the beginning of it all
A glow of evening light filters through the trees in the backyard where Arabella lays. She flicks through the newest book her father brought back from England. Wuthering Heights is quite a bit more difficult than anything she’s read before. Her father said not to tell her mother that she’s reading it as it may be deemed ‘inappropriate’. Arabella had giggled at this as it couldn’t be anymore inappropriate than The Chosen.
“Arabella!” Elizabeth calls from inside the house, “look what came in the mail for you!” Arabella jumps up excitedly and tosses the book carefully down on the wooden porch. She practically skips into the kitchen, it could only be one thing. Her eleventh birthday was two days ago and she was simply agonizing over waiting for her letter.
“Did it come? Did it come, mum?” Arabella squeals. Elizabeth laughs and hands her the letter. Arabella eagerly tears open the letter and sits on one of the stools reading it.
As she reads Andrew walks in with a huge grin on his face, “well? What does it say?”
Arabella opens her mouth and begins to read aloud, “Dear Miss Rosier, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find attached a list of all necessary books and equipment. Terms begins on September first. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.”
“Well well well, look at that! Congratulations honey,” Andrew ruffles his daughter's hair and she laughs.
Elizabeth immediately starts making plans to floo to Diagon Alley the following day to gather supplies, “it’s already the 19th and knowing you you’ll want to do some reading before you go!” Arabella nods along excitedly, finally she’ll get to meet some other witches and wizards her age.
***
“Have you said goodbye to all your friends from school? Elizabeth asks, Arabella nods, hurrying to pack the last of her clothes. “Do you have your coats? Scotland gets cold!” Elizabeth grabs a hat and puts it in the trunk, “and you have the owl food? And your books? Do you have your trainers?”
“Yes mum,” Arabella groans, “yes I have it all, promises!”
Elizabeth smiles, “ok, ok. Grab Mindy, I’ll get your trunk and we can meet your father downstairs.” Arabella grabs her owl, Mindy’s, cage and calls to Mindy who soars in, Arabella shuts the cage door and hurry’s downstairs after Elizabeth. Butterflies erupt in her stomach as Andrew hands her the floo powder. Elizabeth goes first and shouts “Platform 9 and ¾!” With an eruption of green flames she disappears.
Andrew takes Mindy and hands Arabella the grayish powder. She steps in the fireplace with shaky legs and tosses the floo powder up repeating what her mother said. With a sickening whoosh and a crushing feeling she stumbles out of a new fireplace. Arabella straightens up and takes in her surroundings in awe, a huge scarlet train blows steam and toots its horn as distressed parents bid their children goodbye. Arabella thinks that this is most possibly the most people she has ever seen in one place, and she thought there were a lot of people in Diagon Alley!
“Arabella, over here!” Andrew calls from next to Elizabeth. She stumbles through the many people and hurry’s over to her parents where Andrew embraces her in a big hug. She feels tears prick her eyes as she says goodbye to her parents for the very first time.
For godric's sake she’s never even had a sleepover! Sure, she used to spend full days with her friends from muggle primary school but she has never ever spent a night away from her parents. What was previously nervous excitement turned to terror as Arabella stepped over to hug Elizabeth. And what would the other kids think of her? She’s never met another kid her age that’s a witch or wizard. Would they think she’s weird? The butterflies erupt and flutter around making her feel sick as she fights back tears.
“I’m gonna miss you guys,” she whispers.
Both her parents envelope her in a tight hug. “Oh we’ll miss you too, baby. Have so much fun, ok? Send us a letter tonight!” Elizabeth tells her. Arabella nods and after a few more rushed goodbyes the train whistle blows and her parents walk her to the train. Arabella stumbles inside holding her trunk and owl, she turns just as the train door closes and presses against the window waving frantically at her parents.
All alone now Arabella pushes through the crowds of people hugging their friends, hurrying to find compartments, and chattering loudly. Anxiously, she pushes past the clutter of people to find an empty compartment. She passes a flame-haired girl loudly scolding two grinning boys and squeezes past two students extremely entangled in each other and opens a compartment door only to find a very pale boy with red-rimmed eyes sitting with his cheek pressed against the window. He turns quite suddenly to look at her and she backs up slightly.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know anybody was in here,” she murmurs, “er… I just, everywhere else is full, could I sit here? I promise I’ll be perfectly quiet.” Her heart beats frantically as she waits for him to respond. How awkward it would be if he said no.
