AN: I'm doing a time skip to the beginning of second year because that's when things start to get interesting.

Throw me a bone

"I swear to Merlin that if you don't have your stuff together in five minutes, I'm leaving without you!" I yell up the stairs to my brother who still isn't packed with only an hour till the train leaves. Luckily, we live just outside of London, so we'll (Hopefully) have enough time to get there.

"Don't threaten your brother!" My father- Chris- scolds me from down the hall.

"If he had packed when he was supposed to, then this wouldn't be an issue," I mutter before raising my voice to respond. "Sorry, pa." I look into the chest pocket of my button up to make sure Cosmo was still napping before making my way upstairs to help Shawn pack. Thanks to my help, it's only twenty minutes later when we're rushing out the door.

"Now you two be careful," Pa says to us before we go through the barrier. "I want you coming back to us in one piece."

"We love you, be safe!" Ma gives us each a hug, though Shawn's goes on longer. I am seriously getting tired of this favoritism crap that's been going on since we started Hogwarts.

"Bye, love you!" I call over my shoulder as I walk through the barrier. Shawn follows me soon after and I drag him to get on the train, we got there with only 10 minutes to spare. I check the compartments as we travel along the train until I see Hermione's trademark afro.

"Hermione!" I eagerly sit beside her; she holds out her arms, and though I hesitate, I gladly wrap my arms around her shoulders. "How was your summer? I mean- I know we sent owls, but has anything else happened?" The only people I kept up with over the summer were Hermione, Blaise, and Theo, but that was enough people for me.

"I started learning sign language over the summer!" She smiles at me cautiously, almost as if she knows something she shouldn't. I narrow my eyes; my nonverbal episodes last year were few and far between and I was almost always by myself so how would she- oh. She saw Shawn and I at the end of the year, didn't she? Shawn and I both know BSL because we both have frequent nonverbal episodes, despite Shawn being the only one diagnosed with autism. I had an episode during the end of year feast last year- how can anyone think with all that noise?- so Hermione must have seen us then.

"That's great." I smile uneasily, "Any particular reason why?"

"Oh, you know, just thought it would be fun." So we're playing that game huh? I wouldn't expect it from someone as blunt as Hermione.

"Interesting," I smile must look more like a grimace because she frowns too. "It's fun to learn, right?"

"You know BSL?" Hermione's smile reappears as if she's won. Please, I'm a Slytherin.

"Definitely," I gesture towards Shawn who just looks confused. "Shawn has nonverbal episodes because of his autism so I learned to help him out."

"Oh, that was sweet of you." Her smile drops again when she realizes she'll have to confront me head on if she wants a straight answer. "Shawn, do you think you could find some of your friends? We need to have a little girl talk."

"Uhhh" I wince at the word 'girl', but I nod when Shawn looks to me for permission. "Sure, just don't kill each other."

I scoff at Shawn's words before turning back to Hermione. We stare at each other for a few seconds before I raise an eyebrow. Her eyebrows furrow in return, her lips pursing as she tries to figure out what to say to me.

"Are you-" She stops herself. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yes." I respond curtly, knowing that I keep multiple secrets from her doesn't change my answer. She continues to stare at me for a few more seconds before sighing when she realizes I won't say anything else.

"Are you autistic?" She doesn't give me a chance to answer before continuing, "Because it's okay if you are. We all accept Shawn, well, except for Malfoy, but he's a prick so he doesn't count. And I doubt anyone else has noticed! They don't see you and Shawn side by side enough to notice the similarities in your behavior. So, if you want to keep it a secret, I'm perfectly capable of doing that. And-"

"Hermione, breathe." I interrupt her spiel. "No. I'm not autistic." She looks ready to protest so I hurry on, "At least, I was never diagnosed. Honestly, I probably am. But until I get a diagnosis, I'm not going to say that I am."

"Oh." She looks kind of concerned but- relieved? "Well, I'm glad you told me that."

"Of course. Now show me what you've learned, we're gonna be able to talk shit about Parkinson right in front of her!" Hermione laughs before showing me the basic phrases she learned over the summer. We spend the next hour going over new signs to teach her and coming up with signs for magical terms. A knock comes on the door followed by,

"My fair maidens, may I enter thy domain?" Of course, it's him.

