In all the years of her education at Hogwarts Phia never looked forward to returning to the castle. To her, school was no home. She never felt she belonged into the wizarding world. But she was trapped by her own powers, her skills and intelligence. And the moment she would set off to board the Hogwarts Express, she would long for her family, the loved ones she had to leave behind.

The seventh year, however, was an exception. Hestia and Phia had kept in touch all the way through the summer and after a lot of persuasion, the younger girl finally agreed to sit in the Gryffindor's compartment on their way back to Hogwarts. They had coincidently met in Diagon Alley the week beforehand and surprisingly enough Hestia's friends, Marlene and Mary, were by no means ill-disposed towards Phia. Hestia must've workedsome of her magic on her friends, pledging for her new friend's good character.
Phia approached the platform 9 3 /4 with a loudly thumping heart, full of excitement and anxiety.
Her brother noticed her tense form and put a reassuring arm around her.
Yet again, he was the only one see her off, her parents never dared to go near wizarding folk, too scared that they would stand out, especially after they had taken on reading the articles regarding the disappearances of muggle families in the The Daily Prophet.

'Don't be scared, cupcake. You'll be fine. This Hestia girl seemed nice enough to me.', he cooed silently, pressing a kiss into the crown of her hair.
'Mh.' She couldn't say anything more than that, her anxiety was starting to take over.

'Phia!', a familiar voice cried. The small girl turned around, and sure enough Hestia Jones flung herself onto Phia, ruffling her short dark hair.
'You're late, my little bundle of joy! We've been waiting for you.', the cheerful Gryffindor said in a sing-song voice. 'Let's get to our compartment.'
'I'll just say good-bye to my brother, I'll be there in a minute.', Phia assured in a much quieter voice.
Hestia, still amused by the shyness of her little friend, squeezed the younger girls cheeks.
'Fine, I'll wait for you.'
With a small sigh Phia turned to face her brother, her dark eyes growing sad.
'Don't look at me like that, cupcake. It's not that long until Christmas. And this time around I will send you letters with that damn owl of yours.', Jasper laughed, squeezing his little sister into a bone-crushing hug.
'Look after yourself, Jazz, will you? And keep an eye on Mum and Dad.', the girl murmured into his chest.
He pressed another kiss onto her head.
'Don't worry about us. You're the one that needs watching. Take care, cupcake.'
He stroked her back one last time before releasing her and gently pushing her towards Hestia.
'Have a good term, you little bookworm.', he grinned and saluted before turning on his heels. Phia watched his retreating back for a moment until she snapped back into reality and fully concentrated herself on the task at hand.
She had to somehow put up with a bunch of giggling seventh years for the whole day and possibly those ahead. It would take a lot of patience from her side to endure that.
Hestia held out her hand and smiled.
'Let's go.'
Phia gladly took it and followed Hestia through the crowd, never discarding her heavy trunk and her barn owl, Ansgard.

They boarded the train and a bunch of male Gryffindors, one of whom Phia recognized as Frank Longbottom offered to hoist the trunk into the compartment, which the girls, of course, gladly accepted. Once the compartment door opened, Phia's heart began to beat so loud that she could hear it in her ears, but she tried her best to put on a composed posture.
Hestia smiled a little at this, noticing Phia's struggle, but said nothing. She would loosen up eventually.

'There you are, Hest! Hey Phia.', Mary was the first to greet them, getting up from her seat and enveloping both, Hestia and Phia, into a hug. The latter had to hide her blush, but smiled appreciatively. Mary had been incredibly nice to her ever since Phia had taken care of her earlier in the summer.
Marlene followed suit, also in favor of the girl after she had seen how she had hoisted the drunken Mary up and into her bed without a single complaint.
The other two girls in the compartment were Alice Prewett and Lily Evans, both whom she was already familiar with due to them visiting the library more often than the average Gryffindor.
They greeted each other in a friendly manner and after the boys had ever so graciously stored Phia's trunk inside the baskets they all sat down comfortably, waiting for the Hogwarts Express to leave the platform.

The ride passed by comfortably for Phia, the girls weren't half as 'bad' as she would've thought, though they had their gushy moments, but what else would you expect from a bunch of adolescents?
The Gryffindors tried their best to engage the younger Ravenclaw in their conversations and she gladly accepted, trying her best to open up to them.
Hestia became her anchor, covering up Phia's shy behavior at times and making sure there wouldn't be any awkwardness. The amount of gratitude Phia felt for Hestia in that moment was inestimable, since she still wasn't used to such kindness, especially coming from 'outsiders'.
She also realized that Lily Evans was easily one of the most admirable people she had ever met and somehow seemed to comprehend why James Potter was so incredibly hung up on her.
She was not only book-smart as hell, but also very witty and frank, and yet, undoubtedly friendly. Not to mention that she was a definite looker with her pretty face and gorgeous auburn hair.
And speaking of the devil, just in that moment when those thoughts had popped into her mind, said male Gryffindor barged into the compartment, followed by his trusty companions.