After a moment's hesitation the dark haired boy responds, “it’s alright, you can sit.”
She smiles at him and places Mindy’s cage on the bench and stows her trunk under it, “My name is Arabella, Arabella Rosier.” He stares at her and she quickly backtracks, “oh I’m sorry, I said I would be quiet I'll just sit, I-“
“No, no, it’s fine,” the boy says, suddenly looking a bit more cheerful at the conversation, “I’m Regulus Black.”
Arabella grins, “nice to meet you Regulus Black!”
“Is it your first year at Hogwarts?” The boy, Regulus, asks.
“Yes! I’ve been so excited, my parents tell me such marvelous stories about the castle. Is it yours?” Arabella asks a bit frantically. She’s never been the best at making friends, she always talks too much and then something odd happens and the kids just think she’s just too weird.
“Yeah,” he says with a slight scowl, “my older brother is here, he’s in Gryffindor though.”
Arabella tilts her head, “what's wrong with that? My mum was in Gryffindor and my dad in Slytherin.”
“W-well…” Regulus stutters, “I mean nothing I suppose, it’s just that mum wanted him in Slytherin.”
“Oh. Well then, I suppose that's too bad for her,” Arabella huffs.
Regulus lets out a small giggle, “what house do you reckon you’ll get then?”
She grins, “well mum always says I’ll be Ravenclaw but dad reckons Slytherin. How about you?”
“Oh god I’d better be in Slytherin!” The raven-haired boy and brunette girl fall into a comfortable chatter and Arabella can’t help but relax. The tension she was holding on her shoulders slowly loosens as she finds herself making quite possibly the first real friend she’s ever had. The two fall quiet, stuffed after many sweets from the trolley and tired after hours of talking. Arabella leans her head against the slightly chilly window and lets her eyes droop tiredly as she stares out at the rolling green landscape.
Arabella wakes up with a startle as the compartment door flies open with a subtle bang revealing a concerned looking bleach-blonde girl.
“Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry I woke you, I didn’t hear anyone so I just thought it was empty,” the girl sniffles, she looks as if she’s been crying. Arabella looks over at Regulus to see him still sound asleep.
“Er… its fine, are you alright?” Arabella asks. The girl seems to take this as an invitation to come in and sits quite close to Arabella. The girl brushes her hair out of her face and Arabella is half concerned, half impressed with her bluntness at coming right inside the compartment, I mean she didn’t even ask!
“Oh yes, just my brother being a prat like normal,” the girl grunts, “I was sitting with him and his stupid friends but all they want to talk about is quidditch and girls so it’s whatever.” Arabella nods as the girl continues to talk a mile a minute. Almost instantly Arabella can tell that she’s going to like her almost as much as Arabella likes the more reserved Regulus. Arabella’s always been on the shy side and prefers it when other people talk but she surprisingly enjoyed talking to Regulus. The girl stops talking for a moment to take a breath, “oh, and I’m Winter.”
Arabella smiles, “nice to meet you, I’m Arabella.”
“Oh that's so pretty!” Winter grins. Arabella giggles, Winter points at Regulus and drops her voice to a whisper, “who’s the boy?”
“Oh he’s very nice, his name’s Regulus.”
“Hmm well you better wake him, we’re almost there, better get your school robes on.” Arabella nods and tip-toes over to Regulus. She shakes him carefully and he grunts before swatting her away.
“Regulus,” she says quietly, “we’re almost there.”
Regulus seems to come to his senses and startles awake before brushing off his robes and straightening up, “oh, sorry!”
“No need to apologize,” Arabella smiles. Regulus nods and his gaze wanders off to Winter who waves, “oh, and that’s Winter!”
Regulus leaves to go change and the two girls are left alone in the compartment. Arabella pulls down her trunk and digs out her robes. Winter turns around to allow her privacy to change, something quite surprising as she has been very outgoing and blunt. Arabella quickly changes before stowing her trunk away and sitting back down next to Winter. Regulus comes back shortly after, the three of them gaze out of the train window as it pulls into Hogwarts.
