Hogsmeade wasn't really anything new to Sophie. She'd been here lots of times. Her grandparents lived here, along with her two aunts.

These first year boats, though? Yup. They were new to Sophie. She kept thinking about that ride across the lake as she make the journey over the rocky path that led to the Black Lake.

WHOA!

That meant she'd be sorted soon!

A trickle of excitement rushed through her as she stepped up to the boats and eyed them as if one was better than the other. In the end, she took the one in the front, because if anything crazy ended up happening, at least everyone else would see her before she had time to meet an untimely death.

Because this was Hogwarts, after all. Those things did happen.

She lowered herself into the boat and waited for three others to join her.

Blake was itching. He wanted his basketball and he really wanted to play. But, his father had stressed how important it was to socialize with people, especially on the first day. Also, he promised to send the ball at a later date and that he would sweeten the deal with some candy. Brownie points for dad.

"Eeh," Blake started as he approached a boat that contained a girl. "Do you mind if I join you?"

Sophie was sitting there all by herself with really no one else in sight, which was starting to get kind of creepy. She was starting to wonder if she'd taken a wrong turn and had gotten into a boat headed for nowhere. She was just about to grab her wand and run back into the village, when she heard a voice coming from right by her boat.

Turning quickly, she saw a kid who looked about her age. She hated to admit it, but she was really relieved to see somebody else. "Go ahead," she said, scooting back and leaving him more than enough room, "I was starting to wonder if I was the only first year riding to Hogwarts." She knew he was a first year, because why else would he be riding the first year boats?

As Blake stepped into the boat, he took a look around. She had a point! There was nobody else here. This WAS the place to be right? "Maybe all the other students are slowpokes?" That seemed like a logical explanation. Yes. Slowpokes. They better hurry up, though, Blake was getting hungry!

Blake gave a half shrug and took a seat in the boat. "Thanks, by the way. I'm Blake."

Sophie saw the boy take a look around. Maybe he was wondering if they were both in the wrong place, too. She was just about to blink and consider getting out the boat before it took off, when the boy mentioned something about slowpokes.

She laughed then. "That sounds about right, because my brother is one of them," she remarked. "He's probably lost...or still at the food trolley." At least their grandfather lived in Hogsmeade, because if they got lost, he would always come and get them, right?

"You're welcome," she said, turning back to the boy. Blake, she now knew. "I'm Sophie Newell."

Food.

Blake's stomach growled at the thought of food. "Well, I hope your brother brings extra because I am hungry," he joked, rubbing his tummy. Blake was a growing boy and he needed food!

"It's nice to meet you, Sophie. Are you excited for the sorting? What are you hoping to be?" Might as well chat to pass the time. Also, it would distract Blake from continuing to think about his rumbling tummy.

Sophie shrugged. If Caleb wanted to give away all his food, that was his business. Sophie would have kept all of it to herself, but that was just her. She was really only a giving person when she saw some benefit to it. "Me, too," she said. "Being hungry, I mean."

"Of course I am! I want to be a Slytherin, like nearly everybody on my mom's side," she answered. "If the hat tries to put me somewhere else, I'm going to ask to be a Slytherin. I've heard you can do that. What about you?"

"Oh," Blake responded. She seemed really enthusiastic about the whole thing. "Slytherin...does that mean you're like...really sneaky and stuff like that?" If so, that was pretty cool! Blake wasn't very sneaky himself. His occasional attempts at being sneaky were usually pretty lame.

"Uhm...I'm excited to be sorted, but I don't know what to be. My dad was a Ravenclaw...so that, maybe?"

Walking over to the tiny boats, Jayden saw that there were two people sitting in one of them. They looked like they were in a pretty intense conversation. Now he was torn between sitting by himself and interrupting their conversation. He chose the latter.

He hurried over to the boat that the two people were sitting in; the place was starting to give him the creeps, as the three of them were the only people there. As he was climbing in, he whispered a hello so soft that probably would have been misheard for wind.

She could feel the butterflies in her tummy...

