MMM: So here's chapter 3. As promised on the 19th of November. So let's do this! Anya, would you like the honor?

AC: Thanks! *turns to audience* I am a creation of megamatchmaker, along with my family and American friends and everything that are part of my life directly. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter franchise. *turns to author* Hang on a sec! Doesn't that make you my mother?

MMM: No!... At least, I don't think so... Maybe?

AC: *huffs* Whatever. And another thing- I'm suppose to fall in love with Draco Malfoy? What's up with that? He's disgusting!

MMM: *smiles* You think that now, but wait 'til you're older. You won't be so disgusted by guys then. Besides, you haven't even met him yet, so don't go judging him.

AC: *huffs* Fine. But as long as I get to kick his butt at one point before you make me all lovey-dovey with him.

MMM: I'll do you better- you'll get to embarass him, talk down at him, and rough him up a little bit. Then the 'lovey-dovey' feeling will set in.

AC: Really?

MMM: Yes, really. Now stop interrupting the nice readers so they can continue the story.

AC: OK! Bye! *runs off happily*

Ch. 3 Trains

The remainder of summer vacation went by very quickly for young Anya. When she had told her friends that she was going to be going to another school for the entire year, they had become determined that they would all spend as much time together as they could. They spent the days going to the beach, bowling, and other things. And during the evening, Anya would sit in the living room with her parents and read a few pages from one of her school books out loud to them.

Anya was so fascinated by the different things that were in her school books; so much that she would actually stay up late at night hidden under her bed sheets with a flashlight in hand. The only times where'd she'd actually turn it off for the night were when she got too tired to keep reading or when her owl- whom she had named Starshine- would start hooting and wake up her parents and they'd come to check on her.

A week before the first of September eventually rolled around and Anya received another letter from the school; this one containing the ticket for the school train. The ticket read 'Platform 9 3/4' of King Cross Station, but when she looked it up online Anya couldn't find any platform with that number. Figuring that it was a magic thing, she simply shrugged it off and tucked the envelope away for safe keeping.

"I really wish you weren't leaving tomorrow!" Irene practically wailed as she, her sister, and Anya swam around in the pool located in the Holt's backyard the next day. Irene was always the more theatrical of the two twins and she would always find some excuse to do so. "We'll never see you again!"

Anya just rolled her eyes at her friend's behaviour before splashing her. "Oh come off it Iry!" she sighed as she pulled herself out of the pool. "I'm only going to be gone for a school year then come back for summer. And I'm coming home for Christmas and March break, and I've already promised to write every single day," she added, wrapping herself in her huge purple Tinkerbelle towel. "What more do you want from me?"

"Just ignore her Anya," Emily said as she got out of the pool only to walk over to the diving board. "She's just practising before school starts so she can try out for the drama club," she added before making one of the best dives a twelve year old could make.

"Drama club?" Anya's eyebrows nearly shot straight up to her hairline as she asked that question. "Irene Holt, you've been a part of the drama club since we were seven! Why would need practise?"

"'Cause apparently there's some new teacher that's in charge of the club and he wants everyone to audition for it and then he'll choose the best," was her answer. Anya just shook her head in amusement before the twins' mother came outside with a large pizza box.

It was the next day that she and her parents all boarded the plane that would take them back to London and wait out the few days left of summer time.

,:~:,

When the first finally rolled around, Anya was extremely hyper. She had already packed her new trunk with everything she needed, cleaned and polished Starshine's cage twice, and woken up three hours earlier than needed. After a quick breakfast of bacon sandwiches and hash browns- all of which Anya had very little of due to a jittery stomach- Anya and her parents left the hotel for the train station, Anya eagerly hopping up and down in her seat the entire ride. On arriving, they lugged all of Anya's things onto one of the trolleys and started walking around the place, trying to find the right platform. They even tried asking one of the guards working there and he simply laughed in their faces before walking off.

