Judith sat in the too big couch looking more than a little surprised. A single eyebrow remained raised as her eyes stared into space. The headmaster of Hogwarts tried to hide his smile.

'I'm Russian? I have Russian heritage? No, no, never mind that. I'm related to the rotting body of the Russian Tsar!?' She blinked a number of times and laughed.

"Okay Sir this is absurd. Though I am amused by the Harry Potter world, this can't be real!"

The amused look on the headmaster's face never wavered. "Oh but my dear child, it is." Standing up carefully he got up from his chair to stand in front of her. "Even if you do believe this is all just a dream would it be a dream you would like to stay in?" A flicker of hope passed through his eyes and he smiled convincingly.

An incredulous look passed over her like he was silly to consider she wouldn't. "Of course I would, this place is fascinating!" To think she could spend her time in a place where

"Good good. How about you do stay? Maybe after sometime you'll come to believe."

Judith smiled. "I'd love to but I still think I'll wake up sometime from now and find myself in bed in Canada again."

"Maybe you will miss Nichols but for the moment would you mind entertaining an old man of a small wish of his?"

"Of course Sir."

"Thank you my dear. But there is one last thing. Not only is it dangerous times for magic folk and students attending Hogwarts especially but should you decide later in time to assist the side of light as a correspondent to your people you may become a large target for attack from Voldemort. Are you still interested?"

Judith didn't need to spend much time thinking over the prospects. "Yes," she answered assuredly after minute. If this was a dream then she couldn't get harmed. If it turned out that it wasn't, an idea her mind was buying into every moment, then she would end up finding herself playing a large part likely in helping many people. The thought of helping people didn't scare her in the slightest. She might be at risk but that'd just raise the sense of adventure and purpose.

Albus Dumbledore stared at her for a moment trying to judge her seriousness and when she stared back with her steady and acknowledging storm cloud eyes he clapped his hands. "Excellent. This means much to me my dear. My most humble thanks are in order.

"Now during the duration of your stay in this world you will be staying at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, enrolled in the 7th year and will be disguised as coming from a regular magic family. It will not be hard since the Nichols name has been strong in Britain and a few have been magical. Technically you are a transfer student from Canada so we will keep that as part of your story. If anybody asks you are from Madeleine Trublé's School for the Magical in Quebec."

With her excitement levels rising Judith nodded in acceptance. "Yes my French isn't great but if I'm asked I'll say I went there after living in Western Canada." She could understand some and had been working on it, French was simply too interesting for her not too learn.

"Very good. Tomorrow with Fred and George you will go through the Alley and collect all your supplies." A letter she hadn't notice him take out was being held and presented to her from the Headmaster's hand. She picked it up and first took in the fine calligraphy in which her name was written and then, what she suspected was the Hogwarts emblem, imprinted in the wax on the back.

"It is your official acceptance letter. Inside you will find a list of all of your classes and the supplies you will need. The coin you'll use to purchase those supplies will be taken from the Romanov family vault in the wizard bank Gringotts tomorrow as well.

"Now for the remainder of the day I hope you will rest. My apologies for having Fred and George drag you out of bed at such at early hour in the morning. At the Leaky Cauldron you will find there has been a room rented for you. Boys if you could assist in escorting Miss Nichols there please?" Dumbledore was looking over to the door were the twins now stood expectant still grinning.

"Sure Headmaster."

"Come on Judith." George, though she once again couldn't tell which wizard was which, took her hand raised her to the feet.

"Now if m'lady would please flow, the Royal Weasley Twins of Pranks will take her ladyship to her quarters."

Dumbledore looked amused when Judith looked back at him in parting. The twins once more had a hold on each of her arms and were rambling in their British accent which they were accentuating for show. Before she lost sight of him on their way down the stairs the headmaster of her new school gave her a friendly wink and she smiled.

'How strange that I'll be spending my senior year going to a school that shouldn't even exist.' She thought, 'well in the least it didn't exist in my world.'

While still fascinated by the brand new sights, smells, and sounds, Judith was subdued by her mind which was in overdrive over the implications of all the things Albus Dumbledore had told her. Before she even knew it they were at the end of the ally and entering the Leaky Cauldron inn and pub. Scattered over the length of the bar and the tables a variety of people sat drinking and eating, socializing, reading, and doing various things people normally do in large places of the like. Fred and George waved and said a few words to a few of the folks here and there as they made their way up the stairs to a row of doors. Finally releasing her arms one of the identical brothers, -George? Or was it Fred?- produced a key for her.

"Your room number is 19."

"Goodnight m'lady. Sleep tight and don't let the ghoul fright!"

"Yes goodnight m'lady."

