She approached the train warily, unsure of what adventures would follow after she stepped into the carriage. Jamie had already received a letter by owl from an alleged wizard headmaster of some supposed school for witches and wizards. She thought it was some stupid joke at first, but then her parents started to believe it too and ... well she didn't really know how to explain it, but she had just walked through a brick pillar to arrive at a nonexistent platform. It all seemed so surreal as if she was in a weird dream. Jamie pinched herself to see if this theory was correct and was disappointed to find it was not. She ran her fingers along the delicate wood of her wand as she found it soothing. Oak and a raven feather. 'A practical wand for a practical girl' Mr Olivander had said.

Jamie closed her eyes, took a deep breath and stepped into the carriage, her owl Archimedes perched daintily on her shoulder. She looked around at all these kids who appeared ordinary and certainly not witches or wizards. She walked down the isle peering into each carriage, looking for a friendly face. She finally stopped outside a carriage hosting a boy with tousled black hair and piercing green eyes, a girl with a wild mass of brown curly hair and a carrot topped boy with a worried expression.
Jamie shyly opened the carriage door an d muttered a meek "May I please sit in here?". They all nodded, distracted by their own thoughts and the carrot topped boy patted the seat beside him, grinning and introducing himself as Ron and the other two as Hermione and the famous Harry Potter.
"How is he famous?" Jamie questioned.
The girl named Hermione scoffed and replied with a righteous "Why don't you know? He is the boy who lived. The only person to ever survive an attack from Voldemort."
"Hermione" hissed Ron "please call him 'He who Should not be Named' or 'You know Who', it freaks me out.".
She sighed and replied with "Fear of a name only increases fear of a thing itself Ronald" for what felt like the hundredth time. Harry sighed and Jamie assumed their bickering was not out of the ordinary. "If you don't mind me asking what exactly happened to make you so famous?". Harry turned to her and looked into her eyes with his steady gaze and began to tell the tale of how his fame, scar and precarious home life came to be. Jamie listened intently clinging on to each word as if it were a precious memory.

He finally finished and Jamie drew in a breath to say something, but the words escaped her.
"Wow" she finally muttered "it doesn't seem like this is all possible. I mean scientifically none of this should be happening".
Hermione nodded in agreement. "I felt that way ay first too but you will soon discover that it is possible and it is happening." She paused, "But of course you would know all of this as you are in fifth year like us, are you not?". Jamie nodded in agreement. "So strange, I have never heard of anyone coming to Hogwarts in a grade other than first. How can this be?" Jamie shrugged her shoulders, confused and disappointed at herself for being so thick and not responding with proper articulate sentences like she usually did.

The train shuddered to a stop and the four disembarked, their black cloaks billowing out behind them in the wind. As they walked up to the carriages that she was told would take her to the castle Jamie was alarmed to find them being pulled along by a hairless, winged horse, its skin as dark as the night.
"What is that?" she shrieked in horror. She felt dizzy and faint from all this new information to process.
"Can you see them too?" inquired Harry.
"Of course, can't everybody? I mean how could you miss them?" Hermione and Ron looked puzzled.
"What on earth are you two talking about? The carriage is pulling itself as always." Hermione stated.
"No it's not those THINGS are pulling the carriage" said Jamie somewhat hysterically. Her whole world was spinning. Everything she had been taught about science and what was possible was being contradicted. Jamie started to hyperventilate.
"Don't worry you're not going mad. I see them too". They all turned to see Luna Lovegood holding an upside-down issue of her fathers magazine staring at Jamie and Harry.
"How come only we can see them?" Jamie asked.
"More importantly what are they?" Harry puzzled. Luna carefully folded her magazine and placed it into her bag before turning to face them.
"They're Thestrals" she answered "they live in the forbidden forest and we can only see them because we have seen death." This last part shocked Jamie. She had never seen anyone die. Both her parents were alive as was all her family.
"That can't be right" she said "I have never seen anyone die".
Luna frowned. "You must have, otherwise you could not see them". Jamie's vision started to blur and everything felt as if it was swaying.
"Jamie are you alright?" asked Harry. Suddenly there was a flash of light and someone started to scream Jamie's name. Then everything went black.