When we met

Dad insisted on driving us to King's Cross instead of having Mum apparate. He claimed he wanted to escort me to the magical world in his own muggle way, but I knew he just hated side-along apparition.

I gently eased open the door of the cage beside me, and threaded my arm in to stroke the coat of the handsome Barn Owl my parents had bought for me. I'd named him Finwick, after the keeper for my local, and favourite, Quidditch Team – the Tutshill Tornados.

After what seemed like an eternity of battling through the London traffic, we finally pulled up to the station, and I jumped out eagerly, running round to the side of the car to retrieve Fin's cage, and waited impatiently for my poor father to load my very heavy trunk onto a trolley.

We pushed through the crowds and towards the magical barrier, my heart beating very loudly in my ears.

The youngest of my four older brothers, Halwyn, pushed past me roughly as he broke into a run, and disappeared behind a crowd of students. He was the last of my siblings to remain at Hogwarts and was three years my elder, me being the youngest.

I levelled myself with the barrier and with a deep breath, strode through it with Finwick's cage in my arms, closing my eyes on impact and opening them when the shrill blare of the train's horn sounded.

My face broke into a huge grin and I rushed forward into the crowd, ignoring the calls from my parents behind me.

I found Halwyn talking to his friends and hovered on the edge awkwardly, with no magical friends of my own. He noticed me and cruelly said, "Bog off Im, you're not sitting with me," and his friends sniggered and followed him onto the train.

I dropped back into the crowd to find my parents, and my mother drew me into a huge hug when I set Finwick down.

"Now remember to be safe darling, and send a note back with Finwick the moment you get there to let us know you arrived safely?"

I nodded solemnly and followed my father onto the train as he carried my trunk. We pushed down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but could only find one with a small mousy girl inside. She had a long plait of hair she fiddled with nervously, and looked undoubtedly like a first year, so I knocked on the door and tentatively entered,

"Do you mind if I sit in here?" I asked.

She gave a frightened squeak at being spoken to, and nodded fearfully at me. You'd think I'd threatened to kill the toad she had in a plastic container beside her.

I signaled to my father that this was the compartment I would settle in, and he dragged my trunk inside then heaved it into the luggage rack.

"Thanks Dad," I said, now feeling incredibly nervous at our impending separation.

"That's okay," he said, wiping his brow heavily, "Now, you'll be safe won't you? Keep out of trouble?" he winked, and I nodded quickly, throwing myself at him as he hugged me goodbye, and then he left to re-join my mother so they could wave farewell.

I sat quietly by the window, sombre in my thoughts, when a knock sounded on the door of the compartment. The other girl jumped again, and I turned to see another first year looking timidly in, obviously wanting to join us. I smiled and gestured to the other empty window seat. She smiled gratefully and opened the door, also followed by a man I assumed to be her father and shared a similar scene to mine.

Eventually she sat down and with a breath for courage I stuck out my hand and said, "I'm Imogen."

She shook my hand weakly and replied, "Peri…" and I nodded, then stuck my hand out to the frightened girl reasserting, "Imogen."

She looked at my hand as though it were diseased, but none the less squeaked out, "D-Dora!"

I smiled kindly, and settled back into my seat, looking back out of the window for my parents who smiled and waved.

I heard the compartment door open sharply, and a thin blonde girl stood in the doorway appraising us. She then signaled to something down the corridor, and her trunk came floating in and hovered itself into the luggage rack.

"There's no other spaces," she said carelessly and then flung herself down on the seat by the door.

"Oh," I said, exchanging looks with Peri briefly before introducing myself, "I'm Imogen."

She looked at me disparagingly before eventually replying, "Bethany."

Suddenly, with a blast of the horn the train shuddered with movement, and slowly began to move. I threw myself towards the window and waved frantically at my parents as they disappeared, and suddenly felt very alone and frightened.

I looked to my left and Peri mirrored myself, both stood with hands on the window and looking deeply sad. She turned away and discreetly brushed away a tear, and I slumped back down into my seat, feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

We passed about ten minutes in pure silence, Peri crying softly, Dora fiddling with her plait, and Bethany with her arms folded moodily across her stomach. I thought wildly for some form of conversation topic to raise, but the longer the silence drew out, the more awkward it became to speak.

I settled myself to stare out of the window, when all of a sudden, a giant rumble emanated from my left, and I jumped and spun round to see what on earth had made the noise.

Beth looked equally as startled, and Peri looked convinced it was an issue with the train, now looking desperately out of the window for a clue, but Dora just looked utterly mortified, and before I could open my mouth to ask what was wrong, her stomach gave out another huge rumble of hunger.

I looked over at Bethany in shock, and we both just burst into laughter, along with Peri.

"Excuse me," Dora mumbled, but the side of her mouth cracked into a smile and she climbed up onto her seat to retrieve a wicker hamper from the luggage rack. Opening it, she revealed a sheer feast of goodies that I stared at in awe, and noticing our expressions, she picked out an item and gestured to us, "Pumpkin pasty?"

"Yes please," we all chorused, and politely moved forward to retrieve one, and then we all began to munch away happily.

