The train pulled out of King's Cross Station within seconds, and it disappeared from view. Rose turned away from the window. "We better find a compartment."

"Hopefully there is one," Al muttered nervously.

"There will be," Rose answered. "The train has enough room for all the students. Come on, Al." She tugged on his arm and led him down the train, peering in each individual compartment until she found one that had enough room. She opened the door partway. "May we come in?" she asked the lone occupant, a dark-haired girl lounging across one of the bench-like seats.

"Nobody's stopping you," the girl responded, gesturing to the seat across from her. Rose and Al promptly sat down. "So who're you?"

Rose was pleasantly surprised. Most people that she met knew who she was; even people that she met in Diagon Alley had known who she was, because of her parents. The Daily Prophet commonly printed articles on the Weasley-Potter family, and many people eagerly read these articles that offered glimpses into the lives of the most famous family in Wizarding Britain. It was nice to find somebody who didn't know she was the daughter of two famous people before they even met her. "I'm Rose Weasley, and this is my cousin Al Potter," she replied, motioning toward Al.

"Hi," Al said.

She nodded at him. "I would've known that, if I actually bothered to pick up the Daily Rag every once in a while. The day I read that is the day that they print something important." She looked like she was going to say more, but at that moment, the door opened and a blond boy - the one that Rose's father had warned her about - stumbled inside, thrown off-balance by the motion of the train. Or perhaps he was just clumsy, as the motion of the train wasn't extremely disorienting. "Who are you?" the girl asked.

"Scorpius Malfoy. Can I sit here?" He looked pointedly at the girl, who was sprawled out across the seat meant for two people. She reluctantly sat up normally, allowing him to sit down. He glanced at Rose and Al. "You're...one of the Weasleys, and you're Albus Severus Potter, right?" he asked.

"I'm Rose," she answered. She couldn't help but wonder if it would be smart to stay away from this boy - after all, her father had warned her against him, and she usually obeyed what her parents said. She decided, however, that her mother's comment of 'don't turn them against each other' negated her father's warning, and that she was free to socialize with Scorpius.

"It's Al, not Albus. Only my parents call me that." Al's father was the only one who liked the name Albus Severus. Everybody else had mixed feelings about it, and often these feelings leaned toward dislike. Aunt Ginny occasionally called Al 'Albus', in support of her husband, but nobody else did. Rose knew that Al was planning to convert all the teachers into calling him Al instead of Albus, although she didn't know how much luck he'd have with that.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Scorpius groaned. "Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. I'm not totally sure which is worse."

"My middle name is Nymphadora," Rose contributed, pulling a face. She knew that her middle name was Teddy's mother's first name, but just like Teddy's mother, she found it an extremely long and stupid name. She understood the idea behind it, to honor Teddy's mother - the same reason Hugo's middle name was Colin - but Nymphadora was an ugly name no matter how she looked at it.

"What about you, got a stupid name?" Scorpius asked the girl, nudging her slightly.

"Leda Cassiopeia Lestrange." She ignored the shocked expressions on the other three's faces. "I think yours are worse. Although Cassiopeia has to go - I wish it was Cassandra; at least that's kind of pretty."

"Lestrange? I thought...I thought there were no more of you," Rose said. She was by no means an expert on the pureblood families, but she knew that Bellatrix Lestrange had died during the Battle of Hogwarts - due to Rose's grandmother, actually - and Rodolphus and Rabastan had both been sent to Azkaban.

"Most people think that." Leda smirked. "Can't wait to show them otherwise, at the Sorting."

"But...how is that possible?" Al asked. "If Bellatrix Lestrange died in 1997...who's your mother?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter, Sarin - she was two years above your parents in school. My mother is Sarin Lestrange, my father Ryan Yaxley. Yes, my parents are both Death Eaters' children. Anyway, my name is technically Leda Yaxley-Lestrange, but I think just Leda Lestrange sounds a lot better. A little more...intimidating."

"Um...I don't want to be rude..." Al paused. "But you're not a Death Eater, right?"

Leda snorted. "I'm not even sure how that would be possible, considering the Dark Lord - who created the Death Eaters - died several years before I was even born. And I'm pretty sure that eleven-year-olds aren't accepted, anyway."

"So will you be in Slytherin?" Scorpius asked.

"Of course. My family has been in Slytherin for generations, and I'm going to follow in their footsteps, of course. I'm guessing, with a name like Malfoy, you will be also." She looked at Rose and Al critically. "Technically, you lot should be Gryffindors."

"Half of my cousins are in Ravenclaw," Rose replied. "And my aunt's a Hufflepuff. But yeah, most of my family is in Gryffindor. I'm not very sure what I'll get, though. Hogwarts, A History says-" Al groaned, and Rose rolled her eyes. "What? So I like that book."

"I tried to read it so that I knew exactly what to expect from Hogwarts. But I felt that if I didn't put it down, I'd die of boredom." Leda glanced at Rose. "Why are you in your Hogwarts robes already?"

"I wanted to be ready. Unlike the rest of you, who are going to have to rush at the last second to get changed."

