"Do you have everything packed?" Rose was fussing over Johanna's clothes, fixing her shirt and hair frantically. Johanna nodded her head, almost irritated at her mother's behavior,

"Yeah, mom, I'm fine."

"All of your books? Even your socks and underwear?"

Johanna's cheeks lit up a bright red and she sighed angrily,

"Yes, mom."

The three of them, Johanna, Rose and Nan now stared at a brick wall that was in front of them and Johanna turned to them, confused,

"Alright. Which train do I get on?"

"You aren't getting on any of those trains, dear." Nan explained and Johanna still looked confused, eyes going to her mother,

"Uh-"

"Well, come on now! Let's go!" Nan grabbed a hold of the cart that held Johanna's things and then her hand, turning to look at Rose. Rose's eyes lit up playfully and the three of them started to run at the wall. Johanna's eyes widened with horror and she almost tried to stop herself,

"Whoa, whoa, wait-!"

Johanna braced herself for impact, ready to collide with the brick wall and shut her eyes. It had now been long enough that they should've hit the wall by then, so she decided to open her eyes and when she did, she saw they were at another train station. It was Platform 9 ¾, just as her mother had told her. Other people, her age, older and younger were wandering around with or without their parents and their things, ready to board the train.

One girl was surrounded by what looked like friends, all of them swarming around her like flies on a horses rear. This rubbed Johanna the wrong way, for she knew that girls like that were often mean because of their popularity. However, she tried her best not to judge people without getting to know them, so quickly dismissed the thoughts from her mind. If she were to have a negative opinion about this girl, it would be from experience and not first glance.

"I'm going to miss you Mom and Nan." Johanna leaned forward and gave both of them hugs, waving goodbye as they phased back through the wall they had come through.

Meanwhile, while heading towards the train, Johanna overheard as the proud, popular girl stood with a hand on one hip, watching as person after person graced her presence.

"Emma! Will you sign my broomstick?"

"Did you really fight off a vampire over your summer holiday?"

"Can I sit next to you on the train?"

Question after question flew at this girl and she smiled smugly at everyone as they did so. After the last question, everyone started to argue about who was going to sit by her on the train. Without looking where she was going, the girl walked right into Johanna, who had tried to swerve out of the way, knocking her over and almost knocking over her cart with her things. Atticus, Johanna's pet fruit bat squealed with fright at almost toppling to the floor in his cage and the girl narrowed her eyes, looking down at Johanna with a scowl.

"Hey, watch where you're going!"

Johanna was now sitting on the ground with a scraped knee, propping herself up with her hands,

"You're the one who ran into me! Why don't you watch where you're going..."

The whole crowd seemed to gasp with shock and Johanna grumbled as she stared to pick herself up. But before she could finish getting up, she felt herself getting pushed over onto the ground, this time on purpose. The girl stood above Johanna with a sneer,

"Don't you know who I am?"

"No, actually, I don't." Johanna spat and got up from off of the ground again, this time faster, "Fortunate enough for me I suppose..."

The girl looked as if she were about to bop her one good when suddenly, with sudden realization her face lit up with glee. Her hand reached for her pocket and out came her wand, clutched angrily in her hand.

"Well you will soon enough-"

"Expeliarmus!" A voice cried sharply and suddenly, the girl's wand flew from her hand and onto the ground a few feet away from her. Johanna turned to see who it was and behind her was a boy that looked to be about her age, with shaggy black hair. He had used a spell to disarm her and she now glared in their direction angrily,

"Sirius." She said in a disgusted sort of way and the boy behind Johanna sneered back at her,

"Emma... you know better than to use magic outside of school grounds."

Emma crossed her arms over her chest angrily and squinted her eyes at him, "Oh yeah? What's your excuse then?"

"You know as well as I do that I'm not afraid to break school rules." Sirius seemed deadly serious now, still clutching his wand and that's when Johanna first saw a twinge of fear in Emma's eyes. After realizing the crowd was now staring at her, she rolled her eyes like she didn't care,

"You two aren't worth my time."

