better explain a little bit about myself while she’s gone – I seem to have forgotten to do that. My name’s Melanie Parker, and I’m sixteen years old. I was born in Britain, but my family moved to Australia when I was three, and that’s where I went to school. Up until a few months ago, when Death Eaters broke into the school and killed a boy. The school was shut down after that, and everyone had to find somewhere else to go. Most of my friends decided just to leave, as they already had the qualifications they needed. You don’t really need any qualifications to be a writer, which is what I want to be, but Hogwarts offered me a place specially, and everyone said I should go; it was such a great opportunity. So I did, and I’m on my way there right now. I suppose I was a little harsh earlier; I don’t think it will be that bad, not now I have at least one friend. Lily will hopefully introduce me to a few people; she seems quite popular, the number of people she’s already mentioned. Lily shares a dorm with a girl called Alice Diggle, and says she is very clever and bubbly. I really hope I end up with them, in Gryffindor. Lily told me all about the houses; there’s Slytherin – the ambitious people go there. Then there’s Hufflepuff; they’re supposed to be hardworking. Ravenclaws are clever, and Gryffindors are brave. I am not particularly ambitious, hardworking, clever or brave, so I have no idea where I’ll end up. They’ll probably just ask me to go home. Ok, where has that girl got to? She’s been away for ages! She probably just got bored of me and – oh no, there she is now. There are more people with her – I’d better stop writing… EVEN LATER Gryffindor Common Room(!) I made it! I ended up in Gryffindor! I’m sitting in the Common Room right now, grin plastered all over my face. I’m so tired - my eyes are nearly closing (I must look pretty strange, grinning like a maniac with half-shut eyes), but I want to finish writing this before I go to bed. Lily didn’t just get bored of me. She went and found out about the sorting, but got held up on her way back. The thing, or the things holding her back, go by the names of Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. The four are sixth-year Gryffindors too, and, judging from what Lily said, a bunch of prats. James apparently has a huge crush on Lily, and grabs every opportunity to ask her out. Lily, needless to say, is not at all interested, and grabs every opportunity to yell at him. Only she didn’t exactly say that. Anyway, the four of them followed Lily back to the compartment. Sirius strode in first, and turned to face me. I was momentarily speechless. This guy was HOT. Anyway, he looked at me, and his eyes traveled slowly upwards, finally resting on my eyebrows. He grinned, and I self-consciously raised my hand to cover them, blushing. It was all my little sister’s fault. Marie is two years younger than me, and a muggle, like our mum. She finds the whole witch thing highly amusing, and, last night, decided that I didn’t look enough like a witch. She fingered my blonde hair, and said, “You know, we should really dye this.” Manipulative little sod. I let her, and two hours later, my hair was jet black. “Now you look like a proper witch!” She declared happily. Only I don’t think that ‘proper witches’ have black hair and blonde eyebrows. I look incredibly stupid, but I can’t change it, because the dye was permanent, and I didn’t have enough time to dye it back, and I haven’t learnt how to sort it with magic yet. My skin is far too pale for black hair, and I look like a goth. Lily shot Sirius a death stare, and he sobered up pretty quickly, though you could still tell that he was amused. James came in after Sirius, Remus after him, and Peter last. James is very tall, with jet-black hair (similar to mine), and brown eyes. Remus has sandy blonde hair and a kind face; he seems to be the nicest of the lot. Peter is rather short and pudgy and has a rat-like face. He seems to be a sort of groupie; I got the impression that the others were more like his idols than his friends. “Well, Evans?” James raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Lily cast him a disdainful looked before saying, “This is Melanie Parker. She just moved here from Australia. Now get out, all of you, before I give you detention!” “Aww – come on, Evans –” “OUT!” And that, as they say, was that. They left, and didn’t bother us again. Lily swears they’ll be coming up with a plan, and that we should keep on our toes. I’m not all that convinced; from what I can see, James would rather die than attack Lily, Remus is too kind, Peter is too weedy, and Sirius… well, Sirius seems like a bit of an airhead. Don’t think he has many brains behind that beautiful face. But anyway, we arrived at a little station, and these little carriages were there to pick us up. I very nearly screamed. Pulling the carriages were these… well, I suppose you could call them horses. Only, they didn’t look like any horses I’ve ever seen. They were more like skeletons with black bin bags