~* Chapter 1 *~

The Hogwarts Express Again

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Winter stared resolutely out of the window, determined not to look at her family. Venus and Cedric were quite happily playing a game of peek-a -boo in the corner of the compartment, her father looked gaunt and tired, and her mother was constantly fiddling with her necklace. It looked like quite a normal family trip to London. But it wasn't. It was quite the opposite.

Winter never thought her life could have changed as quickly. She'd gone from an average 11 year old to a soon-to-be-trained witch faster than her eyebrows could shoot under her hairline.

All her life, Winter had known there was more to the world than over-confident politicians and dishonest salesmen.

All her life, Winter had known that there were far more things to learn than just school curriculum.

All her life, Winter had known there were creatures and people who were hiding from the eyes of the approaching

But she'd never though there was this much.

Hidden behind lost keys and sudden appointments, there was a world where magic was the soul of the world. A world where everything made sense. A world where chaos came in reigns.

And Winter was part of it.

She was going to learn how to tackle it head on.

***

"The 10 o'clock train from Manchester has arrived at Platform 4."

Winter's eyes snapped open.

Venus and Cedric were already trotting out of the compartment. Her dad was lugging the trunk off the bench and her mother looked paler than Winter had ever seen her. Paler, in fact, than she had been when they'd stepped through the arch and into Diagon Alley.

Winter got up and jumped out of the compartment. The familiar sight of Cedric and Venus fighting and yelling and pulling each other's hair greeted her. Winter sighed. She wouldn't miss them. That was for sure. She fetched a cart for her trunk and waited for her parents. Her father came out looking strangely surprised, while Winter glimpsed her mother tucking her wand into her bag. Frank Tumber bent over stiffly and put the trunk on the cart. Winter's eyebrows shot up. It was weightless. She followed her family through the knot of platforms and grumpy looking people. Every so often she glimpsed people with owl cages like hers on top of trunks and once, a fox perched on the shoulder of a girl with very curly brown hair.

She stopped, quite suddenly, In front of a barrier.

"Right. Here we are."

The little colour that was left on her mother's face disappeared.

Venus and Cedric stopped kicking each other in the shins for second to let themselves be hugged by Winter. But only briefly.

Her dad, in his turn, hugged his daughter. He pulled a small package from his pocket.

"I think you should open this on the train." He said, in a funny, strangled voice. Winter nodded.

"Frank, take the children to the café next to WHSmith. I'll meet you there in about twenty minutes or so."

Winter watched as her father, brother and sister walked off into the crowd for what felt like the last time.

Her mother sighed. Winter looked around her. Platform 8, platform 9, platform ten. But no platform 9 3/4. What on earth was going on?

"Winter, we have to walk through the barrier."

"Wha-?"

"We walk. Through the barrier."

Winter just looked at her mother as if she was a mental escapee. But as her mother walked resolutely towards the barrier, Winter felt her legs pull her along, like some strange kind of gravitational force. She closed her eyes and prayed for her owl's safety. But nothing happened. She braved a peek and her jaw dropped. In front of her, through gaggles of weeping families and nagging mothers stood a magnificent crimson train, the words Hogwarts Express neatly written on it's side.

A funny scene was taking place in the corner of her eye. She turned and watched, her head tilting ever so slightly to the side.

A tall, silver-haired man stood ten feet away from her mother, eyeing her with an expression of contempt. Behind him, a boy she presumed was his son was watching the scene expressionlessly; a woman by his side had her head turned away. Hermione's eyes however, were on that woman.

"Hello Draco. Hello Ginny."

"Hello. I don't think you've met our son, Appolyon? But I daresay you didn't stick around long enough for that." The man called Draco said, an irritating smirk on his lips.

"Leave her alone Draco." 'Ginny' said.

"Shame. Ginny here wanted so much to invite you to our wedding. We never knew where you were. I, myself, couldn't care less. But Ginny missed you. Ginny, why don't you invite your friend over for tea? I think she'd quite like the mansion." He said, ignoring his wife.

Hermione looked like she'd sunken into a mud pile of shock.

"Didn't you hear your wife, Malfoy? Shut up."

The same redheaded man who had given Winter her letter appeared behind them. Ginny turned away and walked off towards the train.

