In one hand she carried a trunk full of her belongings, most of them being ones she had boughten within the last month, and in the other a bird cage. The inhabitant was a tiny, gray owl, only about 17 cm tall with massive, almost comically huge eyes that were perfectly round and very yellow. He flapped his small wings in protest every time his cage was jolted, which it was with almost every step she took.

"Sorry Cato," she whispered to him as he gave a high pitched scream of annoyance. A frown marred her delicate features as she stopped and looked around her.

"Platform nine and three quarters, platform nine and three quarters, platform nine and three quarters," she chanted as she looked around. She was standing between platform nine and ten, and there was nothing in between. She felt a shiver of fear run down her spine.

What if this was all just a joke? What if Hogwarts did not exist and this was just some scheme to get rid of her? She sank forlorn to the ground resting her head on her knees. Would anyone really be so cruel as to bring her hopes up like that, tell such a lie, then just let everything come crashing down around her ears again? Surely not. Could it really all just be some childish fantasy? It couldn't, could it? No, she told her self firmly. I saw Diagon Alley with my own two eyes. There were others like me. There was even a wand maker and a shop with flying broom sticks. She glanced a Cato and smiled softly. No, it was real, she was sure.

It smells faintly musty, yet at the same time clean. As they enter the store she notices boxes lining the shelves. There isn't much else in the store, not that there would be room for it anyways. It is a tiny place. For a moment she feels like she shouldn't be here, like she has just crossed into a forbidden zone. But as he enters behind her the feeling goes away. A small man comes out to greet them. He looks to be barely more than a boy with only a few stubbles on his chin. He smiles shyly at them.

"If it's a wand you need, then you've come to the right place," he says, pride in his voice. Behind her she feels, rather than sees Professor Potter, as she has learned to call him, nod.

"One for Tessa here," he says. The boy grins down at her.

"Excited to be goin' to 'Ogwarts then?" he asks as he measures her right arm. She nods, smiling a little. She can't remember ever feeling this excited before. He dumps the measuring tape on the ground where it rolls itself up, then he carefully takes down one of the many boxes that line the walls.

"Willow and dragon heart string, nine inches, very flexible," he states as he hands her a wand. She gives him a confused look, but he doesn't seem to notice. "Give it a wave," he suggests. Raising one eyebrow at him, she does as told. He makes an 'mmh' sound and takes it back, then hands her a new one. "Aspen and phoenix tail feather, seven and a half inches, swishy." It goes the same way as the first.

How many wands she waved around she can no longer recall, but it is a lot. He hands her yet another one, a black wand.

"Ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy," he states. As her fingers wrap around it a warm, tingly feeling spreads up her arms, into every part of her body. She feels safe. She waves it as she has done with so many others and watches its tip glow softly with silver blue light. Professor Potter grins and the man nods, looking slightly worn out.

"That be the one then," he says...

"S'cuse me ma'm. Are you all right?" A guard was staring down at her, looking rather worried. She scrambled quickly to her feet, managing to knock Cato's cage over in the process. He screeched in protest and beat his wings wildly.

"I'm fine, thank you sir," she said as she tried to get the owl under control. "I just, um, well, there's train that's suppose to leave from platform nine and three quarters that I have a ticket for, only I can't seem to find it, the train, that is." His frown deepened.

"Platform nine and three quarters? I don't believe there is such a platform. Are you sure you're quite alright?" She nodded.

"See? I even have a ticket here in my pocket and—," a warm hand on her shoulder cut her rant short. She spun to see a tall woman with curly, chestnut hair and warm, brown eyes smile softly at her.

"There you are, Dear. I was looking for you," she said, winking. "The train is leaving soon, we must be on our way." She gently steered the girl away, dragging the enraged owl and the trunk along.

Once they were out of the guard's earshot stopped.

"Sorry if I scared you. On your way to Hogwarts, aren't you? Not just everyone carries an owl around, they don't make great pets for muggles, see. I should know too, my parents were muggles," she said all in one breath. "I'm Hermione Weasley, by the way."

"Theresa Savman," the girl said, grasping the outstretched hand. "But most people call me Tessa."

"Nice to meat you, Tessa. My boy Christopher Weasley is already on the train. It's his first year at Hogwarts too. Now, to get to platform nine and three quarters all you have to do is walk straight into the barrier that separates platforms nine and ten. Go on, give it a try." Tessa glanced at her nervously to see if she was joking but she looked utterly serious, then cautiously made her way forward.

"You've got to be confident, other wise it won't work," Hermione said. Closing her eyes, the girl increased her pace until she was at a steady sprint, bracing herself for a collision. It never came.

