See first chapter for disclaimers and warnings.

RECAP: Harry and Hyacinth have come into their inheritances and are now ready to start their magical education at Hogwarts. Having received their official wands and gotten everything together, they are now on board the Hogwarts Express and ready for their sorting. It's going to be quite a ride, especially with everyone crammed into the same compartment...

HOGWARTS EXPRESS

"Which house do you think you'll end up in?" Lucy asked, all but bouncing in her seat. They'd already waved to their parents through the window and no one had been surprised when said parents had quickly left, before they could draw more attention than they already had. The adoring public was something they all preferred to avoid, if they could help it. "I'm really hoping for Gryffindor like Mum and Dad."

Cassie wrinkled her nose. "That's probably the same for me." She said, at last. Her gaze flickered to the twins and she blushed, before looking away.

Harry and Hyacinth exchanged a look between them, and then Hyacinth was shrugging as she answered. "Doesn't matter too much to me. I figure Gryffindor as well, 'cause of Mum and Dad. I don't know too much about the others, but I don't really mind either, I guess." She hesitated. She honestly hadn't given it much thought at all, her mind had been more focused on dragel stuff and potential suitors.

"No Slytherin?" Owen asked, his voice quiet. "Or Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?" He leaned towards Ravenclaw, mostly because of Jimmy and partially because it sounded like quite a bit of fun.

"Slytherin?" Cassie wrinkled her nose. "Ew. No." She flapped a hand in disgust. That would be downright terrible. Sure, the Blacks had something of a reputation of being Dark, but since her father was the exception of the rule, she knew that she had to be the same as well. No way would she end up in Slytherin—it was Gryffindor or nothing. She shuddered to think of the jokes her father would think of, should she land in Hufflepuff—she'd never hear the end of it.

"Slytherin's fine," Harry heard himself say. He mirrored his twin's shrug when it came. He wouldn't be picky about this and he had a feeling that she probably didn't really mind. He was also more focused on dragel things than Hogwarts things, because the main reason for venturing to Hogwarts in the first place had been for fun—he liked to learn and he wanted to go to the same school where his parents had studied. "What? It can't be all bad."

"Yeah right." Cassie scowled. "Because Uncle Regulus used to be in there? Look where it got him. He's dead!" A stab of guilt registered, but Cassie kept her face from showing it. She didn't want to think of all the bad things that came with Slytherin, regardless of whether it was a good house or not.

Hyacinth flinched right along with Harry. They had no memories of Siri's younger brother, who had apparently been a charming, if somewhat sickly young wizard with a very gentle smile. Harry looked particularly upset though and that made Hyacinth speak up. "Hey. Take it easy." She looked at Cassie's twitching hands. Something was off about the young witch and she didn't know what it was. She'd sort of expected to feel some sort of connection next to another dragel, but Cassie was blocked off to her. "Everything alright? I mean, that's a bit harsh, even for you."

"A bit?" Harry snapped. "Just because of one bad apple doesn't mean that the rest of the house is evil!" he said, hotly. "Think about the Carlsens! They were in Gryffindor and their whole family sold out my parents!" He shoved a hand at his forehead, sweeping his hair back to reveal the ugly lightning bolt scar. "If they'd kept their stupid mouths shut I wouldn't have this scar."

Cassie flinched. "That's not-"

Harry twisted and yanked Hyacinth to his side, sweeping her bangs to the side to show the identical curse scar on her forehead. "And neither would she! We didn't deserve this. We didn't ask for it—and maybe if people hadn't been such pathetic little sheep, they would've learned to think for themselves and realized that it's not the things you do that makes you dark, it's what you do with what happens to you!"

"Chill Harry," Hyacinth murmured, feeling a flicker of magic coming down the corridor. She didn't pull away from his half-angry embrace, but she did acknowledge that he was feeling a bit more temperamental than usual. Then again, she'd felt doubly protective of him since their Inheritance had come in and it made sense that he mirrored it in turn—even if it was against someone who was rather close to a friend. She patted Harry's knee, hoping the gesture would soothe him. She'd fix her bangs later. She hated when people stared at the scar—just as much as Harry did. There was no real explanation for why they'd survived that terrible night—not that anyone had looked too hard for one, it had just been a miracle and that was enough.

There was a telltale whistle in the distance and she knew that the train was about to be moving. Harry shifted, slowly calming down, one arm still wrapped around his twin's waist. He felt her faint quiver and knew that her own temper was probably not too far behind his own and it made him feel guilty enough to finally calm all the way down. Their friends didn't need to be stuck in a compartment with the two of them and Cassie sniping at each other.

