Emily Fields woke to the harshness of sunlight flowing through the windows. She sat upright and swung her strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail. Why was she sitting on a strange bed in a strange room she had never seen before? Oh, right. Emily remembered that she was in the Leaky Cauldron inn. Her parents, both Muggles, always dropped her off at Diagon Alley a few days before Hogwarts started, so she could catch a ride to King's Cross Station with her swimming friends. They didn't want to have anything to do with Emily and her "condition", as they referred to magic, like it was some disease. Emily couldn't blame them. She herself wanted to be normal.

She got up and changed into a t-shirt and shorts. Emily knew she should probably dress up better, because she would probably see her boyfriend Ben today...but it just wasn't in her nature to be girly. She peeked out the window at Diagon Alley. It wasn't one of her favorite places on Earth. For one thing, it didn't have anywhere to swim. Swimming was her passion, one of the only things she was good at. She wasn't very pretty, and she did just okay at magic, but swimming was the thing that kept her alive, almost. Ever since that time in the first year when swimming was introduced as one of the official Hogwarts sports, and Emily stunned the Hufflepuff coach with her brilliant backstroke through the murky Hogwarts lake, she had known that swimming was a part of her.

EMily reached under her pillow for the photo she always slept with. It was worn and thin from too much handling, so she unfolded it gently. Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and her own self were sitting around a beautiful girl on the Quiddith bleachers, grinning widely and giggling. The girl in the middle, the one with the gorgeoous blue eyes and bowtie lips, was giving the most glamorous smile, laughing coolly. She fingered the girl's face adoringly, memorizing every inch of her perfect skin. This was the girl who had brought the four of them to popularity in first year. This was the girl who had made their whole lives. This was the girl who Emily had -and still did- idolize beyond belief. This was the girl who had dissapeared mysteriously at the end of second year, never to be seen again.

Alison Dilaurentis.

She folded the picture, put it away, and headed downstairs for breakfast. As she was feasting on Belgian waffles and butterbeer, she spotted a girl her age sit down next to her. She had tawny skin, beautiful black curls cascading down her shoulders, and tawny yellow eyes.

"Mind if I sit here? It's kind of crowded."

Emily shrugged. "Sure."

As they ate in silence, the girl asked "You don't talk much, do you?"

Emily smiled shily. "I guess not."

"What school do you go to?"

"Hogwarts."

"No way! I start on Monday!"

"Huh? But aren't you...my age?" She couldn't be a first year.

"The headmaster says its all right. I'm from the Salem Witches Instititute."

"In the States?"

"Yeah. " She grinned. "Oh, i'm Maya St. Germain"

"Emily Fields."

Maya stood up. "Wanna come up to my room?"

"Sure." Emily agreed, thinking that it sounded strangely like the way Ben told her to come up to his room when he wanted to snog her. She shook that thought out of her head.

Maya's room looked exactly like Emily's, except Maya had a lot more things scattered about. "What's Hogwarts like?"

"It's okay, I guess." Emily replied.

"You're very social." Maya said sarcastically. Emily looked up and saw that she was smiling in a friendly way. She grinned back.

They sat on Maya's bed, staring out the window. Emily stole looks at Maya's face. She noticed the fushia gloss of her lips, her banana gum smell.

"Want some gillyweed?" Maya said, getting out a tin of greenish stuff. She started to smoke it.

Emily hesitated. She'd never done it before, it always felt like her parents could somehow see her. But the way Maya did it made it look sexy. And Emily wanted to look sexy, too.

"Sure." She smoked it and started coughing hard.

"Whoa! First time?"

Emily nodded as a wierdly harmonic feeling swept over her. They sat there for a few more minutes, filling up the air with the scent of gillyweed. Then she saw Ben heading towards the Leaky Cauldron. She didn't want to go and jump up and kiss him, like a good girlfriend should. She wanted to hang back, stay with Maya some more.

She wanted to stay with Maya for as long as she could.