Jade sat on her black comforter, stuffing skirts and sweaters to wear under her robes in her suitcase. She slipped colorful tops in between the dozens of black and green her mother liked to buy her. Leaning over, she grabbed her annual Hogwarts letter from her bedside table, careful not to drop the hard, gold badge placed on top of it. She ran her finger over the large P one time before she dropped it into the bottom of the suitcase. Her hand reached out and found the fur of her black cat, who blended into the bedding.

"Prefect," she scoffed. "As if any of the other Slytherins would listen to me. Is it wrong that I kind of don't want to go? Ginger?"

The cat lifted her head and let out a disgruntled mew before closing its eyes and sleeping once more.

Jade sighed "You're right, I shouldn't let them get me down. I don't care what they think anyway." Even she didn't believe her words as she picked her cauldron up from the floor and shoved it between the clothes. Slamming the top shut, she grabbed the letter and swept out of her room. She set the letter and list on the table in front of her mother, attempting to quickly leave the room. She was not successful.

"Jade!"

She turned and faced her mother again, who was scanning the list intently. "How long has this been in your room? Irene gave me hers last week."

Jade only responded with, "Sorry."

Immediately, her mother's tune changed. She looked up with a bright smile. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. It's your fifth year! Did anything else come with your letter?"

"No," Jade lied smoothly.

Her mother looked a bit put off. "Oh, well no worries. Do you need new roes? New cauldron? Whatever you want, honey."

Jade shrugged. "Okay."

Mrs. Baem focused back on supervising Daisy, the tragically friendly house elf, prepare dinner. "Oh, and let Irene know about our plans for tomorrow," she added as an afterthought.

Jade knew where her little sister would be. She pushed open the back door and found her out on the back balcony, sitting on the rail and dangling her feet over the edge. Pausing for a moment, Jade looked at her sibling in a mix of pity and envy. Being a Ravenclaw, Irene wasn't eligible for their mother's eager love. Mrs. Baem was extremely proud of her pureblood lineage, and was hoping to also keep their family purely Slytherin. However, Irene didn't seem to mind. She was an odd girl; while she shared Jade's slight dorkiness as well as their long dark hair, pale skin, and brown eyes, she was much more outgoing and eccentric than the elder. She was happy and friendly, though she seemed to spend most of her time with a girl in her House named Luna. Jade had never met her.

"Rene."

Irene turned and smiled brightly. "J."

"Mom says we're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow."

Irene swung her legs around and hopped off of the balcony ledge, "Cool, I need some stuff. You think she'd let me get new robes?" She didn't wait for Jade's answer. "Maybe if you asked her for me," she joked. And with a bound, she was gone.

Jade watched her sister skip away in amusement, before taking her spot on the balcony rail. Again her thoughts drifted back to Hogwarts. Although she wasn't very enthusiastic to see her housemates, thinking of the castle gave her a sense of nostalgia and she wished to walk through the halls again. She thought of her room and the girl who slept next to her, Jessica. Everyone called her the Ice Princess because of her cold disposition, but Jade honestly felt she was the nicest of all of them. Though they didn't speak, she was never mean and did kind little things- Jade was sure Jessica had organized her things several times. Maybe the mess just bothered her.

A loud slam interrupted Jade's long stream of thought. She glanced over to the balcony that belonged to the neighboring Malfoy Manor. It was Draco, storming out of his house and pacing across the balcony angrily. Jade dropped her gaze; she'd seen him do this several times. She assumed his home life was tough, though she had never spoken to him. He was quite popular among the Slytherins- and quite unpopular among the rest of the school. She bit her lip, wondering if she should leave. Their close proximity made her feel a bit uncomfortable. With an uneasy glance in his direction, she began to move.

"Are you spying on me?"

Jade looked up, her shock of his first words to her masked by her defensive mode popping up. "Excuse me? I have every right to be out on my balcony. Besides, I was here first."

He smirked. "Well, I believe I have the right to being alone out here - being the superior of us two."

Jade scoffed. "Superior? In what way? Rudeness or stupidity?"

And then Malfoy did the last thing she expected - he laughed. "Alright. I'll let you stay."

"Oh, thank you so much," she replied sarcastically. She leaned back against the rail again.

"You're Jade, right? Jade Baem? You're in my year."

"Yeah." How did he know that? Well, it didn't matter. At least, that's what she said to herself as her heart beat sped up.

