"You're leaving for the entire year?" Nathan asked, disappointment clear in his voice. "Just when we've started being friends?"

It was September 1st at last, and Lucy was all packed and ready to drive to King's Cross with Mrs Cole in a short fifteen minutes, and Nathan was oblivious. She'd held off telling Nathan for a few reasons. One, she was too busy reading her many books on hexes, and two, she knew he'd protest.

"I'll write to you," Lucy shrugged like it was no big deal. She wasn't too worried about their short-lived friendship fizzling out while she was away; if it did, she was sure she'd meet someone to fill his place. It may be a mean thought, but Nathan was friends with her bully. Although, Jennifer was in no position of power, and Lucy was not in the least bit intimidated by her. Even when they managed to push her to the ground or steal her dinner. Jennifer was more of a house pest that she had to repeatedly brush off, one that occasionally stung.

"When are you coming back?" Nathan frowned.

"Next summer. You'll have plenty of people to keep you company," Lucy said, unmoved. She kept glancing at the clock, wishing that she could be at the train station faster. She'd left Hogwarts: A History to read on the train. She'd already read all her books two or three times in the last month, and she was eager to finally sit down and look through the book.

Come on, he's upset, her conscience nagged, but Lucy couldn't find it in her to put forth any empathy.

"Alright," Nathan said, defeated. "I wish I could go to your school."

"Me too," Lucy said honestly. She wasn't sure if she'd make any friends there, but Nathan's eleventh birthday had already passed; there was no way he was a wizard.

He smiled, evidently unable to stay upset for long. "You look nice, though. We don't get enough chances to dress up."

It was true. For the occasion, Mrs Cole insisted on buying Lucy one new outfit for her acceptance to such a 'gifted school'. She had on a yellow sweater and a black skirt, paired with a new set of black flats. It seemed like the occasion of her leaving Wool's Orphanage for most of the year brought Mrs Cole to send forward some extra generosity.

"Thanks," Lucy grinned as Nathan's face turned scarlet. Mrs Cole appeared in the doorway, and she gave him a quick hug to subdue him. "See ya in the summer!" she called over her shoulder and ran out the door.

"Don't run in the hallways," Mrs Cole's voice rang out.

The ride to King's Cross was filled with many sighs from Mrs Cole and distractions from Lucy. Time and time again Mrs Cole had to remind the young girl to keep still, and it was only when Lucy stuck her head out the window like a dog that she gave up trying. Compared to her pulling at the threads of her new sweater and drumming her fingers against the dashboard, this was welcomed.

Mrs Cole turned to her as Lucy loaded her things onto her trolley. "Now, I expect you to behave yourself. It's not everyday a child from Wool's is accepted into such a private institution. Now that I think about it, the last time was about sixty years ago, back when I was only twenty two... Better times back then... Well, I don't want you to be the only one of the two to be expelled. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lucy said absentmindedly, her mind going on autopilot as usual whenever Mrs Cole lectured her. "Wait, who was the other one?"

Mrs Cole grimaced at the memory. "Tom Riddle. Don't know what's happened to him now, and I don't particularly want to. I heard he worked at a shop. A bit of a brat, he was. At least you never snark off to me."

Lucy couldn't see why anyone would snark off to Mrs Cole. The woman had a nasty stink eye, and while Lucy was annoyed endlessly by her restrictions and lectures, she was just an old lady who tried to be fair. "Sounds like a prick," she said. Secretly, she supported Tom Riddle in his evil endeavors toward the staff.

"Language," Mrs Cole admonished, but she didn't disagree. She squinted down at her watch. "I think I need a new prescription... does this say it's 10:50?"

Lucy's eyes widened. "I have ten minutes! Bye, Mrs Cole, have a good year!" she told her quickly before turning and rolling her cart into the station as fast a she could.

"Don't forget to mind your manners!" Mrs Cole called after her.

