J.K. Rowling is the genius behind Harry Potter, the characters, places, etc. and I thank her for providing me with hours, days, weeks, and months of entertainment. I have now become so obsessed that the next level (writing fan fiction) was inevitable.

A/N:  This is my first attempt at fan fiction.  Be gentle.  Have fun.  And I must salute my wonderful Beta readers, Naughty*Witch and usakoesm for all of their wonderful input and support.  Thanks as well to Molly McGonagall for being my confidante and friend on and off screen.  I also appreciate everyone who has reviewed on the Sugar Quill Forums… it means a lot to me.

Chapter 1: Coming from America


            She checked the mirror one last time. Despite the mirror's approval ("What a babe!"), she was not content just yet. She smoothed over a lock of her short, trendy, rich auburn hair, and then she drew out her wand, pointed it, and murmured a hair control charm. She studied her appearance one last time, ignoring the mirror's undying praise.

            She was cute.

            Not that she was conceited, in fact she was far from it. But she usually put a lot of effort into her appearance, and she could certainly appreciate when her work paid off. She hadn't always been that way; before she started at her current school she couldn't have cared less about the way she'd looked. Of course, she had only been eleven at the time, but then she'd gone to one of the most prestigious schools in the country and found herself amidst kids her age that came from very affluent backgrounds. They had all the best clothes, the most sophisticated styles, and Zora picked up on it quickly. When she first attended her school, she'd been poor most of her life, but once she'd learned the ins and outs of fashion from her roommates, it seemed to come naturally. Plus, she thought makeup and clothes were kind of fun. It wasn't something that she'd grown up taking for granted, so it was a bit of an indulgence for her. This particular day she'd also used some pretty powerful charms to ensure that everything stayed put. She had a long day of travel ahead of her, and she wanted to look her best when she reached her destination.

            "Ryan, can't I go by Portkey instead?" she'd begged her step-dad.  "It's so much faster."

            "We've been over this already, Zora," he'd answered, "You need to be accustomed with muggle air travel if you want to keep joining me on trips to the capital.  How would it look if you told the other kids that you've been all over the world but that you've never been on an airplane?"  He had a high-level political appointment, and dealt with muggles relatively often; he wanted Zora to be accustomed to their ways of doing things.  "Besides," he'd told her, "Your uncle will be thrilled to hear about your trip."  As patience was never Zora's strong suit, he'd finally decided to bribe her by offering to take her to New York two weeks earlier under the pretence of buying muggle clothes for travel.  He knew as well as she did, however, how much Zora loved New York.

            That was how Zora Weasley found herself in front of a hotel mirror in New York this humid summer morning. She'd cast an antiperspirant spell early on. She did not want to sweat in anticipation. She couldn't wait to leave. She'd had an excellent time in New York, of course, but she hadn't seen her family in Ottery St. Catchpole for four long years. Luckily, if any city can occupy your mind with things to do, it was New York. It was the only city in the world in which the magical community made no attempts to hide itself, even though they all lived among muggles. There were all-wizard apartment buildings, of course, but the buildings right next to them would have muggles. In New York, a witch or wizard could go anywhere in the city wearing robes, cloaks, and even pointy hats, and the muggles hardly noticed. The ones that did were normally tourists, or they assumed that the oddly dressed wizard was a tourist. Either way, one had to perform very little memory charms on muggles in New York. It was also the only city in the world in which you could find wizard shops with muggles shopping in them! Many of them were there for the excellent selection of herbs (both medicinal and edible) and spices. The muggles couldn't work the magical gadgets, however, and every now and again you could catch a frustrated muggle storming out of a wizard gift shop muttering "Damn foreigners and their broken products." Of course there were plenty of foreigners. New York was the second biggest wizard tourist city, second only to Hogsmeade (the only all-magical community in Britain). As far as Zora was concerned, Hogsmeade paled in comparison to New York.

