New Beginnings

[Isotta Ellesborough]

• It was smaller than she had expected, not half so grand as the station in Italy had been—or even as the one in London! Still, the child thought, at least she would not get lost.
  
  Clutching the strap of her small trunk—the rest of her possessions would be sent along later—Isotta Ellesborough disembarked from the train, trunk dragging along the platform behind her. Her travels had been an adventure, to be sure—a friend of her foster father had seen her as far as London, where he had been travelling on business, but had let her have her way of things for the entire journey, stopping where she liked and exploring as she liked. The journey from London had been more exciting still, the first time the blonde had truly travelled on her own before.
  
  But now she was here: Hogsmeade. She had, of course, heard of it before, but she had expected it to be either much bigger or much smaller than the town she had gazed upon as the train rolled into the station. Regardless of its size, the tricky part began now: finding cousin James’ house.
  
  Isotta was dressed prettily in a simple blue dress, her light blonde tresses bound up by a white ribbon. Idly, the child supposed she ought to have come the rest of the way with some sort of companion, but was quite determined to find her way all by herself.
  
  Curiously, the girl looked around her as she entered the station proper, trying to determine her next move.