Well, here it is, another chapter. Thank you CaramelBoost, Canoncop and BlckSapphire for your reviews! We're really glad you're enjoying the story!

MEGHAN

"King's Cross?" I exclaimed.

Dad nodded.

"But that's in London! I thought you said that Hogwarts was in Scotland?"

He nodded again. "There is a train that runs from there to Edinburgh's Waverly Station, but first-years aren't allowed to use it."

"But why not?"

He shrugged. "So that they can get to know their classmates, I think. Oh, don't look at me like that, Meg. It's a tradition.

I groaned. Tradition! "So how do you propose to get us down to London in less than half an hour?"

Dad smirked and pointed at the fireplace, where a fire was blazing merrily.

I groaned again, louder this time. I had used Floo powder once before, to get to Alys' house, but it wasn't my favourite form of travel. And Dad knew that very well.

My mum kissed me goodbye as Dad threw some Floo powder into the fire and hoisted my luggage up into our unusually large fireplace. "Enjoy yourself, Meg. Oh yes- I've got something for you."

She pressed a large object that looked a lot like a pocket-watch into my hand. I opened it cautiously, then stared. The clock inside wasn't like a normal clock. It had three hands, each one with a different name on it- the largest said Daniel, the middle one said Gemma and the smallest was labelled Meg -and what would normally be the circle of numbers on the clock was actually symbols; things like a house, a pile of books, a quill and- worryingly- a gravestone.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "What does it do?"

"It tells you what we're all doing," Mum explained. "The symbols mean things- the house, here, means we're at home, and the pile of books-"

"What's that?" I interrupted, pointing to the gravestone.

"Mortal peril," Dad said, coming up behind me. "But I wouldn't worry too much about that one. I don't think you'll ever see one of us pointing towards it."

He looked down at me and smiled. "Ready, Meg?"

I nodded. "Ready!"

He nodded, stepped into the fire and shouted, "King's Cross Apparition Point!"

He vanished in a whirl of flame.

I turned around and hugged Mum fiercely. Now the time had come to leave, I suddenly felt unready and had to force myself to let Mum go. "I love you!" I said, trying to ignore the sudden lump in my throat.

She smiled, and I saw that her eyes were glistening. "I love you too. Now, enjoy yourself! And don't forget to write!"

I gave her one last hug, then threw in a handful of powder, stepped into the warm fire and shouted, "King's Cross Apparition Point!"

ALYS

I stepped out of the fire at almost the exact same time as Meg stumbled out two fireplaces away from me.

"Hey, Meg!" I called, waving to her. She was looking around at the room. The only decoration was a line of fireplaces on one side of the room and a plain wooden door on the other. Every so often someone would tumble out of a fire or Apparate with a faint pop.

"Alys! Why-"

"No time for questions. Come on!" I grabbed her arm and led her outside, into the Muggle station, where our dads were talking happily and leaning on our trunks. People bustled us, not looking at the door. I guessed that it was like the Leaky Cauldron and couldn't be seen by Muggles.

"Right, then," said my father, rubbing his hands together. "Ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied. Meg made a noncommittal noise.

As our fathers made off towards platforms 9 and 10, I fell back to talk to Meg. "Nervous?" I asked sympathetically. "I'm feeling a bit the same way myself."

She nodded, uncomfortable. "It's all this magic," she started out awkwardly. "Everyone seems so used to it- you, Lee, Angelina, even my mum, and she's a Muggle. But I feel really out of my depth. And I'm going to a school of magic…"

"What you need to do is…" I hesitated, trying to find the words to express my thoughts. "You need to remember that although we seem used to all of this, our parents hardly let us touch a wand until we got our own. You have an advantage, you know how to survive without magic. I mean, I went to a Muggle school and I still can't use a telephone." I grinned. "I told everyone it was because we couldn't get good enough reception. Anyway, there are heaps of people like you. So don't worry."

We'd now reached the barrier that separated Platforms 9 & 10. I looked expectantly at my dad, who took my arm and we ran at the barrier. Despite the fact that I'd been assured that we'd get through, I was convinced that we would slam into the barrier.

To my relief we did not crash. We went right through and reappeared at a station on the other side. A red train puffed smoke and students swarmed the platform.

A moment after we came through, Meg and her father burst through the barrier. Meg's eyes were tightly screwed shut, but as I watched she opened them and gasped softly.

I sidled up to her. "Amazing or what?"

She laughed, a little unsteadily. "Wow!"

I turned to my dad who looked at me proudly and pulled me into a big hug. "My little girl's growing up. Promise me you'll write."

I was having trouble breathing but managed, "I promise. He let me go and beamed at me, as if he could see into the future and was sure that I'd do great things.

He pulled me into another rib-breaking hug, and I saw over his shoulder that Meg was in the same predicament. We were let go and shooed towards the train.

There was an empty compartment near the door. We stowed our trunks away. Then we leaned out the window to say a last goodbye.

"Now." Meg's father put on a mock stern look. "Try to stay out of trouble."

"Or, if you can't, then try and blame it on someone else," my dad winked at us. The whistle blew and they stepped away from the train, both bellowing over the noise, "Have FUN!"

The train started to move. We waved frantically, but they soon disappeared from sight.

We were finally off to Hogwarts…