The Eilertsen family were late again, it was starting to become somewhat of a mandatory thing, to arrive just as something closed. It didn’t matter what it was, punctuality was certainly not their strong point. Luckily for Lilia she would be arriving at the train station by side-along-apparition. Lilia knew that if they took any other means of transport she would miss the train all together.  Brushing through her light blonde longs she hastily  wolfed down a slice of toast, her trunk had been packed the night before  and her mother had put some extra food and galleons for the train journey ahead of her.  “Mama, Papa, sa megem!”  Let’s go, Lilia said in Romanian for if they didn’t speed up, they would miss the train.  Lilia grabbed her things and her father took her trunk, she took her father's arm and immediately felt herself squeeze down into what felt like an uncomfortable little hole.


Lilia never would get used to apparating, she understood that much; she’d much rather fly but rules were rules, the statue of secrecy was there for a reason. She took a look at her surroundings and found herself in a small  alleyway in King’s Cross Station. She and her parents  took a look at the time and briskly made their way to platform 9 and 10. If there was one thing Lilia was excited about, it was running into a wall.  However absurd that may have sounded, it was simply the only way to the Hogwarts Express and Lilia’s father had said it was always fun. So now, Lilia too was speeding towards the wall that separated the wizarding world and the muggle one, her father was behind her pushing the trolley with all her things. Bracing herself for impact she closed her eyes expecting her father to be tricking her, however nothing happened. Lilia came to a halt and opened her eyes, revealing a scarlet steam train.

Her father chuckled at her initial bewilderment before turning Lilia to face him and his wife; “Now Lia, not too much trouble okay?” Lilia smirked, like her father could talk, he was always getting into trouble, his recklessness was what attracted Lilia’s mother in the first place. “George, fii serios” Lilia’s mother retorted, she still found English quite hard but she was certainly getting better;  “Floarea mea de crin, make sure to write to us as much as you can, I know how busy Hogwarts can be.”, Lilia’s mother had always called Lilia her lily flower and it brought new found comfort. Lilia hugged her mother and father, she heard a whistle from the train conductor signalling it was time to go, she grabbed her trunk and ran towards the train but not before yelling out to her parents; “you should have checked my pockets!” She could see her parents collectively sigh, Lilia’s pockets were deep with merchandise from Weasley Wizard Wheezes as well as a variety of sweets. that she had bought with her parents the weekend before. 

The main downside to being late was that there were no empty compartments but Lilia figured to choose one with only one current occupant, even the train ride had some adventure to offer! However, Lilia couldn’t find any compartments that only had one person currently in them. That was until she made her way near the end of the train, half-ready to just sit in the corridor and see if she got told off.  Peering into a final compartment  she saw a boy who looked like a first year sitting all by himself, Lilia smiled in happiness. Nodding at her achievements she said to herself, and that is what muggles called a Victory Royale. Knocking on the compartment door, she slid it open slightly and sat down opposite the boy. She did this all quickly, not giving the boy a chance to protest, if she were completely honest Lilia just wanted a place to sit, she wasn’t too bothered by the boy sitting in front of her. However, she was the one who had come rudely into the compartment not the other way round. Her mother would be in fits with her manners but she wasn’t there to scold anyone.

She smiled at the boy and reached out her hand to him, her father had told her it was polite. “Sorry for interrupting you, I needed a place to sit, although I wanted to see how long I could stay in the corridors before getting caught.”  On the mention of that, Lilia began moving around quite loudly, totally forgetting that in a handshake the other person had to shake her hand. She began emptying her pockets on the seat next to her, a whole flurry of objects came out (she had asked her father to magically enlarge them), from canary creams to chocolate frogs, she had racked up quite a pile. To get out the remaining items from her pockets she stood up on the seat and began quite violently shaking the contents of her pockets. Once she was satisfied she sat down again, careful not to ruin any of her belongings. Turning her attention back to the boy she brushed her blonde hair out her face and smiled again softly; “I’m Lilia Eilertsen, what’s your name?”

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Lilia didn’t fare well with boring things, she got all fidgety and imagined herself in all other situations apart from the dreary one that she was in. The girl knew that the train journey was long, weren’t Scotland and England like two different countries? Lilia never succeeded in Geography, it wasn't her fault that a river decided to have a name, it would be easier to just call it river, she thought sullenly. But alas the world did not agree with what Lilia thought were revolutionary ideas. Regardless, the train journey would be long and tedious and then the wait to be sorted would be long and tedious and then the feast would be long and tedious. At least, Lilia thought, she had an array of items that would hopefully get her through the boredom of the train. Lilia would have much rather side-along-apparated than be stuck in this metal cylinder for eight or more hours.

