So here's chapter one! I'm really happy to see I have followers for this story already – that doesn't really happen to me too often. Hope I won't disappoint you!

I should warn you, though, that I have already written +40 chapters for this thing and the reason I haven't posted them all yet is that I first post the chapters in a private Facebook-group where the people who created the OCs get to read through it first, but in the original the OCs all have their creators' names. So I had to change them for this version of the story and there are two that still aren't 100% confirmed, so I'll hold off on the other chapters until I get an "okay" from those two people.

Also flashback chapters won't appear chronologically, just like they don't appear chronologically on the show, so make sure to read when the chapter is set. I'll try to remind you as we go of what's happened before a certain EF-chapter.

Lastly; please tell me if you think I should write in this "foreword" thing what OCs that are featured, since there are 14 (spoiler; will become 15 in a while) to keep track of!

Now I hope you enjoy!

One Year Prior

Orlando, Florida

She craned her neck and tried to see above the heads of the thousands of people walking through the terminal. Well, maybe there were not thousands of them, but it certainly felt like it. They should be here any minute now. She had butterflies chasing each other inside her entire body; it was certainly not every day you got to meet people that you had only talked to online, sitting on opposite sides of the planet.

She glanced up at the giant board displaying the arriving flights. The one she was waiting for, one from Atlanta, had landed fifteen minutes ago. Logically they should not be out yet, especially not considering their jetlag, but still; they were here. Any minute now they would walk out through those doors and meet up.

Her phone chimed and she picked it up, answering the call.

"They're not here yet."

"Damn it!" came Jade's voice.

"They've landed and are probably collecting their bags and such. Are the others awake yet?"

"Rachel's up; her bloody alarm started chiming half an hour ago."

"She did warn you about that last night."

"Well, I thought she would let herself sleep a bit longer", Jade groaned. "Is it because of that she's a teacher? Because that..."

"What was that about being a teacher, Jade?" came a voice in the background, causing Jade to scream. The girl waiting at the terminal covered the phone so that the whole terminal would not hear it.

"Have they arrived, Catriona?" Rachel asked, taking the phone from a now cursing Jade.

"They've landed, but they're not out yet", Catriona answered.

"Give us a call when you've met. I'm going to try to wake Miranda and Fili."

"Good luck with that!"

"I think I'm going to need it", Rachel sighed before she hung up.

A few minutes later the doors letting out passengers with their bags swung open once more and Catriona felt a huge smile spread on her face when she spotted the group appearing there. There were six of them, four guys and two girls, and despite their tired faces they looked happy and smiled just as widely when they saw Catriona making her way towards them. The shouts of happiness and the laughter that erupted when they embraced one another caused more than one fellow passenger to stare at them.

"I can't believe it!" Tessa said. "I can't believe it! God, I'm so tired, but I can't believe it!"

"How do you think I feel?" Catriona asked. "You were these people from the other side of the world and now you're suddenly standing right here! It's incredible!"

After sharing another group-hug they crammed themselves and their bags inside a rented minivan, which in turn brought them to the hostel where the rest of the group was waiting for them. When they entered the reception the newly arrived members were therefore greeted with joyful shouts and another group-hug. Out of the eighteen who had been invited fourteen had managed to make the trip; people who had met on the internet through a common interest and had decided to make this journey together, if money would allow them to. Out of the ones gathered Indira from India and Rachel from Sweden were the oldest; twenty-six years old. Then there was Filipi, three years younger, from Finland. Next came Toby from Australia, the superbly skinny and tall know-it-all of the group, and from another region of the same country came Wolfgang, the sarcastic one. Those two were a year younger than Filipi, as was Miranda from the UK. The quartet yet another year younger consisted of Chris and Tessa from Australia, and Maryse and Arianne from Canada. Next came Rowan and Clarissa – two more Australians (they did make up half of the group that had made the trip). Catriona was second youngest; the only one younger than her was Jade and both of them originated from the US, though from very different parts of this big nation. All in all the age difference between Indira and Jade was almost exactly eight years.

"Now this is an adventure!" Chris said, grinning like a madman.

The group had gotten together to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida. As people were tired after their flights it had been decided early on that they would spend the first day at the hostel, or close to it, just taking it easy and watching movies. People were dropping off to sleep one by one, spread out around the room and resting on top of one another. In a way it was like they had met before, like they had known each other since the beginning of time and had no personal barriers between one another. In reality some of them had not known of the others' existence until five years prior when Rachel, Maryse, Wolfgang, Jade, Filipi and Arianne joined the group after winning an admin contest for a Facebook fanpage. Over the course of the years they had grown incredibly close, sharing more stories with one another than with people they knew in real life. There was something about the group that felt safe, that provided a supporting shoulder whenever life got tough.