"These are amazing," said Peri.

"Yeah…" Dora mumbled, "my Mum's a really good cook..."

"Your mum made these?" asked Beth impressed, "I should have father hire her as our new cook."

I laughed at this seeming joke, but Bethany merely looked at me as though wondering what was so funny.

"So what house do you think you'll be in?" I asked casually to the group.

Peri and Dora both shrugged, and Bethany replied, "I don't know, my family's been very mixed over the years, though thankfully no Hufflepuffs."

I nodded, "Yeah, two of my brothers were in Gryffindor, my oldest brother and sister were in Ravenclaw and my brother Halwyn's in Slytherin, so I could be anything!"

"Are you the youngest?" asked Bethany.

I nodded through a mouthful of pumpkin pasty.

"Sounds like a Hufflepuff waiting to happen then," she teased and I scrunched up my face and said, "Don't even joke."

"What's wrong with Hufflepuff?" piped up Dora.

"Oh, sorry, were your parents in Hufflepuff?" said Bethany, though clearly not sorry.

"Uh…" mumble Dora, suddenly embarrassed, "N-no, my, my Dad was a muggle and uh, my Mum's a squib," she finished, going red.

"My Dad's a muggle," I chimed in with quickly.

"And my Mum is," said Peri.

Dora looked a little better at hearing this, and I glanced at Bethany in curiosity, to which she raised her hand and said "Pureblood," proudly.

"Maybe we'll be in the same house?" I said hopefully, quickly warming to this group.

"That would be great!" smiled Peri, and Dora just looked frightened again whilst Bethany was merely eyeing up Dora's food hamper.

"Candy from the trolley?" came a call from down the corridor, and I jumped up excitedly, diving into my pocket for money just as Bethany did the same. We grinned at each other and raced out of the compartment to the kindly faced old witch with the trolley.

Stocking up on chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts, we ladened our arms with treats and turned back to the compartment door where I bumped into the person waiting behind me.

My purchases scattered onto the ground, which caused Bethany great amusement, but the boy I had bumped into bent down quickly to help me.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"My fault," I replied quickly, flustered at my clumsiness.

I looked up and smiled gratefully at the boy. He was a first year like me, with darkish brown hair that was cut inexpertly around his nice-looking face. I blushed furiously, and dropped one of the chocolate frog packets, which burst open and the frog jumped out. We both dived for it, but it eluded our grasp, but as it jumped off I stretched out my hand instinctively and caught it mid-air.

"Wow," he said, raising his eyebrows, "you'd make a fair seeker."

"You reckon?" I said, my face splitting into a grin.

He nodded, "I'm Oliver, Oliver Wood," he said, stretching out his hand to me.

"Imogen Snow," I said, shaking his hand cheerily.

"Where's Imogen?" I heard Peri asked from our compartment.

"Pulling," Bethany replied loudly as she slid closed the door, and Oliver and I blushed furiously again, dropping each others hand quickly and making our excuses to leave.

I slid into the apartment and snapped my hand against Bethany's leg as I passed, "Git."

She shouted in pain but laughed evilly at the look of mortification on my face, and I couldn't help but join in. We quickly dove into our chocolate frogs, pulling faces at the Dumbledore cards we both received.

"I've got hundreds of him," Bethany grumbled.

"Me too," I replied, and we spent a good hour discussing our lavish card collections, whilst Peri and Dora chatted comfortably from the other side of the compartment.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something bobbing up and down, and turned to see a small owl frantically beating its wings to keep up with our carriage, so I jumped up and pulled open a window for it to fly in. With the gush of wind that poured in, the little owl tumbled inside and fluttered madly for a moment whilst it regained its bearing, before it soared joyfully at Bethany who cried, "Sir Featherton!"

"Is that your owl?" asked Dora.

Bethany looked at her like she was crazy and replied, "Obviously," cuddling the owl to her chest,

"I have a Toad," said Dora cheerfully picking up the plastic container beside her, "he's called Mr Mole."

"…Mr Mole?" I replied in confusion.

"Yep," she said, clearly seeing nothing wrong with this, so with a brief exchange of glances between the other three of us, we silently agreed to let it slide.

"This is Finwick," I said proudly picking up his cage and placing it on my lap, stretching my fingers through the bars to lightly brush his feathers.

"He's lovely," said Peri, "I almost wish I'd got an owl, but my parents bought me a kitten instead."

"Kitten?!" the three of us chimed excitedly.

She grinned and nodded, getting up and carefully retrieving a small cat basket from the luggage rack. She opened the door gently, and retrieved a tiny black, sleeping kitten from within, with a small diamond of white on its forehead, "This is Morgana," she said proudly, placing the little creature on her lap where it continued to sleep soundly.

We spent the rest of our journey happily bonding over the animals, and eventually Quidditch debates. I felt complete at ease with the other three girls, and smiled happily at the ease in which it had taken to make new friends, whilst my eyes darted occasionally at each person that passed our compartment door, secretly hoping to see Oliver again.

