True Magic

He was in her dreams again. He had been since the day she discovered she was a witch. He was much older than her, probably in his late teens, yet for some reason they were still best friends.

The first thing that he had done was tell her about the wonders of magic. He told her about wands, spells, pets, pretty much everything. He had taken her to Hogwarts in her dream and showed her where everything was. He'd even shown her around a bit a Diagon Alley, which was helpful when she later when there with her dad.

"Are you excited?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Scarlet chuckled, throwing a rock into the lake and skipping it all the way across.

"You're right, stupid question."

"I can't believe that a month ago I thought that all magic was evil," Scarlet sighed, sitting her eleven year old head down on the grass.

He whispered something that sounded like,"Not all of it is good enough to be."

Scarlet crinkled her eyebrows together unsure of what he meant.

"I wonder what house I'll be in," Scarlet wondered. She stared up at the sky and saw all kinds of shapes in the clouds.

"Hopefully Slytherin. I was in it, and it's the best one."

"Hopefully."


The next morning Scarlet immediately jumped out of bed after waking. She couldn't wait to explore all that she had once condemned.

Both she and her father were amazed at the platform that took them to the school's train. Steve took a look at his daughter's wonder filled face. He felt so stupid for all of his hate for magic. He had made all of his judgements based on one occurrence, no matter how life changing it was. Still, he knew that evil magic existed.

"I'm going to miss you honey," Steve told her as the time to board the train grew shorter.

"I'll miss you too, dad."

They hugged goodbye and Scarlet made her way onto the train, only slightly struggling with her supply filled trunk. She managed to run into a boy who was trying to quickly run out of the train, causing her to land on her back.

"I'm so sorry!" The boy looked a bit flushed. He had red hair that reached down to his neck.

"James!" An older woman exclaimed. She rushed toward Scarlet along with a man who was probably her husband.

"I'm so sorry dear. He can be so reckless sometimes!"

By now Scarlet's father had arrived at the scene and helped his daughter up.

"You okay? No broken bones?" He asked her, picking up her luggage.

"I think I'm okay," Scarlet said. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled.

"I'm so sorry about that. I'm Harry and this is Ginny," Harry stuck his hand out and Steve anxiously shook it.

"Steve."

"Is she your first child going to Hogwarts?" Ginny asked him, brushing her hand through James's hair. He made an escape, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah. I'm actually kind of still in shock. I have been since we got the letter."

"You're not a wizard, are you?" James asked, receiving a whack on the head, this time by Scarlet. Steve simply shook his head.

"Well if you need any help you can always contact us. In fact, do you have anywhere to stay the night?" Ginny offered.

"I was just going to stay at a hotel and start driving home in the morning."

"You can stay with us tonight," Harry told him. The train began to whistle, signaling that it would be starting off soon. Scarlet said goodbye to her father once more and boarded the train behind James. The last thing she heard was Steve agreeing to stay with the Potters.

"So, what house do you want to be in?" James asked while they were entering a compartment.

"Slytherin," she said absentmindedly, glancing at the other people in the compartment. There was a boy with blond spiked hair and another with black dreadlocks
.
"Slytherin? James, how could you let this traitor in our compartment?" The blond haired boy exclaimed.

James replied,"I didn't know! Why would you want to be in bloody Slytherin?"

"I have a friend who was in Slytherin," Scarlet replied, her cheeks flushed. James and the blond were in the process of kicking her out when the black haired boy chimed in.

"Hey, leave the girl alone. Who cares what house she wants to be in? Besides, I bet the other compartments are full."

Scarlet smiled and went to sit next to the boy.

"Thanks. And I don't know what your name is, but I'm going to call you Crow."

"His name isn't Crow, it's Alex," the blond haired boy nastily replied.

"Shut up, Rik. Crow is way cooler."

For the rest of the ride, they just hung out. Scarlet found out that the three of them had been best friends since they were little.

Before they knew it the train had reached the school. Scarlet decided that the castle looked even more amazing than it had in the pictures. They got to the castle by boat, and Rik had come extremely close to falling into the lake, much to everyone else's amusement.

Reaching the dining hall, Scarlet felt a bit nervous. She wasn't full blown scared because she had read that they were sorted into houses by a hat. It was still pretty intimidating to go up in front of the whole school though.

While waiting to be sorted, a boy with short black hair turned to James.

"Nice hair. Though if I were you I would stop washing it with tomato juice."

Before James had a chance to say anything, Scarlet turned to the boy, looked straight into his gray eyes, and simply stated, "Screw you."

They went through each of the names on the list until they finally got to her. She went before James, with her last name being Pier. She looked at the giant beast that was the whole student body before the hat fell over her eyes.

Why hello there!

Scarlet slightly jumped. No where in the reading had it said anything about the hat talking.

Well, no offense but you're definitely not in Ravenclaw. No, not Hufflepuff either. You would do extremely well in Slytherin, but something tells me that one isn't quite the one for you.

"Gryffindor!"

The hats cry was followed by deafening cheering as Scarlet went to sit down. She sat next to Crow, who had already been sorted into Gryffindor.

"Still wish you were in Slytherin?" He whispered to her as his best friend put on the hat. Scarlet thought about it for a second.

"I think I was wrong. And if I was in Slytherin I wouldn't be able to hang out with you guys, and you seem pretty cool."

The hat sorted James into Gryffindor, and soon he was followed by Rik.

"You got sorted into Gryffindor, so I guess you aren't so bad after all," Rik said to Scarlet. James agreed, and he smiled at his new found friend.