Hi everyone,

I can't promise that my next update will be as prompt as this one was, real life is going to be quite hectic for me over the next couple of weeks but I will do my best not to keep you waiting too long.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to follow and/or favourite this story since my last update.

Thank you to Skidney, MidnightRaineStorm, god of all, gowolf, MotherBear, JannaKalderash, SandyLS, LunarCatNinja, ElectraX12, SaruwatariAsuka, FireShifter and windsongspringheart for their lovely reviews

Just in case any one doesn't know, A and E stands for Accident and Emergency and is the British equivalent of the Emergency Room.

Once Upon A School Trip

Sarah Potter woke with a start, sitting bolt upright. Breathing heavily, Sarah pushed her thick black hair out of her face and looked around her bedroom, comforting herself with the familiar trappings. Her posters of the Kentmere Kestrels and Hollyhead Harpies Quidditch teams and bookshelf full of muggle fairy tales and fantasy stories and wizarding books. the line of cuddly toys including two wolves, a dog and a stag, which sat on top of the bookshelf. The dressing table tucked between bookshelf and window and…

"Mreeow!"

Sarah giggled as Morgan, the stuffed cat that she had accidentally brought to life a few years ago, leapt onto her bed and began to rub its head against her hand, demanding her attention. Morgan was the only cat that Sarah would ever own, at least until she was a grown-up due to mama's allergy to cat fur.

As she ran her fingers through the purring Morgan's silky grey fur she tried to remember the dream she had just woken from. It had had something to do with papa's flying motorbike, and a beautiful barn owl, and then there had been laughter: scary, triumphant laughter, and the green flash.

Sarah shivered. Merlin, she hated the green flash. Every nightmare she could remember having ended with the flash. She wondered, and not for the first time, whether everybody had nightmares about flashes of green light or if it was just her.

Sarah had given up trying to ask about the green flash- by now it was clear that she couldn't expect a straight answer. Mama looked upset and worried, and would tell her something about her birth parents. Papa would try to distract her with quidditch or with some story about the Marauders' exploits at Hogwarts, most of which by now, Sarah had heard far too often to find entertaining anymore. Even uncle Remus would change the subject- asking about her school work or about one of her beloved fairy tales.

Honestly, she'd almost be better off asking her brother, and he was three.

"Sarah!" Mama called from downstairs. "Breakfast's ready sweetheart!"

"Coming!" Sarah called back and, pushing Morgan off her knee she climbed out of bed. She snatched her dressing gown off the back of her desk chair and as she put it on, she looked down at the best photo she had of her birth parents: James and Lily Potter which she had stuck to her mirror- they waved at her from the snapshot and resumed their dance in the autumn leaves.

She looked like her dad; pale and skinny with a thick curtain of unruly black hair. Her green eyes were her mum's, so was her smile. Sarah had a good life- she loved her mama and papa, adored little Toby, but sometimes she wondered what her life would have been like if her parents had lived…

"Sarah!" Mama yelled. "Come on, or we'll miss the coach!"

'Miss the coach?' Sarah rolled her eyes. 'Really?'

On any other day mama would take her to school by side along apparition. But today; since today was trip-day and mama was coming along as a parent helper; for some reason they had to pretend to be proper muggles.

Sarah hurried down to breakfast.

"There you are kiddo," Papa teased. "We were starting to think that you'd got lost."

Sarah stuck her tongue out at him and slipped into her usual seat as mama sent her breakfast- a slice of buttered toast and a bowl of strawberries floating onto her place mat with a flick of her wand.

"Eat up sweetheart," Mama encouraged. "Then hurry and get dressed."

Hermione Granger padded downstairs, clinging to the bannister with one hand, and holding her book in the other. She wasn't really supposed to read on the stairs after her third trip to A and E for injuries from tripping down them this year, but she couldn't put this one down.

Ok, she couldn't put any book she started down, but that was beside the point.

Someone appeared at the foot of the stairs and Hermione snapped her book shut, using her fingers to mark her place for the moment.

"Don't think I didn't see that, young lady," Jane Granger chided her gently.

Hermione blushed. "Sorry mum."

"Come on, love" Jane held out her backpack. "Don't want to be late or you'll miss the coach."

Hermione frowned, she hated school trips- the bullying was always worse than it was on a normal school day. The only reason that she had actually agreed to this one was because she had promised her parents that she would try to mix with some of the other children.

