Chapter One: The Journey

Somewhere in Great Britain a meeting was iniciated. A group of hooded wizards entered a large dim-lighted room and seated themselves around a large oval table. They were all wearing simular dark robes with little sign of rank or position.

A bell sounded. Thirteen sinister strokes which ekkoed in the room.

One of the hooded wizards spoke:

"She is here."

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Dithea looked at her surroundings in the train station. "Nine-and-three-quarters?" she mused before returning her gaze to a small piece of paper she held in her hand.

'Why does everything have to be so difficult?' she thought with a sigh.

Dithea had never been to London before, Hell, she had never even been in England before! And even though she thought herself quite capable of finding her way to the train, she was sorry that neither of her parents had had the time to see her off. Well, finding the station hadn't been a problem, but that damned platform "Nine-and-three-quarters" was an entirely different matter.

In Denmark, where she came from, there hadn't been these kinds of obstacles getting to school. No stations, no missing or, for all she knew, non-existent platforms…besides there had never been so many muggles around to confuse her.

In her mind, she pictured the old ferry, which had brought her and the other students to Taageöen, where her old school was located. They had left the mainland in the evening, slept aboard the ferry and had awoken the next morning just as it arrived to the island. It had been perfect. Perfect! So why had her father accepted that bloody job at the consulate? She remembered when he had first told her about it.

"It's a big chance for me, well, for all of us," he explained.

The fact that it might be inconvenient for her hadn't even crossed his mind. It had been terrible for her, leaving her friends. Of course they had promised to write to her every so often, but it would never be the same. And what about the people at her new school, would they welcome her? Would she find any friends there? Or would they think of her as an outsider? Oh, why couldn't we just have stayed home?

Her chain of thought was suddenly broken by loud laughter coming from somewhere behind her. She turned around and for a second or two she thought she was seeing double, because two of the red-haired boys in front of her looked exactly alike. 'Twins,' she thought. They were talking to another red-haired boy who was walking behind them with a dark-haired bloke with glasses, and a girl who seemed very annoyed with the twins. She opened her mouth to say something, but one of them beat her to it.

"Dear little bro, neither you or..."

"...your better half..."

"...has any authorisation over us anymore..."

"...not that you ever had, of course..."

They are even finishing each others sentences.

"...and if you don't mind...

"...we have things to do before the train leaves..."

"...customers to attend to..."

"...goods to sell..."

"...business, you know."

With these words they continued along platform nine, in what appeared to be very high spirits. Their brother on the other hand, looked a little offended.

"What did they mean my better half?" said the boy, complaining loudly.

The girl looked a little flushed but said, "Never mind, Ron, but do come along or we'll miss the train."

"Oi, Harry!" Ron turned to the boy by his side with a huge grin on his face "Remember second year, when we had to fly to Hogwarts?"

"How could I possibly forget? That bloody tree nearly..."

Dithea stopped listening when she heard the magic word 'Hogwarts.' She took a step towards the trio and said, "Excuse me? I heard you were talking about Hogwarts just now, and I wondered…well, that is…could you tell me how to..."

"...get onto the platform," Harry interrupted and nodded. "I had the same problem on my first trip to Hogwarts," he explained.

"Just come with us and we'll show you," the girl said. "I'm Hermione Granger and these two are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter." They all looked at her expectantly.

Dithea merely smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Dithea Lund."

"Lund?" Ron studied her with a frown "That sounds strange. Come to think of it, you sound strange too."

But Dithea was not listening. She had just seen the twins disappear, just as they should have run into the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. "What hap...how did they...?" she asked, rather ineloquently. Hermione explained to her that the barrier was the gateway to platform nine-and-three-quarters and that all she had to do was to run straight towards it. Ron and Harry demonstrated before it was her turn. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought to herself before running towards the barrier. For a moment a claustrophobic feeling overwhelmed her, as she felt the bricks surround her. Then all of a sudden it was over and she landed on the other side where a long steam engine was waiting for hundreds of students to get onto it.

'How retro …' she thought

Hermione soon appeared behind her and began to drag her along through the crowd. "Let's find the boys," she said as they headed towards the train.

They found Harry and Ron in one of the compartments near the back of the train. They were in the middle of a conversation with another boy, who was introduced as Neville Longbottom. Their conversation stopped when the girls entered the compartment.

"So...um...where do come from?" Harry asked.

"Denmark," she replied. "My dad got a job at the consulate here."

"Denmark?" Ron said excitedly, "So, do you really have mermaids there?"

Dithea nodded, "Certainly we have, although you rarely see them. Come to think of it, we had a few at Taageöen."

"Wicked!"

"Toveoien?" Neville asked sounding a little confused.

"Oh, that's where my old school is. It means something like Fog Island."

"Sounds dodgy," Harry remarked.

"Well it is, especially during the winter. It's called Fog Island because it's surrounded by a impenetrable, dense fog to keep fishermen and other muggles away," she explained.

"Wait a minute," Ron said, interrupting her. "If it's surrounded by fog, then how do you get there?"

"With the Old Ferry. The captain aboard is blind, but he finds his way through the fog anyways."

Ron stared, "Amazing! How do you think he does it?"

"Ever heard of magic, Ron?" Hermione said sarcastically. This started an argument, which lasted for quite some time. But by the looks on Harry and Neville's faces Dithea could tell that this was normal to them, and something that occurred pretty regularly.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and quite peaceful. Dithea's new friends told her just about everything she should know about Hogwarts; everything about the teachers, ghosts, who to avoid…

"Pretty much everyone from Slytherin should be avoided. Nasty buggers, the whole lot of them," Ron said. "Especially Draco Malfoy," he spat with a look of fierce intensity on his face. Dithea couldn't help but giggle at the sound of it.

"Draco? Is that his real name?" she asked. The others nodded, surprised by her amusement. "What does he look like? Is he sort of pale with dark hair and red eyes?"

Harry shook his head, "He is pale, but he's got blond hair and grey eyes."

"Pity!" she sighed. "Otherwise we could have called him Dracul and slipped garlic into his food." They all laughed at the idea, though Ron said he liked the method with the wooden stake better.

"Hold on!" she said. A terrible and horrifying thought had just occurred to her. "What if I get sorted into Slytherin?!"

Hermione shook her head in a knowing way "You're too nice for that."

"You really think so?" Dithea asked as she looked around at the others.

"Way too nice!" Ron agreed.

Dithea smiled and relaxed so she could enjoy her ride. Who knew, maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all…