Two more chapters for school. Yippee! (Missy, I haven't been able to talk with you b/c my s/n was deleted by my parents. Wondering if you're going on the CH ski weekend…)

Disclaimer: :::Bows::: These characters and places are the property of the honourable JKR. Sabra and this storyline, however, are mine.

Half an hour after Sabra came into the compartment, they finally finished the last of the sweets. Wrappers littered the floor in front of all of them but Hermione, who had hers in a neat pile by her shoe.

"Whoa," Ron said, looking at Harry's face. "You didn't really eat all those chocolate frogs, did you?"

"You saw me, right? Of course I did." Harry grinned lazily at Sabra's face, wide eyed at the heaping pile of boxes on the floor.

She shook her head at them. "You guys are…oh, what's the word? Er…meshuggah?" She looked helplessly at Hermione, who smiled at her.

"I think you mean 'mental.'" she told her. "And you're right." Hermione took out her wand and pointed at the mess. "Scourgify!"

The rubbish on the floor disappeared with a loud 'pop,' and a flash.

"Nice going 'mione," Ron said acerbically. "Or did you mean to vanish my quill with it?" Pig hooted supportively from his cage on the rack.

"Ooh!" Sabra jumped up and put her nose against the cage. "Who's he?!" Zion hissed at the fluttering ball of feathers and batted his paw at the bar.

"That's Pig," Ron said glumly. "He's my owl." He cracked a small smile at the bird, showing that he was more loving of it then he would show.

"Pig," Sabra repeated. "I…might be wrong…but aren't pigs big and fat? Pork, right? Chasiir?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Sabra stared at the cage a moment more, then took Zion down and sat back on the seat.

They sat in silence for a moment, then Hermione looked at her wristwatch and gasped. "Ron! We're late! We should have patrolled the corridor ten minutes ago; we're prefects, remember?"

Ron looked at his own watch and his eyes widened. "Oy! You're right!"

Hermione shrugged into her sweater and quickly zipped it up; seeing Ron fumble around looking for his own, sighed in exasperation. "Oh, don't worry about it Ron," she said. "I'll do it. You just stay here and, well…stay out of trouble." With that, she bustled out of the compartment door and slid it shut behind her, turning left, she disappeared from sight.

In the following silence, Sabra leaned over to Harry and whispered, "Are they a pair?"

Harry gaped at her. "W-what? No! Of course not!"

"Oh; okay." Sabra shrugged, careful not to dislodge Zion, and leaned back against her seat.

'Ron and Hermione?' Harry wondered. 'What gave her that idea? We're just friends, the three of us…'

Harry shook his head and looked back up at Sabra; she had settled down in the plush seat and the cat was curled up in her lap, purring loudly as she scratched behind his ears.

"He sounds like a car motor," Ron snorted, looking at the small creature. "Isn't he a bit titchy to make all that noise?"

"Car…motor…? What is a motor?"

Harry gawked at Sabra, then looked in amazement at Ron. "Hey Ron," he said. "You know about cars, and you're a pure-blood, right?"

"Well it's not that simple," Ron answered, digging in his pockets for a last sweet. "I mean, my dad is a bit…muggle obsessed, so he's got, er, had," He exchanged a grin with Harry, "a car. Most other pure bloods don't bother with any of that muggle stuff. So if Sabra's a pure blood, and has got a traditional family, she wouldn't have to know anything about cars."

Harry gave Sabra a startled glance. "You're a pure blood?" He asked.

She nodded. "Ken…er, yes. Why?" She bit her lip and looked at Ron, then back to Harry. "Is that bad here?"

Ron laughed. "Hardly. Harry's lived with muggles, so he expects all of us to know as much as he does."

"I do not!" Harry protested, grinning and shaking his head. "It's been five years; I'm used to it, trust me!"

Sabra looked at the two friends bantering, battling an obvious struggle not to collapse in fits of laughter. She reached down in her lap to find the start of the conversation, to find he wasn't there. Zion had leapt to the seat, then jumped to the floor, and was sauntering over to Ron's legs, where he rubbed his face against them and, meowing loudly, demanded to be picked up.

Ron's face tilted downward, and he looked at the floor. When he saw the small kitten swishing its tail and purring, he looked at Sabra helplessly.

"What do I do with it?" He asked, glancing at the creature with apprehensive eyes.

Sabra rolled her eyes. "He wants to be picked up," she explained patiently. "Grab him around the middle and pick him up."