The boy opposite her turned out to be a Charlie; “Hmm Charlie Cutting, isn’t that like the muggle device? A scozzer? Or was it shivers? Eh I don’t know.” Lilia had heard of this muggle device while on holiday in Greece, they had terrified her greatly at first but it turns out that they had no apparent power over the small girl. Lilia found them quite boring, where was the fun? The magic? She almost laughed out loud at her stupidity, there simply was no magic! Literally and figuratively. Lilia also wondered what sweets muggle had, did their pepper-imps not make smoke come out of the ears? How mundane.

Speaking of her collection of sweets and merchandise, Lilia picked up  a chocolate frog before throwing one to the boy opposite her “want one?” She unwrapped it carefully, making sure to not let the frog get away, she chucked away the card, she had no use for moving people. It was then she realized that Charlie maybe didn’t want chocolate and that maybe he didn’t even know what a chocolate frog was. She also chucked a frog at her, whilst it wasn’t a hard throw, she had still actively walloped an object at the poor boy. Well, she thought she couldn’t exactly take back a chocolate frog. Go big or go home, right?

In all fairness, Lilia’s father had been the one to tell her she needed a motto to get through her Hogwarts years. Her mother was probably thinking something of the lines of; “stay out of trouble”, which just wasn’t happening. It wasn’t like Lilia actively seeked trouble; it was more that trouble had the uncanny skill of finding her, at least that’s what she told her parents. Whilst, the girl knew that she would have plenty of fun at Hogwarts, she was already beginning to miss her parents. Growing up as an only child, her parents were her friends away from school and although the family always had people around, the Eilertsen’s were each other rocks. Lilia didn’t know what she would do if something happened to them.

The young girl looked at the boy in front of her with a lopsided smile on her face, maybe she had come off as a bit intense, she wasn’t exactly sure but she hoped that Charlie didn’t mind too much.  “So Charlie, what house are you hoping for?” The young girl spoke softly and popped her p’s, she found it way too much fun.  Lilia wasn’t exactly sure what house she would belong in.  Her parents had gone to Durmstrang where the housing system was different so that wasn’t much help to her. Maybe Slytherin? She was known to be cunning but she also had an unfaltering reckless and oddly brave streak. Time would only tell, she reminded herself quickly. Lying back in her seat, she eagerly waited for Charlie’s answer, maybe they could become fast friends!

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Lilia nodded to herself; scissors, that was what the weird cutting contraption was. It occurred to her greatly that Charlie was a half-blood or maybe even a muggleborn, not many purebloods knew what scissors were after all wands were so much easier for many things. Whilst Lilia liked a lot of muggle things, she still found this surrounding their culture, alien and confusing. What on earth was the function of a rubber duck for example? They didn’t even more and Lilia found that highly disappointing.

Charlie looked rather confused when Lilia’s chocolate frog began moving, did he honestly expect it to stay still? The frog was about to be eaten, of course they would want to escape in their final moments, wouldn’t anyone? Lilia was going to voice her thoughts but thought better of it, there was no point getting into useless arguments over something a minute as a chocolate frog.

"Oh... well of course any of them would be great, and really who's to say that any one is better than the other, right?" Lilia supposed she agreed in a half sense,  she didn’t believe that any house was better than another  one at the moment but she knew the moment she had been sorted her opinion would change.  "Of course it really is just an honor to be going to such a well respected school like this anyway. And with four great houses, wow. So many houses. They must be quite large houses to fit so many students in them. But why do we even need to be separating students to begin with? Isn't umm... unity really the best option?" It was at this point that Lilia decided that Charlie was definitely a muggle born, Hogwarts was the only school in the British Isles, Lilia didn’t think it was that hard to get into.

Lilia’s parents had gone to the Durmstrang Institute of Magic considering both of them were  Romanian. Whilst Durmstrang was in the northernmost part of Europe, it was the closest school for Romanians. Lilia had originally wanted to go to Durmstrang; it was part of her heritage after all. However, the family had moved to Oxford when Lilia was still young, her magical occurrence had also been in the United Kingdom meaning she was eligible for Hogwarts.

As for unity, Lilia wasn’t completely sure what he meant by that. Lilia enjoyed the idea of a house system, it gave the student a family inside of Hogwarts and made sleeping arrangements alongside other things easier.  Lilia also loved traditions and houses reinforced them. “You’re a muggle born right?” It wasn’t said disdainfully, more as a question. “My parents went to Durmstrang so the housing system is different but I quite like Hogwarts' way of things, it creates traditions. Your house will be your second family, you know.”