Disclaimer: I can safely say that I am not JK ROWLING, therefore I do not own the Harry Potter series. Only my characters are mine.

I am aware that I have tried to write Harry Potter stories in the past, but I wasn't really feeling it with that last story. I wrote the first couple of chapters of The Snake and the Lion (I am aware of the cheesy name) before I posted anything to see if I liked it enough to continue, and I do, so hopefully this one will be more successful.

Sorry this chapter was a bit boring and long, but I felt like I needed to get things settled down before I began with the plot. I hope to dive in next chapter with the beginning of the plot so you guys can get a taste of what the story in gonna be about.

May I also add that in this chapter when writing is in italics it means that they are speaking german.

Thanks :) M-F-U xx

Red Trains and Impossible Stations.

'And you have everything you need?' My mother had asked me this question a large number of times, and instead of replying with the usual yes I smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

'I'll be fine, it's not like I haven't done this before.' I said, reminding her I was entering my sixth year at Hogwarts and that I was completely capable of looking after myself. 'I'll write as soon as I can, I promise mum.'

Turning to my little sister, who was due to start her muggle secondary school in a week, I found her scowling at the floor. It was no secret that Carmen was disappointed she did not share my gift of magic, but once I told her that I was secretly jealous that she would be getting to attend our local high school, which I had been looking forward to attending at a young age, she seemed to cheer up a bit. Not that I wasn't glad that I was a witch, but whenever I returned home for the holidays I would see my old friends out and about who had all grown apart from me after they all went to the same school and I travelled up to Scotland every year.

'Carmen, you are going to have such a great time in school, but remember, if you ever need any advice or anything like that, just write to me, okay?' After she nodded silently, her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders (another thing I was jealous of: Carmen's hair was a beautiful dark brown from my mothers side while I had taken after my fathers German family, all with blonde, curly hair, which had left me feeling like a 'dumb blonde') I brought her in for a big hug and kissed the top of her head. 'See you at Christmas, kiddo.'

Giving one last wave to my mother and Carmen, I followed my dad into the station. My mother did not like the hustle and bustle and general magic of platform 9¾ and was concerned that my sister would get lost, and so my father tended to be the only one to accompany me to the train.

'Now, do I have to give the usual speech about boys again?' My father spoke in German as we walked towards the platforms. When I simply raised my eyebrows, he quickly added 'Or girls. Your mother and I love either way and –'

I cut him off. 'Papa, I'm pretty sure I'm straight.' I had grown up speaking german around my father and his family, and the language came easily to me.

'Well you say that now, but my uncle Rudi said the same thing and then one day he left my aunt and went off with a male accountant!'

I laughed at his remark, but decided to leave the matter at that. We walked in comfortable silence as he pushed my trolley (to his insistence), until we reached the pillar that led to the platform. He nodded for me to go first and so I ran towards the brick pillar, closing my eyes just as I went through it.

He came through soon after, but I was already looking around the busy platform. A smile settled on my lips as I was suddenly embraced with the Hogwarts atmosphere I lived in for the majority of the year. While I sometimes complained about Hogwarts, I couldn't imagine a life without it. The castle had quickly become my second home, and while at home I was seldom without the use of magic, which meant whenever I stepped back onto the platform I was pleasantly plunged back into the secret world of magic.

Eventually I saw the Potter family, the three children saying goodbye to their parents. I had never actually met Mr and Mrs Potter; however, their names were regularly mentioned in the halls of Hogwarts. As I learnt in my first year the Potter and Weasley families were very famous in the wizarding world.

My best friend, Al, was the middle child in the Potter household. I hadn't seen him all summer, although multiple letters had been passed between us via Owls. He looked up, and upon seeing me flashed me a huge smile. He waved at me, dark hair sprouting in every direction, and I waved back.

James Potter, the eldest Potter boy, looked up too. Often, I overheard other girls at Hogwarts swoon and squeal about his smile, however I had never seen it directed at me. Not that I cared, as such, but it would be nice to not feel like I was an evil monster whenever he looked at me. It seemed that an automatic scowl formed onto his face whenever he looked at me, and at this moment on the platform it was no exception. James turned back to his family, and Al mouthed I'll meet you on the train. I nodded in return and turned to my father.

'Well, I should probably find a seat on the train' I said in german, and my dad wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head.

'Write me as soon as you get there. I love you and I'll see you at Christmas.' He kissed my temple and let go of me.

'Bye dad.' I said, this time in english. I waved at him one last time and climbed aboard the train. We still had a good fifteen minutes until the train would leave and the train was still very empty. It was easy to find an empty compartment and I sat down when I had found one at the end of the train. I hauled my trunk onto the overhead paneling.

