The rest of August practically flew by. She practiced writing with a quill, as well as learning polite society's manner, with the help of Jack. He had, after all, lived through the nineteenth century. She had little patience for either activity, and in fact raided a stationary's for pen and paper enough to see her through the year. Still, Jack made sure her handwriting would at least be legible by the time she left for school, and even if she never participated in any of the pureblood social dance, at least she knew exactly which rules she was flouting.

In exchange for the promised fashion advice she gave Archie, he taught her a couple of easy charms. He'd told her about the Trace, but also that it didn't work on pre-Hogwarts-aged children. He even promised that during the holidays, she could come over to his house and practice without setting it off, as the Ministry had no way of knowing who actually did the magic in a wizarding home. It seemed that he had developed a bit of a protective streak, since he was the one who had discovered her. After he had dropped the patronising tone of voice, which she now realised had more to do with her perceived muggleness (muggledom?) than with her age or gender, he was actually quite fun to hang around with.

Before she knew it, the 31st of August had arrived, and she was checking once again if she'd packed everything. It helped that she had arrived with only the clothes on her back. This meant she didn't have that much stuff that she could forget. The only thing left in her room were some clothes that she didn't think she'd need.

They were taking the train up to London in the evening, and Jack had booked a hotel room close to King's Cross so that they'd have enough time the next day to catch the Hogwarts Express. Neither of them fancied getting stuck in the morning traffic jam.

Once everything had been checked to her satisfaction, she took her wand and tapped it twice on the little owl decoration in the middle of the lid, shrinking it to miniature size. She picked it up with one hand, marvelling at it for a moment. Then she grinned. "God, I love magic!"

She put the small trunk inside a backpack and slid her wand into her wandholster, which had an automatic perception filter when worn – no, wait, what did they call it? A notice-me-not charm?

She bounced into the living room, where Jack was sitting with his feet propped up on the coffee table. He tilted an eyebrow at her until she calmed down just a little.

"I know, I know, you don't have to tell me. Gosh, I can't remember ever being this excited to get to school the first time around."

Jack laughed. "I don't blame you. I would be too, if I could go. I mean, think about it... Magic!"

They ate an early lunch and then went to the train. They were in London in plenty of time to check in and then do another round of Diagon Alley, just to take in the atmosphere. There were not nearly as many students with families this time, since everyone had already done their school shopping. It was still a very nice ending to the holidays.

The following day, they were at King's Cross nice and early, even though they'd slept until nine and took their time with breakfast. The train didn't leave until 11, but it was only just past 10 when they were contemplating the wall between platforms nine and ten, behind which was supposedly platform 9 ¾, for the train to Hogwarts.

Jack was trying out some of the same alien tech as before, but he didn't have any luck trying to see through it.

"We are sure this is the right wall, are we not?" he asked Donna.

She shrugged in reply. "Only one way to find out, future boy. Stand aside."

Professor McGonagall had told them, if they didn't trust it, to go at it at a bit of a run, but Donna didn't fancy making a fool of herself in the middle of the train station. Instead she casually leaned against the wall, thinking very hard about wanting to get to the other side. If her perusal of her school books in the past weeks had taught her anything, it was that a large part of magic was intent. In theory, if you leaned against this wall thinking it was a wall, nothing out of the ordinary would happen. On the other hand, if you leaned against it thinking it a gateway, then the magic would grant you access.

Her theory was confirmed a moment later when she felt a sort of falling sensation. She stumbled for a moment, and when she righted herself, she found herself on a platform straight out of the 19th century, complete with giant red steam engine standing on the tracks.

She was still admiring the scene when she heard a whoop behind her and Jack came careening through the wall (which, to be fair, did look like an actual gate from this side). Donna rolled her eyes. "Figures you'd do the running thing. Sometimes I wonder who's supposed to be the 11-year-old here."

Jack scoffed. "Live a little, shorty. Besides, your body notwithstanding, you're not 11 and you know it. With those DoctorDonna memories, you're arguably older than I am."

She waved a hand dismissively, but didn't answer him. Instead, she took his arm and pulled him along. "Come on, let's go find me a seat before they're all taken, and then we'll do some wizardwatching."

There weren't too many people yet, so finding an empty compartment was no problem. Once her backpack, containing her small trunk, school robes and a lunch, was stored in the overhead compartment, they went and sat on a bench.

Slowly but surely the platform filled up with more people. Parents were hugging and waving at their children, friends found each other again, nervous first years were scanning the crowds trying to find a friendly face. In all, it was a rather amusing spectacle.

By a quarter to eleven, Donna stood up. "I guess I'd better go and take my seat. I don't want to get caught in a rush of last-minute boardings."

Jack smiled as he stood up as well, and quickly wrapped her in a hug. "Take care, Donna. I'll miss you and your sarcastic mouth."

Donna grinned into his trademark greatcoat as she returned the hug. "You too, old man. Catch some aliens for me. And try not to die too much, eh?"