Ron carefully reached down and put his hands around the cat, then lifted him, wincing as if he was made of glass. He placed him on the seat next to his legs, then quickly withdrew his hands.

The cat looked scornfully at him, then jumped into his lap and arranged himself in a neat ball. He rubbed his nose against Ron's hand and began to purr again. Ron scratched behind his ears, then smiled a bit, and started petting him whole-heartedly.

"I think Ron just got taught by a cat," Harry said, laughing into his hand.

"I did not," Ron said, affronted, then looked down at his still-moving hand petting the cat. "Oh, guess I did." He grinned sheepishly as Zion nuzzled his hand.

At this moment, Crookshanks, who had been hiding in the luggage rack, decided to make an appearance. He jumped gracefully down and sniffed the air, looking for Hermione. When he couldn't find her, he turned around and glared at Ron, still scratching Zion behind his ears. He bounded over to Ron and settled down on the seat next to him.

He sniffed carefully at Zion, who lifted a paw and batted playfully at his squashed in nose. Offended, Crookshanks stood up and padded over to the other side of the seat; licking his paws, he began to wash his flat face.

Zion jumped out of Ron's lap (Much to his dismay) and followed him to his new seat. Each time the ginger tail twitched, amber eyes followed it move for move. He crouched down, bottom in the air, and prepared to leap. Just as he pounced, olive hands grabbed him around the middle and whisked him away.

"Katul ra!" Sabra scolded, nose to nose with the kitten, unperceiving of the incredulous looks Harry and Ron were exchanging. "Katul ra."

Crookshanks lashed his tail smugly, and licked his paw. Zion, paying no attention to his reprimanding, batted happily at a hank of curly brow hair that had fallen out of the tail. Sabra sighed and swept the offending lock behind her ear. Putting Zion down, she reached behind her head and plucked the tie out, revealing curly brown hair barely long enough to be contained by a tie; it frizzed at the ends, but Sabra pulled all of it back and secured it in a messy tail.

Just as she sat back down, Hermione bustled back in; looking at her watch, she beckoned to Sabra and grabbed a small brow bag from the top shelf. "Come on Sabra," she said. "We're almost at Hogwarts and we still need to change into our robes."

"What?" Sabra asked, startled out of her brief relaxation. "Where are we going?"

"To change into our uniforms," Hermione explained patiently. "We need to put our school robes on."
"Oh." Sabra picked her side bag off the seat where she had draped it, and stood up to follow Hermione. Just as they were walking away, Hermione stuck her head back in the compartment.

"You really should get dressed too," she informed Ron and Harry. "We get there in about ten minutes. Oh, and Ron, tell Harry what you were going to tell us before; then we'll talk later."

Sabra bit her lip guiltily as Hermione pushed her ahead of her up the train. She had interrupted their conversation; the one that had been important enough for a shielding spell on the door.

When they had reached the front of the train, Hermione slid open the third door. It looked different from the others, as it was dark wood and had glowing white letters in the centre, spelling out 'prefects' in fancy cursive. They walked through and Hermione shut the door with a snap. She dropped her bag onto the red velvet seat; motioning Sabra to do the same, she began unzipping her sweatshirt.

"Er, Hermonia?"

"Hermione." Hermione dropped her sweatshirt on the seat and slowly pulled her arms out of her shirtsleeves.

"Sorry. Hermione. Why am I here? I'm not a prefect?"

Hermione slid her shirt off and put it next to her sweatshirt. Opening her bag, she stuck her head and hands in and answered in a rather muffled voice. "Well, I really didn't think you wanted to change with the boys, but if you really want to…"

Sabra shook her head. "No. No thanks." She copied Hermione and quickly took her red blouse off, trading it for her grey school issue one, though she kept her skirt on as it was just like the uniform's only longer.

In answer to Hermione questioning look as they got dressed again, she explained. "Well, England is very cold, so my Ima asked Moreh Dumbledore if I could get longer ones. I'll get used to it soon, I expect. It's just so very cold here in the winter."

Hermione laughed, then stifled it when Sabra looked at her. "Er…Sabra? This is September; it's only early fall. Winter is still months away and it's going to get much colder."

"You must be joking me!" Sabra exclaimed.

"Kidding me."

"Mah? I mean, what?"

"You said 'joking me.' It's 'kidding me.'" Hermione slipped her robe over her clothes and pulled her long hair out from under the collar.

