Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I think that's obvious.

Also, I would like to elucidate the fact that this piece is not based on real life. I had this idea, so I published it. Right, now that that's cleared up, I would like to point out that the story begins...NOW:

She sighed in relief as she boarded the train. She was so scared, these past few days, scared that her family would not let her come. And they weren't going to, until her aunt realized that she would be greatly missed if she didn't show up.

She could see his face out of the glass window of the still train, sneering up at her. More than ever, she felt happy to get away from him.

She had been elated when she got her Hogwarts acceptance letter. It was as if her dreams had finally come true. Her aunt and uncle, on the other hand, had been furious when they saw it, and even more so when the huge, genial man threatened them and went against their wishes.

At first, she had been scared of him, of the way he twisted her uncle's riffle like it was a mere paperclip, the way he'd started the fire. It made her think of all the things he could do to her, when his physical strength was even greater than her uncle's. But later, when she realized how easily he could trust, she grew to like him. He was the first person to really tell her the truth about everything-about her parents, her heritage, her world.

And to think, she used to lie awake at night, wishing for someone who actually cared; wishing, if not a parent, then anyone else who could treat her the way her aunt and uncle treated her cousin. It was scary how quickly a person could flip from kind and loving to horrible and mean. The early hours that same morning had proved that. Her body still hurt from her uncle and aunt's goodbye present, given to remind her of them. They had sworn to her, that if she ever told anyone, they would kill her faster than she could blink.

All of these thoughts hit into her like rocks as she saw her uncle's angry red face sneer at her from the platform. She quickly turned her head, short brown hair swinging as she tried to hold back a gasp of fear. And she met the eyes of the person sitting across her.

This time, she really did gasp, the abruptness of the person shocking her into an almost petrified state.

"Hello," the boy told her, holding up a hand in greeting. "I'm Ron Weasely."

Still, she was silent and unmoving, as if frozen solid.

"Right…uh…what's your name?" He smiled.

The question shook her out of her petrified state and she answered, doing her best to smile, mirroring his actions. No one's going to hurt you here.

"I'm Jasmine. Jasmine Potter," she hesitantly held out her hand, and he shook it. His eyes bulged, and he touched his forehead, brushing away his bright red hair.

"Are you really? And have you really got-you know…" He pointed at Jasmine's forehead.

Jasmine pulled back her bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"So that's where You-Know-Who — ?"

"Yes," said Jasmine, "but I can't remember it."

"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

"Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Jasmine for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.

"Are all your family wizards?" asked Jasmine.

"Er — yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already."

"Sort of. I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are

they like?"

Horrible. Absolutely disgusting, and I never ever want to see them again!

But just as Jasmine opened her mouth, her uncle's words from earlier on surfaced in her mind. "If you ever tell anyone, freak, even a single soul, I swear that I will kill you. I will kill you in the most painful way possible. I will torture you until I will have you begging for death. And no one, do you hear me? No one will come to your rescue, because you are a worthless freak, and no one cares about you."

She thickly swallowed the bile that rose up, burning her throat, and smiled, turning towards the window to look anywhere than at Ron. "They are wonderful. They really care about me, you know. I've never been away from home. I honestly don't know how I'll be able to cope without them while I'm here. I'll miss them so much." Her heart beat so quickly, she felt that it would die from over exertion. Was it obvious that she was lying?

Luckily, Ron had bought it, and he was looking sympathetic. "It's not so bad you know. You can send letters to them by owl, and visit them for the holidays. And you'll be back sooner than you know it. You'll see!"

These words had a double meaning for Jasmine. She hadn't even thought of what they were going to do to her when she went back in the holidays. Unless…." Can people stay at the school for the holidays?" Jasmine blurted out, almost without meaning to.

Ron looked at her, oddly. "But I thought that you wanted to go back home."

"I do-but I was just wondering." Her face burned. She would have to be more careful.

"Well…yeah, I expect so. Fred had a friend last year whose parents couldn't have him back for the holidays and he stayed Hogwarts for Christmas. Poor boy had to celebrate with the teachers."

Even celebrating Christmas with the teachers would be better than going back home. Uncle Vernon might give me another present.

"Anything off the cart, dears?" A smiling woman brought a trolley to the door of their compartment.

Ron and Jasmine had been talking about everything, including Quidditch, grades, interests (which Jasmine improvised upon), and most importantly, Hogwarts; more specifically, the professors, when the woman interrupted them.

Jasmine, who wasn't allowed breakfast that day, leapt to her feet enthusiastically, but Ron's ears went pink, and he mumbled about a sandwich. With a last glance at Ron, Jasmine walked out of the compartment. The Durselys had never allowed her any sweets, and she never had any pocket money. The only candy she had ever tasted was the half eaten chocolate rabbit Dudley had thrown out, which she had been able to nick out of the trash.

