Really, a Ravenclaw?

After the feast ended, the two Ravenclaw Prefects led the first years up to Ravenclaw Tower. Danica tried to find a time to slip out of the line and go to Dumbledore about changing her house, but that time never came. Once all of the Ravenclaws reached a door at the top of a spiraling staircase, an enchanted knocker on the door came into view and it proclaimed,

"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?"

Danica had heard about each house's common room needing a password to get in, but a riddle? She began thinking about all of the possible options before an older boy questioned, "The word is 'echo', right?"

"Correct," said a soft, faint female voice.

Danica looked up to see a ghost that was a young woman with long dark hair pulled back and she was wearing a long grey dress. The ghost floated above the students and then she disappeared into the Ravenclaw Tower. The door then opened up for the Ravenclaw students and the Prefects held it open for them. The first years gasped as they entered their new common room.

It was a wide, circular room lined with floor-to-ceiling windows providing excellent views of the Quidditch Pitch, the Black Lake, and the mountains behind the Forbidden Forest. Bronze and silver silk drapes framed the windows and the domed ceiling was midnight blue and painted with stars to resemble the night sky. Towards the back of the common room, a staircase branched off to the right and to the left, that led to the boy's and girl's dormitories.

A grand statue was in the middle of the room and Danica concluded that it was Ravenclaw's founder: Rowena Ravenclaw. Sporadically spread out throughout the common room were armchairs, sofas, and small worktables. Along the wall in which the door to enter was located, a large bookshelf was found, and also a bulletin board was beside it. Bookcases were additionally found scattered about the main room. A large fireplace was the central point of it all and framed pictures surrounded it.

Danica was still in awe at the sight of the Ravenclaw Common Room before Penelope got her attention by saying, "First-year girls, this way."

Danica, Juliet, Lia, and two other girls proceeded to follow the older Ravenclaw up the right staircase. It was a narrow spiral and started to get smaller and smaller before it opened up to reveal a spectacular dormitory.

There was a large heater centrally located in the dorm, with five beds alongside the walls with wooden desks attached to them. The beds were covered in a dark navy blue bedspread with silver and bronze accent details. Tall windows, similar to the ones in the common room, were placed along each of the beds to give the girls a stunning view of the Forbidden Forest.

Penelope left the girls to themselves and Danica found her trunk and Pandora at the foot of one of the beds.

"Well, um, I'm bad with introductions, but hi, my name is Isla Fraiser," said a girl who had emerald green eyes with golden blonde hair.

"Padma Patil," responded the other girl in the dorm who was donning an intricate braid.

"Brilliant," Lia interjected. "I'm Lia Swallows, that's Juliet Clearwater." She pointed over in Juliet's direction and Juliet waved back at the other girls, "and she's-"

"Danica Lestrange," Danica replied coolly.

"Aren't you the one with the-" Padma started to say and was interrupted by Danica.

"Parents in Azkaban? Yep, that's me. And I'm supposed to be in Slytherin right now."

There was an awkward moment of silence and the girls each began to unpack their trunks. As Danica sorted through the extra clothes that she packed, she realized that they were all Slytherin green and black. So much for being sorted into Ravenclaw. Danica was putting her books into her desk when she heard a screech and saw a tabby cat dash past her.

"Henri!" Lia shouted and dove to grab her cat, but missed. "Sorry, she ran out of her cage and I couldn't catch her in time."

Isla, Padma, and Juliet dashed over to the opposite side of their dorm while Danica stayed solitary beside her bed as Lia closed in on Henri the cat. Henri jumped into Danica's open trunk and started tearing up her green jumpers.

"That bloody cat is tearing up my clothes! Those jumpers cost more than 50 galleons and are one of a kind. Make it stop!" Danica said in a very distressed tone in Lia's direction.

"I can't help that you buy the most expensive clothes and that my cat has a mind of its own," Lia exclaimed then tackled her cat. The cat was trying to pry itself off of Lia before she put it back in its cage. Lia tried to ease the tension by saying, "Once we are settled in, Henri should be more comfortable and won't do that again."

"That's good," Isla replied quietly. Silence enveloped the room as the girls were preparing for bed. Danica assessed the damage that had been inflicted on her clothes. Two jumpers had giant tears in the stitching and one shirt had a few rips. Her aunt could probably fix the torn items with some charms when she saw her for the winter holiday.

But at the moment, Danica was on edge.

"I'll look out of place with these torn clothes," she muttered to herself, unaware that Lia could hear it.

"Well obviously, those are all green and black when the Ravenclaw colors are blue and silver. You should've just packed different jumpers," Lia responded in a harsh tone.

"I think that you forgot that I'm a Slytherin, not a Ravenclaw. I plan on going to see the Headmaster in the morning to switch my house," Danica said in a very posh voice that made her seem stuck-up.

"Well, the Sorting Hat put you here for a reason, and I don't think it makes mistakes," Juliet blurted out suddenly. She'd been quiet for so long that her comment surprised Danica.

Everyone in that room was now focused on Juliet and a red flush appeared on her cheeks. "I didn't mean to sound rude," she added, "but I think that you should forget about the jumper incident; you can just buy new clothes. You should stay in Ravenclaw."

Padma got up from her bed and said, "Yeah, Juliet's right. You'll have so many opportunities in Ravenclaw, and plus, you will have your new friends to help you."

Padma, Juliet, and Isla all shot Danica a smile while Lia crossed her arms and leaned against her bedpost. "I suppose that if you stop acting like a git, I will too," she finally said and smirked.

"Alright, I'll stay," Danica admitted. "It would be a nice change to create my own path."

Lia laughed and said, " I think the real reason is that Ravenclaws are the best at having a brilliant time."

The girls had finally come together and befriended each other. Isla pulled out a bag of chocolate frogs and every-flavor jelly beans from her trunk and the first-years had a long night of gossiping and games ahead of them.

Danica didn't want to tell her new friends this, but an additional reason that she chose to stay was to piss off her family. What a joy the Christmas holidays would be with them...

And the next seven years of her life.

Hello to my new/current readers! The next chapter will be a time-skip to Goblet of Fire where I will begin writing (these first few chapter were just for background info :)