With more another flourishing departure the twins left and Judith was left in the hall starting at the key. 'Interesting.' As she slowly meandered down the hall she took in the beautiful dark wood that looked to have been the main building material of the inn and the fancy gold numbers that skimmed on the doors. Each step she took suddenly was reminding her of how tired she should have been. By the time she time she stepped up to the old door of her room she was ready to change back into her pajamas and climb under th- Wait her pajamas were in her trunk.

Her trunk wasn't with her.

SHE LOST HER TRUNK!

"Sugar," she lowly hissed as an alternative to swearing. Her head landed disappointedly on the hard wood of the door and the *THUNK* that resulted echoed down the hall. Quickly she raised her head and guilty looked to the closed doors. 'Great you're not only a klutz you're also a disturber of the peace. Smooth Judith very smooth and this is only your first few hours here.'

Sighing she fingered the key into the lock and entered her room. After closing the door without bothering to lock it, because she couldn't see a regular locking mechanism on this side of the door, she turned around to find at the foot of a large bed sitting there innocently and back to its old size, her trunk.



****





The next morning she was awoken once again by the voices of Fred and George Weasely.

"I'll wake her."

"No I will."

"Come on Fred it was you're fault she woke up yesterday. It's my turn."

"No I believe you were the one that stubbed your toe and started cursing."

Judith groaned.

"Now look you've gone and done it again." Laying in between a mass of very soft and warm sheets Judith listened to the footsteps of one of the twins. Stopping next her right she opened her eyes to find a freckled face a few inches from hers.

"BOO." The face said with great exaggeration. She had no idea if it was George or if it was Fred. Closing her eyes again at the brightness of the room she gave a blind shove at him. For fact that she was once again, just like every other day in her life, was ripped out of the beloved land of sleep and counting sheep she could careless about distinguishing between the two. The young men laughed.

"Ah sunshine doesn't want to get up?" George laughed and looked over to his twin with an evil idea in mind. Unfortunately because Judith was drifting away again she missed it.

Just as Judith got comfortable once more the secretive whispered words of a spell fell on her ears. When she opened her eyes to inspect what they did she met the site of a bucket hovering over her head. As soon as see noticed it, the thing tipped.

"AGH!"

The twins broke out in laughter as Judith Nichols struggled to get out of the sheets that were now soaked in cold water. When she did free herself she was looking like a drowned rat; her very long hair was in chilled strings sticking to her face and shirt.
Tears of laughter were running down both of the culprits faces. Her own was twisted up gruesomely adding to the wet rat effect.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASELY I SWEAR! YOU BETTER HOPE I WAKE UP FROM THIS DREAM OR I'LL KILL THE BOTH OF YOU!" She didn't care if she startled the whole Alley let alone the Leaky Cauldron's other patrons, she wanted her revenge.

"Sorry Judith." Fred said with little sincerity. In response Judith stormed up to him and grabbed his collar.

"You BETTER be!"

Pulling out his wand George grinned. "Don't worry I'll fix it," and with a flick of his wand and a murmur of words Judith found herself dry again. Reaching up to inspect the state of her hair Fred grinned as she released him and another wonderstruck look passed over her features. Her hair was perfectly dry but the tell tale feel of silk it had told her that her hair had recently been washed, no matter how brief.

"Now get some of those funny clothes of yours on and well meet you down stairs." After saying so both exited and Judith, still in shock, got dressed like told.

Downstairs she found them eating breakfast and when she sat down one of the inn's help came by and took an order from her for juice and what she hoped turned out to be hash browns. Thankfully it was and after they had finished Fred put down some peculiar coins she didn't have the time to inspect because they were dragging her off again by her arms.

'Wizarding money,' she mentally reminded herself.

The first stop was in front of a giant building she was surprised she hadn't noticed yesterday. On the front was the name Gringotts and people and creatures, she suspected were goblins, were entering and exiting quickly. They didn't much resemble that of what Hollywood depicted them as in the first movie.

Judith chuckled.

The only reason she bothered to go was because it looked cute. She hadn't even read the book… But a month before the movie was due to show in her little town she had rented the book after waiting for it to be returned after a LONG while and read the sucker. After that she was basically hooked. She was kind of surprised because she had actually been hitting the books. When she first heard about the Harry Potter phenomenon she dismissed it as a silly fad that would eventually run it's course. She had expected the next book to be a dud that would be rejected by the public. Lordy was she ever wrong.

She snapped back to 'reality' as George released her arm and held the door for her and his twin to enter the large bank. A smile at the ironic workings of fate graced her lips as she passed through the large door.

They began walking briskly up to the front desk. Two goblins immediately seemed to spot them (not that it's that hard considering there fire-engine hair that screamed for attention) and appeared a moment later directly in their path.