The foul smell of steam engine made her open her eyes. Before her was a scarlet train. It looked ancient, yet magnificent with 'Hogwarts Express' written in huge letters across it. She heaved a sigh if relief, feeling some of the tension leave her body. She had found it.

Then something crashed into her back, sending her sprawling on the ground. Cato screeched as his cage went flying out of her hand and was nearly trampled by the crowed of people. She would have screamed if there had been any air left in her lungs. As it was, something, or rather someone, was lying on top of her, effectively squashing her ribcage.

Quickly the person scrambled off her.

"Oh my! I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you up." A small, pale hand flashed into her line of vision. She grasped it and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"I really am sorry. It's my first time here, so I was running through the barrier with my eyes closed, I never even saw you." The speaker was a tall, skinny boy with icy blue eyes and light blond hair.

"It's fine," Tessa gasped. "Perhaps we should get out of the way before more people come."

"Uh, right." He grabbed his trunk, then, seeing she was still out of breath, grabbed Tessa's stuff as well. "Lets go find a spot on the train."

Most of the train was all ready packed full of kids, so finding an empty compartment wasn't easy. Finally they found one that was almost empty. Staring out the window was a tall boy with a mass of curly red hair. He didn't look up until the the blond boy slid the door open.

"Do you mind if we sit in here?" he asked politely. The other boy smiled, causing his dimples to deepen.

"Not at all." The blond dumped their stuff on one of the racks over head, then slid into the seat opposite of the red head.

"I'm Theresa Savman," Tessa said, taking a seat next to the blond. "But most people call me Tessa."

"Christopher Weasley," the red head offered, still smiling widely. "But most people call me Chris."

"Really? I met your mother earlier. She helped me through the barrier."

"I'm Ray Malfoy," the blond put in. Suddenly Chris's smile disappeared.

"Malfoy?" he repeated as if he had just swallowed a mouthful of dirt. "Son of Draco Malfoy, by any chance?" Ray frowned, but nodded.

"How did you know?"

"What do you mean, 'How did you know'? He's only the current leader of the dark side."

"What?! My father abandoned me! He can't possibly be leader of 'the dark side', what ever that is. I didn't even now about the wizard world until some guy showed up at my foster parents house with a letter." Chris frowned in confusion.

"Are you trying to say you don't know anything about—, well, about him?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying." His icy blue eyes seemed over bright, and his tone was defensive.

"So what exactly is the dark side?" Tessa interrupted, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Well, it's a lot of wizards and witches that— , uh, I guess they're sort of evil. They don't believe that muggle born kids should be allowed to learn magic and they're against the Ministry of Magic." He scratched his head through red curls, looking thoughtful. "They use to be called Death Eaters and they were led by You-Know-Who— ."

"No I don't," Tessa interrupted.

"What?"

"I don't know who." Chris stared at her, then at Ray.

"You don't know either, do you?" he asked. The blond shook his head. "Never heard of the Dark Lord? Or, well, his real name is—," the door slid open and a tall, sturdy built black girl with black hair that formed tight, bouncy curls came in.

"Hey. Can I sit in here?" she asked in a soft, melodic voice. Tessa smiled.

"Sure," she said. The girl entered and sat down next to Chris.

"I'm Holly Idris," she said. The others all introduced them selves in turn.

"Christopher Weasley."

"Theresa Savman."

"Ray Malfoy."

"Malfoy?" There was the same suspicion in her voice that there had been in Chris's. "Related to Draco Malfoy by any chance?" Ray sighed.

"Yeah. I hear he's not exactly well liked." Holly smiled; she seemed at lot more laid back than Chris.

"That's one way to put it."

"So who is this dark guy anyways?" Tessa asked, picking up the conversation were they had left off.

"Right." Chris cleared is throat, leaning forward and lowering his voice. "His is so feared that few even dare speak his name, even now, 11 years after Professor Potter defeated him. His name was Lord Voldemort," he whispered. Holly wore the same haunted expression as he did. Ray glanced at Tessa.

"Oh. So this guy died, like, before we were born," he sounded almost disappointed.

"Yeah. Thank god. Do you have any clue how evil he was?" Holly never had a chance to tell them just how evil he was, for at that moment a great clatter sounded out side the compartment.

"Anything from the trolley, dears," asked a plump woman, and indeed she pushed a trolley filled with weird looking packages. Holly leaped to her feet.

"Do you guys want anything? My parents gave me some money so I could buy a lunch, but I'm not really hungry." Immediately Chris was on his feat, picking out different kinds of candy. They ended up with a huge pile of food on the table.

