So imagine, for your whole life you think you are normal. You are wrong. You realise your wrongness on your eleventh birthday, when you get a letter, delivered by owl. Yup, that's right. By owl.

Naturally, my family and I were just a tad freaked out when we noticed an owl, out in the open at 9 in the morning, tapping on our window with its beak. I know, right? Weird.

So, obviously, upon reading the letter from 'Hogwarts' (what kind of name is that for a school?), we were even more confused. Except for Gran-she was just concerned about the scratch marks that the owl may have left on her windows. Uhuh, she's that obsessed with cleanliness.

My mum was sure it was a hoax, so she wouldn't have anything to do with it – she laughed, then carried on flipping the bacon. My dad, though, put a bit more thought to it. He was intrigued. So we figured, where's the harm in humouring it?

So, my dad was the one to take me to Diagon Alley. Which was definitely an...interesting experience for us both. It finally convinced both of us that the letter was legit. And, let me tell you, shopping with gold is so much more fun than shopping with paper!

You should have seen Dad's face though, when I picked up a beech wand with a core of unicorn hair, waved it around, and a bunch of edelweiss appeared out of the end of it. 'Cause, ya know, that's my name; Edelweiss.

Yes, yes, I know, how can I call an owl with a letter on its leg weirdwhen my name is Edelweiss. Blame it on the parents. And by 'the parents' I don't the ones I live with, though I call them Mum and Dad. I mean my biological, honest-to-God, had-sex-and-conceived-me parents. Who called me Edelweiss. Just 'cause it means courage, nobility and daring. Bitches.

The fact that I'm adopted is obvious when you look at my family. I'm small and blonde with no figure at all, and the rest of my family are quite tall, brunettes and my older sister, Jess, and Mum have perfect curves. Hmph.

So anyway, I get called Del by everyone. And I mean everyone. Even though it attracts a lot of computer technician jokes, it's definitely better than Edelweiss, and it's pretty much the only available nickname that sounds slightly sane.

Jess and Mitchell, my cute (most of the time) little 6 year old bro, were very jealous that I got to learn magic, although I'm pretty sure that Jess, who's sixteen, thought it was a bit weird, and didn't really believe me and Dad about the wall moving in Diagon Alley. Mitchie thought it was insanely cool, and wanted me to show him how they did the trick when they saw people in half when I came home at Christmas.

Somehow, I didn't think that's what they'd teach me.

I stood there with my trolley, with an owl sitting on top of it squawking at everyone, staring between the sign for Platform 9 and Platform 10 at King's Cross Station. Huh. No Platform 9 ¾. I started to panic a bit, scared I would miss the train... if there really was a train.

I looked around, feeling really alone. My parents had had to take Jess and Mitchie to two different birthday parties so they had dropped my here and wished me luck. They left 15 minutes ago. I looked up at the big clock. It was 10.45. What if I missed it? I didn't have a phone; what if I got kidnapped, what if...?

All the worst case scenarios I was going through in my head faded, as I saw a young boy about my age with messy hair and glasses, watching his father walk forward calmly. I wondered what he was doing- didn't he know there was a stone barrier there?

My gaze wavered as I saw the man speed up more and more, until finally he reached the wall and-

'No!' I shouted, drawing the attention of everyone within five feet of me. I blinked. The man should have stumbled backwards after hitting the wall, and possibly be sitting on his butt about two metres in front of me. But he wasn't. He had simply disappeared. I blinked again.

Maybe I was going crazy... I should've known a magic school was too good to be true.

The boy whose father had just evaporated grinned and beckoned me over. I approached him slowly, not yet completely free of the kidnapping suspicions.

'Hogwarts?' He said, with a lopsided smile.

'Yes, how did you...Ah. Mildred.' I gained a puzzled look for that, and quickly added, 'My owl. What's your called?'