Hermione loved and hated school. She loved learning, her dad often joked that she soaked up new knowledge like a sponge. She had never had a teacher that she didn't like. But that didn't stop her from dreading school each morning. She dreaded going to school because of the bullies who seemed to go out of their way to target her from the very first day she started at a new school. There had been three of those now including Yew Tree Primary, and with only five weeks left until she left primary school behind forever she wouldn't be able to move again.

"Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yes mum," Hermione nodded, and allowed her mother, ever the dentist, to smell her breath.

Jane smiled. "Good girl, now come on. Into the car,"

Sarah had been to the zoo a lot since her little brother was born. Toby loved animals, and as a result, Sarah spent most of the day trailing around at the back of her group, daydreaming about how cool it would be to see some of the wizarding world's creatures amongst the muggle ones. She knew that there were wizarding zoos in other countries, she had been to one once while on holiday with mama and papa before they got married; she had seen the photos.

A hand landed on her shoulder, jolting her back to the present.

"Welcome back Sarah," Mama said with a grin. "C'mon kiddo, we're stopping for lunch."

Much to Hermione's relief, for the most part the others in her group seemed too interested in the animals at the zoo to bother picking on the bushy haired, bucktoothed, know-it-all of a newcomer. Still, she kept close to Mrs Newton or Mrs Black as much as possible. The respite from her newest lot of bullies didn't last all day.

It started off in the picnic area when both classes had regrouped for lunch, with Rhiannon Thompson- a pretty blonde girl who had had it out for Hermione since she had tripped in and accidentally thrown a pot of paint dirtied water over her on her first day- glanced over at the grown-ups and asking: "Hey, who am I?" before sticking two carrot sticks in front of her front teeth and crossed her eyes.

The girls around her laughed.

Hermione stared at the floor, clenching her fists, her fingernails cut into her palms. She had to be calm- if she got upset she'd make something weird happen like when she made Liam McGarry's shoes shrink when he had pushed her out of the way so he could get into the classroom first after PE that time.

"That's not very nice,"

Shocked silence fell over the group of girls. Hermione raised her head and her eyes widened at the sight of the black haired girl she had been sat with on the coach, scowling at Rhiannon and her cronies.

"What's it to you freak?" Rhiannon's friend Holly asked snidely.

Hermione saw the girl's jaw clench.

"Yeah scarface," Rhiannon folded her arms. "What's it to you? Why don't you keep your nose out of other people's business and go back to mummy and daddy eh? Oh wait, you can't can you, because…"

"What's going on here, then?"

Mrs Black, the parent helper had appeared behind the black haired girl.

"Nothing Miss," said Rhiannon, sweetly.

"Really?" the woman asked, raising one eyebrow. "Because it sounded to me like you were about to cross a line,"

Rhiannon looked like a rabbit caught in car headlights.

Mrs Black laid one hand on the black haired girl's shoulder and something unspoken passed between the pair. "Using something that someone can't help about themselves is wrong, and you certainly don't bring someone's family into a fight."

"Yes Miss," Rhiannon said sheepishly. "Sorry Miss,"

"It's not me you ought to be apologising to," Mrs Black said pointedly. "Is it?"

"No Miss," Rhiannon looked at the girl in front of Mrs Black. "Uh, sorry Sarah,"

"And…" the woman prompted

Rhiannon turned to face Hermione. "Sorry."

"Lovely," said Mrs Black with a smile. "Now girls, Mrs Newton asked me to tell you that it's time to pack up, ok."

Ten minutes later the classes from Yew Tree Primary were cleaned up and ready to go their separate ways again. Hermione stood beside the girl called Sarah and whispered.

"Thank you, but why did you do that?"

"I hate bullies, and she's a nasty piece of work: picked on me since we were in the infants." Sarah turned a pair of green eyes upon her. "I'm Sarah by the way,"

"Hermione," said Hermione.

"Right boys and girls," Mrs Newton called out, drawing their attention to the front of the group. "Next stop, the reptile house,"

The reptile house was cool and dark, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. The group split into three: some wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons; others peered at the jewel toned tree frogs, while the third, and smallest group, hovered uncomfortably in the middle of the space- not wanting to approach the 'slimy' creatures.

