AN: check first chapter for disclaimer

Beta-ed by 1saaa.


After buying her wand, they left the shop and the alley and went back to privet drive. For the next few weeks Helen maintained her routine and planned her arrival in the magical world.

On the morning of September 1st, Helen woke up early, did her morning activities and had a long warm shower. Wrapped in a towel, she entered her walk-in closet and dressed up in a sleeveless white blouse tucked in a navy blue pencil skirt and took a long coat that rested pleasantly on her arm. She put the packed trunk, shrunk to matchbox size, in her pocket and went downstairs. Feeling ravenous, she had a heavier breakfast than usual, opting for a full British Breakfast.

Soon, she was idly watching the landscape fly by as her uncle drove her to the station. On reaching Kings Cross at fifteen past ten, she dismissed the man and casually strolled to platforms 9 and 10.

Here, she waited for a while to observe the families entering the barrier. After observing what looked like mostly muggleborn children enter for a while, she walked up and leaned into the pillar, appearing in front of the famous Hogwarts Express.

The express was still the same as it was in Tom Riddle's time, with a scarlet engine rumbling at it's front and steam rising from it's chimney. There were many families mingling with each other and teary eyed parents saying goodbye to their children. She recognized a few death eaters with their children. Helen spotted Lucius with a miniature copy of himself, Nott standing stiffly with a boy next to him and finally Crabbe and Goyle, who seemed to be riding off Malfoy's coattails, as usual..

Helen observed an auburn haired girl standing next to a small girl with blonde pigtails. Standing next to the blonde girl there were two figures who were obviously her parents. But, it was obvious that the auburn haired girl was out of place in this family of three. Soon the whistle blew and Helen maneuvered herself into the train. As she scouted through the various carriages trying to find a good compartment. Eventually, Helen stumbled onto a compartment containing the blonde and auburn haired girls from the station.

Putting a pleasant smile on her face, Helen entered the compartment. "Do you mind if I join you?"

The girls looked at each other, shrugged and the redhead replied "Sure, go ahead."

Taking the seat opposite to them she introduced herself, "Hi! My name is Helen and I'm a first year student at Hogwarts. Are you two the same?"

"Yeah, we're first years as well. I'm Susan Bones and my friend here is Hannah Abbott", the auburn haired girl replied. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion she asked, "Are you Helen Potter?"

"Yes, I am." Helen admitted amicably, tossing back her hair in such a way that it revealed her famed scar.

The eyes of both girls widened at the sight of the lightning bolt scar displayed on Helen's forehead. It was very faded on Helen's soft skin and difficult to discern if you didn't know what you were looking for.

"Wow, the scar is very cool." Hannah murmured, gazing into it. It was much lighter and fainter than what was portrayed in the books and likelihoods, but visible if you were looking for it.

"Hannah! Think of what caused that scar." Susan chided her friend. Hannah looked a little abashed and opened her mouth to apologise.

"You don't need to apologise Hannah. I know that the wizarding world is obsessed around idolising my scar, it's not your fault for asking." Helen responded, letting loose a charming smile.

"So, you never fought dark wizards riding a dragon?" Hannah asked disappointedly, Helen let out a soft chuckle in response.

"Nope. I never wore those weird glasses either, I'd imagine book producers presumed that I would share similar eyesight to my father." Helen explained, Susan nodded along thoughtfully whilst Hannah looked a little disappointed at the fact that riding dragons into battle was not one of Helen's hobbies. Ignoring the sad look from Hannah, Susan asked, "So what do you think about the house sorting? Which house do you think you'll be put into?"

Thinking for a bit, Helen replied, "I think Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, I value the traits of those houses most highly."

"I'll probably be in Hufflepuff too, most of my family was", Susan said. "I wouldn't mind Gryffindor or Ravenclaw though. I thought you would like Gryffindor, considering your parents were in that house."

"Most would assume that, but I prefer intelligence and hard work over bravery everyday. I'd rather be smart and timid rather than brave and dumb." Helen replied. "I'd never consider myself a coward and you don't need to be a Gryffindor to stand up for right and wrong."

"I hope you get in Hufflepuff, I'll probably be there as well." Hannah interjected.

"Whatever house we get put in, we can be friends" Helen paused and continued. "If you want to be friends with me, that is."

"Of course we want to be friends with you!" Susan exclaimed while Hannah nodded along. Helen gave them a cheerful smile and the girls returned it with excited grins, both excited at the prospect of making friends with the girl who lived.