One of the friends handed Emma her wand and before she boarded the train, she turned to Johanna and said warningly,

"This isn't over, mudblood."

Johanna now started to pick some of her things up from off of the ground anxiously, setting them back onto the cart in a huff,

"Just great. First day of the new school year and I'm already making good friends."

"You aren't from around here, are you?" Sirius (she now knew was his name) started to bend down and help her pick up some of her things and she sighed,

"Is it really that obvious?"

"A little..." Sirius chuckled and set a small bag onto the cart, "Only a fool or somebody terribly brave would dare cross Emma Vanity's path. If they knew who she was, that is."

"Right." Johanna scoffed and made herself look as full of herself as possible, doing her best impression of Emma she could,

"Do you know who I am?"

The two of them started to laugh now and Johanna caught her breath afterwards, smiling at Sirius,

"By the way... I'm Johanna Beetle."

"Sirius Black." He held out his hand and politely, the two of them shook hands. The train suddenly whistled and Sirius looked over towards the train, almost with surprise.

"We better board the train while we still can."

He looked down at her cart and raised an eyebrow,

"Would you like some help with that or...?"

"Oh no!" Johanna giggled nervously and started to grab her things, "I've caused you enough trouble."

Johanna did her best to grab everything, letting her large suitcase with wheels drag behind her with one hand and grabbing her other bags and Atticus's cage with the other. She barely managed, but made it on board, trying to find a compartment that was vacant, because the last thing she wanted to do was to rudely invite herself to sit with a bunch of random strangers. Finally, after walking quite a ways, she found a vacant compartment and squeezed herself inside, putting her luggage in the overhead storage and setting Atticus's cage on the ground next to her seat. This train was nice so far. It was comfortable and the interior was nicely designed. Looking through one of her bags for her cassette player, Johanna's eyes widened when she realized that it was now missing. This sent her almost into a full on panic, mostly because her father had given it to her before he had passed away and it was probably her most favorite thing in the whole world.

Realizing that it was truly missing, she stood up, wondering if she should get off of the train to look for it when suddenly, the train lurched forward and started to leave the station. Her heart now sank in her chest painfully. For all she knew, it was now lost forever and she would never see it again. Sadly, she sat back down in her seat and sighed, closing her bag now. She reached up to stuff it back into the storage when suddenly, she heard the door slide open behind herself. She turned to see a tall boy with light brown hair and green eyes enter the compartment. He looked sort of shy and then from his pocket came to her surprise, her cassette player. She was so happy that out of excitement, she grabbed the cassette player and then hugged the mystery boy with glee.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" She exclaimed and then let go, turning bright red after doing so. He looked embarrassed also, a hot blush spreading across his face. He started to stutter now, as if he didn't know what to say and suddenly, from behind him came another boy. This time it was Sirius and he almost looked embarrassed now too,

"I swear, I was gonna give it back-!"

Sirius looked up at the other boy now and a smirk came across his face, along with a snicker,

"What's gotten into you, Remus?"

"Nothing-" The mystery boy now known as Remus spat out after stuttering so much before and Sirius now looked at Johanna with confusion,

"Are- are you sitting all alone?"

"Well, yeah," Johanna said, almost embarrassed now and rubbed her own shoulder awkwardly, "I don't know anybody here."

"It's settled then. I'm sitting here!" Sirius plopped himself down into the seat across from Johanna and Remus looked confused now himself,

"But what about James and Peter?"

Sirius crossed his legs and sighed,

"They can come too. Go and get them if you'd like. There's room for all of us."

Johanna wasn't sure how to feel. She was happy she was making new friends, but also almost always nervous about meeting new people, even ones her own age. Remus rolled his eyes and huffed almost, leaving to go fetch their other friends, "Fine."

Sirius looked out the window for a moment and then his eyes went down to the cassette player in her hand,

"Hey! I was really gonna give it back you know... what is it anyhow?"

Before she could answer, two more people, along with Remus came into the compartment now. All of them took a seat and one of them introduced himself. He had glasses and dark brown hair,

"Hi! I'm James! This is Peter."