"Now what?" Anya asked her parents worriedly. The last thing she wanted to do was miss the train and be late for school. "Oh man! I really wish we hadn't left that jar of Floo Powder back home!"

"Now sweetie, you just need to calm down," Nicole told her daughter. "I'm sure we'll figure something out. We just need to be patient."

"Patient?" Anya whipped the ticket out of her pocket. "Mom, this says that the train leaves at exactly eleven o'clock. What if I can't get there after? What if they don't accept tardy students? What if-?"

"Anya, pumpkin!" Rick nearly shouted over the noises around him as he knelt down and gently took his daughter by the shoulders. "Just take a deep breath and relax." Once she had done as her father told her, he continued. "Alright. Now there has to be someone here that can help us with this little problem. The last thing that we need to do is go and lose our heads, alright?" As he said this, Anya looked over his shoulder to see a familiar mane of bushy brown hair.

"Hermione!" she squealed as she dashed past her parents to her friend where she wrapped her arms around her in the biggest bear hug she could manage. "Man, am I happy to see you!"

"So am I!" Hermione answered as best as she could; Anya's arms were wrapped around her neck and squeezing tighter with each passing second. "But I do miss being able to breathe a little more at the moment!" Anya's arms instantly removed themselves from her person as she backed away, the poor girl's face as bright and red as a tomato which quickly disappeared when she looked over Hermione's shoulder.

Standing right behind her was a rather short and plump looking boy, with a cute rounded face framed with dark locks and ears that were a little larger than average and big brown eyes. Standing beside him was an older woman talking with Hermione's parents. She was dressed in green robes with a fox-fur scarf wrapped around her neck, a very… intriguing hat that had a dead vulture resting on top of it, and a bright red handbag swung on her arm. The Grangers looked slightly fearful of her.

"Oh, sorry!" Hermione squeaked, bringing Anya's attention back. "This is Neville Longbottom. He's going to be starting school with us this year. Neville, this is my friend Anya Collins," she introduced him, beckoning him over.

"Hello," Neville said in a slightly trembling voice and held a hand out "Nice to meet you."

"Hi Neville!" Anya smiled her usual megawatt smile as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you! So how do you know Hermione?"

"We just bumped into each other… really," Hermione quickly answered.

"She's just being nice. I accidentally tripped over my feet and tumbled into her," Neville corrected her, his ears slowly turning pink.

"Neville here was actually just telling me how to get to the platform, actually," Hermione continued, clearly wanting to avoid any details and judging by Neville's face, neither did he.

"That's great! We were heading that way too!" Anya smiled again, motioning back at her parents before turning back to Neville with an embarrassed expression. "By the way, how do you get on the platform? Where is it?"

So after being shown the hidden passageway to platform 9 ¾- where they all had to literally walk straight at the wall of an archway between platforms 9 and 10- Anya hugged her parents goodbye since they had to take an early flight back home and lugged her extra bag and Starshine's cage on the train, leaving her massive trunk with all the others lined up along the end of the platform where a few workers were loading them on board. When Hermione found an empty compartment, she, Anya and Neville all sat down.

"Man this is so cool!" Anya cheered as she looked out to the massive crowd on the platform, the swirls of muggle clothing and wizard robes blending in perfection. "This is going to be so much fun!" When she turned back to talk to her friends, Anya saw Hermione was struggling to pull her uniform out of her bag. "Um… Hermione? What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm going to go put my robes on," Hermione answered, tugging her black skirt out of her luggage.

"Hermione, we haven't even left the platform yet! You don't have to change yet!" Anya sighed, knowing that Hermione would do whatever she pleased whether Anya said something or not. After half a summer of sending letters back and forth, Anya quickly learnt that not only was Hermione quite the bookworm, but she was also very determined and never backed down from anything once she set her mind to it. Besides, Anya wasn't really one to talk; she had arrived at the platform already dressed in her grey pants and white blouse, her black sweater vest, robes, and tie all shoved into her carry-on bag. The only thing that wasn't really a part of her uniform was her neon pink sneakers with equally bright green laces.