The girls chatted for a while before falling into a companionable silence. In this time two twins of Indian descent entered into the compartment as well to sit with the girls. They introduced themselves as Padma and Pavarti Patil, the twins then had a similar conversation about Helen's status as the girl, running in the same vein as her conversation with Hannah and Susan. Helen got up from her seat and shrugged off her coat which she was still wearing and opened her trunk to put it in.

"That's a very pretty outfit!" Hannah cried "Where did you get that skirt? I've never seen such a style." she asked, Susan too looked interested.

"What, this?" Helen stood putting up a pose to fully display her outfit. "These are the kind of outfits muggle women wear in their daily lives."

"Isn't it a bit short though?" Susan asked, eyeing Helen's half exposed thigh.

"It's a bit short for me to get away wearing it to a formal event but it is quite fashionable." Helen explained. "I like my dresses short anyway."

"Honestly wizards could take a lesson from muggles in that regard. Your dress makes what I'm wearing look ghastly." Hannah moaned.

"This is honestly pretty plain by muggle standards." Helen said, gesturing to her dress. "I've brought a lot of other fashionable clothes with me, you guys can always borrow some when we arrive at Hogwarts." Helen offered, a small smile flicking across her face.

"That would be wonderful, thank you Helen." Hannah said, clapping her hands together in joy at the thought of getting some new clothes to wear. Susan let off a soft smile and added her own comment.

"That would be lovely, thank you Helen."

"It doesn't look like the kind of colour that would go well with our skin tone." Pavarti said, eyeing Helen's dress warily.

"I'm sure we could change colours around using magic Pavarti." Padma said. "Sorry about my sister, I normally bring the brains in our dynamic duo." Padma said, a slight smirk playing on her lips as Pavarti's face morphed into one of mock anger. Helen smiled at the pair, allowing them to delve into a typical argument between siblings and opened her book on human psychology. Observing how the twins interacted could be helpful in how Helen herself could manipulate them in the future. Very soon though, the twins' argument burned out and short lived peace descended on the compartment. This peace was broken when their compartment door was opened with a bang and a red headed boy stepped in. "Hi, I'm looking for Helen Potter." He stated, observing the girls seated in the compartment. The volume of the boy's voice irked Helen so much that she temporarily lost her charming style of conversation, it instead being replaced with a rather icy response.

"Maybe introduce yourself before asking annoying questions." She snapped.

"Oh yeah, I'm Ron Weasley. So, do you know where Helen Potter is?" Ron asked, searching the foreheads of the girls for the famous lightning bolt scar. Unfortunately for him, Helen's hair obscured it. Revising her knowledge of the wizarding worlds families Helen was fairly certain that the Weasleys were not influential in modern society, otherwise she would have probably seen their names somewhere. Furthermore, it was obvious that Ron's robes were hand me downs. In other words, he was part of a poor family with little to no influence. It was obvious that the boy could easily be molded into serving her but it would be more worth Helen's while to make a point to other potential disciples gathered here today. Settling on a course of action, Helen turned back to Ron.

"No, I don't know where Helen Potter is. Maybe when you find her you can bring her down here to mingle with the rest of us commoners." Helen spat. Ron threw up his hands in defence.

"Alright alright. No need to get all hissy at me, I'll be on my way then." Ron responded leaving the compartment in a huff. The various girls inside the compartment were glancing at Helen expectantly, obviously waiting for an explanation. Helen let off a small sigh before she answered the unspoken question.

"I sent him on his way because I can't stand people who want to get to know the girl who lived. I want people to be my friends because it's me, not because of a scar on my forehead. It just wouldn't feel right having a conversation with someone, knowing that they wanted to speak to you because you were famous." Helen explained slowly and methodically. She knew that every girl in the compartment was captured by her words.

"Well I think it's a good thing." Padma Patil said. "I'd hate it if you were a stuck up snob only into your fans." A few nods emerged across the compartment at that.

"She's right. You shouldn't feel ashamed for wanting to avoid those kinds of people, you'd never know when they would betray you." Susan said, after that comment more nods appeared across the room. Helen let out a small smile to herself, it was good to know that she already had them wrapped around her fingers. It only took a few subtle probes with legilimency to know that all of them were eating it up, not only was the girl who lived a lovely person to talk to, she was also humble about her fame. Helen knew that from this interaction alone she'd gained the respect of everyone in this room and with respect for someone, loyalty to them was only the next step down the road.