"Dear me, Ronald. Don't tell me YOU'RE sticking up for her?" He nodded towards Hermione.

"Leave – her – alone." The man said, enunciating each word as if they were his last.

"Winter, come on. Let's go find you a compartment." Winter felt her mother's trembling hand on her wrist pulling her away from the two glowering men.

"Mum, what-."

Hermione shook her head.

"I can't tell you Winter. It's too complicated. Some of it I don't even know."

Winter opened her mouth to argue but though better of it. They found a compartment almost at the end of the platform. There was nobody in it, so Winter had no trouble fitting her trunk on one of the benches. Athena, her owl, hooted thankfully as Winter poured a few owl treats into the feeding bowl. Hermione was sitting on the bench opposite her, her head in her hands.

She stood up, eyes red and puffy, and hugged her daughter.

"Have a good term, Mina. I'll send you owls as often as I can." And with that, she left the compartment, leaving Winter to wonder who Mina was. But she didn't wonder long. Not a minute after her mother had left; a lost looking boy slid the door open.

"Anyone sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the bench opposite Winter. She shook her head no and the boy sat down in front of her.

The boy looked remarkably like the man who had told 'Draco' to leave her mother alone. He had the same flaming red hair and long nose. She only difference was that the boy's freckles were barely visible behind a painful looking sunburn.

He stared out the window and mouthed a few words at a blond woman outside. The redheaded man appeared beside her and waved at him.

"Is he your father?" Winter asked.

"Yeah. And that's my mum. " He said, pointing at the woman.

Winter nodded.

"Does your father know my mum?"

"Don't know. Who's your mum?"

"Erm…Hermione? I think her last name's Granger."

The boy looked at her with newfound interest.

"You'll be Winter then? My dad told me to look out for you. My name's Rowan Weasley." His hand shot up from next to him and hung in mid-air

Winter stared, before shaking his hand.

"My Dad knew your mom when they were in school I think. I found a box with-"

But what the box contained, Winter never knew. The same girl Winter had seen in the station with a fox perched on her shoulder walked into the compartment, the fox now trotting happily at her feet.

The girl was very pretty. Her brown curly hair was kept in perfect ringlets and her grey eyes were unanimously obvious next to her cheeks full of freckles.

Winter felt like a little girl next to her. She looked more like her grand-mother than either of her parents: she had very straight, very black hair, and icy blue eyes that everyone said looked like sapphires in the night but Winter thought looked like her lips when she'd gone swimming in a freezing cold lake. Her skin very pale too, so her name was appropriate for her appearance.

In front of her, Rowan sighed exasperatedly.

"And this is Cassandra if-you-don't-listen-to-me-you-will-die Devor. Personally I like her brother a whole lot more."

"Troy? He's a bugger if I ever knew one!" The girl said, pushing her trunk with her foot into the compartment. She slumped down on the bench next to Winter and extended her hand.

"Cassandra Devor. I don't have a middle name, although some insanely stupid people might think so."

"Winter Tumber. I think I've met your dad." Winter managed to say. Cassandra nodded as if this were perfectly normal and turned back to Rowan

"I got a few letters from Lily and James during the holidays. Lily sounded really excited to start school. Mind you, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference. She's already learnt the entire first year curriculum. James just sounded as if a manticore had trampled on him." She said.

Rowan looked at Winter and saw she had no idea what she was talking about.

"James and Lily are our friends, they're Harry's." Cassandra opened her mouth to speak. "Well, Professor Potter's children, they're twins. A manticore is this kind of weird, disfigured beast." He said, wrinkling his nose at the last sentence "Fascinating creatures though. Mind, I don't think I'd like to be in a ten mile radius of one, even if I had the choice between that or eating a blood lolly."

Cassandra smiled. The Fox was now sleeping soundly in her lap. She saw Winter looking at it.

"Gorgeous isn't he?"

"What? Oh, yeah." Winter stuttered.

"I called him Reynard. We found him in Scotland a few years ago. We think he was abandoned by his mother."

"'We' being you and Cliodna who probably abducted him."

"Shut up Rowan. Content yourself with your kneazle. What did you name her again? Kina? How original!"

