Three weeks later, Ariadne found herself walking down the long cobbled street that was Diagon Alley, her mother by her side, reading from a long list that had been sent by Professor Dumbledore. He had been anxious for her to get some of the books from classes lower down the school so she could catch up a bit, particularly in Defence Against the Dark Arts, which she had never studied before, and Transfiguration, which she was terrible at.

As she was herded into a very busy bookshop, which bore the name 'Flourish and Blotts' on the sign above the door, she thought about everything that had happened over the last three weeks. It didn't feel like three weeks had passed since she had left Norway. The time had flown past, which was not a good thing. Every day that went meant she was another day close to starting Hogwarts. She wasn't going to know anyone there, not even Linzi would be around as she had left a few years before and gone to work with a release programme for injured unicorns in Australia. It was hard enough starting at a new place, but to be starting there after 3 years - everyone else would have their own friends and groups and she would be a complete outsider.

And then there was the sorting. Ariadne had read up about this in 'Hogwarts; A History'. All of the first years had to be sorted in front of the entire school. If she had to go up there with them, she would look ridiculous and lose the respect of her peers before she had even gained any.

'Come on Ariadne, don't dawdle.' Helena's voice shook Ariadne out of her thoughts. Somehow, while she had been lost deep in her memories of the last three weeks, a large brown package containing ten or so books had appeared and was now floating innocently at her mother's side. They walked out of the shop and into the busy street, the books hovering alongside them.

As they strolled towards Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions to buy Ariadne's school uniform, there was a loud 'Ouch!' from somewhere to Helena's left. They turned around to see that the book parcel had started to drift off on its own in the opposite direction, no doubt bored with floating along doing nothing and wanting to go back to the shop. They had hit a small, plump woman with bright red hair, who was just heading in their direction when she had been hit by the guilty parcel.

'Oh my goodness I'm so sorry!' cried Helena, running over to help the woman. As she looked down, she gasped slightly, and realisation dawned over her face. 'Molly? Molly Weasley?' she said incredulously.

'Helena!' the woman jumped up with an exclamation of delight, forgetting all about her injury as she enveloped Ariadne's mother in a tight hug. 'I haven't seen you in years! Last I heard you were still over in Norway!'

'We moved back,' said Helena, before launching into an explanation of Alexander's new job.

'Well I never...' Mrs Weasley's gaze had now turned to Ariadne. 'This can't be little Ari - why I haven't seen you since you were seven years old - haven't you grown! Come here darling.' And with that, Mrs Weasley pulled Ariadne into a chokingly tight hug as well.

'Ariadne's going to be starting at Hogwarts in a few weeks time,' said Helena. 'She must be the same age as Ginny - maybe they'll be in the same classes!'

'Oh of course, I'd forgotten they were the same age,' said Mrs Weasley. 'I'll have her look for Ari on the train, then at least she'll know someone! They might even be in the same house, you know, because Alex was a Gryffindor wasn't he... so I suppose Ari might be as well... or of course she could be a Ravenclaw like you were...'

Ariadne sighed. She felt as if she had been excluded from the conversation, and it was now merely about her as if she wasn't there. If Mrs Weasley called her 'Ari' one more time she was going to scream! 'Ari' had been her childhood nickname and as soon as she had started school, she'd dropped it completely.

And then there was Ginny Weasley. Ariadne remembered her from when they had been forced to play together as children. Ginny had been painfully shy and no fun whatsoever, so Ariadne had soon become bored with her. If she was forced to become friends with her and hang around her at Hogwarts there would be trouble...

'Ariadne, Molly and I are going to go and have some coffee together,' said Helena, breaking through Ariadne's thoughts again. 'You'll be ok buying your robes won't you? Here's some money.' She pushed a few galleons into Ariadne's hand and turned to walk away with Mrs Weasley.

'Yes, bye!' called Mrs Weasley. 'I'll tell Ginny to go and find you on the train Ari!'

Ariadne turned away seething. As she walked towards the robe shop her wand gave a small glint, and she heard several cries of pain from behind her. She turned, and saw that the parcel had split open, sending the books it had been carrying flying in all directions and hitting several people. Two had fallen on Mrs Weasley's foot.

'Ooops,' muttered Ariadne as she walked into the shop.