Author's Note: Yay, first official chapter! Thanks for the reviews Guest and SSB-CRAZYBUDGIEPOTTERHEAD!

(This chapter is also part of a series of oneshots and story updates to celebrate my one year anniversary of joining this site! And Happy New Year! May 2017 be better that 2016! [Seriously, we need it])

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and the Harry Potter Wizard World belongs to JK Rowling. Some quotes have been taken from The Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 6.

He sat in the small train compartment of the Hogwarts Express, flipping through. "Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them", with a sluggish pace. He had slightly wavy black hair and crystal blue eyes. He was lanky in frame, draped in dark green robes with a consistency like velvet that oozed prestige and expense. He had a haughty, "better-than-you", look on his face. He didn't slouch.

'Rubbish,' he thought as he read. 'Wonderful, fascinating, rubbish'. He set the book down. Then his compartment door slid open with a shudder.

And there stood a girl, rubbing at the tear stains at the corners of her eyes. She had curly dirty blond hair that already went down past her shoulders and emerald green eyes that sparkled and shone with wetness. He could tell even while sitting down that she was shorter than him, and she was slight and delicate in frame. Despite that, she had a healthy tan with Band-Aids decorating her knees and elbows. She had on simple shorts and a turquoise shirt with white outlines of flowers on it and clutched a book to her right side. A owl cage was also clutched awkwardly in that hand, and a small, puffball of a tawny owl sat there, observing him.

"Uh, excuse me?" she squeaked, and she stared at her shoes. "May I sit here?"

He nodded. "Sure, knock yourself out."

"I'm Grace," The girl said, not meeting the boy's eyes. "Grace Taylor."

"I'm Cole Narsecurus," he said.

"So, is this your first time at Hogwarts?" Grace asked, fumbling with her book. She was quite pretty, in a shy, bookworm-ish way.

"Of course," he replied crisply. "I'm only a first year."

"Oh," Grace said. "Right."

Cole shook his head. Shouldn't she have been able to tell that he was a first year? He thought back to her clothes. Was she a- no. It couldn't be, she seemed nice. They weren't supposed to be nice. That wasn't what he was told.

"What does your father do?" was his next question.

"He's a lawyer."

"Ah, for the Ministry of Magic?" Cole casually responded.

She appeared briefly startled. "N-No. For a firm."

"You're Muggle-born, aren't you?" Cole said bluntly, folding his arms defiantly. He already knew she was from her response. The question was pointless.

"Muggleborn," she said, as if trying out the word on her tongue. "I suppose so."

"Then I can't talk to you," Cole told her. "I suggest you move out of my compartment."

Grace blinked once, twice, before shifting awkwardly, an inquisitive look in her eyes. Then, before he could say anything (Like apologize. No, he would never do that. Never) she fled. Cole only mumbled softly to himself and rubbed his arm.

Grace trudged, half-way between a funeral walk and angry stomping. What was that about? Her heart hardened. Jerk. She wished she could give him a piece of her mind, but her arms still felt like jelly, and her tongue like stone. She berated herself a bit mentally (Why didn't she respond? Slap him outright, that's what she should have done. Or yelled at him until he felt like jelly) until she reached a carriage, one far enough away to dull her troubles. She shifted to her right foot, then her left, then back to her right before slowly sliding the door open. "Hello? Is anybody in here?"

There was. A girl looked up at her once her voice sounded out though the carriage. The girl had deep red hair pulled into a long ponytail and tan skin, deeper than Grace's. She was dressed in lavender robes, but less expensive than Cole's. A toad was by her side, gave a loud, startling croak at her entrance. The girl continued to look at her, curiosity playing in her honey brown eyes, before smiling, wide and comforting. "Hello! I was wondering if anybody was going to come in."

"I-Is it okay if I sit in here?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! I'm always on the lookout for new friends. I'm Susanna Butterick. You?" She stuck her hand out for a handshake, and Grace shook it and stumbled with the weight of her baggage. Susanna steadied her with a smile, and helped lift the owl cage onto the seat. Her tawny owl, for it's part, just gave a thankful hoot when settled.

"Grace Taylor," she finally answered, and sat down with a sigh. "Nice to meet you."

