Author's Note: I am not J.K Rowling so how can I own Harry Potter? This chapter goes out to Amy aka Luke, who was my first reviewer. Warning, during the train ride there is a little bit of harsh language. Just want you to be prepared.

Chapter 2 Returning to the Wizarding World

"Hermione, wake up!" shouted Alex, "We're getting our school supplies today!"

The Hogwarts letters had come the night before and Alex and Hermione wanted to get their school things as soon as possible. They had sent Errol back with a letter saying they were going to Diagon Alley and asked the boys if they wanted to meet up at the Leaky Cauldron.

Uncle Monty and Hermione were sitting at the kitchen table while Alex made breakfast. Hermione had gotten used to the fact that Uncle Monty was a failure in the kitchen and it was Alex who made the meals. Suddenly, an owl soared through the kitchen window and a letter fell on the table.

"Can one of you guys read it aloud?" said Alex showing her egg covered hands.

Hermione picked up the letter and read it aloud.

Dear Alex and Hermione,

We're going to get our school things too! We'll meet you at Flourish and Blots. See you there!

Harry and Ron

"Well then ladies," said Uncle Monty, "If you want to get all your things and still have time to chat, we need to get moving."

The girls ate their breakfast, got ready, and were out the door in record time. It took them a half and hour to get to London. They did not have any trouble finding the Leaky Cauldron. There they met Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Uncle Monty used his wand to open the passage to Diagon Alley.

With their bags filled with Muggle money, they went to Gringotts to exchange it for Wizard money. After shopping for new robes (Alex's were getting too short), some quills (all of theirs had broke), and stocking up on their potions ingredients, they went to grab ice cream. They were just leaving the store when Hermione let out a cry.

"Harry!" she called.

Harry turned around and smiled. He was an absolute mess. His hair was more unkempt that usual, his face was sooty, and his glasses were broken. Standing next to him was Hagrid, the Hogwarts game keeper. The girls ran over and hugged their friends.

"Harry, you look like you haven't showered in days!" said Alex, laughing.

"And what did you do to your glasses?" asked Hermione, fixing them with a wave of her wand and incantation.

"Long story short: I got lost," said Harry, beaming at his two friends.

"Where, down a chimney?" asked Alex as she brushed soot off his cloak, "You're filthy!"

They laughed as they went into Flourish and Blots. Alex and Hermione quickly finished their ice cream as they approached, but found a long line ahead of them.

"Wow," said Alex, "I didn't realize so many people needed books today." Hermione pointed to a sign outside the window and Alex read it.

Gilderoy Lockhart is signing his copy of Magical Me today!

"Who's he and why's he so popular?" said Alex, looking at the line which mostly consisted of women.

"He wrote all of our Defense Against the Dark Arts books," said Harry, looking at his list.

"Wonder if our new teacher is here today," said Alex thoughtfully.

Hagrid told them the Weasley's were inside as well as Uncle Monty and the Grangers. The three of them started to make there way through the crowd, Alex having to step on a few toes to get through. Finally, they saw the infamous Weasley red hair.

"Ron!" gasped Alex as she got elbowed hard in the ribs by an overly eager witch.

Ron turned around and smiled. He said something to his mother, who turned around also, and ran over to hug Harry.

"Oh Harry dear, thank goodness you're all right! We were so worried, you could have ended up anywhere!" She turned to the girls and gave them hugs too. "My goodness, it is so wonderful to see you two! Alex, you have really shot up over the summer! And look at Hermione, my dear you're hair looks wonderful!" After thanking Mrs. Weasley, they both went to say hello to the other Weasleys.

"Hello Fred, hello George!" said Alex to the twins.

"Hiya Alex!" they said together.

"How were your summers?" asked Hermione.

"Oh great-" Fred started.

"-if you count helping Harry escape from the Muggles and getting in trouble for it," finished George.

"That was really-" started Hermione, looking ready to give a lecture, but Alex cut her off.

"How did you do it?" said Alex.

Fred opened his mouth to say but at that moment, the whole room exploded into applause and Alex looked over. A handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes was standing in the front of the room. He was holding a book in his hands with the same face on the cover and the title Magical Me. Alex realized it was Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen," he said, smiling a large toothy grin. One of the ladies beside Alex almost fainted while she just rolled her eyes. "I would like to thank all of you for coming out today for my little book signing. I would also like to thank Flourish and Blots for having me here today," he winked at the lady beside Alex and this time she did faint.

As he looked around the room, his eyes came to where Harry was standing. "It can't be…Harry Potter!" he practically shouted. Alex looked at Harry, who was blushing severely.

