Another month, another chapter... oops! So sorry that it took me so long to update but I have great excuses if anyone wants to hear them ;) Nonetheless here is Chapter 4, fresh off the keyboard especially for you!

Thanks to my favourite reviewer WhatsTheTimeMrWolf and to my muses Luxembourgsbucktoothedgirl and EmFelton7 3


Rose's words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity. The train pulled into a small and simply furnished station from which the Castle was not quite visible. There was a line of trees visible out of the window, and in the moonlight I thought I could see water behind them- a lake perhaps?

Roxie broke the silence, "I heard we get to the school in carriages that are pulled by invisible horses."

Em shook her head, "My brother told me the first years travel by boat across the Black Lake."

"James told me we have to tame a troll on our very first day or else they won't let us join the school," whispered Rose. Roxie laughed immediately.

"You're going on the word of James?"

Rose smiled, "Good point. I should probably stop believing everything he says."

Eleanor stood, picked up her cat basket and started towards the door.

"Err, Eleanor?" I said quickly.

"Yes?" she turned to face me.

I pointed at her trunk, abandoned in the corner. She looked at me.

"What? Someone will come to collect it."

Rose shook her head, "No they won't. You have to take it out onto the platform."

Eleanor pouted and stomped back to her trunk, grabbing the handle with one hand and holding Maleficent's crate with the other. She shuffled backwards and dragged it out the door and into the throngs of students spilling out onto the platform. Rose rolled her eyes and spoke to Roxie.

"I give her a few days at the least before someone takes her down a peg or two."

Roxie snorted, "I sure as hell hope she's not in my dormitory." She looked around for her trunk and then remembered.

"Rose! Our trunks are back in our compartment!"

Rose groaned, "With James and the rest of them."

They pushed out into the corridor without another word and were out of sight almost immediately.

Em and I sat still for a few moments.

"Well," said Em, "They were something."

I nodded, "Absolutely. They seemed friendly though. I was a bit worried that people would think I was weird for not knowing anything about magic."

"I was worried I wouldn't even be magic," said Em, "My brother found out that it can be random in Muggles. It wasn't definite that I'd be magical just because he was."

She sighed and stood up, pulling her case out from under the bench.

"But here we are," I said.

"Ready to battle a troll?" she grinned at me. I laughed.

"Absolutely."

We pushed our trunks out into the corridor. I balanced Chula's cage on top of my trunk and heaved it off the train and onto a small platform. A sign above the small building at the station read 'Hogsmeade Station'.

"Hogsmeade," said Em, "What a strange name."

I nodded in agreement and pulled my trunk backwards, further onto the platform. Forgetting to look where I was going, I bumped into another person holding their own heavy trunk. I shrieked as I bounced off the other, taller person and fell to the floor. Chula's cage rattled as it slid off my trunk and hit the stone platform loudly.

The catch snapped open and Chula hopped out, spreading her wings and soaring up and away from the platform.

"Chula!" I yelled as she flew away, "Come back!"

"Don't panic," a voice behind me said. I spun around, realising the voice was from the person I had bumped into. He was wiry and looked older than me, with dark messy hair and glasses. He held a hand out towards me.

"James Potter," he said as I shook his hand.

"Charley Pearson. Where is my owl going?" I said quickly, still panicking a little.

"Probably to the Owlery. She looks intelligent; it won't be hard for her to pick up the scent of other owls and realise that's her new home." He bent down and picked up her cage, re-latching the door and placing it back onto my trunk.

"Oh. Thanks." I said, slightly more reassured.

"Here, I'll send mine after her if that makes you feel better." James grabbed his own cage from behind his trunk and released his larger owl into the sky. It followed mine into the sky, barely visible against the darkness.

"Sherlock will look after her." He sounded quite certain and I found myself believing him.

"Sherlock? As in Holmes?" I asked.

"Yes," he smiled at me, "I'm guessing you're Muggleborn?"

I nodded, "How did you guess?"

"Not very many other people would get that reference. Even my family didn't understand until I made them read the books."

I smiled back at him, "It's a great name. I loved those books. Arthur Conan Doyle was a true genius."