            Zora had moved to the states at the age of nine, when her step-father, Ryan Thomas, had been appointed Secretary of Magic by the Muggle President who had been in office. His appointment made Zora the most highly sought-after student for the American schools of wizardry. The famous, all-girl Salem Witches Institute had asked her to attend, but when Zora visited the school, she found everyone to be quite snobby. She opted to attend a small school in Pennsylvania that was well-known for its Muggle Studies program. Ryan's appointment required much contact with Muggles on a regular basis, and Zora accompanied him as often as was allowed. Zora got along famously with Ryan (she got along famously with most people), and Ryan loved her as if she was his own daughter. This bond, plus the fact that she'd apparently inherited her Uncle Arthur's love for all-things Muggle, had been the deciding factor in choosing a school. Ryan and her mother, Vera, had been pleased. The school was not far from their Maryland home and she could visit on weekends.

            But Vera's Scottish roots kept tugging, and while she'd been quite pleased with Zora's education thus far, she insisted she transfer to Hogwarts for the final three years of her education. Vera didn't think the American schools placed as much emphasis on the O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S, and she'd written Professor Dumbledore to see if this would be possible. Dumbledore had owled back immediately, saying he would be honoured to have another Weasley study in his school. The only stipulation was that Zora would not be able to be sorted in the ceremony. It was for first years only, and Zora would have to be sorted privately before the ceremony. Zora couldn't have been happier. Not only was she going to get to spend her last three years of school with her cousin, Ginny, but she also got to skip the highly embarrassing prospect of being the only fifth year sorted with the little 11-year-olds.

            Ginny and Zora had been planning their Hogwarts years since they were little, and Bill and Charlie were at the school. Zora and Ginny were particularly close, as they were the same age. Their bond grew even stronger after Zora's dad died, and while Zora was happy when her mother remarried, she was quite displeased that she'd be attending an American school. She grew to love her school eventually, but she missed Ginny terribly. And when Ginny had that horrible experience with Tom Riddle's diary during her first year at Hogwarts, Zora was extremely distraught and felt immense guilt for not being there with her cousin. Zora had convinced herself that if she'd been there with Ginny, Ginny would've shared her secrets with her, and not the diary. Zora fell into a deep depression the summer following their first year and as a result, it was the first summer ever that Zora did not visit the Burrow. Then the following summer, Zora's family traveled the United States for the summer, and the summer after that Zora's Muggle Studies class spent the summer studying Muggle/Wizard relations in New Mexico, Mexico, and Central America. If there was one thing that distinguished the European magical community from that in America, it was that American wizards and witches were much more open. In America there were even Muggles who practiced Wicca, which was a form of what the muggles thought of as witchcraft. They weren't actually able to practice real magic, but some of them could brew some really good medicinal potions.

            As much as Zora liked America, she was ready to go. She was going back to England, back to the Burrow, back to her family, back to decent Quidditch! She played Seeker for her school's team, of course, and they were the National Youth Quidditch Team Champions, but Quidditch in America had nothing on Quidditch in Europe. Zora didn't know which house she'd be sorted into at Hogwarts, but she figured it would be Gryffindor—both her parents had been Lions. She did know that the Gryffindor house team was not in need of a Seeker. She was an equally good Chaser as she was Seeker, though, having played Chaser her first year in school, and Ron had mentioned having to find another chaser this season.

            Ahhh, Ron, the Quidditch nut, she mused. Sigh. She missed her crazy cousin. She missed all of them terribly. She'd owled all of them regularly over the years, and knew most of the events in their lives. She'd been thrilled when Ron made Keeper his fifth year, and she'd been even happier when they selected him as team captain for this upcoming one. She, Ginny, and Ron had always been closest because of their ages, but she was always kept in stitches by Fred and George, she hero-worshipped Bill and Charlie, and she was even close to Percy, with who she found someone to seriously discuss more academically oriented topics. She adored her Aunt Molly, and Zora had a marvelous relationship with her Uncle Arthur—the two could talk about muggles for hours through the fire place. Once he'd used up the last of their powder listening to her talk about muggle automobiles. Fred and George had owled her soon after to let her know that their dad was in the process of enchanting a Ford Anglia, but not to breathe a word of it to Molly.

