Catherine Elizabeth Grant slipped out of her aunt's silver Toyoda feeling very uncomfortable. September 1, 2017 was an unseasonably warm day; it felt more like the beginning of August. As such, Cathy felt hot and uncomfortable in the collared blouse, pleated skirt, stockings, and penny loafers that her mother insisted that she wear and immensely grateful that King's Cross was air-conditioned.

Her mother Rachel, clad in a neatly dark-colored suit, led her to a restroom to check her appearance while her Aunt Monica waited outside with their bags and family cat, Ash.

"Are you excited about going to Hogwarts?" Rachel asked her daughter as she straightened Cathy's collar and smoothed back her hair.

"Yeah…" Cathy mumbled uncertainly.

Rachel's eyebrows drew together in concern. "What's the matter Kitty-Cat?"

Cathy's light brown eyes got misty. "What if the other kids can do magic and I can't? What if they don't like me?"

Rachel knelt down to gently wipe her daughter's small tears. "Don't worry my little Kitty. They wouldn't have sent you a letter if they didn't think you'd be a great witch. And if someone doesn't like you without giving you a chance, you probably wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway."

Cathy smiled, thinking her mother was the most amazing lady in the world. "Thanks mum."

"Alright then; we'd better get going. My train leaves in twenty minutes." She got up and took Cathy by the hand. "It's a shame you won't be home to greet me when I come back. Promise to write?"

"Of course Mum." Cathy smiled looking up. "Did Dad say what he thought of Hogwarts?"

Rachel looked away. "He said he thought it was fine. He's glad your getting a good education." she lied. She didn't want to talk about how Cathy's father had though she was joking about the magic, and that she'd gone along with it. "Let's find you aunt, shall we?"

They rejoined Monica, who was struggling with the rather adventurous Ash, at the platforms.

"Which platform does the train leave from?" Monica asked, leaning on their luggage.

"Professor Longbottom said we'd leave from Platform 9 3/4." Cathy answered as she craned her neck looking for that number.

Monica frowned. "There's no such platform."

"Hold on." Rachel dug into her purse and unfold and piece of paper. "The instructions say to run in the wall between platforms nine and ten. Oh dear..."

Ever the daredevil, Monica grabbed Cathy's belongings and crashed straight into the wall. Except she didn't crash; she vanished into the concrete.

That sister of mine…" Rachel grumbled under her breath as she and Cathy, hand in hand, followed her. Monica was standing on Platform 9 3/4, smiling brightly. Her family, though annoyed, couldn't help but smile back.

Platform 9 3/4 wasn't crowded, as it was only ten in the morning. There were a few families, nervous first time students and their nervous parents, and handful of older students who'd come on their own. None were as dressed up as the Grants. In fact, most of them were wearing t-shirts and jeans save a few were in long flowing robes and tall pointy hats; it made Cathy feel both dismally ordinary and embarrassingly snobbish.

She looked up at the Hogwarts Express; the huge scarlet train made her feel tiny. Professor Longbottom had said it was centuries old, which intimidated her. 'No.' she scolded herself, 'If you got into Hogwarts, you must be good enough. You are good enough.'

After helping her get her luggage onto the train, Rachel and Monica bid her a tearful goodbye and rushed to catch Rachel's train.

With that, Cathy found an empty compartment near the middle of the train and sat down. As the hour dragged on, she took to looking out the window at the new arrivals, some little first years like herself, most of them older. So far everyone who'd gone on the train had walked right by her compartment which made her feel lonely and awkward.

A tapping on the glass door of the compartment snapped her out of her thoughts. Startled, Cathy looked up to see a boy smiling at her. He was about her age, pale with light blond hair, grey eyes, and a cage black owl under his arm. Shyly, she opened the door for him, glad that no blush could be seen through her dark skin.

"Hello." the boy beamed as he sat down and placed his owl beside him. "I'm Scorpius."

Cathy giggled, feeling more at ease, "Cathy Grant. It's nice meet you." Ash began to wiggle in her arms, trying to get to Scorpius' owl. "Sorry about Ash. He's very rambunctious."

"Ah, it's alright." Scorpius laughed, leaning forward, "Artemis can take care of herself, can't you girl." Artemis responded by affectionately nipping at her master's fingers. Ash jumped up to the upper shelves to nap.

A moment later, two other students, a boy and a girl, passed by their compartment. The boy was thin and shorter than his companion, but he had the loveliest green eyes. The girl had floppy red-brown curls and thoughtful brown eyes. When they caught sight of Scorpius, they flushed and looked away quickly.

