Chapter One: The Hogwarts Express
"This cannot be real," Alexia said as she and Madelaine stared around at the crowd of teenagers boarding the train.
Maddie noticed something on her teeth and ran her tongue over it, feeling something rough like metal. Braces? She thought, but I haven't had braces since I was eleven! A nervous habit she had was twisting her hair, so when she reached back to grab it, she found it was short – to her shoulders actually – and was a tangled mess with bangs falling across her forehead! What in the world?! When she turned to speak to Alexia, she found that her twin had shrunk in height and size, and she looked to be incredibly young, almost as if she were eleven. Not much had changed with her. She was still pretty with mini curves on her body. Maddie, on the other hand had no curves, and was very chubby. They exchanged surprised looks and screamed.
"Oh my gosh!" Maddie cried, the s slurring slightly. Stupid braces! "We're inside the world of Harry Potter! But why are we kids?"
Lexi looked around thoughtfully and her gaze finally rested on two trolleys beside them, holding trunks with their names printed on the side. And on each trunk was a cat carrier, both of them containing black cats. Lexi's cat was a male named Salem, which she somehow knew, and Maddie's was a female named Isabella.
"Isn't it obvious?" said Alexia, "We're going to Hogwarts! As to why we're here, I guess, we'll find out sooner or later."
As they pushed their carts down the train to find empty seats, they passed by Mrs. Longbottom who was scolding Neville for losing his toad. The girls gave him a pitying look, but moved on and found an empty compartment. After getting their stuff inside, they sat down and stared out of the train's window, watching other students talk to their parents. They quickly spotted Mrs. Weasley with Ron and Ginny standing beside her, and she was calling out to Fred and George. When the Weasley twins arrived, Maddie couldn't help but smile at them from her seat. She adored Fred and George and couldn't wait to see their pranks in person! Then Percy showed up and the Weasley twins began teasing him about being a prefect. Maddie had to stifle a giggle so that they wouldn't hear and think she was spying on them. After that bit of fun, the Weasley twins mentioned meeting Harry Potter.
A whistle sounded, and students jumped onto the train at the very last minute. The girls watched as families waved goodbye to each other when the train started moving. Once Platform 9¾ was out of sight, Alexia and Madelaine exchanged nervous glances, and squirmed in their seats.
Finally, Maddie spoke up, "Oh, come on! We're on the Hogwarts Express for crying out loud! Let's go meet some of the people!" Grabbing her things, she began lugging them down the train.
"Maddie, wait!" Lexi cried, chasing after her with her trunk and cat carrier.
As they went down the aisles, they found that just about every compartment was packed. Maddie came to a halt for a moment, peeking inside one compartment where she saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. Lee had a box in his hands and a giant tarantula crawled out of it. She suddenly jumped back with a small shriek of fear, slamming into a wall. The three males suddenly looked up at her, and her grey-green eyes locked with those of Fred Weasley. They began laughing at her, and she flushed in embarrassment.
"Grow up!" Alexia snapped at them, then pushed Madelaine forward, "Come on, Mad."
The girls continued on down the aisle, giving up hope of finding a place that wasn't full, and finally stopped when they found a compartment with only two people inside. As luck would have it, it was Harry and Ron. Lexi opened the door and asked, "Hey, is it okay if we sit with you? The rest of the carts are full." The boys exchanged glances before nodding.
"Go ahead," said Harry, gesturing to the empty seats.
"Thanks," Maddie said with a closed-lip smile. She never smiled when she had braces; they always made her feel self-conscious. The girls moved their stuff inside and took seats beside the males, then they all introduced themselves. Each of them talked a bit about their families, with the girls lying about where they were from; Lexi and Maddie claimed to be half-blood – their mother being a witch and their father a muggle. The boys believed their tale and never once suspected them of lying.
Sometime after noon, the witch selling sweets off her trolley came by and asked them if they wanted anything. Harry jumped to his feet to buy as much as he could, while Lexi opened her trunk to grab a sack of money and bought a couple of Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes. Ron muttered that he had sandwiches, and Maddie looked at the food in slight distaste. She was never a big fan of sweets and sat quietly. When Harry and Lexi came back with their food, Harry offered Ron some of his food, and they shared the sweets.