I looked out the window to see that my father had left. Up until last year he would stay and wave the train off, but seeming as we always got here early (my mother was convinced I would miss the train) I had insisted that he leave instead of waiting awkwardly on the platform for ages. I didn't mind.

I picked out a book from my messenger bag, a black tatty old bit of fabric with 'Team Castiel' written across it in red letters and a white pentagram surrounded by wings. Supernatural – the fandom my bag belonged to – was an obsession of mine I had learnt about a good couple of years ago. I loved the TV show so much, but the last season's finale, season 10, was totally devastating and had left me heart broken.

The book I had picked for the journey was the third installment of Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings. Return of the King was my favourite book from the series, which is surprising, as usually I prefer the second books in trilogies. Catching Fire. Clockwork Prince. The Scorch Trials. Still, I was rereading the book for what seemed like the hundredth time so intently that I barely noticed when the platform became increasingly empty. When I did finally notice I took it as my queue to stop reading and wait for my friends to show up.

First to arrive was Sophie Wood, a through and through Gryffindor. Soph was a natural beauty. Her brunette waves and high cheekbones were a subject of envy for many girls at school, but she was one of the sincerest people I had ever met and was more focused on her grades than looks and boys. Despite her dad being a huge Quidditch enthusiast – playing professionally in his younger years – had never taken an interest in playing the sport. I think it's because of her secret phobia for heights.

Soph and I had fallen into easy conversation when the next of our 'merry gang' showed up. Alec Stratmore entered the compartment with arms held high in a flamboyant manner as if to say I am here now! Now grovel at my feet! His tanned olive skin shone in the sun and his thick hair bounced around on his head.

'Miss me ladies?' He grinned and sat down next to Sophie, to which she replied with 'You wish, dork.' And went in for a hug. Next he turned to me and said 'I'd get up and hug you too but seeming as you were 'too busy' to meet up with me I don't think I will.' He teased. He had, indeed, asked me if I would like to come and visit him for a weekend in the summer, to which I had politely declined. After all, I was in Germany visiting my grandmother, and besides, I had to take advantage of the Internet as much as I could before I returned to Hogwarts and its no-Wi-Fi-rules.

I rolled my eyes and asked him how his summer was anyway. A few minutes passed before the last of our company joined us. You could tell when the Potter and Weasley clan got on the train. Suddenly a burst of chatter and laughter came spilling down the carriages as they all passed our compartment. Most of them walked right past us, but two stepped in after seeing us. The chatter of the large family died down soon after as they all went their separate ways.

The two students who stepped in were normally the last two to arrive in our group. The first was a girl with dark, red hair that cascaded down her back in think waves. Rose Weasley was one of the smartest people I knew and rightly deserved to be in Ravenclaw despite her father's disappointment she hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor. Freckles covered her bright face and her kind brown eyes always seemed to bore into my soul, making it hard to hide secrets from her. Rose came and sat next to me giving me a quick squeeze for a hug,

The second was Al who was in Slytherin with me – much to his brother's disappointment. He sat next to Alec, giving him one of those weird guy hugs. He greeted Soph and I with warm smiles. We fell back into laughter quickly, and very soon the train started to move and my four friends jumped up to the window and waved goodbye to their folks.

A game of exploding snap began and slowly became a championship, to which Alec won, although Soph was convinced it was through methods that weren't exactly within the rules. Which, from Alec's mock-offended face, was probably true.

'Well, we should probably get going to the prefect meeting.' Rose said, looking expectantly at Al and I.

'Oh yeah, I've been totally looking forwards to prefect duties all summer.' I said dryly. Prefect duties were, to be honest, a bit of a bore if you didn't have someone you liked on duty with you. And seeming as last year the head girl thought it would a good idea to stick to duties with other people in your house, 90% of the time I was stuck with a pompous pureblooded prat.

'Oh yeah, I forgot we were mates with the goodie goodie kids.' Alec said as he began a second game of snap with Sophie. Alec was 'perfectly relieved when a badge never arrived for him'.

Other prefects were also walking to the front of the train, one of which was, unfortunately James. He saw Al and Rose and, ignoring me, swopped them bother under his arms and said 'oh look, it's the non-gryffindor members of the family!' After the original shock of Al being sorted into Slytherin and Rose into Ravenclaw James had started to playfully tease them constantly. It hadn't been the first time a member of the family had been sorted into a different house, but James seemed to of expected Al to be a Gryffindor. Al turned back to me and smiled apologetically and I smiled back reassuringly. I didn't mind walking on my own, I just felt a bit awkward walking right behind James.

