September the 1st couldn't come soon enough for Ember, she was practically vibrating with excitement as she pushed her trolley in front of her. She didn't even notice the funny looks people were giving Hagrid as they passed by. The Keeper of Keys checked his watch "Blimey, is that the time?" he remarked in surprise "Sorry, Ember, I'm gonna have to leave you. Dumbledore'll be wanting his- well, he'll be wanting to see me. Now, uh, your train leaves in 10 minutes. Here's your ticket" he hands her a train ticked "Stick to it, Ember that's very important. Stick to your ticket".

The girl glanced down at it and frowned "Platform 9¾?" she murmured "But, Hagrid, there must be a mistake. This says Platform 9¾. There's no such thing...is there?" Ember looked up and was surprised to see that he had disappeared "guess it's just you and me now", she muttered to her owl that she'd named Hedwig.

The 11 year old sighed and started walking toward the platforms. She noted the numbers as she passed, looking out for 9¾. She spotted platform 9 and 10 but no number in between that. Ember sighed again, it looked like she was going to have to ask someone for help. She was about to approach a guard when something red flittered around her head. She watched it float away, lingering by the little brick wall between platforms 9 and 10. Ember pushed her trolley over to the wall. She reached out, expecting to feel solid brick and was pretty surprised when her hand went through it!

She looked around to see if anyone was watching before she stepped through the wall. Ember let out a small laugh when she saw that she was now of platform 9¾. "This is so cool!" she said to herself, excitedly. As she made her way to the train, Azalea emerged from the wall.

"There she goes", a male voice sounded behind her.

"Hello, Will", the witch said flatly, not taking her eyes off of the ginger.

"Come on, you're not still upset with me, are you?" the Time Lord said, moving around to stand in front of her, blocking her view of the youngster.

"Now why would I be upset?" Azalea enquired, folding her arms "it's not like you kept a secret that got my sister killed and my niece orphaned…oh wait, you did", she spat.

"Lea…"

"Don't 'Lea' me", the ginger hissed, yanking her ring off of her finger and tossing it at him "We. Are. Done". The pissed off witch span on the spot and apparated away with a loud crack. The dark haired Time Lord sighed, looking down at the metal band in his palm. He'd done a lot of things in his life that could be considered as 'screwups' but this…this was a screwup of monumental proportions. How in all the universe was he going to make this right with his wife, he doesn't know. The Doctor…the Time Lord nodded. Yes, his best friend might just be the answer here. At least…if anyone knew how he could fix this, it would be him.

For Peter Parker, receiving his letter to Hogwarts was somewhat of a godsend. Sure he missed his best friend Ned Leeds, however the magic school was where he needed to be in order to hone his skills. He couldn't exactly do that at a regular school. There was another upside to being at Hogwarts…he wasn't subjected to Eugene 'Flash' Thomson's so called 'teasing'. Flash…the brunet smirked, flipping over the page of his book. If only he could see me play Quidditch…

Being the fastest Chaser to date, at Hogwarts that is, he'd certainly give his childhood nemesis a real challenge in terms of who should be called flash. The compartment door slid open and he glanced up to see a ginger haired girl standing there. "Do you um…mind if I sit in here?" she asked politely, though he could hear the nerves in her voice.

"Sure", Peter replied, gesturing to the opposite seat. The girl nods and steps into the compartment, pulling the sliding door shut behind her. "First year?" he enquired taking off his reading glasses and setting them aside with his book.

"Is it that obvious?" the ginger countered, sitting across from him.

"Kinda yeah", Peter remarked and the girl ducked her head, embarrassed "I'm Peter Parker, third year Ravenclaw", he held out his hand.

"E-Ember Potter", the eleven year old introduced, not meeting his eyes. The brunet stared at her, his hand still outstretched. That is…until he realised and quickly withdrew his hand.

"So…what would you like to know about Hogwarts?" the Ravenclaw causally questioned, even though he was keen to know, as probably everyone was, HOW she survived against You-Know-Who? What was it like to be face to face with one of the darkest wizards of all time? But he decided that it wouldn't be right to ply her with questions like that when it was sure to make her uncomfortable.

Ember peered up at him curiously through her hair "wait….you aren't going to ask me about that night?" she asked, surprised, straightening up fully "o-or anything else?"

Peter shrugged "not my place", he stated "if you want to share, you'll do so if and when you're ready".

"Thanks", the elven year old said, somewhat grateful that he wasn't pressuring her to talk about it. Not many people gave her that consideration. "So um…what's it like being at Hogwarts?" she enquired, switching subjects "do you learn how to fly on a broom?" the girl didn't know why but the idea of flying strangely appealed to her "and whats with this money?" she took a couple of coins from her pocket to show the older boy.

Peter opened his mouth to answer her when a ginger haired boy with a smudge on his nose appeared on the doorway. Oh here we go, Ronniekins has arrived the brunet internally griped, having already formed an opinion of the boy based on what the twins had told him. Their youngest brother was apparently a bit of a nightmare…even more than 'perfect Percy' if you could believe that! Peter wasn't too sure how much was actually down to Ron though as his friends did let slip that their mother was allegedly grooming him to become Ember Potter's friend and later boyfriend. What on earth possessed Molly Weasley to do such a thing, he'll never know. He could only hope that the Girl Who Lived will see through the friendly facade and fast, lest she fall into the trap. If that did happen he'd take it upon himself to pull her out before it was too late.

"Can I sit in here?" Ron requested "doesn't seem to be room anywhere else". Now why don't I believe you? Peter thought but decided to hold his tongue to just see how this was going to play out.

"Go ahead", Ember said.

"I'm Ron by the way. Ron Weasley", the boy introduced as he took a perch beside Peter.