Seeing that Madelaine wasn't eating, Harry threw her a chocolate frog. "Go on, eat one," he said when she caught it. With a shrug, she opened up the chocolate, and quickly popped it into her mouth before it could hop away. She grabbed a cauldron cake and gave Harry a questioning look. He nodded his consent and Ron was explaining to him about Chocolate Frogs and their collectable cards. Then the four of them started experimenting with Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Seeing as how Maddie and Lexi had tasted these candies before, they picked out their favorites, and left the nasty ones aside. Harry, on the other hand, tasted all of them.
At one point, there was a knock on their compartment door and Neville stepped in looking frantic, asking if they've seen his toad. When the four companions said no and that it would turn up, he turned and left. Ron explained to Harry, Maddie, and Lexi that he tried turning his rat, Scabbers, yellow the previous day, but said it didn't work for some reason. When he pulled out his old battered wand to show them, Neville had returned, this time with Hermione Granger. She asked the same question Neville had, and was given the same answer, then she spotted Ron's wand and told him to do magic. Ron tried turning Scabbers yellow, but it didn't work, like he had said, and Hermione went off about how she's practiced simple spells and admitted that she's muggle-born and read all of the school books already, memorizing them, and she finally introduced herself. The others then gave her their names, and she became excited when Harry said his name, and she went on about how she read about him in different books, and said she wanted to be in Gryffindor House, but would be content with Ravenclaw. Finally, she and Neville left to continue searching for his toad.
The four friends talked about what house they wanted to be in, Harry and Ron agreeing that they wouldn't dare be put in Slytherin.
"It doesn't seem all bad," Maddie piped up, "And to be honest, I'd rather be in Slytherin than in Hufflepuff."
"I don't really care which house I'm in," Lexi said.
Ron changed the subject saying that someone tried to rob a high security vault and Gringotts. As he was explaining what he had heard from the Daily Prophet, Maddie and Lexi exchanged worried glances. They of course knew who was behind the robbery and why, but they couldn't say anything or else it would seem suspicious. To be arrested on their first day in this world would be awful!
Again, Ron changed the subject, asking them what their favorite Quidditch teams were.
Maddie said the Sweetwater All-Stars from America, and Lexi said the Kenmare Kestrels from Ireland. When Harry said he didn't know anything about Quidditch, Ron and the girls then gave him a detailed account of how the game is played.
As this was going on, the compartment door opened again, and in stepped Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. Malfoy was questioning if the rumors about Harry Potter being on the train was true, and got his answer when he laid eyes on Harry. He introduced himself and his cronies and offered to be Harry's friend right before insulting Ron. Harry declined the offer of course, and Malfoy threatened that Harry would come to a horrible end like his parents.
"That's enough!" Alexia shouted standing in between the males to keep them from fighting. "Draco, leave now, or I'll report you when we get to the school!"
He scowled at her and hissed, "Watch your back, little girl, because you'll regret speaking to me in that tone." The three new-comers then left in a huff.
Maddie had sat and watched the confrontation in surprise, then paled slightly when she realized something. "Um, Lexi, we need to talk," she said grabbing her sister and pulling her into a corner to speak in private without the boys listening. "Lexi, you just changed a part of the story! Scabbers was to bite Goyle's knuckle and send them running!"
"Mad, us being here changes the story!" Alexia countered, "Besides, Draco needs someone to stand up to him, and while we're here, I'm not going to put up with his crap!"
Biting her lip in worry, Maddie said, "You're right."
When their conversation was over, the four of them changed into their Hogwarts robes, and the train came to a stop several minutes later. Everyone rushed out onto the platform darkened by the night. Hagrid came by holding a lantern calling out to the first years, and all of the eleven-year-olds followed him to a lake and they all gazed at the castle in amazement. Maddie was feeling giddy and had to keep herself from screaming and jumping like a five-year-old. Harry, Ron, Alexia, and Madelaine got into a boat and it glided across the lake towards the castle. Finally, they reached an underground harbor and climbed out of the boats, Hagrid finding Trevor the toad and handing him to Neville. The first years climbed up some stairs and came face to face with Professor McGonagall.