Short chapter. Please R&R!

Disclaimer: The only thing in this story that I did not borrow from J.K Rowling is Rosie, please don't sue me.

"Wizards," I began, trying for the hundredth time to scrape the awful, sour taste off my tongue "Are absolutely mental."

Katie and Angelina, now both dressed in their Hogwarts robes, exchanged expressive glances, and Katie opened her mouth to say something.

"Rosie-"

"Don't bother trying to deny it," I insisted, waving the empty sweet package around distractedly "I mean what sort of twisted mind can come up with an ear wax flavored sweet? I've never met this 'Bertie' chap, but I want to kill him!"

"Rosie-"

"No, no, it's true," I said, leaping up dramatically, over-acting now for fun "This whole thing shows the workings of a fiendish plot!"

"A what?" yelped Angelina, bursting out laughing.

"A plot," I said, not really sure where I was going with this anymore "S'probably some kind of mass-poisoning."

"Yeah, and she thinks that Bertie Botts is mental..." said Katie, sotto voce.

"I heard that!" I said, feigning annoyance and throwing the empty packet at her.

Angelina caught it and threw it back to me, grinning. A queer sort of warmth spread through my body. Friendship. So this is what friendship is like... I'd never really had any friends before. Friends, I have friends... I rolled the word around in my head, trying to find a place for it in all the pain, loneliness, and suppressed anger. Friends. For a moment, the red anger was gone, disappearing completely from my life. No one had ever wanted to be friends with me before. I was a freak, something to be feared and shunned. And then the anger came back, still manageable and distant, but there. But still the flame of friendship seemed to burn in my mind, like a light-house in a storm. Burning. Burning.

"You all right, Rosie?" Angelina's grin had faded, replaced by a look of concern. Katie was peering at me inquisitively, her green eyes wide and surprised.

"I'm fine," I muttered, not meeting my friends' eyes. I pressed my cheek against the cold window pane, and stared out at the dark landscape "I just felt a bit...queer."

In the faint reflection of the window, I saw Angelina begin to shuffle the pack of Exploding Snap Cards. The reflection flickered with every jolt of the train, so that her and Katie's heads bobbed and jerked and their outlines blurred disconcertingly.

I cupped my hands around my eyes in an attempt to disperse the images, and saw that we were slowing down. I could just make out the skeletal outlines of a few tree branches against the sky.

"Alright," said Angelina, pushing her cards into her pocket and grabbing her trunk "This is it."

I followed suit, Katie helping me with Merlin's cage. Her hands shook slightly as she handed him to me, and I noticed that she was chewing he lower lip. Angelina looked fairly confident, but as we pushed our way through the train corridor, I noticed that she was shivering a bit, despite the warmth of the train. My palms were sweating, and I wiped them on my skirt.

We reached an open door, and a blast of cold wind blew my hair away from my face. Angelina went first, vanishing with into the darkness of the outside world without a backwards glance. Katie next, hopping nimbly out. I took a deep breath and uttered a short prayer to whoever happened to be listening. I would be strong. For my mother, I would be strong. The darkness reached out to me, and I jumped into it, ready to face Hogwarts.

Thanks for reading :)