She looked for platform nine and three-quarters, but it appeared that there was no such place. It was only when she saw two boys - one with red hair, and another with black hair - disappear through a wall between 9 and 10 that she knew what to do. She quickly thanked whatever gods were out there for allowing her to see this before she sprinted in after them.

Her instincts kicked in about halfway through her sprinting to the brick wall, and she heard a few non-magic bystanders gasp as she suddenly disappeared through it. Screw this Statue of Secrecy — she had a damn train to catch!

Lucy ditched the trolley and picked her backpack up with ease — she mentally thanked Professor McGonagall for the extension and weightless charms she'd placed on it — and ran onto the train with a few minutes to spare. Halfway through her search for an empty compartment, she felt the train start moving. Shrugging, she continued on anyways until she found a familiar face near the end of it.

"Harry?" Lucy asked, sliding the glass door open. He was sitting with another boy with red hair, and then it hit her — they were the two she saw running through the barrier. "You two seemed just as late as I was getting to this thing," she grinned.

Harry grinned at her. "Hi, Lucy. Did you bring your book?"

"Yes!" She sat down beside the boy with red hair and dug through her backpack. She pulled out her cauldron, uniform, eight textbooks, her telescope, a set of brass scales, and her set of crystal phials before finally taking out Hogwarts: a History. Both boys stared at her with wide eyes.

"What?" Lucy asked numbly.

The red haired boy shook his head, his eyes still wide. "Blimey..." he muttered under his breath.

"I know. I had to put it at the bottom," Lucy sighed. She stowed away everything except for her uniform and handed the book over to Harry. She wanted to read it, but she supposed she'd see Hogwarts soon enough, and she had the rest of the year to continue. After Harry began to flip through the pages, she turned to the other boy. "I'm Lucy, Lucy with no last name." She pointed to her sweater then realized she wasn't wearing that particular shirt. "Damn," she sighed again.

"I'm Ron Weasley. What d'you mean, you've got no last name?" Ron asked curiously.

"I was born without one, I think. Or the orphanage took it away," Lucy shrugged. Ron's eyes widened at this piece of information, but she continued on like nothing was different. "It's a brilliant conversation starter, isn't it?"

"Definitely," Harry said. He set the book to the side. "Are all your family wizards, Ron?"

"Er — yes., I think so," Ron said, caught off guard by the sudden attention. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"I wonder why," Lucy thought aloud.

"It's 'cause he's a squib," Ron explained. "He was all bitter about having no magic, so he left. Think he's got a daughter — Mafalda, but I hear she's going to Ilvermorny over in the States."

"Cool," she grinned. An American wizarding school? She made a mental note to ask about other schools, or at the very least read about it.

"So if all your family's wizards, then you must know loads of magic already," Lucy reasoned.

She got the feeling that Harry was about to ask the same thing. Orphaned minds think alike, she supposed.

Ron shrugged. "I heard you went to live with Muggles. What are they like?"

"Horrible — well, not all of them," Harry corrected. "My aunt and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Five," Ron grimaced. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

"But I thought the wand chose the wizard," Lucy said, frowning. "How've you got your brother's wand if it's his wand?"

"It's really my uncle Bilius's, but when he died, it got handed down to Charlie. I guess now that Charlie's old enough he's gone and bought his own," Ron explained, looking a bit envious. "So it's a hand-me-down-down."

She nodded thoughtfully. "You've got a rat?" She wondered if Grayble would try to eat it, but then again, he had once been a bed. The most Grayble would catch were small mice and baby rats.

Ron pulled out a fat gray rat out of his jacket. It was snoozing, but even laying down it was bigger than Grayble. Grayble took one look at the rat and then did what looked to be a cat version of a shrug - an odd twitch of his nose and flick of his tail - and he fell asleep on Lucy's lap.

"His name's Scabbers," Ron went on, "and he's useless. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

As Ron's ears turned a shade of pink, Lucy knew the perfect way to make him feel better. "I didn't buy Grayble here either," Lucy told him. "When Dumbledore told me I was a witch, he showed me by turning my bed into a cat."

