The Untold Story Of Isabel Drew

Garden Gnomes

"Eyes are strange things. They can reveal more than words. Remember that."

Isa looked at the eyes in the boat with her. Ginny's excited, ready brown eyes. A brown-haired boy's nervous, flitted blue eyes. Another boy’s wide, awed green eyes. Isa tried to read them. The first boy held a nervous excitement in his eyes, despite his almost terrified face. Everytime he looked up at the castle the excitement in his eyes grew as the anxiety faded away. Isa looked closer and deeper to find a determined glinted in his eyes that became more noticeable the closer they got. The other boy couldn’t take his eyes off the castle. As he looked at it, his eyes lit up with a respect and familiar relief, Almost as if he was greeting an old friend. Ginny’s however, were by far the easiest to read. She looked at the castle with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. Isa could tell with absolute certainty that Ginny saw everything about it as a challenge or an adventure waiting for her to take it on. Isa smiled and shook her head at her friend hoping whatever trouble her friend would get into wouldn’t involve her. 

Isa wished she could try to read her own eyes, but Isa couldn’t even tell what she was feeling let alone what her eyes may be revealing. As Isa looked up at the castle, she was struck with its intense beauty. She was excited that she would be able to call this place home for the next seven years of her life, but at the same time, she was nervous. She had no idea what the next few years of her life would hold and that scared her more than anything. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Isa thought to herself, You’ll be fine. Anything that’s in there, you can handle. Opening her eyes, Isa held her head up a bit more. It didn’t matter that she didn’t come from this community. It didn’t matter that she was clueless to this world prior to a few months ago. She was ready for anything this world threw her way. 

. . . 

Ginny finally started up some light conversation between the two boys, mainly arguing with the blonde one, by the time the boats holding all the other first-years glided into a harbor-like structure underneath the cliff face. Stumbling out of their boats, everyone looked around to find a flight of stairs that led to a huge oak door. Ginny was pulled away from her arguing by an eager Isa who was following all the other first-years crowding around the door. 
“Come on!” Isa laughed. “You’ll probably have all year to argue with him about garden gnomes.” 
Ginny huffed, “That idiot thinks he’s an expert on them just because he saw one once in his friend’s backyard. My backyard is infested with them, but I guess that doesn’t mean anything since he saw one once.” 
Isa cut Ginny off with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure everyone’s mother collects garden gnomes” It was super funny to Isa that Ginny was getting so incredibly worked up over a porcelain statue that looks like a demented Santa Claus. 
“Collects gnomes?!” Ginny screeched. “Why on earth would anyone collect those pests?! Their annoying and nasty and- oh…” Then it was Ginny’s turn to laugh. “You mean your gnomes.” 
“My gnomes?” Isa asked, “What does that even mean?”
“I mean muggle gnomes.” Ginny clarified. “Even weirder than real gnomes if you ask me.” 

Before Isa could ask what real garden gnomes were, the big oak door swung open to reveal a tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes. 
The giant of a man that had led all the first-years through the tunnels so far said, “Ah yes, the firs’ years, Professor.” 
The woman replied, “Thank you, Hagrid.” Then addressing the first-years, “Follow me.” 

The crowd of children followed the woman into an even larger tunnel, so large in fact that you couldn’t find where the ceiling was. Muffled voices could be heard as the group passed a door on their right letting the first-years know that all the other students were already inside the castle. They continued walking until the woman led them into a smaller corridor. 
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” she began as she turned to face them. “My name is Professor McGonagall. The start-of-term banquet will begin soon, but you must be sorted into your houses before you are to take your seats. The Sorting is a very important ceremony. While you are here, you house is to be like your family. You will have classes with those in your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend your free time in your house dormitory. The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has produced outstanding witches and wizards and has its own noble history. While at Hogwarts, your triumphs will help you gain points for your houses and your rulebreaking will lose your house’s points. The Sorting Ceremony will take place shortly, please quietly wait here. I will return when we are ready for you.” With that, Professor McGonagall promptly turned around and left. 

There was five beats of silence until the room erupted into whispers as each child turn to his neighbor and began whispering about something Professor McGonagall had said. However, for the first time since the two had met, there was complete silence between Isa and Ginny. 

…

Professor McGonagall returned to the chamber about ten minutes later. The room immediately fell silent as she said, “Form a line and follow me, please.” 

Everyone smushed into a line and they walked through the doorway into what Isa overheard it being called, the Great Hall. Isa was once again met by a spectacular sight of another huge room lit by floating candles over four long tables, being occupied by all the other students. Golden plates and cups sat on the four tables in front of staring faces that either made the first-years shrink back or puff out their chests. Isa just continued to gawk at everything, goblets, the candles, the ceiling that looked like it just opened up into the sky. Isa’s attention was drawn to the dusty old hat Professor McGonagall had just put on a stool in the front of the hall. Isa curiously looked at it and wondered why it was there and what did it have to do with a Sorting Ceremony. She leaned over and opened her mouth to ask Ginny, at that moment the hat began to sing. 

The hat. Isa thought, is singing. Hat. Singing. Hat singing. Isa wondered why she continued to be surprised. Only a few other students were surprised by this like Isa. Everyone else was listening to the hat sing as normally as one would watch a TV program. When the hat had stopped singing everyone clapped and then Professor McGonagall started to call names. The first person called walked up and sat on the stool with such certainty, Isa knew a sibling had told them about it. Some would walk up proudly, maybe even wave at a person or two. Others would walk up trying to fold into their own shadow. When Isa heard her name called, she knew she would be one of the latter. Isa wanted to try and read some eyes of those she was passing, but she found she was incapable of taking her eyes from the stones beneath her feet.

Sitting on the stool, Isa finally found herself able to look at the faces staring at her before the sorting hat fell over her eyes and engulfed her world into darkness.
A quiet one, eh?, A voice inside the sorting hat spoke to her. I have almost no problem sorting you but I am interested in trying to find some sort of challenge in you.
Isa just sat silently wondering, wanting to know, what the heck this voice was doing and what it was looking for.
Ugh, it's like every fiber of your being is a picture-perfect image of her. You just want to know. You want to know with such a passion. Almost too much passion... hmmmm now I wonder where in a muggleborn family does that type of passion come from... I've seen it once before, but that's for you to find out.

The voice inside the sorting hat fell silent with a little chuckle before a millisecond later screaming, "RAVENCLAW!"

Author's Note:
Ugh even as I wrote those two words I cringed. If you hadn't already known, I hate author's notes for some odd reason. Maybe it makes me feel like I'm being pushed out of the story when I just want to fall in it. I honestly don't know. If you write and you constantly put author's notes, go ahead and keep doing that. It's what you like to do and I can't tell you not to.

Anyways, ummmmmmmmmmm oh yeah, so I realized I never said this and I guess I kinda have to even though almost everyone should know this: I do not own like 99% of this book. That all goes to JK Rowling because like she wrote it first and I'm just adding my little character into it. But of course this is fanfiction so who the hecks gonna believe im trying to steal all this? Oh well.

Also, I appreciate constructive criticism more than anything. If you have, for some wacky reason, read this far into this terrible book and you absolutely hate it, please tell me. I seriously want to know. If you wanna rant to me about how terrible this book is, go ahead. Itll help me. I'd rather know than just go on believing that everything is fine. In other words, please tell me how horrible my book is.

Lastly, why the flippity flop are you reading this. There are hundreds of better books on Wattpad. Go read those. I'm just publishing this to feel accomplished in my uneventful life.