Elsie Conrads - Hufflepuff House
Joined: 8/6/05
Origin: England, suburb of London
The small house was in an uproar. Though there were only four people resident at the moment it felt as if the whole neighborhood had dropped by and each of them had left an item behind. It all centered round a small girl and a very large trunk. The two males present were hoovering warily close to the door while a beautiful woman was putting clothes into the trunk, tears streaming down her cheeks as she did so. The girl, Elsie, was not as beautiful as her mother but would usually render her mother�s friends to �ohhh� and call her pretty. Today she was enduring her mothers care with her freckled cheeks red with frustration and her red-blonde hair, cut only below her ears and usually tied neatly with a pink ribbon, in a curly mess.
They were packing for her trip to Hogwarts, and with each item they packed into the trunk her mother seemed to think she lost yet a little bit more of her youngest child. In fact, her mother had been so distressed the whole day that there had been little room for Elsie to think about the fact that she was leaving home. It was dawning on her now and she was beginning to feel nervously sick. She had never been away from her home for long and she had never, despite the fact that she was eleven years old, been away without a family member for more than one night (which she spent at her muggle aunt�s place).
�Are you sure you have everything you need?� her mother asked, holding a pair of mittens in one hand and two mismatched pink socks in the other. �I don�t want you to be cold.�
�Mom! I�ll... I�ll be fine.� Elsie put on a brave smile and hastily removed the pink clothes from her mother. Almost everything she owned was pink and Elsie was beginning to have a sinking feeling that maybe the other students at Hogwarts would think her a child.
�How about your teddybear, have you packed him yet?�
�MOM!� This time Elsie was joined by her brother Jack. He rolled his eyes as he came up to join them. �Honestly mom, you�ve got to realise she�s not that small anymore.� He helped Mrs Conrads to her feet. �Why don�t you go lie down �til it�s time to leave, and I�ll help Elsie with the packing. Dad, come help mom to her bed?�
Mr. Conrads, a middleaged accountant who�d somehow managed to charm a beautiful witch into marrying him (he was still occasionally wondering how that had happened) moved forward and helped his wife towards the stairs, giving his children a look over his shoulder which suggested that they should have patience with their poor mother.
�Now,� Jack said as they�d finished packing and he had put Elsies teddybear on the top before he closed the trunk, �you�re going to be fine, you know that don�t you?� Elsie nodded, but she was sure her brother knew her true feelings. Jack was ten years older than she was and he had a knack for knowing how she felt.
Jack had even taken the day off from the ministry just to be able to see her off in London. They would meet the third child of the family, Evan, in Diagon Alley where he worked at the Apocracy. Though Evan and Jack could hardly be called children, Evan was two years older than Jack and they bother adored and spoiled their kid sister. In fact everyone adored Elsie and her life so far had not prepared her well for the move to Hogwarts, despite the fact that her brothers had both gone there. Oh she knew enough for an eleven year old kid, she supposed, about Dark Arts and charms and potions and all that. It was just... she wasn�t sure she wanted to know more about these things, finding most of them a little scary and more than a little intimidating. The only thing she was really looking forward to was Care of magical creatures. Her whole life Elsie had found all kinds of animals interesting and since her dad had stopped her from having anything stranger than a stick insect in their suburban house (what would the neighbours think?) she was looking forward to the creatures Hogwarts had to offer.
�Hey, you,� Jack said, bringing Elsie back from her ponderings, �wash your face and get your stuff and I�ll go wake mom. Though we might be better off not taking her with us.� He grinned and Elsie smiled weakly back. True, her mother could be annoying, but Elsie was sure she would miss her dreadfully in only a couple of hours time.
�You�ll like Hogwarts Elsie,� Jack continued, bending down so that they were face to face. �It takes some time getting used to, but you�ll like it. And if anyone gives you a hard time, you just send an owl to me or Evan, you hear?� He still smiled, but Elsie could see that he was serious. She felt her heart lift at his words and managed a more truthful smile this time. Besides, christmas break was not that far away.
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