"Go on then, off with you. Let me know when you've arrived, okay?"

With a wave, Donna hopped on board and entered her compartment. She'd barely sat down when the door opened and a blonde head poked in.

"Sorry, can we sit here? I mean, we could go look for a different place if you really wanted to be alone, but I think sharing a compartment is kind of the point of this whole train ride, so might as well be with us, right?"

Donna raised her eyebrows. "Bubbly, aren't ya? Come on in, I don't mind."

The blonde actually bounced as she entered, followed by a more sedate brunette. They dragged in their trunks and Donna stood up to help store them overhead. They looked curiously at the backpack, sitting incongruously next to the trunks.

"Did you store everything for the whole year in that pack?" the blonde asked.

Donna nodded. "Yup. Well, technically I stored it in my trunk, but that has a shrinking charm built in, so it's sitting in my backpack in its smallest size."

"Makes sense, I guess," said the second girl. "Mine has the shrinking charm too, but my aunt said to keep it full size, 'cause there's not much room on the train for shrinking and unshrinking whole trunks, and we do need to reach our school robes."

Donna grinned. "That's why I put the robes and my lunch into the backpack separately. There's no reason to unshrink my trunk until we get to Hogwarts."

"Smart. I'm Susan Bones, by the way, and this young whippersnapper is Hannah Abbott."

"Donna Noble, nice to meet you. First years, I assume?"

Hannah nodded. "Most of the upper years already have all the friends they want, so they don't really bother with introductions, they just pick an empty compartment and fill it."

Just then, a whistle sounded. Donna looked outside and quickly found Jack standing a little ways back with his hands in his trouser pockets. His gun holster was showing, but most wizards didn't seem to realise just how lethal a gun was.

She waved at him, and he lifted up his hand as the train began to move. Susan and Hannah were likewise waving to family on the platform, until it was no longer visible.

"Well, we're off." Susan said.

Donna could not help herself, she had to follow that up with: "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz."

Susan and Hannah both looked at her blankly.

"No wizard of Oz? No, I guess not. Who needs a story about a fake wizard when you have the real deal?"

"I take it you're a muggleborn?" Susan asked politely.

Donna looked at the two girls, who were wearing clothes that could not be anything other than robes. Then she looked down at her own clothes: a green dress reaching down to her thighs with a broad belt over it, black leggings and black flats. In other words, not even close to wizarding fashion.

"What gave it away?" she deadpanned.

"You might want to be careful about who you proclaim your blood status to. I mean, we don't care, but there are some students... well, they're rather vocal about their disdain for anything muggle. I wouldn't put it past them to hex you just for existing."

"I'm not hiding who I am just to avoid trouble with a bunch of ignorant twats whose opinion I don't care about. Disdaining something when you know nothing about it is the height of arrogance. I'm just saying, I don't know that much about wizarding culture yet, but you don't see me disparaging it, do you? I'd rather learn about it, but I'm not going to act ashamed about my own background.

"Besides, if they do hex me, they might just have to look over their shoulder for a long time. Revenge will be cold, sweet and probably filled with muggle references."

The two laughed, and the conversation that followed compared wizarding and muggle culture. Donna had to keep in mind that the muggle world had only just left the 1980's behind, and she'd lived decades later than that. Then again, so long as she avoided major stuff like the internet, Susan and Hannah didn't know enough about the topic to call her out if she mentioned things out of their time.

She would have to be more careful when talking to other muggleborns, though. They'd notice casual talk of owning a computer, let alone a smartphone, which wasn't even getting invented for another decade or so.

After a while there was a knock on their door, and a girl dressed in her school robes entered without bothering to wait for a reply. At the sight of the wild mane of curls, Donna had a flashback to a planet-sized library and a mysterious archeologist called River Song. Donna hoped that she was not witnessing the start of that woman's story. She'd had an air of danger about her, and she'd known so much about the Doctor. Adding magic to that mix... no, better hope not.

"Has anyone seen a toad at all? There's this boy called Neville who lost his and I promised I'd help him look."

Considering their door hadn't opened since Hannah and Susan had entered, it didn't seem likely, but they looked obligingly under their seats anyway.

"Nope," said Donna, popping the p – a habit she'd taken over from the Doctor. "We're toad-free."

Susan chimed in. "My aunt said to find a prefect if I had a problem during the ride. Maybe you could tell your friend Neville to try one of them?"

Hannah bounced in her seat. "Oh, oh, wait, let me try something!"

The blonde closed her eyes, and went stiller than she had been during the whole train ride. When she opened her eyes again, she pointed to the front of the train. "Try two carriages that way, there's a toad there. But hurry, that is one curious little animal, he might not be there for a long time."

The girl looked more than a little curious herself, but opted to hurry up and try to find the animal. Donna looked at Hannah. "How did you do that?"