Suddenly the compartment door slid open, and a wildly red-headed boy poked his head in and said pompously, "We'll be arriving soon, you should get into your robes," then continued purposefully upon his obviously self-assigned mission of informing the entire train of this fact.

I raised my eyebrows at Bethany, who giggled, and we all reached up to retrieve our robes and changed excitedly out of our muggle clothes.

Eventually the train began to slow and we pulled into a small, dark station, and piled towards the exits, trying to remain with each other as we became more nervous and introverted.

"Firs' years!" came a booming voice from the end of the station, and the four of us jumped.

We stood opened mouthed at the gigantic, shaggy creature demanding first years, and for a wild moment, I wondered whether that was what he feasted on.

Eventually we shuffled towards him with the others, and I looked round to find Dora missing. Turning back I saw her still frozen in position next to the train, staring wide-eyed at the gigantic creature. I moved back and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, it'll be fine, I'm sure he's just a teacher or something, or a caretaker come to help us," I smiled encouragingly, but she just looked at me with a horrified expression, and it wasn't until Bethany grabbed her other hand and physically dragged her along with us that she moved.

We followed the giant until eventually we reached a small fleet of rowing boats, to which he bid us assign ourselves in pairs to one. Peri got carefully into one, and Bethany and I again had to physically push Dora in to join her, then jumped into the last empty boat ourselves.

Then, just like magic, (well actual magic), the boats began to move softly and silently through the water, and we got our first breath-taking view of the one and only Hogwarts castle.

It was even more incredible than my wildest dreams.

Finally we reached the other side, and were greeted by a terse looking witch in a tartan hat, who led us into the castle and left us to ready the sorting hat.

Bethany and I giggled at some of the theories the muggle-born first years were coming out with about how we were sorted into houses, until the pompous red-head from earlier cried, "Oh don't be ridiculous," at a small blonde boy who was insisting that we had to fight a lion, snake, badger and eagle, and whichever one we defeated indicated our house.

Soon enough, the witch who introduced herself as Professor McGonnagall, returned and organised us into a single file, and we followed her into the great hall.

We all stared in pure awe at the incredible enchanted ceiling, and proceeded to wait patiently as McGonnagall called us forward alphabetically.

"Dobbs, Dora."

Dora stumbled forward, and tripped onto the stool in her nervous state, jamming the hat onto her head, and it only took one squeak of fright from her from the sudden darkness, for the battered hat to cry, "Hufflepuff!"

The table of yellow and black ties cheered, and smiled at Dora as she traipsed nervously over to their welcome arms.

"Poliakoff, Peri."

Peri took a deep breath, gave a last look to me and Beth, and stepped forward, placing the hat on tentatively. It took a minute or so, but eventually the hat cried, "Ravenclaw!" and Peri took it off gratefully, smiling back at us, and I smiled, a little sad that we weren't going to be in the same house as I'd hoped, even if it would have been Hufflepuff.

"Snow, Imogen."

I exhaled and looked back at Bethany, who smiled briefly, and I rushed forward, eager to hear my fate. I picked up the hat gently, and placed it on my head.

"Hmm…" said a small voice in my ear, "another Snow… though a tricky one to place… plenty of loyalty… courage… ambition… and a good mind… but in different measures… I think it may be your confidence that sets you apart here, yes, a lot of nerve, so let's make it, Gryffindor!" it cried.

My heart soared with joy, and I ripped the hat off excitedly, and rushed to the table, catching my brother's eye from the Slytherin table, who merely nodded in recognition but showed no emotion. I waved at Dora and Peri from my place, and settled down myself to hear Bethany's fate, hoping desperately that she at least would be joining me.

"Twycross, Bethany."

She sauntered forward, and placed the hat on her head, to which it quickly shouted to my utter disappointment, "Slytherin!"

I caught her eye as she passed, and she shrugged at me with a smile and sat a few places down from Halwyn.

Eventually there was only one boy left.

"Wood, Oliver."

The wee Scotsman marched bravely forward, and shoved the hat onto his head, and to my absolute pleasure it yelled, "Gryffindor!"

He ripped it off with a grin and raced to our table, smiling brightly at me as he passed to join the small blonde boy, apparently called Charlie Quigley, who was currently being told off by the pompous red-head Percy Weasley (who to my vague annoyance was also in Gryffindor) for knocking his pumpkin juice into his lap and announcing to the table that he'd wet himself.

I thought that would be it for our brief encounter. How could we continue our friendship from different tables, and different dorms? But to my surprise, in each lesson we were paired with a different house, and each time I paired up with either Peri, Dora or Beth, and eventually, we began to share our meals on the table of whoever had reached the great hall first, as we chatted too animatedly to notice or care, and with that, we soon became friends.

Best friends.

AN: Yaaaay. So, let me know any chapters that you guys would like to see, whether it's past or future. I think I'll likely be following main events from the rest of the HP books as a frame, so next would probably be the Quidditch World Cup.

Oh, here's a question for you! What jobs do you think the gang will end up having after Hogwarts? This is a source of much debate between us!

Please review! Keep the Pufflemouths alive!