He opened his mouth to speak when a dark boy a few metres away called his name loudly.

"James, hurry up or all the carriages will be gone!"

He smiled at me.

"See you round Charley."

I stood there, slightly weak in the knees. He had looked very familiar.

Before I could dwell on the boy any longer, a high voice started calling across the small and crowded platform.

"First years! First years! All first years to me!" The voice was pleasant and female and when I turned towards it I spotted Rose and Roxie heaving their trunks towards one corner of the platform. I followed suit and, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness outside, I was able to make out the tall lady who had called all the first years together.

She was slender and tall with short dark hair and eyes that proclaimed no devil. She seemed to rise above all of us and made me feel quite small inside.

"First years: please leave your trunks here and follow me to the boats." She turned and walked down a small pathway I hadn't noticed before.

The whispers started immediately.

"Boats?" hissed Rose, turning to me. "Did Auntie Angelina say boats?"

"Auntie Angelina?" I replied, "Did you just say Auntie Angelina?"

Even in the darkness I could see Roxie turn pink as Rose looked at her.

"Oops. Sorry Roxie."

Roxie sighed and crossed her arms.

"You could barely make it five minutes without spilling the beans. Charley was quite possibly the only one who didn't know and now you've ruined it!" She stalked off down the path and away from us.

I looked at Rose blankly.

"Roxie's mum is my dad's sister-in-law. That was Roxie's mum," Rose explained.

"And why is she here?" I replied.

"Because she's the Flying Professor."

"And Roxie didn't want anyone to know?"

"Everyone knows already- Aunt Angelina was a professional Quidditch player before she was born and then decided to teach at Hogwarts. Only muggle-borns wouldn't know that." Rose sighed, "She asked me not to tell, but it just slipped out."

I nodded and then suddenly realised- we were the only two left on the platform. The older students had vanished just as quickly as the line of first years filing down the path had.

"Quick!" I said, pulling Rose by the arm down the overgrown path. We stumbled along in the dark for almost a minute until we caught up with the rest of our group.

We had arrived at the side of a large, dark lake, and the whole of Hogwarts Castle was before us. There were stone pillars and arches and turrets climbing into the midnight sky above. Lights flickered in the windows and I was almost certain I could see a few owls circling one of the largest turrets. Was that the Owlery James had mentioned?

The crowd in front of me and Rose dispersed. All of the other first years were climbing into small boats lit by floating lanterns. All at once the full boats moved away from the water's edge and began their slow journey across the lake. Rose and I hurried forwards, towards the only boat not completely full.

Two boys sat on one side of the boat, neither speaking nor looking at each other. Rose stepped into the boat first and promptly fell onto the brown-haired one, who gave a startled cry as she landed on him. He helped her up and onto the seat opposite him.

"Sorry." Rose mumbled, hiding her face behind her curly red hair.

I stepped in smoothly behind her and as soon as I sat our boat began to follow the others.

I looked at Rose, who was very interested in one of her corkscrew curls and didn't seem to be willing to hold a conversation. I cleared my throat and extended a hand towards the boy in front of me.

"Charley Pearson."

He looked at my hand as if in shock, and then shook it slowly.

"Scorpius Malfoy."

Rose made a small choking sound next to me. He turned his head to look at her.

"And no doubt; you must be a Weasley." Scorpius spoke with a slight accent, as if he had spent some time abroad. He had white-blonde hair and very green eyes. I found it quite hard to stop staring at them: they were so green.

Rose straightened herself and flicked her hair back behind her shoulders. She glared at Scorpius.

"Rose Weasley, and I know exactly who you are too."

Scorpius didn't reply, but he also didn't look away. The two of them were engaged in a silent staring match and I sighed, turning to the other boy who seemed just as confused as I was.

"Charley," I repeated, shaking his hand.

"Alexander McGee," he replied quickly.

I smiled. "How much do you know about Hogwarts? I'm clueless."

He shrugged and picked at a loose thread on his robe sleeve.

"I'm a half-blood so my Dad has told me quite a lot, but my Mum didn't want me to come. She said it was too dangerous."