It took Winter a while to see what Cassandra was talking about, then she saw a strange creature emerging from a basket, looking very offended. It was the most bizarre creature she had seen yet, including the dancing rats in the Magical Menagerie, a shop in Diagon Alley. It looked like a small cat; only it couldn't possibly be one. It was ginger with black spots all over. It's over sized ears looked like Cedric's pet mouse's and its tail was that of a lions.

Rowan was smiling at Winter.

"Funny thing isn't she!" He picked Kina up by the front paws and cradled her in his arms.

"She won't hurt her master, which is more than I can say for that." He nodded towards the fox disdainfully.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Cassandra said stiffly, scratching the fox's belly, though it was quite obvious that she did.

Rowan grinned.

"Pull up your sleeve."

Cassandra rolled up her sleeve. Nothing.

"The other sleeve Cassandra."

Cassandra rolled her eyes and pulled up her right sleeve. There were several scratch and bite marks on it.

"Troy stepped on his tail." Cassandra said defensively.

"Of course he did. Troy does everything." Rowan said sarcastically.

Cassandra sniffed.

"I'm going to look for Cliodna."

"You do that."

Cassandra walked huffily out of the compartment.

"She's not always like that. Only when she's stressed or irritated. But the rest of the time she's rather nice." He said and turned back to Kina, who was washing herself. Winter's lips stretched into a smile. It didn't last long. Rowan's father and whom she assumed was his wife walked into the compartment.

"Haven't we left yet?" Rowan said confusedly.

"Look out the window." The woman teased. Winter looked out of the window. A bad tempered woman was shaking a finger at her son who was looking as if he'd heard this line one too many times.

"Winter? You all right?" Winter's head snapped around. Rowan's dad was looking at her.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you."

He nodded.

" You don't know me and neither do I know you. My name is Ron Weasley and this is my wife Jehanne. I knew your mother when we went to school together." He stared out the window for a moment " You'll probably meet our other children, Gareth, Leanne, Lucy and Mika later. They're somewhere around anyway."

He turned to his wife.

"Have you seen any of them?"

"Not since they ran off." She said, shaking her head.

"I don't believe it. How many times have we told them?"

She gently laid a hand on his arm.

"You sound like Percy." She said, a half smile inching onto her face.

Ron Weasley sighed.

"We'd better go and find them. Winter, Rowan, have a good term." He said bluntly and walked off, his wife behind him, shaking her head.

"He worries too much. Last night he was hitting the stove all the time because he thought that it wasn't cooking the chicken well. Instead we had burnt chicken because the stove got fed up with him."

Winter smiled weakly and looked out the window.

Kina was now purring contentedly in Ron's lap. Reynard had stayed in the compartment to sleep, and Athena was hooting sleepily in her cage.

Five minutes hadn't passed when the train started moving finally. Rowan waved a hearty good-bye to his parents whereas Winter couldn't see her mother. Something about the whole situation was bothering her. From 'Mina' to 'Aeternus Eternus'.

But she couldn't put her finger on the thing that was bothering her most.

***

A few hours into the journey, when Rowan had finished telling Winter all about Quidditch, Lily, James, Harry Potter, and kneazles, Cassandra walked back into the compartment, pale behind her freckles. Rowan stopped talking abruptly and Winter stopped worrying about whether or not the Wronski Feint should be considered as a foul.

"Cliodna…King…" She stuttered. Rowan stood up abruptly.

"No."

"Ah."

Cassandra said dumbly and fell onto the bench, staring ahead of her, her mouth slightly open. She looked as if someone had hit her over the head with a cricket bat. Hard.

"Oh my-"

Rowan, in his turn, fell onto the bench. At that moment, Winter would have given anything to know what was going on.

"What is it? What happened?"

Rowan looked at her. Cassandra had sunk too deep in stupor to notice what was going on around her.

"Cliodna was killed. By Mathias King." He said. Winter thought it sounded like the title of a book.

"What?"

Rowan looked at her, confused.

"Don't you know?"

"Don't I know what?" Winter said impatiently.

"About Mathias King?"

"Who?"

"Haven't you heard of him?"

"I've heard of Stephen King."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter. Who's Mathias King?

