IMPORTANT NOTE: This story contains mentions and scenes of issues such as child abuse and other similar things. If it is at the beginning of the chapter (as it is with this one, here's a warning) then I will warn you as I am now. If such content triggers you please keep in mind that the characters are fictional and that I am not to be held responsible.

And also, I obviously do not own Harry Potter or I wouldn't be sitting here making fan fiction.

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October 7th, 1990, Sunday. 2,081 days remaining.

16:37 PM.

I'm later then I should be. I've got to finish the chores on time, otherwise bad things will happen. That's what he says every day. His threats aren't usually empty. Later, I would discover that they weren't exactly empty today, either. 'Uncle' is storming into the house again. Probably another bad day. I quickly resume washing the dishes but it's too late. He catches me watching and his face contorts in rage.

"Are you taking a fucking break!?" he furiously yells. I shake my head quickly in response. He mistakes it as a sign of defiance.

SMACK! "You little shit! Freaks like you don't get breaks!"

The force of the blow sends my head reeling, but I stay in place. I avert my eyes a little too quickly. Another blow sends me into the counter. Ouch. I don't say anything. I look up as he storms back out of the kitchen, apparently a tad satisfied because he's walking with a spring to his step.

I finish my chores without a word.

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September 1st, 1991, Sunday. 1,752 days remaining.

05:42 AM.

"Pandora Silvers."

The girl felt something, akin to moving snow, glide across her cheek. "Wake up. You need to wake up."

Pandora allowed the layers of sleep to glide away from her gently, drawing herself slowly out of her sleeping state by the unfamiliar words and the just as unfamiliar touch. Something forgotten the moment her eyes unhurriedly opened to darkness and a room devoid of people. The door was still closed. Pandora's eyes shifted to her bedside table next - to the clock that lay there – and grinned.

Normally, a girl such as Pandora would have been irked to have woken up so early. Especially on a Sunday of all days, but Pandora was not to complain.

Today was a Special Day.

Special enough to warrant capitals, of course, for Pandora would today be starting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But she'd have to deal with a few things first, like every eleven year old did. That included generally getting ready. This meant getting out of the bed, which was not such a good thing because it was cold. But Pandora did not complain. She simply sat up and stretched, blinking the bleariness from her eyes as she practically bounced to her feet. Black hair fell into her vision as she straightened up entirely, and she pushed it away. Her hands shook. She ignored them.

The covers lay forgotten at the foot of the bed as Pandora proceeded to hurry around, having a quick shower before changing her clothes. Her train clothes. The clothes chosen for the train. Apparently it would be strange if she turned up just in her uniform off the bat, because her mother had said so. Thus, Pandora found her way wriggling into jeans that she'd have to roll up because she'd not grown into them yet and a t-shirt she'd borrowed from one of the older girls where she lived.

The next thing on her list was her hair. Wavy and black; maybe not as black as the night, or black as black can be, just simply black. She tied it up into a ponytail as she looked into the mirror, finding herself presentable - despite the baggy clothes, she realised, but she had no better Muggle clothing – and went to open the door.

It was locked.

Oh, yeah, that. She got locked in sometimes. She sleepwalked. What could she say? She'd simply have to wait for the others to wake up. Hopefully before they had to leave.

Hogwarts was going to be great.

10:24 AM.

Hogwarts was so not going to be great.

The others had woken up, sure, and they'd got onto the station in time, but now Pandora was stuck lugging around a suitcase and, worse yet, on the train looking for an empty cabin. The search wouldn't take long, but she'd had the trunk to worry about, too. Not that she was complaining, mind. Of course not! Complaining wasn't a good thing. No, this was simply a minor inconvenience that she'd fix.

A lovely black and red steam engine of a train had been waiting for her when she'd arrived. Well, not her in particular, but for the many students and students to be also milling about with families, not in any real hurry to board as the train wouldn't be leaving for another half hour yet, though the sound had been so sudden.

She checked the next window as she walked down the hallway of the train. Full cabin. Almost to the seams – but not a single first year. No, these were older students. Some garbed in blue ties already, though they'd done silly things such as tying it around their heads or their arms. That didn't seem like much of a Ravenclaw thing to do. Yes. Her mother had explained. Ravenclaws were supposed to be the smart ones, and yet Pandora suddenly wasn't sure. Maybe the blue ties were actually Hufflepuff and Pandora had mixed it up. Loyal. No, Slytherin were supposed to be that color, right? Blue? Maybe Slytherin was green like a snake.

