Laura Katherine Grayson wasn't afraid of much. She wasn't afraid of spiders, she wasn't afraid of snakes, she wasn't even afraid of thunder storms any more. But what she was afraid of, more than anything else, was going away to Hogwarts, a magical school. Of course she would never tell anyone and before she knew it she was stepping on the school train and waving good bye to her mum and dad. She searched high and low for someone, anyone familiar. Pricilla and Coraline Nott's compartment was full or that's what they told her anyway. She didn't even try Leon Yaxley. He was a 7th year now and he wouldn't be shy about shooing her away. Hopelessly she wandered the train. Just as she reached the last compartment she heard,

"You need a place to sit?"

Laura whirled around. She slipped into the compartment the voice came from and took the seat nearest the door next to a sleeping girl. Two boys sat across from her.

The first boy said "I'm James and this is my cousin Fred".

The dark skinned one waved.

"My name is Laura Katherine" she said timidly.

"Got a nick name?" James wondered.

"Yeah, Laura Katherine makes you sound like a prat" Fred added earning a kick from James and a glare from Laura.

"Well you can call me Laura"

"That's a little bit better" Fred said amiably.

Laura motioned to the sleeping girl. "Who's this?"

"Oh that's just Dom. Another cousin of ours", James explained, "Her family just got back from France so she's sleeping off the time difference".

Fred nudged Dom. "Morning sunshine".

"Huh?"

"This is Laura, Dom" James said.

Dom stretched and suddenly came to life. She no longer seemed tired; instead she was a bright and fresh as a day in the middle of spring.

"Vela" muttered Fred.

She poked her tongue out at him and turned to Laura. Extending her hand she introduced herself. "I'm Dominique Austine Weasley and it's a pleasure to meet you"

Laura took Dom's hand and smiled.

James leaned forward and made a show of stage whispering to Laura. "A word to the wise, don't call her Dominique unless you want a fist to the face".

Everyone laughed for a long while. It wasn't that anything was so terribly funny. They were just glad to be in each other's company.

Later that day, Laura was laughing again. She was laughing at the absurdity of circumstance. How could she end up in Gryffindor of all places? She was the daughter of Daphne Grayson (Formally Greengrass) everyone in her family had been a Slytherin. Sure there had been a few Ravenclaws here and there… but Gryffindor? And her? She put the silly old hat back on the stool for the next person.

She sat down next to a bigger boy (Probably a 7th year).

"Hello, I'm Teddy Lupin" he said.

She smiled at him. He seemed nice enough, if a little bummed.

The second the hat touched James's head it screamed Gryffindor. He raised his hands in triumph and strode over to the Gryffindor table. He plopped down across from Laura, completely ignoring the standing ovation he was getting. They were making so much noise that Professor Dortmund had to stop them before the sorting could continue with Nadia Potts-Carving. Even then there was a crowd forming around him.

Teddy looked furious. His hair flashed from a Weasley worthy orange to a Menacing black-purple. Laura gasped in surprise.

"James, are they bothering you?" Teddy said in voice that was all the more dangerous for the amount of calm in it.

The crowd noticed and braced itself. Teddy meant business.

Teddy addressed the crowd. "We are Gryffindor. We ought to have some semblance of manners! You are sickening to me. How could you be so terrible to one of our own? He deserves more tha-". Teddy stopped mid-rant. The sorting had stopped once again. This time to listen to the Gryffindor get chewed out. Teddy blushed and his hair followed suit, becoming Pepto-Bismol pink.

"Thanks Ted" James said grateful.

"It's my Job isn't it?" Teddy said fiddling with his head boy pin.

James crossed his arms and frowned. He couldn't come up with a good retort. Teddy's hair gradually faded back to its neutral dark blue as he calmed down. This pushed Laura over the edge.

"His hair…" She stammered.

Teddy took a deep breath as if he were about to recite a monologue. "My mum was a Metamorphmagus so I should be one to, but my dad was a werewolf so we think that messed it up a bit. Only my hair changes and I have almost no control over it."

"Ah Ted, you're getting better. You were ginger for…" He paused for calculations. "Thirty or forty minutes!"

"And now I have a headache" Teddy complained good-naturedly.

"You just can't win can you" Laura laughed.

There was a pause in the conversation to watch the Weasley cousins being sorted. Fred only took a second longer than James did, but Dom started to worry them. Fortuitously, it wasn't really as long as it seemed and soon Dom was right where she belonged; at Laura's side and nowhere else.

Soon the feast was over and Teddy escorted the first years to the Gryffindor common room, where the pass word curiously enough was 'Hufflepuff Hangover' instead of 'Cockalorum'. Teddy was seen shouting at a second year called Samuel Finnegan later that evening. Laura and Dom were pleased to meet their roommates Scarlett and Chan. A bout of gossip reveled that Chan's mum and James's dad were once an item, that Dom's sister in Ravenclaw had a thing for Teddy, and that more than one person in the room thought that Samuel Finnegan was fit.

Laura did well in school, except history which no one ever did well in. She found herself telling Dom, Fred and James things she'd never told anyone. She didn't know when that happened. Perhaps it was when they practically had to tie James down during the quidditch try-outs he couldn't attend or when Fred walked in on Teddy snoging the head girl, Victorie Weasley (Otherwise known as Dom's sister). Fred and James became famous school wide as up-and-coming pranksters. What the masses didn't know was that Dom and Laura were the masterminds behind everything.

They boys didn't listen to Laura and Dom at first. One notable occasion Fred dared James to hex the Slytherin quidditch team. They'd decided to use a particularly nasty one they'd found in Hexes Curses and Things, an Arguably Legal Guide. Geared to ruin your enemies' reputation, the Hex decided upon forced the victim to ballroom dance while singing operatically. Fred thought it was hilarious.

In potions one day while they were working on a cure for chicken pox, Laura noticed the boys snickering behind the cauldron. "What's so funny?"

"Umm… Nothing" said James.

"Nothing at all" said Fred.

Dom wouldn't put up with that at all.

"OUUUCH!" hollered Fred. Professor Dortmund ran over immediately. She was the house head of Hufflepuff and could not stand to have any of her students hurt.

"He's fine professor, just a paper cut" Dom lied. She was completely believable due to either her vela heritage or her untapped reserves of acting talent.

Fred turned to the daisy stems he was supposed to be mincing. "Why do you always hit me?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "She couldn't very well hit James. He's too far away. Now tell us why you were laughing and stop trying to change the subject."

Fred grumbled for a bit, but James was noble in defeat. "We're going to hex the Slytherin quidditch team today at lunch. It will be hilarious" his eyes gleamed.

Dom, ever the practical one, interrupted James's moment of glory. "Have either of you ever done this hex before?"

Fred snorted. "Dom, I hardly expect you to understand. You're probably too scared to hex anyone."

This time Laura kicked him under the table.

Fred meekly slid his daisies into the cauldron. "We'll show you. It will work"

"How 'bout this" Laura piped up. "If you're prank works we'll write your essays for Prof. Binns. If it doesn't… Well I don't want you anywhere near my grades so…"

"You will be our personal slaves for a week" Dom smiled evilly.

James and Dom shook on it while Laura and Fred finished up the potion.