stretched over their bodies. Their eyes were just white; there were no pupils. They had great, bat-like wings sprouting from their backs, and they stood about six feet tall. I stood and stared at them, a mixture of repulse and interest stirring in my stomach. Lily, who had gone ahead into one of the carriages, stuck her head out, and said, “Come on, or you’ll be left behind!” I followed her wordlessly into the carriage. As I sat down, I asked, my voice quivering, “Wh-what were those things?” Lily frowned. “What things?” “The – the things pulling the carriages!” Lily peered out of the window. “There’s nothing there, Mel. You must just be tired.” Maybe I was. I don’t know. I tried to put the horses out of my mind, but couldn’t help stealing a glance at them as we left the carriages. Nope, they were defiantly there. Lily led me up a set of stone steps into a magnificent caste. It really was huge. We reached what Lily called the ‘Entrance Hall’, and she took my hand and pulled me, rather roughly, towards a tall, severe-looking woman, whom everyone else seemed to be avoiding. “Professor McGonagall, this is Melanie Parker. I-” “Of course. Come.” She grabbed me by the arm and steered me towards a small chamber just off the Hall. It was lined with portraits, all of whom looked on in interest. At the end farthest from the door, there was a small stool; a frayed, grotty-looking old hat perched upon it. My own private Sorting. Professor McGonagall whipped the hat off the stool and pushed me down onto it. She then jammed the disgusting old hat onto my head, and stood back. Lily, having followed us in, watched nervously. They both seemed to be waiting for something. Then a voice spoke in my ear. “Lets see... Hmm… Well, you’ve a ready mind, there’s no doubting that. But… my, there’s certainly courage here! Yes, I think you will do best in - GRYFFINDOR!” It shouted the last word, and I tore the hat off my head and threw it to the ground, fearing I was hallucinating again. But the Professor and Lily were both beaming at me. “Miss Evans, if you wouldn’t mind – take Miss Parker to the Great Hall.” “Of course, Professor!” She grabbed me by the hand again and took me back to the Entrance Hall. We went through a different door, and emerged in the most beautiful room I have ever seen. It was huge, and there were five long tables; one at the far end, where the teachers sat, and the other four seating the students. The ceiling, I noticed with a gasp, did not seem to be there at all; you could see the starry sky right through it. There were thousands upon thousands of candles floating in the air above the tables. Lily led me to the one farthest from the door, and we sat down. This, she told me, was the Gryffindor table. “Lily!” A pretty blonde girl with a rather round face threw herself at Lily and hugged her tightly. Lily laughed. “Mel, meet Alice. Alice, this is Mel. She just moved here from Australia – she’s gonna be sharing our dorm.” Alice beamed. “Excellent – it was far too quite last year, with Lisa gone.” “Lisa used to share our dorm, but her parents took her out of school the year before last, because of You-Know-Who and everything,” Lily explained. I got on really well with both of them, luckily. Alice was just as bubbly as Lily said, though I don’t know how clever she is – we just chatted about nothing-ness, really. Anyway, my eyes are really stinging now, so I’m gonna go to bed… ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Monday 2nd September Great Hall Sitting at breakfast just now. Hardly slept at all last night – Lily and Alice wanted to stay up and gossip. From what I gathered, Alice fancies this guy called Frank Longbottom. I think that that has got to be the worst name in history. Anyway, she really does seem smitten, so I guess it’s kinda cute. She also swears that Lily likes James, but even I had to disagree with her there. Those two are just way too different! McGonagall’s handing out timetables… Excellent! I’ve got History of Magic first! I love History – I’d better go. More later. LATER Snooze-ville Ok, I take back what I said about History of Magic. It has got to be the most boring class ever. It’s taught by a ghost, but he just stands there and drones on and on – hold on… Sirius (the hot guy from the train) just passed me a note! “You’re not actually writing notes, are you? Only people like Lily write notes. Are you people like Lily? -Sirius” I had no idea what he was on about, so I just wrote back: “No, I’m not writing notes. I’m writing in my diary. -Mel” I wish I hadn’t written that. The second he finished reading, he lunged across the room and plucked the little book out of my hand. I grabbed it back before he could open it, but now he knows that I keep a diary. I’d better watch what I write. But then, maybe not. Like I said, he doesn’t seem very clever. He’s more like a drowning ant. Annoying, but not exactly threatening. Even Later Hospital Wing I’M GONNA KILL SIRIUS BLACK!!! ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Please, please review!!!