"Weasley sirs-" the scratchy voice of one rose but the twins seemed set on ignoring the two and side stepped them.

"Weasleys! We must request you leave immediately." Again they appeared in front of the trio but once more were side stepped by the fluid movements of the twins. Judith was at a loss at why they were ignoring them. She was surprised the twins even could. The way they were scowling at the three of them with their strange goblin features was hard to ignore. Other customers were even glancing over curiously.

"We will not put up with any more of your pranks Weasleys." One irritatedly stated as he was bypassed once again. Judith's head was on a swivel going back and forth looking between what she took to be a disgruntle expression on the goblins faces and the easy looks of the twins.

"No need to fear sir," Fred's voice filtered back as they quickly approached one of the high desks at the front. "No pranks today I'm afraid. We're here on business having to do with Albus Dumbledore."

"But," George added, "if you're that disappointed I guess we can have a look at our schedules and book you some terrorizing time if we're not busy." The two goblins who had given up trying to stop the two were standing in the middle of the large area of the bank entrance and when Judith did a double take she was positive the expression on their faces were glares and that they were directed at her and the backs of the twins.

Finally they did reach one of the desks that was situated past the entrance. The goblin at the top of it looked down on them expectantly over his glasses, a not very pleasant look Judith decided. George stepped forward and produced from his robes an envelope which he passed to the goblin. With skittish eye movements the creature read it over and then handed it back with a nod. His stare then settled on Judith and that scratchy voice spoke to her. "Miss Nichols if you could step forward."

She swallowed nervously and the guys nodded encouragingly. Judith stepped forward as asked. The goblin then lifted his wand and murmured a spell over her in some goblin language. Nothing happened. However this seemed to be a good thing though since he nodded and then disappeared from the desk. He then reappeared in front of her, now only half her height without the desk and she didn't feel too intimidated anymore. He made a wave with his hand for them to follow and then he was off scurrying towards a giant vault. When they entered they were greeted by the site of a big hole of blackness which a track like that of a train ran into. At the beginning of the tracks in front of them waited a coal car. The goblin hopped up into it and lit the lamp at the front of it.

"Only two can come one of you have to wait."

Fred stepped aside and then George assisted Judith into the car. As soon as she had grabbed the back of the thing and one side the car was off whirling down corners at a horrible speed. Judith always hated rides like these at amusement parks. Her stomach wasn't made for it.

Thankfully the trip was done in a minute and the car was now outside a vault with the number 12 on the front. The goblin passed her a key and she and George got out. After another reassuring smile from him she placed the key in the lock. The door opened with a hard shove on her part and the huge door opened with a shriek. Judith stepped away from it in surprise. 'I hope it was only because the hinges aren't greased that the thing sounded that way.'

When they looked inside both of them gasped. From just the glint of the lantern they could see the mass of coins inside and most of them looked like they were gold. Judith's jaw dropped. 'This is the Romanov vault? Well I suppose there's no doubt it can't be.'

She stepped in and picked up a few pieces and inspected their plain features. They didn't have the picture of the queen on it like Canadian coins did and on the other side there weren't the national symbols for her home land.

George let out an impressed whistle. "Judith your the wealthiest person I've met to date."

"Yeah and I didn't even know it. How much do you think will be enough to go into Diagon Alley with?"

"Well if you're planning on only buying the best, like gold inscribed textbooks you might take a whole bucket of the gold coins." George said cheekily.

"Gold inscribed textbooks? Who buys those?"

A snort from her companion in the huge expanse of the vault echoed. "Draco Malfoy and his following of Slitherin purebloods likely."

"Oh." Judith whispered. "Well what if I just want to get some well made regular stuff that will last me a year and help me fit in with the non-Slitherins?

The smile returned to George's face and he looked over the coins till he spotted some silver and copper pieces. "A half filled purse of those will do nicely." Helpfully he pointed out were he say them and Judith grabbed a handful with a little bit of each coin.

"Here." A small leather pouch fell at her feet and she eventually figured out she was supposed to put her money in it. "We knew you wouldn't have one."

She smiled thankfully up at him and after she had the thing filled and tied she suddenly got an idea.

George started to walk out of the vault when he was hit the back of the head by a coin. When he turned around she fired two more at him but he caught them. After that she was hurrying past him and getting into the car again.

"Keep them." She said. "Count them as payment for the pouch and your assistance."

The solitary twin looked down at his palm to see two heavy gold pieces glint back at him and he scrambled after her into the car.

"Wizards don't just pay gold pieces for anything!" George shouted over the swoosh of air as the car started the journey back towards the bank.

"Maybe this wizard will." Judith said back and refused the coins he was trying to shove back. "What else am I going to do with that vault full."



TBC