The next few weeks were torture for y/n. Living with the knowledge that within a few weeks, she would start at a magical school with other witches and wizards like herself. Dad had started calling her a witch immediately, but only to tease her. Her mum didn't know if she liked that term much. But now, on the way to platform nine and three quarters, her mum finally seemed to be excepting her new status.
"And you're sure you have everything?" Mum said, looking back at her.
"I checked the entire house five times for any trunk or luggage I could have missed, and checked that I had everything on the list. And you did all that twice as much. Mum, I have everything. Stop worrying."
But y/n was worrying too. Not about leaving something behind, but she was worried about how easy it would be to make friends. She had thought about finding Draco and trying to become friends with him, but she had judged him to be the type who wouldn't want a muggle born hanging around him.
Y/n had gotten lots of books from Flourish and Blotts that weren't on her list so she could try to catch up with all the rest of the school in their wizarding knowledge. That's how she learned the term 'muggle born.' One of her favorite books being Hogwarts: A History. Now she liked to think she knew more about Hogwarts then most of her Hogwarts peers, but she still didn't think she knew enough. That was her worry. That she would be the only muggle born there and wouldn't make friends because of it. That she wouldn't make friends because she didn't know enough.
Her mum chuckled. "You're right sweetheart. I need to stop worrying. I don't know how I'm going to make it without you." Mum reached back from the passenger seat to take her hand. "I love you, Sweetheart."
"We both love you," said her dad from the drivers seat. "And we're so excited for you to take this new adventure. Which you will be telling us all about."
"Every week on Saturday. I hope Gylfie is as fast as she is big." y/n said, reaching through the bars of Gylfie's cage to stroke her feathers. Her name was her father's idea. Gylfie meant miracle in another language y/n couldn't remember -- Norse maybe? -- and her dad said that would mean that two miracles would be going on an adventure together. Y/N thought that was a sweet name for her bird and agreed.
As the car pulled to a stop at King's Cross Station, y/n's stomach became jittery. She was almost to the train that would take her to school. She was going to learn magic.
It was about ten forty five when the family got between platforms nine and ten. Y/N had read about getting on to platform nine and three quarters and knew how to do it, but it made her very nervous.
"Ready?" She turned looked at both of her parents in turn who were on either side of her, helping her push her trolley. Both were looking at the wall with the same nervousness in their eyes.
"Ready," they said in unison.
As the three ran for the wall, y/n was terribly tempted to close her eyes. She was running at a brick wall! But she refused to let her eyes close so she wouldn't she the passing between platforms. And so glad was she that she had.
The platform was buzzing with an excited energy as students hugged and kissed their parents and loaded their bags onto the train. The train itself was beautiful, a striking red steam engine with Hogwarts Express written across the side. As y/n looked around the station, she couldn't find anyone she knew, which she expected, but she did find another girl with her parents who were dressed in muggle clothes.
"Hi, I'm y/n. Y/N Y/L/N." y/n said with a smile.
"Hi! I'm Hermione Granger." the girl said, smiling back at her.
"Are you...are you muggle born?" y/n asked cautiously.
The girl frowned, offended. "I am." Then Hermione turned to walk away.
"No, wait! Please! I wasn't trying to be rude! It's just...I am too and I was worried I'd be the only one..."
The girl turned back with a smile on her face as y/n's parents came up to meet Hermione's. "You're muggle born? I was worried I was going to be the only one. Do you want to ride with me? I don't really know anyone yet." Hermione's energy was beginning to rub off on y/n.
"I would love that!"
"Great! Well, I'm going to board. I'll be in that car, just there." She pointed to a car near the back. "Come and find me when you board!" And with that, Hermione hugged her parents one last time, and boarded the Hogwarts Express.
"Well that wasn't too hard was it?" her dad said, pulling her into a hug. "A new friend already, and you haven't boarded the train yet! I'm going to miss you--"
"We both will." said her mum joining the hug.
"But you're going to do amazing at Hogwarts. You show those magicals who's in charge, you got that Sweetheart?" Y/N nodded, giggling and tearing up. "We love you, y/n."
"I love you too." And the family stood there hugging for a long moment before y/n backed out into someone.
Turning around, she saw a red haired boy with the rest of his red headed family, he and his twin turned to glance at her.
"Sorry. I didn't see you."
"That's alright." The twins both said -- though she only remembered bumping one of them -- incredibly distracted by the conversation their large family was having.
Y/N turned back to her own family. "I'm going to board the train. Love you Mum. Love you Dad." she said hugging both parents in turn.
As she boarded the train, y/n heard a young girl from the red headed family squeal.
"Harry Potter! Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please..."
"You've already seen him, Ginny..." The mum's reply grew fainter and fainter until she couldn't hear it anymore. Harry Potter was on the train? Y/N had read the story in one of her books, but it had been an older book and she didn't think Harry was going to school with her.
As y/n walked down the corridor to find Hermione, a group of fifth years walked down the corridor, moving to pass her, so see stepped into the nearest open compartment and nodded as they passed. One of the fifth years had a large rat's cage under their arm and when they passed y/n, they bumped her with the cage, knocking her off balance, causing her to trip over someone's foot, and land on the seat closest to the window across from two huge boys.