Arabella thinks it's quite possibly the most beautiful place she has ever seen. You can just barely see the huge turrets of the castle from across the glistening lake covered mostly by densely beautiful trees. Everything feels so much brighter and airy here and she takes a deep breath of the crisp Scotland air as she leaves the train, luggage and hand, almost as if to taste her first time at Hogwarts.
“Firs’ years, firs’ years, over here now!” A huge man bellows from beside the lake. “Three to a boat now, no pushing- careful now!” Winter grabs Arabellas’ wrist and Arabella grabs Regulus’ hand and she’s dragged through the hordes of students by winter. The trio climbs into a low-sitting wooden boat which almost immediately takes off and glides along the slightly choppy water.
***
She takes a nervous breath as Professor Mcgonagall calls her name. So far her only two friends have both been sorted into Slytherin. Arabella feels like she’s about to be sick as she walks in front of the entire school to take her seat on the stool.
Inhale.
Exhale.
She sits with her ankles crossed nervously fidgeting with her ring until Mcgonagall places an old, ratchety hat on her head. It droops across her eyes and almost instantly starts talking in a deep voice causing her to cringe stardetly.
“Hmm… very interesting… very interesting!” The hat hums, “You would do just splendid in Gryffindor, yes I can see it!”
“Mum says I would do well in Ravenclaw…” Arabella can't help but whisper.
“Yes, yes I see but I reckon it must be…” the hat pauses then yells, “SLYTHERIN!” Arabella takes a deep breath and practically stumbles to where Regulus and Winter are both grinning at her. Winter moves over and Arabella slides into the seat between her and Regulus.
“So, Slytherin, like your dad!” Regulus smiles. She laughs and he nudges her, “I’m glad we’re in the same house.”
Arabella blushes slightly at this, she isn’t used to it. People finding her funny, kids actually wanting and liking to hangout with her. She was always too boring or weird, either that or she simply never liked the kids.
“Wow,” Winter whispers as the plates fill themselves with decadent food. Mashed potatoes, steak, rich cake, vibrant fruits, and so much more sits in golden bowls placed throughout the long table. All the students laugh and talk until the food disappears and the Prefects gather the younger students.
***
Arabella’s first thought when she walks into her new dorm room is how different this is from her room at home. The florals and sage walls with her warm rug and many plants contrast with these stone walls, leather couches, and emerald fabrics. Two big leather chairs sit in an alcove with windows showing the Great Lake. There are four big four-poster beds with emerald curtains and emerald duvets, on either side of the beds there are bookshelves. Other than that there isn’t much in the dorm, no personalization, no plants or anything. Arabella reckons that will change though.
Arabella wanders over to the bed where her trunk is placed, her bed is closest to the alcove on the left side and she sees Winter's trunk on the bed next to hers. Across from their beds are two more unfamiliar trunks next to the other two beds where Arabella guesses two other girls will be sleeping.
Winter starts unpacking almost immediately so Arabella follows suit. Her photos with her parents are placed on her bookshelf along with a few of her favorite books she brought with her and some other textbooks for school. She also takes out her brand new cauldron and places that on her shelf.
While she’s organizing her quills and the massive amount of parchment her mother had her bring two others brought in.
A blonde girl walks in first sporting a massive amount of freckles and vibrant green eyes, following her is a very small brunette with slightly crooked glasses. Both girls hold a much more confident stance than Arabella has felt this whole time.
“Hello!” The first girl grins. Winter and Arabella both turn and smile at the girls as the first one continues to talk, “I’m Lucinda Greengrass and this here is Penelope Nott.” The brunette, Penelope, smiles and waves.
“I’m Arabella Rosier,” Arabella grins. These girls seem nice enough, she thinks to herself.
“And I’m Winter Malfoy,” Winter tells them.
Penelope smiles enthusiastically, “so you're both purebloods then?” Arabella looks questioningly at Winter who nods at Penelope. She decides to ask Winter what that means later as just then both girls have moved their way to sit on her bed and are suddenly making very enthusiastic conversation.
Arabella thinks it's nice. The four girls talk for hours until a Prefect comes in to tell them to be quiet. Arabella learns that Lucinda prefers to be called Lucy, Penelope has two younger brothers, Winter's favorite color is hot pink, and every single one of them loves pumpkin pasties.