Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the original characters from J.K. Rowling's books. Or Hogwarts or any of the spells I put in this story. ANYTHING HAVING TO DO WITH HER BOOKS, I DO NOT OWN. Except a necklace and about three or more characters. But that's all (I think...). Anyway, please read and review

A Flipped Destiny

Chapter One

I stepped through the gate and onto the large brick walkway of Platform 9 ¾. On the rails, I saw a large scarlet steam engine that puffed giant clouds of misty steam as students dressed in house robes loaded through the doors.

It was only five minutes until eleven when the train gave a hollow toot that echoed down the railway, signaling all of the late passengers to step into the body of the train before it lunged off towards the castle.

I handed a train engineer my luggage as he gently heaved it into the boxcar that held all of the other crates and chests of the other students and passengers, leaving me holding my two year old long-haired black cat. The great deep violet eyes and the shady black of his fur gave him his name: Phantom. Phantom's eyes were the color of a raven's wings that soar under a moonlit night or cloudless day. Even looking into those raven-colored eyes may get people lost within their depths, trapped forever. Phantom is the perfect name for this brilliant black cat of mine. But, as for his fur, it is exactly like the shadows that the full moon casts at night, leaving a pearly shine over the surface of the shadow's body. And the whiskers. . .strands of darkness creeping over a blank stone wall.

With a slow turn on my heel, I headed off to the entrance of the scarlet engine. Inside was absolutely magnificent. There were pure blood-red carpets, the walls made completely of perfectly stained redwood, and the candlelit lanterns completed the comfort in the hallways. But next to that were the seating compartments: the long scarlet couch-like seats stretching for about five or six feet, depending upon which train cart you were on. But the walls and lanterns were basically the same as out in the hall, except more homier, of course.

As I walked down the long never-ending hallways, I noticed that practically every compartment was full of laughing students. I continued my walk down those halls thinking it will take ages to walk the whole length of the train. But as the scarlet train began to surge forward, I noticed only one compartment wasn't totally full, but had one seat left. I stepped up to the wooden door and slid it open saying, "Excuse me, but every where else is totally full..."

I got cut off as the girl in the compartment said, "Oh, not at all!" She ended her statement with a warm friendly smile that made me feel more comfortable here.

I stepped through the door and slid it closed, letting Phantom jump from my arms and land gracefully on the seat next to the boy with the black hair and glasses. I noticed that the girl who had talked to me had a tremendously fluffy orange Persian cat. The cat hissed as Phantom began to settle in, but he just laid down his perfectly chiseled head and ignored him, as he does with most cats. Honestly, I don't think he's a cat at all! I think he's more of a human-turned-cat type thing.

I stepped over to Phantom and gently picked him up, knowing that he would hate me for moving him. But, as I lifted him up to put him on my lap and sat down, I noticed that he didn't mind at all. He kept on a perfectly content expression, as if he was too tired to care. I laid him on my lap and he just curled up a bit and stayed that way, sleeping soundlessly.

I looked over at each of the other students in the compartment that I just barely met. The first one who talked to me, the girl who was sitting directly across from me, had wavy light brown hair that just slipped a little past the shoulders. I noticed that she had deep brown eyes that reflected even the faintest light and her surroundings like two small pools of water. She was also wearing the Gryffindor house uniform and colors that also reflected what me and the other two were wearing.

The boy sitting next to me had on a pair of black rimmed circular glasses that made his emerald-green eyes shine through like beacons in the night. But, unfortunately, those gleaming eyes were hiding behind a curtain of jet black hair, wavering and shaking as he laughed at something the other boy had said. And, I noticed, that also behind the forest of hair, there was a thin lightning-shaped scar that reminded me of something, but I couldn't figure out what.

The other boy that was sitting next to the window on the opposite side was laughing also, making his copper-colored head shimmer in the afternoon sun. The strange thing was, he had sapphire blue eyes that perfectly clashed with his orange-as-the-sun hair. But it did quite dazzle me.

As I stared out the window at the late summer trees wiz by, I heard someone say something, but I didn't quite tune in. So I shook my head and noticed that everyone was looking at me. Including the girl's orange Persian and my black little Phantom.

"What?" I asked shyly and quietly, looking from one person to the next.

"We've never seen you around Hogwarts before," the girl with the light brown hair asked, staring at me with her water pool eyes. "Are you new?"

I put my finger to my lips, looking down at my shoes as a waterfall of dark hair fell in front of my face. I thought for a second, summoning up the courage for the right response. "Well, actually," I said, looking up to see the other teenager's faces peering at me, "I'm new. I moved over from the US."

"The United States?" the red-head asked, eyes going wide as oval-shaped lakes.

"Yeah," I answered, raising my eyebrows at how surprised the boy sounded. Like coming from the US was such a big deal. "My family flew to London from Portsmouth, New Hampshire just three months ago."

"So, you moved during the summer?" the lightning-scared boy asked, leaning forwards a bit.

"Yeah," I nodded, smiling a little. But my small smile faded as I remembered the many friends I had in Portsmouth. "But it was tough for me.. ." I trailed off, feeling sadness deep in my chest. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Phantom had raised his head off of his paws and was looking up at me, a sense of worry in his violet eyes.

