Hey guys! I know I already have something like three ongoing fics that I haven't updated in months... sorry... I'm gonna try really hard to not let this one get thrown to the side, I've been mulling his over for months now and I'm gonna finish this thing if it kills me so seriously, feel free to bombard me with PMs and reviews in which you shout at me to hurry up and update - I mean only if you want to. I hope you enjoy it, this is my first next gen fic. For now I'm going to withhold shipping judgement, that is all.

Stamp Stamp Clap

Karen McCarthy had always been a strange child. Ever since she could remember, strange things had happened; like that time she had turned her English teacher's hair blue just by thinking about it – that would teach him to keep going on about what the damn colour symbolised! Of course, there was no real evidence that it was her that had done it, but she knew. Weird stuff always happened around her, right when she wanted it too. Her parents had written it off as a child's imagination, but nevertheless they played along: "Look at Karen, our little witch," they would laugh. Oh how shocked they had been after her Hogwarts letter had arrived.

Karen

We all miss you back home. It's good to hear that you're having fun. Is the Hufflepuff house nice? You said it was right next to the kitchens? Don't go in there without permission, now! We can't wait to hear about all the things you've learnt when you come home for Christmas – if you still want to come home for Christmas? Its strange not having our little Witch around all the time. Hope you figure out your internet and cartoon problem out soon... Maybe you can talk to your headmaster about having a TV room put in? Write back soon.

Love

Mum and Dad (and Tibbs the cat) xx

Karen smiled at the letter from her parents as she sat at the breakfast table with her friends. She missed her life back home. Though she loved everything about Hogwarts and was hardly ever bored with all the cool magical things to learn and play with, she missed things from the muggle world like the internet and cartoons; like she had told her parents in her last letter.

Though she understood that wizards had this superiority thing and didn't like to use things from the muggle world, she didn't think it would be that big of a deal to just have one little computer. Right? Sure, Wizards had no use for cars and airplanes when they can come and go with a flick of their wand, or Floo, or even broom. But oh how she missed the internet. Why did the magical world have to be so stubborn as to not take on such a wonderful invention?

Regardless, she knew she would survive until Christmas to get her cartoon and internet fix. In the mean time she had great friends and a lot of homework to occupy her. Just then, Lily Luna Potter, her best friend came and sat next to her. She had her eye on her brother who was sat over on the Slytherin table (houses mixing up at meals wasn't uncommon, not after the battle of Hogwarts) the look made her wary – James was planning something.

"You take care now, sweetie," Karen's mum told her, hugging her.

"Write us every chance you get," Her Dad reminded her as he messed up her hair.

"Yes, yes," Karen sighed and gave each of her parents a hug. "Love you!" She waved over her shoulder as she boarded the Hogwarts express, focussing on how much her life would change for the better by going to a magic school so she wouldn't break down into tears. "Mind if I sit here?" She asked of a ginger haired girl who was sat alone in a cabin.

"Not at all," the girl replied with a friendly smile and a gesture to the empty seat opposite her. Karen sat down where the girl had gestured and smiled awkwardly in return. "I have to warn you though," the girl said, "my annoying older brothers and cousins are sure to come in here looking for me some time soon." She pushed her hair behind her ears and continued speaking without giving Karen a chance to respond to her warnings, "I'm Lily by the way... Lily..." she hesitated to give her last name as if she thought it might affect the way Karen thought of her, "Potter," she said at last.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Karen, Karen McCarthy," Karen replied, offering her hand.

Lily looked surprised for a moment that Karen hadn't reacted to her last name but quickly recovered and shook the offered hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you too, Karen. I don't suppose you've been in the wizarding world long, have you?"

"No, not really," Karen sighed. "My parents are... Mu- what's the word?"

"Muggles?" Lily offered.

"Yes, my parents are Muggles. What gave me away?"

Lily smirked. "You didn't react to my surname... See, um... well, my Dad is something of celebrity in our world – he's over there look," she pointed to a man with unruly black hair and round glasses that framed bright green eyes. He had a strange scar on his forehead that Karen wouldn't really had noticed if she didn't see a few people that were stood close to the man and his family trying (and failing) to discretely stare at the man's scar.

"What did he do?" Karen asked.

Just then a smaller, scar-less, brown eyed version of the man Lily had pointed out as her father came into the room, having obviously heard their conversation, and began to explain in dramatic detail what Mr Potter had done to become famous.

"It started when he was just a baby!" the boy said, staring directly into Karen's eyes. "The evil wizard Voldemort attacked the house they'd been hiding in but Grandma Potter was too powerful for stupid old Voldemort and saved Dad. Everyone thought the evil pig was dead, but THEN," his voice increased in volume and his arms waved around as if to their own accord, "then, when Dad came to his first year of Hogwarts, He came BACK! He tormented Dad every year of his school until in his final year; there was this huge battle right on the grounds of Hogwarts. Kids and adults and even the centaurs worked together to defeat his army and our Dad defeated him, Voldemort died and the wizarding world was saved. No more stupid Tom Riddle!"

"James, I was going to tell it. Anyway, Dad didn't defeat Voldemort; he always says that Tom's curse reflected off of him and bounced back on Tom. Voldemort killed himself."

The boy, James, rolled his eyes. "Yeah Dad never tells it properly, Uncle Bill always tells it so much better.

Another boy who looked younger than James but looked very similar to him – he had green eyes but other than that, they might have been twins if it weren't for the obvious age gap – entered the room. He too, had obviously heard at least some of the conversation. "At least you weren't in the same room as Uncle George when he got drunk last Christmas... His version of events is just depressing... Then I had to tell Mum why I was having nightmares..."

Lily cringed, "Poor Uncle George."