"You too. Anyway," Susanna's voice lowered to a hush and she looked around the compartment, like she was going to reveal a secret, before leaning forward and sitting on the edge of her seat. "Have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Harry Potter's on this train!" Susanna squealed loudly, causing her toad to hop near Grace.

"Um," Grace had no idea what Susanna was so excited about. "Brilliant?"

"Oh, Muggle-born, right? Should have guessed. Don't worry, my mother's a Muggle-born too. Anyway, Harry Potter is the only person to survive the killing curse. He's a legend!"

"Wait, the killing curse?" Grace asked, her eyes widening and she too scooted to the edge of her seat.

"Mhmm." Susanna swung her legs, her heels making light thuds on the wood.

"What's that?" she asked in a gasp.

"Pretty self-explanatory. Just -" Susanna whirled her finger around in a elaborated show of wand work. "BAM! You're dead."

Grace gulped and shifted around uncomfortably. She felt sick.

"But don't worry!" Susanna rushed to comfort her. "It's illegal. Nobody uses it, and definitely not at Hogwarts. It's the safest place on Earth!"

"You mean they have protections against that sort of stuff?" Grace asked hopefully.

Susanna visibly faltered in her confidence. "Uh, maybe? But nobody would dare try it with Headmaster Dumbledore around, not even you know who."

"You know who?" Grace asked loudly and Susanna shushed her.

"A really bad dictator and stuff. He wanted to eradicate all Muggle-borns and people of lower blood purity, but he's dead now."

Grace made an anxious squeak.

"Don't worry!" Susanna said once again. "Nobody believes that 'blood purity' nonsense anymore."

"You sure?" Grace said, an edge of bitterness in her voice. (She now hated Cole Narsecurus with all of her heart.)

"You okay?" Susanna asked, softly questioning.

"Yeah, it's nothing."

"So…" Susanna's sentence trailed off slightly before she bounced back. "What house do you want to get into?"

Grace was relieved to get the topic off "you know who" and let out a nervous laugh. "Honestly? I don't know much about them," Grace revealed the title of the book she had been carrying. "Hogwarts: A History". "I haven't really gotten far into this - didn't get it until recent - but I did just start a new series of books! They're not about Hogwarts, though. How about you?"

"I don't really know. They all sound cool enough to me." Susanna paused for a moment. "My mum was in Hufflepuff, and my dad was Ravenclaw, so maybe one of those two."

"Cool." Grace started flipping through the book before she stopped at a certain page. "Hufflepuff's the hardworking and nice house, right? And Ravenclaw…" Flip, flip, flip. "The smart and creative one?"

"Yep. Gryffindor's brave and heroic and Slytherin's ambitious and clever."

"I like the sound of Ravenclaw." Grace admitted. "Smart and creative."

Susanna smiled. "A lot people do. Well, I mean, my dad did."

"Is it a popular house?"

Susanna shook her head. "No, more people prefer Gryffindor, because with all the stuff that's happened, heroic sounds quite nice."

"Oh, well, I like Ravenclaw." Grace smiled brightly. "I hope that's where I'm sorted!"

"I hope you get to be in that house too." Susanna looked around and caught something. "Ooh, the trolley!"

Cole was sitting alone, and if you asked him, he was not bothered a bit by it. Not a tiny bit. But, really, he was a bothered. Quite a lot.

He had been expecting at least one companion, most likely one he had already known due to the parties his parents and their friends had thrown. But he was not going to seek someone out. No, Cole Narsecurus was no groveler. He thought of Grace leaving his compartment in a mix of sadness and anger. And no Muggle-born associate either.

"I've never heard of those sweets before!" Grace exclaimed after the cart had left.

Susanna took a break from chewing on a licorice wand to answer. "They're wizarding candies, from Honeydukes."

"I'd at least think there would be some normal sweets." Grace sighed. "I could have gone for some bubblegum."

"They had bubblegum."

"I'm not sure want bubblegum that really 'pops' in your mouth means, but I'm not taking any chances."

Susanna chewed and made an agreeable noise. "Good choice. Once I had a bad batch and lost a tooth that way."

Grace shivered at the story before becoming thoughtful. "Though I guess the chocolate frogs didn't look too bad…"

Susanna covered the ears of her toad, which had bounced back next to her at this point, as though it could understand them. "Don't say that! Those frogs upset Camelia." Despite her seriousness, she managed to look quite silly with a string of licorice hanging against her chin.

