Jojo took a deep breath. She looked out of the limo's window. Since she had found out that she was a princess, life had been quite hectic. And it was quite as hectic for her parents. And new parents. Right now she was driving to King's Cross station from the air port with her 11 year old brother Benjamin.
It had been quite a busy day when Jojo arrived in Arista's palace. After her new parents told her about the baby mix up by a drunk doctor, she had told them about her being a witch.
"You're a what?" gasped the queen.
"A witch." And as if on cue, a brown tawny owl swooped in through the open window and landed on Benjamin. He tore open the letter and excitedly said that he was a wizard. And as if that wasn't enough, her grandparents blurted out about them being witches and wizards as well, and how the queen and king were squibs. Jojo had to laugh at the irony of all this.
And now here she was, sitting in a limo with her brother, grandmother Helen, and two house elves who would act as bodyguards, chained by magic to their masters. The limo stopped at King's Cross-station.
"I just hope that the Daily Prophet people aren't here," Jojo muttered. Back at Beauxbatons, when she was just normal, reporters didn't jump her. In Canada, reporters didn't jump her. But now that had all changed. People took surprise pictures of her everywhere she went.
"Let's go," whined Benjamin.
"Alright," snapped Jojo. Grandma Helen led everybody to platform 9 and ¾.
"Just run through the barrier. I can't go in right now because I'm late for a meeting with Portugal. Just go and get on the train." Grandma Helen disapparated.
"Is she crazy?" exclaimed Benjamin. "I'm not running through that!" Jojo was just about to nod her head in agreement, when two black haired boys pushed their way past her and disappeared through the wall. Jojo let her jaw drop. Suddenly, she swore. Some reporter from the London Times had spotted her, and people were swarming around her. Jojo grasped Benjamin's hand. They would never get into the platform now! Their owls were hooting indignantly. And then, it all stopped. Everything had frozen. Or at least everybody but Jojo, Benjamin and a woman with a stern look upon her face, and black hair done up in a loose bun. Suddenly she burst out laughing.
"Alright, come along you two. I'm professor McGonagall. The headmaster had some suspicion that you'd have trouble getting onto the platform. Your house elves were getting quite worried."
Professor McGonagall told the two to lean against the wall and that she'd follow shortly after she undid the freezing charm.
Jojo and Benjamin leaned against the wall, and surprisingly, they fell through and found themselves on a bustling platform where a scarlet steam engine was waiting. Jojo swore once more, when she caught sight of the familiar Daily Prophet reporter who had jumped her two weeks ago. She grabbed Benjamin and dragged him onto the train, where their house elves were waiting. Thankfully, the compartment was empty.
Jojo sat down and observed her little brother and sighed.
"How do you take it, little bro?"
"Take what?"
"The media-the pressure. You know, people always jumping you and all. Doesn't it get annoying?" Benjamin stopped chewing on the chocolate frog he had taken out.
"They didn't really do anything before you showed up." Jojo huffed. Being a 15-year-old princess was not at all as cracked out as she thought it'd be. The house elves stood silently at the compartment doors but jumped quickly away when three girls barged in. The last one slammed and locked the door behind her. They all panted and locked the other compartment door before realizing that the compartment was not empty. The train suddenly lurched forwards.
"Oh, sorry," apologized the red head. Then she gasped. "Your that princess they were talking about in the daily prophet! I'm Lily Evans-you're obviously Jaqueline Marie Savard, right? And you must be Benjamin." Lily flushed.
"Er, Jojo will be just fine. I hate all this formal crap." Benjamin got up and motioned for his house elf to follow.
"I'm getting out of here before I turn into a girl. See ya later." Benjamin wrenched open the door, and before Lily or the other two girls could even shout a warning, four boy ran in, pushing Benjamin over to the side. He scowled before leaving the compartment.
"Hello ladies," said the tallest of the lot. He was quite burly looking, with black hair that curled around the edges and fell with a sort of elegance into his eyes. Jojo frowned. He glanced at the four girls.
"You're the one who pushed me back at the station!" The boy didn't reply. He stared at Jojo in a mesmerized trance.
"Look Potter-take yourself and your groupies out of here-I've got prefect duties to attend to, as do you, Lupin," Lily snapped. "I'll see you guys later. And you should have much more manners when you're speaking to girls, especially royalty, Black." Jojo blushed as Lily and the boy 'Lupin' left the compartment.
"What royalty? I certainly hope you don't mean you!" 'Black' called out after Lily. Jojo smirked. This boy obviously didn't read the newspapers, and didn't seem to be up-to-date at all. One of the girls who came in with Lily seemed to think this as well.
"Gee-one would think you'd be up-to-date with the facts by now-Jojo here is a princess." 'Potter's eyes flickered with recognition when he glanced at Jojo.
"You're the princess?" he said haughtily. "You don't look like one," he pointed out. This was true. Jojo had absolutely refused to wear the horrible fancy clothes her parents had wanted her to wear. She only wanted to wear her jeans, sweater and baseball cap over her long, curly brown hair. At last, her mother had at least coaxed her into buying designer Hogwarts robes, but this was not rare, as several students wore these types. Jojo had even worn her favourite pear of scruffy sneakers, and her sunglasses covered her deep brown eyes. All in all, Jojo looked like the regular hockey-loving teenager from back in Canada.
"Well I don't exactly like to wear dresses and stuff like that," Jojo retorted.
"Is mistress liking KwiKwi to dispose of boys?" The three girls laughed at this, and the boys looked scandalized. Between fits of laughter, Jojo took enough breath to wheeze a yes. KwiKwi snapped her fingers, and the three boys suddenly found themselves out in the next compartment, locked out by elf magic.
"That was a nice one. KwiKwi, was it?" said the black-haired girl.
"Yeah. I guess having a house elf follow you everywhere has its ups and downs." Everybody took deep breaths before introducing themselves properly.
"I'm Alice Downy. I'm a muggle born and I'm also the chaser on Gryffindor quidditch team." Alice was petite and blonde, with warm chocolaty eyes and cappuccino coloured skin. She was short and skinny and reminded Jojo of her friend Leila who took gymnastics before Beauxbatons.
"I'm Marlene McKinnon. I'm from all witches and wizards, but my family doesn't have the same ideas like the Malfoys and all. We're all for Dumbledore. Frankly, this Voldemort fellow is creepy. Did you hear about those muggle attacks?" The girls shuddered.
"Well I'm pretty sure you all know who I am. Kind of. My royal image anyway." Jojo snorted at this. "You can't call me Jaqueline or I'll hex you to hell, and no princess stuff. Just call me Jojo."
"Okay. Er, not to be nosy or anything, but how come you don't speak-speak like us?" asked Marlene.
"You'd think they'd have it all down in my life story," Jojo joked. The girl laughed. "Well it's like this-I was born in Arista, same as the real Jojo. When we got switched my other family moved to Ottawa. So when my other dad got a job in France, we all moved up there and I attended Beauxbatons. I spent about 10 and a half years in Canada. Some things like my accent are hard to lose. And my slang and all."
"Oh. Well the Daily Prophet got your life all wrong," said Alice.
"Tell me something I don't know-they get everything wrong. Who writes for these people anyways? I'd have been super pissed off if the Daily Prophet misspelled and 'rearranged' the death of my family," said Jojo, referring to the recent deaths of some muggles.
During the rest of the train ride, several people tried to enter the compartment, but failed miserably. Jojo was thankful for this, because she was not particularly eager to do some interview with a bunch of students.