One of the fair few men in the crowd had a large camera in his hands and he grabbed a fully embarrassed Harry roughly by the arm, dragging him next to Lockhart. Harry looked out of place with his dirty appearance next to Lockhart's clean blonde hair and immaculate light blue robes.

"When Harry Potter came into Flourish and Blots to buy my autobiography Magical Me," said Lockhart and Alex looked at him in disbelief. Harry didn't even know who Lockhart was. "He didn't realize that he would leave with my entire set of published works…for free!"

There was a lot of sighing and clapping as the older man shoved books into Harry's arms and smiled for the camera, Harry redder than ever. He left as soon as he could and came back to the Weasley's.

"Here," he muttered to Ginny, putting the books into her cauldron, "You can have these, I'll buy my own set."

After giving their books to their parents to buy, the Weasley's, Hermione, Alex, and Harry went to the back of the store where it was much less crowded.

"Are you all right Harry?" asked Alex concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine," said Harry, although he still had color in his cheeks.

"Of course he's fine," drawled a voice that was very familiar.

They turned around, Fred, George, and Alex had their wands out. Draco Malfoy stood before them, smirking.

"I'll bet you really enjoyed that Potter," he sneered, "All that attention. Can't even go into a book shop without making the Prophet, can you?"

"Leave him alone," said Ginny quietly. She had taken a fancy to Harry since they first met.

"Oh look Potter," he said "You've got yourself a little girlfriend."

Ginny's face went redder than her hair. Alex opened her mouth to say something nasty when a man came behind Malfoy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Play nicely Draco," he said in a bored voice. His eyes went over everyone, but they stopped at Harry and he looked up at the scar on Harry's forehead.

"You must be Harry Potter," he said looking intently at Harry's forehead, "And that must be the mark of the Dark Lord."

"Lord Voldemort killed my parents, and countless others too. He was a murderer," said Harry coldly.

"You must be either brave or foolish to say his name," said Mr. Malfoy.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," said Hermione.

Mr. Malfoy turned to Hermione and, after a side look at his son, smirked. "You must be Miss Granger. Draco has told me all about you…and your parents." He looked over where Mr. Weasley was talking animatedly to the Grangers. Uncle Monty was right next to them. "Muggles, aren't they?" he added.

There was something sinister about his voice that made Alex angry. "So what if they're Muggles?" asked Alex furiously.

He looked her over before speaking again. "I don't believe I know you," he said coolly.

"That just shows what a bad neighbor you are then," she said, "I live next door to you."

"Ah yes," he said after a pause, "You're Elian's addition. We don't come out much, you know. We, ah, enjoy our privacy."

He stared at her for a while, as if looking for something, and turned to the rest of the group.

"Let me see, red hair, tattered robes, second hand books," At this he picked up the books that were in Ginny's cauldron and looked them over, "You must be the Weasleys."

Alex felt hot anger boiling inside of her. She watched as Mr. Malfoy put the books back into Ginny's cauldron and then Mr. Weasley came behind them, smiling.

"Come on kids, let's go outside," he said but when he saw Mr. Malfoy, his cheeriness disappeared.

"Weasley," said Mr. Malfoy.

"Malfoy," the other man returned coldly.

"I was just looking at your daughter's books," said Mr. Malfoy calmly. "With all those raids, I hoped they were paying you double, but I see I was wrong."

Mr. Weasley went red, not from embarrassment, but from anger. Just then, Uncle Monty came over. He saw the tension between the two men.

"Come on Arthur, let's get out of here," he muttered. "Don't start any trouble, not in front of the children."

As Mr. Weasley turned to leave, Mr. Malfoy called to him. "Maybe you should spend less time with Muggles and more time raising money to take care of your enormous family."

Mr. Weasley cracked. He spun around and tackled Mr. Malfoy in a way that would have made any American football player proud. Fred and George cheered their dad on, Ginny and Hermione were looking very upset at the scene, and Harry and Ron were in a state of shock. Alex stared, torn between cheering the fighters on and trying to break them up. Suddenly, two large hands appeared and separated the two fighting men. Alex looked up and saw Hagrid.

"All righ' break it up you two!" he shouted.

Both men were panting. Mr. Weasley had a bleeding lip and a bruise on his chin. Mr. Malfoy's hair was disheveled and his cheek was covered in blood. He composed himself and called his son over.

"Come Draco, let's go home," he said. Draco gave the group one last look and left. Hagrid turned to Mr. Weasley.

"Yeh shouldn't 'ave done that Arthur. He's pretty high up there in the Ministry, yeh could've lost yer job," he said concerned.