"He's the man Seth is possessing."

"What?" Winter was totally lost now. Rowan was gaping at her.

"Your mom didn't tell you?"

"Didn't tell me what, exactly?" Winter asked stiffly.

"Bugger."

Rowan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know. I don't think I'm the right person to tell you."

He sighed.

"You'll have to talk to Harry. I think he's most adept to tell you."

There was a silence in the compartment. A silence Winter thought was out of respect for someone she didn't even know. Shaking profusely, Cassandra lay down, resting her head on Rowan's lap.

He stroked her hair sympathetically, while Reynard whimpered and curled up in a ball under Cassandra's feet.

The compartment door slip open, and the boy Winter had seen standing by the two people called Ginny and Draco walked in.

"Rowan, I want a word."

"You can have two. Sod off."

" One, for the first time ever; I'm actually serious. Two, I will not sod off. The last time someone told me to sod off they came dangerously close to losing their nose."

"What do you want?"

" Your father and my father have been in a bloody fight again." He said, glancing around him to make sure no one was seeing him talk to a lowly Gryffindor.

"So? It's not like they're on the same side of the battlefield, is it?" Rowan said, stretching out each word to it's full capacity. Winter had a strange feeling he was trying to keep the boy standing there as long as humanely possible.

"This time it's different. Your father has threatened to disown my mother from the Weasley family if she doesn't leave my father. Which I, personally think is an honour, but my mother wants to keep her past."

"Didn't they disown her when you were born? You know, seeing your ugly face and all must have been enough for them." Rowan said, nonchalantly playing with Kina's collar.

"Shut up Weasley." The boy hissed. "I'm serious. You tell your father to let my family be. If you don't, I'll set Armin on you." He nodded to a very tall boy next to him, who was cracking his knuckles irritably.

"I've had it with your father and your uncles trying to pull my family apart. I've lived through it for my entire life and I think you'd better stop."

He said all this very slowly, his voice trembling with anger. His eyes were on fire, and his upper body was hunched forwards.

Rowan sighed, and opened his mouth to speak, but the boy had turned to Cassandra.

"Socialising with mudbloods are we?" He growled, shooting a disgusted glance at Winter. "Isn't that against your principales?"

Cassandra leapt to her feet, her eyes still red and puffy, and Rowan grabbed Kina's basket. The kneazle watched him menacingly, bearing an expression that may as well have been written on her forehead: 'Don't-you-dare.' while Reynard was growling and bearing his fangs at the boy.

"Get out." She said, her voice unsteady, the wand in her hand shaking so violently Winter was afraid it would snap.

"Get out, NOW!"

The boy rolled his eyes.

"See you at school. If you make it. Don't think they'd be too pleased to hear you'd been threatening a student. Dear me! You won't even make it to your first lesson." He laughed and walked calmly out of the compartment. Kina's basket hit the door hard. Kina hissed and stared at the basket. It returned to it's normal shape, as if by magic (then again, Winter thought. I t probably was.) And Kina jumped protectively inside

"Stupid git." Rowan said, eyes ablaze. Cassandra however was quickly scribbling something onto a torn piece of parchment. She rolled it up, and turned to Winter.

"Mind if I borrow your owl?" She asked. Winter nodded and unlocked Athena's cage. She watched as Cassandra tied the note to Athena's leg and opened the window. Athena spread her wings and flew towards an approaching forest.

A second after she'd disappeared behind the trees, another owl flew out from a window.

After the window was safely shut and Cassandra, Rowan and Winter had slipped on their robes, Winter's curiosity got the better of her.

"What was that all about?"

Cassandra's lips thinned and she busied herself locking her trunk.

Rowan sighed.

"That," He said, pointing at the door. "Was Appolyon Malfoy. His dad married my aunt a few years after they graduated. My grandparents act as if she didn't exist, but I think it hit my dad and my uncles hard. From the little I know, they were all really protective of her, being the only sister they had, and there's traditionally been a lot of hatred flaring between my family and the Malfoys. My dad thinks Aunt Ginny is under the Imperius curse, this kind of curse that puts people under trances and lets other people dictate what they do. Really dangerous, it is. The ministry had a lot of problems with it at one stage. Anyway, my mum, she's a dark arts expert, she says my aunt has none of the characteristics that a person under the Imperius Curse has, and anyway, she says, she would have learnt to beat it by now. I don't think he wants to believe her though."