I opened my mouth to reply, but Scorpius had already joined in.

"I'm a pureblood, and Rose here is a half-blood."

I looked at him, "How do you know that?"

Rose answered, "He knows an awful lot about me evidently. Our parents hate each other."

Scorpius rolled his eyes but didn't speak, instead resuming his silent staring contest with Rose.

I drummed my fingers on the side of the boat. The conversation had ended rather awkwardly.

A few minutes later the boat bumped against another dock. I was glad to get out of the boat and even more glad to spot Em a little further up the dock.

"It was lovely to meet you," I aimed at Scorpius and Alexander, a hint of sarcasm in my voice. Rose still seemed preoccupied with Scorpius so I shuffled over to Em. She smiled and gestured towards a boy standing beside her.

"Albus, this is my lovely friend Charley that I was telling you about. Charley, this is Albus Potter. He sat next to me during the boat ride over."

I smiled at him. "I'm glad you two enjoyed the ride- I was stuck with an introvert and two people who hated each other as soon as they learned each other's names."

At that very moment Rose stormed up to our small group.

"I hate Scorpius Malfoy already, and we've only been at Hogwarts for an hour!"

"Speak of the devil." I spoke towards Emily.

Albus reached out and hugged Rose, "Don't worry about it Posey. Don't let him get to you- your Dad told me all about his family."

Emily and I looked at them.

"Well, I guess you two have already met." I said.

Rose nodded, "Albus' mother is my aunt and his father is my parent's best friend."

I smiled. "How many people around Hogwarts do you know? It seems that round every corner is a friend or an enemy."

"That's the Weasleys," Albus laughed, "They tend to multiply."

Rose's brow was furrowed and she began to tick names off on her fingers.

"Well I have three cousins in the year above, two cousins in this year, Auntie Angie works here and so does Uncle Neville-"

"Not our real Uncle." Albus cut in.

"-and your sister and my brother will be starting next year," Rose continued, "and cousin Louis will be starting the year after that, and then we also know most of the teaching staff through my Mum, and Lucy and Molly and Teddy are in the top years here."

I blinked. "How many of you are there?"

"Twelve."

"Although James and Lily and I aren't strictly Weasleys," said Albus, "And Teddy isn't a Weasley or a Potter, but he's family nonetheless."

We started walking up towards the castle with the rest of our year. Em and I were a little stunned at the sheer size of that family. I was an only child- I couldn't fathom having that many children in one family, even if they were cousins!

We walked in silence behind Albus and Rose, who were chattering away about some Christmas they'd spent together at a place they called "the Burrow".

As the path grew steeper I heard a few students behind me trip and fall. I turned to help one of them up, and was surprised to see Scorpius Malfoy on the floor in the dark. I offered him a hand and he took it gingerly, allowing me to pull him back up onto his feet. I smiled at him and he smiled back.

Em had stopped too.

"Hi," she said quickly, "I'm Emily."

"Scorpius Malfoy." he replied.

Scorpius fell in beside us as we scrambled up the last and steepest part of the path. As we did so, Hogwarts castle loomed in front of us, bigger than I could have ever imagined. I could now see that the flickering lights were candles floating by the window panes. Em had noticed the same thing and she whispered to me.

"My brother said that Muggle inventions don't work in Hogwarts so they don't have electricity."

Scorpius nodded, "Almost all of the castle is lit by candlelight, except the Slytherin common room."

I looked at him strangely.

"How do you know that?"

He shrugged, "Both my parents were in Slytherin." He walked off towards the castle and Em and I were left standing there.

I recalled something Em had said on the train, "Didn't your brother say that all Slytherins..." I tailed off, staring after Scorpius.

Em nodded.

"There's not a dark wizard in Britain that wasn't in Slytherin house."

We both watched the blonde boy file in through the large, wooden front doors of the castle. I gulped.

"I suppose we should go in then."

Em nodded and out of the corner of my eye I could see her shaking a little. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"How bad can it be?" I asked, trying to not let the fear inside me show in my voice. Still gripping each other's hands tightly, Em and I followed suit and stepped inside Hogwarts for the very first time.