"Hi, Did you happen to see a toad, Neville here seemed to have lost his?" A bushy haired girl had entered the compartment, with a chubby boy on her tale.

Suppressing a sigh, Helen replied, "No, haven't seen one. I would suggest you find a prefect, and ask them to summon it."

"Magic can do that? I didn't know that! Thank you for the help." The girl said skipping out of the room and closing the door. She waved goodbye through the window and promptly left with the boy in tow.

Helen sat down and opened her book once again, "I hope we have no more interruptions" she spoke softly. Hannah agreed and closed her eyes for a nap, whilst Susan also opened a book, charms by the look of it. The twins had already settled down for a nap.

The next few hours passed quietly. All the girls were now napping, with Susan's book lying forgotten on her chest. After bookmarking in between the pages, Helen closed the book and put it aside. Getting up, she stretched a bit and went outside to go to the loo.

As she was returning, she saw the Weasley boy tormenting a couple of girls about Helen Potter's whereabouts. Helen ducked back into the loo to avoid him, as he had left the girls and was walking in her direction. After making sure the coast was clear, Helen came out and went to meet the girls. They looked like first years too and seemed to be friends. One had beautiful aristocratic features with blonde hair and blue eyes, which led Helen to assume that she was a pureblood, likely a noble by the way she carried herself. Her companion was a pretty brunette with brown eyes,seemingly a girl next door type.

"Was he bothering you about Helen Potter's location? " Helen smiled "If so, I'm sorry about that."

"Yes, he was. How did you know?" brunette inquired "and why are you sorry about it?"

"He was in our compartment earlier asking the same. And I'm sorry because I lied to him about my identity and whereabouts." she smirked.

The blonde raised an eyebrow "So you're Helen Potter." she stated. The brunette looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yes, I am. Nice to meet you."

The brunette continued to stare in shock while the blonde nodded, "Daphne Greengrass". She flicked her eyes to her shocked friend. "And this is Tracey Davis" she said, shaking her head.

"So you two are first years as well?"

Recovering, Tracey answered, "Yes, and most likely dorm-mates as well, in Slytherin" Excited, Tracey followed up with another question. "Which house do you think you'll get?"

"Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, I think. I wouldn't mind any house though." Looking behind them she asked, "Do you want to join me in my compartment? There are four other girls in there from our year as well."

Daphne and Tracey agreed and they went to the compartment to find the girls woken up from their naps. Introductions were made, though they were unnecessary as the girls seemed to know each other already.

They all discussed various topics ranging from sortings, to houses, to the first year curriculum and Hogwarts itself.

The trolley lady arrived and the girls each took something to drink or eat. Remembering their previous interruptions Helen locked the door and discretely put a notice-me-not charm on it, that would hopefully prevent any arrogant children playing to their parents trying to court her or some similar nonsense. . Helen slowly started taking control of the group, subtly directing their discussions, approving whenever someone made some good point and cutting off any girl from discussion for a while whenever they would say something dumb. This way, by the time they were deep into Scotland, all the girls were unconsciously deferring to Helen. This had made her the unofficial de facto leader of the group.

Looking at her small wrist watch, Helen told the girls that they were approaching Hogwarts and instructed them to change. Tracey and Daphne went to get their trunks and came back quickly telling them about various students looking for Helen. Helen locked the door again and the girls changed into their Hogwarts uniforms. When Hannah commented on Helen keeping her wedges on, she simply replied "The standard school shoes look hideous."

Finally, the train pulled into the Hogsmeade station and the girls got out together. Upon hearing the calls for the first years by an extremely large man, they moved towards the front of the train. When all the first years were gathered, the large man, who Helen recognized as Hagrid, took the students down a slippery path towards the lake. At the lake were several small boats, which the students got into. Pavarti had started talking to a blonde girl, allowing Helen to sit with Susan, Hannah and Padma without any issues.

Making sure that everyone was on a boat, Hagrid shouted "Forward!" and all the boats started moving together. After making a bend, they were graced by the magnificent sight of Hogwarts castle, lit up against the clear dark sky. Soon they entered a tunnel and were embanked at an indoor dock. After collecting all the students, Hagrid knocked on the large set of double doors with a loud bang. Then, after what seemed like an age the ancient doors finally swung open.