A/N: Hey guys, I reallyyyyy love getting reviews. It makes me wanna write more, and it makes me feel special, lmao. So please R&R, and lemme know of any suggestions you have, I'm always open to new ideas. Hmm…what else, oh right! I don't own anything except for Janice, she's mine, but everything else belongs to the genius mind of J.K. Rowling. So, I hope you enjoy this, I worked hard on it! Remember R&R! 3
Janice Van Burke eagerly jumped out of her parent's limo as soon as they arrived at King's Cross Station. Their driver, Mark, went to go get her bags from the trunk, and Janice's parents followed Janice. Janice's mother, Tiffany, and her father Charles gazed at her proudly. Mark went to go get a cart; Janice had one big trunk with wheels, so she found it a little pointless. When he returned, Janice took the cart from him, and thanked him.
"Right, well I'd better be off. Train leaves at eleven, so that gives me about fifteen minutes. I'll write every week." Janice said calmly, her mother was tearing up enough for all of them.
"We'll go with you love" said her father kindly, she could tell that he was trying to be strong as well for his wife's sake.
"No Dad really, it's not a big deal, I'll be fine." Janice said kindly, she hated long goodbyes, and she knew that she may miss the train if her parents accompanied her to Platform 9 and ¾.
She walked over to her mum and gave her a warm hug, and then a quick kiss. "Bye mum, I promise I'll write soon. I love you."
Her mother sniffled, "If you need anything, if you ever decide that you want to come home, or anything at all, just write! We'll be there in a jiff."
Janice chuckled, "Mum, I'm gonna be fine! I've gotta go, I love you." She tried to slither out of her mother's iron clad hug, with no avail, until finally her father gave her a hand."
He embraced her in a bear hug, "I'll miss you pumpkin."
Janice kissed him too, "I'll miss you too daddy."
He let her go, and put his hand around her mother. Janice took a deep breath and took the cart, and gave her parents one final wave. Then, in one brief moment, she was lost in the morning bustle of King's Cross Station.
When Janice entered the station she was immediately lost, she couldn't spot her platform anywhere. After five minutes of frantic searching, she gave up, and was going to go and find a cab to take her right back home. It was in her search for a cab stand that she spotted a large group of kids about her age carrying trunks, and dressed rather strangely.
"Oy! What are these Muggles always staring for?" exclaimed a lanky boy will fire engine red hair.
"Oh be quiet Ron!" said a rather exasperated girl with a bushy mane of brown hair.
Then, in unison, the group stopped, right in front of a brick wall. Janice looked up to see that they were in between platforms nine and ten. Before she could approach them and ask if they were headed to Hogwarts as well, one of the older students in the front of the pack ran straight towards the brick wall, with his cart preceding him.
"What the bloody—"Janice exclaimed, but before she could even finish her sentence, he disappeared into the wall.
No one else in the group seemed to find anything odd about this, and they continued to wait in line for their turn. The bushy haired girl and the tall red-haired boy continued to talk, when a tall handsome ran up to them with his cart.
"Harry!" yelled the bushy-haired girl as she embraced him in a hug.
Once she released him, the red-haired boy gave him a friendly shove, "How ya doin mate? Cuttin' kinda close, eh?"
Janice hadn't realized how close she had come to the group, so when the dark-haired handsome boy turned around quickly he bumped right into her.
"Oh, I'm sorry—"he said.
"No, no, it was my fault." Janice said.
He held out his hand, "Harry Potter" he said with a kind smile. He had beautiful eyes, she couldn't help but notice.
"Janice Van Burke" she said nervously.
"Oh, well it looks like it's your turn Janice." he said with smile, as he motioned to the wall. The red-haired boy and the bushy-haired girl had already gone, and she hadn't even noticed.
"Oh—er—right…" she said as her cheeks flushed.
"Is this your first time?..." Harry said in a confused voice.
"Yeah, it is." Janice said, wishing she hadn't said anything.
"Do you wanna go through together?" he asked.
She gave a relieved sigh, "Yes, please."
He took the cart from her, and pushed both his cart and hers through. Then he put out his hand, and she nervously took it. It was soft and warm, she couldn't feeling safe when he was with her, even though she wasn't sure why.
"On the count of three" he said. "One, two, three…"
They ran together and she closed her eyes as they approached the wall. She expected to feel the impact, but she felt nothing. Unfortunately, she wasn't as used to this, as Harry apparently was, so she didn't stop in time. This caused her to run into the carts, and lose her balance. As she prepared herself for her face hitting the stone pavement, she felt strong arms grab her from behind. They wrapped around her waist, and pulled her back. In what seemed like less than a second, she was face to face with Harry, their faces almost touching.
"Good catch" she said breathlessly.
That moment could've lasted two seconds or two hours, she wasn't really sure. They may've stayed like that for longer, but a large crowd of students had formed and they were pointing and staring. She pulled away as soon as she noticed, and cleared her throat.
"Well, thanks for all your help." she said, a little embarrassed. "Why are they all staring at him?" she thought.
As she turned to walk to the train he grabbed her shoulder, "Do you want to sit with me and my friends on the train?"
She couldn't help but smile, "maybe it won't be so hard to make friends" she thought to herself. "Yea, that'd be fantastic. Thanks!"