"Oh; okay. So…You must be kidding me!"

"Sorry, no. It does get a bit chilly, I suppose."

"A bit? But…but…there's snow! Sheleg!" Sabra shivered unconsciously as she shrugged her robes on and adjusted it to sit comfortably on her shoulders.

"Where are you from?" Hermione asked. "I know that you can't be from Britain, but I can't quite place your accent."

"My accent?" Sabra laughed. "You people are the ones with accents; I can barely understand you sometimes."

"We do not!" Hermione exclaimed. "Just tell me where you're from; it's been annoying me since Diagon Ally." In her mind she ticked off the pitiful few at school who weren't white. Cho Chang, Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson were the only ones that came to mind.

"Israel. Now is there really going to be snow? I mean, not just up in the mountains but at the school as well?"

Hermione grinned outright at the half-delighted, half-apprehensive look on Sabra's face. "Yes, snow. Feet high; big enough for snow forts and snowball fights.?

"Snow ball fights? Why would you want to fight with snow? Though I can see where it would make a good weapon…" Sabra looked down at the thick material and buttoned it up. Opening the middle button again, she was about to stick her wand in her waistband when Hermione stopped her.

"Look here," she reached forward and grabbed a fold of cloth on the right side of Sabra's robe, revealing a long, thin pocket for wand storage.

"Damn," Sabra muttered.

"What was that?" Hermione asked sweetly.

Sabra a pale shade of red under her dark skin. "Er…nothing. It's just, I'm left handed, so…"

"No worries," Hermione smiled brightly, pulling out her wand. "This I can fix; but why didn't you tell Madam Malkin that you were a lefty?"

Sabra shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't even know that it mattered on robes."

Hermione leaned forward and inspected the pocket, prodding at it with her wand. "Or course it matters; she could have put the buttons on the other side as well, but I can change all that." She stood back up and gave a critical eye to the buttons. "Spread your arms and brace yourself," she said.

Sabra obeyed and supported her legs against the plush seat behind her.

Hermione pointed her wand at Sabra's right, then whipped it across to her left, saying clearly, "motus alius lato!"

Sabra jumped as the bit of cloth that was her pocket and all the large silver-coloured buttons flew across her robe to the left side. They quivered for a moment, then anchored then selves there. She inspected both sides, and found it was impossible to tell that they had ever been on the right.

She straightened up and slipped her blouse back into her side bag; grinning at Hermione, she slipped her short wand in the pocket and gave and elegant curtsy. "Toda raba, Hermione."

"That means thank you, right?" Hermione put her own wand in her pocket and slipped her bag over her shoulder.

"Mostly, yes. When ever I don't speak in English, could you tell me? I'm trying, but your language is hard." She put her bag on, then turned to face Hermione. "Where did you learn that spell?"

"I got it from 'Advanced Spells,' post graduation version," Hermione said proudly.

"Oh. You mean this?" Sabra dug into her bag, pulled out a large green volume, and presented it to Hermione.

Hermione nodded slowly.

"I bought it after finishing my school textbooks," Sabra said, stowing the book in her bag again. "So, are we done?"

Hermione took a quick glance around the compartment and nodded again. "Come on, the train should be pulling into Hogsmeade station any second now."

They made their way back down the train to the compartment the boys were in. Hermione rapped on the door and called out to them, "Ron, Harry! Are you decent?"

"No Hermione," Ron answered good-naturedly. "Both of us are starkers in the middle of the train."

"Very funny," Hermione answered as Harry banished the opaque wall and slid open the glass door.

Sabra and Hermione stepped in to find Ron standing on a seat, stretching up to reach the rack. On top was Zion, hissing and spitting at Pig who was fluttering teasingly out of reach. The cat crouched for a moment, then sprang into midair as Ron launched after him. Zion pawed in vain at the ball of feathers, then slowly began to fall through the air next to Ron.

Hermione and Harry, with the reflexes of a DA member, grabbed their wands and pointed it at the falling pair.

"Immobilus!"

" Aresto momentum!" A third voice joined their two, calling out a spell hardly a beat after them.

Ron and Zion jerked to a stop, Zion two feet from the floor and Ron on his stomach, nose six inches from their feet.

Sabra looked at the two others, startled at their quick action. "Whoa. How did you do that so fast?"