Maybe it was Ravenclaw, then, that was blue. Because of the sky. Pandora huffed slightly as she gave up on the endeavour of trying to remember which house was which, and walked away as one of them threw what looked like a sock at the window. Pandora lugged her luggage with her further, almost dropping it on her foot as she did. She didn't want to be friends with sock throwers anyways.

Soon, her eyes landed within another compartment. Thankfully, this compartment was empty. She slid the door open and lifted her luggage up onto the seat, before she turned around to close the door.

But she was not alone, it seemed. Instead, a girl with remarkably bushy hair and a rather prominent set of front teeth now occupied the space in the door. Not the teeth. The girl. Obviously. No set of human teeth was big enough for that door. Not even the teeth belonging to this girl.

"Uh, hi," Pandora greeted, feeling a little less confident now than she'd been moments ago.

"Hi. Would you mind if I joined you?" The bushy haired girl asked, though it didn't seem like much of a question to Pandora. But… no, she found herself not really minding at all. The compartment was big enough. Pandora forced a grin, though it felt awkward on her face.

"Sure… I mean no. I don't mind," Pandora moved back as the girl walked in with her trunk, both girls smiling, "Not at all."

Pandora quickly stuck her head out of the door, making sure nobody else had decided to pop up before she closed the door behind herself. The situation was getting a little awkward, fast, and Pandora wasn't sure how to fix it.

The girl seemed to have been thinking the same thing, though, as she'd quickly thought of something herself.

"My name is Hermione, by the way. Hermione Granger," The bushy haired girl piped up, looking a little awkward to Pandora as she got herself settled in in the seat across from Pandora, although Pandora could see this Hermione was trying to hide it.

Pandora nodded and sat down across from Hermione then, nodding. "I'm Pandora Silvers. It is nice to meet you, Hermione."

Though her companion's face did open up in a bit more of a smile at the friendlier introduction, she was eying something on Pandora's arm. Pandora pulled down her sleeve discreetly, slightly shifting in her seat as she waited for Hermione to talk again.

"It is nice to meet you too, Pandora." Hermione stated at last, though her eyebrows had lowered a little bit. Pandora slightly nodded in relief.

"So Hermione, huh… that's of Greek origin, isn't it?" Pandora inquired inquisitively.

"Oh, yes. I did not expect that anyone would have noticed that." Hermione started, "Its origins lie in the name of the Greek God Hermes. Son of Zeus."

"I know. Hermes was a god of boundaries and transitions, and was said that he owned a pair of winged sandals at one point. My parents made sure that my siblings and I learnt many things to do with Greek Mythology." Pandora replied, slightly shrugging as Hermione's smile grew.

Hermione was about to say more when the train suddenly lurched into motion, causing them both to slightly jump from surprise. Was it time to go already? It seemed to be so, for soon the train was pulling out of the station. They'd continued talking even as the train pulled out of London, past fields of animals nibbling at the grass, and was well on its way to Hogwarts.

They'd both changed into their robes during such, having locked the door, pulled the blinds down on all of the windows and staying back to back to one another. It was a mutual agreement. When they'd both finished Pandora had unlocked the door again, though the blinds remained down. She'd just settled back into the seat again when there was a knock at the door and a round faced boy that Pandora found familiar poked his head through the gap.

A/N:

Hello! This is a quick note or five if you are still confused by the summary and the first chapter here. If not, I hope you enjoyed the story and you weren't too confused! First of all, it is an AU (alternate universe). I'm keeping a 'changelog', as per se, and I'll have this up on some forums* after I've gotten well enough into the story.

I don't know when I'll update, I'll tell you this now. I will do my best to keep the updates coming, all the same. This may become part of my coursework if I can get something clarified… which will guarantee the first book's finishing. Straight up - this fan fiction is actually partly just to improve my writing skills. (Or… lack thereof. I cannot really tell… would you be a dear and do so in your reviews? Thank you!). I'll keep the events linear, but please forgive me if I make a mistake. I have the books with me, and I have the films (somewhere), but I'm human and I still make mistakes.

I do not own Harry Potter and even if I did you wouldn't believe me anyway, haha.

While I'm not really one to beg for reviews I'd love it if you could review constructively because I need a good amount of reviews to be able to pass if at all possible (in the event that the text becomes part of my coursework), Thank you! I'm also one to take what is said in reviews to heart (minus nonconstructive flames) – a constructive review is a review I will cherish for a long time and I will use to better my piece.

I'm about to begin chapter two. There's no telling when that'll be up.

(* = I'm also setting up a forum for the story for submitting characters – if you'd like this to happen please review about how good (or bad) the story is please. Please do not submit any characters over review as character submission is not allowed on Fan fiction dot net and I do not have the forum complete enough yet.)