Together they walked on the train and down the long hallway, with Harry in the lead. People were gawking openly, some even stuck their heads out of their compartments to get a better look. She was tempted to ask why they were staring, but decided to ask another time. Finally, he found the compartment that he was looking for. Inside it, there was the bushy-haired girl and red-haired boy.
He opened the door, and held it open for Janice. She went in first and he followed right behind her. Then he took her trunk from her and hoisted it up by the others, and then did the same with his.
"Guys this is Janice. Janice this is Ron" the red-haired boy stood up, and shook Janice's hand, "and this is Hermione." The girl smiled gently, and shook her hand as well.
Harry sat down, and then patted the seat next to her, motioning for him to sit down.
"So Janice, how old are you?" Hermione asked, sounding truly interested.
"I'm fifteen. How old are you guys?" Janice asked.
"Same" said Harry.
"So, if you're fifteen, then why haven't we seen you before?" Ron asked.
Hermione shot him a You're-So-Rude look, and Ron blushed. "Actually I'm not sure, I just got a letter this summer telling me about Hogwarts, and of course I wanted to go. I didn't know anything about magic until I went to Diagon Alley, I thought it was a joke up until then. I mean my parents didn't seem shocked though."
"Oh, are you Muggle-born?" Hermione asked kindly.
"You know, I'm not actually sure." Janice said.
"What do you mean 'you're not sure'?" Ron asked, clearly puzzled.
"Well, I was raised by Muggles, but I was adopted, so I don't know if my real parents were magic or not. I'm starting to think they were, that's probably why my parents took the news so well." Janice said thoughtfully.
"Oh! That may be why you're starting school so late. I mean if you weren't down for Hogwarts already, and you weren't showing any powers, than it's possible that you went unnoticed, up until now of course." said Hermione, eyes aglow with discovery.
"Yeah, that sounds about right" Janice said, happy that they seemed to accept her already.
"Have you been experiencing any type of magical manifestation lately?" Hermione asked.
"Uh—I don't know if you could call it that, I mean I can make things move if I really think about it, if I get really mad sometimes things break, you know, little stuff like that. Oh, and I think I can talk to snakes." Janice said casually.
A hush fell over them, until Harry broke it. "So can I."
"Really? That's a relief, I was starting to think I was a freak or something."Janice said, half joking.
"Well, it's actually not very…normal, er—common." Harry said carefully.
Janice smiled, "Yeah well, being normal is overrated."
All three of them were laughing, when there was a knock on the door, an old plump woman was there with a trolley full of sweets. Ron jumped up first, and they all followed. Ron bought a long stick of licorice, "Licorice Wand", Hermione got a container of oddly colored jelly beans, "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and Harry stayed outside with Janice to tell her what everything was. When they were finished Harry had bought them four Cauldron Cakes and two bottles of Butterbeer to share.
"Thanks, but that really wasn't necessary." Janice said as they sat back down.
Hermione jumped up, "Ron, I think it's time we patrol the hall."
Ron groaned "Must we?" he said through a mouth full of licorice.
Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the compartment. This left Harry and Janice alone, but the atmosphere wasn't awkward.
"So, do you know about the houses?" Harry asked.
Janice swallowed her Butterbeer, "I know the four houses, but I don't know which I'm in, I don't really know much about them either. Which house are you in?"
"Me, Ron, and Hermione are all in Gryffindor, the best house by far." Harry said jokingly.
Janice laughed, "Oh yes, I'm sure."
"So Ravenclaw is for the brains, I never knew why Hermione wasn't in there. Hufflepuff is for the humble, everyone says it's a bit of a soft option, not much glory in Hufflepuff, but they're nice. Then there's Slytherin. A big bunch of Pureblood prats, think they're better than everyone else. No one likes them, especially Gryffindors." Harry said.
"God, I hope I'm not in Slytherin." Janice said seriously.
In a lighter tone Harry said, "I'm afraid if you're in Slytherin, we just can't be friends."
Janice laughed, "Dually noted."
"So, how are you gonna know what house you're in?" Harry asked curiously.
"There was a note from the Headmaster, it came with my letter. It said to have someone escort me to his office, and we would settle my schedule there. It said to go right after dinner, and the he often partakes in Custard. Kind of odd right?"
Harry laughed, "That's Dumbledore for you, he's brilliant, but he has a way about him that makes him seem a little bizarre. They say he's the greatest wizard there ever has been, and I believe them. He's nice though, don't be nervous about him."
"Who said I was nervous?" Janice asked teasingly.
"Just a guess." Harry said.
The door slid open, and Ron and Hermione walked in. Ron slumped down in his seat, and Hermione sat next to him.
"Being a prefect isn't as much fun as I thought it would be." Ron said grumpily.
"Let's do something. We have a long ride ahead of us, right?" Janice said happily.
"Like what?" Harry asked.
"Let's play a game!" Janice exclaimed.
"What game?" Ron asked, confused.
"Hmmm…how about I Never?" Janice asked
"We'll we're gonna need some drinks then." said a red head as he walked in the compartment, he was followed by a twin.
Both of them held out their hands, "I'm Fred" she shook his hand, "I'm George" said the other.
They had four cases of Butterbeer, and one twin sat down on each side. George sat next to Janice, and Fred sat next to Hermione.
"Alright, new girl starts." George said, obviously flirting.
"Fine. I Never…"
~~~~~~DOYOUBELIEVEINMAGIC~DOYOUBELIEVEINMAGIC~DOYOUBELIEVEINMAGIC~~~~~~