~*~ DISCLAIMER: i for one do not own any of these characters, except for the ones you may read whose names doesn't ring any bell to you peeps. and this is my first Harry Potter fic so please bear with me. i would greatly appreciate it if you guys R&R, i live for comments & opinions from you readers out there ~*~

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PROLOGUE: Train Station

"Don't be a fool, girl. A boy like him would never pay the slightest bit of attention to you." Mocks Gertude Wiles, a fifty-something woman with rotting teeth and messy, greasy long hair that used to be black, but now it has spots of gray appearing everywhere. "Move along now. Hurry. We don't want to be late." she pushed the young girl of fifteen before her, hurrying the little girl up on to the train all the while shielding the pretty raven haired girl's eyes from the direction of the comely looking young boy with round specs and messy dark hair.

"But Gertude--"

"No buts, young lady. Now off you go. Get on that train and stay there!" Gertude ordered sternly, her icy blue eyes piercing right through the young teen's skull.

Meekly the young teen conceded. Turning her gaze away from the boy heading towards platform 9--or it is platform 10?--she boarded the train like an obedient girl that she always have been and heaved a heavy sigh. She listened to Gertude tick off lists of what she should and shouldn't do while on the train taking her to her relatives city, but she couldn't keep her mind from wandering off to that charming young lad pushing a cart loaded with packages and a birdcage towards platform 9 or 10. She didn't get the chance to see where he went afterwards for Gertude made sure her attention was solely focused on her and her alone.

The train made a jerking movement, signaling they were leaving the station. Gertude gave her one last minute instructions and she was off. Off to live with her mother's family in the south of the country while the post she received from an anonymous sender burned in her coat's inner pocket. It was in a white envelope bearing an undistinguished emblem of some school located somewhere in the country that she have never heard of. It was the umpteenth time in five years that she received the same letter bearing the same emblem, but like all the other letters she received in the past, this one left unanswered.

Every year Gertude seem to find a means of delaying her response to this particular post. During the first year she received it, Gertude sent her packing to study in a boarding school in Wales, telling her it was all paid for by her late parents. The second year she received the letter Gertude sent her packing to live and study in Scotland with a relative of Gertude's. During the third and fourth year she was shipped off to family in Northern Ireland and France respectively. And now this year Gertude managed to send her packing once again to live with her mother's relatives.

She found her seat by the window and gazed out at the passing scenery. The train has left the station and she was on her way to live with new people once again. By the end of the school year she was going to be sent back to live with Gertude for the summer, and all the friends she will be making in this new place she is to go to she wouldn't hear from again, no matter how many times they promised to write her a letter. She is already used to not receiving that many posts or hearing any news from her new friends in each of the three different places she have been to the last three years. In fact, she is already looking forward to experiencing the exact same thing this year: meet new friends, enjoy the company of her relatives, receive promises of writing to her, then come back to live with Gertude for the summer and not hear a single word from any of the people she met over the past year.

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"Harry, are you alright?" asked Ron Weasley as he sat across his best friend inside the train carriage they share with their other best friend, Hermoine Granger.

Harry Potter removed his gaze from the window and looked at his friend. He shook off visions of the raven haired girl he spotted boarding the train at the station earlier and forced a smile on his boyish face.

"I'm alright, Ron. Why'd you ask?"

"Because you've been staring out the window since we go here, that's why." it was Hermoine who answered him, "What is wrong, Harry? For once you don't look excited about going back to Hogwarts."

"I am excited." Harry insisted, meeting Hermonie's eyes and locking gazes with her.

"But?" she raised one questioning eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest.

"But what?"

"C'mon Harry, I know you. Something's bothering you or else you wouldn't look so glum." she insisted.

Harry scrunched his forehead into a frown and shook his head, "Nothing's bothering me."

Hermoine and Ron exchanged looks, each agreeing without speaking loudly that their friend is hiding something from them. Now what could it be?