            Zora blinked hard and decided to try hard not to think of her family much more. She was getting terribly anxious. She was distracted anyway by a knock at her door. The door opened, and Ryan came in holding what looked like a tent for Barbie Dolls.

            "Hi, sweetie, you're almost ready?" he asked.

            "Ryan, I've been ready for the past hour. What's that?" she indicated to the miniature tent.

            "It's your guest tent. Molly said Ginny has another guest staying as well. She was fretting about where to fit you all, and she was going to have Arthur expand Ginny's room. I suggested a guest tent that all three of you could use. They have plenty of yard space. She thought it was an excellent idea, and asked if I could make sure there was a bathroom in it as well." He smiled at his step daughter. "It took a while to shrink properly, but if the Muggle security searches your things, you can claim to be a doll collector. I'm assuming you've already shrunk all of your things?"

            "Did it last night. Except my books. I need something to do on that long plane ride." She looked at him pleadingly. "Can't I please Portkey? Please?"

            "We've been through this already. You'll be able to take a portkey once you get to the airport in London. An official from the Magical Embassy will meet you there with your portkey. He's a friend of mine from when I served as Magical Ambassador to England." Ryan grinned wryly. "He's not used to Muggle dress, so you shouldn't have any problems locating him." He got up and headed to the door. "We'll leave in ten minutes. I've called a Muggle cab."

            Zora shook her head. No wonder Mom fell in love with him. He's just like Dad and Uncle Arthur with all his muggle fascination. It's no surprise that it rubbed off on me. She then picked up her bag, which was full of her things (all shrunk to doll size), and headed out the door behind her step father.

* * *

            The plane ride was going to be a long one. She'd brought along her copy of No Magic? No Problem!: The History of Muggle Technology to keep her occupied, but she hadn't needed it after all. There was a cute blonde, tan muggle boy sitting next to her. As most people did, he immediately started telling Zora all about himself. Zora was quite used to it now, as she'd learned about her gift two years prior.

            Zora was a Soother.

            More common than Seers and Healers and much less extraordinary, Soothers had the power to get people to naturally open up to them and confide their deepest feelings, secrets, and fears. Soothers usually became Psycholowizards as their gift also prevented them from betraying a person's confidence even if they wanted to. Soothers were also immune to the Imperius curse and Veritaserum, which kept them from being Dark Wizard targets. They couldn't be controlled to get people to reveal information to them naturally, nor could Dark Wizards use the truth potion to extract others' information from them. Additionally, Soothers were blessed with a genuine love for people, and never in history had a Soother used Dark Magic. As a result, Zora was a people-magnet to both Muggles and wizards alike. She had a hard time dealing with her powers when they manifested themselves, as suddenly her classmates all wanted to confide in her, and she didn't know how to turn them away. As a result, she had little time for her studies and her grades reflected it. Fortunately, her headmistress figured out what was going on, and Zora was directed to many books that taught a Soother how to sort of "turn down" their powers when it was necessary.

            But as she had nothing else pressing to do at the moment, and as it kept her mind off of the long trip, she let the cute muggle boy go on and on about his life. Fortunately, he wasn't too boring as he had done quite a lot in his young life, but Zora was still immensely pleased when the plane landed. She found the oddly dressed wizard (wearing plaid muggle golfer pants and what looked suspiciously like a woman's blouse) and got her portkey. She hurried to the nearest ladies' room, took an empty stall in the corner, muttered a disillusionment charm (so the Muggle women wouldn't be alarmed when she disappeared from the stall), and waited for the timed Portkey to activate.

 
            Six long minutes later, she felt the familiar tug at her navel. She closed her eyes (as it made her less dizzy), and when she opened them a moment later she saw nine faces with fiery red hair smiling brightly at her.