Ring! Ring!

The stillness of the May morning was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the alarm clock, but it didn't last long. A small pale arm shot out of the closed bed curtains, picked up the alarm clock and threw it at the wall.

God she hated mornings.

The small girl opened her bed curtains and started to get ready for the day. The room was oddly quiet, but this was to be expected. Normally her roommates would be up and the five of them would be laughing, joking, and singing along to whatever song was playing on the iPod that she had smuggled in. But today was never a good day for her, and her friends respected that.

Most fourteen year olds would be thrilled today. It was the last day of school. They would finally be going home. But it was the day that she dreaded every year. Well, that wasn't completely true; she had mixed feelings about it. She was thrilled that she was going home. To sleep in her own bed and to see her two favorite people in the whole world. Her godfather and her uncle. Her Moon and her Puppy. She missed them so much while she was at school. Even the owls that she got every other day weren't enough.

On the flip side, going home meant walking through the platform and that was why she dreaded this day every year. What made her homecoming bittersweet.

Walking across the room she noticed the fragments of the alarm clock lying on the floor, but wasn't concerned. She broke her alarm clock at least twice a month. She'd just have her puppy fix it when she got home. She walked past the full length mirror that the girls kept in the corner of the room and let out a sigh. That was another thing she had mixed feelings on.

She had hip length hair that fell in loose, chaotic curls and no matter what she did, she couldn't stop one section of hair from falling in front of her right eye. I wouldn't grow past the corner of her mouth and no amount of pins, clips or sprays would keep it back. The color was also unusual. Inside or in the shade, it seemed a deep midnight black but in the light you could tell that it was a deep burgundy, like a pool of blood. Her eyes were a startling deep violet that she had been told had come from her grandmother but she had never met the woman, and her lips were a soft pink with her lower lip being fuller that the upper giving her a slight pout. She was small, only 5'1" in her bare feet, and shad small but well defined curves. She was a very pretty girl and she would always be grateful for that, but her looks were a combination of her parents and that she could definitely do without. It was easy enough to explain her personality and oddities as results of growing up with Moon and Puppy instead of being just like her father, but her biology wasn't something she could change no matter how much she wished or how many times she tried.

She walked away from the mirror and into the bathroom. She had showered the night before as her hair was just too much to deal with in the mornings. She just pulled it into a loose ponytail. She brushed her teeth and put on some light make-up. Moon and Puppy had agreed to let her go out with her best friend from home as soon as she got off the train. They were already going to have to transfigure her clothes and they wouldn't like what she had picked. No need to push them over the edge with a lot of make-up. She pulled on her favorite jeans and a plain black t-shirt before pulling her hair from the loose ponytail that it was already escaping from. She shook it out before sighing. There wasn't much to do with it in the time she had left, so she just pulled her fingers through it and left it at that. Noticing that all of the girls except her best friend were gone from the dorm, she slipped her feet into her favorite black, red and silver flip-flops, whistled for Midnight, her owl, grabbed her cage and the two girls took off at a sprint, just making it to the train on time.

They were walking through the train looking for an empty compartment but so far hadn't had any luck. The next compartment they tried only had three people in it so they couldhave sat there except for who the three were. The Golden Trio. Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. Now any normal Gryffindor would have jumped at the chance to sit there, and the girls would have been welcomed because they had roomed with Hermione for the past four years, but the two of them immediately retreated. The next compartment they came to had the door closed and the shades drawn but they decided to try it anyway. They stepped inside and were met with the hostile glares of the top Slytherins in their year. Draco Malfoy, prince of Slytherin and king prat, was sitting by the window and next to him was Blaise Zabini, his best friend. The girls gave everyone a bored look while the Slytherins waited for Malfoy to make the first insult.

Malfoy finished giving them a complete once-over before looking them in the eye and saying "I'd offer to let you sit with us because you two ladies are looking fine today-" there were gasps from all of his Slytherin underlings, eye rolls from the girls and a knowing smirk from Blaise Zabini. "-but you're Gryffindorks and therefore unfit to be in the presence of the greatness that is me and Zabini."

Riley let out a sarcastic chuckle. "We're both purer than you could ever dream of Malfoy. Chew on that." With that they turned and walked out of the compartment, but not before they saw the discreet wink Zabini sent them. They continued down the hall looking for another compartment with the door locked and the shades drawn. They reached the second to last one and found the door locked. The two girls grinned at each other and whispered the word that would open the door from them. It was empty except for a cloak and a backpack, so they knew they were in the right spot. It also smelled like heaven. It smelled like a certain boy. They gossiped and laughed for an hour before they found themselves falling asleep.