"What are these?" Tessa asked, holding up a box filled with little bean looking things. She took one out and sniffed it suspiciously, then quickly shoved it back into the box.

"Ugh. Smells putrid." Holly grinned.

"It's Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. They really do come in every flavour." She grabbed what looked like a brown frog and stuffed it in her mouth.

The rest of the ride was spent eating their way through the piles of weird candy and talking of Hogwarts. Slowly the sun set, and they changed into their long black robes. Finally the train slowed to a halt and everyone got off, filing on to a platform. A huge man with a long mass of wild salt and pepper hair came towards them, waving his arms.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All firs' years!" he called in a massive, booming voice. Chris grinned and sprinted off toward him.

"Couldn't just wait for us other first years, could he," Ray grumbled, looking even more pale than usual. Slowly the other three made their way toward the giant. He was laughing merrily and hugging the small red head hard. Holly raised an eyebrow, looking mildly amused.

"Hagrid you're squashing me," Chris gasped. The giant let go, still grinning.

"I haven't seen ye in a long time, li'l Tyke. How's yer old man Ron doing? Ah, never mind, gotta get all ye over ter the castle. Firs' years! All firs' years over here! Is that all of ye?" He glanced around at the crowed of short people that had gathered around him. "All right. Only four to a boat," he said, pointing at a fleet of small boats that bobbed lightly on the black water. "Go on, get in with ye." He started ushering the reluctant children toward the boats.

Chris, Tessa, Ray and Holly managed to find an empty boat and carefully got in. There was a little water in the bottom that quickly soaked through their shoes. Ray shivered, wrapping his cape tighter around himself. The wind was picking up, spraying more water into the small boat.

"Everyone in?" Hagrid called from his own boat. "Right then. Forward!" The boats started moving across the lake that was steadily growing wilder.

"Looks like a storm's brewing," Hagrid called, looking up at the sky. Dark clouds were swiftly moving in across the moon.

"Full moon," Tessa whispered in awe. "I love the moon."

"Did I mention I hate sailing?" Ray asked. His face was going green and he had wrapped an arm around his stomach. "It makes me sick." He groaned loudly.

"Oh boy. He's gonna puke. That's so gross. Please don't puke in the boat," Chris said, leaning as far away from the blond boy as possible. He groaned again and leaned over the side of the boat. Suddenly they were jolted violently by a large wave. For Ray who was almost half way out of the boat it was enough to send him tumbling into the black water with a loud splash.

"Man over board!" Chris hollered, standing up and waving his arms around wildly, causing the boat to nearly tip.

"Get down!" Holly snapped, yanking at his pant leg. He lost his balance and nearly went the same way as Ray.

"You two stay at that side of the boat," Holly yelled over the howling wind. Then she reached over the side and managed to grab a hold of Ray's cape, cutting off his wind pipe as she pulled him in, then, with surprising ease, lifted him into the boat. He lay there at the bottom of the boat, gasping and spitting up water while his teeth chattering and his whole body shivering uncontrollably, his face nearly blue with cold.

Holly swiftly started yanking off his wet clothes and dumped them in a pile at the bottom of the boat. Tessa went down on her knees to help her.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked, still looking very pale.

"He'll freeze with those wet clothes on. Here, hand me your capes." They all did as Holly ordered, watching as she wrapped the her own cape around him. They hadn't even noticed that the boats had stopped moving and everyone was staring at them.

"Tessa, Chris, try and get his hands warm." They both knelt beside the shivering boy and started rubbing his hands fervently. Hagrid sailed up beside them.

"Is he alright?" he asked, looking ashamed of himself. Holly glanced up.

"Don't you know some spell that can warm him up a bit?" she demanded, looking very annoyed.

"Um, right." He cleared his throat loudly and pointed a pink umbrella at Ray. "Relashio!" Sparks went flying from the tip of his umbrella along with a wave of heat. Tessa raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is that your wand?" she asked. He looked away sheepishly.

"Well, ye know." He chuckled nervously. "Please don't go tellin' anyone," he whispered. "Right then. Shall we sail on?" The boats started moving forward again.

Ray had stopped shivering, but as they started moving over the wild waves again he groaned and sat up.

"I think I'm going to be sick," he said, and was, managing to throw up on Chris's lap.

"Eww! That's so gross!" the red head whined. Holly grinned looking relieved. "What are you smiling about?! How would you like it if it was you sitting here with puke all over you?!" he screamed, but no one was paying him any heed for ahead was the most magnificent sight they had ever seen. A huge castle loomed ahead on top of a cliff, its many towers and the brightly lit windows standing out against the black sky. Hagrid sighed in content.

"There ye have it, yer new home. Welcome ter Hogwarts."