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance, then shook their heads. "Just practice," Hermione said. "Now let's get them down." The other two nodded agreement.

"Er…I think two of us will hold him up and the other will cast a 'finite incantatum'," Harry decided, looking at Hermione. "Will that work?"

She nodded confirmation, then bit her lip. "Um Sabra? I think the two strongest should catch Ron, and…I'm not very. We can't use a spell to catch him…" She trailed off.

"Because the 'finite incantatum' will end it, right?" Sabra finished for her. "Don't worry, I can catch Ron with Harry."

"Alright then."

Hermione knelt and put an arm around the hanging cat as both Sabra and Harry got on their knees beside the immobile Ron. Harry put both arms under his legs and Sabra under his chest. They braced themselves as Hermione pointed her wand at the floating pair and brought it sharply down.

"Finite incantatum!"

Harry and Sabra gasped as Ron suddenly became deadweight in their arms. He yelled in surprise and thrashed around for a moment, then realized what had happened and turned over to look up at them.

He grinned sheepishly up at them, then carefully extracted his arms from being pinned by Sabra's chest. "That was stupid, wasn't it," he said awkwardly, placing his arms on the ground and nodding at Harry and Sabra to let go.

They did so, and he flopped to the ground in front of them rubbing his head. "Yeah, pretty stupid," Hermione said handing Zion to Sabra. The cat had quieted down after the scare and sat silently on the shoulder she was placed on. "Who took Pig out anyway?"

"I did," Harry said. "The cat was being quiet and Pig wanted to fly around."

Sabra shook her head at Harry. "This cat hates bird," she said, standing up and reaching her hands out to Hermione and Ron. "He's just smart enough to pretend he doesn't."

Hermione and Ron grabbed her outstretched hands in a fireman's hold and braced their feet as she deftly pulled them up. Harry looked at her from the floor with beseeching eyes while Hermione stood with her hands on hips.

"Come on," he grumbled, relenting and climbing to his feet. "I'm not the one who tried flying lessons without a broom."

"It wasn't all my fault," Ron said, holding his hands up in surrender as they all sat and Sabra put Zion in her lap; shaking his head in mock disbelief at the cat, he brushed a finger under his eye and sniffed loudly. "If that fur ball hadn't gone after Pig, I wouldn't have needed to try and stop him."

"You're the one that opened the cage in the first place mate," Harry reminded Ron.

The cat in question began to purr again, rubbing his nose against Sabra's hand and kneading her skirt below him with his claws. She carefully extracted his claws from the black wool and looked over at Harry and Ron who were leaning back against the firm seat across from her.

"This reminds me," she adjusted her glasses to sit straighter on her nose. "You never told me what a car motor was."

Hermione laughed. "A car? A car is a horseless carriage and the motor is the thing that makes it go."

"But how does that sound like Zion purring?" Sabra looked down at the cat in her lap, curled up and twitching his tail against her knee.

"The motor pushes the car with a quick series of explosions." Hermione recited a passage from one book or another that she had read. "They blend together in almost a purring sound."

"Oh."

Just as they had all gotten comfortable, Harry jumped up and pointed to the window. "Look! We're here; it's Hogwarts!"

Sabra dashed to the window and pressed her nose to the cold glass. Her breath immediately fogged it up and she impatiently wiped it away with her robe, then looked out again.

The castle loomed against the twilight sky, the sun's last rays peeking over mountains behind. All the windows, up to the tallest tower, were lit, looking like stars in a constellation over their heads. Owls swooped around the owlry, framed in light as they swooped through the open window. The lake, glittering in front of them, rippled as tentacles waved at the arriving train, then were hidden by the hundreds of large white carriages that waited by the platform.

Sabra's jaw dropped as Zion meowed in her ear, entranced by all the lights displayed in front of them.

"Oh, wow," Sabra breathed. "This is…is…" she stopped, unable to think of a fitting word.

"Beautiful?" Hermione suggested.

"Maybe awesome?" Ron asked

"How about absolutely awe-inspiring." Harry grinned at her as Hermione gently reached over and closed Sabra's mouth.

"Ze ne-edar," Sabra agreed weakly. "This is Hogwarts?"

Ron nodded. "The one and only."

"Actually," Hermione began. "Before Hogwarts was actually opened, there was a smaller--"

"Okay!" Harry and Ron shouted, then all four broke into laughter.

Thanks to Missy for reviewing. Love ya. (You know, you people can do it too…)