"What happened?" the girl said, holding her pumpkin-colored Persian in her arms, a hint of worry in her voice.

Everyone was very eager to her my American story, I could see, since they were practically sitting at the edge of their seats. "Well, I kind of had a hard time moving away from my friends. I mean, I've known them since kindergarten."

"That sounds terrible," the boy with the penny-colored hair said, "I would probably feel glum for quite a while if I had to move away from my friends. Especially to a place hundreds of miles away."

I nodded, agreeing that having friends hundreds of miles away is kind of awful. The only way of seeing or talking to them is by plane, e-mail, or phone.

"Well, you could always make new friends here," the boy with glasses said, tweaking a smile, "There are always plenty of people you can meet at Hogwarts."

I looked at the three of them, hoping they were thinking the same thing I was thinking: all of us would soon be good friends.

"I'm Kyra Greenwood, by the way," I said, smiling weakly.

"I'm Harry Potter," the boy with the curtain-fall of jet black hair said, "And this is Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley."

I thought to myself as Harry pointed around the room to the other two. Where have I heard that name before? Then it struck me. Shock spread over my face like wildfire. Harry Potter was the living legend. The main character in every story that my grandma had told me. The only person who could survive one of Lord Voldemort's deadly blows! He was the boy who lived.

I slowly turned my head to stare at the famous Harry Potter with my eyes as wide as an owl's. "You're Harry Potter?" I asked, my voice flooding with shock.

"Uh, yeah," Harry said, kind of inching a little bit away from me, afraid I might want his autograph or something. Which, I might say, I wouldn't mind getting at all.

I calmed down a bit, trying to get back to my normal self. "I'm sorry. I've only heard stories about you from my grandma. I wasn't actually sure if you were real or not."

"Well, as you can see, I am," Harry said, uncomfortably.

"So, you've never known if Harry was actually real?" Hermione asked, leaning forward to hear better as I went on with my huge realization.

"No, it takes a little while for news about something extraordinary that has happened in England, to travel all they way over the US." I said, glancing at Harry as I said "extraordinary". "My family's only heard rumors about Harry, so, we never actually knew it was true. . ." I trailed off, not knowing what to say next.

It was quiet for a few minutes until Ron interrupted the silence. "So. . .do you like chocolate frogs?"

I stared at him and said, "Are you kidding?"

Ron looked kind of shameful and said, "No, I just thought --"

I cut him off because I absolutely screamed out, "I love them!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all jumped as I said that, getting a glimpse of the real me. The very loud and obnoxious me.

"I have a chocolate frog," Ron began, "If you want it."

Ron leaned over and handed me the perfectly wrapped up enchanted chocolate frog. I gently took it from his hand and carefully unwrapped it. I made sure I kept a tight grip on the succulent charmed chocolate as it squirmed in my hand and tried to jump out.

Phantom was looking up at me, pleading with his eyes to make me give him a piece of that frog. I took a bite of the chocolate frog to make it stop squirming. Then, I gave Phantom the rest of the unmoving chocolate frog. He chewed on it happily, carefully trying not to get any chocolate drips on my gray pleated skirt.
"I never knew cats loved chocolate," Hermione exclaimed as she watched Phantom lick his furry onyx muzzle with his pink sandpaper tongue.

"Well," I said, gently stroking Phantom's silky smooth fur, "Phantom's different than other cats. He doesn't even get sick if I give him the food that I eat."

"I guess that's one special cat you've got there." Harry said, eyeing my cat as he began to settle back into his sleeping position.

I nodded, smiling down at Phantom who had put his left front paw over his little black nose like he usually does when he is curled up. It always makes me smile whenever I see him like that because he is so cute!

It was around three o'clock when I started yawning, long and wide. I couldn't believe that I was so tired. I mean, I went to bed early last night so I could get up early. I didn't know what the problem was. Then I thought it might possibly be the sun. Since the sun was gleaming bright, golden shades of light directly through our cabin window, lighting up every inch of my body, I knew that it was definitely the sun. The sun always made me so tired and sleepy when it gazed at me with its strong, illuminating stare. I yawned another great, big yawn and rested my head against the wall of the compartment, folding up my legs as I did so.

"Are you really that tired?" Ron asked, looking up from a game of wizard's chess that he and Harry were playing. I glanced at the two of them as one of Harry's knights started beating up one of Ron's innocent pawns into nothing but a pulp, creating another small pile of marble dust to be swept off the board.
As I snuggled more comfortably against the inside wall of our cabin, Phantom snoozing joyfully on my lap, I answered tiredly, "Yeah," I paused and yawned widely. "The sun usually makes me so tired though. And I have no clue why."

"It's probably just the radiation or the ultraviolet rays." Hermione spoke up while still keeping her eyes glued to the pages of The Book of Magick Spells of the Olde Age.

I nodded, figuring that was the answer. "Just wake me when we get there," I mumbled before slowly drifting off into the darkness of sleep.

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So...I hope you liked it. If you didn't, well... Just give me some criticism on anything I might need work on. Like spelling or grammar or something. That way, I can fix it and make it better. Oh, and I'll try to get the next chapter up before the year ends (lol. Which is in a few weeks)