~I own nothing but the plot, Mirabai Palmer, Avery, Aunt Phoebe, Uncle Tom, and the idea of the Triniti Wizards. Everything else, of course, belongs to J.K Rowling, and Mirabai's power was inspired by Piper's from Charmed. Steal my idea and I will have to kill you. Have a nice day. =)~

It was a cool, but windy day as the girl stepped off the train and on to the gray station. There was a noticeable change in the weather since she had first boarded the plane back at her old home, and she noticed vaguely that the sky was now grey.

Looking around, she caught sight of her reflection in a large nearby window. She surveyed herself through her anxious looking eyes...She took in her very long, very dark brown hair, that almost reached her waist, and the dark purple streaks she had put through it with magic. Her eyes were big and dark blue, and - in the right light - they shined purple, and her full lips were closed over her straight white teeth. She examined her clothing...a pair of dark blue hipster jeans and a black filly top that sat just off her shoulders, allowing some of her stomach to show underneath.

Very quickly, she averted her gaze from her reflection on the window to the busy, swarming crowd in front of her, who were moving as one, trying to get to their destination, and for the first time in months, she felt scared...worried...almost - lost. The shock of everything had had recently been happening to her suddenly sunk in.

It was like somebody had pasted a movie of her recent life over her eyes, like a sudden flash back through time...the flash of green light...the crying...the funeral...then the official looking man - the man who told her that her life had changed forever. 'You're not safe her any more,' he had told her, 'and neither are the ones around you. I'm afraid you're going to have to leave.' She remembered the way she didn't cry, she didn't even flinch. She just starred, the words reaching her ears but hardly making sense.

A train whistle blew in the distance and she snapped suddenly back to the present.

With a slight jolt, she remember why she was standing at a packed train station with a large number of suitcases at her feet, and a big golden bird cage, in which stood a beautiful white own, under her arm.

With great difficulty, she picked up her luggage and began to walk, slowly and cautiously forward. She was supposed to be meeting her cousin, Avery, a girl whom she had only ever seen photographs of...photographs from her mothers old photo album...The girl shook her head slightly; thinking about her mother was still too painful, it made her want to cry. She had not cried for many years.

She was just starting to worry when the sound of her own name made her spin around on the spot.

'Mirabai! Mirabai! Over here!'

There they were, waving at her frantically and positively beaming.

Avery was easily recognizable, having had dyed her hair a dark blue, and standing at almost 5'10. She towered over the older lady next to her, who was an average height and had a mop a frizzy brown hair. She too, was waving, and smiling.

Relieved as she was, to finally be meeting her cousin and Aunt Phoebe, Mirabai couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as she made her way over, struggling under the weight of her suitcases. Twice she almost dropped the birdcage, which made her owl screech angrily, and she almost lost the whole lot as Avery smothered her in a tight one-armed hug.

When they broke apart, Mirabai was able to see her aunt and cousin in full detail. Avery, she knew already, was only a few months older then she was - about 15 years and 3 months, she figured. Her face was youthful and pretty, but her eyes - Mirabai noticed that one was dark brown - almost black, and the other was a dark navy blue. She was wearing a white top, over which she had a black jumper, so the white could be seen coming out the sleeves and the collar. She had a black mini skirt on, and black boots that went up to her knees. Around her neck was a black choker, and she was wearing heavy mascara and eyeliner.

Aunt Phoebe, on the other hand, had bright blue eyes and quite a few wrinkles, but her smile was warm and it made her look a lot younger than she probably was. She was dressed in a long bottle green robe - the kind that the teachers used to wear at her, Mirabai's, old school - that attracted a lot of attention from the passer by. Aunt Phoebe, it seemed, didn't care, or just didn't notice. She was looking at Mirabai through her bright eyes, examining her with a look of both happiness and - was it pity?

'Hello, dear,'

she finally said, as she bent down to pick up one of Mirabai's suitcases.

'I hope you had a good trip. Come along to the car. I'm afraid you wont be seeing our house this summer, we're staying with our friends, the Grangers. I'm afraid it cant be helped, but I'm sure you'll get along with everyone all the same.'

Once again, Mirabai felt that unwelcome feeling that had been haunting her since she arrived slip into her stomach like an ice-cube. She didn't want to stay at her aunts, let alone another families, but she smiled anyway and reluctantly followed the backs of her new-found relatives.