The night sky was upon them, but the lights from Hogsmeade was just barely enough for you to see the row of boats that lined the edge of the lake. Most of them were empty, which meant Faylinn was lucky enough to snag a spot at the very front of a boat. She clambered over to one that was empty and sat down at the very front. Maybe if she were lucky she'd she the giant squid her father had told her about...

"I don't know," Sophie said, with a look that indicated she very well might be all those things Blake described. "I think it's smart not to reveal everything about myself." Yup. Sneaky. She gave him a smirk then added, "Well, both my parents were Gryffindors, but I don't think I'd make a good Gryffindor. I'm not one to jump face first into bravery. I say let somebody else try it first. That way if they fail, I know to just walk away."

...and then Sophie heard, literally heard, the wind passing by. It seemed to say hello. "Weird," she whispered to herself. This boat ride was going to be really, really creepy. She turned, though, and saw a new boy sitting with them. Whoa. When did he get there? "Did you say something?" she asked. There was another person, too, but she wasn't in their boat. Oh, another girl! So Sophie wasn't the only female first year after all! She was sitting up front. Didn't she know the one up front would be eaten first if trouble showed up?!

Jayden looked at the girl for a few seconds before realising that she was talking to him. “Oh right, I said hello” In a voice much louder than before, and then he gave a big smile. He was so thankful people actually noticed him.

“I’m Jayden, what are your names?” looking to both the boy and the girl.

Blake returned her smirk. Mmhmm, she was definitely the sneaky type. He would definitely have to hang out with her. Sneaky people were, generally, fun people. Oh wait, she had mentioned that she had a brother. "Is your brother sneaky, too?"

Also, those were excellent words of wisdom. If at first, someone else doesn't succeed, walk away. Blake started to consider adopting it as his motto.


Blake stopped thinking long enough to realize that Sophie was now looking at and talking to someone else. He followed her gaze and became surprised to see someone else in there boat. When the heck did he get there!?

"You must be a ninja," he commented, nodding his head. It was the only plausible explanation as to how this boy got into their boat without Blake noticing. Did they always let ninjas in the school? "Oh, and hi. I'm Blake."

Petra walked up to the boat and saw a couple of people already sitting in the boat, and one person sitting in the boat at the front by herself. Seeing as the other one was looking full and she didn’t like being around too many people, she chose the boat at the front with the one person in it and sat down. “Hello." She said.

Dylan followed the groundskeeper along with the fellow first year, glancing around himself at everything around him. This was so exciting, he was almost to Hogwarts! He couldn't help but smile widely at the thought. He couldn't wait to be sorted! As he walked, he nearly tripped over a stone in the path. He cursed silently under his breath, holding his foot in his hands and hopping a bit on his other to keep balance. Merlin's beard, that kinda hurt. That was a pretty big stone. Meh. The eleven year old quickly ran to catch up with the others. Once they reached the dock, Dylan found himself an empty boat and carefully stepped into it and sat down.

He then scanned the group of first years on the dock, wondering where Hazel was. Hopefully, she'd sit with him. It was too bad only first years could go on the boats, he felt kinda nervous and lonely without Melanie with him. She always made him feel safe and at ease with her around and these boats on this...dark, eerie lake (at least it looked that way at night) made him uneasy. Who knows what kinda creatures were lurking in the water. The boy shuddered at the thought.

Jayden chuckled at Blake's comment and said "I'm no ninja but it'll be kinda cool, won't it?" he continued, "Hasn't this been such an adventure? What house do you think you'll be in?"

Cutty was clutching his wand close to his skinny chest as he approached the waterfront.

Ugh! There were people everywhere! He spotted an empty boat near enough, though and jumped in with no acknowledgement whatever.

Phoenix apprehensively stepped into a boat, it was empty, so she didn't need to talk to anyone, or sit in an awkward silence. She hoped to get moving soon, she hated waiting. Maybe she might see the giant squid people had been talking about. She couldn't wait to get to the castle. It meant that she would be getting sorted soon, she wanted to find out what house she would be in, hopefully Charlie would be in the same house as her. And her father would be proud of her for getting into a good house, they were all good, but as long as she didn't disappoint her father.

