"Who are you?," Harry asked the girl staring back at him without so much as thinking, as soon as the trolly moved along to the rest of the train. This question gleaned him a concerned look from both of his friends, even from the fire-haired girl who shared a booth with the one staring back at Harry.

"Call me James," she said, smiling pleasantly in a way that just made Harry twitch with confusion. "Don't worry, that's not actually my name.. It's Lilia, but my middle name is Jamie. My dad had an odd sense of humor."

Harry nodded slowly, watching her, trying to place where he could've heard this before. "You look..Very familiar."

The girl apparently known as James shrugged. "I get that a lot," she said. "Fifth year, right?," she asked him, changing the subject.

"Right, fifth, you?," Harry replied, and shook his head. "You're changing the subject...Where are you from?"

James just grinned. "Sixth," she replied. "Me and my sister both. This is Phoenix by the way." She indicated the red-head she'd been sitting with, who just waved very shyly at the three of them before sitting back and going back to the book she had. Hermione, of course, recognized it instantly as being a more advanced copy of a magic history book. She smiled – finally someone intelligent to talk to!

Harry sighed. "You're not going to answer me, are you," he asked, to which James shook her head with that same familiar grin.

"No, I'm not," she replied, sitting back down. "I figure I already told you my name, that I get the 'You look familiar' bit a lot, and that I'm in my sixth year." She smiled sweetly and just sat back in her seat, fiddling with a licorice wand.

Harry sighed and before he could question her more, Hermione pulled him back into the booth. "Honestly, Harry, what's wrong with you today? Spacing out, questioning someone like that..."

"Have you ever heard of a girl named James?," he asked her flatly. When she shook her head, he nodded. "Exactly," he said quietly. "I mean.. Hermione, did you even see her? She... She looks like...Me."

Hermione nodded, as did Ron. "We both saw that," Ron said. "We'll figure that out sooner or later."

Hermione shook her head. "Whether she looks like you or not, that was still rude. Maybe you have a cousin, and you just don't know about it...Did your dad have any siblings?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I thought we already went through this...Only child, both of us."

Hermione nodded. "Perhaps a very distant cousin," she said. "Or just coincidence."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Nothing that much like him can be a coincidence."

"Maybe she's able to change her appearance. I've - "

"Read about that," Harry and Ron finished for her. "You've read about everything." Neither of the boys could argue that it was possible, though. After all, they knew one girl that could do that, and just because it was rare, who says they wouldn't meet another one?

James, who had been listening to their conversation, just smiled to herself and Phoenix. Phoenix, however, didn't return her sister's smile. "James," she said softly in a delicate soprano. "You really shouldn't mess with them like that. Heaven knows that when they realize what's going on, you're going to catch hell for it.."

James snorted and laughed a little. "You've got to be kidding me, Phee. You think they can give me hell after what we grew up in? Wow, you must not have -"

"James, I'm serious on this one," Phoenix said, cutting James off mid-sentence. "Regardless of Jack and Wolf and whoever else you were going to mention. I don't want you messing with their heads. Or I'll give you hell."

James rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, princess," she said, sitting back. "Ruin my fun again. But when they know what's going on, I will mess with them as I please."

"Stubborn," Phoenix breathed, sitting back and gazing out the window as the scarlet locomotive pulled into the Hogwarts station. "We're here, anyway...Might as well just get to the headmaster's office and get this over with."

James grinned. "Thought you'd never say it," she said, grabbing her things and heading out into the aisles as the train stopped, with Phoenix close behind her.

Harry looked over as they headed out. He, Ron, and Hermione followed them off...After all, they were exchange students – Harry could easily pass his curiosity off as concern for them. "You two need to see Professor Dumbledore, right?," he asked once he was in what he considered to be earshot.

James glanced back and grinned. "Yup," she said. "And I take it you want to escort us there."

A general look of 'You're kidding me' crossed over Hermione's face, and she looked at Harry disapprovingly. "You're not seriously -" … She stopped herself. Of course he was going to try and question them on their way to the headmaster's office. She should know better by now.

Harry ignored Hermione for the most part, and nodded to James. "Well I don't see why not."

James laughed. "Well come on then. I'm impatient." She and Phoenix started toward the castle, with Harry walking beside them. The smug look on her face prevented most of Harry's questions. Little did he know she'd planned at least that much.

After some minutes of walking, Harry had led the two girls to the headmaster's office, and decided to invite himself inside. You know, to make sure they got there okay and everything. Yeah, right, Harry.

A familiar set of crystal clear blue eyes smiled as their owner's lips did. "Harry, James, Phoenix," Albus greeted them. "Welcome to, and back to, Hogwarts... I believe it was the two of you" He nodded to James and Phoenix "that requested a private sorting?"

James nodded, instantly standing perfectly straight up from the moment they'd entered the room. Her sister was the same, though her posture never once wavered, even in the general public. "Yes, sir, that would have been us."

Albus nodded, his smile giving away to Harry that he did, indeed know something about this whole thing. "Alright then, I suggest we hurry a little bit, I've postponed the public sorting ceremony to accommodate the two of you. Phoenix, if you would, please."

Phoenix nodded, and sat down where she was gestured to, with that ragged old hat placed atop her head. It sprung to life instantly. "Phoenix... Ah, you look just like your mother...And just like her before you, there is no better place for you than Gryffindor."

Phoenix smiled and mentally thanked the hat, scooting out of the way for James to sit down. The hat seemed to eye James for a moment after being placed atop her crown of pin-straight black hair. "James, hm... I thought for sure I wouldn't see someone else from your bloodline for quite some time...Ah, I remember sorting your brother, how he begged me not to put him in Slytherin, four years ago...you....You, however...You will do very, very well there. I still see the mischief of your father glinting in your mind..."

Harry had tuned out most of the hat's speech, after it mentioned her brother begging not to be put in Slytherin, four years ago. Wasn't that what he'd done? No one else did that, at least to his knowledge. Was the hat messing with him? His mind sprung back to life as seven words in particular were said aloud by that weird little hat.

"James Potter, I'm putting you in Slytherin!"