Author's Note: Hey you people! I'm back with the third chappie! Actually... it's been written for a while now... but I'm such a slow loser that it took me a week to get around to actually uploading it. Hope you like it, despite the wait.

Oh and I still only have two reviewers whom I appreciate very, very much. But I'd like to have many more... -wink wink nudge nudge-

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't pretend to. So leave me and my monkey alone. Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey. So there.

Chapter Three: The Station

It was a very windy day indeed when the Potters Flooed their way to King's Cross Station. The wind beat hard against the many wizarding folks who were trying to cross the parking lot to get inside. If their parents hadn't been holding them tightly in their arms, Remula and Sirius would have blown away with the wind, Milly noted, amused and slightly frightened at the prospect of her little siblings flying through the air, still clutching their stuffed animals protectively.

When they finally pushed through the doors and got inside, they breathed a sigh of relief. "So, where to now?" Milly asked under her breath, stroking her snowy white owl (one of her father's owl's chicks), Niveous.

"Just follow me and try not to look suspicious," Dad muttered to her, walking briskly. Milly and the others followed quickly, not wanting to lose sight of him in the bustling station. Muggles... they were surrounded by chattering Muggles in this place. Milly had gone to a primary school with Muggles to learn the usual subjects, like Maths, and Spelling, and such. Many of them were friendly, and not too different from the wizard children Milly knew. And she had never exactly been unpopular, being a wealthy girl, but she wasn't exactly popular either. She was always very quiet at school for fear of letting slip that she was a witch. She feared even more than the prospect of getting in trouble with the Ministry of Magic the prospect of being teased for being a self-proclaimed 'witch'. So she kept her mouth shut most of the time, which made her teachers think she was diligent, and make the other students think she was shy, though there some who deemed her quietness 'being snobbish'. Milly had always ignored these accusations, knowing herself that they weren't true.

In the midst of her musing, Milly hadn't realized that she was now standing before a large brick wall between platforms nine and ten. Nine-and-three-quarters. Her parents had prepared her for all of this. They had told her not to be scared, to close her eyes when she pushed through the barrier, to open her eyes immediately upon reaching the other side lest she crash into someone else. But nothing had prepared her for the way her heart sank to her feet and the lump rose in her throat as she waved goodbye. Father had an important meeting to attend to (what for Milly was unsure), and they had to depart right away. They couldn't even come through the barrier with her to help her onto the train. Milly was alone in front of a brick wall that was steadily looking harder and thicker by the second. Milly glanced at her watch. She had to hurry.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and pushed her trolley as quickly as she could toward the barrier, toward the brick wall, hoping against hope it would yield and as she neared it her stomach did an unhealthy flip-flop and she knew this was stupid, she shouldn't have done it, she would crash into impervious red brick in two seconds, she nearly screamed---- when the crash didn't come, she opened her left eye, the green one, and looked around. She'd made it through! And without crashing into someone else's trolley! Well that was certainly a success, Milly thought. She gloated mentally and was so absorbed in staring open-mouthed at the enormous red train in front of her that she forgot to pay attention to her trolley and CRASH!

The sound and impact tore Milly violently back to reality. She'd knocked over some bloke's trolley, not heeding his preceding cries of, 'Hey, watch out, you!' Now all his belongings were strewn across the concrete. Milly gasped. Niveous was shrieking and flapping his wings, causing quite a stir.

"I'm so bloody clumsy! S-so sorry!" Milly stuttered apologetically. The boy was hastily gathering his books and dumping them unceremoniously back onto his trolley.

The boy muttered something and Milly quickly knelt down and began to help him get his things together.

"I'm really sorry, I'm just so stupid... I wasn't paying proper attention," she said to him as she hoisted a large pile of thick books onto his trolley. The boy, having returned all his items to the trolley, stood up and looked at her and nearly laughed at the mortified expression on her face.

"Nah, it's alright. Not entirely your fault. I'm just really unlucky. There was no way I could get through today without having my trolley knocked over at least once. Trust me, I'm used to it," the boy informed her. The boy's curly hay-colored hair flopped over his muddy brown eyes in a careless fashion as he motioned emphatically toward his trolley.

"So yeah..." he trailed off, scratching his head.

"Er... well, that's good," Milly replied lamely. She smiled awkwardly and pushed a lock of heavy black hair away from her face. The boy gasped and his eyes grew wide.

"Your eyes... they're... wow," he stammered, open-mouthed. Milly blushed. Of course. She had forgotten about her mismatched eyes.

"Oh, er, yeah," she began nervously, trying to find some way to distract him from it. "It's kind of weird, but—"

"Bloody wicked, that is!" the boy exclaimed. Milly blinked in surprise. That was certainly not the reaction she'd expected.

"Er, I'm glad you think so," she thanked him, smiling. He wasn't half-bad.

"So anyway, my name's Broderick Sloo, but er, most people call me Brody," he introduced himself, extending his hand. Milly gladly shook it. "And never," he added grimly, his eyes serious, "never call me Ricky."

Milly laughed.

"I'm Milly Potter. Nice to meet you!" she said happily. Once again Brody's eyes grew big.

"Potter? As in Harry Potter's your dad?" he asked incredulously. His astounded expression was almost comical.

"Yeah. That's my dad," Milly confirmed, nodding.

"Wow..." he muttered. Then he looked up brightly. "D'you want to sit with me on the train? So we don't have to share compartments with people we haven't met, you know..." His voice trailed off.

Milly's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Sure!" She hoped she didn't sound overly eager, but she'd never had a good friend before, only Muggle aquaintances and a few of her cousins, and Brody sounded just like 'best friend' material so far. "Oh, speaking of which, we'd better hurry!" she added urgently.

"Right," he nodded and they rushed to the train to find a compartment.

Author's Note: At first I planned on naming the moppy-haired kid Liam Synclair, but the name didn't really seem to fit. 'Synclair' sounds far too snobbish as a last name, and too dramatic and Malfoy-esque, to me at least. It didn't take long for me to find the surname 'Sloo', which is an unusual Welsh name, but I spent nearly two hours deciding on the first name 'Broderick', which is English. For a minute I almost called him 'Leo'... glad I didn't, because that would be just too weird considering the house he'll be in. Oops, I'm rambling... well, please leave me a review! I'll like it very much!