Scorpius seemed upset too, judging from the way his skin turned pink and mouth scrunching downwards.

"Is everything alright?" Cathy asked gently.

Scorpius crossed his arms and sat back. "No." he answered shortly in a quavering voice.

Wanting to make her new friend more comfortable, Cathy changed the subject. "Did your parents go to Hogwarts? Mine didn't; they're muggles."

Scorpius' eyes got big and he turned pink once more, "Yes they did. A long time ago..."

Cathy tilted her head; something in the way he finished the sentence made her feel bad for him. Before she could say anything else, the train began to move and off they went. Scorpius waved out the window at a good-looking couple who looked like him.

"That them? Your parents, I mean." Cathy asked.

"Yeah." Scorpius fondly, his body relaxing, "What about yours? Are they here?" He then look surprised, like he hadn't been expecting to continue a conversation.

Cathy, for one, was relieved. "My dad's American, so I only talk to him on the phone a few times. I live with my mum and aunt in Southampton."

"Why doesn't your dad move?"

"His wife, my step-mum, doesn't like England. She says its too cold; she's from Texas."

"How can you have a step-mum if your mum's alive?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well how can your dad get married to another woman if his first wife's still around? Its that illegal?"

"Its legal if they get a divorce. But it doesn't matter, since my parents were never married to each other."

"What's divorce?" Scorpius asked innocently.

Cathy shook her head, shocked by how different marriage worked in the wizard world, "It mean their marriage is cancelled."

It was Scorpius' turn to look shocked, "But how do they break the bonds?!"

"What bonds?"

"The marriage bonds."

"There are no marriage bonds; at least not to my knowledge. Does it require magic? Because muggles don't have that."

Scorpius, feeling extremely silly, both laughed and blushed. "Yeah, it does. I guess those rules don't apply to muggles."

"So your parents had that wedding bonding thing done to them?"

"Marriage bond." Scorpius corrected, "Yes, they did. Everyone does it. Unless they're marrying muggles, because they don't have any magic to contribute to the bond."

"Can you tell me more about wizards? I don't want make a fool of myself at Hogwarts. Will I have to know any spells?"

"Actually they don't expect us to know any magic when we first get there. We can't to spells until we get our wands."

Cathy relaxed, "So I won't be far behind?"

"You won't have any catching up to do." he confirmed.

In this manner, they continued speaking, comparing the wizard world to the muggle world.

A while later, an older girl in the black school robes they were required to wear and a shiny badge on her chest knocked on their door. "Prefect Dominique Weasley." she introduced herself. "Just letting you know that we'll be arriving shortly and that you'll need to change into your robes before we do." She went to check on the other students.

"Alright, I'll go change." Cathy got up, grabbed her robes, and went to an empty compartment. She stripped off her preppy muggle clothes and slipped into the new black robes that she felt rather awkward in. As she was leaving, the curly haired girl from earlier, still in her muggle clothes, bumped into her.

"Sorry." she apologized, "Didn't see you there."

"It's alright." Cathy smiled as she got out of the girl's way. Before she could go, the girl touched her arm.

"Sorry. I just...I'm Rose Weasley." she held out her hand for Cathy to shake.

"Cathy Grant. Nice to meet you." she responded."Oh, was that your sister, the prefect?"

"Cousin, actually. There're a lot of us Weasleys" Rose clarified "I have thirteen cousins and seven of them are here at Hogwarts this year: Tori, Dom, Louis, Freddy, Molly, James and Al. Well, James and Al are surnamed Potter, but they're Weasleys by blood. I have a brother, Hugo, but he's too young to come."

The number of relatives made Cathy's head spin. "That's quite a big family. I never had any siblings or cousins. No wait, I have two half-brothers, but they live in America and I've never met them in person."

"I can't imagine being the only kid in the house. Christmas at my grandparent's place is the most chaotic event in the whole wizard world." Rose stated. "How do you know Malfoy?"

Cathy answered, smiling. "Oh we just met. He's been teaching me about the wizard world, since I'm a muggleborn. He's friendly, though quite shy."

"Is he now?" Rose quipped in pleasant surprise. "Well that's nice to know. I'll be seeing you." she closed the door behind her.

Cathy went back to the compartment she shared with Scorpius. Just as she entered, the train stopped.

"We're here!" Dominique Weasley's voice rang down the train corridor.