The Hogwarts Express
"Mum! Hurry up! It's nearly 11, we're going to miss the train!" 11 year old Riley called to her mum, who had stopped to inquire about the location of the platform.
"Calm down Riley! I'm sure they won't leave without you." Her mum said.
"Did you not read the letter? The train leaves at exactly 11:00, if we miss it, there'll be no way to get to Hogwarts, and I'll be stuck here for another year." Riley complained.
"Oh all right." sighed her mother, and she rushed to catch up with Riley, for Riley had broke out into a run towards platform 10. Soon Riley had dissappeared, through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, and her mother wasn't far behind her.
"Wow. Mum, did you ever expect anything like this to happen?" Asked Riley as she gazed at the train in front of her.
"No, of course I didn't." Said Riley's mum. "Now hurry up and jump on the train. I'll make sure your luggage gets on it. And Riley?" She said as her daughter started to turn towards the train.
"Yes mum?"
"Don't forget to text me-or owl me, what ever it is you do at that magic school, and tell me everything that's going on. I love you."
"I love you too mum." Said Riley, and gave her mother a hug before she turned and jumped on the train.
It took Riley 10 minutes, to find the section of the train where all the first years seemed to sit, and nearly 5 minutes longer to find a compartment that wasn't full of overly excited, or extremely nervous first years. Finally, near the back of the train, she found a compartment with only 3 kids in it.
Sliding open the door, she asked, "Hey, do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full."
"Not at all," One of the two boys said, "You can sit there." He pointed to an open section of the seat.
"Thanks." Riley said, and sat next to the only other girl. "I'm Riley by the way. Riley Gables."
"I'm James Potter." Said the older boy who told her where she could sit, "and this is my brother Albus."
Riley's eyes widened at the names. "Did you say James and Albus Potter, like Harry Potter? He's a legend!"
"Yeah," said James, "and he's also our dad, so don't start telling us stuff you've heard that he's done, because we've heard it a million times before."
Riley laughed, "No problem. I'll keep quiet." She turned to the girl next to her, who was listening to their conversation with a glint of amusement in her eyes, "And what's your name?"
"I'm Rose," The girl said, "Rose Weasley. Yeah, I'm also the kid of Ron and Hermione, the two people who helped Uncle Harry destroy Vol-You-Know-Who."
"You can say his name you know. It hasn't been tabooed for years." Said Albus to Rose. "Voldemort. See? Nothing happened."
Rose cringed. "Well I'm sorry my family didn't go around saying his name instead of You-Know-Who when I was learning how to talk." She snapped back.
"Sorry." He mumbled, sitting back into the seat.
"So Riley, what are you?" asked James, trying to change the subject.
"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"Are you a pureblood? Halfblood? Mudblood?" He inquired.
"James!" Albus said sitting straight up in his seat. "You know you shouldn't be saying things like that! I mean, what if you get switched into Slytherin for saying that?"
"Oh calm down, you know once you're sorted, you can't change houses. So anyway," James said, turning back to Riley, "What's your, erm, blood status?" He asked with an amused glance at Albus.
"I'm not sure." She said. "I'm either muggle born or a halfblood. My dad died when I was a baby, so if he was a wizard, he never had time to tell my mom."
"So you were raised by," Rose paused, "Muggles?" she said whispering. Riley nodded, glad that now, all their attention was on her. "So how did you find out you were a wizard? If your mum didn't know to tell you?"
"I found out when my Hogwarts letter came on my birthday. Obvisouly my mum found the whole idea of a hidden world of witches and wizards crazy, so she convinced me it was all a big joke." She laughed, "Then more and more letters came, and we found them in the weirdest places. One of them was in a carton of milk she bought at the store, instead of the milk. I think after that one she started to believe in all of this."
Riley looked around. James, Albus, and Rose all seemed fully engrossed in her story, so she continued. "In one of the letters, I think it's one designed for people in muggle families, it told us how to get to Diagon Alley, so she decided to check it out. She probably thought that if we couldn't get there, the letter was lying, and it would prove that someone was playing a joke on us. So we took the train to London, went to the Leaky Caulron, and did exactly what the letter said, and would you believe it? The brick wall opened up for us, revealing a whole street full of fun shops!
"We first stopped at Gringotts, the wizard bank, and my mum set up an account for me. She put 200 galleons in my bank to start with, and then took 100 out so we could buy everything on the supply list. We got to go to Madame Malkins, and my mum let me get a brand new set of robes! Then we went to Flourish and Blotts, and she bought all of the books we need as first years. She also got me a cauldron, and loads of potions ingredients, in case I need a bunch. And would you believe this, she let me get an owl. A real live owl! It's a barn owl, and her name is Juniper. Anyway, after that, we headed to Ollivanders." Riley paused to pull out her wand, "And I got this. It's dogwood, 11 and 3/4 inches with a dragon heartstring core."
