Ellie Prewett

The Sorting

I waved at mum and dad through the window, along with Anni and brown-haired girl. We continued to do so until they were out of sight and we were traveling through a gray, wet London. Eventually, we got settled.

"I'm Ellie. What's your name?" I asked brown-haired girl. 

She looked back at us and answered, "I'm Ellen Croverit." She sounded nervous.

Suddenly, a boy with black hair slid open our compartment door and collapsed in the seat next to me. "Hello." I said, startled.

"Oh, hi. Was this seat taken? This was the only compartment not full." He was breathing hard. 

"I'm Anni. This is Ellie, she's my best friend, and this is Ellen. We're all first years." 

He smiled at us, "Cool, I'm a first year, too, but I know lots of people here, almost all the teachers, a lot of the students. I have 5 older brothers that have been, or are, here. I want to be in Hufflepuff, most of my brothers are in Gryffindor, but they're really stuck up about that." 

I nodded at him. "I want to be in Hufflepuff, too! Anni wants to be in Ravenclaw," the boy made a face, "What house do you want to be in, Ellen?" We all turned towards her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but thought otherwise, closed her mouth, and shrugged. 

"Whoa! I almost forgot to introduce myself! I'm Laex, by the way. Like, multiple lakes, but spelled L-A-E-X." 

"Nice to meet you, Laex, but-not-the-kind-you-think-Laex." I said. The rest of the train ride to the school went like that, we talked, made jokes, and even Ellen got in a lot in some of the conversations. I could tell I could count on all of them at Hogwarts.

After a while, an older student, maybe 15, came into our compartment and warned us that we were almost there. Excitedly, we all hustled to the bathrooms to change into our robes. 

Once we were all changed, we watched impatiently out the window to see the school. It came into view across a lake. Anni, Ellen and I all gasped, but Laex just shrugged, but I could tell, there was much excitement in his eyes. 

The humongous grey stone castle loomed in the distance. The grey foggy mist made the castle look gloomy and magnificent. The train lost momentum and speed as we neared the platform.

 I began to take all my stuff out of the upper compartments, but an empty handed older girl with Hufflepuff robes informed me, "Don't worry about your stuff, it will be in your common room but the time you get there. Welcome to Hogwarts." She smiled welcomely. 

I followed her out onto the platform, Laex, Anni and Ellen behind me. The large, wooden platform was wet from rain. The girl pointed towards a very large, tall man off to the left of the platform. "That's Hagrid. You first years go with him, you'll find your way." She winked quickly and disappeared into the crowd. 

"Come on, this way." I said. We just managed to push through the crowd, but we never lost sight of Hagrid. There was a break in the crowd, and then a group of first years around Hagrid. I pushed my way up towards him. 

He had dark, happy eyes and huge hands, maybe the size of watermelons. "Hi, I'm Ellie Prewett." I held out my hand.

He smiled at me and shook it. His grip was strong, and his hand was huge. "Welcome, Ellie. I hope you have a good year. Laex! Have you seen your brothers? They still haven't given me back those flobberworms. Tell them if you see them that I need to talk to them. Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" He winked at us as he called out.

"Sure, Hagrid! My brothers, they're, quite the jokers. One's a third year, and the other is a fourth year. But they seriously, could be twins. They are both in Gryffindor." Laex said, turning toward us. As he talked about his brothers, I thought about my brothers back home. I missed them so much, already.