When you walked in at first, you thought the house smelled slightly musty and welcoming, but it turned out it had a hollow feel to it. The raw wooded chairs and door hangings were overly polished and looked as though the whole house had just been through some kind of supercleaning and you felt certain the Weasley woman had something to do with that. You didn't have a lot of time to look around because it was only a short distance from the front door into the door to the kitchen and Dumbledore was walking quickly. You found yourself in a small room, but still larger than the room you had entered the house first. The room had a long table crammed with far too many chairs to count and a fire stood at the far end of the room gleaming brightly and causing a warming in the room although the stone floor was still cold. Dumbledore made to sit down so you followed suit. He issued Mrs Weasley an order to gather up everyone in the house so they could introduce everyone to you. You told him that wouldnt be nescesary but he insisted. You looked around at all the chairs thinking there was no way that many people could be here. You were wrong. People from about 14 or 15 all the way to Dumbledores age came filing in and taking a seat all looking rather surprised at the new guest. You tried to take it all in.

i Were all these people related/i you thought casting a glace around the room. 2 redheaded adults, counting Mrs Weasley, 4 redheaded children, and they HAD to be related. A girl with bushy brown hair, a boy with face that looked saddened to its core and unruly dark brown hair, a woman with bright bubblegum pick hair, a scruffy looking man, a man who looked like he never showered, a very very scary looking man with a large chunk out of his nose and a ferocious looking eye and several more. With all the strange looks from the children and the "I already know" looks from the adults, it seemed as though the adults had already been informed of meeting you but the children had been left in the dark. You were all wrapped up in your thoughts when Dumbledore spoke from the closest to you, standing up.

"Alright, firstly, Fred... er George? Fred? could you please wait until after dinner to handle any business agreements, Mundugus you should know better. Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, as I'm sure you have noticed, we have a new face around here. This is Aurora Borealis, she is from northern England, in Middlesborough, but that has nothing to do with anything. Anyways, she will remain here for the rest of the week and I know Hermione Ron Harry and Ginny will be happy to hear that she will be attending classes in Hogwarts" There were collective snickers at her name and then a collective stare at Dumbledore when he announced the last bit of information.

"She's WHAT! You mean like a transfer?" asked Ron, beside himself.

"Not precisely Ron, she was brought up without magic and ... other things have recently come into view and she will be staying in the castle with us until next summer to see how she holds up."

"Oh dear, like a muggle!" asked the bright redhaired man across the table from you.

"Like a.. what?"

"Oh, you know, non magical folk.. Aurora was it?"

"Yes, and may I ask your name?"

"Oh gracious me, I forgot! I'm Aurthur Weasley, and these are my children... oh lord not all of them, just the redheads! That there is George and Fred, Ginny, and I beleive you know Ron and his rather large mouth." Mr Weasley said laughing, Ginny held out her hand to you and you shook it, Ron just nodded and the two named Fred and George grinned two identical mischeiveous grins and muttered something to each other while casting funny looks in your direction. They looked like trouble.

"Yes, and those two are Hermione Granger (she smiled brightly) and Harry Potter." He lifted his face for the first time since you'd been sitting there, still looking troublesome but had a look of expectation on his face like he was waiting for you to do something. When you just continued to look at him he gave the most feeble sign of acknowlaging that you were there and then continued staring at his shoelaces. The introductions went on and on and Dumbledore explained all about your run in with the Minister but leaving out the part about being wandless. You made a mental note to thank him later for that. Although you were shy at first, you felt that these people would take good care of you. You seemed to be more comfortable down at the end with the other adults rather than sitting with the other children your age. At least you thought they were your age. You just turned 16 like 2 weeks ago so, hopefully they would be in the same grade as you. You decided to ask.

"Molly?"

"Oh call me Mrs. Weasley! And yes what is it child?"

"Well what did you want me to do with all this food, sorry I couldnt eat much, all this stuff has been.. "

"Oh its fine, Just leave it there and i'll come get it when everyones finished."

"Okay thanks."

You went to go sit with the other children so you could ask them some things.

"Umm.. Hi... I'm Aurora.. I... umm" Okay this wasnt working out too well. They think I'm dumb. I should have just stayed over there away from them and I never would have had to... Then you were suddenly pulled our of your reverie.

"Oh good, I thought you were avoiding us! Well We've been introduced but just in case you forgot I'm Hermione. How old are you?"

"I just turned 17... are you guys going to be in the same grade as me?"

"Grade...?"

"Like.. in school?"

"Oh like what year? We'll be in 6th and if you just turned 16 then you'll be in the same year as us! Well not Ginny, shes only 16" you heard a groan from Ginny's direction.

You continued your small talk, with Hermione talking the most, with the occasional chip in by Ron, but Harry didn't speak, not once. Ginny was a having a heated discussion with Lupin about Goblin rebellions and who knows what else and you realized that this might not have been such a good idea.