He introduced the last of them, a short squat kid that looked to be about the same age as the rest of them as well.

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Meeting so many people was almost overwhelming to her, but she did her best to stay cool and that's when James pointed out her cassette player, just like Sirius had,

"What is that, anyway?"

"Oh! This is a cassette player." Johanna replied, happy that they had an interest in her most favorite thing but all of them still looked confused. Peter then asked,

"But what does it do?"

Then it dawned on Johanna. These people most likely didn't have any sort of no-maj relatives like she did, and didn't know anything about the world of no-maj's or their technology. Having remembered this, she started to explain how to worked,

"Oh! Sorry... this is a piece of no-maj technology. They usually run on batteries, and play these things called cassette tapes. They're miniature plastic squares that hold film with recorded music on it. I place the cassette tape into the player and it plays the music. I can either play it aloud or through headphones."

"Very peculiar," Sirius exclaimed and Remus nodded his head,

"Indeed, but if you weren't already aware, muggle technology doesn't work in this world."

Johanna's eyes lit up with glee,

"But that's the best part! My mother is a witch and my father was a no-maj, so they worked together to modify this cassette player to run on magic or batteries. That way I can listen to it wherever I go."

"No-maj... isn't that the word Americans use for muggles?" Peter asked and James nodded his head,

"It is pretty obvious you're American by the way you talk. So you transferred then?"

Johanna now felt so happy to have people her own age to talk to. The anxiety from before was now practically gone,

"Yes. I actually used to go to Ilvermorny before the incident back home."

"Incident?" Sirius questioned and all the boys turned to look at Johanna curiously. Johanna felt herself blush from embarrassment and she tried to shrug it off,

"It really wasn't that big of a deal..."

"Well, it had to have been to have you get transferred. That rarely ever happens," James explained and Peter nodded his head,

"Go on! Tell us what happened!"

Johanna stared at all the boys, who still eyeballed her curiously and she sighed impatiently,

"Okay, alright...! So, I used to live and grew up in San Francisco and this girl used to pick on me all the time when we were growing up."

Johanna nervously used her fingers to brush her hair out of her face as she spoke,

"One day, there was a big event going on downtown. They had opened a new skate park and I wanted to use my new roller skates there. She saw me there and said something that crossed the line and sent me over the edge... I'm usually a very even tempered person and it takes a lot to get me riled up. But she went too far... so... I called her a pig."

"That's all?" Peter asked and Johanna shook her head,

"I wish. The next thing I know, she starts to grow a tail. Then she starts to panic and everyone turns to look at us because she's freaking out. And slowly, in front of half the town, we watched as she turned into a pig."

"Whoa..." James's eyes were wide with interest and everyone seemed very intrigued by the story.

"It was so bad. And I didn't do it on purpose, honestly. I just got really mad... and it happened."

"It's okay. It happens to everyone." Sirius reassured her and surprised, she turned to look at all of them,

"What? Really?"

"Yup." James agreed and Remus shrugged,

"It is actually a very common thing."

"Oh." Johanna sat there now, feeling more relieved that it wasn't exactly her fault what had happened. Her mother had partially and unintentionally made her feel like it was her fault, but for all she knew she could've done it on purpose and the move was probably more stressful for her than she had realized.

"Most of my friends are no-maj... I've lived around them for almost my whole life, because most of my family doesn't use magic. The only magic family I have are my mother and my Nan. They're both Scottish. On my dad's side, they're all no-maj and there's a whole bunch of them."

"What's it like? Living among the muggles?" Sirius asked, a twinkle of curiosity in his eyes and Johanna sighed,

"It's... normal."

At first that was all Johanna could explain it as. Then she continued,

"I don't know. For a while, I didn't even know my mom was a witch. I was raised by muggles and until a few years ago, I didn't even know magic was real. It was all a very real shock to me and what I thought I knew was scattered to the wind."

