Chapter 1

The Girl with a Secret and The Slytherin Boy.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped through onto platform nine and three quarters, noise blared around her as parents saw off their kids and the train whistled signaling boarding time. Rubbing her nose, she cringed at the smell of iron and smoke; she sighed knowing she would have to get used to these strong smells. At least where they were going she wouldn't have to endure London's modern stench. Once she passed off her trunk to a conductor, she boarded the train, a few of the students glanced at her more than once. Tugging on her multicolored fisherman's hat she pulled it as far down as it could go over her crimson hair. Finding an open compartment she plopped down and sighed loudly, intent on relaxing she slid lower into the seat. A pair of blue eyes stared at her from under a bundle of robes. She jumped and realized there had been someone in the compartment. He'd been lying so still she hadn't even noticed.

"U-um… Sorry, I thought it was empty." She stood up to go.

"It's fine." The fair haired boy sat up rubbing his sleepy cat-like eyes. When she took a closer look, she realized he was wearing green robes with the crest of a snake on his cloak. "You can stay."

She hesitated, but slowly sat back down; she could only assume he was being nice right now because she was a houseless first year. The stories she'd heard about Slytherin, the house the dark lord hailed from, were not pleasant. However, since the famous Harry Potter ended the dark lord thirty-years ago, supposedly the house had undergone some major reforms. Maybe they weren't so bad anymore?

The boy rubbed his eyes sleepily as he looked at her. She tensed up wondering what he was staring at. "Nice hat."

Terrified, her hands went up to make sure it was still in place, it was.

"You don't need to be so scared. I don't bite." He stretched his arms above his head and yawned.

The door to the compartment slammed open and an older Slytherin boy, this one taller and lanky burst in, his group of friends trailed behind him. He gave her compartment companion a toothy grin; his dusty brown hair was a little too long and hanging down into his eyes.

"Hey, Erike. Have fun this summer? Not sure how you could in that crappy place you call a home. Oh, wait it's not even a house, don't you live in a rat-infested motel?"

"Picking a fight already Griffin? Your inferiority complex grows every second. Then again being the runt of the litter must be hard."

"You don't even have a proper family seeing as your father's unknown. I am sure it sucks having a whore of a mother—." Griffin's hair randomly set on fire. He screamed and his friends went to put it out, though in the attempt to do so he received more than one hit to the face. "Y-you, I'm telling!" The boy franticly ran back down the train, his friends following behind.

Erike slowly turned to her, she held tightly onto her hat and shook, frightened.

"Did… you do that?" Erike's mouth hung open.

"I-I…" She fell silent, she'd exposed herself. They would kick her out and she would never even get to set foot on the school grounds. Damn my temper!

Erike gave her a lopsided grin. "What spell was that?"

She looked down at her feet afraid to say anything.

"What's your name? I am Erike Melbourne, a third year at Hogwarts."

"Mia Hestia… First year."

"I figured that. So, Mia what kind of spell was that?" Erike looked at her intrigued.

Mia slid further back into her seat. "You're not going to tell on me?"

"Tell?" Erike chuckled and held up his sleeve, he'd apparently hidden his wand inside. "If you hadn't done something, I was going to turn him into a turtle."

The compartment door slid back open and a tall woman with a long face stared down at the two of them angrily. Griffin was standing behind her, his face bloodied and his hair more than just singed.

"Which one of you did this?" She gestured to the boy behind her.

Mia could feel the color draining from her face, this was it. She wasn't even going to make it to the school platform. They would throw her off here. If she was lucky, they may slow down the train a little bit, so the impact of hitting the ground wouldn't kill her.

"That way my doing, Professor." Erike stood up and face the woman, though he didn't even reach her collar bone.

"Already making trouble at the start of the year, Melbourne?"

Erike smiled at her peevishly. "Griffin started in on his usual and I just couldn't help myself."

The professor scowled at him. "You'll be in detention the first two weeks of school and fifty points from Slytherin. Starting our house off with negative points, you're going to be very popular this year, Melbourne."

"Professor Mitchell, he set my head on fire, I think that's being a little lenient," Griffin protested.

"You're right. Ten more points from Slytherin for starting the fight, Griffin. Quit whining, the fire wasn't hot enough to do any damage. Hair grows back." Professor Mitchell stormed off down the corridor.

Griffin scowled at Erike. "I'll remember this Melbourne."

"Whatever floats your boat, candle top."

Griffin huffed and stormed off down the corridor. Erike sat down and yawned loudly.

"You… didn't have to do that," Mia whispered.

Erike grinned at her. "It's fine. I'm used to the punishment. I even carved my name on one of the desks in the detention hall."

Mia smiled at him.

"So, which house do you want to be in?" He asked and winked at her. "My recommendation, don't get Slytherin."

"But you're in Slytherin."

"Right, so I can verify it's full of a bunch of pricks."

"Do you hate your house?"

Erike grinned widely. "Not at all. I love it."

"Even though it's full of a bunch of pricks?"

"Yup." Erike scratched his chin and smiled evilly. "I love messing with pricks."