Grayble opened his eyes at this. He appeared confused, as confused as a cat could physically look. "Don't worry, that doesn't make you any less of a feline," Lucy assured him.

"Your cat was a bed?" Ron's eyes bugged out slightly. "Does he act any different?"

"He sleeps a lot," Lucy shrugged. "I'm glad I didn't have to buy him. Haven't really got any money."

"I never had either," Harry added. "Only that day in Diagon Alley, and then I opened my parent's vault in Gringotts. The Dursleys only gave me Dudley — my cousin's — old clothes, and on my birthday I once only got a coat hanger. They don't like me at all."

"That's terrible!" Lucy gaped. Ron, however, looked a bit more cheery after realizing he wasn't the only one with a history of hand-me-downs.

"And up until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or my parents or Voldemort — "

Ron let out a loud, dramatic gasp. It lasted several seconds, and Lucy was quite impressed by the theatrics of it after he'd finished.

"What?" Harry asked.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron exclaimed. "I'd have thought you, of all people — "

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name." Harry frowned. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet, I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be," Ron assured him. "There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."

"I don't know any magic either," Lucy lied. She spent the rest of her summer obsessively reading her books, soaking in all the knowledge she could... Still, it was unbecoming to brag. "Which is why I want to practice some in the compartment, before we arrive if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Ron said.

For awhile after that, the compartment grew quiet as the boys gazed out the window at the passing countryside. Apart from Lucy's flipping through the pages of her spells book, there was no noise.

After practicing wand movements, Lucy pulled a borrowed yo-yo from Jennifer out of her pocket and pointed at it with her wand. "Duro," she said clearly, and it turned into stone.

Lucy beamed and picked it up — her first real spell! Harry and Ron gazed at it with an impressed look on their faces. Feeling confident now, she took off her shoe and said it again. This time, however, it didn't work.

"I don't know whether to be disappointed or not," Lucy stated.

"I'd be grateful," Ron grinned. "That's a waste of a shoe."

It seemed this interruption came just in time. A woman slid open the glass door and offered them a dimpled smile. "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Harry jumped to his feet while Ron and Lucy stayed seated. "I brought sandwiches," Ron muttered.

Lucy suddenly felt a pang of regret for going on a hunger strike for the past two days. It was really to annoy Jennifer Bishop, who would always wait until she showed up to get her into trouble with Mrs Cole. Mrs Cole had brought her a packed lunch in the car, but in her hurry to get onto the train, she forgot it.

Harry returned with his arms full of a ridiculous amount of sweets.

"Hungry, are you?" Ron asked, staring as Harry dumped it all onto a seat.

"Just a bit, I reckon," Lucy nodded. "Oi, that looks like a good appetizer, Potter."

Harry laughed. "I'm starving."

Ron took out his lunch and unwrapped it, pulling out four sandwiches. "She always forgets I don't like corned beef," he intoned.

"Swap you for one of these," Harry held up a pasty. "Go on — "

"You don't want this, it's all dry," Ron's ears turned pink again. "She hasn't got much time, you know, with the five of us."

"Go on, have a pasty. You too, Lucy."

It took a few minutes, but Harry had coaxed the others into sharing his candies.

She took a bite off a chocolate frog. "I'm allergic to chocolate," she remembered, but shoved the frog in her mouth anyways. She'd feel the pain later tonight when she'd either cramp up or vomit.

Harry stared at her. "Don't eat it if you're allergic," he said worriedly.

"Happiness is only brought after waves of pain," Lucy said wisely. It was so uncharacteristic that Ron and Harry both were stunned to silence. "Blimey, I'm talking about chocolate allergies, not about every day life," she laughed.

"What are those, anyways?" Harry examined a pack of chocolate frogs himself. "They're not really frogs, are they?"