"Is it because they look like frogs?" Grace asked curiously.

"It's more that they act like frogs then look like them..."

"Assessment respectfully withdrawn." Grace looked at Susanna's toad. "So her name is Camelia?"

"Yep." Susanna nodded. "I've had her since I was 7, she gets jumpy during train rides, and I would die for her." There was a small silence before: "Do you have any pets? Well, other than the owl."

"Well, the owl's name is Angel. I got her when I went to Diagon Alley a couple weeks ago."

"Great place. Very diagonal." Susanna nodded.

"And I have a dog at home, Daisy," Grace continued. "She's a Golden Retriever, and I think I must have had her since I was 9, but it feels like she's been part of the family forever."

"I wish I had a dog, too," Susanna said wistfully. "My family never could get one, because we don't want to risk it bothering Camelia."

"Camelia's cool too," Grace said. "She's very…hoppy."

At the word of her favorite past time, Camelia bounced on the top of her owner's head and let out a loud predatorial croak.

The girls both laughed with Susanna saying, "Isn't that so?"

Cole flipped though some of his school books aimlessly, but blanched at potions. He tried to practice a spell, but dropped his wand when the resulting spell backfired and nearly burned him. He laid down and stared at the compartment ceiling. He rested his feet on the seats across from him. But after all of it, he was still aimless. And bored. And there was nothing he could do about. Great.

Susanna and Grace were still chatting when the door to their compartment opened.

"Hello, have any of you seen a toad-" A bushy brown-haired girl's eyes widened when she saw Camelia, who was still resting on Susanna's head. "Neville! Is this your toad?"

A flushed boy, presumably Neville, entered, quivering. "N-No."

The girl looked disappointed and let out a, "hmm", while Neville looked crushed.

"Hello," Susanna greeted as Camelia croaked and hopped towards Neville. "I'm- Camelia!"

Camelia had launched herself at Neville's chest in act of pure hyper-activeness, but was now being cradled in his arms with a grumpy look on her face. If toads could look grumpy, that is.

"I'm sorry, she just gets very nervous during train rides," Susanna apologized.

"It's okay, I'm used to toads." Neville balanced Camelia onto his hands and started petting her, and she leaned into it, looking like quite a happy toad.

"You have a toad, right?" Grace piped up softly, recalling him and the girl's reasons for entering, though she was staring at her knees while she talked. She couldn't help feeling slightly nervous at the bushy girl's confidence.

"Y-Yeah! Trevor. How did you know?"

"Remember, Neville? We told them we were looking for your toad," The girl said, turning to Neville.

"Oh, right," Neville said sheepishly.

"Anyway, I'm Hermione Granger," The bushy-haired girl introduced herself.

"Susanna Butterick," Susanna grinned and stuck out her still somewhat sticky hand. Hermione shook it, though looked like she regretted when her hand returned with sugar on it.

"I'm Grace Taylor," Grace greeted.

"Nice to meet you," Hermione turned to Neville again, who had started to tug on her sleeve. "We'd better continue our search."

"Do you need any help?" Susanna asked.

"It'd be better if you stay here in case Trevor shows up," Hermione dictated.

"You'll look, won't you?" Neville asked.

"Of course," Susanna answered and the two left, but not before, "I'd suggest you change into your robes, it looks like we'll be arriving soon."

Hermione's prediction was right, because soon after they changed into their robes, a voice had echoed through the train. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Susanna grew increasingly excited as the train continued to move and she peeked out the windows, staring at the expanse before her. Hogwarts, finally. She'd learn magic and be sorted into a house and everything great that could every happen would happen because it was Hogwarts, finally.

Grace, however, had gone pale and was quivering under her black robes.

"Hey, are you okay?" Susanna quirked an eyebrow.

"Fine, just nervous."

"Here." Susanna offered her a licorice wand, which Grace accepted quickly, and munched on it nervously. It didn't seem to do much for her nerves however, since she still looked like she could heave when the train screeched to a halt.

Susanna stood up and made sure her luggage was okay before letting Camelia hop onto her hands.

