A/N: OKay my third chapter, for those of you who are wondering where the heck Harry is, don't worry. This part of the book is sort of, exposition. Just to get you introduced to my characters. Keep reviewing , I really appreciate it

Chapter 3 Potions, Visions, and Spells

J.D. woke the morning of the big contest wondering why her skin had gone blue, until she realized that there was a beautiful stained glass sun catcher hanging by her bed. Briefly stopping to wonder when Cynthia had time to make it, she pulled on her sea blue robes and ran downstairs for breakfast. That morning it was waffles which were J.D.'s favorite. She sat down between Serena and Cynthia, and gave the latter a hug, thanking her for the sun catcher.

"It was nothing really," said Cynthia modestly, "Just think of it as a good luck present."

"Well I really appreciate it, Cyn. Let's just hope it works."

The chatter in the Hall died down when Professor Upenowse stood up to make an announcement.

"My dear students, the time has come for the contest. I now request that all students interested in competing will please stand up and go to the Transfiguration classroom. The rest of you may continue with your breakfast."

J.D. was a little surprised to see that she, Serena, Cynthia and two others were the only girls to enter the contest from the Delphinus house. There were about the same amount from the other houses too. Walking towards the classroom, J.D. realized why there were so few participants: they weren't willing to risk the possibility of disappointment. They were probably also a bit scared, Tolblox was their safe place.

The girls, there were seventeen in all, hurried into the class room. They were very eager to begin. J.D. noticed that Gabriele was waiting expectantly for instructions. 'I hope that she doesn't make it.' J.D. thought.

Professor Babbington, the Potions teacher, was administering the tests. She walked to the front of the class and addressed the students in her calm, commanding voice.

"Welcome young ladies, I hope that you all have adequately prepared for today's test. We will begin with the potions test, move on to charms, then transfiguration, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we will finish with divination. Are there any questions before we begin?"

No one seemed to want to say anything.

"Alright then. We will begin with potions. I want each student to prepare a Diaphanous Draught. If completed successfully you should become invisible for five minutes. All of the ingredients are up in the front of the room, but part of the test is to see if you know how much of each ingredient is needed. You may begin."

'That's it?' J.D. thought, 'An invisibility potion?' She and Serena had made them before, mostly to go sneaking around the school. The potion wasn't as good as an invisibility cloak, though. It had a time limit and the ingredients were usually hard to come by. An interesting choice for the test.

She hurried up to the front of the room to gather her supplies and brought them back to her cauldron. She started to grind beetle eyes up into powder and dumped them in. Then she stopped and started to worry.

'Was it one Duvel spleen or two? Oh, no I can't remember!' she thought, panicking, 'I had better put in one and a half. It'll cost me points, but there shouldn't be any major changes in the results.'

She kept working feverishly until the final result was boiling in her cauldron. It was the right color, which she took to be a good thing considering one of the girls from Amazona's potion was fuchsia instead of the silvery-clear color an invisibility potion was supposed to be.

Then came the time to test it. Professor Babbington came around and had each girl take a sip of the potion. Some of the girls disappeared, but only for one minute, others had only a few body parts missing, and the only girl who had done it perfectly so far was... Crystal? 'Well potions is her best subject,' thought J.D. Then the professor came to test hers. She took a deep breath and swallowed some of her potion. So far so good, her color was fading into nothingness, and J.D. thought that she had done perfectly, spleen or no spleen, until she looked at her feet. How embarrassing, her shoes were still completely visible. However since the rest of her stayed invisible for the full five minutes she scored pretty high. Cynthia did well on the test as well, but Serena went to pieces. She never liked Potions and was much better at Transfiguration, which she enjoyed, and Divination, where she could make things up.

Their next test was charms, which J.D. was confident she could ace. She received a perfect score for her summoning charm and her hovering charm (She summoned a large library book from two classrooms away and then hovered it in front of her so that she could read it). Cynthia did a good summoning charm but she dropped the fish tank she was hovering, which got everything wet. Gabriele was a bit nervous and she hovered the wrong thing, but she did it well. The other girls from Panthera and Amazona did fairly well and Serena got full marks.

For the Transfiguration test they had to change a tea pot and tea cups into a chicken and baby chicks. For awhile J.D. was afraid that she was going to get ducks or something worse, but at the end she had a healthy family of chickens. Serena got a perfect score and extra credit because she had somehow charmed the chickens so that they could now sing rock and roll songs. Crystal got chickens from her tea set but they were a light blue color at the end. Somehow she didn't seem bothered by it. Gabriele was not doing very well; her chickens ended up with no feet.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, the test was two parts. The girls had to battle a boggart and either withstand or counter certain curses. J.D. went first in fighting the boggart. Trying to remember what Professor Ledezma said about boggarts, she entered the wardrobe. She turned and was face to face with... herself. She was confused until she realized what the boggart was doing. It was yelling and trying to tell someone (her?) that terrible things were going to happen. It was then she realized what the boggart was; it was her greatest fear that if she told people things she saw in the future they wouldn't believe her. Forcing herself to focus she faced the boggart and cried "Riddikulus!" watching the boggart disappear in a cloud of smoke. She left the wardrobe shaking and walked over to have curses thrown at her.

