1st September, 1991

I woke up and jumped - literally - out of bed in excitement.

Today I would be starting school at Hogwarts!

I got ready to go extremely quickly, then picked up my trunk and my owl, Lily (which Hagrid had put some kind of spell on so Muggles couldn't see it), then went over to Alex's room.

I knocked.

"Jade?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you ready to go to school?!!!!" I practically shouted through the door.

Ten seconds later, the door was forcefully pulled open and Alex was standing there with his trunk and owl.

"Okay, let's go," he suggested. We had earlier asked Maria to drive us to King's Cross Station, after we explained that this was where we got the train to school.

The drive took ages, but we eventually got there.

We both hugged Maria goodbye - she had been like a mother to us orphans for all our lives.

"I'll miss you, Alex and Jade. Have fun!" Maria called, waving.

We waved back, walking away slowly until we couldn't see her anymore.

We walked over to the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten.

"Okay, this is it. Let's go," I told Alex. We first checked that no-one was watching, then ran forwards together, straight at the wall.

I winced, but there was no impact.

We were on Platform 9 3/4.

The platform was billowing with steam from the huge steam train sitting in the station. A plaque at its front informed me that it was called the Hogwarts Express - a very original name, I must say.

"I'm going to try and make some new friends," Alex told me, then headed off into the enormous crowd of students and parents.

I decided to attempt the same thing, but before I could move, a boy came out of the crowd and tried to hide behind me.

At leaset, that's what I thought he was doing.

"Can I hide here?" he gasped.

Yep, trying to hide.

"Well, you can try," I said doubtfully, "but I don't know if it'll work. What's your name, anyway?"

"I'm Blaise. Blaise Zabini. Who are you?" he replied.

"Me? I'm Jade Edwards."

"Where are your parents? I gave mine the slip when Dean, this Muggle-born guy, started playing tag with me. That's why I came here. Are you playing tag, too? If you are, I would suggest finding a better hiding place, 'cause standing around in the open isn't going to help. At least, I don't think it is," he added, frowning.

"Well, you see, I lived in an orphanage before I came here, so I guess they're both dead?" I sort of said it as a question.

Blaise looked awkward. "Oh. I'm sorry, Jade."

I shrugged. "It's alright. I can't remember them and the most I've got of them is this." I showed him my pendant.

Jade, what do you think you're doing? This Blaise guy is the only person you've told about your pendant, and you've known him for about five minutes!

Oh, shut up, brain, I replied to myself.

Blaise glanced at the clock. 10:58.

"Jade, we'd better get on the train," he said. He ran off to say goodbye to his parents, while I went to go find Alex. I found him alright.

He was talking to a couple of girls - identical twins, by the looks of them.

So these were his new friends?

"Er, Alex, I was going to get on the train now. So if you wanted to come..."

"Yeah, OK. That's Pavarti Patil and this is Padma Patil. Girls, this is Jade Edwards. Do you want to come sit with us?" asked Alex.

"Sure," Padma said. "And hi, Jade."

We found an empty compartment and sat in it.

About a minute later, Blaise came into our compartment, followed by another boy who I figured was probably Dean.

"Hi, Jade," he panted, "is it fine if Dean and I sit here?"

I nodded, gesturing to a space next to me for them to sit. "Meet Alex Johnson, Pavarti Patil and Padma Patil."

"Hi," Blaise greeted them.

"Yeah, hi," Dean repeated.

They sat down on my right, where I had indicated.

There was silence for a while, and then Dean spoke up. He asked everyone nervously, "Um, I'm Muggle-born, so I don't know as much about the houses. Do you guys know what house you want to be in?"

Padma and Pavarti responded in unison, "Ravenclaw or Gryffindor."

"Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," Alex replied a moment afterwards. 

"Slytherin or Ravenclaw," I said.

Blaise told him calmly, "Slytherin or Gryffindor. But I have to hope I get Slytherin, 'cause otherwise Mum would probably disown me."

Dean looked horrified at that statement.

"Oh... okay."

Later on, the food trolley came along, so I bought a lot of food from that.

We spent the rest of the ride eating in silence, apart from when we left the compartment to let each other get into our robes.

Finally, we reached Hogsmeade Station, where we got off.

Hagrid was waving at a boy in the crowd with black hair. "Firs' years! Firs' years this way! All righ', Harry?" he called, waving to the boy again, so I guessed this was the world-famous Harry Potter. 

We had to climb into these little boats in pairs. Balise was with Dean, the Patil twins went together, and so, naturally, I was stuck with Alex.

We sailed across the lake, ducking our heads when we got to a grate thing. We came up to some double doors, where a severe-looking woman was waiting for us.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid told the woman - Professor McGonagall.

Then she turned to us. She explained that we were about to be Sorted into different houses, and told us what they were called. She told us that our house would be like our family and that we would do activities with them. For each house there was apparently a Common Room where we would spend most of our time.

I observed that off to the side, Harry Potter and a red-headed, tall boy were talking throughout the entirety of Professor McGonagall's speech.