A tentative knock sounded on the compartment door.

It slid open to show a young redheaded man with an abundance of freckles spattered over his face. He blushed at once, seeing the compartment full and mumbled an apology, turning to go.

"Wait," Lucy called out, her eyes sparkling merrily. "You can come in if you like. Is something the matter?"

"Everywhere else is full." The redhead admitted. "But I'll-"

"We can double up." Lucy waved a hand at Cassie. "We all know each other here, so it's no big deal."

"That's alright," the redhead began. "Really, it isn't-"

"Just volunteer us, why don't you?" Cassie snapped. Her face was still flushed.

Hyacinth's eyes narrowed and she popped up from her seat. "Owen, switch." She said, briskly, waving a hand at the other side of the compartment. The quiet Owen did exactly as requested without a single protest. "There you can have a seat. What's your name?"

After a moment, the redhead slipped in and gratefully took the corner of the bench seat as Owen had taken the middle and Harry had one side. It was a bit of a tight fit, as they were all growing elbows and legs, but it put all the girls on the other side and it did shut up Cassie Black. "Ron Weasley." He said, a bit bashfully. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Lucy said, cheerfully. "I'm Lucy Pettigrew, that quiet one next to you is my older brother, Owen and this is Cassie Black."

"Which makes us Harry and Hyacinth Potter," Harry finished up. He flashed a friendly grin at the redheaded teen. "Nice to meet you."

"H-harry and Hyacinth Potter?" Ron choked on the half of a chocolate frog he'd just popped in his mouth. "Seriously?"

"Has anyone seen a toad?" The young witch with too much hair and a very perfectly pointed eyebrow looked them over from head to toe in the cramped compartment. "Or not," she said, matter-of-factly. "There shouldn't be more than four people in a compartment you know, it's against the rules."

"It's alright, we know each other." Harry said, easily. "And it isn't an official rule. We haven't seen anyone apart from Ron. No toads here."

"It doesn't matter if you know each other, that's not an excuse to break the rules." The bushy-haired witch frowned with obvious disapproval. "Are you sure you haven't seen it? Heard it, maybe?"

"He said no." Hyacinth shot back, pale green eyes narrowing. "Which means no. Have you tried a Point-me spell? It would save me a headache."

"A Point-me—no." Soft brown eyes blinked in confusion, completely thrown by the hard edge in the dark-haired girl's manner. She'd only been stating the facts. "I'm Hermione Granger. I didn't know anything about magic until a few weeks ago." She wrinkled her nose with a toss of her bushy hair. "We're not supposed to do spells unless there's an adult to supervise. I've never heard of a Point-Me spell."

"Ask a prefect," Harry said, quietly. He'd been feeding Ron's rat, Scabbers, the tomato from his BLT sandwich and now looked up, having heard the edge in his sister's quick comeback. Cassie had cooled down enough to share the lunch hamper that her mother had sent and Ron had been entertaining them with stories about his plentiful siblings and his mischievous rat. The sharp tone in Hyacinth's voice had drawn Harry's attention, because he knew it meant her temper was simmering on low. There were few things that riled her, so he took it to heart to be a buffer between her and all potential innocents-until-proven-guilty parties when he could help it.

"The prefects are already looking and—is that a rat?" Hermione swallowed as she stared at the fat brown rat sitting on Harry's hand, nibbling on the chunk of tomato.

"He's a good rat," Ron said, helpfully. He managed an embarrassed smile, his family couldn't quite afford to purchase familiars for their rather large family. He was making do with his older brother's rat to help ease household expenses. His kid sister would be starting Hogwarts next year and they were still saving up for the tuition. "We were, ah," He looked at his wand in hand. He'd been about to show Harry a new spell that his brothers had shown him that morning, but he hadn't counted on an extra pair of eyes in the audience.

"Are you going to do magic? Let's see it then." Hermione sniffed. It was against the rules, but she was dying to see some more spellwork since the day that Professor McGonagall had come to her home with her Hogwarts letter. Besides, these were first-year students like herself and she was fairly certain that they couldn't possibly do any real magic, nothing more than she could, anyway.

"Sunshine, daises, butter, mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." Ron pointed his wand at the rat and winced when only the tail and paws turned a disgusting shade of old yellow.

"It's not a very good spell, is it?" Hermione said. "Are you sure that's how it went?"