"Well, if that isn't our dearest petal? Don't look at me like that, I know you've missed my presence throughout the whole summer, Evans, but here I am, yours truly, intending to grace your senses with my phenomenal looks again.", James prattled in a snotty manner, causing Lily's expression to darken considerably, her brows furrowing.
"What do you want, Potter?", Lily hissed, her voice unmistakably hostile.
This didn't faze James in any way, he seemed to shrug comments like that off as though they were nothing. Phia scrutinized him, trying to read his posture. She thought she saw something flicker in his eyes, but it appears he was quite the actor when it came to rejections.
"I merely wish to greet you, now that the new term is about to begin. On top of that, you might want to be informed about this", he pointed to the golden badge on his chest.
Lily stared, her eyes almost falling out of the sockets.
"You've got to be kidding me.", Alice murmured, looking almost as shocked as Lily.
"You're Head Boy?", Hestia managed to choke out.
"This has to be some kind of joke. Is Dumbledore nuts?", Mary exclaimed.

"Mary, I'm beginning to doubt whether he ever was sane to begin with.", Phia replied with an amused smile, her eyebrows arched.
James' head snapped around, surprised. Apparently he hadn't noticed her before. (And she couldn't blame him - nobody would look at her, if she was surrounded by this number of good-looking girls.)
His friends, who had remained silent until now, regarded her with their gazes, only Remus and, oddly enough, Sirius seeming unfazed by her presence.
Phia felt pressured under their sudden attention and wished instantly that she had just shut up in the first place. Where were the time-turners when you needed them?

"Well, look who we have here? What brings the most honorable student of Hogwarts to this scenery?", James grinned widely at her, and she wasn't exactly sure how she should interpret his words and posture. He didn't seem hostile. But this was James Potter. You never knew with him.
"It's a train, Potter, and I don't think I need your consent on where I should sit or not.", she simply stated and became startled by her own voice, for it had lost its former neutrality. Even she couldn't miss the hint of slight irritation.
James looked quite dumbfounded, and so did the others. Remus shrunk back slightly, in fear of an outburst – he knew all too well that those could be wicked. A certain memory of Phia in the library, silently fuming, and books ripping themselves to shreds in the air popped into his mind.
The girls, however, and especially Mary and Hestia, were rather amused – anybody who dared to talk back to James you-can't-touch-this Potter without fearing any consequences has to be either very stupid or absolutely self-assured that he could do them no harm. And it was out of the question that Phia was way out of James' league.
"Geez, I didn't mean it like that. Don't get your panties into a knot.", he replied, struggling with his usual cocky attitude. He did not want to put up a fight with her.
"Well, then don't strut around and burst in on our conversation like that. Or I might get your panties into a knot.", Phia retorted, a smug smile forming on her face. Could it be that James Potter was intimidated by her?
Sirius snorted soundly, and James looked at him, somewhat aghast. He mumbled something along the lines of "Shut up, Pads" and turned his attention back to the girls, who where by now holding back their laughter. He cleared his throat and then singularly addressed Lily, his cheeks tainted in a faint scarlet.

"Anyways, Evans, I think we should have a talk sometime soon, seeing as you are Head Girl and I am Head Boy. Especially since I'm not familiar with any of this duty shi-, I mean, stuff, and I'm pretty sure you know very well how to help me out on that."
He tried his best to hide his slight embarrassment with his trademark cocky grin, and to his amusement the redhead in question was also blushing only the tiniest bit, before standing up and agreeing to talk with him.
"Fine, I'll put up with you, you insufferable moron.", she grumbled with disdain, an annoyed expression plastered on her otherwise gorgeous face.
The Marauders snickered and Sirius shut the door, but not without saluting to them. His eyes met with Phia for a split second and she held his gaze steadily, not backing down. He smirked at her and then left, but not before barking a haughty "Farewell, my sweet ladies!" at them.
The girls just rolled their eyes, but Hestia in particular eyed their youngest companion with interest. That look Sirius Black had given her was definitely out of the usual. But for now she would not dig into this topic too much. The Ravenclaw was reserved enough already, and boy talk most certainly couldn't be considered until she would eventually open up and reveal herself to them.
Hestia smiled a little. She didn't know why, but she had the strange idea that this nondescript girl was likely to offer a fresh breath of air in their lives.