Sarah wandered from tank to tank until she found herself standing in front of a large boa constrictor lounging on a large, flat rock. She looked intently at the immobile snake and wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had died of boredom; alone as it was in the dull brown enclosure.

Suddenly, the snake opened one beady eye and then raised itself with seemingly exaggerated slowness until its eyes were level with Sarah's.

And then it winked

Sarah stiffened, shocked. She glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching; she had a horrible feeling that this particular case of accidental magic might well cause a riot. Fortunately nobody was looking her way.

Sarah smiled and winked back at the snake.

The boa gave her a look which said, quite plainly: "Every day it's the same thing."

"I can imagine," Sarah murmured through the glass, though she wasn't sure the snake could hear her. "It must be really boring."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Sarah asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Sarah peered at it: Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Sarah read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh," she said. "Then you've never been to Brazil?"

The snake shook it's head.

"Sarah?" Sarah flinched at the sound of mama's shocked exclamation. "What are you doing?"

Sarah blanched. "I… uh… talking to the snake?"

Mama looked stunned. "I… we'll talk about this at home… just, just please don't speak to anymore snakes, ok?"

A startled cry rang out from across the reptile house. Sarah and mama looked up just in time to see Darren Peters- a short scrappy boy with sandy hair and so many freckles that his face looked like it was one single huge freckle covering his whole face- topple forward into one of the enclosures and land with a splash. The glass front of the tank had vanished and a large green and while snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

In the midst of the chaos, Hermione, the bushy haired brunette, stood there with her hands raised to her face. As the snake slid past the stunned brunette Sarah could have sworn she heard it say, in a low hissing voice.

"Sssouth America, here I come… thanksss sssenorita,"

"Oh bloody Merlin," Mama winced. "And here I thought you had some strong bursts of accidental magic, Sarah."

Sarah stared at her parent. "You mean she…?"

"Uh huh," she nodded. "The poor kid, I think I need to have a word with her parents at home time. Sarah honey, go and join the others I'll deal with…"

"Her name's Hermione," Sarah supplied. "Don't know her surname."

"Thank you sweetheart," Mama nodded. "Off you go."

Sarah hurried out of the reptile house after her year mates.

Hermione stood staring at the now open fronted snake tank in shock. She knew that she had made it disappear when Darren shoved her out of the way so he could see the Emerald Tree Boa inside; but she had no idea how she had done it.

Hermione gasped as a hand landed on her shoulder. She whipped around and found Mrs Black standing before her.

"Mrs Black, I…"

"I know," the lady nodded. "It's alright Hermione, you've done nothing wrong."

Hermione heard the words but they didn't quite register. "I don't know what happened… One second the glass was there and the next it was gone- it was like…"

"Magic," said Mrs Black.

"Exactly, but…"

A stick, about the size of a knitting needle appeared in Mrs Black's left hand. "Not a word to anyone about this Hermione," her voice was quiet. "Promise?"

"I don't… what?"

"Close enough," the woman murmured and waved the stick in the direction of the snake tank. Hermione gasped as the sheet of glass reappeared, another flick of the stick had the ventilation grate clattering to the floor.

"What?" Hermione gasped. "How?"

Mrs Black smiled and rolled back her sleeve to stow her stick (magic wand?) in a leather holster on her wrist. "Magic, Sarah can tell you more about it- I think the two of you could be good friends."

"Sarah too?"

"Mm-hmm," Mrs Black nodded, covering the holster with her sleeve and began to lead her out of the otherwise deserted reptile house. "Her mum and I were a lot like you I think- the first in our family to have magic." Hermione nodded. "But her dad… he came from an old magical family. But you need to promise me that you won't tell anyone else about this. Promise?"

Hermione looked at the lady for a moment then nodded, once. "Promise,"

Mrs Black's smile widened. "Wonderful."

Morgan was purring like an engine as Sarah cuddled her close. She sat on her bed, staring unseeingly at the hot pink cotton of her duvet cover. She couldn't get the image of Mama's shocked face out of her mind for the rest of the day. Why had she been so worried? It was only accidental magic- she'd been doing things like that all her life; with varying degrees of control.

Knock-knock

"Bambi?" Papa's voice sounded horribly serious as he called through her bedroom door. "Can we come in, kiddo?"

"Yeah," Sarah called, slightly absently.

