Northwoods School of Magic-Year One

Northwoods School of Magic-Year One

To put it mildly Hermione Granger was nervous. She was on her way to her very first teaching job. It wasn't that she was afraid of not being smart enough, graduating top in all her classes proved that she was smart enough, it was more fear of whether she would be able to share her knowledge with students. She was afraid that for the first time in her life she would fail at something.

* * *

Micky Masters nervously looked at the forest green train that was going to take him to his new school. It wasn't like the letter telling him was accepted at Northwoods School of Magic had come as a surprise. His dad was magical, his mother was a muggle he knew but he had never met her, and he'd known he was going to go to Northwoods since he was little. He though it would be a lot of fun to learn magic, all his cousins said so, and he had been looking forward to going since the owl had brought the letter. His cousins said the stores in the wizard village near school had all sorts of nifty things and tricks. He was still nervous though. He didn't know if he was going to be good in any of classes or worse be put in a bad house. Being put in a bad house might be worse than doing badly in his classes. Also a year away from home, this seemed like a lot of time to him. He was only 11 years old and hadn't spent that much time away from his dad ever. This was at the bottom of his list of worries because he knew that the year would go quickly once he and Mike, his best friend, started to play tricks on people the year would go quickly.

Mike Whitford looked around for his friend Micky. He was tall for his age and that made it much easier to scan the crowd for Micky's chestnut-colored curls. He wanted to see Micky because it had been almost a week since he had seen Micky last and that was a long time for the boys to be apart. One of the most commonly used words to describe them was inseparable (the others were annoying and intelligent.)

"Hey, Micky," Mike yelled as he spotted Micky and began to walk over. Micky started to head in his direction and once they were next to each other Mike continued, "Are you excited about going to Northwoods?"

"I am definitely excited about all the things we're going to learn and people we're going to meet. Not to mention the pranks we're going to play. I hope we come up with some really good ones," Micky answered. "I'm also a little worried about classes and stuff, though. Nothing major. I'm sure it won't make school any less fun."

"I am kind of worried about that stuff, too. I'm sure we'll do fine. Do you want to get on the train now to start planning some pranks?"

"Let's go."

* * *

Janine Weasley was leaving on a train to go to school. This would seem ordinary enough to most people but was unusual for several reasons. One unusual thing was that this train left from Track 12 ½ at Grand Central Station. Another reason it was unusual was that it went to a school that taught magic. This school was Northwoods School of Magic. Janine had known she was going to go to there since she was little. Everyone in her family was a wizard (well Cousin Brucie owned a used car dealership but no one talked about him.) Ever since she had floated a glass down from the top shelf when she three (she wished she could still do it now, even standing on a chair she could barely reach the glasses on the top shelf) her family had known she was magical, too.

Now Janine's problem was finding her family. She had gotten separated from her Mom, Dad, and older brother Matt after getting on to Track 12 ½. 'It really shouldn't be that hard to find them. I'll just look for the red hair.' After climbing to the back of a bench she scanned the crowd. 'Ah ha! I have found you. I knew you couldn't avoid me forever.' She looked to see where the red hair was and hurried over to the spot. She didn't find her family, only another lost-looking-little girl.

Janine wasn't about to have walked all the way over here to do nothing (she also wasn't sure if she could find another bench) and the other girl looked nice so Janine introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Janine Weasley and I'm lost. Who are you?"

The other girl seemed a little surprised by this sudden introduction but answered, not quite as boldly, "I'm Willow Black and I'm lost, too."

Janine responded by telling her the story of why she had come over here in the first place. When she was done Willow said, losing some of her shyness, "I'm glad you did because being lost with you is a lot better than being lost by myself. Let's go see if we can find our parents. I was scared to go looking alone but with you I'm not nearly as scared as before."

The two girls walked over towards the train, finding their parents had became a lot less important now that they had found a new friend.

* * *

Once the girls were on the train they started talking about everything important. Their families (Willow's twin sister Lise and Janine's four brothers), clothes, friends, and school.

When Micky and Mike asked if they could sit in the compartment too (they quickly explained that 'everywhere else was full') Janine began a fanciful retelling (frequently interrupted by Willow with the truth) of the girls being lost and subsequently found by their parents. The boys were impressed by this story and decide that these girls might be fun to have around.

As the train pulled out of the station and started towards Northwoods the four people in Compartment 24-b were quickly becoming friends.

A/N: This isn't directly related to Harry Potter (He probably won't even be in this story) but Hermione will be in it more than she was in this part. Janine is related to Ron in someway, I figured a family as big as the Weasleys would have relatives in the U. S. A. Willow is not related to Sirius Black. Black is a fairly common last name and I wanted to use it. Grand Central Station is in New York City for those of you who don't know. I used New York because it is a big city, a transportation hub of the East Coast, and it seems like the kind of place where wizards could blend in (certainly more than some of those performance artists) and would be comfortable. Please review this story whether you love it, hate it, or anywhere in between.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hermione or the name Northwoods school (it is a school near where I live but I don't think they teach magic.) I definitely don't own Grand Central Station (it'd be cool if I did though.) I do own Micky, Mike, Janine, and Willow so don't take them.

A/N #2: I need house names. If you think of one please put it in a review