HARRY AND RON WERE ALSO sorted into the house of Gryffindor, which made Andrea light up into streams of golden. She couldn't quite believe it just yet, and reality had a long while to set in still. The entire evening felt like a fever dream, like she wasn't really there. She'd never met so many people in her life before, and all the Gryffindors were ever so lovely — even Percy Weasley, who was already giving out revision notes. Drea hadn't even begun thinking about classes yet, nevermind exams!

The feast was undeniably magnificent, easily the greatest meal Drea's stomach had ever come across. There was so much, and she couldn't afford to get full until she'd tasted every single thing on the menu. The turkey was by far her favourite — the spices and the meat and the heat made it taste exactly like Christmas, and it was still just September. Then, of course, there was the fine-tasting gravy, which tasted like an angel had kissed her. And she couldn't forget about how amazing those vegetables were cooked.

Ron, of course, refused to eat any of his greens, even when his older brother, Percy, shouted at him — meanwhile, the twins, Fred and George, laughed and played with his food. Drea quite liked the Weasleys; they were a funny bunch. And they all had the exact same hair colour. Andrea often wished she had siblings. Maybe then, she wouldn't have been so lonely growing up. Hagrid and the animals were great company, but she always felt like there was something missing.

"I'm half and half," Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor in their year, stated in his strong Irish accent. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mam's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out."

The blonde girl chuckled, her mouth full of pigs in blankets. "I could eat this every day of my life," she said, then moved on to tear apart a Yorkshire pudding with her teeth.

Dean Thomas, another first year, whom Drea met already, nodded. "Yeah, me too," he said. "Both my parents are Muggles. It was dead strange when they got the letter. Thought it was a prank or something. Nearly went to the police."

"Both mine are magic," Neville Longbottom said. "Live with Nana, though." He turned to his right to face the girl. "What about you, Drea?"

Swallowing down her food, she shrugged. "Mum's a half-blood, I think," she answered, her expression puzzled. "I'm not sure, actually, I dunno."

"Why don't you ask her, then?" Seamus questioned.

Drea nodded, face falling slightly. "Yeah, good idea."

She went quiet for a long moment, as she often did when her mood shifted, and allowed every conversation going on to fly past her head. Soon enough, the world zoomed out and she was trapped behind a bubble of complete silence. She knew she was around hundreds of people, but she couldn't sense a soul a million miles away. A few moments later, the blonde girl started to feel tried, and so she yawned, but her ears only waved slightly to hear it. It felt like being stuck under water, when all the sound around you gets sucked away and drowned out by the waves, and then...POP! It all comes back in a flash.

"Drea?" She flinched and looked up, seeing Ron leaning back on the bench to see her, with Harry opposite him. "Sit over here with us!We made room."

Grinning and going back to normal, Andrea jumped up from her seat and went to sit with her two best friends, who she'd only met five hours ago.

On her other side was Hermione Granger. The girl was deeply engrossed in a story Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell were telling her about one of the professors. Already, she was talking about work and classes and extracurriculars, and all that boring stuff. She shot Drea a short smile when she sat down, which she kindly returned.

"She's mental," Ron told her, shaking his head with wide eyes. "Already making homework timetables, the lunatic is."

Harry and Andrea laughed at him, both shaking their heads. "I cannot wait to sleep tonight," the girl stated. "I'll bet I can see my other room from our window. Oh, wait. We won't be in the same room! What a shame! I guess it's smart, though, since you know...boys and girls shouldn't share rooms at our age. I think it's illegal, actually. But I bet our beds are so comfy and our quilts are like —"

"Are you eating that or can I?" Ron suddenly interrupted, staring greedily at the chicken leg in her hand.

Andrea looked at him for a second, giving the boy some hope, then bit right into the meat, grinning as she chewed and swallowed it down.

Harry laughed at the pair, when Ron scowled and Drea stuck out her tongue.

Curiously, the famous Potter leaned to his left side, where the Gryffindor Prefect sat. "Say, Percy, who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked, pointing.

Drea followed his eyesight, seeing a rather moody-looking teacher with the darkest, greasiest hair she'd ever seen. It nearly put her off her food. He honestly looked like he belonged in one of those before pictures from shampoo adverts on TV. She cringed and glanced back at her friends, earning a chuckle from Percy.

"Oh, that's Professor Snape," he answered, "head of Slytherin house."

Thinking back on Malfoy and his hair, Drea nodded with understanding.

"What's he teach?" Harry asked next.

"Potions. But everyone knows it's the Dark Arts he fancies."

Upon hearing the statement, Andrea's eyebrows shot right up to the ceiling. Her shocked, childlike expression confused many people around her, especially when she dramatically slapped her hand over her mouth.

Percy watched her in confusion, but waited for the girl to speak.

"So, you're telling me," she gasped loudly, "that he fancies that teacher." Drea looked back at Professor Quirrel, who was shaking nervously at the dinner table. "I mean, I guess everyone had a type, but seriously? It looks like a whole human could be living on that forehead!" She shook her head in disappointment. "I never want to grow up, if that's what love is."

Percy laughed at the young girl, shaking his head.

Listening to the rather loud conversation, Hermione Granger tapped Drea on the shoulder, making her turn around to face her. "He means the lesson, Andrea," she explained. "He 'fancies' teaching the lesson."

"Oh." Drea took a long moment to think about it, before her face lit up with realisation. "Oh. That makes sense. Sorry."

"Don't apologise," Percy chuckled, finding the young girl rather amusing.

Drea pulled her attention back to her food, drawing her eyes onto her plate, only to see that it was empty. Her eyes narrowed and she turned her head up to face the greedy redhead opposite her, whose mouth was full of chicken. "Ron!"

"There was no more left and you weren't eating it," he defended himself, bearly able to speak with all the meat in his mouth.