Lucy hoped that she hadn't just eaten a chocolate-coated frog. She wouldn't know the difference; that was the first time she'd tried chocolate, since Mrs Cole wouldn't let her, with her allergies and all that. Damn those allergy tests they made the children take...

"No," Ron said. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."

"What?" Harry stared.

Lucy took his advice and looked at her own card, and she saw a picture of a baby on it. "Harry Potter," she read aloud. She looked over at Harry with a grin. "Hey, that's you! I'd like my name on a chocolate frog..."

Harry, despite looking a bit disturbed at the fact he was pictured on a card for thousands to see, brightened a bit as he looked at his own card. "So this is Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed, taking in the man's eccentric appearance.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" Ron gaped. It was funny, Lucy thought, how wizards were just as oblivious to muggle life as muggles were to them. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks — "

"He's gone!" said Harry abruptly.

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," Ron shrugged. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."

Smirking, Lucy handed Harry her own card too. He promptly tore it in half. "That's creepy," he complained.

"How'd they even get a picture of you?" She wondered.

Harry shook his head and tore open a licorice wand. "I don't want to know."

The three began to open more and more candy. They could've been on that train for a full twelve hours, and they still wouldn't be able to reach the bottom of Harry's pile. Ron and Harry were particularly interested in the Chocolate Frogs — Ron in the chocolate, and Harry in the cards — but she was already feeling a bit sick after eating one. A few hives were beginning to appear on her arms, and she figured she'd have to write Mrs Cole to send her some medicine if they didn't go away. She regretted her actions only a little, glad to have been able to say that she'd eaten enchanted chocolate.

Harry tore open a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and Ron gave him a warning. "You want to be careful with those. When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."

To prove his point, Ron plucked a lime colored bean out of the package. He nibbled on the corner of it and promptly pulled a face: "Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."

Harry began to divide up the package until everyone had an even amount, and then they began to embark on a competition. Whoever spat out the least amount would get the rest of the licorice wands; the wager had first been chocolate frogs, but the boys realized that Lucy would have nothing to lose, so they picked her favorite of the candies.

Lucy picked a pink out out of the package, figuring it couldn't be too terrible. "Bloody hell —" Lucy pulled an exaggerated look of disgust as she swallowed it. "Pepto Bismol!"

Harry laughed, while Ron looked confused. He looked on the back of the package. "That's not a flavor, is it?"

"It's actually bubblegum," Lucy grinned.

By the time they'd finished their game, Harry and Ron had spat nearly every bad flavored one they'd got into the box. Lucy — apart from the vomit, soap, and burnt-wood marshmallow ones — had managed to eat all of hers. She held the many licorice wands in her hand with a look of dismay.

"After all those, I never want to eat again," she groaned. Ron and Harry snickered just as another boy knocked and walked in.

He had a round face and blonde hair, and despite its length Lucy could still see that he'd been crying. "Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?"

"Ooh! There's a spell I've been wanting to try!" Lucy grinned. "Accio toad!"

Nothing happened. The boy looked more upset than before.

"Don't worry, I'll try it again."

It took about forty times — fifty-four, according to Ron, and about twenty minutes of the boys laughing at her expense — and the boy had left at that point, but finally a large toad came flying into the compartment. It nearly hit a window, but Harry caught it with natural precision. Ron seemed surprised that she'd managed it.

"I know a spell to turn Scabbers yellow," Ron offered. "I dunno if it'll work, but it'll make him loads more exciting. I'll show you, look..."

He pulled out a wand that did indeed look like it'd been in the hands of two predecessors. It was battered and had chips along the shaft of it, and at the end a piece of hair was pointing out. Following their gaze, Ron reddened. "Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway — " he raised his wand, but someone opened the compartment door again. Lucy resisted the urge to roll her eyes; was knocking unheard of these days?

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," a girl with bushy brown hair said. She struck Lucy as bossy right away.

