The door of the compartment slid open, and the youngest redheaded boy came in.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Mim. "Everywhere else is full."

Mim shook her head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Mim and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes Mim noticed he had a black mark on his nose.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Mimosa," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," said Mim and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really Mimosa Potter?" Ron blurted out.

"Well, my surname is actually Potter-Stark, but yeah." She said.

"Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know…" He pointed at Mim's forehead. "Scar," he said in a hushed voice.

She pulled back her fringe to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"Wicked," he said. "So that's where You-Know-Who —?"

"Yes," said Mim, "but I can't remember much. I remember a lot of green light mostly."

"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Mim for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realised what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.

"Are all your family wizards?" asked Mim, who wanted conversation away from her and her multitudes of fame.

"Er — Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him. I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Mostly, nearly all of my family are Muggles, then there is Uncle Remus and – but I still had wizarding stuff too." She changed midsentence remembering that she wasn't supposed to tell people about Uncle Sev. "We lived in California and here. I saw your brothers and little sister. What is it like having siblings? I'm only child." She changed to topic.

"I've got five older brothers," Ron said gloomily. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep. "His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.

"It's nice that you get to take care of him," she said hoping to distract him. "I got a pet, this is ()," she opened the bag to reveal ().

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. Mim began to tell Ron about California, and how she had grown up, he told her a little – granted mostly the negatives – about having siblings. Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Mim, leapt to her feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Mim went out into the knew Ron would want something. Unsure what he would want she bought some of everything. Paying the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts, she acquired two of everything that was vegetarian from the trolley. Ron stared as Mim brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Just a little," said Mim, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef…"

"Swap you for one of these," said Mim, holding up a pasty. "Go on —"

"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."

"Go on, have a pasty," said Mim. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Mim's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten). When there tummys were full Mim picked up one of the chocolate frogs.

"Do you collect them?"

"Yeah, I'm missing Agrippa."

"I'm missing Dumbledore. He isn't sold in the American ones. Do you get Dyer? Poickingill? Abramelin?"

"Never heard of them,"

"I got at least four each of those if you want them? There in my trunk."

"That would be wicked."

"Get them out when we get to the castle." She promised. "Me and Dad travel, a lot so I have some cards from around the world."

"Wow! Thanks Mimosa,"

"Just Mim," she said smiling. Mim unwrapped her Chocolate Frog and picked up the card.

"I finally got Dumbledore." She laughed, excited to show him. Mim turned over her card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

Mim turned the card back over and see he had vanished.

"No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her… do you want it?"

"Nah, I got her. Why don't we eat some of these?" she grinned shaking the bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Ron grinned too.

"I dare you to eat that green one," Mim said, pointing to the light green bean sitting innocently on the top. Ron grinned and bit into a corner.

"Bleaaargh — Sprouts. All right you eat that brown one."

Mim picked it up and popped it in her mouth.

"Toast. Ok how about the purple one,"

They had a good time eating the Every Flavour Beans. Mim got coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper. The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

"So how come even though you live with Muggles, you know about all of this?"

"My Dad's a Muggle, but my Uncle Remus and – a few other of my Mum's old friends." She brushed her hair behind her ear nervously. "Anyway, who's your Quidditch team? At home it's the Hollywood Hippogriffs."

"Chudley Cannon's, I don't know any American teams."

"Hollywood Hippogriffs are the best, I'm not biased at all." She grinned. "Though the Boston Banshee's are pretty good. They love their Irish heritage." She copied Remus and rolled her eyes, they way he always did when he mentioned them."

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Mim had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Mim.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…"

He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.

"That's not very nice," Mim frowned. "It is still a pet, and they will still love him, just like Scabber's will love you and Percy."

Ron looked a little sheepish.

"I suppose, yeah… I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…" He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —" He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down next to him. Ron looked taken aback, Neville still hung awkwardly at the door.

"Er — all right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

Her glance shifted to Mim.

"Mim Stark!" she gasped. "After I read about Mimosa Potter and about her scar, I suspected it was you. Especially as you are originally from England. Thought it said in my extra books that you were a half blood –"

"I am. My Mum is a Muggleborn. They kept it quiet about my Dad cause he's a Muggle and some of his followers are still lurking about."

"Goodness, that's ingenious." She seemed to register Ron again.

"Sorry, what was your name?" she asked him.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"What house are your brothers in?" asked Mim.

"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

"I mean it isn't that bad, I know it has the stigma cause it's the house Voldemort was in?"

Ron gasped.

"You said the name."

"Well yeah, it's a name. It's not like if say Voldemort it will summon him."

Ron squeaked again. Shaking her head Mim looked back out the window.

"So, what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?" she said changing topic.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high security vault."

"Yeah Dad and Uncle Remus get the paper. Uncle Remus told us that the fact they weren't caught and they didn't steal anything was really weird."

"Yeah. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

"Let's talk about something more fun. I hear there are Quidditch teams at school, one for each house?"

Zoning out a little as her distraction worked, she jolted into attention when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.

Three boys entered, the middle one was a pale boy with blonde hair and a pointed face.