So when Hermione just shrugged and walked out of the compartment, Anya didn't try to stop her. Instead, she turned to Neville, who looked a little uncomfortable as he stared out the window. "Hey Neville, is everything alright? You look a little… nervous," Anya stated. He had been very quiet since he introduced himself, but Anya figured that he was just shy. When Neville didn't answer, she simply sat back in her seat and fiddling with the cuff of her shirt.

"You don't have to pretend you know," Neville's meek voice suddenly spoke up, catching Anya by surprise. "I know you're only being nice to me because you feel like you should… but it's alright. I won't hold it against you if you decide to not speak to me once we get to school."

"What do you mean Neville?" she asked him, hardly daring to believe what she was hearing. "Why would I do a thing like that?"

"Because I know I'm not someone that anyone would want to be friends with. I mean look at me," he gestured to himself. "I'm a terrible wizard, I'm always forgetting even the smallest things, and I'm practically scared of everything. Who would want to be friends with me?"

Anya gave him a small smile, though he didn't see it, and reached over and took his hand in hers. "I would," she whispered, bringing the young boy's attention back to her.

"So what if you tend to forget things from time to time? Everyone does; it's not uncommon. As for the being scared? Again, not uncommon. Everyone is scared of something. Sometimes they're even scared of more than one thing! That doesn't mean that it makes you terrible friend quality; it just means that you aren't some emotionless creep with a stick shoved so far up their butt that it comes out of their nose." Anya was able to get a small chuckle out of him, causing another megawatt smile to appear on her face.

"And as for being a 'terrible' wizard, can I just say that I find that highly unlikely?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean at least you probably know at least something about the school we're going to. Me? I don't know the first thing about the magical world. I'm muggleborn. I've lived in New York City all my life, I've gone to nothing but muggle schools, and the only things about magic I heard about were in fairy tales and books. Out of the two of us, if anyone was the terrible 'wizard'," Anya air quoted the word wizard with her fingers, "it would be me."

"You?" Neville asked in a shocked tone. "But you're so nice! I mean from what I know of you. How could you be a terrible wiz- I mean, terrible witch?" he corrected the last part when he saw the look on Anya's face. "And you just seem so perfect, like nothing could ever get you down. And-"

"So how is it exactly that I can be the absolutely wonderful person at first glance but you supposedly aren't fit to even be my friend?" Anya interrupted, crossing her arms with a triumphant grin on her face as she leaned back in her seat.

Neville looked at her perplexed, and when he kept going to make some sort of comeback, he would only start to talk before stopping midsentence. He then smiled; realizing what it was Anya was trying to point out, finally accepted what she was saying.

By the time Hermione finally came back to the compartment, the train had just left the platform and Anya was telling Neville about when she and the Holt twins had sneaked into the principal's office and switched the school's bell music for 'Rockin' Robin' back in third grade.

"When my parents came out of that office, they acted like I was in really big trouble," Anya finished, "but they told me that they preferred the song choice we chose over the shrill, annoying ringing that the bell originally made as we were driving home!" This got the young boy laughing so hard that if he had been drinking something, it would have come out of his nose.

"Ok, so I've been talking for nearly an hour and a half straight and I've got to say that I'm out of conversation bits," Anya piped up a little while later, lightly rubbing her neck in soft circles. "How about I give someone else a shot at the table?" Just as she said this however, a short, dimpled woman came along the corridor, pushing a trolley.

"Anything sweet off the trolley for you, dearies?" the elderly woman smiled at them.

"Sure!" Anya cheered, suddenly realizing just how hungry she was now. She grabbed the small pouch of extra wizarding money that her parents had given her for the term and walked over to see what there was.

She had expected to see stuff like Oh Henry bars or Skittles or maybe even gummy bears, but there weren't any. Instead, there were things like Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and other oddly-named items. Finally, Anya just decided to buy three of everything, along with a large bottle of pumpkin juice and brought her trove into the compartment.

