Ron Weasley (and Harry Potter) and the Philosopher's Stone

'YES'

'Don't you reckon he sounds a little too happy to have got in?' asked George.

'Yeah, like he wasn't expecting to,' said Fred.

'Shut up,' I said to my twin brothers. They were two years older than me, and since I was their only younger (and more to the point, smaller) brother, I was the one they liked to gang up on.

'How'd you think he'll fare against the troll?' said Fred.

'What the . . ?' I began.

'I want to go.' That was my younger sister, Ginny. She'd said that every year since Bill got the letter.

'What troll?' I tried again.

'Next year, dear,' said Mum, beginning to clear the breakfast table with her wand.

'Hello? Am I invisible or something?' I wondered out loud.

The twins looked at each other. 'Yes,' they said.

'Then again, that could help him during the sorting, Wrestling trolls is generally easier when they can't see you,' added Fred.

'Be able to smell him though.' George winked at me and laughing, him and Fred walked out the room, where I was left with my mouth hanging open. Gits, I thought.

'Mum, can I come to Diagon Alley?'

'Of course Ginny darling.'

So yeah, I'd just got 'The Letter'. I was in! To Hogwarts. Then again (like the twins would be only to happy to point out), there would be something wrong with me if I didn't. Mum, Dad and my five brothers all go / went. Bill is my oldest brother. He now works for Gringotts. Second is Charlie, who now works in Romania, with dragons. We don't see either of them too often any more. But there's still plenty of us. Third oldest is Percy. He's about to start his fifth year, and his letter of supplies for this year also contained a Prefect badge. We all knew he'd get it, but he's still talked about nothing else since. Then there's Fred and George, who're about to start their third year. They're kind of the opposite to Percy. They don't tend to follow the rules. I mean, they've never got in serious trouble but they've had enough detentions each. They're still smart though, they just don't show it in the same way. They prefer making people laugh or making things to make people laugh. And finally, me. It's going to be awesome! Finally, I'll be able to hex Fred whenever he insults me, or curse George when he threatens me. Then again maybe I won't even make it past the sorting ...

'Right Percy, you first,' said Dad.

My 'perfect Prefect' brother took a handful of green powder and stepped into the fireplace. 'Diagon Alley,' he said, and vanished.

When we'd all taken our floo powder and arrived in Diagon Alley - Dad being the last - we set off to Gringotts to empty our measly account. It amounted to one Galleon, twelve Sickles and eighteen Knuts. You'd think what with Dad working in the Ministry we'd actually earn a decent amount of money, but no. His section gets paid no where near as much, and buying school stuff (second / third / fourth hand, of course) for four children doesn't exactly help I guess. Just wait until we've got Ginny's to get aswell. The first year's the most expensive, of course. I looked down again at all the things I had to get. Wand, cauldron, robes, scales ...

Two and a half hours later we'd all got our books and I'd got my new equipment - well actually, my robes used to be Bill's, my wand Charlie's and even my rat was Percy's. He got a new owl and all I got was his stupid lazy old rat. So the only things I had, which hadn't been previously owned by at least one other person, were my name tags.