Chapter One

All Aboard!

"And you will write to us a little more often this year, won't you, Mia?"

"I'll try."

A man, a woman, and a teenaged girl were walking along Platform Nine at King's Cross Station. That in itself was nothing out of the ordinary; the platforms of busy London train stations were always full of people. The people themselves were nothing out of the ordinary either. The man was blonde and slightly overweight. The woman was short and slight, and the girl was several inches taller than her mother. The girl's hair was light brown, and she was experimenting with wearing in a mass of braids swirled around her head.

The trolley the girl was pushing was slightly more unusual. It held a huge trunk, an owl softly hooting in its cage, and a broomstick. Whilst her parents might be ordinary, Mia Dursley was anything but. Mia was a witch – a real witch – and she was just about to start her fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Mia heard a squeal and turned around just in time to get a glimpse of her best friend, Lily Potter, before Lily descended on her.

"Let me breathe!" Mia said eventually, after it became clear that Lily wasn't going to let her go anytime soon.

Lily reluctantly let go.

"Hey, Mia," Al, Lily's older brother, grinned.

"Hi, Al - good summer?" Mia replied. She looked around for Lily's eldest brother, James, and then remembered that he'd finished school last summer. Mia thought it was going to be weird at school this year without James and his two best friends, Fred and Chris. The three of them had been a constant presence during Mia's first three years at Hogwarts, providing a friendly face at mealtimes and entertainment in the common room.

"Race you onto the platform!" Lily said, already breaking into a run. Mia tore after her, knowing her parents would follow with Lily's parents. Lily approached the barrier between platforms nine and ten and then vanished into it. As Mia got closer, she tried to block out the feeling that she was going to crash into the barrier and instead imagined herself safely on the other side.

When she re-emerged on the other side, she had to endure Lily's victory dance - Mia didn't think it was worth trying to remind Lily she'd had a head-start - before she was rescued by a screech of 'Lily!'

"Hi, Matilda," Lily half said, half sighed, turning around to see Matilda Knight, the girl she'd been assigned as a 'little sister' in a scheme last year. "You've grown."

Matilda shook her head. "Not much. I've just got these really cool new boots and they've got pretty high heels."

Lily and Mia looked at her boots.

"They're made from bamboo and recycled car tyres," Matilda informed them.

"Right," Mia said. She looked around for her own 'little sister'. Sure enough, there was Emma, standing a short way away, with a man Mia knew to be Draco Malfoy, Emma's father. Next to them was the woman she guessed to be Emma's step-mother, Astoria. Mia walked over to them.

"Hi Emma," she said.

"Hi Mia," Emma smiled, accepting Mia's hug.

"How was your summer?" Mia asked.

"It was good," Emma nodded.

Mia sensed that she wanted a bit more time with her dad and step-mum before it was time to board the train. "We can catch up later," she said. "We could sit together at the Feast?"

"Okay," Emma nodded, and Mia turned back toward Lily and Matilda, almost walking into Lily's cousin Louis Weasley.

"Hey Mia, guess what?" he said excitedly. He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet and looked... well, more Louis than usual.

"What?" Mia asked.

"No wait, we need to find the others first," Louis said. He grabbed Mia's wrist and pulled her toward Lily.

"Lily, have you seen Hugo?" he asked.

"Oh, hi, Lily, I haven't seen you since last week, Lily, how are you, Lily?" Lily grumbled.

"He's on the train," Matilda said. "I saw him earlier – said if I saw you to say he was saving some seats... can I sit with you?"

"No," Lily and Louis said at the same time.

"Go sit with the other small kids," Lily said.

"Archie's over that way," Louis pointed. "His cat had kittens over the summer."

"Oooh, kittens!" Matilda squealed.

"So Louis, what's your news?" Mia asked once Matilda had gone.

"Oooh, Louis has news?" Lily asked.

"We've gotta find Hugo first," Louis said.

"We ought to say goodbye to our parents," Mia interjected.

Louis sighed. "Fine, catch me up – I'll find Hugo."

Lily and Mia said a hurried goodbye to their parents and then boarded the Hogwarts Express and set off to look for Louis and Hugo.

The two boys were in an otherwise empty carriage toward the end of the train and as Lily and Mia sat down opposite them, Louis burst out:

"Vic's having a baby! I'm gonna be an uncle!"

"Sweet, I won't be the youngest anymore!" Lily said.

"Cuz it's clearly all about you, Lily," Hugo grinned. "I wonder if the baby'll be a Metamorphmagus like Teddy..."

"When's the baby due?" Mia asked.

"February," Louis told her. "Dom's hoping it'll come on her birthday... I just think it'll be cool to be an uncle – how many fifteen-year-old uncles do you know? Wouldn't you guys love to have a fifteen-year-old uncle?"

"I wouldn't like to have you as my uncle," Lily said decisively.

"Hey kids, have some badges."

They all looked up to see Mackenzie Walter, a fifth year Hufflepuff who was the commentator for inter-house Quidditch matches, standing in the doorway of their compartment. With a flick of his wand, he levitated four badges at the four fourth-years.

Mia took hers out of the air. "'Fourth-years suck'," she read aloud.

"If you think we're gonna wear these then you've got another think coming, mate," Louis said, chucking the badge back at Mac.

Mac shrugged. "Worth a try. If this-" he pointed at a badge pinned to his robes which read 'Fifth-years rule' "-is true, then that's truer."

"So, not a Prefect, then, Mac?" Hugo asked.

Mia scanned the front of Mac's robes – a Prefect badge was about the only thing she couldn't see there.

Mac laughed. "Course not. Who in their right mind would make me a Prefect?" he asked. "Mind if I join you?" He didn't wait for an answer but walked into the compartment and knelt up on the seat behind Louis and Hugo so he could still talk to them. "So... broken up with Ailie yet, Louis?"

"No...?" Louis said. "Why...?"

"Because I date your ex-girlfriends," Mac shrugged. He and Louis both had badges which read 'I dated Dove Ackerley' and 'I dated Zoë Davies' which Mac had made for them, although Louis' girlfriend Ailie wouldn't allow him to wear his.

"I thought you were going out with Vicky," Mia said. Last term, Mac had been dating Vicky Baddock, a Slytherin fourth year.

"I broke up with her," Mac shrugged. "Her parents weren't happy with her seeing me because my dad's a Muggle, but she said she still wanted to go out with me because she thought it was cool to disobey her parents. So I broke up with her."

"So... you broke up with her because she said she wanted to go out with you?" Hugo asked, confused.

"No, because she only wanted to go out with me to spite her parents," Mac scowled. "Anyway, I'm through with girls... at least until you break up with Ailie, Louis."

"I'm not going to break up with Ailie!" Louis protested.

"That's good to hear."

Everyone looked up to see Ailie standing in the doorway.

"Hey, gorgeous," Louis grinned. Ailie came and sat on Louis' lap and Lily made sick noises as they kissed.

"I'm going to sit with Mac!" Lily announced, standing up. "At least he doesn't make me puke."

"Now you mention it, I think I've got some Puking Pastille in my pocket," Mac grinned.


A/N: I'm baaaack! I picked this back up in May, after being on hiatus mid-way through Chapter Twenty-One for about four years, and finished it in July. Fourty-one chapters, 92,000 words, coming to you at the rate of about a chapter a week, methinks. With thanks to my beta, Urgwaew, and also thanks to BubblyBae for the chapter title. ~ Nat