Bea sat with Penny and her Ravenclaw friends for the feast, listening in on their conversations. They were excitedly discussing the elective classes they had selected for their third year; Penny was taking three: Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures: "With Kettleburn, I can't believe he's still teaching, he's only four fingers left!". They all sounded dreadfully boring – except maybe the latter. Bea picked at her food, her mind reeling with the newness of the situation. Sure, she'd been wishing to go to Hogwarts for years, but the fact that she was really here? It was taking some time to set in.

     Once the savoury dishes transformed into buttery desserts, Penny turned to Bea. "They're going to be gathering the first years soon," she informed her. "The Ravenclaw prefects, I mean. They'll take you to your dormitories, and you'll get to meet the girls in your year that you'll share a room with."

     "Did you like the girls you were with in your first year?" Bea asked carefully.

     The older Ravenclaw laughed. "You can ask them for yourself." She gestured to her friends. "We still room together, and they're my best friends in my house. Trust me, I'm sure you'll love whoever you're paired with."

     Bea picked at a treacle tart, her mind flush with thoughts. Hopefully she would make friends like Iris had, and her experiences at Hogwarts would be equally as magical. She wanted to go home in the summers and gush to Ruby in the same manner as Iris. So far everything had seemed too perfect to be true.

     Penny nudged Bea, wishing her luck and guiding her over as the Ravenclaw prefects gathered the first years. She hung back towards the outskirts of the students, not wanting to be front and centre, but still she was spotted; Roger sidled over to Bea, tugging the sleeve of her robes. "That's my older brother," he grumbled in her ear, gesturing towards the male prefect. Bea craned her neck to catch a glimpse as he led them up to Ravenclaw Tower. "His name's Chester."

     "D'you think you'd like to be a prefect some day?" Bea questioned lowly.

     Roger shrugged, pushing his hair off his forehead with a sneaky grin. "Probably not. My mum about lost her marbles with joy when the letter came for Chester, probably shouldn't risk that again, right?"

     "Right." She laughed. "It's nice to have an in though, isn't it? Surely your brother won't take points from you. You're invincible."

     "Maybe he wouldn't, but the other eleven prefects definitely would." He smirks, looking up ahead. "Are you ready to take the stairs?"

     "Depends on how many."

     Chester Davies and the female prefect led the Ravenclaws up a dainty spiral staircase, up to the fifth floor on the west side of the castle. Bea's knuckles were white on the railing, swearing she could hear the staircase creaking under the weight of thirty eleven-year-olds. The door at the top had no keyhole or knob – simply a bronze knocker fastened to the door in the shape of an eagle.

     "How are we supposed to get in, then?" Bea whispered to Roger.

     "The eagle," he answered casually, all-knowingly. "It asks you a riddle, you see. If you don't answer it correctly, you have to wait until someone else comes along and gets it right. Chester told me that once when he was in second year, nineteen students got it wrong all in a row. They were all piled outside waiting for more Ravenclaws."

     Bea clapped her hand to her forehead. "That sounds like something that would happen to us, don't you think?"

     "Don't jinx it," Roger chuckles. "But yeah. I'd bet a Sickle it happens within the first week of classes."

     Bea and Roger were too far back to hear the riddle (or the answer), but the door swung open and they were permitted into the Ravenclaw common room, which left Bea positively speechless. A huge circular room, all blue and bronze, with airy arched windows covered by silks and a rich blue patterned in stars. There were portraits on the walls of others dressed in Ravenclaw blue, soft chairs and divans in which Bea suddenly craved a nap, and the reflection of constellations onto the domed navy ceiling. Near the staircases to the dormitories, a large statue of a beautiful woman was carved in white stone, and Bea could have sworn the statue looked at her with a knowing eye. To the side of the room, there were shelves and shelves filled with hundreds of books, a haven for many of those in Ravenclaw. It was beautiful and elegant and made Bea feel safe. She and Roger exchanged looks of absolute awe, as did many of the other first years.

     Roger waved goodbye to Bea as his brother led him and the rest of the male first years up to their dormitories, after they all received a quick speech about common room rules and decorum throughout the year. The female prefect led the girls up, sorting them into groups of four, then ushering them into their individual dorm rooms. The four-poster beds were draped in sky blue silks with matching curtains swaying in the breeze from the rounded windows. A white banner that reads 'Ravenclaw' along with an eagle is magically holstered over each bed, along with a blue upholstered armchair next to each girl's wooden nightstand and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed. Bea was shocked to see her trunk and the rest of her belongings already waiting for her on one of the beds.

     Eliza Westrup, Carsie Copper, and Gemma Flint. Those were her new roommates. They all had older siblings at Hogwarts; the small similarity between the four eleven-year-olds was enough to calm Bea's nerves. Eliza was sweet if a bit shy, her hair blonde and cut in a short bob. Her older brother Ryan was a Hufflepuff Prefect. Carsie and Gemma both had older brothers; Carsie's brother Ben was a Gryffindor, the same age as Charlie Weasley, and Gemma's was a Slytherin in Iris' year. "I'm sure Marcus has already written to my parents, saying I was sorted into Ravenclaw." She said proudly. "They're going to be furious! At least it wasn't Gryffindor. That would have resulted in me being disowned."

     The girls chatted well into the night, all tucked into their own beds, their whispers and soft giggles giving Bea hope that Penny was right – she was going to love them.

...

     "Hey! Bea! Come sit over here with me!"