*

After some difficulty, all of Mirabai's packages had been squeezed into the boot of the old Puegeot 505, and she had found herself sitting in the back seat, between her cousin and a strange girl who had extremely bushy hair.

Mirabai's owl, Europa, was still in her cage, which Mirabai was holding on her knee, and Aunt Phoebe was in the front seat, driving a little more dangerously then Mirabai liked.

It was now that Avery broke the silence that filled the speeding car.

'Uh, Mirabai - this is my friend Hermione Granger. Ouch! -'

Aunt Phoebe had driven over a speed hump a little too fast, which caused everyone in the car to bounce and hit their heads on the roof.

'Hi!,' Replied Hermione, holding her head where she had hit it, but smiling all the same.

'Its nice to meet you finally. Avery's been really excited about having you stay.'

Mirabai smiled in reply. She wasn't exactly sure how to reply to that statement, so she cast around for something else to say.

'Oh...where - where do you live?'

She suddenly had to grab her owl cage as Aunt Phoebe turned sharply around a corner. Europa let out an angry screech, that made Avery jump.

'Not far from here,'

Hermione replied, leaning over slightly to peer through the front window.

'We should be there soon, though.' There were a few moment pause before,

'Is this your owl? She's pretty.' Hermione poked her fingers through the bars of the birdcage and tried to stroke Europa's white feathers, but Europa screeched loudly again and Hermione quickly withdrew her hand from the cage.

'Ow! She bit me!'

Hermione exclaimed, examining her finger closely.

'Oh, oh yeah - I'm really sorry,'

Mirabai replied, snapping to her senses.

'Europa doesn't trust anyone but me, I'm so sorry, it slipped my mind. I found her when she was a baby. Her old owners didn't want her, so they left her to die in their backyard. I couldn't just leave her there, so I jumped their fence and I took her home with me. I took care of her even after everybody told me that she wouldn't survive...but here she is.'

Mirabai paused for a moment to smile at her owl, before adding,

'She's a great pet, too...a little - uh - grumpy but...she's one of my best friends.'

Again, there was a silence that filled the speeding car, but this time Mirabai could sense the tension.

'Oh, god, look at me,'

Mirabai smiled at Avery,

'pouring my little heart out to my new-found cousin and her friend.'

They all laughed a little, and the tension in the air vanished almost instantly. The next second, the car skidded to a halt in front of a gleaming white, two story house.

*

Mirabai had never been inside a nicer house. It was spotlessly clean, and a little boring, but it gave Mirabai the impression of a happy family, and everyone inside it seemed to like her. Mr and Mrs Granger welcomed Mirabai to their home with a huge block of Honeydukes chocolate and an extra hug from Mrs Granger, which made her feel a little awkward, but pleased all the same. Her Uncle Ton, smiling broadly, swooped down and kissed her on each cheek.

It took a while before Mirabai, Avery and Hermione were able to make their way upstairs into Hermiones room, but they were all glad when they did.

Hermione collapsed onto the single bed in the middle of the room, and Avery heaved herself into an empty armchair. Mirabai, on the other hand, stayed standing and let Europa out of her cage, who fluttered over to the large open window on the opposite wall, and settled herself on the window sill.

Hermiones room was rather large, and it had obviously been a former attic, hence the sloping ceiling. The walls her white, the carpet was a light blue, while the bed covers and curtains were all a creamy yellow colour. The bed was in the middle of the room, right underneath the large window, and there stood a huge wooden bookcase along the left wall. On the opposite wall stood a wooden dressing table, topped with a huge gold-rimmed mirror, and next to that, two white doors that presumably led to Hermiones wardrobe.

Hermiones wand was one the dressing table, and Hermiones cat, Crookshanks, was curled up on the end of the bed, his squashed orange head fixed on Europa on the windowsill.

*

By the time dinner was announced, Mirabai felt much closer to both Avery and Hermione. They had whittled away the hours 'till darkness, lying on Hermiones floor over pillows and cushions, laughing loudly and talking almost non-stop.

Hermione and Avery wasted no time in filling Mirabai in about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the magical school that they both attended, and were about to start their fifth year at.

