I stepped onto the Hogwarts Express, and began searching for an empty compartment. I found one, and sat by the window.

As I looked out the window, I saw a family of red heads standing together on the platform. I watched as a blond boy walked over to the two boys about his age. By the looks on their faces, I could tell that the blond boy had just said something rude.

A man that resembled the blond a lot ushered him along to a group of brunets. Two massive boys and the small blond one grabbed their trunks, and rushed onto the train.

The train's whistle sounded, and a bunch of children began to clamber onto it, looking for empty compartments. The cart began to move. I stared out of the window when the compartment door opened. I glanced over to see a girl with dirty blonde hair, and brown eyes staring vaguely at me. "Who are you?" she asked me.

"My name is Emerald." I told her. "Oh, I'm Luna Lovegood." She said as she sat across from me. "Why haven't I seen you before? Are you a first year?"

"No." I said. "I am a transfer student from Stalefree Academy."

"Oh, so you're from America?" she said still looking a bit dazed.

I nodded my response.

The red headed girl that I had seen on the platform earlier came into the cart. "Luna, how are you?" she said.

"Oh. Hello, Ginny." Luna turned her head to face her visitor. "This is Emerald. She used to go to Stalefree."

"Hi, Emerald. I'm Ginny. Stalefree, huh? I heard that's a great school." Ginny sat next to Luna.

"It was great, but my dad got transferred from Ashcroft University. He was a philosophy teacher." I explained.

"Where does he teach now?" Ginny asked.

"Wellington Central." I told.

"My cousin went there, and she caught the Spifes." Luna interjected.

"What are the Spifes?" I questioned.

"It's when a group of pink bugs nest in your hair, and they bite your scalp until you get sores all over your head." Luna explained.

We sat in silence after that. We arrived at the school, and I headed out to the platform. Nerves ran through me as I saw an enormously large man calling all the first years; all who followed him looked a bit scared.

I followed the older students to these carriages with extremely scary looking animals leading them, and stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of them.

I went to climb into a cart, but was pushed to the side by those over sized boys I had seen earlier. They seemed to be body guards to one blond boy. "Crabbe, Goyle, where are your manors? Ladies first." The blond boy I had also seen motioned me inside before him.

"Thank you." I said as I sat across from the two called Crabbe and Goyle.

The blond boy sat next to me, and struck up a conversation. "My name is Draco Malfoy. Draco means Dragon. I am a lot like those wonderful creatures."

"Yea, and just as stubborn, too." A girl with black hair entered the carriage. She resembled a dog.

"Pansy, nice holiday?" Draco asked with a look of detestation on his face.

"Amazing, in fact." She talked all the way up to the school, but I decided to block her out.

As we exited the coach, Draco grabbed my arm. "Your name?"

"Please?" I added to his sentence.

"Please." He corrected.

"Emerald Greene." I said as I took my arm from his grip, and headed off to follow the crowd.

He caught up with me, and said, "What is your house, Emerald Greene?"

I leaned in very close to his ear and whispered lightly, letting my lips brush his ear, "Gryffindor." Again I walked away.

Luna knew a lot about weird things so I found her, and asked if she knew what those scary horse things were. "Thestrals." She said simply. "You can only see them if you've seen someone die. I don't want to intrude, but who have you seen die?"

"That is intruding, and I don't feel like talking about it." I said huffily as I hurried off.

I practically bumped into Ginny who was walking with two boys and a girl. "Emerald this is Ron, my brother, Harry, my boyfriend, and Hermione, my best friend." She motioned to each person.

Thank, God! I thought to myself, taking away the stress of trying to deal with the emotions in talking about death.

"It's nice to meet all of you."

Harry and Hermione shook my hand, but Ron seemed really shy. His face got all red and flustered.

I went to the great hall for the welcome feast, and found my place among the Gryffindor table. It was a relief that I knew some people. I sat with Hermione and Ginny while the boys began to talk of Quidditch. I interjected a comment here and there as I used to play on my old school team. I was a great beater.

When I told Ron and Harry this, they wanted to include me much further in their discussion. I was told there were two beater positions open on the house team, seeing as last season they belonged to Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, who graduated.

The feast was long and quite enjoyable. I, however, had become accustomed to being a vegan so, I knew that I was going to have to adjust to eating meat and cheeses again, or I would have learn a charm to de-meat my meals. I wrote my self a reminder to look that up.

Once the feast had finished, I went to my dorm, and began to unpack, putting up posters of American bands that I liked, as well as pictures of my friends back home. The hardest picture to put up was the one from the day she died.

flashback

"Emerald, help!!!" Crystal said. "Save me."

The boat had tipped, and my sister Crystal and my eight year old niece, Meghan, went over board, and neither one could swim.

The current picked up, and I grabbed for my niece first. She was the closest. I picked up Meghan and wrapped her in a blanket. However, when I went back to get Crystal, she was gone. The current had pulled her under. I could barely see her head anymore, and I knew it was over. I watched my sister drown that day, and all I could do was look on.

end flashback

"Emme," Ginny said putting an arm around me. "Are you all right?"

I cried into her shoulder that night, and told her everything I could about the day it happened. About how much missed Crystal, and that I felt it was my fault. I felt very much connected to Ginny that evening, and I was glad that we shared a dorm, even though she was a year under me. She told me before I got in to bed that if I was really interested in talking to someone who experienced a loss like mine her boyfriend, Harry would be my best bet.

He had lost his parents as a baby. It didn't register until then, but she had said earlier that her boyfriend was Harry. He was the famous Harry Potter.