"Thank you ma'am!" Anya grinned as she handed over the correct money to the older woman. "Have a nice day!"

"You too, my dear," the woman smiled in return before continuing down the corridor. Anya just smiled at the woman once more before closing the door on the compartment and sitting down in her seat.

"Come on you guys, dig in," she told Hermione and Neville as she reached into her bag and pulled out three sheets of paper and some tape, rolling them up to form three paper cups and taping them shut.

"You didn't have to buy us anything Anya," Neville stated.

"I know I didn't have to, I wanted to- two totally different things," Anya answered, pouring some of the pumpkin juice into the cups and passing them out. "This is what I always do for my friends. Call it my 'friendship buffet'." She then held up her make-due glass. "Here's to friendship!"

"To friendship!" Neville and Hermione both cheered.

The three friends spent the rest of the train ride enjoying their treats. After finding out that there was every type of flavour in the Bertie Bott's beans, Hermione refused to even touch them and stuck with the Cauldron cakes and other items. Unsurprisingly, Anya was the first one to tear into a box. Anya wound up trying chocolate, strawberry cheesecake, coconut, peppermint, and buttered toast while Neville got things like earwax, vomit, and other disgusting flavours.

"Ugh! Alright, how do you keep getting the good ones and I get the ones that are sickening?" Neville complained as he tried spitting out the dirt flavour from his mouth. Anya just shrugged and carelessly popped another bean into her mouth, the sweet flavour of candied apples spreading on her tongue.

"Just lucky, I guess," she grinned. As she looked outside the window, Anya saw that the sky was far darker then she had thought it was. "Shoot!" she said, jumping out of her seat and began tugging the rest of her uniform out of her bag. "Hey Neville, I think you should go get ready. We'll probably be there soon," she told him, but when he didn't seem to be paying attention, she turned around to see Neville looking under his seat. "Something wrong Neville?"

"Trevor's gone!" he cried.

"Who's Trevor?" Hermione asked, looking around for… something.

"My pet toad. He was sleeping in my jacket pocket before! He must have jumped out at some point!" The look on Neville's face was unmistakably tearful.

"Alright Neville, now don't panic!" Anya tried soothing him. "Everything will be alright. Hermione," she addressed the other girl, "why don't you go down the corridor; see if anyone might have seen a toad that they shouldn't have seen. Neville and I will go the other way and do the same. OK team, let's move out! We've got ourselves a toad to find!"

Anya and Neville stopped at every compartment, poking their heads in and asking if anyone had seen Neville's missing toad, the dread growing on Neville's face with each answer of denial. By the time they reached the front compartments, Anya could see an outline of a little village in the distance.

"Neville, I think we should get ready," she told the boy. "Don't worry. I'm sure someone will have found Trevor and will bring him to the school with us. You just have to keep faith, alright?" She received a weak nod, but was able to bring him back to the compartment.

,:~:,

Anya was proved to be correct. After being shown the way to the boats that would bring them to the school by a very large man by the name of Hagrid, Trevor had been found in one boat. Though Anya didn't really notice; she had been too taken by the amazing castle that stood on top of the high mountain before them, its many turrets and towers cutting through the night sky.

"Alright then ye'all! Let's go!" Hagrid's booming voice spoke over the group of first years, showing them the way into the beautiful monument.

AC: A castle? I'm studying at a castle? Awesome!

MMM: Yeah I know. Talk about lucky.

AC: And Neville seems like a nice guy. Little shy, but nice.

NL: Who says I'm shy?

MMM: *turns to Neville* Well, you kind of are shy... but it suits you!

NL: *blushes*

AC: See? That's adorable!

DM: And where do I come in? I thought this story was about me too?

AC: Yeah, and when do I get to beat him up?

MMM: *laughs* That's it for now, people! Next chapter will be up on the 26th of November! See you then! Don't forget to click on that button on the bottom! Yeah, that one! 'Review this Chapter'! Click on it, please!

Nancy (aka megamatchmaker)