'Oh, you just wait,'

Avery had said,

'you're gonna love Hogwarts. Its supposed to be the best magical school around-'

'- better than Durmstrang' Hermione interrupted.

'-Yeah, and way better that Beauxbatons in France-'

'-definitely. And we have the best headmaster ever-'

'-Good ol' Dumbledore' Avery sighed.

'Oh! I've heard of him!' Mirabai exclaimed suddenly. 'Isn't he supposed to be a bit - uh -'

'Mad?'

Finished Hermione, with a slight smile.

'Yeah, he is a bit mad, but believe me, hes absolutely -'

'Brilliant!' Avery laughed, picking up a pillow and aiming it at Hermiones head. 'Just like you, eh, Herm?'

Avery had to duck as Hermione threw the pillow back.

'Hermiones one of the smartest witches in our year,' Avery told Mirabai. 'Yeah, a real bookworm.'

'Oh, shut up,' scoffed Hermione.

'You could do with taking a leaf out of my book, Miss, I-Only-Passed-Charms- Because-I-Sucked-Up-To-Professor-Flitwick!'

Avery let out a noise of disbelief and threw yet another pillow at Hermione, which missed completely. Mirabai laughed.

'So, tell me about Hogwarts, I'm dying to know about it. I've read a tiny bit about it, of course, but it didn't tell me anywhere near enough. Besides, I have to know a bit about this place if I'm to start there soon.'

'Well, you could always borrow my copy of Hogwarts ; A History if you'd like.'

Hermione said, in a know-it-all sort of voice.

'Don't,' Avery advised,

'It's over one-thousand pages long, you don't wanna go there, trust me.' They all laughed.

'Well, Hogwarts is a really great and interesting place, you know,' said Hermione,

'The history of it goes back over a thousand years. There are four school houses - Gryffindor - that's our house - who are chosen for their bravery and Ravenclaw who are chosen for being all smart and wise. Then there are the Hufflepuffs who are patient, loyal and hardworking, and Slytherin who just...well...'

'-Evil?' Avery interrupted.

'Well, yeah,' Hermione agree, shrugging her shoulders. 'There's not a witch or wizard that went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. Our enemy, Malfoy just happens to be in that house, too.'

'Who?' Asked Mirabai.

'Draco Malfoy,' replied Avery, rolling her eyes.

'But I'm sure you'll have the unfortunate pleasure of meeting him on the Hogwarts Express.'

'The what?'

'Oh, the Hogwarts Express. The big steam train that takes all the students to Hogwarts from platform Nine the Three Quarters.'

Hermione said, matter-of-factly.

'Oh, I see...wait, platform what?!'

Both Avery and Hermione laughed.

'Platform Nine and Three Quarters. A platform hidden from Muggles that only wizards can access by walking through the apparently solid barrier between platforms nine and ten.' Hermione told her, sounding as if she had swallowed a book.

'Oh.'

Mirabai was starting to feel confused. Perhaps this showed on her face, because Avery playfully punched her on the shoulder and said,

'don't worry! You'll be fine!'

'And...and how are you sorted into your house, exactly?'

Mirabai asked, trying to sound casual, but hoping that the sorting didn't involve some sort of test.

'Well, you put on the Sorting Hat...a hat that, uh, talk,' Avery explained, 'You put in on in front of the whole school during the Sorting Ceremony - that's when the first years get sorted - and it decides where to put you and it calls it out. Then you just sit at your house table.'

'And each house have their own common rooms and dormitories,' Hermione said, 'And you have classes with your house, too.'

As the night went on, Hermione and Avery continued to fill Mirabai in on every little detail about Hogwarts that they could remember.

They told her about the teachers ('watch out for Snape, the potions master. He is an evil, evil man,) and the secret passages. They told her all about Hogsmeade, the entirely magical town, and even Hagrid, the friendly half giant.

Mirabai could help but feel extremely excited as she listened to Hermione tell her stories of all the dangerous stuff that her and her friends had gotten into.

Mirabai, in return, told Hermione and Avery all about her old magical school - The Australian Capital School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She told them everything there was to know; her friends, her robes and the classes, the teachers, everything down to the weather. In fact, she didn't stop talking until she reached the point in her life when her father was...when he was killed by...then her mother a few years later.

Hermione and Avery must have senses that something was wrong, because they quickly changed the subject to Quidditch.