Mr. Weasley didn't say anything but accepted the handkerchief from Uncle Monty to wipe the blood from his lip.

After many good-byes and promises to keep in touch, Alex and Uncle Monty left. As they drove home, Alex decided to ask her uncle a question.

"Uncle Monty, why is it so bad to have Muggle parents?"

"Why it's not bad at all, look at Hermione!" he said, surprised by the question.

"I know, but Mr. Malfoy seemed to feel it was terrible to have Muggle parents," she said.

"Mr. Malfoy is a fool. Do you remember when you first met young Draco how he called you a filthy Mudblood?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. It wasn't too hard to forget.

"Well, there's an old saying 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' That applies to the Malfoys. All of them believe that if your parents, and your grandparents, and so on aren't all magical, you're dirty. They feel superior to those who have Muggles in their families. It's all hogwash because if we kept marrying our own kind, we'd have all died out years ago."

"That's ridiculous!" cried Alex, appalled by what she was hearing, "Hermione is the smartest in our whole class!"

"Same with your mother and aunt, they were Muggle-born and they were both brilliant. Like I said Alex, it's all hogwash."

When they got home, Alex decided to look through her new school books. She quickly discovered Lockhart's books were all about him and his amazing triumphs. Alex found him very arrogant and picked up her Potions book instead. She could not wait to go back to Hogwarts.

…...

Alex woke with a start and looked wildly around for her watch. She sighed with relief when realized she didn't wake up late. It was six in the morning. Knowing she couldn't go back to sleep, she got up and packed her belongings into her trunk. After stuffing robes, books, parchment, and quills into her trunk, she put all her photo albums into her carry-on bag. The albums were her mother's and had pictures of people Alex only heard about. Alana, Alex's mother, went to Hogwarts with her twin sister Elizabeth. They were friends with James and Lily Potter, Harry's parents. Alex knew her mother had other friends, but no one could tell her their names.

She took out her favorite picture and looked at it. Her mother and aunt were in the center, their identical faces smiling and waving. Next to her mother was a handsome man with long black hair and piercing grey eyes. To the left of the man were Lily and James Potter. Alex looked at Lily's fiery red hair and bright green eyes; they were definitely Harry's eyes. James looked almost identical to Harry, but was more muscular and had hazel eyes. On Elizabeth's right was a man with shaggy sandy hair. He looked battered up, but was holding Elizabeth's hand and was smiling widely. Next to him was a pretty woman with auburn hair and next to her was a man with dark brown hair. Finally, there was a little porky man with watery eyes. Sometimes, he would run in front of the twins and lay on his side, grinning. Other times, he would just stand there, waving.

Alex pocketed the picture and went into the bathroom to get ready. Afterwards, she carried her trunk down the stairs and made breakfast. Her uncle had just come down when Alex had finished.

"Good morning Alex!" he said joyfully, "Are you all packed for school?"

"Yes, I got up early so I did it then. My trunk's by the door," she said. Her uncle was definitely a morning person.

"Good, very good," he said as he piled his plate with eggs. This action reminded her of Ron and she giggled to herself quietly.

After breakfast, Uncle Monty put Alex's trunk in the back. Meanwhile, Alex was trying to coax her owl into his cage.

"Come on Monty, it's just until we get on the train," she pleaded quietly with the stubborn jet-black owl.

"I hate it in there!" he cried angrily, "It's so tight and I can't even flap my wings around."

"It's only for a little while," she said in a whisper. Alex was able to talk to all kinds of creatures. She had only found out about this when she went to the zoo last summer. No one knew about this gift though, none of her friends or even her guardian. She wanted it that way, no annoying questions or stupid requests to ask why the animals were acting certain ways.

It took five minutes to get Monty into his cage and then they left. Since they left early, there was not much traffic into London. At the station, Uncle Monty and Alex walked quickly through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. Alex loved the Hogwarts Express and couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. There were quite a few people on the platform as the two of them maneuvered their way to the train compartment doors. After saying good-bye to her uncle, Alex went to find a compartment. She saw Hermione and quickly joined her. Alex was showing Hermione some pictures when they heard the compartment door open. It was Ginny Weasley.

"Hey Ginny, come on in," said Alex. "Where are your brother and Harry?"

"They're on their way," she said quietly. Ginny was a shy girl with the classic Weasley red hair and light brown eyes.

The girls decided to play a game of Exploding Snap while they waited for Harry and Ron. However, as the train pulled out of the station, they started to worry.

"They should've been here by now," said Ginny.