Well, that's rude, I thought.

Pushing open the doors, she made sure we were standing in a line before beginning the Sorting.

Looking up, I saw that the roof looked just like the sky.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside," a bushy-haired girl whispered loudly. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

I saw Harry glare at her.

So, anyway, we were all lining up for the Sorting. I was standing in between Blaise and, of all people, Harry Potter.

I decided to speak to him.

"You're Harry Potter," I said matter-of-factly. He nodded, looking bewildered. I added, "I thought it was quite rude of you, talking while Professor McGonagall was."

"Oh, really?" asked Harry with raised eyebrows. "And do you really think I care what you think?"

"Well, no, evidently," I commented. "But that makes you extremely arrogant. I don't like you very much, Harry Potter."

"That means you're on Voldemort's side, idiot!" Harry said. I repressed the need to punch him in the face.

"So," I said, smirking, "If a teacher doesn't like you, that means they must be on Voldemort's side, doesn't it? Yep, definitely arrogant. And look who's calling me an idiot!"

Then the Sorting Hat started singing this song about the Hogwarts founders which I can't remember.

"Abbott, Hannah!" Professor McGonagall called.

The Sorting Hat yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The next person was a Hufflepuff too,  'Boot, Terry' was the first Ravenclaw, 'Brown, Lavender' was the first Gryffindor and then 'Bulstrode, Millicent' became the first Slytherin.

Not long after them, it was my go. 

"Edwards, Jade!" I rushed forward, and as the Hat was put onto my head, everything went dark.

"Huh, this is easy. Your father was a Slytherin, your mother had Slytherin blood and you have the aptitude for Slytherin too. So, obviously - SLYTHERIN!" the hat decided. From what it had said, I guessed that my parents were both wizards. 

I grinned at Alex, Blaise, Dean, Padma and Pavarti as I sat down.

Harry was glaring at me.

Pfffffft. Who cares?

As it turned out, the bushy-haired girl's name was Hermione Granger, and she became a Gryffindor, after almost four minutes.

Alex was put into Ravenclaw, which didn't surprise me.

The next person to become a Slytherin was a boy with extremely pale blond hair, Draco Malfoy.

He sat a couple of seats away from me, with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. He looked rather irritated at this seating position, probably because Crabbe and Goyle looked more like cavemen than wizards.

By the time I looked back to the Sorting, they were up to the 'P's.

"Pansé, Anja!"

"SLYTHERIN!" She decided to go sit with some older people, they looked like second- or third-years.

"Parkinson, Pansy!"

"SLYTHERIN!" She sat across from me with Millicent Bulstrode.

"Patil, Padma!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Patil, Pavarti!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

A couple of people later, Harry Potter had his turn.

"Potter, Harry!"

Everyone started whispering, but honestly I didn't care as long as he stayed out of Slytherin.

Eventually, the Hat decided to place him in Gryffindor, which was a relief.

The Gryffindor table started screaming with excitement, which was just dumb.

Anyway, back to the Sorting. It continued for a while after that.

Dean - I found out that his last name was Thomas - was also in Gryffindor.

I gave him a small smile as he sat down in between Pavarti and a boy called Seamus Finnigan.

The tall, red-haired boy who I had earlier seen talking to Harry was Sorted.

"Weasley, Ronald!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He want and sat down next to Harry.

Bad choice of friend, I thought.

"Zabini, Blaise!" Finally! I exclaimed in the privacy of my head.

"SLYTHERIN!" I grinned at him as he came over and sat next to me.

Across from us, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode began talking animatedly, now that the Sorting was over.

Right then, Dumbledore got up.

"I have a few words to say to you all. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" 

I laughed. Dumbledore HAD seemed a bit odd, but I hadn't thought he was mad.

Then he gave us the messages from the teachers, and finally told us to eat.

Food appeared in dishes in the centre of each table. It looked amazing, so naturally I began eating.

I looked up to the staff table, a few seats down from the Headmaster.

Two teachers were having a conversation. One was wearing a large turban and looked extremely nervous. The other had black hair and was quite tall.

When the second teacher saw me looking at him, he gave me a shocked look before smiling faintly. Then he turned back to the 'en-turbaned' teacher. 

I wondered what that was all about.

Next we got our timetables. The first class we had tomorrow was double Potions with the Gryffindors. So I would be seeing Harry again soon. 

Ugh.

Dumbledore then introduce the heads of the houses.

"Professor McGonagall is our head of Gryffindor, Professor Flitwick -" here he indicated an extremely short man "- is head of Ravenclaw, Professor Sprout is head of Hufflepuff and Professor Snape is head of Slytherin." Professor Snape was the teacher I had seen before.

The Prefects took us back to the Slytherin Common Room.

"Hello, I'm Gemma Farley, your girl Prefect! The Slytherin Common Room is amazing, you'll love it," the girl Prefect told us.

Pansy, Millicent, Evangeline, Anja and I were shown to our dormitories.

I fell asleep straightaway.