BOOK 1: THE INNOCENT ONES

Otto Lämmermeier fell in love as soon as he got on the Hogwarts Express.

The last compartment on the last car had one seat left. He'd passed up several such compartments earlier because the older students frowned at him. It wasn't every day you got to go to Hogwarts, and he wanted to be with people who appreciated it. When he reached the last compartment, the tiny shy girl with dark curls and a turn-up nose invited him to sit by her. She and her companions seemed properly appreciative. He sat.

Next to the little one who called herself Wendla sat a boy with a wide smile who was all elbows and knees and big hands. Opposite them, the taller of the twin girls in matching dresses braided the other's hair, and the new love of Otto's life sat across from him.

The beautiful girl said something that seemed pleasant. Otto was about to apologize and explain, but Wendla shook her head subtly at the girl and she rectified her mistake. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Mary mother of God, she could sign too. "What's your name?"

"Lämmermeier—Otto, I mean."

"I'm Marianna, or just Anna," she said, passing around a handful of Chocolate Frogs from her pink purse. The gangly boy looked wide-eyed at his twitching frog. "That's Wendla, Ernst—he's a Muggle-born, can you believe it?—and Thea and Melitta; they're Rilows."

Otto nodded, waved, and pretended being a Rilow meant something to him. Wendla, Ernst, and Thea waved back. Melitta had her hands full of braid, so she lifted one elbow in a friendly way. "Do you all know each other?" he asked.

"Met today," said Marianna or just Anna.

"Oh." The train started with a bump that sent Thea into Melitta's lap. "Are you a Muggle-born too?"

"Half. Why do you ask?"

"Me too! Er, I just wondered why you were, er, I mean, why you were…" He gestured lamely at her wheelchair. The Rilow twins looked scandalized that he'd ask.

"I got in an awful broom crash when I was little." She brushed off his apologies with a toss of her blonde curls. "I don't even notice anymore."

"Neither do I. You're still beautiful." Everyone glanced at him, and his ears turned red. "Oh dear." They were off to a promising start.

Anna had so much candy stashed in her purse that when a lady arrived with a tray of sweets, Otto was the only one who could stand to look at it. He bought cold pumpkin cider and offered to buy the others something, but they groaned. Ernst turned green, and Wendla patted his shoulder. The train's constant lurching did nothing to help him, and when the first years disembarked and learned they'd be sailing across the lake next, Ernst nearly walked back to King's Cross.

Otto helped the groundskeeper lift Anna's chair into the boat. She twisted her hair and smiled, but only giggled awkwardly at his attempts at conversation, and once the Rilow twins joined them she talked almost exclusively to them. Otto didn't mind. Someday she'd fall in love with him too. Hopefully.