Johanna realized that her answer seemed to disappoint most of them and then tried to play it off differently,

"But, that's coming from someone that's always lived around the no-maj. I'm sure it would be fascinating for someone who's lived around magic their entire life."

The door to the compartment was suddenly opened and standing there was a sweet looking lady pushing a cart full of what looked to be sweets, the kind that Johanna had never seen before in her life.

"Would you kids like anything off the trolley?"

Johanna thought about her own candy that sat in one of her bags that she had bought with her allowance before moving to Scotland. She did have some money now and the candy on the trolley looked extremely interesting.

As soon as Sirius saw the trolley, his face lit up with glee and he reached into his pocket for what she assumed was money.

"We'll take ten of everything!"

Johanna almost felt her jaw drop but resisted from doing so as to not embarrass herself. Ten of everything? That sounded very expensive to her... but after seeing Sirius pull more than enough from out of his pocket, she felt sort of relieved in a way.

"So you guys have never heard of the Beegees?" Johanna was now listing off different no-maj musical bands and every time she was met with "no"s and head shakes. Finally, she pulled out her cassette player and started to rewind it,

"Well, if you guys would like, I could play some for you. I have Anne Murray and the Carpenters."

Then it suddenly dawned on Johanna... why didn't they know about muggles more? Her curiosity got the best of her and she decided to ask,

"Why don't you guys know anything about no-maj's?"

The four of them were silent for a second, thoughtfully munching on candy and thinking to themselves, looking at each other as if they weren't sure what to say. Finally, Sirius broke the silence,

"Johanna... do you know how we were out on the platform? And that Emma girl called you a mudblood?"

Remus gasped with shock at hearing this word and Peter and James looked surprised as well. Johanna nodded, sort of confused and Sirius sighed,

"Well... some magic folk aren't as tolerable as others. Some think muggles are weak, unintelligent and lesser than themselves, along with anyone who associates with muggles. Systematically, all witches and wizards have been raised and made to ignore muggles and their way of life. Partially because muggles would be afraid if they knew we exist, but what I think is mostly to blame is the stigma that is given to muggles by many magic folk."

James smiled when he heard this and nodded his head,

"The reason Sirius knows so much about it is because of his Muggle Studies Class. His family is sort of judgmental towards muggles, and since he's the rebellious type, that only made him want to learn about muggles even more."

"Sort of?" Sirius laughed and shook his head, "They're bloody plonkers is what they are. Completely closed minded. That's something I try to steer clear of myself."

Johanna understood completely and then something else dawned on her,

"I understand... but what does that have to do with me being called a mudblood?"

The boys were now all dead silent again, from shock of hearing the what seemed to be curse word and then finally Remus started to explain,

"Mudblood is a filthy insult some magic folk use for people who are born with one or more muggle parents. It's very rude and if she would've said it around a teacher, she would've lost house points. Bloody Slytherin..."

"A lot of Slytherin have pureblood families and carry that sort of stigmata." James explained and Peter giggled when he heard this,

"When we were being sorted our first year, Sirius was so determined to not be in Slytherin. Just to spite his parents."

"Not all Slytherin are bad," Sirius explained and handed Johanna a chocolate frog. "They just expected me to be in Slytherin because of their beliefs."

Johanna stared at the chocolate frog in her hand and decided she wanted to change the subject. Then she thought about her no-maj candy in her bag and grabbed it from off the ground,

"I've got some of my own candy. From back in San Francisco."

"Do you mean muggle candy?" Peter looked excited now and Johanna nodded her head yes. It was quite funny and odd to her that they were so excited about simple everyday things she experienced on a day to day basis, but at the same time she understood why they acted the way they did. These things might've been mundane or average for her, but to them, seeing no-maj artifacts (as they like to call them) was as exciting as Johanna seeing a new spell or magical creature.

As Johanna started to share her assorted candy with her new friends, she felt filled with happiness and overjoyed. It was fun and odd having friends who were so different and yet somehow the same as herself. Every conversation was an exciting learning experience, every subject was as fascinating as the first time she found out she was a witch. And she loved every second of it.