Thirty minutes later both girls felt the wards on the compartment shift and were instantly tense, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep. If they had been thinking clearly, they would have realized that there was only one other person who could get through the wards, but both girls were still half asleep. The person who had entered stood perfectly still, watching them. Her common sense finally kicked in and she realized that the heavenly boy smell had intensified. She smiled but kept her eyes closed.

"You really should start using something other than 'Gryffindorks' as your password. It's rather obvious Blaise."

The boy in question let out a chuckle and went to sit down.

"But Gryffindors are dorks. Plus I didn't want to confuse the two of you by making your pea-brains remember a new password."

She and Riley let out indignant scoffs and while Riley lectured Blaise, again, on the subject of their intelligence (they were first and third in their year, Riley behind Blaise. But no one told Hermione. She thought she was second to Blaise when in reality she was fifth to Draco Malfoy's fourth.) she took a minute to look at Blaise.

He was one of the most gorgeous boys she had ever seen. He made her look like a midget as he was already 6' and showed no signs of flowing his growing. He had inky black hair that fell almost to his ears in adorable curls. He was Italian so he had the hottest accent and his eyes were a piercing cerulean blue. It didn't happen often, but when he truly smiled it could light up all of London. A smile broke out across her face as she watched Riley and Blaise continue to argue.

Even if no one knew it, the three of them had been best friends since first year. They had met on the train ride to Hogwarts, before any of them had been sorted. All being raised by magical parents, they knew all about the houses and the prejudices against them. She knew she was going to be a Gryffindor, Blaise knew he was going to be a Slytherin, and Riley had been sure she was a Ravenclaw, but none of the eleven year olds had cared they and they still didn't now. They all snuck off on Hogsmeade weekends to spend the day together and they would meet and wander around the castle at night. She knew the Golden Trio got away with their nocturnal wanderings because they had Potter's invisibility cloak, but she had something better. She had the Marauder's Map. Moon and Puppy had given it to her as soon as she had gotten her letter. It showed her where everyone in the school was, along with passwords for secret passageways. They snuck out of their dorms, and the castle, more than the rest of the school, except maybe Fred and George Weasley, combined. And they had never been caught.

"So, Pipsqueak." She broke off her mental ramblings to glare at Blaise. He seemed unaffected. "What's the plan for this summer?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Plan?" He arched one right back at her. "Well I'm going out with Elle straight from the train and she's demanding that she was a least a week of me to herself at the beginning of the summer. But after that you both are spending some time at mine right?"

"If Remus is cooking you know I'll be there."

Blaise couldn't stop the laugh that came up. He only knew two people that could out eat Riley: Draco and the tiny girl next to him. "Well . . . I suppose I could cut into my summer of spending my time with Draco alternating between doing nothing inside and doing nothing outside." he joked.

"Shut up Blaise." Riley snarked "You know you'd be lost without us. Besides we're much better company than Malfoy."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Blaise quipped. "Draco provides better scenery." He stopped to give her an assessing once-over. He took in her straight dirty blonde hair with its natural deep brown low-light that went down to her mid-back. Her navy eyes were big and framed by think dark lashes and her full lips were a natural deep red. She was 5'5" barefoot. Curvy and thin, her pale skin dusted liberally in freckles, making it look as if someone had blown cinnamon all over her skin. "But it's not your fault Ri, you can't help it that he's prettier than you."

Riley threw her backpack at him in retaliation and ignored his pained exclamation. After all the backpack did have at least seven books in it.

"Prettier than me my freckled as-"

She was cut off by the announcement that the train would be pulling into Kings Cross in thirty minutes. Blaise and Riley both got up to start cleaning up the mess they had made of their compartment when Blaise noticed that the small girl on the seat had curled into a ball and was paler than usual. He and Riley shared a look before he sat back down.

"You okay, Pipsqueak?" he asked as he pulled her closer.

"Yeah. Fine. Just nervous." came the quiet reply.

Blaise let out a sigh as Riley plopped down on her other side and they sandwiched her into a hug.

"I know you're nervous. But you've got this down. And this is the last time for our fourth year. You won't have to see them for three and a half months."

"This just feels different."

"Hey. Chin up. You've don't this four times a year for the last your years. So you're going to see your biological parents welcoming your twin brother home and acting like the perfect family. Who needs 'em? You've got me and Riley and Remus and that great mutt you call Uncle Sirius. Well be right there with you. You're not scared of anything. You're Devon Penelope Luna Black, damn it."

She couldn't hold in the smile and giggle at that. Blaise didn't mean it in the harsh was it sounded. He was just giving her the small nudge she needed to get off the train. But not all of the nervous butterflies went away.

Because she hadn't been born Devon Penelope Luna Black.

No.

She'd been born Devon Penelope Luna Potter.