"Yeah, Lucy's just used a spell to find it," Harry said proudly. The girl narrowed her eyes at Lucy, and she had no idea what she'd done. Usually people didn't like Lucy because she went out of her way to irk them, but this girl had shoved into their compartment. Lucy raised her eyebrows back at her, almost challenging her, and decided that she did not like this girl.

The girl quickly looked over at Ron, whose arm was still poised to cast a spell.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down next to Harry with no invitation. Lucy and Ron shared a subtle look that nobody else could manage to decipher.

"Do it," Lucy encouraged. "Come on, I bet it'll work."

"Er — alright. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

For a few seconds, nothing happened. The girl smirked. "Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it — "

All of a sudden, the rat turned a bright yellow color, identical to the color of Lucy's sweater. Ron's red face suddenly brightened, and he beamed. "I thought it wouldn't work!"

Nobody but Harry saw Lucy slide her wand back into her sleeve.

The girl looked annoyed at this. "I suppose, but it's a bit too long for my liking. I've tried a few simple sells just for practice, too, and they've all worked right away. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

The three sat in a stunned silence for a few moments.

Finally, Ron muttered, "I'm Ron Weasley."

Lucy didn't want to say anything, but Hermione turned to her expectantly.

"Lucy," she forced out.

"Harry Potter," Harry said, still a bit dazed.

"Are you really?" asked Hermione, her eyebrows shooting up. "I know all about you, of course — " Did she know how Harry grew up? Or what his favorite color is? Lucy thought bitingly. "I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and you're in Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" Harry asked, appearing dismayed at this news.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me."

Harry looked ready to argue this point, but Lucy beat him to it. "If it was you, I think you'd find reading about your parents dying a bit unsettling, don't you think?" she cut in.

Hermione blushed and had the decency to look ashamed. "Sorry, I didn't think about it like that... I guess I wouldn't. Do you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, I'd better go and give Neville his toad back, and then change. You three should, too, I expect we'll be there soon."

After she left, Ron turned to Lucy angrily. "Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it. Can't believe it worked, though. I suppose it's not good for anything else, is it?"

Already the yellow was fading, and Ron sighed.

"What House are your brothers in?" Harry asked in an attempt to cheer Ron up.

"Gryffindor. Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin," Ron grimaced at the thought.

"That's the house Vol - I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

Ron slumped down in his seat. "Yeah."

"I want to be in Hufflepuff," Lucy declared. Harry gave her a shocked look.

"After what that boy said?" he asked. "About it being a load of duffers?"

"Harry, you should know by now that I am a duffer," Lucy grinned. "You both are fit to be Gryffindors, though. Not smart enough for Ravenclaw and too lazy for Slytherin."

Ron cracked a small smile at this, but it soon faded.

Harry decided to try something else. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"

Lucy was also interested in wizarding careers — there was no way in heck she'd resort to a muggle job after discovering all this.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts." Ron shot up suddenly. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you two get that wish Muggles — someone tried to rob a high security vault."

"Really? What happened to them?" Harry asked, and Lucy leaned forwards in her seat to listen.

"Nothing. That's why it's such big news," Ron explained. "They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

They were silent for a few minutes, mulling over this new information. Lucy knew from her reading that this Voldemort character was a powerful Dark wizard — a Dark Lord, apparently — yet she couldn't find it in her to fear him. He sounded like a giant git, that was for sure, and if she'd ever meet him, she'd be sure to give him a piece of her mind for killing Harry's parents. Ron and Harry were her first real friends. Nathan was more of an acquaintance, and everyone else in Wool's Orphanage were prats. Already, from when Hermione tried to insult Ron's attempts at spellwork to when Draco Malfoy was acting rude to Harry at Diagon Alley, did she decide she'd fight for them. Loyalty was never much of a question to her before.

"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Er — I don't know any," Harry confessed.

"What's Quidditch?" Lucy asked, dumbfounded.

"What! Oh, you guys wait, it's the best game in the world — there's seven players on a team, right? Only seven allowed, apart from the reserves. There's three chasers, one keeper, two beaters, and one seeker. The chasers try and throw the Quaffle through one of three hoops, and the keeper needs to block it," Ron began, and Lucy found this far more interesting than Gringotts break-ins.

