(London, August 2028)

"Are you sure about this?" River asked, looking her daughter in the eyes in an attempt to change her mind, but Mia nodded.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I love it here, you know I do, but it's madness! Even if it's just for a couple of years, I'd like to live a normal life. But I'm warning you; if you don't come and visit me, I'll rip a hole in the fabric of time and space. I have the power."

River laughed, hugging her. Mia turned her eyes on the Doctor when her mother had released her. He tossed a sonic screwdriver to her. She caught it, examining it. It gave off a TARDIS blue glow, and seemed more complex than her fathers, with more settings.

"Happy birthday," he grinned.

"Thanks dad," Mia smiled back, hugging him too.

"Don't thank me, thank the TARDIS. And besides, if we're going to leave you on your own for who knows how long, you're going to need to be able to open doors."

"Thanks, old girl," Mia murmured, pressing a finger lightly to one of the only button-free places on the control panel. "I'd better go then. Feel free to visit me any time. You know where to find me. See you."

"Bye."

Mia smiled, pocketing her new sonic, casting a fond look around the console room, and dragging her trunk out of the TARDIS.

It had landed right in the front garden of Teddy and Victoire's cottage. She rapped on the door. Victoire answered, carrying Natalie on her hip.

"Mia! Oh, it's great to see you! Happy birthday! There's a visitor for you in the kitchen … you go on in, I'll bring your trunk up. You know where your room is, don't you?"

"Yeah," Mia smiled. "Thanks, Victoire."

Mia went into the kitchen, where, as she had expected, Leo was sitting at the table.

"Happy birthday," he smiled, getting to his feet.

Mia hugged him. "Hey, L. Have an interesting month and a half?"

"Not really," he shrugged, sitting back down. "You? Save many people?"

"A few," said Mia airily, sitting across from her friend. "We went to see the Medusa Cascade. It's beautiful; you really should see it."

"Well, I don't think I'm going to get my hands on a time-travelling space ship any time soon, do you?"

Mia smiled. "I mean I could probably persuade Mum and Dad to take you with us. Just one trip, I don't want to ruin your life too."

"What do you mean, 'too'?"

"You don't know what happened to Dad's companions before Gran, do you?"

Leo shook his head.

"Well, Rose is trapped on a parallel world, but she's dead, officially; she died in the battle of Canary Wharf. Martha was the smart one; she got out, but her family was kidnapped and tortured for a year, and her life's never been the same again. Donna can't remember anything; she's had her memory wiped. If she does, her brain will burn up and she'll die."

"It sounds so wonderful, when you tell me about it," Leo murmured.

"They're trying to keep me safe, but I think this is really the only way – to live a normal life. It worked for eleven years."

"Well, I'm glad I get to see you during the holidays."

"Yeah."

"I think we should tell her."

"It's her whole life story! Nobody would want to read that! She's only thirteen!"

Mia pushed the door of the 'common room', as it was known, open. Rose and Katherine looked around, and quickly tried to look innocent.

"What were you talking about?" she asked.

"We found your diary," Rose admitted, after a lengthy pause. "That's how Scorp and I knew so much about you, as well as what your parents told us. But … it's your diary after you died. I don't think you should know what's going to happen to you."

Mia nodded. "Spoilers; that's Mum's motto." She flopped down on an armchair.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" she asked, sending an incredulous look at the two cousins. "I don't murder someone or anything, do I?"

"No," said Katherine.

"Then that's fine. Anyone want to come out riding with me?"

"When you say that, do you mean you're going to be riding a horse, or you're going to be a horse?"

Mia's animagus form was a strawberry roan pony.

"I'm not registered yet," she said.

"All right."

"You can ride Bambi," said Rose, as they climbed downstairs. "Alice isn't here, and she doesn't mind anyway. She knows you."

They tacked up the horses and rode them out on the surprisingly quiet road.

"How's Leo?" Katherine asked curiously.

"Good," Mia said. "Happy that I'm staying for the foreseeable."

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, though it was comfortable.

"See you guys later, then," said Mia, once Bambi had been untacked, rubbed down and turned out into the paddock.

"Bye," the two called after her, as she crossed the garden and the road to the cottage.

Lunch was just ready when she arrived.

"Good timing," said Teddy with a smile, as she sat down.

"Hmm," she smiled back.

She quite thought she'd missed living a normal life.

"What's going on?" Mia asked curiously, slowly reaching the foot of the stairs. Victoire turned to look at her.

"There's someone here to see you."

Mia stepped down from the last stair, venturing into the kitchen.

"Professor!" she exclaimed in surprise, for Professor Simmons, her Transfiguration teacher, and the one who had helped her (along with Rose, Scorpius, Albus and Alice, during the holidays) to become the youngest Animagus in history. "What are you doing here?"

"If you don't mind, and you've got nothing else to do, I'd like to take you to the Ministry."

"Why?"

"To register you, of course," he said, as though it were obvious.

"Oh," Mia said, eyes lighting up a little. "Yes, I'd love to go. Can I bring someone with me?"

"I daresay you can."

"Ok, just give me a second." She left the kitchen, reaching the sitting room. Kneeling down in front of the empty fire grate, she took a pinch of glittering green floo powder from the pot by the fire, and threw it in, calling, softly, but clearly, Leo's address.

She was not particularly fond of communicating by fire, but it was the quickest way. Leo's older sister, Eva, a tall girl with dark blonde hair, was the one in the sitting room. She yelled up the stairs for her brother, before disappearing from the room.

Leo smiled as she knelt down next to his fire. "Hey."

"Hi," Mia smiled back. "D'you wanna come with me and Professor Simmons to the Ministry? I'm going to register myself."

"No stopping me," Leo answered. "I'll be at yours in fifteen, okay?"

"It's not mine," Mia countered. "It's Teddy and Victoire's. See you then."

She dragged her head from the fire, and knelt there for a few moments, feeling dizzy.

True to his word, Leo arrived after approximately fifteen minute's wait. Professor Simmons took them to the Ministry by side-along apparition, which Mia found she disliked even more than communicating by floo powder, mainly owing to the fact that it was impossible to breathe, and she felt slightly sick afterwards.

Even that could not put a damper on her excitement, however. She was slightly confused when the three of them stepped into an out-of-place, tattered phone box, but then again, it was magic, and it reminded her slightly of the TARDIS. They received badges; hers read, Mia Song, Animagus registration.

The phone box turned out to be a lift, which brought them down, underground.

"The ministry's underground?" Mia asked, surprised.

"They've got to hide it somewhere," Leo said matter-of-factly. "Imagine if Muggles found it."

"Your dad works here, right?" Mia asked. "I'd forgotten."

"Yeah, he does," said Leo, as the phone-booth-lift clattered to a halt. Professor Simmons opened the door and led the way over to the security desk. A young, bored wizard, probably only fresh out of Hogwarts and taking the first job that cam along, sat behind said desk. He inspected each of their wands, taking notes and puncturing them on a spire, along with countless other scraps of parchment.

They took the lift up a few floors, and managed to locate the Animagus office easily enough. Registering entailed, as she should probably have expected, a lot of paperwork. She had to note her name, age, and everything else about herself, and then the type of animal she could turn into and its markings. She had to turn into the strawberry roan pony to prove that she was not lying about what she'd written down, before she was given a certificate that marked her registering, and was bid goodbye.

"I'm an animagus!" she grinned, as they walked through the corridor to the lift.

"Congrats," Leo smiled.

"Well done, Miss Song."

A slightly random and most likely horrific bridging chapter. I can't think of anything interesting that happened to her during her second year, but if I do I'll write it.