Drea shook her head, reaching over the table to steal her food back. Then, she gasped. Then screamed.

A paper-white but transparent man flew straight through their table, his head on the plate. "Hello! How are you?" he said cheerfully, after frightening many kids. "Welcome to Gryffindor!"

Getting past the initial fear, Drea then grinned with excitement. "Thank you! I love your eyes!"

"And yours!" the - what she assumed was a ghost - said, making her smile widen even more.

Afterwards, many more ghostly figured began flying through the hall, earning cheers and shouts and greetings from all the kids. This made Andrea a thousand times more thrilled than she already was, and she made sure to say 'hi' to each and every single one of them, giggling and laughing when they'd say something back. She couldn't belive it! Real-life ghosts? It was crazy.

"Hello, Sir Nicholas," Percy said politely to the one at their table. "Have a nice summer?"

"Dismal," he answered, floating higher above the table. "Once again, my request to join the Headless Hunt has been denied."

"Headless Hunt?" Harry whispered to Drea, who shrugged.

"Sounds fun," she said. "Maybe it's a club. We should join."

As they spoke, the ghost started to leave their table and fly somewhere else, but Ron stopped him by saying, "I know you! You're Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I prefer Sir Nicholas, if you don't mind," the ghost said.

"Like Santa!" Andrea exclaimed.

"Nearly Headless?" Hermione questioned. "How can you be nearly headless."

"Like this." Sir Nicholas grabbed his gray, curly hair and pulled on it, his entire head stretching to the side and tearing apart his skin and bones. All the children cringed when he leaned forward to show his decapitated body, holding on for dear life to the tiny piece of skin that kept his head on.

"AHH!" Ron screamed.

Hermione looked rather unpleased and disgusted by the sight.

"Wicked!" Drea exclaimed. "I want to die like that, too!"

The girl sitting at her side shook her head slowly.

ღ

LATER, THEY WERE TAKEN TO the common room, where Percy showed the first years where their dormitories would be. Andrea's bedroom was filled with velvet and scarlet, feeling warm and cozy by the fire. It was old-fashioned and rich, giving off the same feeling as a Luke-warm bubble bath. She was the first to pick out her bed, launching herself onto the one farthest from the door and closest to the window. That way, if a murderer ever got inside, she'd be the last to be killed and have the easiest escape. There were only three other girls in her bedroom, but they were all so lovely and fun to be around.

Lavender Brown was a tall, blonde girl with long, voluminous hair, who smelt of strawberries and good shampoo. She stuck up posters of boy bands on her walls immediately and went on and on about how handsome Nick Carter was. Andrea adored her company, as she was just as loud and bubbly as she was, herself.

Parvati Patil was a very elegant girl, who had the most beautiful black, conditioned hair Drea had ever seen. She was a lot quieter than the others, but she insisted it was only because she was missing her twin sister, Padma, who was sorted into Ravenclaw. Over the night, she eventually began to crawl out of her shell, and even admitted that she stole one of her mum's bras to hide chocolates inside, which they all shared throughout the evening.

Then, there was Hermione, who'd stuck up her timetable on the wall and took it upon herself to arrange every single wardrobe and hand out timetables. She'd had all her things unpacked within half an hour of being in the bedroom, and did it all neatly and tidy; whereas Parvati took a few hours to do hers, Lavender simply shot all her stuff in the drawers messily, and Drea hadn't even begun unpacking yet. Whenever she spoke, it was only ever to correct someone or to tell them they had to start going to sleep, as they needed an early night for their first day of classes tomorrow.

Andrea liked this. She liked how every single one of them had their own amazingly unique personality, and between them, they had a ton of interests and hobbies, meaning their days together would never get old and boring. She adored having a girly night, almost like a sleepover, with some of the first friends she'd ever made in her life. It was honestly the best day in her entire world. She'd never forget her very first evening at Hogwarts for as long as she lived.

When things finally started to settle down and the girls begun getting ready for bed, Drea pulled out that pink box again. Everyone else was tucked up into bed and falling asleep, but she was sitting cross-legged in hers, reading a diary entry with a huge smile on her face. Not a grin, but a big, genuine smile. Reading through her mum's diary made her feel so close to her, but being here, in this building, in this bedroom that she once slept in, made her feel as though she was living the life she read about. Coming near to the end of the story about how S.B and R.L kissed for the very first time, a small tear fell from her eye.

Andrea wished, more than anything, she got to meet her mum. She truly hoped these next few years would reveal more about who she was and where she came from. She just wanted a family. Like the kind of family her mum had in Hogwarts.

M.M, D.M, L.E, M.M, S.B, J.P, R.L, ₱.₱.

She ran her fingers over the carving carefully. She wanted her own group to be as magical and amazing as they once were, whoever they were.

"Hey," a voice whispered from the bed to her side, "what are you doing?"

Drea swiftly wiped her eyes and looked around to see that Hermione was the only other awake person in the room. "Sorry," she whispered back, "just reading."

Hermione nodded. "Well, get some sleep. We've got classes first thing tomorrow."

"Yeah, will do." She waited until Hermione turned back in her covers before putting the diary away.

Lastly, Andrea McKinnon pulled on the headphones that came from the old, Muggle music device and fell asleep listening to what she liked to imagine was her mother's favourite song - ABBA's Dancing Queen. It was the scratchiest tape in the walkman, meaning it must've been played hundreds of times, and the disc had a green heart drawn onto it, with the initials D.M at the side. And Drea knew how much her mother was in love with D.M.

"Night, Mum," she whispered into the darkness, slowly shutting her eyes for some sleep, dreaming about tomorrow.

A/N: so this is chapter three!!

nobody can tell me marlene wasn't the biggest ABBA fan ever.

love, tay </3