And, sitting next to her, was Draco, looking at her like she had just blinked into existence. Y/N opened her mouth to say something, but then remembered that she didn't think Draco wanted her hanging about him, so she got up, turned away from the to large boys, looked Draco in the eyes, and gave a small smile, all while leaving the compartment. His ears turned pink at the tips, but when the thugs couldn't see, he gave her the slightest smile back.
Y/N closed the door behind her, and found Hermione sitting with a boy and a girl in the next open compartment. Y/N found it funny. If she had only gone one door further, she wouldn't have bumped into Draco.
"Hi, y/n! This is Neville Longbottom, and Sarah Cricket. They're first years too." Hermione still seemed cheerful and it made y/n smile.
"Hello! I'm Y/N Y/L/N. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi!"
"Hi."
The girl seemed more enthusiastic than the boy, but that was only because the boy seem distracted, as if he were looking for something.
As the train started moving, y/n finally took her seat to her right, across from Hermione and Neville.
Hermione carried the conversation for the first part of the ride, asking questions like, 'what class are you most excited for?' and 'what house do you think you'll get?' Y/N thought she would get Ravenclaw and was most excited for either Charms or Potions, while Sarah, though excited for the same classes, thought she would get Slytherin. Neville was to busy searching his things to join the conversation.
A long while into their journey, Neville started to cry, saying he still couldn't find Trevor. Upon further questioning the girls found that Trevor was Neville's toad.
"I've got to go look for him. I shouldn't have let him out of his cage." And Neville left, in tears.
After a minute or so, Hermione sighed. "I'd better go with him. Otherwise no one will have a clue what he's saying through all those tears. You two should get your robes on while Neville is gone. I expect we'll be at Hogwarts soon." And with that, she was gone too.
Y/N decided to try and get to know Sarah in case they both ended up in the same house, so she started a conversation while she found her robes and began to put them on.
"Sarah, why do you think you'll get into Slytherin? You seem so nice."
"That is a common misconception. Not all Slytherins are rude. Most people assume they are because most of You-Know-Who's followers were Slytherins. And because of the Malfoys. They've gone and ruined Slytherin's image if you ask me."
"The Malfoys?"
"Oh, yeah. The lot of them are very well known, but not for good reason. Lucius Malfoy, the head of the family, was a death eater, and a high ranking on at that, and he supposedly used his riches to fund You-Know-Who's plans. When You-Know-Who died, the whole family said they were bewitched into following him around. Of course, the Ministry let them off easy because they were high ranking with the ministry too. They still act like downright jerks if you ask me. All of them. It's to bad that the Malfoy son is coming to school with us. I'd have rather been a year ahead of that git."
Y/N was starting to understand why Sarah thought she would be a Slytherin. She was very outspoken and didn't really care if someone disapproved of her opinion.
By then, the girls had finished getting into their robes. Just in time to, as Neville came back a moment after y/n had pulled her shirt over her head to cover herself up.
"Did you find him, Neville?" Sarah asked.
"No, but Hermione said she would keep looking and that I should come get my robes on and that we weren't far from Hogwarts," Neville said, sniffling as fat tears rolled down his face.
"Well then we'll go help her while you get dressed. Don't worry Neville. We'll find him," said y/n, patting Neville's shoulder. "Come on Sarah. Let's find Hermione."
The girls traveled down the corridor moving toward the front of the train, all along the way hearing whispers of 'Harry Potter is on this train!' The girls made it to the front of the train and hadn't found Hermione yet, so they had decided to turn back. Upon arriving in their car, they heard a loud yelp as the two large boys who had been with Draco ran down the corridor, returning to their compartment. Sarah made a disgusted sound when she saw Draco and returned to their own compartment, but y/n decided to stay to talk to him.
The thugs, who had been running ahead of Draco, made it to the compartment first so, when Draco saw y/n, he closed the compartment door behind them and held it in place.
"What was all that about?" asked y/n.
"If you must know," he said, very clearly very annoyed. "We went to go see if the rumors of Harry Potter were true. I introduced myself and told him not to mix with the wrong sort. Told him I could help him with that. He said he was fine own his own and then that Weasley got involved," he spat. "Almost started a fight. Would have too, if Weasley's stupid excuse for a pet hadn't bit Goyle. Stupid Weasley. I can't believe Harry Potter is mixing himself up with people like him."
Y/N waited a moment to make sure he was done before speaking.
"Well, the good thing is, his friends aren't your friends. You don't have to like his friends. You just have to like yours." Y/N smiled.
"I...I guess your right..." Draco said quietly. "But that doesn't give him the right to talk to me like that," said Draco, almost immediately finding a new reason to be mad. It made y/n laugh.
"What's funny?" Draco said, annoyance turning on her.
"Just how easy it is for you to find reasons to hate someone." Y/N paused. "Do you have a reason to hate me?"
"Yeah," Draco said almost immediately. "You embarrassed me in front of my father, took forever finding your robes, keeping me from mine, and I had to pay for yours." Draco said, a slight smile playing at the edge of his mouth.
"Well, I'm sorry you hate me so," y/n said as the train began to slow. "But I don't hate you, so that's all that matters to me. Hate me all you want." She turned with a grin and opened her compartment door, hesitated, and turned back. "I really don't hate you. I think we should be friends." And she stepped into her compartment, leaving Malfoy standing there, mouth agape, to stare after her.
Y/n wasn't really involved in the conversation around her after that. Her mind in the next compartment over with Draco. Right until the trained lurched to a stop and she realized she was there, about to see her first glimpse of Hogwarts.