The meeting was over fairly quickly. Molly Weasley, who I had never really spoken to that much before, introduced herself as head girl, and Frank Longbottom introduced himself as head boy. Then Molly proceeded to get us to all introduce us to the room. I hated speaking in front of large groups, but seeming as all I had to say was 'Hi, I'm Bridgette' I managed to say it without my voice trembling too much.

After everyone had introduced himself or herself, Molly continued. 'Now, due to some complaints about last years patrol groups' she said throwing a look at Al who smiled back at her innocently, 'we shall have patrols inside and outside of our houses.' I glanced at the Slytherin prefects and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Molly went onto explain basic patrol information and general prefect stuff before handing out our timetables for the year. Mine wasn't too bad; I had patrols on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Quite a few of my patrols were with Al, but some were with fifth years I had never spoken to before. I had a couple with my Slytherin housemates, much to my dismay, but patrols with Rose and Al made up for it. The worst though was when I found out I had several patrols with James Potter, which I had avoided last year. I disliked James purely because he judged me because of my house without actually ever talking to me, and I had no patience for people like that. I suppose he would just ignore me for the patrols anyway, so I decided not to worry too much.

We dispersed from the compartment and got changed into our robes. Sixth years were on train duty, so Al and I made our way up and down the train together. Rose had paired of with Scorpius, who eventually joined us when we made our way up to the castle when the train stopped at Hogsmeade station and we climbed upon the carriages.

...

In the Great Hall, the headmistresses speech was delivered and the sorting hat sung. New Slytherins came and sat down on our table near Al and me. We sat near the back to the doors, not wanting to interact with too many other Slytherins. Sitting with us were two fourth years who were decent people. Jade Starke was a pureblood from a rich family, but extremely humble and kind. Next to her was Francis Quenton, who, like his friend was a pureblood, but unlike his friend wasn't afraid to speak his mind to other houses. Still, he was better than a lot of other people in our house.

A third year also sat with us. Her name was Stephanie and was the one of the nicest people I had ever met. On her way back from dinner to the common room everyday she would stop by the kitchens and thank the house elves for the excellent food.

Joining us this year were quite a few first years as well. One of them, a boy with dark hair and pale skin, looked quite alone and so I tried to talk to him. He seemed nice enough at first, but when I told him my name and he didn't recognize the family as a pureblood family I explained that I was a muggleborn he scoffed and said that I should feel lucky talking to him as he didn't usually talk to mudbloods.

I stopped talking to him after that and began plotting ways on how to hex him. I may try and be a nice person, but sometimes people like that need to be taught a lesson. I was still in Slytherin after all.

After that we got our timetables. Having gotten an O in everything but Herbology and History of Magic (which I was still convinced was unfair as I had lived my first 11 years without knowing magic had even existed) in which I got E's in I was cleared to carry on with all my chosen subjects. Those were: Charms, Defense against the Dark Arts (my personal favourite subject), History of Magic (which I had considered dropping though decided I probably needed it as a muggleborn), Potions, Transfiguration, Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.

When Al and I decided it was time to retire, we got up and said goodbye to our small group of people and waved at our friends in different houses. Walking to the dungeon Al wrapped an arm around me in a hug. I realised this was the first time we had hugged since I had seen him last year.

'Good to have you back, Bree.' Al said, and I squirmed out of his reach.

'You know I will no longer be your friend if you keep calling me a type of cheese.' I joked.

'Yes you will, I'm famous, remember?'

We chatted all the way back to the common room before we parted ways at the stairs. The common room was already full and neither of us felt like staying down there.

I carried on reading for a while before I heard the dorm door swing open and a group of four giggling girls walked through the stone passageway.

'Hey Bree!' Allison Nobilis was from an extremely rich pureblood family but both her and her family – especially after the war – had no prejudices concerning blood status. While I was friends with Allison I preferred the company of Al, Sophie, Alec, Rose and Scorpius, however every year she would bring me back a souvenir from whatever exotic country her family and she had visited. This year she dropped a black box on my bed, inside was a sliver necklace with a tiny horse shoe charm.

With her was Delilah Smith, Erica Lavern and Ellen Harper. Delilah and Ellen were both halfbloods but Erica was, like Allison, a pureblood with - luckily - no objections to me being here. They were all lovely girls, but I just preferred being with my other friends.

After we all caught up and chatted for a good long time we one by one closed our curtains and went to sleep. I was the third to say goodnight, leaving Allison and Delilah laughing between themselves.

Falling asleep was easy and I slept soundlessly that night.

If you couldn't already tell, I'm trying to eradicate the Slytherin blood purity thing. While I think that there would still naturally be some prejudice (as we saw with that first year and we will see in the next chapter) I think that a lot of people would of gotten over it. So thats what I'm trying to do here.

Hope you enjoyed it!