"So basically you did everything a regular wizard does in Diagon Alley?" asked James, not seeming as interested as he did when she was talking about getting her letter.
Riley blushed, "Well, I don't really know what regular wizards do."
"James, don't be rude! I'm suprised you were sorted into Gryffindor considering how mean you can be." Rose said, defending Riley.
"I doubt that old hat works anyway. I bet all it could figure out from me, is that I'm a Potter, so I must belong in Gryffindor." James said irritably.
"Aha! So it is a hat that sorts you!"Albus exclaimed, then he turned to Riley. "James has been telling us a bunch of nonsense about how you get sorted. Before you showed up, he was telling us about how you've got to battle a troll, with your only weapon being your wand."
"That's part of it too!" James exclaimed, trying to cover up his lie. "If you don't pass the troll, you get sent back."
Riley's eyes widened. You could get sent back from Hogwarts? "That's not true? Is it? I haven't learned any spells, if we have to fight a troll, I'll be sent home immediately."
Rose put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, it isn't. James got that idea from my Dad, when he was telling us about his first year at Hogwarts. Mum told me all you've ever had to do, and will have to do, is sit on a chair, and let the hat choose where you go. It's as simple as that."
"What house are you hoping to be placed in?" Asked Albus.
"Well, I was hoping to be in Gryffindor, but knowing me, I'll probably be put in Hufflepuff." Said Riley.
"You and me are probably going to be placed in Gryffindor." Said Rose, looking at Albus. "No matter how much you think you're bound to be in Slytherin, the Hat will know that our parents helped destroy the most dangerous Slytherin ever."
"Yeah, but what if-." Albus started to say, but was interrupted when the door to their compartment flew open, and there stood a boy with a pointed face, pale blue eyes and white-blonde hair, with two pudgy, dark haired boys standing behind him.
Riley's first impression of the two boys behind the blonde boy, was that they were bodygaurds for the blonde, but she now noticed they too, were students.
"Malfoy." Albus said with a sneer.
"Potter. Didn't realize you and the Weasels," He drawled with a glance at Rose, "Were actually allowed to attend school this year."
"And why wouldn't we be able to Scorpius? Seeing as our dad is the only reason the school is still open." Snapped James.
"Well, he is part of the group of people who helped destroy it in the first place? Is he not?" Scorpius asked mockingly.
"Don't go making jokes about our father." Said Albus, "Didn't yours almost get locked up in Azkaban? Along with his dad?"
Right after Albus said that, Scorpius was up in his face with his wand out and pointed straight at him. "Don't you dare say anything bad about my father, or my grandfather!"
"Oh? What will you do?" Albus asked, pushing Mafoy's wand away,"Jelly Legs jinx me? Try and see what Alohomora does to a human?"
Riley was too busy listening to what Albus and Scorpius were yelling about, to notice that James and Rose had both pulled out their wands. Once she noticed this, she hastily pulled her wand out of her pocket. She didn't know any spells, but figured if it came to the point of throwing spells, she could just as easily stab either Scorpius, or the two guys behind him with it.
"Now you've done it!" Shouted Scorpius as he dropped his wand and pulled his fist back. Obvisouly he too didn't know any spells.
"Petrificus Totalus!" A loud voice clearly shouted, and Scorpius froze, falling backwards like a statue. Riley turned to see a red haired girl with her wand out and pointed at Scorpius. The girl looked to be about 17, and had a red badge with a P on it, pinned to her robes. "What do you think you're doing?" She demanded.
"He started it!" Shouted Albus in defense. "We were perfectly happy in here, when he walked in and started to make fun of dad!"
"He's telling the truth Victoire!" Rose said, backing up Albus.
Victoire sighed and murmered to herself, "I promised Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione I'd keep you safe, and this is what I get?" Then she spoke louder to the group, "Ok. I'll over look this for now. But if I ever catch you in a situation like this again, I'll have to tell someone." Victoire pulled her wand out again, and pointed it at Scorpius's frozen body, "Finite Incantatem."
Right after she said that, Scorpius's once frozen body became active again. He jumped up off the floor, and started to yell at Albus, but then noticed the new arrival, Victoire. "Come on, let's get out of here." He said to the two boys who still hadn't entered the compartment.
Victoire watched as they sulked off, and turned back to Albus, James, Rose, and Riley. "If they bother you again, I want to hear about it. I was made prefect for a reason." And with that, she turned and walked off.
"Bloody hell," murmered Rose, "That was an event."
"Got that right." Agreed James.
The rest of their trip on the Hogwarts Express was uneventful. Albus, Rose, and James all found Riley's disgust with the moving chocolate frogs hilarious, and laughed when she got a liver flavored Bertie Bott every flavored bean. But sooner than Riley wished, the train pulled to a stop, and Hagrid's voice could be heard calling first years to him.
