Disclaimer: The only thing that I own is Faith Quinn. Nothing and no one else belongs to me.

On the train, the other girls in the compartment talk about a rumor. They say that Harry Potter, the Harry Potter, is going to start school that term and that he will be in their year. Faith has never in her life heard of Harry Potter, and she feels a little shy when it comes to asking who in the world he is. She sits in her corner seat by the window and runs her fingers over the smooth wood of her magic wand. "Who's Harry Potter?" she asks softly, and they all look at her as if she has just grown a foot on her shoulder.

"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" one of the other girls demands shrilly. "Are you a muggleborn?" she asks bluntly.

Faith felt her cheeks grow hot; she is muggleborn, but she had an aunt who went to Hogwarts. She doesn't like the other girl, with her dark hair and dog face, and she especially doesn't like the way that the other girl says muggleborn like it's a dirty word. "I don't see what that has to do with whether or not I'm muggle born or not," she says through her teeth. "Who's Harry Potter?"

They never do tell her who Harry Potter is. Just as one of the girls starts to tell her who Harry is, she's cut off by one of the others as she squeals that the train is stopping. Everyone runs from the compartment, and Faith is left all alone in the compartment, as curious as ever.

She follows the others away more slowly, and as she steps off of the train, she hears a voice hollering for the first years. That's me, she thinks, taking a deep breath and heading towards the loud voice.

After a long, dark boat ride across a lake, she and the other first years arrive at a castle. A new teacher comes up to them and begins to arrange them into a line. She tells them that they are going to be sorted into different houses, and that "every house has produced fine witches and wizards," whatever that means. She then leads them into another room, and they follow her.

The next room is huge, and more than that, it's grand. There are five tables in the new room, one horizontal one at the front near her and the other students where all of the teachers are sitting, and four vertical to them, where the students are sitting. The ceiling looks like the sky, with what she guesses is a cloudy paint job and hundreds, if not thousands, of candles that float in midair. And there are ghosts, silvery beings that move around. Faith can't really hear what they're saying when they shout at the students, but she's impressed.

She sees people around her talking, she wishes for someone to talk to, too. She takes a deep breath, puts on a smile, and taps on the shoulder of the person ahead of her in line. He turns around, and for a moment, her confidence wavers and they just look at each other.

Then, she blinks and unfreezes. "Hi," she says brightly. "What's your name?" As an afterthought, she tacks on, "I'm Fay Quinn."

He looks at her, his lips pressed in a hard, thin line. He seems too nervous to smile. "My name's Harry Potter." He watches her carefully for a few moments.

"It's nice to meet you, Harry." Fay smiles, and extends her hand to him. He takes it and finally smiles at her.

Then, there's a singing hat, and Harry and Fay begin to move forward in the line. The entire time, she's thinking about Harry and trying to figure out how he's different from everyone else. Well, she thinks, he's a little short. But that's okay, she thinks, I'm short too. And he's thin, I guess. Really, to her, he seemed like any other boy, with his messy black hair and wire-framed glasses. And he has a scar. In fact, Fay's a little This Harry Potter boy that everyone's talking about, he doesn't look extremely special. He has really pretty eyes, but that's the limit of Fay's knowledge of what makes him special. He certainly doesn't look like magic.

But then again, what does magic look like, anyway?

The names continue to be called, and Harry's up next. She perks up and pays extra attention. The messy, dingy hat is placed on Harry's head, and he tenses almost instantly. After a long moment, the now familiar voice says something.

"GYRFFINDOR!"

And the Slytherin table boos, and the Gryffindor table cheers, and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw clap politely. And it's her name that's being called for the whole hall to hear. She walks dutifully to the stool and takes her place. The hat is placed onto her head, and it slides down to her eyes.

"Well, what a sweet little thing you are," a voice whispers in her ears. She gasps involuntarily and looks around. Didn't anyone else hear that voice? Now it was chuckling at her. "Don't be so frightened, I do this to everyone. Now, I can see that you're a rather compassionate person. You believe in hard work, and you've got a desire for truth and justice stronger than most I've ever seen. Couple those with loyalty, a little bit of stubbornness…Yes, there's no place for you but….

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table bursts into cheers and whistles, and she's so happy when she realizes that it's all for her. She runs to the table as fast as she can (which is fairly fast) and she takes the first seat out of many that were offered to her. And for the rest of the evening, she knows that she's found her home with all of the nice people in yellow and black.

But that night, when she's in the bed, listening to her new roommates snore, she doesn't think about Hufflepuff house, or the castle, or ghosts or roommates or anything like that. All she thinks about it Harry. Just Harry with the pretty green eyes.

Thoughts and comments, please? Do people like it? Should it be continued? And, more importantly: do Harry and Fay get a happy ending, or a sad one? Place your vote and tell me why in a review!