'Wings.' He said. I laughed at his completely unoriginal name. 'Yeah, I know...I've had him since I was 6. I named him then, I thought it was a great name... So you're a muggle born, right? You didn't know about the barrier.'

'Yes indeed, muggle material born and bred!' (I had been called a muggle several times in Diagon Alley until me and Dad had worked out what it means, and tried to stop looking like tourists). 'So how exactly do we get to the train?'

'Well, my ignorant friend,' I huffed a bit at being called ignorant, then realised he called me his friend, and I couldn't really pass up free friends. 'You simply run at the barrier, which will let you straight through, I promise; Pinky Swear. And then, you will be on Platform 9 ¾!'

I laughed a bit at his totally serious use of pinky swear, then my fears took over. 'Are you sure?' I checked.

'Sure as sure can be, my good chap! I would go first, but you'll probably never go if I don't push you-so here goes!' And he literally pushed me through the barrier. Gee, thanks.

I looked around myself in wonder- I wasn't on Platform 9 anymore. Hell, I wasn't even in the muggle world anymore! People appeared and disappeared at random spots all over the platform, and there were several people levitating trunks onto the train. A huge sign above the platform proclaimed that it was, indeed, Platform 9 ¾.

The boy suddenly ran into me, as I hadn't moved since I came through.

'Jeez, woman, move!' He grunted as the wind left him.

'Oops...sorry!' I chortled a bit as he struggled to save his dignity, standing up quickly from where he'd fallen on his backside.

'So, muggley,' I raised my eyebrows at that, but I knew it was just playfulness, 'What's your name? I'm James, James Potter.' He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

'Del.' I shook his hand vigorously.

'Well then, Del, you're very short!' He smirked, and I scowled at him. 'What's your full name?'

No way was I telling him my full first name! 'Del Morrell.' I smiled at him widely, knowing that he would never know my actual full name.

He raised his eyebrows like he knew that wasn't my full Christian name, but let it go. 'Wanna get on, then?'

'Cool!' I was excited again now, asking James all sorts of questions about the Wizarding World, like 'How come we're even using a train if we're so magical?' and 'Can you do spells? Oh my gosh, it won't matter that I'm muggle born, will it?' He answered my questions as best he could, but looked like he couldn't wait till they were over.

As we were walking up the corridor, looking for a compartment, I said, 'Hey, I'm gonna go find a Ladies Room, I need to pee. Go make some guy friends.' I said, then winked.

'OY! He called after me.

'Ja?' I spun round, losing my balance and crashing into the wall as the train started to move. There goes my pride. Ouch, I think I just crushed my Caramel™ bar in my little travel bag as well (our suitcases got put in the luggage carriage, we just had to put our robes and food in the travel bags).

'Come find me after you're done...peeing. I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!' He yelled. I laughed, and carried on my way.

I peered into all the little rooms as I passed, hoping to catch sight of a mop of unruly black hair. Eventually, I triumphed, and ran into the compartment, only to find that it wasn't James, but a gangly, hook-nosed boy with extremely greasy hair, who was sitting with a pretty girl with deep red hair.

'Oh, uh, sorry...thought you were my friend... Sorry...' I stuttered.

'Hey, no worries!' Said the red-head, 'I'm Lily Evans, nice to meet you,' and she smiled at me. Man, I wished I looked like her...

'Del Morrell,' I said, 'You too,' I smiled tentatively back.

'This is my friend Severus Snape, by the way,' Lily said, pulling her friend up by the hand.

'Err, hi,' he said, seeming every bit as shy as I was. Well, this had certainly been awkward enough for one meeting.

'I'd better go find my friend then, I guess,' I mumbled. I wasn't really good at talking to girls.

'Ok, cool! It was nice to meet you then Del, maybe we'll be in the same house?' I nodded, although I had no idea what she meant, and heard the Severus guy mutter, 'Slytherin.' Hm. Strange dude. I waved goodbye, and started off down the corridor again.

Hope you liked it!

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