Disclaimer: All J. K. Rowling's except for the bits that aren't.

I'd been on the train for a while, having arrived stupidly early (at least in my opinion) 'cause Mum had to rush off to work after dropping me off. Didn't particularly bother me though; it would give me an opportunity to catch up on the sleep I'd missed the previous night due to nerves. Of course actually getting some sleep was easier said than done.

"Oh bloody hell, it's another one." A voice pierced through my slumber; maybe they'd go away in a minute.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Well, she's a bit big for a first year isn't she?"

"Yeah, but she doesn't really look much like the others though."

All right, so apparently they were intent on staying. Not only that, from what I had heard, they seemed to be talking about me too. Perhaps a gentle hint would get them to leave.

"Christ. Could you two shut up and let me get some bloody sleep?"

"Doesn't exactly sound like one either."

"I don't know; remember that blue haired one who got into Slytherin last year? She sounded a bit like that."

"Oh yeah."

So, I was doomed to be kept awake - my sleep would have to wait until tonight. I gave up, sitting up I opened my eyes and took a bleary look at my two pests. A pair of girls stood in the doorway to the compartment, both with looks of deep suspicion on their face.

"Happy now? I'm up."

The pair sat down opposite me, and now that my vision had cleared I managed to get a better look at them. The first was a petite Asian girl and the second, a female who was quite possibly the embodiment of the phrase 'English Rose'.

The latter of the two now spoke to me. "Good. Maybe now you can answer a few questions for us."

What? Hadn't I already done this when I applied to the school? Oh well, might as well humour them, after all I might end up having to spend the rest of my school life with them; they did look around my age.

I shrugged. "Sure, axe away."

Rose, as I'd dubbed her (at least 'til I learned her name), nodded. "Right. First, what's your name?"

Well, that was easy, I wonder what was with the third degree?

"Jane D-d-dunkley. Why, what's yours?"

"You mean you don't know?" The Asian girl (henceforth known as Butterfly, after the lovely clip in her hair) gave me an odd look, heavens know why.

"No. Why should I? I mean I've only just met ya." What am I, a mind reader? That thought went unsaid.

"Well, there's a good sign." Butterfly muttered to Rose before the latter turned to face me again.

"So Jane, where are you from?" she asked, completely ignoring my questions.

"Brum," I said simply before extrapolating a little further, "Well, actually Dudley, it's a town near it. Dunno whether you've heard of it? Look, could ya tell me what all this is about?"

Butterfly nodded, she'd heard of it apparently but other than that my own questions went unanswered once again. "Thought I recognised the accent. Now. Parents, siblings; do you have any?"

I sighed, maybe all would become clear later. "Daft question, of course I do. Me mum and a bratty little sis' who'll probably be joining me next year; dad sodded off a couple of years ago, leaving us three on our own with a lovely set of Goblin debts. Sufficed to say I don't want to see him any time soon."

That seemed to satisfy them somewhat and the tension in the air cleared a little.

Once again Butterfly spoke, "Okay, last questions. Where are you transferring from and why?"

I almost laughed; I'd been expecting those questions for a while now. In fact, I'd been surprised that they hadn't asked them sooner. Smiling a bit I told them, awaiting their reaction.

"St Mungo's, actually."

This time I did chuckle, the looks on their faces was hilarious.

"Oh, don't worry! I ain't nuts or nothing."

"Then why, might I ask, were you in there?"

"Got hit by a van couple of years ago, just after I got me letter. Smashed me up real good, it did; spine, legs, head, the lot. It took 'em till Feb to fix me back up; mind you I've got some lovely scars to show for it still. Wanna see?"

The pair blanched at the thought. I didn't blame them though; I'd done the exact same thing when I'd first seen them. Mind you, they'd faded a bit since then. Still got that bloody stutter though, can't see why they couldn't have fixed that while I was in there.

"Just kidding. Any road, I was supposed to come here just after the accident but seein' how I was back then, it sorta put a damper on things. So I was kept on the list here and went to the school at the hospital until I was better. 'Til I could walk and talk proper and the like."

That got Rose to raise an eyebrow, who knows why, but it did seem to placate them as they came over and sat either side of me. Butterfly took my hand and shook it.

"Sorry about the interrogation, Jane, but we have to be careful; you'll find out why soon enough, I wager. Anyway, I'm Parvati Patil and this is my friend, Lavender Brown."

"Nice to meet you." Lavender nodded in greeting.

"Likewise, Lavender." Huh, so I wasn't that far off with my dubbing, at least on her account. "So. What was with the third degree earlier on?"

"Well, we've been having a little trouble at school lately you see…" Parvati's face clouded.

Odd, Dumbledore hadn't mentioned any sort of trouble to me, mind you I hadn't
asked. "Oh? What kind of trouble? Is it like that stuff I saw in the papers last year?"

