Well, it's Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fifth year at Hogwarts and they're on the Hogwarts Express. Suddenly there's a knock on the door.

"Come in," Hermione chimed.

A tall, brown-haired girl opened the door. Her head was a mountain of spiral curls and she had gorgeous violet eyes. Hermione didn't notice Harry and Ron staring dumbfounded.

"Mind if I join you?" the girl said.

"Not at all," Hermione told her. "I'm Hermione Granger. That's Harry, and that's Ron."

"Hello," she said, smiling. "I'm Scarlett."

Scarlett sat down and the compartment held an awkward silence for a few minutes until the treats cart came rolling down their way. Scarlett seemed to have an enormous amount of gold, and had bought everything on the cart.

"How can she eat all that and look like that?" Ron asked Harry.

"Who knows," Harry replied, unconsciously staring.

"Erm-uh," Hermione started. "Scarlett, what year are you?"

Scarlett gave her a somewhat puzzled look.

"I'm a fifth year," she replied.

"How come we've never seen you before?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, what house are you in?" Harry asked.

"Oh," Scarlett said, blushing. "Well, you see, I don't belong to a house yet. I'm new."

"I didn't think they took new students after first years," Ron said.

"Well, they don't – usually," Scarlett said, looking down. "But you see, I'm a – a late bloomer, so to speak."

"What?" Harry and Ron asked in unison.

"She's a diuturnity!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Come again?" Ron said, looking quite confused.

"I've read about them. They're witches and wizards who don't show signs of magic at the usual times. They – "

"So you're magic's where ours was in our first year?" Ron asked.

"Ron, you didn't let me finish," Hermione said angrily. "Diuturnities learn at an extremely fast pace for the first few years, which is convenient because you can place them in the proper level at school. They're very rare."

"Wow," Ron said in amazement, turning his head towards Scarlett. He couldn't help but notice how her eyes seemed to twinkle. They seemed oddly familiar.

All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. Standing in the doorway was Draco Malfoy.



Ooh…the suspense. Oh well, wait till the next chapter.