"You know, I have no idea what a goblin is.. I ... I'm going to be horrible at school!"

"Oh don't worry, the first 4 years are pretty easy going and 5th year is hard because of OWL's.. oh they're like big tests at the end of the year. I have PLENTY of books to lend you and I can help you with everything except the practical magic because its illegal to do if you arent of age, but I guess you found that out already didn't you?" she finished chuckling then turned to Dumbledore all of the sudden and asked something about a diagonally something or rather.

After they talked for a minute you realized that it was a place.

"He says our book lists came during dinner and we can all go tomorrow. Of course, you'll need a wand and who knows what kind of books, I may be able to work something out with Dumbledore about us three, well two maybe, sorry Ron, tutoring you! Wouldn't that be fun?" she exclaimed. You were pretty sure she said all of that in one breath. br br

"But I don't really need a wand." Crap.Why did I say that.

"But why not... you'll need one if you're ever going to learn how to do spells properly!"

"Well. I dont need a wand, I can do them in my ... head..."

Silence. Even Harry looked up in surpirse, the first sign of emotion he'd shown all night. Ron dropped his fork. Since those three were the closest, they were the only ones to notice that you said something. You didn't think it was THAT big of a deal, maybe just a little quirk.

"Aurora, thats really.. really rare! I read about this one person that could do that in Hogwarts a history , but he ended up sending a flock of seagulls at himself or something and drown! Couldn't swim, poor bloke!"

"Thanks.. Hermione..." you said wondering what on Earth that had to do with anything.

After assuring everyone that you could indeed do what you said you could, you promised to show them after they got to school, which you found it hard to beleive started in only a week. Tomorrow, Hermione had explained, you were going to one of the only all magic towns in London, Diagon Alley where you would be getting your school supplies and some other things.

Mrs. Weasley assigned you to a room with Hermione and Ginny, conjuring up a small bed for you to lay on. You were still amazed at how magic actually exsisted! All this was really and truely real, never in your wildest dreams could you have ever imagined something so surreal. The only thing that plagued your happy dreams that night was the furtive glances Dumbledore kept shooting you, when he thought you weren't looking. The glances made you feel like he knew more about you than he was letting on.

\\\\\

When you woke up, your realized that you had completely kicked off all the covers on your bed. When you looked around, you also realized that the other girls were no longer in the room. You got up and put on your slippers and folllowed your way out of the room checking your appearance as you walked by a floor length mirror. That was the problem with long hair, it always got tangled while you slept. You fussed with it a bit but gave up realizing that resistance to your hair was futile. You walked towards the room you remember to be the kitchen and walked in stifling a yawn. You froze. Although there was less than at dinner the previous night, there was still quite a few people and everyone of them was completely dressed and busy eating their breakfast. Here you were in your silky silver pajamas with puffed up hair looking like the walking dead. You heard Hermione let out a giggle at your appearence and you figured it was too late now, you might as well eat now and worry about your sorry excuse for an appearance later. Harry seemed to be a slightly better mood today and you hoped it wasn't your pitiful appearance than put him in a good mood.

"Oh Aurora we're leaving in 20 minutes you know, we tried to wake you but you sleep like the dead!" Hermione said, her mouth suddenly becoming slack and she shot a furtive glace at Harry who looked like he might explode. Harry got up, slamming his fist on the table and stormed out of the toom. He didn't come back.

"What..." you muttered turning you gaze from the kitchen door back to Hermione who was looking guilty.

"Oh dear... I can't beleive I said that..."

"Said what..!"

"Sirius..."

"What who?" But before you got an aswer, she rose, followed by Ron who was looking at the floor, and they both trudged out of the room without casting so much as a sideways glace at you.

You didn't have much a appetite anymore so you reluctantly pulled yourself up and dragged yourself back up to the shower where you cleaned yourself up and blowdryed you long hair straight and got dressed. The trip to Diagon Alley was put off until they could get Harry to come out of his room which was proving to be very difficult. You didn't know what was going on so you decided to stay out of it, resigning yourself to looking through a book Hermione had lent you; u Hogwarts a History. /u you were hoping to actualy find the section about the man without a wand. Skimming each chapter, it got pretty interesting probably because this was all so new to you. A general map of the school showed you the classrooms of the present and of the distant past. You read about the four houses and discovered that everyone there had been, or is, in Gyffindor. 'Brave', that is what the book had said, but you were still curious about the Slytherin Crest, bold and stong. You tore you eyes away from chapter four when you heard Ron's mom calling you down so they could finally leave for Diagon Alley.