He was interrupted by a voice echoing through the compartment and corridors of the train, as it grinded to a halt.

"We have reached Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Winter felt the colour draining from her face. Cassandra looked as if she was going to be sick, while Winter could swear Rowan's sunburn had turned green.

"Best be off then." Rowan said in an odd, strangled voice.

Cassandra bit her lip, and led the two others out of the compartment. The corridors were squashed with people trying to get out.

"Bloody David. He ran off with Alysha to get the best carriage!"

Winter turned her head slightly and saw a disgruntled looking boy talking to what looked like his brother.

Winter felt a hand on her wrist pulling her forwards. She turned around again.

"Come on." Rowan said, a twinge of impatience in his voice.

Winter jumped down from the train.

"Firs' years! Over here! Come on! Any more? Oi you! Over Here!"

Winter's head snapped to her right and felt her jaw drop. A gigantic man, the size of a whale, at least, face barely visible behind a huge tangle of what was in fact his hair and his beard was standing in front of a sea of what she presumed were first years. Again, Rowan pulled her over to the growing huddle of students in black robes.

"Every one here? Good! Hey, wait jus' one second."

He marched forward and grabbed a boy who was heading to the carriages with everyone else.

"Firs' years are over there!" He growled. "It's the same for every one!" He pushed the boy over to the group and Winter saw a smirk pass on Rowan's face as the boy turned out to be no other than Appolyon Malfoy, who looked rather disgruntled.

"All righ' then? Righ'! Follow me!"

They followed the gigantesque man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Looking back, Winter had no idea how she could possibly have done that, because in the short amount of time that she was on that path, she must have broken at least five bones without ever noticing. Needless to say, they were very cramped. Winter didn't want to think of how the man was doing.

"An' tha', ladies and gen'le men, is Hogwarts." The man beamed at them, Winter turned her neck and couldn't help the short gasp that came from her mouth. Indeed, it was certainly worth it.

Beyond the students and the man's form, was what seemed to be a huge black lake. And high atop a mountain on the other side, was a humongous castle, it's light bearen windows shimmering in the night sky and Winter could just make out the many turrets and towers stretching around the castle.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man called, pointing to a long line of boats sitting in the water by the shore. Winter, Rowan and Cassandra all climbed into the same boat. Everyone else either seemed to know someone already, or they didn't fancy sitting with them, but no one else joined them.

"Everyone in?" the man shouted. "Righ' then – FORWARD!"

Winter's nails dug into the side of the side of the boat as it jerked forward, practically sending a half-sobbing Cassandra to the bottom of the boat. Winter, however, hardly noticed. Her eyes were on the castle ahead. In all her life she had never seen anything like it. She doubted she ever would.

"Can't non-magical people see it?" Winter asked

"Muggles? Nah, not smart enough. Well, they are, but they don't look hard enough. They can't see Hogwarts. They think it's just some kind of ruin. Of course there are those stupid ones who climb it, good fun to them, I guess. But then they appear as if ghosts and walk through the walls as if they were climbing invisible stairs. But even then they can't see us. Daft pricks." Rowan said, laughing slightly.

Cassandra shot him a death stare through red eyes.

"Cliodna's mother was a muggle, Rowan."

Rowan bit his lip.

"Sorry. I completely forgot." He said apologetically.

Cassandra sniffed and turned away, staring into space. After a few minutes, they neared a large cave.

"Min' yer heads!" The man shouted.

Rowan pulled Winter down instinctively by her shoulders, cowering under the bench. Cassandra hadn't moved from the bottom of the boat, so she was in no danger.

The boats grinded to a halt along side a stone quay.

"All right then?" The man bellowed. A few rocks fell from the top of the cave into the water.

"Sorry." He muttered, keeping his voice down.

He led them up a set of stone steps and knocked three times on a large oak door.

It swung open immediately.

A blonde lady with a witch's hat perched on her head beamed down at them.

"Thank You Hagrid. I will take them from here."

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