They had been warned in advance that the Imperious Curse was going to be placed on them to see how effectively they could fight it off. J.D. was a bit nervous, but she was determined to do what it took to get to Hogwarts.

"Okay, Miss Miller," said Professor Ledezma the DADA professor, "get ready. Imperio!"

Instantly, J.D. felt a blissful sensation, as if her soul had left her body behind. She felt as if nothing could hurt her now.

'Okay,' she thought, 'This is it, I just have to con, concentrate and not...do...it.' Just as she thought the words she realized it was going to be harder than that. Then she heard the voice.

Cartwheel across the room and grab your sister's nose.

She was about to oblige when something stopped her.

Why? she wondered.

Cartwheel across the room.

I don't even know how to cartwheel!

Cartwheel, now!

Why? That's stupid. I, I won't.

Your only causing yourself pain by resisting.

"I Won't Cartwheel!"

Instantly the floating feeling left her body and she was sitting on the floor of the classroom, breathing heavily. She heard a gasp from someone else in the room, probably Serena.

"It's okay, I'm alright," her voice sounded a little bit distant.

"Congratulations Miss Miller. You did wonderfully," That was Professor Ledezma congratulating her, she reminded herself.

She requested to go outside for a moment and sat down in the corridor. About half an hour later, Serena came out looking for her.

"They're about to start the last test. Are you ready to-" She looked down at J.D. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I am. Well, let's finish what we started."

They walked back inside and when they took to their seats they saw that a crystal ball had been placed at each desk.

"The crystal ball is important part of Divination study, especially at Hogwarts. I want you to gaze into the Orb and tell us what you See," said the familiar misty voice of the hated Professor Cole.

J.D. took a quick glance around and noticed that Crystal was staring at her funny. She also looked a bit sick.

Trying to relax, J.D. looked straight into the crystal ball. It swirled and then it cleared and she could see it perfectly, it was that boy again. She leaned in closer and was trying to listen to the conversation he was having. She was about to hear something when it happened again. She flew out of her chair and hit the floor with a sickening Slam!

When she came to, all of the professors were standing over her. Professor Cole in particular was looking extremely excited.

"Miss Miller, this is wonderful! What an excellent example for the test. What did you See?"

"A boy, about my age," she said, the words were just pouring out of her mouth as if she had no control over what she was saying, "he was locked in a dark room. Then a man came in, he was robed and his face was covered. He took out a wand and the boy took out his wand and they were about to duel, when the boy was struck from behind and someone was shooting jets of purple light at the man. Just as that person was about to come into view, I woke up."

"Miss Miller this is very important: What did the boy look like?" asked Professor Upenowse.

"The boy? Umm, he had black messy hair, glasses, green eyes, and like I said he was my age."

"Have you ever seen that boy before in real life?"

"In real life?" J.D. thought, "No professor."

"Thank you Miss Miller, perhaps you'd better lie down."

J.D. was too tired from her vision to do anything but lie down, but if she had overheard the teachers conversation, she would have found it very interesting.

"Do you think it was a True vision, Stefanie?"

"I think so, Emelina. But what I'm wondering is why she had a vision about the Potter boy. Something tells me that this isn't the first time either. I think that we had better send Miss Miller to Hogwarts. She could end up very useful there."

"I agree. Besides," Professor Babbington smiled, "she passed the test anyway."

* * *


"I'm sorry you guys aren't coming to Hogwarts with me." said J.D. the next morning at breakfast.

"That's okay J, We like it here at Tolblox. We're just going to miss you." Serena told her.

"Yeah. It won't be the same." Cynthia sounded as if she was close to tears.

"Oh guys, I promise we'll still see each other and we'll visit. I won't forget you." J.D. said.

"I suspect you'll have other things on your mind. Imagine a school with boys." said Serena dreamily.

"That's not the only reason I want to go, but it is a plus. You know, I think that contest really took the snottiness out of Soroka. I was so thrilled when she didn't make it."

"Who'd have thought that both you and Crystal would make it." Cynthia said.

"I know. I just hope that she'll leave me alone there. I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow." J.D. said excitedly.

"We can't either. Don't forget, we'll be there before you leave because we have things we want to give you." reminded Serena.

"I won't forget."

* * *

As J.D. was getting ready to touch the Portkey, which would take her and the other three girls to Hogwarts, she looked around anxiously for her friends. They said that they wanted to say goodbye and give her something. She didn't care about the gift. She just wanted to see her best friends before she left.

"J.D., wait!"

Serena and Cynthia came running down the stairs, each clutching a package wrapped in brown paper.

"Here," said Serena, thrusting her package into J.D.'s arms, "but don't open them until you get to Hogwarts. Oh, I'm going to miss you!"

"Me too," said Cynthia, who also gave J.D. a gift, "Send us an owl once in awhile, okay? And maybe set us up with some guys from Hogwarts."

"Okay you guys. And I promise to come visit. I have to visit my parents anyway."

The girls hugged one last time. J.D. walked over to the Portkey and waved. Serena and Cynthia waved back and in a flash J.D., Crystal, and the other two girls were gone.

"She's going to be fine, I'm sure. J.D. can handle herself anywhere. We had better get to Charms, Cyn."

With one last glance behind them the two girls walked away.