***
"Look at how clumsy this girl is! Are you sure you're not Longbottom's relative?" said the boy in his demanding tone again.
Shocked to my very core already, it didn't help at all to hear Longbottom's name, specially when it came from a boy with a pointed face, pale eyes, and blond hair.
"Well? Are you deaf as well?" He snarled.
I was lost for words. As if my mouth had forgotten how to speak, I just stared at him from the ground while he got off and started to dust his robes off, glaring at me dangerously.
I saw the blond boy leave my side, turning to his two stout and large friends saying, "What was I saying? Oh, right. Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang, you know."
My eyes widened in horror as I tried to stand up with my trembling knees.
Hogwarts express, platform 9 3/4, Longbottom, Durmstrang... What the hell was going on?
My mind was screaming that the paled face boy was actually the Draco Malfoy, but I quickly shook my head off that silly thought and looked around, but everything started to get weirder and weirder.
Owls were hooting and flying around, children hastily getting on the train with broomsticks and wands, parents waving at them and wishing them a great term.
At first, I thought that this had to be a dream. It was the only logical explanation. But it was too real to be a mere dream. It felt real.
The closest thing I had gotten to a Harry Potter dream was that I'd dreamt that our school bus was actually the Knight Bus and the driver was our prime-minister, but he was missing a nose just like Voldemort.
"Miss, please get on the train quickly. It's going to leave any minute now," an old guard came up to me and spoke in a hurry, not noticing that my Hogwarts robes were fake as he rushed me toward the train.
To dumbstruck to speak and too shocked to resist, I got aboard. I craned my neck to look over at the brick wall I had ran through, but it was blocked by a crowd of parents, waving their kids goodbye.
I didn't know where Kiara was. Had she seen me go through the wall? Had she followed after me? Or had I actually hit the barrier and passed out, and now I was hallucinating?
Before I could come to my senses and react, the train let out a whistle and began to move, smoke from the engine drifting over the heads of the crowd outside. The train began to speed up, rounding the corner until the the crowd disappeared out of sight.
What the hell is going on here? I thought to myself in panic, my heart pounding against my chest mercilessly and my eyes widening in horror.
My hat and fake wand were no longer with me, seeing as I had forgotten to take them off the ground when I was knocked down. I was glad that I was at least wearing my Hogwarts robes which I had bought before.
Kiara and I had bought those with our pocket-money, and therefore could only afford to buy the main black robes and not the ties which specified our Hogwarts Houses. So we had decided to pretend that we weren't sorted into our Houses yet. But I knew that Slytherin suited me best, and Kiara was definitely a Ravenclaw.
I was looking around and into the compartments, desperately searching for a sign that could prove that this wasn't real. But I couldn't have made all of these details up even in my best daydreams.
Just then, I saw a group of people in one of the compartments, handing around a copy of the Daily Prophet, pointing at a moving picture in horror. One quick glance at it was enough for me to recognize it.
It was the Dark Mark, splattered across the sky at the world cup, just like it had been described in the fourth Harry Potter book; the Goblet of Fire.
Whether this was a dream or a strange reality of some sort, I knew I still had to come up with a good reason as to why I was here. If people asked who I was and what I was doing here, the worst possible answer would be to say I'm a Muggle.
As I walked, I came up with a fascinating background story for myself and a good introduction. I was going to say to anyone who would ask, that I'm an exchange student from Ilvermorny.
I passed the compartment with the same blond boy I had bumped into at the station with two stout and bitter boys by his side.
But I stopped in my tracks when I finally came upon a compartment with three boys inside; one of them had black skin with dreadlocks and the other two had red hair and — to my great shock and delight — were identical twins.
My smile widened and my stomach gave an exciting lurch as I knew they were none other than Lee Jordan along with Fred and George Weasley.
They were all in the middle of a serious conversation, which was highly unlike them. So, mustering all the courage I had left in me, I decided to go forth and talk to them, trying to hide the look of surprise that still lingered across my expression.
I slowly slid the compartment's door open and looked shyly inside. "Hi, there. Do you mind if I joined you?"
"Not at all," said Lee Jordan with a welcoming smile.
"We've never seen you around, have we, George?" said one of the twins.
"Not at all, Fred," the other mused. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lexi Hooper. I'm an exchange student from Ilvermorny."
"The wizardry school in America?" asked Lee curiously, his eyebrow raised.
"Yeah." I said, taking the empty seat next to Lee, and in front of the Weasley twins.
"Then why do you sound English?" he continued with the investigation.
"I am," I tried to think of a lie quickly. "My parents and I moved to America when I was ten and we came back just a few months ago."
"Why?"
"Uh... for their jobs." I tried to reason briskly, scared that I would soon run out of excuses, because the twins were giving me a look that clearly said 'we're onto you'.
"Hmm... very suspicious, isn't she, Fred?"
"Very suspicious, indeed, George."
There was a few seconds of silence as the two narrowed their eyes at me knowingly, before they grinned mischievously and said together in harmony,
"Welcome aboard," and raising their hands for me to shake. I gladly shook them and Lee's afterwards.
"I'm Lee Jordan by the way," said the boy. "And these are Fred and George Weasley."
"At your service," said one of them with a wink, whom I gathered was Fred.
"Nice to meet you." I said, even though I already knew exactly who they were.
"We were just telling Lee here about something that is about to go down at Hogwarts this year," said George.
"Yeah, but no one tells us what it is! It's frustrating!" said Fred.
But I knew exactly what was going to happen, and I saw my knowledge as a great opportunity to bond with them. So I smiled slyly, saying,
"I think I know what's going on."
"What!?" They all said, now at the edge of their seats from curiosity, most eager to hear all about it.
"The Triwizard Tournament." I said, proud of my own knowledge.
"Wicked," the twins said in sync, but from the look on Lee's face I could tell that he wasn't following. So I decided to go on and make them even more excited.
"Three schools are chosen to play in the tournament, one champion from each school is chosen and they have to take part in three deadly tasks. The winner gets the honour of the Triwizard cup, and of course, a thousand Galleons."
"You are joking!" Fred's jaw fell open, making me giggle.
"I'm totally going for it!" George exclaimed. "What else do you know?"
"That's all I know for now, I'm afraid." I lied casually, as I watched the three of them go on about it for hours, forgetting to ask me how I knew such top-security information.
Well, this is going to be fun, I thought with a grin.