"Ember Potter and this is…" the ginger began to introduce the third year when Ron interrupted with

"Bloody hell! Y-you're THE Ember Potter?"

"One and only", Ember confirmed "and this is…" she once again attempted to introduce the newcomer to Peter as it was the polite thing to do.

"So…is it true? I mean, do you really have the...the..." Ron stammered, tapping his temple where Ember's mark was currently being concealed by her hair.

"The weird mark? Maybe", Ember interrupted "but I'm not gonna show you". The boy sagged his shoulders in disappointment. The 11 year old wasn't bothered by it though. Just because she was famous doesn't mean that she was going to flaunt it every second of the day nor doesn't it mean that she was going to show off of her mark whenever anyone asks. "And as I was trying to introduce twice", she gave Ron a pointed look "this is Peter Parker. Third year….Ravenclaw was it?" the brunet nods in confirmation "he was about to give me some pointers on life at Hogw-"

"Wait. Parker?" Ron interrupted, making Ember want to throw her hands in the air, exasperated. Was she ever going to be able to finish something without Interuptus Maximus cutting in? Seriously! "Fred and George's friend?"

"The very same", Peter replied "and before you ask, they've told me many a tale about you Ronald", he smirked as the younger boy paled "in answer to your questions Ember", he said, turning his attention to the ginger and smoothly transitioning back to her earlier queries before Ron oh so graciously turned up "yes, you do learn how to fly" Ember's face lit up "as for wizard money it can be a little confusing compared to muggle coins", he admits.

"Tell me about it", the hybrid remarked "at least there's only three different coins".

"True", Peter agreed "well what helped me when I first started out was that…" Ember listened as he told her how he compared wizard currency to coins she was more familiar with: Galleons as the 'pound'; the Sickle as all the silver pennies…though he did confess that he imagined those to be more 50 pence pieces than any of the other nominations…and the little bronze Knut as the copper coins. Again Peter told her the Knut felt like more of a 1 pence than 2 pence, but that was purely based on size.

"That…actually makes sense", Ember conceded, as the logic settled in her mind. Never occurred to her to even compare to muggle money. To be fair Hagrid kinda explained the money to her rather quickly which made the information a little difficult to absorb, especially when she had so much else to take in about the wizarding world.

"I'm sorry, how does that make sense?" Ron scoffed "it's utter rubbish!"

"This is coming from someone who didn't grow up in OUR world", Peter shot back "unlike you Weasley, we've…" he gestured between himself and Ember "had to learn about things like wizard money…unlike you who were born into the magical community".

"B-but I thought…" Ron began

"You thought that because I'm friends with your brothers that I'd be what…Pureblood?" Peter sneered at him "or maybe even Half-blood? Could you be anymore Slytherin right now?"

The younger boy spluttered "that wasn't…I didn't…I'm not going to be a Slytherin!" he surged to his feet, pulling out his chipped wand "take that back!"

The brunet simply raised a brow, not at all threatened by an upset child. Ember looked between the two of them wondering if she needed to intercede should a fight break out. Luckily she needn't have worried as help came in the unexpected arrival of girl with bushy brown hair, already in her Hogwarts uniform. "Has anyone seen a toad?" she enquired, almost seemingly oblivious to the fact that Ron was seconds away from hexing Peter, not that the older boy look too fussed about the imminent danger. In fact…he was more bemused and a little bit bored of the Weasley's attitude. "A boy named Neville has lost one".

"Nope, no toads in here", Peter replied "only a very yappy…angry Chihuahua". Ron gave him a glare. The newcomer frowned, somewhat confused by his response. "Em, why don't you go with…"

"Uh Hermione. Hermione Granger", the brunette supplied.

"Em, why don't you go with Hermione?" Peter suggested "help her look for this missing toad".

"Sure", Ember said, getting to her feet and stepping over to Hermione.

"I'll be fine", he assured her when she glanced back, concern on her features. The ginger nods and leaves with her fellow first year, ensuring the pull the sliding compartment door closed.

"I didn't realise I'd walked in on something", Hermione admits as they walked "sorry".

"No need to apologise, as you said, you didn't realise", Ember said.

"Still…that boy looked like he was about to-" the brunette broke off, suddenly spotting the black strands beneath her orange locks and a tiniest hint of the mark she had on her temple. "Holy cricket, you're Ember Potter!" she exclaimed.

Ember shushed her and quickly pushed her into the nearest compartment which was thankfully empty. "Yes I am", she confirmed in a hushed whisper as she pulled the door closed just as students from nearby compartments stepped out having heard Hermione's cry. "And since you've just announced it to everybody…"

"Sorry", Hermione mumbled, sheepishly "I was…I was…"

"Excited? Surprised?" Ember offered and the brunette nodded.

"Yeah", she confessed "I'd bought some books not on our list for a bit of extra reading and that's when I found out about you. Did you know that you're in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century?"

The ginger shook her head "honestly I had no clue I was even a witch, let alone a famous one up until recently", admitted "My aunt and uncle never breathed a word. It took a total stranger to tell me the spill the beans for them to confess that they'd known the entire time".

"Oh my", Hermione breathed "I can't imagine how you must've felt. Well…I kinda know what it was like to find out you were a witch, both my parents are…what was that term…?"

"Muggle", Ember supplied and the brunette nodded.

"Yes, that's it!" she proclaimed "but still…finding out about your parents like that…" Hermione shook her head "must've been hard to hear".

The ginger dropped her gaze to her hands "it was", she whispered. The bushy haired brunette touched her arm, causing her to look up at her.

"I'm sorry", Hermione murmured "and I promise, I say another word. Not unless you want to talk about it". Ember smiled, thankful for the other first year being so understanding.