"Maybe they're in another compartment," said Hermione. "Let's go look for them."

They got up and proceeded to look in every compartment, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"Let's head back," said Alex. "Maybe they're in our compartment now."

But when they got back, the compartment was empty. Alex was wondering if they somehow missed the train. Hermione sat next to a sobbing Ginny, trying to comfort her.

"Don't worry Ginny, even if they did miss the train, your parents will find a way to get them to school," she said.

"That is, if those two don't find a way first," said Alex.

Ginny laughed and started to calm down. Just then, the door opened. Alex looked up, hoping it was Harry and Ron, but saw it was Malfoy with his lackeys Crabbe and Goyle.

"What?" she snapped, not in a mood to argue with anyone.

"We just wanted to drop by to see how the little first year is enjoying her trip," said Malfoy smirking at Ginny.

"Don't give me that shit," she said, making Hermione gasp and Malfoy raise his eyebrows, "You just came here to annoy us. Get out of here before I make you."

She pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. He looked at her and then around the compartment.

"Where's Potty and Weasel?" he said.

"Not here," growled Alex.

"Oh, what a shame, they missed the train," he said. Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly at Malfoy's little rhyme. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Do they always act this stupid, or is it just when they're around you?" she said.

Ginny let out a laugh and Malfoy looked at her and then back at Alex. "You should watch what you say around me Ratcliff. My father is very high up in the Ministry," Malfoy said haughtily.

"Oh, I'm so scared," Alex retorted sarcastically.

"You should be, if you like the job your stupid uncle has."

"Expelliarmus!" cried Alex.

Malfoy's wand flew out of his pocket and he was pushed back several steps. Alex caught Malfoy's wand with ease and pointed her own at Crabbe and Goyle, who both went scurrying away like mice. She threw Malfoy's wand at him.

"Don't you ever talk about my uncle that way," she snarled. "He's three times the man you and your father will ever be." She slammed the compartment door and sat down.

Hermione and Ginny were silent. They knew better than to bother Alex when she was this angry. After she had time to cool down, Hermione spoke.

"You shouldn't have said that Alex," she said quietly.

"Why not? That little git has been nothing but annoying since I first met him," she said heatedly.

"That's all true, but he is right," said Hermione, "His father is high up in the Ministry. One bad word about your uncle from Malfoy's dad and he could lose his job."

"Uncle Monty wouldn't blame me one bit for what I just did," said Alex, "He always says people shouldn't let others walk all over them."

"But he wouldn't want you picking fights with Malfoy," countered Hermione.

Alex sighed knowing, as always, Hermione was right. She would have to learn to control her hot temper. The rest of the train ride was uneventful. As it got darker outside, the girls changed into their robes. Ginny was shaking as she fastened her cloak.

"Relax Ginny, you'll be fine," said Alex soothingly.

The train came to a complete stop and Alex grabbed her bag and Monty. After seeing that Ginny was safely over by Hagrid, Hermione and Alex went with the rest of the crowd. As they drew near, Alex gasped. There were large carriages and pulling them were large black horses. Or were they? Alex looked again and saw they were bony and had wings.

"Wow," she breathed and went over to one, "Hello."

"Hello child. You can see me?" said the bony animal.

"Of course, can't everyone else?" Alex asked, looking around.

"Only those who have seen death can see us. We are Thestrals," replied the creature.

"Alex, hurry up!" called Hermione.

Alex said good-bye to the thestral and hoped into the carriage. She thought about what the thestral told her. "Only those who have seen death can see us." When had she seen death? Then it hit her and her stomach dropped. She saw her grandparents' dead bodies before anyone else did.

"Alex, you all right?" asked Hermione, "You look pale."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just starving," said Alex.

Alex looked out the window of the carriage and tapped her friend on the shoulder. She saw the proud and noble castle walls and towers up ahead. They were finally back.

Author's Note: So I know Alex didn't see anyone being murdered, but it says that anyone who's seen death can see thestrals and she was the first to find her grandparent's bodies. This factor is partially why the story is AU so hopefully this chapter was still enjoyable for you, despite this difference.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR UPDATES SO PLEASE READ! I have midterms next week and, in order to get into college, I need to make them my first priority. That means my updates this weekend through next week won't be very regular or I may not even be updating at all during that time. It all depends on how much studying I get done. I want to let my readers know since you all read this and expect updates in a reasonable amount of time. Please know that once they are over, I will be back on a regular updating schedule. If you all could start praying for me, keep me in your thoughts, and/or send me telepathic happy thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks everyone and don't forget to review if you get a chance. :)