Now, looking at the cart full of strange wizard candy, she felt a desperate longing to relive all that she had missed in her earlier years. Almost without thinking, she glanced at Ron, who was staring at the sandwich in his hand. She felt a strange recognition, and she knew how he felt. Still staring at Ron, she said "Can I have a little of everything?" Paying the lady, she walked back into the compartment and tipped it onto the seat.

Ron looked at Jasmine, wide eyed. "You seem hungry. When was the last time you ate?" He joked.

Jasmine paused, shocked. After a second she regained her voice. "Oh…I was so excited that I forgot to eat breakfast," smiling stiffly, she turned back to the sweets, trying not to remember that the last time she ate a proper meal was over a week ago, and the last time she ate was four days ago.

She took a bite out of a pumpkin pastry, focusing on chewing the delicious food and reveling in the sweetness of it. She'd never eaten anything remotely like it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ron eyeing his sandwich, discouraged. She swallowed her first bite of food in what seemed like forever. Her stomach rumbled, begging for more.

She fought down the urge to stuff the whole lot in her mouth, just to learn what it felt like to have a full stomach, knowing that she probably would vomit it all back up. Turning to Ron, she said "Here. Have a Pastry."

"Oh, no, it's fine."

"I'll trade you for that sandwich," she pointed to the package in his hand.

"You don't want this; it's all dry," said Ron. "Mom hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."

"Here. Have one. Go on," said Jasmine, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Jasmine's pasties, cakes, and candies.

Opening a chocolate frog, Jasmine gasped as the frog jumped out of the compartment. "They're not really frogs, are they?"

"No, they're just charmed. What's the card you've got?"

Jasmine's eyes went to the card in her hand. "Oh, so this is Dumbledore!"

The card showed an old man, with long white hair and a long beard to match. He wore half moon spectacles.

"Don't tell me you've never heard of Dumbledore!"

Jasmine looked at the card.

~ALBUS DUMBLEDORE~

currently headmaster of Hogwarts

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

"Well, I've heard of him, but-" she gasped. "Hey he's gone!" The picture of the wizard had gone blank.

"You can't expect him to hang around all day, can you?" Ron asked through a mouthful of chocolate. He nodded towards the card, "Keep it. You can start collecting. I've got almost the whole lot of the cards. I only have two left. Can I have another frog? I might get Agrippa."

"Help yourself."

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Jasmine reassuringly.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him . . ."He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." He pointed to a rat snoozing on his lap. "He used to be Percy's but then he got an owl from Dad for being a prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, Percy gave him to me." Ron's ears turned faintly pink.

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust, covering up his slip. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look . . ."

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —"

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback. "Er — all right." He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Who're you?

She sure speaks fast, thought Jasmine as Ron introduced himself. "I'm Jasmine Potter," she said when it was her turn.

"Really? I've read all about you. So far, you've been mentioned in the books about the Dark Arts," Hermione seemed interested about Jasmine's identity, but not in the same way as Ron. She seemed to take it in calmly.

"You know, I only found out a couple of weeks ago, when my letter came. Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, took me to get my stuff and he told me about my parents. I used to think that they'd died in a car crash."

Ron looked appalled. "I thought you said the muggles you lived with were nice!"

Jasmine mentally berated herself over her slip. She couldn't let her guard down for a second. Desperately, she tried to come up with a believable story. "Well, they are, but my aunt had…issues with wizards a long time ago and doesn't want to have to mingle with magic more than necessary. She'll put up with it in me, because I'm her niece and all, but no one else. They were seriously considering not letting me go to Hogwarts, so I wouldn't get the wrong idea, and wouldn't turn out like my parents and die. But then they realized that it was for my own good, so that I didn't hurt anyone else on accident." Jasmine realized she was blabbering, and she promptly stopped her long, run-on monologue.

Ron and Hermione stared at her for a minute, neither knowing what to say.

"Well, I'm glad that's cleared up," Hermione stood. "You'd best put on your uniforms. I expect we'll be arriving soon," She walked out of the compartment, stopping at the door, saying "I think I'll help Neville find his toad. I'll see you at school, when we get there. Good Bye." With that, she turned and walked the hall, leaving Ron and Jasmine staring at each other.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"I…have no idea," replied Jasmine, still staring at the spot where Hermione had stood moments before. "Tell me again about the teachers."

"Well, there's Dumbledore, Fred and George say he's very mean, but I don't trust them. Bill says he's quite unique, and I trust Bill. He says he's very nice, but really scary when crossed. Did you know he is probably the greatest, most powerful wizard alive right now?"

As Ron continued, Jasmine leaned back into the comfortable seat, excitement over Hogwarts slowly diminishing the fear she had felt at the station for a blissful, carefree hour. She was so caught up, that she didn't notice that the excitement had created a new fear inside her, fear different than the one she'd known previously.

The exhilarating fear of anticipation.

Fear of what is to come.

I hope you liked it. I have exams and stuff now, but the next time I will be updating shoud be either the first of June, or the second. Leave a review, and it will make my day!