Hogwarts

I walked through the hallways of the train looking for a place to sit. I didn't know anyone other than the twins, Harry, Ron and Hermione which I couldn't find. Finally I found an empty compartment and sat down. I closed the sliding door behind me and looked out the window. It started raining so I followed the raindrops down the window until I heard the sliding door open. I turned to see the twins coming to sit across from her.

"Hey there Briar." Fred smiled.

"We saw you sitting in here alone and decided to come sit with you." George said.

"You guys don't have to, go sit with your friends." I smiled. I secretly hoped they wouldn't leave, I was honestly really nervous and didn't want to sit alone.

"No way, we're gonna sit here," Fred said.

"We could invite Ron and em to join us." George suggested.

"Why not?" I said. Fred quickly left to go find them. We waited about fifteen minutes until Fred came back with the group behind him. I slid closer to the window making more room.

Fred sat next to me with George beside him. Ron, Harry, and Hermione all sat across from us. We talked until it was gone to put our robes on. I went to the girls change room with Hermione.

"Hey Hermione, will I have to be sorted with all the first years?" I asked. That would be so embarrassing.

"Hopefully not, knowing Dumbledore, he would make sure to keep it quiet that a witch wasn't detected until her fifth year." Hermione explained. That eased my mind a bit but not fully.

-

We all got off the train and I followed the group to carriages drawn by, nothing. I waited with the group excluding the twins since they got on an earlier carriage.

"How do these get pulled by nothing?" I asked getting a laugh from Hermione.

"Obviously magic silly." I smiled realizing how dumb I sounded. Harry looked at Hermione puzzled.

"Uh Mione, these creatures are pulling them." He said looking at the front of the carriage.

"You're not crazy, I see them too." A girl with platinum blonde hair said. We all looked to see her sitting in the carriage reading a book upside down. We all got in the carriage and looked at the girl.

"Everyone, this is Loon- Luna Lovegood," Hermione sputtered. "Briar, this is Neville, he's in our year as well." She motioned to the boy who I didn't realize was there till now.

"Hello." He awkwardly waved at me.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled at him.

-

We got to Hogwarts and everyone was standing in a hallway in front of 2 large doors. I was standing with the twins after I had found them. A woman in a long green dress that touched the floor came to the front of the crowd and cleared her throat making the room go silent.

"Good evening Hogwarts students, could Briar Hawkes come to the front of the room." She asked. The twins put their hands on my shoulder reassuring me before lightly pushing me towards the lady.

"Ah, there you are." She smiled. She pulled me up beside her and put her hand on my shoulder. I could hear students whispering things.

"Who is she?"

"How come we've never seen her before?"

"Why isn't she in a house?"

The lady cleared her throat again again causing the room to go silent.

"I'm going to make this very clear, no one shall harass Ms. Hawkes with questions at this time, understood?" Everyone nodded and murmured yes. The lady then took me away from the crowd into another room. I was met with a teacher dressed in all black.

"Ms. Hawkes, I presume?" He said in a weird tone that gave me shivers. I nodded and he pointed to a stool which I went and sat down in.

"You probably want an explanation?" The lady asked, I nodded. "First off my name is Professor McGonagall, and this is Professor Snape. For some reason Hogwarts didn't detect your magic ability until this year, however you will join your classmates in class and if they ask just explain what happened. You will need to be sorted into a house." She explained.

"We will be doing your sorting after the first years. Stay in this room until you are called on, once you hear your name walk through those doors. We have nowhere for you to sit until you are sorted." Professor Snape explained, he then left the room hurriedly.

"You will sit with the fifth years of your house once you've been sorted." Professor McGonagall followed him out.

I sat for what seemed like ages just listening to the first years getting sorted and their houses cheering.

"They could hurry up." I said sighing.

"They do take forever don't they?" A voice said. I jumped looking around for whoever could have said that. I didn't see anyone.

"Up here." It said again, I looked toward where the voice came from and saw a painting waving at me.

"How..?" My voice trailed off as I heard my name being called.