You didn't ask why so many adults had to follow you around glancing around nervously when you reached a fireplace iin some foreign shop. Floo powder really wasn't your thing. You disliked it almost as much as you disliked portkeys. Plus, this way covered you in ashes and soot. You waited for the rest of the people to get there and Molly handed you a list of things you needed to get. She distributed the other children their lists too and said you could walk with Hermione to get your school supplies but Ron and Harry HAD to go with Arthur.

"Now run along dearies, you have quite a list, I already got you some gold that Dumbledore left for you, here you go, be at the Leaky Cauldron by three, no later!" and with that she swept out of the store and out of sight.

"Okay well, first thing on list is... wow twelve books! You have a lot of catching up to do. Fortuately, I have nine out of all of these so we won't need to spend all of your money on books. Let's get the other 3. 2 of those are for 6th year so I have to get them too..." she trailed off staring down the street at something you couldn't seem to see. Her expression turned to great dislike as she looked at an approaching boy. He had impeccable white skin and white blonde hair, but his face was contorted into a sneer and his sivlery blue eyes glinted malevolently; there was no wamth there.

"Mudblood, and..." his eyes looked you up and down "Who may I ask is this lovely specimen? Why are you being poisoned by Grangers company?" he snarled.

You just met him for 5 seconds and he already made your blood boil. "Who do you think you are?" you asked in a forceful voice.

"Ah... nevermind. I see another mudblood joined the golden trio. A pity too, Granger you might want to keep this one on a leash" he finished, gesturing to you. Smugly, he sauntered off in the direction of two large goons waving furiously off in the distance.

"Who the hell was that?"

"That, was Draco Malfoy, Slytherin. You'll want nothing to do with him-- trust me. Okay, let's go and hopefully we'll have more pleasant company. "

You walked around visiting different shops, stacking your books and holding your new owl. He was pitchblack with little flecks of gray and white that covered his black downy feathers. You named him December. An oxymoron of the white snowy fields that usually symbolise the cold month but it still seemed fitting. Because Hermione had let you borrow her books, you had a load of extra money and you decided to wonder into a peculiar looking shop about something called Quidditch, wondering why there was a entire store dedicated entirely to brooms. Your question, however, was immediately answered when you saw Harry and Draco having a blazing row about whos broom was faster and who was more skilled at flying.

"It's a silly sport" Hermione explained to you watching them fight a little longer before Draco turned on his heel, followed by his two large cronies. Whe he passed the two of you he muttered something about mudbloods and his father and stormed out of the store. You waited with a quizzical look on your face while Hermione explained what a mudblood was and Harry cut in, to explain about the great sport of Quidditch followed by furious nodding by Ron and the classic puffing out of his chest. Seemed good to you, people could actually fly here! How much money did you have left over, lets see, wow a lot.

You asked Harry how much money it would take to buy a broom that was shining in its case, a Firebolt. Just enough money. You bought it hastily, with Harry snorting and tutting at you like you had no idea what you were doing and as true as that may have been, he was still being rude.

"You know you think you're a know-it-all? Stop being so self involved and rude."

"Sod off, you have no idea how powerful that broom is, you have no idea what you're doing! I hope you dont think you're going to try out for the Quiddich team.."

"What if I am!"

"Well, you'll never make it anyway if you're in Gryffindor, I'm captain and theres no way a first-year-on-a-broom student is going to be good enough to make the team."

"We'll just see about that" you said, taking your belongings and walking out of the store. Hermione came out a minute later.

"I don't know what his problem is Aurora, he's been really moody like that ever since..." she trailed off again "Well, err it's 2:45 we need to be getting to the Leaky Cauldron so follow me."

Along the way she introduced you to a boy named Neville Longbottom, Parvati and Padma Patill, and pointed to, but didn't speak to a pretty asian girl named Cho Chang. Hermione explained about Harry and Cho and although Hermione tried desperately to cover up her dislike for the girl, it clearly showed. The Leaky Cauldron was filled with some of the strangest creatures you had ever see and you had to sit through the next 15 minutes of Hermione explaining it to you but you didn't mind. You liked learning about all this stuff, but it was hard to take it all in since Hermione talked about a million words a minute. After everyone else finally showed up you used floopowder once again to travel back to Grimmauld place. You ate dinner with Hermione and Ron, as Harry never came down to eat. Feeling exhausted ad overwhelmed, you excused yourself after you finished eating and went upstairs to read. Three pages into it, you fell into asleep. Pitiful.

The next week seemed to fly by and before you knew it you were repacking your bags that had somehow strewn itself about the room only over the course of a week and traveled to a place called the Kings Cross Station. You had been there once before on a trip down to southern England. The brink wall hoax threw you off a bit however, and you flew in too fast, nearly running over the Longbottom chartacter you had met just last week at Diagon Alley. From where you stood you could see light billowing steam coming off in puffs as a shrill whistle sounded from the crimson train that would be taking you to Hogwarts.