"It won't be the last second. It'll be the last five minutes," Leda quipped.

The door opened suddenly, and a woman poked her head in. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

"Hmm..." Scorpius stood up. "Eight Chocolate Frogs, four packs of Bertie Bott's, four Pumpkin Pasties, four Cauldron Cakes, and eight Liquorice Wands." He smiled innocently at the woman and handed her some money. "That'll be all."

"You don't have to-" Rose stood up, digging in her own pocket for money.

"Seriously? Heir to the Malfoy fortune right here. I'm sure...whatever that cost...doesn't even matter." He took the change without looking. Leda helped him bring the food into the compartment, and began dividing it up. Her method of 'dividing it up' meant throwing it in the general direction of the person whom it belonged to. "Just sit down and eat. I got enough for everybody."

"Obviously," Leda drawled. "If this was all for you, well, you'd be a lot fatter."

Al cracked a smile, biting the head off one of his Chocolate Frogs. "So what classes are you looking forward to, then? I don't know what I'd like, really."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Leda said instantly. "I heard that's a good class. Now that the teacher isn't changing every single year, anyway." It was common knowledge that for decades, the DADA teacher had changed every year due to a curse that Voldemort put on the position. With him dead now, the curse had been lifted, and the teachers could stay for as long as they wanted to.

"Who's the current teacher?" Scorpius asked. "Does anybody know?"

"Yeah. Molly told me that it's a woman named Morag MacDougal. All my cousins who've taken it with her have said that she's definitely a good teacher," Rose said. "She was in Ravenclaw when she was at Hogwarts - and she was in my parents' year, but they didn't know her very well."

"I'm guessing Molly is one of your numerous relatives?" Leda asked.

"Yep." Rose nodded in confirmation. "She's a year older than me. You know, if you hang around Al and I for long enough, you'll learn the entire Weasley-Potter family tree!"

"Exciting. And if you hang around Scorpius and me for a while, you'll learn the entire Black family tree. Which, I might add, is just as large."

"That's not possible."

"We go further back," the dark-haired girl replied. "Hundreds of years. So Weasleys may reproduce like rabbits, but there's definitely more of the Blacks." She glanced at Scorpius. "We're cousins, you know. Kind of funny...we don't look anything alike. Even less than you two." It was true. Although the slightest resemblance could be seen in Rose and Al - slight, yes, but it was there - there was nothing to imply that Leda and Scorpius were related. Leda was tall and wiry, with curly dark hair and dark eyes. Scorpius was average height and weight, with light blond hair and grey eyes.

"That's the Malfoy part of the family, I guess," Scorpius said, chewing on a Liquorice Wand. "Anyway, back to the classes thing - I can't wait for flying lessons. My dad already taught me how to use a broom, so those lessons will be awesome. I want to make the Quidditch team next year."

"As a second-year?" Rose couldn't help but look skeptical. "Are you that good?"

"Yes," he replied confidently.

"What position do you play?"

"Chaser." He looked at Al. "You'd probably be a Seeker. You're small enough for it, that's for sure, and plus your dad was a Seeker, too."

"I play Seeker. When my whole family gets together, we have a game, and I'm usually Seeker." Rose couldn't help but notice Al didn't mention one key factor - Lily usually played Seeker on the opposing team, and she was just as good, if not better, than Al. It didn't surprise her, though, that Al didn't say anything about how his little sister could equal him on a broom. That, surely, would have been embarrassing. Al wasn't a bad flier, but he certainly didn't have the natural talent of his father.

The time on the Hogwarts Express passed by quickly for the four eleven-year-olds, despite the fact that they were on the train for many hours. A friendship had been formed between them, and they spent the whole time in that compartment with one another. Rose was expecting one of her numerous cousins to burst in at any time -after all, there was six other people related to her on this train - but they were left alone the whole time. Apparently her cousins were catching up with their Hogwarts friends, which didn't particularly surprise her.

Apart from the trolley woman, nobody else stopped into their compartment, at least not until it was dark outside. Rose was looking out the window and trying to estimate what time it was when a boy, a few years older than them, opened the door. "You should probably change into your Hogwarts robes now," the boy said, adjusting his prefect badge. "We'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Can't wait!" Rose said excitedly. The other three just looked at her, and she shrugged. "What? So I like school...why do I have to explain this to everybody?"

"Ravenclaw, for sure," Leda muttered to Scorpius.

"Stop talking and start dressing."

The last twenty minutes passed by quickly, and before they knew it, the train had come to a stop. Another prefect, this one from Hufflepuff, poked her head in and told them to leave all their trunks on the train, as they would be brought up to the dormitories after the Sorting. Directly after that, everybody disembarked.

Thanks for reading! I thought I'd do something original by adding a fourth person to the friendship of Rose, Al, and Scorpius, since I really don't want to make this too cliche. So Leda's the daughter of Bellatrix's daughter Sarin - if you want to know a bit more about that, I have a fic titled 'Sarin Lestrange and the Triwizard Tournament'. It's a little AU, but it introduces who Sarin and Ryan (Leda's father) are. Anyway, thanks for all the favorites and alerts, and please review!