"I'm Draco. Draco Malfoy."

"I know."

The awkward silence was broken by Irene carelessly throwing open the door and skipping up to her sister's side. "Dinner's ready!"

"Okay." Jade looked up to Malfoy Manor's back balcony, wondering if she should say "Bye" or something.

But he was already gone.

"It's this way, mum," Emma said kindly, motioning for her mother to follow her. The small, gentle woman with graying blonde hair smiled exasperatedly and did a 180.

Emma Lane slipped inside the Leaky Cauldron, the bell that hung above the door drown out by the murmur of voices inside. The inn was packed full of Hogwarts students and their families, itching to check off each item on their supply list. The air was hot- Emma briefly lifted her shoulder length, dark brown hair from her neck to allow a nearly nonexistent breeze to feebly cool her skin.

Slowly the mass of people began to funnel out the rear entrance of the inn. Emma smiled at familiar faces and greeted friends while her mother stood silently behind her. Mrs. Lane was uncomfortable being around those of the wizarding world- as a Muggle, she was always self conscious. Emma's father, also a muggle, was a British Ministry worker, was unable to come to Diagon Alley that day due to an enormous amount of work, so Mrs. Lane was left to trail behind her only daughter.

Emma led her mother through the brick entrance to the magnificent sight of Diagon Alley. The street was bustling, stores packed to capacity, children running gleefully amongst cloaks, and the roar of voices blending into one monotonous rumble.

"I am still amazed at how many of you there are," Mrs. Lane whispered to Emma.

Emma grinned. "I'm surprised there are so many of you."

After stopping in Madam Malkin's for a few new sets of black robes- Emma had grown considerably over the summer- mother and daughter were standing in a bit of shade, plotting their next stop.

"Emma!" a voice shrieked.

Emma turned quickly to see a pretty girl with a mass of thick hair barreling towards her. "Hermione! Hi!"

The girls embraced for a moment before pulling back to take each other in. "I'm so happy to see you," Hermione sighed.

"Letters just aren't the same," Emma agreed. "Where are you off to?"

"I need more books," Hermione said, no surprise to Emma. "Mrs. Lane, my mum and dad are just over there, if you'd like to say hello"

Mrs. Lane seemed grateful to hurry off to the familiarity of the pair of Muggles. Meanwhile, Emma and Hermione wandered off to get their new books.

"Hey- Emma! Hermione!"

The girls turned quickly at the sounds of their names. A duo of boys, one with jet black hair and the other with a shock of red, came loping towards them.

The girls pulled the boys in for a tight group hug. "Ouch, Hermione," Harry protested.

Emma beamed at Harry and Ron. "I've missed you two!"

"We wrote once a week!" Harry reminded her with a laugh.

Emma looked to Ron, who has a bit of what looked like chocolate frog in the corner of his mouth. She motioned to her own mouth and couldn't help but to smile fondly at her friend. Ron's cheeks flushed scarlet as he wiped quickly at his mouth with his sleeve.

"I need another quill," Harry started. The group made their way through the crowds to finish their shopping.

Whilst eating ice cream outside of Florean Fortesque's, Emma suddenly remembered something. "Harry- your hearing! What happened?"

Harry's face darkened. "Luckily Dumbledore showed up to help- but I don't have any answers."

Emma sighed. "Is Padfoot doing alright?"

Harry's mood seemed to lighten. "Yeah! He's doing great."

"Hello, children!" a rushed voice said suddenly from behind.

Emma turned to see Mr. Weasley, looking a bit flustered. "We need to leave, now."

"Dad-"

"Come on, Ronald. All of you." Mr. Weasley's glasses were askew as he took up all of the shopping bags in his arms. "Emma, Hermione, someone will escort your parents home."

"I don't understand," Emma protested. But before she could say another word, Mr. Weasley had each of the children by the wrist and with that, they were gone.

Emma woke with a start, unsure of where she was. Slowly, realization hit her. She was at 12 Grimmauld Place, tucked into an unfamiliar bed in a room with Hermione and Ginny.

Mr. Weasley had been alerted by Mrs. Weasley that there was a bit of an emergency regarding one of the many creatures hidden in the decrepit home. Unable to leave the children unattended, Mr. Weasley had scared them half to death by abruptly performing side along Apparation, the first time for each of them.

Emma rolled over in her bed and breathed deeply. Tomorrow she would be at Hogwarts, her favorite place in the world.