The Beginning

First Glimpse~*Celine*

First Glimpse

Celine

Celine was staring out the window, like the rest of the first years on the train. Hogwarts was huge, even bigger than her parents and brother had made it seem when telling her all about the mysterious school. Then, it disappeared from view as they rounded the corner and pulled into the station.

“Celine!” Rose snapped her fingers in front of Celine’s face, shaking her out of her trance. “Hello!? We need to get our stuff together, the train stopped if you hadn’t noticed.”

Celine gave her a sharp look. “Of course I noticed! What do think I am, blind?”

“I doubt it. You wouldn’t be half as ‘observant’ then.” Rose snickered.

A smile appeared on Celine’s face. “You got that right. Now where’s my owl?”

Rose shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been concentrated on my own stuff.”

Celine kept smiling. “That’s what I like about you. You’re soooo....self-absorbed. Yet, still good at following orders,” she noted. Rose smirked.

Cassy, a girl with a pixie cut, stuck her head back into the compartment. “You people take forever.” she groaned.

“Sorry Cassy!” Celine said as she took her trunk down from the rack and grabbed Catastrophe, her owl. Catastrophe hooted indignantly as she was swung down from the rack. “Oh shut it, Trophe!” Celine exclaimed.

“Why are you being so nice to her?” Rose muttered to Celine.

“Who? Cassy?”

“Yes, that’s who! Who else have you been nice to lately?”

“My sister and parents, you, and Cassy. Good point.”

“Now, why are you being nice to her? She’s way too good to be part of us.”

“Do you even know who she is? Cassy Moone. Her family is like, the most important wizarding family there is! You must have some idea, I mean you brought her here!”

“Not for that reason,” Rose muttered. Celine sighed as she pulled open the compartment door and slid out into the throng of students leaving the train.

As they stepped out onto the platform, Celine heard a voice calling “Firs’ years over here! Firs’ years over here!”

“Ugh,” she frowned as they walked towards the large outline of a person who was yelling, “This must be that awful groundskeeper my brother told me about.”

Rose looked at her incredulously. “He’s so big! What do think happened to him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a badly done growth charm.” They both snickered at the thought, almost crashing into three girls who were whispering something to each other and kept shooting Celine and Rose looks.

“Oh, take a picture, it’ll last longer!” Celine spat at them. The shortest one, who had red hair, opened her mouth to retort but then someone pushed through the girls and smiled at Celine and Rose. “Cassy! Hey! We lost you there for a minute!” Celine exclaimed a smile suddenly springing on to her face. The red headed girl looked confused by Celine and Rose’s sudden mood changes.

“Firs’ years this way!’ It was that big man again. He led them down a steep, winding path that finally ended at the edge of big black lake with boats tied up along the edge. The first years could see the castle standing on top of a mountain. It had turrets and towers and tons of windows. “Everyone in, then,” the man said, gesturing to the boats. “No more ‘an four to a boat!”

Celine, Rose, and Cassandra hopped into one and Celine purposely made sure there was no more room for anyone else in it. “Everyone in a boat?” the man asked. “Right then, FORWARD!” he shouted to the boats. They moved off at once, across the lake until they reached a curtain of ivy at which they all ducked.

They were gliding along a dark passageway until they reached a sort of underground harbor. Everyone clamored out their boats and followed the man up the tunnel and across the grass until they reached the castle door. The large man knocked three times on the door.

It swung open at once. A tall witch with green robes and black hair was standing there. She looked very stern and even Celine, who usually would have made a sarcastic comment by this point kept silent. “The first years Professor McGonagall,” the man said.

“Thank you Hagrid” said Professor McGonagall tightly. “I’ll take them from here.” She pulled the door open wider and the first years hurried in.

They stared around at the enormous entrance hall with the a ceiling so high you couldn’t see where it ended. They then followed Professor McGonagall into a small empty chamber where she explained the sorting to them.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, the start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.“

“Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you"

As soon as she left, one boy with light blonde hair, that Celine knew to named Draco Malfoy, moved around the group to face a boy with black hair. He looked at him for a second and then said, “So it’s true then. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. I don’t like your choice of company though.”

“Harry Potter?” Rose muttered to Celine. “I didn’t know he still existed. Haven’t heard about him in a few years. I thought he’d gone and died in the sewer or something.”  Celine broke out in silent laughter.

Now Harry was saying something about being able to choose his own friends, blah, blah, blah, whatever. A girl with short dark brown hair and brown eyes next to Celine nudged her.

“He’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

“Harry Potter? Are you crazy?”

“No, not him, the blonde one.” The brown haired girl’s eyes sparkled. Celine let out a little gasp. There was no way she was letting this girl near Draco. She had liked him ever since their families first met. In her mind she swore that she would never let this girl, whoever she was get Draco Malfoy.

She was knocked out of her thoughts by Professor McGonagall coming back into the room. “They’re ready for you now.”