The girl tugged at one of her pigtails. "It's my family magic," she explained. "We have an affinity with magical animals. It's why many of us go into breeding or working for sanctuaries. It's fairly strong in me, so I can sort of feel nearby magical creatures. It helps that there aren't many toads on the train, they went out of style as familiars ages ago."

"Nice one. How does family magic work then?"

Susan explained how certain families had an affinity for branches of magic, which was probably where the whole pureblood thing came from. If they knew where a witch or wizard was coming from, it was easier to determine how family magic would manifest in the heirs.

Muggleborns had a wilder, freer magic, so the result was more unpredictable than the other way. There were some families who didn't mind letting muggleborns join their ranks, as they were more focused on continuing the family line, and reasoned that family magic which had died out through interbreeding could well return with that wildcard added to the mix.

Family magics didn't matter that much in Hogwarts, though, so other than knowing it was a thing, she didn't have to worry about it.

"Well, my family magic will be seer magic, because I predict that girl's going to be back here asking about that."

Susan laughed. "You don't need seer blood for that, an ability to read people will work the spell."

That reply sparked a lively discussion about wizarding versus muggle idioms, which was still going strong when the bushy-haired witch returned as predicted.

"Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for earlier, Trevor was where you said he'd be. How did you know? Was it a spell? Only I haven't read anything about a spell like that, and you didn't say any incantation or anything. Can you do silent casting? That's supposed to be quite rare. How did you learn to do it? Did someone teach you?"

By the time the girl paused to draw breath, Donna'd had enough. "Oy, sunshine, you're making me dizzy. Slow down and give the girl a chance to answer!"

Hannah cast her a grateful look. She'd wanted to say something, but she tended to go quiet when people acted confrontational, rather than interested, as Donna had been. Still, once the stream of questions ended in a blush – evidently she had realised she'd overstepped some boundary – she explained again willingly enough.

The girl settled in and asked some interesting questions. Whenever her mouth ran away with her, Donna nudged her, at which point she subsided and picked just one question to ask.

When there was a lull in the conversation, the girl looked at Hannah and fidgeted with the sleeve of her robe. "Look, I... I'm sorry about earlier. I ramble when I'm nervous."

"We'd noticed," Susan replied straight-faced.

The girl smiled ruefully. "Okay, well, I just wanted to say, feel free to tell me if you notice me doing that. I'm not always aware of it until later."

"I can do that," said Donna. "I knew someone very much like you once. Well, he didn't get nervous too often, but when he got excited... Anyway, if we're going to get you to listen, we should at least know your name. I don't think you want to hear 'Oi, you!' all the time. I mean, no guarantees that won't be thrown in there, but it's nice to know."

"Oh, right! Hermione Granger, how do you do."

"Hello Hermione. I'm Donna Noble, and these two lovely ladies are Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. Nice to meet you."

Susan inclined her head, and Hannah waved enthusiastically. She probably did everything enthusiastically, Donna thought.

"So what are you nervous about, Hermione?" asked Susan, leaning forward a little. "We're not that terrifying to talk to, are we?"

"Oh! No, of course not, you seem like perfectly nice people. To be honest, it's just this whole situation. I mean, for years stuff would happen that I could just not explain, and then I turn eleven and suddenly it turns out I'm actually honest-to-god magical, you know? Even though I've had months to get used to the thought, it doesn't quite make up for 10 years of not knowing why I didn't fit. And now I'm actually on my way to a magic school and I'm just terrified that I won't fit in again, that it wasn't the magic, it was really me all along, and I have no idea why I'm telling you all of that, I don't usually bare my thoughts to people I've only just met."

"Breathe, Hermione," said Hannah. "Don't worry about not fitting in, we'll help you."

Donna jumped in. "Yeah. If it's any consolation, I had no idea about the wizarding world until about two months ago, and I didn't even have the warning of accidental magic. Yes, I know that's unusual. Anyway, we muggleborns should stick together."

Susan's thoughts had followed a different track. "It's the train," she said. "The reason you're telling us, I mean. It's supposed to subtly encourage friendships, my aunt told me. I'm guessing your fears have been on your mind for some time and you just wanted to get it off your chest. We're probably the first people to ask you about it?"

Hermione nodded. "I did meet some people while looking for Trevor, but nobody told me... oh my god!" her eyes widened suddenly.

"What?"

"I just remembered... I met Harry Potter, and I just could not stop talking, I was about ten times worse than here. I just heard his name, knew I'd read about him, and started babbling, like he was just a character in a book, instead of an actual person sitting opposite me. I have to go apologise!"

She jumped up and reached for the door, but Donna grabbed her hand.

"Do it later," she said, when Hermione looked at her. "State you're in, you'll only make it worse. Wait until you've calmed down a little – preferably after we've settled in at Hogwarts, and THEN go and apologise. I'll even come with if you need the moral support. Or, you know, the 'Oi, you!' as the case may be."

"Right, you're right," Hermione said as she took a deep breath and sat back down. "So... how does this train enchantment work then?"

Donna grinned and leaned back. Disaster averted.