     Bea turned to see who called her name, and hesitantly made her way over to the seat next to Lee. He grinned widely, patting the seat. "Sit with me."
She sat, surprised that she was in a class with Gryffindors. She spotted a few Hufflepuffs as well, and for a moment thought of Iris. Did she like her classes? She didn't even know what Iris chose as her electives. Lee pulled her from her reverie by leaning over and tugging at her blue and silver tie. "Ravenclaw, huh?"

     "And proud," she laughs. "Although I will say I wasn't expecting it."

     "At least you're not Slytherin," Lee faked a shudder. "I guess we can still be friends."

      "Oh, thank goodness," Bea pressed her palm to her chest in mock relief. "I was worried."

     "As you should've been!" Lee declared. "Now we're just waiting for the twins to show up and then we'll have our group of best friends."

     "The Weasley twins?" She frowned, hiding a smile at the words 'best friends'. People already wanted to hang out with her? "I've heard they wreak havoc."

     "You bet your arse they do!"

     "Language, Mr. Jordan!" Professor Flitwick nasally reprimanded him. Lee rolled his eyes slightly, acknowledging the professor with a salute.

     "Sorry!" He called, winking at Bea. "What's wrong with a little havoc, Miss Beatrice?"

     "Don't call me that." She wrinkled her nose. "I hate it. And where are the twins, anyway? Class is about to start."

     "Which means they're about to show up." Lee tugged on her tie again. "I can't believe we have Charms first thing in the morning. Here, let me see your schedule. I want to know if we have any other classes together, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors."

     She fished her schedule out from between the pages of her Charms textbook, where she'd tucked it for safe keeping, and passed it to Lee. He scanned it, breath held hopefully. "This isn't terrible." He announced. "You have Potions with the Gryffindors, but I'm not in that class. Bollocks. Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins? Good luck. And then we have Transfiguration together!"

     Bea was about to ask why it was bad to have Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins when two redheaded twins – already bordering on lanky at age eleven – bound into the classroom, one after the other. Lee waved his arm wildly, directing them over to the two chairs he'd saved in front of him and Bea. They clattered loudly into the seats, drawing the attention of the other classmates and subsequently, Bea's utter embarrassment, especially as they leaned over the back of their chairs and said loudly (to Bea): "Who are you?"

     Her face burned. "I'm Bea."

     "Be nice to her, boys," Lee declared. "She's with me."

     Bea wrinkled her nose slightly, looking at him. "Yes. But not like...with him."

     The twins erupted into laughter, and even Lee laughed, rubbing the back of his neck a tad sheepishly. Bea didn't mean she disliked Lee – at eleven, she had no interest in dating anyone. Especially not these three boys.

     "I like her." One of them said decidedly. "I'm George."

     "And I'm Fred."

     "Want to eat lunch with us today?"

     "You won't be making it to lunch, Weasleys, if you don't pay attention while I teach my lessons!" Flitwick warned them as the class began. "Otherwise you'll be joining me in detention."

     Bea listened intently throughout the lesson, trying not to get distracted by the twins in front of her shuffling a deck of cards.

     She ended up joining them for lunch.

...

     Over time, Bea became closer with the twins than Lee. Not intentionally, of course, but while Lee was out trying to suck up to the Gryffindor girls – especially two girls named Angelina and Alicia, she'd learnt – the twins seemed taken by her. It was as if the approval from Lee had made her all the more interesting. And the fact that she was a Ravenclaw, of course. None of this was an issue...but it did mean she often had trouble escaping the redheads.

     "You're smart!" George exclaimed, as the twins chased Bea down the corridors after Transfiguration had let out. She held her books to her chest, not slowing down. "We've never had any smart friends. Not even our brother made it into Ravenclaw!"
"I'm not that smart," Bea corrected him instinctively. "Just lucky, I reckon."

     "You're wicked clever!" Fred insisted. She turned to face him, and in his pace to keep up with her, he nearly barrelled clear through her.

     "Why do you say that?" She inquired, letting her curiosity get the better of her.

    A sly grin captured his lips. "Because you're going to help us with our first prank at Hogwarts." Her jaw dropped slightly. Pranks?

     "It has to be legendary, it's the first one," George added.

     "We've consulted and decided it would be wise to have a Ravenclaw on our side."

     "Who is we?" Bea blinked.

     "Fred and I, of course!"

     She bit her lip. Iris would have her head if she did anything to get detention. "What are you thinking, then?"

     Fred shrugged. "This is where your genius comes in, I expect."

     "We have ideas, of course," George rushed to add. "There's just a lot of pressure on the first prank. It needs to be memorable!"

     Then again, Iris would never believe it to be Bea if the prank was targeted at her.

     "What if we prank your brother Percy?" Bea suggested casually. "Show him what school's going to be like now that you two are here."

     Fred's eyes lit up, a massive contrast from the boyish, scared eyes Bea saw briefly during his Sorting. "Bea, you're brilliant!" He hollered shamelessly, clapping her on the back. "Isn't she, George? Bloody brilliant! I can't wait to see his face, the smarmy stuck-up git!"

     "How do you know Perce?" George ignored Fred with ease, his brow furrowed in Bea's direction.

     She shrugged, her cheeks flushed at being caught. "I actually sat with him on the train here. He's friends with my older sister Iris."

     "You knew Percy before you knew us?" Fred leaned forward to tug a lock of her hair. "Bloody shame. He's a wanker. Don't base the entire family around his reputation."

     "I wouldn't dare."

     "So pranking Percy it is!" George exclaimed. "Fred, I'm ready to turn this castle upside down."

     "That seems like a highly difficult prank to pull."

     "Figuratively, Beatrice. Figuratively."

     "Don't call me that!"