Lavender smiled at that, "No, not exactly. This is more of a different problem… one that the newspapers don't really know about as of yet."

Okay, so now my curiosity was peaked. "Go on, ya know I'll find out sooner or later. Might as well tell me now."

"Well…" Parvati and Lavender shared a wary look; reminding me of those they'd given me when I'd first met them. It only took them a few moments to reach a decision, "Okay. Hogwarts is…" Before she could finish though, she was interrupted by an insanely cheerful voice.

"Hi there!"

A… well I suppose it was a girl, something about her seemed a little off though, stood in the doorway of the compartment. Boy was she an odd one to look at; black hair that had both a blue and a red sheen, still don't know how she quite managed that one but it gave me migraines just thinking about it. Violet eyes, no not a bluish purple, proper violet eyes. Alabaster skin that was as white as snow, curves in all the right places, she was a wonder to look at. The beauty spoke again, her voice ringing in my ears like wind chimes.

"I'm Krystabella Zircon, have you seen my Harri-kins at all?"

Hold on… Krystabella Zircon? God, what were her parents on when they named her that? I couldn't stop myself sniggering at it.

The noise seemed to disorient Krystabella for a moment and I felt something change; my head cleared as if I'd been half-asleep before and only just awoken.

"Is something funny?" Krystabella demanded, no, screeched; her voice was gratingly high. It was at that point that I realised exactly how stupid she looked. She reminded me too much of the strange doodles a fellow 'inmate' at St Mungos used to draw, and the memory of those compared to the girl standing in front of me broke what ever hold I had on myself. I laughed, hard and really quite loudly. I might have pointed too but I was too busy holding my sides.

She seemed to get quite upset by this though and she pulled her wand out on me.

Damn.

"Why are you laughing at me?"

A quick glance at Parvati and Lavender told me that they'd be no help. They looked entranced by the girl.

"I… erm…" Great, perfect time to become incomprehensible, Jane.

"Enough. This will teach you to laugh at Krystabella Zircon." Another snort of laughter escaped me; did she really know what she had said? Sadly this only seemed to enrage her further. I closed my eyes and started to fumble for my wand. Too late though…

"Crucidavra!"

Nothing happened. I risked unclenching my eyes to take a peek at the girl. She was just standing there, looking confusedly at her wand. I took that opportunity to grab my own wand and point it at her.

"St-st-st—" Come on! Get it out! "Stupefy!"

Better. I took a strange satisfaction in watching her drop to the ground. Don't know why, I'm normally not that petty.

"Wha?" That wasn't Krystabella, came from opposite me for one. "Oh no, not again."

"Bloody thing, first one in a while that's got us. Have to be more careful next time."

Lavender and Parvati seemed to have stared to wake from their trance and were now looking in disgust at the prone body on the floor. I was rather surprised when Parvati's leg shot out and she kicked Krystabella hard in her unnaturally thin torso.

"That would be our problem right there," Parvati spat, "bloody Sues."

"What? How? What do you mean, Sues?" Someone that ridiculous and inept was a threat to Hogwarts? How?

"Her and others like her," Lavender replied; she seemed rather upset by the whole thing. "They… they aren't human. We call them Sues after the first one that appeared in the school about two years ago. You're rather lucky to have come so late, Jane; we've found ways to cope with them now. Before," she shuddered, "before we had no defence; we were enthralled constantly. Well most of us were; some seem to have a natural defence. The Hufflepuffs mainly, don't know why they have it but I envy them. Parvati and I seem to have built up some sort of defence against them too; I'm not sure why this one was able to hypnotise us, but one hasn't been able to do it in a long while."

This sounded bad; the look of horror on Lavender's face as she told me was enough to scare the hell out of me. Parvati just seemed angry, although I couldn't really tell as she was busy tying up the… Sue with one of her school ties.

"So… so why hasn't anything been d-done about it? Surely Dumbledore could stop them? I mean even you-know-who's afraid of him."

"Dumbledore's one of the worst affected by them, excepting maybe Harry Potter and Malfoy." Oh yeah, Harry Potter's in my year. I'd forgotten about that, be interesting to see if he's like what the papers make him out to be. Doubt it really, not with the tripe the Prophet's been coming out with lately.

"I see… d'ya think I'll meet more of these… Sues? Are there really that many?" I really was worried now. If they could affect Dumbledore… well who knows what to think…

"Oh you'll meet them Jane," Parvati said darkly; she'd finished with the body and had sat back next to Lavender. "There's no escaping the Sues. They'll find you; just pray you've got enough wits to get them before they ensnare you…"

Great. Not only had I the Sorting to worry about, not to mention lessons. I now had this.

Fun…