"What's a Quaffle?" Harry asked.

"It's one of the four balls in the games. The quaffle's just the one you have to throw through the hoops. Then there's the beaters — they have these bats to hit bludgers either at players or away from players. A bludger," he added at Harry's confused look, "is a ball that sometimes locks on a player, but once the beater hits it away, it'll go onto someone else. Keeps the beaters busy. There's two of them, so you need to stay aware. I think Fred and George are beaters on the Gryffindor team... then there's the seeker. The seeker just tries to find the golden snitch — that's the fourth ball. It's tiny and the seeker spends the game looking for it. When the seeker's caught it, the game's over, and the team basically wins with all the points they get. 150 points from just catching a snitch. One time we played out in the yard — "

Ron was cut off suddenly when the compartment door opened, and in walked Draco Malfoy and two other boys. The other two resembled gorillas or some form of primates, and he glanced at Lucy only once before peering down at Harry.

"Is it true? They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

Lucy felt a stab of annoyance. She was sick of everyone pointed at Harry like he was a showcase in a museum. And, as a girl without parents, she could firmly say that being reminded of having no parents sucked.

"Yes," Harry said, eyeing the two ape boys.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle. And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron bit back a laugh.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" Malfoy snapped. "No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." He turned to face Harry again. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand for a handshake, but Harry kept his hands in his lap. Harry arched an eyebrow at Malfoy. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks."

Malfoy turned slightly pink, like he'd been slapped in the face. "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."

All three leapt to their feet.

"Say that again," Ron growled.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"Unless you get out now," Harry snapped.

Lucy was perhaps the most unsettling of the three. She glared at Malfoy with a poisonous gleam in her eyes. It was hard to describe, Harry thought, but it looked like she might either tackle Malfoy right then and there, or she'd slip toxins into his drink.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."

Goyle reached for the Chocolate Frogs, and at that moment, Grayble jumped onto Crabbe's arm and bit into his lard, and Scabbers sunk his yellowed teeth into Goyle's knuckle. At the same time, Lucy stormed up to Malfoy and whispered in his ear:

"If you ever say anything like that again in front of me, I will get you." Her voice was soft, but when she pulled back, her eyes carried a storm within them. It took all of her willpower not to take out her wand and use some of her newfound magic to its most dangerous potential.

She needn't tell him exactly what 'get you' meant in order to make him and his friends retreat. Grayble finally released Crabbe as Goyle sent Scabbers flying into the window. Hermione Granger walked in moments later, her hands on her hips.

"What has been going on?" she demanded.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron mumbled to Harry. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep!"

"That's one weird rat," Lucy laughed.

"You're met Malfoy before?" Ron asked all of a sudden.

Lucy and Harry explained each of their instances with the nasty boy. Ron and Harry raised their eyebrows when they heard her say she promised to get into Hufflepuff. "You seem like more of a Gryffindor to me. Maybe a Slytherin. You've got that glare," Ron commented.

"Naw, I'll get into Hufflepuff. I've already got my mind set on it."

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on," Hermione interjected. "I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

Lucy took this as an excuse to escape the bossy girl. She grabbed her uniform and left to change in the bathroom. She came back in long, cozy black robes, and she liked them immediately. Most of Hogwarts would be spent in autumn and winter, after all, and it was a relief to have such a warm uniform.

"I'm digging these," Lucy twirled around in them once. "Bet they'd look better with a Hufflepuff tie, though."

"Or a Gryffindor one," Ron said wistfully.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time," came the conductor's voice from over the intercom. "Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

As Ron and Harry shoved any sweets they could into their pockets, Lucy tucked her licorice wands away in her backpack pocket.

She wasn't sure if it was from the chocolate or her nerves, but Lucy felt awfully sick as they stepped off the train.