I'd woken up today feeling excited about the days ahead, but now all I could feel was fear that my biggest secret wouldn't stay that way - secret.

September 1st, 2017:

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts! Today! I hurried to King's Crossing at about 10:00, and the train is supposed to leave at 11:00. An hour should really be enough to find the platform and board the train. Or so I freaking thought.

I guess I'd assumed that there were four trains on platform 9, and that was why my ticket said 9¾. But here I was, staring, absolutely confused, at the big plastic number nine over

one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it. What the frick! I checked my ticket to see if there was some sort of instructions on it, but no luck. I was about to take out my wand and start tapping bricks (like Diagon alley) when a group of what were obviously witches and wizards came by.

"Honestly, Trinity, keep up." snapped a tall, black-haired witch.

The girl she was most likely talking to quickly sped up, struggling to keep up with what was probably her family. The girl (Trinity?) was carrying her trunk and a small owl in a cage. The woman who'd snapped at her was holding absolutely nothing, and neither was the man who was holding her hand.

"Calm down, Miranda, it's not the girl's fault she's as weak as a straw," the man smirked. "And anyway, we're here."

Trinity looked relieved and then caught my eye. She indicated Novus and my trunk, and mouthed: New to Hogwarts?

I nodded, and pointed at the 9 and 10 sign, deciding she probably had reasons for not talking to me directly. I mouthed back: How do we get on the train?

She motioned for me to wait, before turning to the witch. "Auntie, can I go through the barrier to the platform?"

Her aunt looked exasperated. "I don't know, can you?"

Trinity sighed visibly. "Auntie, may I go through the barrier?"

Her aunt nodded and waved her away like she was a fly. "YOu might as well. Remember, do it at a run if you don't think you'll make it. We don't need you to make a scene and embarrass us."

Trinity ignored this last part and caught my eye pointedly. She mouthed: watch.

She then ran directly at the column between platforms 9 and 10. Just when I thought she'd smash against it, she vanished.

I blinked. Okay, let's hope I wasn't about to get a concussion first day of school. Rushing by the unpleasant couple, I ran directly at the column, closing my eyes and bracing for impact.

Instead of hitting a stone-hard brick column, I ran directly into the girl. We both fell, and I grimaced as I heard Novus's cage whisk away and hit something. Whoops.

I opened my eyes dizzily. I groaned, the world spinning. I think I'd hit my head on the floor and was now lying o my back on what I assumed was platform 9¾. And something was on top of me?

Soon the world stopped spinning, and I realized that the girl that'd helped me get through the barrier was now on top of me, apparently where she'd landed when I'd knocked into her.

Her strangely violet eyes met mine and then widened. "I'm so sorry!" She hurried to her feet and reached a hand down to help me up as well.

I took her hand and let her help me to my feet, shaking my head. "Not your fault, I should've been more careful," I say sheepishly. "I should've realized you'd probably still be on the other side."

She smiles and then hurries over to where her owl's cage landed. "Oh, Gallopin' gorgons, I'm sorry, Pin!" I blink, then rush over to where Novus's cage hit another column.

When I get to her cage, I realize it's split open, though she's still inside. I hiss urgently at her. "I am so sorry, Novus! Are you alright?"

She looks up at me, her eyes a little unfocused. "If you ever drop me again, I swear to all that is unholy I will bite you."

I grin. "I'll make sure not to do that then. Seriously, are you alright?"

She nods, still a little off-balance. "People are looking at you weird. Stop talking to me, alright? I'll be fine in a moment."

I nod, then try to act like I was nodding to myself. I then turn and pick up Trinity's trunk where it lay nearby. "Hey, this is yours right?"

She nods, still inspecting the damage to her owl and it's cage. I bring it over to her, setting it down by her knee. "Is your owl alright? And the cage? If anything's broken I can pay for it..."

She just shakes her head. "No, We're all good here. The cage is a little ented and Pin's a wee bit disoriented, but both of those are fixable." She looks over at me. "Oh, bloody hell, what about you?! Your snake's cage is broken!"

I laugh and shake my head. "It's fine. She didn't really need it, it was mostly just so on the train ride people wouldn't freak out. She's fine, and she won't bite anyone."

She looks like she disagrees, but changes the subject. "Well, I'm Trinity Harris. What's your name?"

I smile. "Areti Runites. Nice to meet you and all that, but we should probably get on the train."

She grins and hands me my trunk, standing up. "Right! Want to share a compartment on the train?"

On the train, we find an empty compartment. We're putting our things away and sitting down when I notice Rose Granger-Weasley peek through the door. She catches my eye and quickly hurries away, though, and I shove down a sharp feeling of worry. She probably knows, then. I hope they don't tell too many people. Trinity notices Rose hurrying away and the flash of disappointment on my face.

"Who's that?"

I try to calm the emotions raging across my face and manage a bored facial expression. "Her name's Rose Granger-Weasley."

Trinity looks more confused, instead of less. "The gal who's uncle is Harry Potter? Why was she looking in here?"

I shrug unconvincingly. "Probably looking for someplace to sit."

Now Trinity just looks skeptical. "And why did she just hurry away? Honestly, Runites, I might have just met you but you're clearly hiding something."

I sigh and give her a tired grin, giving up the act. "I may or may not have gotten in a fight with her cousin, Albus Potter, in Diagon Alley, and he may or may not have figured something out about me that he may or may not have told her."

Trinity looks so lost that I let out a bark of laughter. I stand up and shut the door so that no one can overhear. "I am trusting you not to judge me horribly about this, but basically I can speak parseltongue."

She makes an "Ohhhhh" that makes me crack a grin.

"Yeah. Basically, I accidentally gave it away and her cousin, Albus, guessed that I'm a Parselmouth. Then he got mad at me and stormed away, and I'm assuming he told her."

She grins. "Ah well, sucks for them. If they do nothing more than ignore you, then clearly they're just dumb. You're clearly a cool person, I hope we're in the same house."

I nod, glad she's not super freaked out. "Absolutely. Which d'you think you'll be in?"

She flops back in the chair and is about to respond when an old witch comes by. "Anything off the cart, dears?"

I blink, then grin at her assortment of candies and treats. "Oh, yes please."

Trinity and I combine money and get two of everything that looks good. We piled our sweets together and thanked the witch, setting our loot on the seats, splitting it so we each have one of everything. I take out a piece of paper and my self-inking and spell-checking quill. I divide the paper into four columns, each labeled. I name the boxes 'Trinity's likes', 'Trinity's dislikes', 'Areti's likes', and 'Areti's dislikes'.

"See, now we can remember," I say, showing her the paper. "Write down what you do and don't like in your boxes, and then we can look at it on the train next year."

This occupies us for most of the train ride. I tell her about how I'm from America, and how my siblings went to Ilvermorny. She tells me about why she lived with her aunt and uncle (the dreadful people she'd come with). She avoided any details, but this is what she told me.

"My dad is a nomaj, and my mum was a pure-blood squib. When I was five, My dad ended up in St. Mungo's, and my mum died. I had to live with my mum's pure-blood family, who pretty much hates me. They're not too bad, they just ignore me a lot."

After telling me this, Trinity was quiet, and she looked like she was thinking about other things. I left our compartment to throw away our various candy wrappers and whatnot, and by the time I'd gotten back, she was asleep.

I ended up taking out my copy of Easy Spells to Fool Muggles by Luca Caruso and browsing various camouflage spells for Novus. I only go a few pages before I also fell asleep.