"Come in Blaise." I answer dryly.

"Aw, how'd you know it was me?" He pouts as he sits across from me with Theo beside him.

"I wonder." I share a look with Hermione before we all burst out in laughter.

"So, what was the subject of conversation before we entered the compartment?" I stare at Theo like he's grown another head.

"Theo, turn off the posh pureblood talk," Blaise chuckles, "We're among commoners now!"

"Hey!" Hermione and I protest at the same time.

"I'm sorry for his ridiculousness." Theo groans while giving us an apologetic look. "I've spent my summer with only my parents and the occasional proper pureblood friend for company."

"Is that why you barely answered any of my letters?" I send a glare his way at Hermione's words.

"Or mine?" I add.

"I'm really sorry! My father keeps an eye on who I write to and he's very traditional."

"You mean racist?" Hermione retorts, earning her a high five from me.

"Yes." Theo confirms bluntly. "But I'm working on it. By next summer, he won't be monitoring my letters."

"Yeah!" Blaise adds, bouncing in his seat." We have a top-secret plan."

"You do?" I scoff, "Well, let me know when you need my help."

"You mean if."

"I said what I said."

"I'm offended by your lack of faith in us." Blaise turns to me with his patented pout in place.

"I'm not." Theo interjects before I can further hurt Blaise's feelings. Blaise turns a betrayed look towards Theo, who just shrugs before grinning at me.

"At least one of you aren't delusional." Hermione snorts at my words, making me turn towards her with a grin.

The rest of the train ride goes much the same way: Blaise being dramatic, I make fun of him, Hermione laughs, Theo comforts Blaise, and repeat. At least until we hear another knock on the door. I open to find two Hufflepuffs in our year, Bones and Abbott, I think?

"Yes?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Some older students kicked us out of our compartment, can we join yours?" Bones says confidently in contrast to Abbott's shy demeanor.

I look over my shoulder at my friends to find them shrugging so I say, "Sure" before moving out of the way. I sit by Theo instead of Hermione so the Hufflepuffs won't have to sit by the big scary Slytherins.

"Good afternoon Susan, Hannah. How were your summers?" Hermione asks politely with none of the playfulness from before.

"Good, we spent most of it at my house," Abbot snorts at Bones' statement before flushing at the gained attention. To her credit, Bones continues her sentence without pause, "And my aunt gave us dueling lessons so that was eventful. How was yours?"

"Mine was positively boring!" Blaise interjects before Hermione can continue her polite conversation with Bones. "None of these tossers were able to come to Italy over summer, so I spent all of it with the dreadfully polite Italians."

"Blaise, you're Italian." I laugh at his comment before registering the rest of his sentence. "And you know why I wasn't able to come.

"Yeah, yeah, family drama and what not," Blaise dismisses me while I will my face not to flush, thankfully my darker complexion hides most of it. "These two, however, had NO excuse!"

"I call family drama too," Theo says with none of the tension I feel. Which, apparently, Cosmo senses because he wakes up from his nap to climb up my shoulder and curl around my neck, much to the surprise of the Hufflepuffs.

"I got nothing." Hermione says dryly causing Blaise to frown at her before noticing the attention is no longer on him, but on Cosmo.

"Ladies, this esteemed gentlemen, is Cosmo the fantastical ferret!" Blaise introduces in his usual fashion.

"Shouldn't I be the one to introduce him, given that he's my familiar." I wonder aloud.

"He's actually your familiar? You already bonded to him?" Bones asks in astonishment. I guess it is pretty weird that I have a familiar at age 12, but I've always preferred animals to people anyway.

"From the moment we met." I scratch Cosmo's chin with a smile.

"That's impressive." Bones gives me an appraising look.

"Does he like owl treats?" Abbot finally speaks. "Because I've got some in my bag."

"Actually, he loves them," I laugh as Cosmo jumps off me to jump on Abbot's lamp at the mention of treats.

"I can see that1" Abbot giggles while feeding Cosmo one treat at a time.

After Cosmo broke the tension, Abbot talked much more throughout the train ride. It turns out that she also is interested in magical creatures and can't wait for the class in our third year. Bones was more interested in following in her aunt's footsteps as an Auror. As the train comes to a stop, I smile. This year is off to a great start.