"Greetings Potters," a ginger haired boy said as he ran into the now quite full cabin. "Potters friend," he nodded at Karen then turned to face James. "James, your Dad is the best!"

James smirked. "You wouldn't be saying that if you'd eaten his stew last weekend, I think he got mixed up between his potions and actual edible food."

The younger boy with green eyes glared at his brother. "James, don't be so horrible, Dad's been stressed with work – he's usually a really good cook."

James rolled his eyes, "Oh shut it, Albus; I was joking. Why is my Dad the best, Fred?" he asked of the ginger haired boy, Fred.

"He only went and gave my Dad the map for him to give to me to give to you," Fred explained excitedly.

"The Map?" All three of the Potters said in unison. James matched Fred's excitement, Albus sounded horrified while Lily just sounded confused. Karen had thought it best to sit and watch as the scene played out; hopefully things would eventually explain themselves.

"Mum would have kittens if she found out," Albus muttered.

"I thought Dad would never give that thing up," Lily added, "I thought he was going to frame it at one point."

"Auntie Ginny probably would have kittens if she knew, that's why he gave it to my Dad so I could give it to you," Fred explained. He took out an old looking piece of blank parchment and James looked at it as if it were a ticket for a private trip to Disney land. Without another word, the two boys ran off.

Albus looked to his little sister and hung his head in his hands.

"So they have the map, what's the big deal?" Lily asked.

"You don't understand. You've heard the stories; we are descended from two generations of Hogwart's greatest pranksters. Grandma Molly says that James is a lot like Grandpa Potter and he wants to live up to that reputation, and last year, Uncle George sent Fred a howler telling him how proud he was to have received a letter saying Fred and James had somehow managed to make everything in the great hall float above everyone's heads!"

"I remember that," Lily interrupted. "I was at home when Aunt Angela came in all angry about Uncle George... Mum wasn't happy..." she smiled at the memory of her mother's anger directed at her older brother.

"Yeah... But now that they have the map, who knows what they'll do?" Albus sighed.

"Um... Excuse me..." Karen spoke up. "But... What is this map... it looked like an old piece of paper to me..."

"Oh of course, sorry Karen," Lily said, as if only just now remembering her new friend was still there. "The map is something our grandpa and his friends created while they were at Hogwarts... It's a map of the whole school that tells you where everyone is and where most of the secret passageways are," Lily explained.

"Cool," Karen said.

"You won't be saying that if you become the victim of one of their pranks," Albus mumbled. "I'm Albus by the way, though I'm sure you figured that out already..."

"Karen," Karen said, shaking his hand.

Just then a girl with bushy ginger hair poked her head through the door. "Albus there you are!" the girl sighed. "Hugo, Scorpio and I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"Rose!" Albus smiled. "Sorry, I got caught up in this thing with James and Fred... They have the map..."

Rose gasped. "Merlin help us," she laughed before waving at Lily and Karen and dragging Albus away.

"It was nice meeting you Karen," Albus said over his shoulder. "I'll see you around." And with that, Lily and Karen were finally left in peace.

The two girls had bonded after explaining their lives to one another. Each had led such a different life to the other – Karen having grown up in a relatively normal household while Lily had lived a life where she couldn't go shopping without being stared at (despite her father's best efforts to avoid that) – and quickly became best friends.

Though it took the first few weeks of her time at Hogwarts, Karen eventually got used to the amount of redheads at the school. Now, she felt that she would be uncomfortable if she didn't run into at least one Potter or Weasley kid at some point during the day. At least she had been sorted into Hufflepuff were she could find a retreat from the constant energy that her friends from that family seemed to have.

"Wait until my Father hears about this," James Potter was waving a piece of toast across the table to Scorpio Malfoy there was a tense moment of silence for the onlookers as the two boys stared each other down, as if getting ready to fight, until the two boys dissolved into laughter.

A lot of things like that seemed to happen around Hogwarts. There seemed to be a lot of inside jokes that existed solely within the wizarding community, leaving muggle-born's and half-bloods raised in the muggle world incredibly confused.

"Can get annoying, right?" Mindy Place, a muggle-born girl from Karen's dorm, said as the two boys continued to laugh over pretty much nothing.

"Try being friends with them," Karen chuckled. "And how much do you miss the internet?"

"OMG so much! I couldn't even tell you what I did with it but I need it!"

"I know right!"

The first years had flying lessons next period so Karen and Mindy found themselves walking toward the Quidditch pitch together before walking straight into a particularly ugly 3rd year Slytherin. "Get out of my way, mudbloods," he grunted, shoving them to the side.

Karen gave an odd smile to her dorm-mate as she noticed a few other muggle-born students watching in horror. Here was where the muggleborns could share their inside jokes and leave the others to be confused. The muggleborns and even some other students who were watching were stood with looks of pure horror – blood status had become less common place since the demise of Voldemort and his followers, but that only made displays of bigotry such as this all the more shocking.

Karen had the chance to turn this situation on its head and she wasn't going to let it go for anything. She slowly brought her hand up to her mouth spat on it before quickly wiping it all over the 3rd year's face. She then stamped her feet twice and clapped then repeated.

Stamp, stamp, clap.

Stamp, stamp, clap.

Mindy now returned Karen's smile and sang. "You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back into your place!"

Then, all of the muggleborns joined in with the stamps and claps and sang along to the chorus. The song kept going until a teacher came along and sent them all off to their next class. Karen skipped off to her flying lesson with a huge grin on her face; she couldn't wait to put this in a letter to her parents.

I'd just like to put this out there that I loathe the fact that JKR called Harry's kid Albus Severus but in the light of canon, I decided not to change it - too many arguments to be had over what to change it too, don't think I didn't spend hours of my life not trying to change the character's minds though; Albus is actually pretty attached to his name...