"Shadows, hollyhock, sooty eyebrows, color this rat, more like a grouse." Harry focused his magic on the rat and watched as a more natural, soft brown color returned Scabbers into something more normal for a rat. "Better?" He handed the familiar back to Ron. "you probably needed more intent behind it."

"Did you just do a spell without a wand?" Hermione gasped. Something flipped over in her stomach and she couldn't help staring. That couldn't be possible. There couldn't be any such thing as wandless magic—could there?

"No, he didn't." Hyacinth tapped her wand against her leg, having slipped it out of her arm holster. "He incanted and I cast. Don't be ridiculous." She shot her twin a look. Their wandless magic was such a huge secret that they hadn't even shared it with their parents, thought she was almost sure that Lily suspected. It was almost a taboo in their family not to speak of the insane magical powers that they all wielded.

"She can't help it," Cassie inspected her fingernails. "She's a muggleborn."

"Cassie!" Lucy hissed. "Be nice." She bit her lip.

Hermione blushed, then whirled around. "We're almost to Hogwarts, you might want to put your robes on." She said, stiffly, before she stalked off.

Harry gave Hyacinth a look and his twin stuck her lower lip out in a pout. Harry didn't relent. With a huff, Hyacinth rose from her seat and leaned out into the hallway, she could see Hermione having stopped a few paces out of view of their compartment, her shoulders drooping. "Hey," She called out. She didn't wait for the young witch to turn around. "The prefect's compartment is in the other direction." She said. "And the point-me spell is a summoning charm in The Book of Standard Spells, Grade 4, if you want to look it up."

"You've read the fourth year text?" Hermione turned around, slowly, rubbing her nose.

Hyacinth offered a grimace, the best she could manage. "Mum's good at charms."

"…thanks."

"Don't mention it." Hyacinth turned back to the compartment and fighting back a shudder. "Seriously, don't mention it."

"I found a toad!" Owen held up a fat toad, staring at the slow-blinking eyes. "It's a pretty big one." He'd scooped it up from the floor outside of their compartment and carried it out as he followed the rest of them. Now, he stood on tip-toe, scanning the crowds for any trace of his older brother or the bushy-haired witch. He was sure he could count on one of them to take care of the toad, as he didn't know any of the prefects. "Anyone see Jimmy? Or that Hermione girl?"

"Jimmy's over there with the other third-years…and Roman." Lucy wrinkled her nose. "It's awful of me, but I really can't stand him." She said, apologetically. There was just something about the young werewolf that set her on edge and she didn't like it. Of course, Roman had never so much has ever given her the slightest bit of trouble.

"You and me both," Harry muttered. Roman was a bit too stuck up for him, but the older boy hadn't really ever given him much trouble—yet, Hyacinth was an entirely different story and for that reason, Harry disliked him on principle. Hyacinth was usually a good judge of character. Usually.

Then again Roman was friends with Jimmy, who was a Ravenclaw and all of the Ravenclaws seemed to stick together and that explained more than Harry cared for it to. He hoped that the years ahead of him wouldn't be filled with house-war strife. He was one-hundred percent sure that house did not make the witch nor wizard and he would do his best to prove that to be the case.

"First years, first years!" A hulk of a man, the half-giant Hagrid was now gently herding all the first-years towards charmed boats for the trademark sail across the waters to the awe-inspiring Hogwarts. "First years over here!"

Harry started forward, only to feel Hyacinth's vise-grip clamping on his arm, her eyes were wide and her face seemed to be a bit paler than usual. "Don't you dare make me ride with someone else!" She hissed. But Harry only smiled and patted her hand, leading her along with him, Ron and Owen, to a boat. He knew she was likely feeling a touch homesick now. He also would never admit that right then, the thought of freedom was almost sickening.

A/N: And there we go. The sorting will be in the next chapter and then, of course, the drama. If you're reading this spin off, then you already know about dragels and my unavoidable habit of including drama, so settle in and get ready for it, LOL. It's gonna happen. I decided to go for a nice, slightly shy/fun Ron and a by-the-rules/hard-nosed Hermione, trying to take into account that they are all sixteen-ish with the given timeline. The OC list will be kept at the bottom for now, for quick reference. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Next-Gen OC's:

Remus + Mrs. Lupin, adopted-son, Roman (3rd Year/Werewolf)

Sirius + Madam Rosmerta, daughter Cassieopeia Black (1st year/dragel)

Peter + Lisa Pettiegrew, Jimmy (2nd year), Lucy (1st year), Owen (1st year)