And so, she waited for three others to climb in with her.

After giving the directions of where they needed to go, the Groundskeeper walked behind a few students who seemed to be excited to be going to Hogwarts and also seemed to know how they were going because they didn't looked that puzzled about the boats. Must be from magical families.

"Alright, hurry up now" he gestured for the other kids who were lagging behind. They didn't want to miss their own sorting ceremony did they? Nick sighed when one of the first years (Dylan) nearly tripped over a stone shook his head with a small grin. Hufflepuff that one, he was sure about it. "You okay there kid?" he called from where he was standing. He wasn't worried though because they were kids. And this one seemed to be the clumsy type of person.

"Four people per boat only and ...hey! no jumping in the boat it can topple over!" his dark eyes went to another kid who he had seen early cluthing his wand tightly to his chest as if they were going to get attacked any moment. Well, not on his watch."We'll wait for the rest and then set off"

Adi listened tot he directions given to the groundskeeper. This man seemed okay too. Did Hogwarts always hire friendly people? Professor D was totally cool but the only problem was he was teaching History of Magic. Bummer. It was a boring subject.

Oh! They were here! A boat was already full so Adi eyed the others and randomly selected one and carefully made his way in. Didn't want it to tip over now,did he? Only when he had sat down and looked around properly did Adi see the boat was not empty after all. He glared. It was the kid who tried to break his foot.

IT WAS TIME IT WAS TIME IT WAS TIME.

Having brightened up considerably since his sleep on the train, Benzi ran down the path where all the other first years - at least, he assumed they were first years, since the big guy kept saying that - were headed. The path was sort of dark and Benzi did his best not to trip up on any branches in the darkness. His eyes were angled downwards so he didn't see the boats at first.

But then he raised his eyes, and he saw them all right.

Grinning like a chesire cat on Christmas Day, Benzi bounded down towards the row of bobbing boats and clambered onto the first one that he saw. He was already seated and staring ahead when he noticed there was someone already in the boat.

ERRRR.

"HOGWARRTTTSSS!!!" Benzi yelled RIGHT in the kid's face, bouncing in the little boat and causing it to rock to and fro, but he really couldn't have cared less if they overturned or not. Who cares about getting wet??!?! HE. WAS. FINALLY. HERE.

Spooooooooooky. Well the dark was. Perfect for witch vibes though. All she needed was her evil laugh which she totally did a mini one before stopping at the edge of the lake.

The lake looked beautiful even in the night. Of course Abbi's mind only thought of one thing and that was fairies. She wondered if there were any real ones near by or wait were there mermaids? :O That would be WAY too cool! Could you imagine? Nothing as cool as a school with fairies and mermaids. Nuh uuuh.

After watching the first boat leave with four kids just like her the eleven year old hopped onto an empty boat and waited. She crossed her fingers in wishing Donny would be on her boat. Cause thats when the REAL fun began when she was with her bestie friendie!

So he'd already decided that today was the best day of his life ever, ever, but this was even better!
Donnacha petted his fake dolphin and stuck him in his pocket to make sure he could see the huuuuuuuuuge castle too.

He stared out over the lake- were there any dolphins in here? They totally had to be here, dolphins were his favourite. Or maybe a seal! After making a mental note to ask the first big person he met, Donnacha followed his best friend and jumped into the same boat as her, wobbling a bit and almost tumbling over as he did so.
'Isn't this 'siting?!' He thought it was. BOATS! The real ones that float! They were his favourite.

BEAAAAM! Donny!

The little 'fairy' nearly giggled hysterically with laughter as her best friend almost toppled over. She was nice enough to hide those inner giggles though. His falling over was nothing new to her. Same old AWESOME Donny that she never wanted him to change.

ASDFGHJLKSJL. COURSE this was exciting! Donny got lots more beams his way. "Yes! SO COOL!" She giggled! "Should we row, row, row our boat gently down the lake?" Or wait didn't they have to wait for another two? Mr Beard guy said they did.