"Shh," she whispered to the toad. "Be quiet, okay?" She slipped her into her pocket, and was pleased when Camelia took to it quite well. It wasn't much of a surprise, however, since she had already toted Camelia around in various pockets and satchels when she was younger.

Susanna looked up from her pocket and looked at Grace, who had just stuffed a couple treats in Angel's cage.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," Grace replied. "It's just-" Her eyes then traveled to the bulge in Susanna's pocket. "…What's that?"

Susanna smiled. "Camelia. You know how I said she got jumpy on train rides? Well, she gets worse when I'm not there." Grace continued to stare. "But she's totally fine now. I swear."

"I believe you. It's just, um, it's kind of obvious."

"Oh." Susanna's smile fell. She'd get caught, great.

"But, I guess I could stand near you." Grace moved closer and tried to angle herself to block Susanna's right side. "Like this?"

"Yeah, that'll work." Susanna brightened and linked Grace's arm in hers. "You're a good friend, you know that?"

Grace blushed slightly and her eyes darted to her feet. "Thank you."

Susanna grinned again. Really, friends were quite nice, once you had them. "C'mon!" And the two girls exited the train into the cool evening air.

Cole found the sticky night air to be irritating, the narrow path through leaves scattered on a slightly muddy ground with branches poking at your skin maddening and the instructor, a burly bearded man holding the only light in the darkness, much too jolly for the journey.

He had expected it bit more prestige for a number one wizarding school, a prestige they did not get. Maybe the older students were treated better.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," The bearded instructor, Hagrid, called to them, still keeping a steady path. "Jus' round this bend here."

Considering the so-far walk, Cole was pleasantly surprised to see a grand castle rising into the night sky, and not some over-rated shed. Or even worse, a copy of a muggle school.

"No more than four to a boat!" Hagrid said to them, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. The shore was a bit mucky, and his left heel sunk into the ground, only to be released with a squelch. He stumbled to a boat with three boys he did not recognize nor particularly care about, and sat down.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid. "Right then- FORWARD!"

Grace nearly fell when the boats moved by themselves, creating an effortless path through the lake. "Wow!" she gasped.

Susanna smiled pleasantly. "Cool, ain't it?" They had managed to snag a boat to themselves, which was either a benefit or detriment to rounding out the back of the group. But it was a benefit for Camelia, who was sitting out in the open on Susanna's lap.

"Mhmm," Grace nodded. While the boats glided across, she could help but peer over the edge of the boat, staring into the water, which seemed to have no bottom. She lightly trailed her pointer finger across the inky blackness, creating small ripples on the surface.

"This lake is very pretty," she said wistfully, craning to try and see further down into the lake.

"Mhmm, my mum told me a lot of magical creatures live down here," Susanna remarked.

"What types of creatures?"

"Oh, there's some fishes, mermaids, a giant squid…"

Grace's head snapped up. "Mermaids!" She looked back down into the lake. "There's mermaids down here?"

"Yeah, one time my mum was dared to swim out here and one nearly drowned her!"

Grace retracted her hand from the water quickly and wiped it on her robe, before clutching it in her hands. "Oh, that's horrid!"

"It's common," Susanna replied vaguely, but her eyes slid to the lake surface with distrust and a frown on her face.

"Well, the Peter Pan film knew what it was talking about," Grace said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I'm glad my mum was all right. I couldn't imagine what it would like without having her as a mother."

Grace spoke quietly, "She must be a really wonderful mum."

"She is," Susanna said, staring at the sky as though she could see her mother in the stars.

"My mum's really lovely too." Grace's voice cracked, "I don't know how I will survive without her and my dad for the school year."

"You've got an owl, you can message them as much you like."

"But it won't be the same."

Susanna nodded. "It won't."

They were brought out from their chat when Hagrid yelled, "Heads down!", and they bent down as their boat glided through a curtain of silky ivy that tickled their heads. They were carried through a tunnel, the walls slightly grimy, until they reached an underground harbor and all the first years stumbled out, pebbles and stone crunching under the weight.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" They turned around just in time to see Neville blissfully cuddling Trevor.

Susanna smiled and nodded to herself.

Hagrid soon led them away, into passageway, upon onto the damp lawn of the magnificent castle before they clambered up a flight of stone steps.

Grace awed at a set of giant oak doors, before three knocks sounded out, and they swung open.