Thanks to this arrangement, however, they found themselves waking up to Rachel's phone alarm at half past six the following morning, still lying on top of one another in a now very warm room.

"Damn it, Rachel!" Jade grunted.

"Well, if we want to make it to the Hogwarts Express on time we should probably get going", Rachel responded, though yawned as well. This statement did wake everyone up, however, as they had previously decided that, in true Harry Potter-fashion, they would make sure to catch the Hogwarts Express at precisely eleven o'clock on September 1st and to do that they needed to be at the theme park at a good time.

"We've got two bathrooms to use; make a line, people!" Clarissa called, tearing out stuff that she would be needing from her bag, falling down from the bed onto the floor in the process.

With fourteen people waiting to use the shower it soon became obvious that they needed to eat while on the road. Those that were done first were therefore charged with the task of picking up various breakfast items from the diner in the lobby that they would then stuff into the two available minivans, enabling the ones forced to wait for their time in the shower to eat later.

A little later than they had planned they were off. In both vans the excitement seemed so physical that you could actually reach out a hand and grab it if you wanted to. Tessa nibbled on some crackers but other than that there was an eerie silence in the cars as they approached their goal.

"Somebody please pinch me", Rachel said as they parked the cars and stepped outside. "We're really here?"

"Yep", Rowan responded.

Once the initial shock had subsided they made their way in through the gates to the park, squealing every time they came upon something they recognized from the story (which basically meant that there were constant squeals erupting from the group).

"Should we do Ollivander's here or in Hogsmeade?" Miranda asked while taking another bite of her ice cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.

"We have time right now before we have to go to King's Cross", Toby responded, glancing at his watch to confirm his suspicions.

"I'm surprised there is no line outside", Filipi said as they walked over to the famous wand shop. "I mean, it's known to be one of the most popular attractions, with the wand-choosing ceremony and all of that. It's known to have a really long line."

"Maybe we just got here at a good time", Wolfgang suggested as they stepped inside the dark shop, finding it deserted.

"Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?" Arianne asked.

"Good morning."

The voice caused them all to jump and turn around, standing face to face with an old man with bushy white hair and large pale, silvery eyes. He truly looked just like how Mr Ollivander was described in the books.

"Ah, good morning", he said in a distinctly British accent. "I did think that you all would wander in here someday soon."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jade said, expressing the confusion they all felt. The man smiled at them before he moved back to the shelves.

"Let me see, let me see", he said. "Ah, yes. This one should do well for you, miss Catriona."

"How does he know my name?" Catriona whispered to the others.

"This is beyond weird", Indira said. "Something's off about all of this."

"Christopher, holly, am I right?" the man called from the shelves.

"Holly what?" Chris answered.

"Your wand should be made of holly", the man responded, climbing down from the ladder he had been standing on.

"Your Pottermore-wand is made of holly", Rachel hissed. A few years before she had made a list of everyone's wands on the mentioned website and was, somehow, able to remember them all.

"Sir, how do you know who we are?" Wolfgang asked. The man walked back to the counter, his arms filled with boxes.

"Don't everyone, Mr Wolfgang?" he answered. "Now, I believe these are exactly what you will be needing."

"For what?" Maryse asked. The man did not respond; instead he opened the boxes one at a time and handed out the wands. When everyone was holding one he stepped back.

"There you are", he said. "Flick them, try them out."

The members of the group shared a few glances before they, as one, raised their wands and flicked them in the air. Immediately the floor in front of them opened up into a swirling, green vortex.

"Good luck!" the old man called, but when they looked up at where he had been standing he was gone. The vortex grew stronger, chewing away the floorboards beneath their feet.

"We have to get out of here!" Toby shouted over the increasing wind caused by the vortex.

"We can't!" Tessa yelled back. "The door's gone!"

The floorboard beneath Miranda's right foot was suddenly chewed to pieces and pulled her into the vortex.

"Miranda!" Indira called, grabbing the British girl's hand as she fell down.

"Get them up!" Rowan shouted as also Indira was being pulled closer to the green swirl. Before anyone could act, however, more floorboards were swallowed and, with them, more people were pulled down.

"We can't fight it!" Rachel shouted. "Whatever this is we have to let it swallow us!"

"But what's going to happen to us, then?" Chris shouted back, holding onto Tessa for dear life.

"I don't know!" Rachel responded. "Just hold on to one another and we'll be fine! I promise!"

With that she let go of the wooden pillar she had held on to and, while holding onto Filipi's hand, fell screaming into the vortex. Seeing their friends fall was all it took for the others to follow and soon they were all being sent spinning in the green light, not knowing where they could possibly end up but hoping that wherever that might be they would end up together.