AN

Sorry it took so long for me to get the next chapter out there, crazy things have been happening to me lately. I will try to update at least once every two weeks, but I am in University so I do get caught up. Sadly the characters for this story still do not belong to me. Special thanks to Readerforlife , kahiafreedom and Sampdoria. Your reviews were really appreciated. For those of you who read it and did not review, well I hope you liked it. And now….the NEXT CHAPTER

A ten year old girl bounded into the train station barely able to conceal her excitement. If people were to take notice of her they would see a very strange sight; a small slip of a girl, barely 4'1" with extremely curly auburn hair that fell down to her waist. If you were to take another glance you would see that she was hauling a very old fashioned trunk with the initials H.J.C. that was almost twice her size, as well as what looked to be a very large bird cage that was covered with a towel. All this was stacked haphazardly on a normal, everyday cart. But that was not the strangest thing about this child. If you were to look very closely at her, you would notice that her eyes were a startling shade of violet. Another thing you would notice about this child is that she was by herself, no parents or any other adults to be seen. But this did not seem to bother the girl. Instead of wandering around the station aimlessly; she purposely strode to the wall between platforms 9 and 10, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and promptly pushed herself and her cart through the wall into platform 9 ¾.

The girl looked around for a few moments at the platform in awe before she headed towards the scarlet train. Once she boarded the train, she found an empty compartment, stowed her trunk, and took the towel off of the cage that she was carrying. Inside the cage was the most beautiful and unique bird that the students of Hogwarts would ever see. It was a phoenix, but instead of the normal colors of red and orange, this phoenix happened to be blue and purple.

"Hello there Ena," the girl said to her familiar, "sorry you have to be stuck in your cage for so long, but if I let you out you'd be swamped with people trying to touch you." Ena cooed affectionately before she ruffled her feathers and settled in for a nap. As the girl watched her familiar settling in for sleep, she was brought back to the moment she first met her phoenix.

It was just another ordinary day when a young girl of six left her house in a hurry. If anyone bothered to watch her they would notice that she always left her house very early in the morning, and only went back when it got dark out. The girl in question was Hermione Jade Carvelle, and she was not an ordinary girl. For as long as she could remember strange things seemed to happen around her when she experienced a strong emotion. When she was excited birds seemed to appear out of thin air, and when she was angry books and other objects flew around the room she was in. Now Hermione's parents were very normal people who did not like things that could not be explained. Unfortunately they could not explain the strange things that happened around their daughter, and because of this they never wanted to be around their daughter for very long. Although Hermione was only a child, she understood that although they were her parents, they did not like her very much, and so she tried to avoid them as much as she could. This seemed to be a system that worked fairly well except for one small problem, Hermione was lonely. It was on this day when Hermione decided to be adventurous and explore the small woods behind her house. She wandered into the woods, and eventually came upon a small clearing. The small child sat down with a small sigh and said aloud, "I wish I had a friend, someone who would care for me, protect me, and love me." As soon as she finished saying this, she heard a small trill above her and saw the most beautiful creature in the world, a bird that looked to be made of blue and purple flames.

Most adults who see a flaming bird will think they've gone crazy, but a child like Hermione knew that anything was possible. At first she was a little wary, but like any six year old she was very curious and reached out to touch the beautiful creature. As soon as her hand brushed the bird's feathers she felt an instant connection to it, like bird (that Hermione now knew was a girl) was meant to protect her. Coming to that conclusion Hermione asked, "Do you want to be my friend?" the bird nodded and let out a melodic tune that filled Hermione with joy. "Now you need a name, don't you," asked Hermione, "how about Ena? It means bright and shining and you do that!" The bird tilted her head to the side as if to think whether or not that was acceptable, and after a few seconds nodded to Hermione. The young girl squealed and jumped up and down as the bird flew down and landed on her shoulder. Although she didn't know it at the time, Ena would introduce Hermione to the world she really belonged to.

Hermione was snapped out of her memory by the compartment door opening. Four boys had walked in and the one in front decided to speak for the group and asked, "Hey, mind if we sit here? All the other compartments are full."

"Sure," Hermione replied. "I'm Hermione Carvelle, who are you?"

The leader who had messy black hair, hazel eyes and glasses said, "I'm James Potter, but I can't speak for the rest of these blokes, I just met them."

A boy with brown hair and amber eyes said, "My name is Remus Lupin, and the blonde boy is Peter Pettigrew. Our parents are friends, so we've met a few times."

The other boy with black hair and grey eyes looked slightly uncomfortable when he said, "My name is Sirius Black. But before any of you jump to conclusions, I am NOT like my family. I don't believe in any of that bigotry, but I understand if you don't believe me. I wouldn't believe a Black."

Hermione gave Sirius a long, hard look before she said, "I believe you," and left it at that.

The boys started to stow their trunks when Peter spotted Ena and exclaimed, "Is that a PHOENIX?"

Remus quickly turned to look at it, and was then thoroughly confused. He asked, "but it's blue and purple, aren't phoenixes supposed to be red and orange?"

Hermione was startled but quickly recovered and replied, "Yes actually, she's my familiar. Her name is Ena and I met her when I was six. I have no idea why she's blue and purple, she just is. She's been that way since I met her."

The boys all exchanged glances with each other before turning the conversation towards Hogwarts and what houses they thought were the best. James and Sirius declared Gryffindor to be the best house Hogwarts had to offer. Remus thought it was a tie between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Peter thought Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were great, and Hermione thought that Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff all had their merits. The train ride seemed to speed by as the five people in the compartment got to know each other, and laughed at all the jokes and funny stories being told. Before they knew it, the train began to slow down to a stop, and as it did so the beginnings of a beautiful friendship were born.