Her parents entered, papa carrying two cups of tea, mama carrying one and the biscuit tin. They sat on the edge of her bed and papa handed one of the mugs to her.

"I'm sorry," Sarah whispered.

"What for?" Mama asked. "Sweetheart, you've done nothing wrong."

Sarah's eyes widened. "But… but at the zoo- with the snake…"

"I won't pretend that hearing you speak parseltongue didn't shock me love,"

"P-parsel…" Sarah swallowed. "What's parseltongue?"

"The language of snakes," Papa told her. "It's a very rare gift…"

"Like your cousin who's a metamorphmagus," Sarah asked, brightening.

"Kind of," Papa nodded. "But it's rarer to be a parselmouth… it also tends to be inherited."

Sarah blinked.

At that moment a loud crash carried through from the direction of Toby's room; the crash was followed a few seconds later by the toddler's sobs.

"Oh Merlin, what now?" Mama shook her head. "Darling would you mind…?"

"Sure," Papa nodded and Sarah would swear that he looked a little relieved at being given the chance to leave the room, if only for a few minutes.

Mama laid her cup of tea on Sarah's bedside table, and tried not to wince as Morgan began to rub herself up against her arm. "Sarah, do you know why Papa and I chose to raise you mostly in the muggle world?"

Sarah shook her head.

"The simple answer, love, is because you're famous,"

"F-famous?" Sarah stared at her. "What for?"

"For something that happened the night your mum and dad died." Mama told her. "The reason you have that scar on your forehead, and I think, maybe why you can talk to snakes."

"What happened?" Sarah's hand rose unconsciously to the almost invisible lightning bolt which was etched into her forehead.

"Voldemort tried to kill you too,"

"W-what?" Sarah lost her grip on her mug, and if not for Mama's observational skills and speed with a wand, she might well have been scalded by the still piping hot drink. With a flick of the wand, the almost completely un-spilled tea landed softly beside Mama's own mug.

"I'm so sorry sweetheart," Mama reached out and drew her into a hug. "Papa and I were going to wait until after your birthday to tell you, but now…"

"Now what?" Sarah asked.

"When Voldemort tried to kill you his body was destroyed- and we learned, not long afterwards, that something evil lodged in that scar; it was barely healed after a month of you coming to live with us." Mama pressed a feather light kiss to the scar. "So we took you to the goblins for a second opinion and well, to cut a long story short I the thing was removed and your scar started to heal normally- well for a curse scar, at least."

"What was the thing?" Sarah asked.

Mama apparently hadn't wanted her to ask. She sighed. "I don't know for sure of course, but I think that it was part of Voldemort's soul."

"Part of his soul?" Sarah gasped. "Is that even possible?"

Mama nodded, gravely. "Through the most horrible dark magic I've ever come across. I won't say anything more about it now, because knowing you little Miss, you'll start looking into it, and I can't allow that for your own good. Do you understand?"

She didn't, not really, but she nodded anyway. "But what does that have to do with me being a parselmouth?"

Mama carded her fingers through her auburn hair. "Because Sarah, Voldemort was one too. It isn't too remote a possibility that you got the gift as a side effect of having that horrid thing in your head, even if it was only for a short time."

"Mama!" Little Toby squealed excitedly, tearing into the room and scrambling up into his mother's lap. "Papa's comin' get me!"

Less than a second later Padfoot came snuffling into the room, his tail wagging and his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Morgan made herself as large as she could and swiped one boneless paw in Padfoot's bearlike black bulk.

"Oh really?" Mama grinned at her son. "Shall Mama chase him away then Tobias-James?"

Toby nodded and allowed her to place him in Sarah's lap. A moment later a large grey wolf with reddish brown flecks around her muzzle and up her legs was sitting on the bed. Spitfire- Mama's, animagus form, growled playfully at Papa and chased the excitable dog out of the bedroom.

"What do you think little guy?" Sarah asked her brother. "Shall we go and see where they've gone?"

"Yeah," Toby nodded and Sarah hopped off her bed and carried him out of out of her bedroom and followed their parents, both laughing despite the frightening new information Sarah had learned about her past.

~v~

Shout out to JannaKalderash for inspiring the inclusion of Morgan the living cat plushie.

Next time: The summer holidays arrive, Sarah and Hermione become fast friends and Sarah is reintroduced to to the wizarding world.

Until next time, please leave a contribution in the little box.