Here is my first story in a series of five about a girl who gets shipped off to Hogwarts during Harry's fourth year. I hope you enjoy it, and I appreciate any criticism you feel the need to give.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in this story, except for the main character and her family although I wish I could say that I do...

Part I:

My Flower in a Field of Weeds

"I think I've found a flower in a field of weeds, searching until my hands bleed, this flower don't belong to me." – Billy Talent

Chapter One: I Won't Be Good at Magic

"Sara, Sara wake up!" I heard my little sister, Lizzy, scream. Her shrill voice was pounding in my ears.

"Lizzy, shut up."

"But we're here!" My eyes shot open immediately and I looked out the car window. We were here. Here at our new home in London, England. Lizzy and I had been two regular girls from Toronto, Ontario and we lived quite regularly with our friends and family. Of course, what was normal for us wasn't normal for other people. The Hughes family was filled with witches and wizards for as far back as anyone could remember. It was absolutely amazing the day I got my letter to go to St. Mary Parish School for Witches. I still remember my first days of the boarding school flawlessly. I had all the same friends I did when I left and I would miss them a lot, but I'd always wanted to travel to London and now we would be living there.

As we approached the house, I couldn't help but smirk. It was a nice two storey house with cute little shutters and a white picket fence. The perfect little home in a perfect little muggle neighbourhood. It was hard living in a muggle neighbourhood being who we were and all, but it just made it that much more fun to go to school each year. I was going into my sixth year of school, whichever I'd been accepted into, and Lizzy was just going into her first year. Although I was sixteen and she was eleven, everyone always said she and I were very identical. I saw no similarities.

I was very short for my age, only five foot four, and I was pretty fit from playing on my old school's Quidditch team. My hair was long, chestnut brown and I had long bangs to match. My eyes were big, brown and always framed with black eyeliner. Lizzy, on the other hand, had short brown hair, brown eyes that looked as if she was always squinting and she was already five feet tall. I was so jealous that she was naturally thin and I had to play Quidditch to stay in shape, but it didn't stop me from loving her to death.

My dad, my mom, Lizzy and I settled ourselves in the living room and Dad told us about the school we'd been transferred to.

"It's called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dad began. He was quite tall, and about average build for a wizard in his mid-forties. He had the same dark hair Lizzy and I possessed, only his was thinning and he had a moustache on his upper lip. Before, Dad worked for the Ministry of Magic in Canada, but he'd gotten promoted to an assistant job to the Minister himself, Cornelius Fudge, who resided in London.

"Witchcraft and Wizardry?!" I exclaimed happily. "Like both witches and wizards?"

"That's what it means, honey, yes." Mom spoke up with a smile. Mom was a housewife. She spent all her time making us meals, keeping the house right, and taking care of the family.

"Brilliant." I'd gone to an all-witches school previously, and it wasn't very fun. I usually found myself befriending boys who lived near us and we'd always gotten along until they found out I was a witch. Girls usually didn't like me much. I'm not too sure why.

Dad continued. "The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and the castle is huge. The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is the most amazing wizard of our time. You two will love it there."

"What about dorms?" I asked. "How does that work?"

"Well, there are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a hidden common room and dormitories inside the castle."

"Daddy, I'm scared!" Lizzy huddled into a ball on the couch and hid her face in her hands.

"Why are you scared, Liz?"

"I'm going to get lost. Or I won't make any friends. Or I won't be good at magic!"

I just chuckled. My sister the drama queen. "Liz, calm down. You're going to be just fine. Imagine how the muggle-borns feel. They've never ever heard of magic, let alone seen it been done."

"Oh, I forgot about them."

"They're probably twice as scared as you."

"Yeah. Thanks Sara."

"Anytime."

I was in my room unpacking my clothes and organizing my closet when Dad came into the room and sat on my bed.

"Hey."

"Hi sweetheart. How's the unpacking going?"

"Fine. It would be so much easier if I could use magic outside of school, though."

"I know. I just thought I would come and tell you we're going back to school shopping today."

Immediately I perked up. "We are?"

"Yes." Dad chortled. He thought it was funny that I found something as routine as school shopping to be so fun. "We're setting off to Diagon Alley in an hour, you, Lizzy and I, so get ready."

The three of us walked along the sidewalk for an hour before we stopped at a black, dusty-looking shop and pushed the door open. The shop turned out to be a bar containing only a few wizards at the moment. After all, it was only midmorning.

"Well if it isn't... Matthew Hughes!" the bartender seemed to be very excited to see Dad.

"Tom!" Dad greeted happily. "Nice to see you again."

"It is, Mr. Hughes." Tom grinned. "Looking forward to taking your family to the Quidditch World Cup, mate?" I was speechless. How could Dad get tickets to the Quidditch Cup and not tell me?! Luckily, Liz found the words.

"Why didn't you tell us we were going to see Quidditch?"

Tom had a look of embarrassment plastered on his face. "Oh no, had you not told them?"

"Ah it's alright," Dad smirked. "They'd have found out eventually."

Finally, I got my voice back. "How did you get these tickets?"

"Well," he began, "the Ministry gave them to me along with the promotion."

"When are we going?"

"It's two weeks from now."

I couldn't help but smirk. "Bloody brilliant." Quidditch was the most amazing game of all. One team had seven players: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker, all of which were on broomsticks. The chasers handled a red, soccer-ball sized ball called the quaffle and tried to get it through one of three gold hoops about fifty feet off the ground. The keeper guarded these hoops. Each time the quaffle went through a hoop, the team earned ten points. The beaters each had a bat in which to hit the two bludgers at their opponents. Bludgers were two black balls only a little smaller than the quaffle that flew around and tried to knock players off their brooms. The seeker had only one job: catch the golden snitch. The snitch was a golden, walnut-sized ball with wings. Whichever team's seeker caught it first won their team one hundred and fifty points. When the snitch was caught, the game was over. I was a chaser on my old school's Quidditch team and I loved the sport. My broom was the second fastest in the world – a Nimbus Two-Thousand and One.

Tom chuckled. "Well then, have fun at the Cup and tell me how it went."

"Will do." Dad said.

We went around to the back of the bar, which I found to be called The Leaky Cauldron, only to be closed into a tiny space with three brick walls blocking us in. Before me or Lizzy could ask what was going on, Dad tapped a brick on the wall opposite us three times. The brick wall vanished completely and revealed a tiny walkway filled with shops.

"This is Diagon Alley, kids." Almost instantaneously, I pulled a piece of parchment out of my pocket and looked at what Hogwarts required us to bring.

"Dad, can we get robes, first? Please?" I felt so awkward being the only person there with muggle clothes on. Everyone else wore robes. I wore jeans and a navy blue, knit sweater.

"Sure. We should go to Madam Malkin's for those."

Dad pushed through the crowd to a shop with different coloured robes being displayed in the window. He lead us into the shop and then left. He said he had other business to attend to.

"Hogwarts, dears?" the lady behind the counter asked.

"Yes." She went into a back room and came out with two measuring tapes and black robes.

"Put these on." As we slid on our robes, the measuring tapes measured the length of our legs, arms and total height. My robes were way too big, and Lizzy seemed to have the same problem. The lady checked the measuring tapes and with a wave of her wand, the robes fit perfectly.

"Thank you." Lizzy and I both said in unison.

"Oh wait," the lady said. "Come with me." We followed her through a door to come face to face with a room so unlike the other. The initial room had two or three mirrors, and it was very dark. This room was filled with beautiful gowns of every colour on racks hanging on the walls. "You'll be needing dresses this year." Our faces brightened up.

We eventually left Madam Malkin's very satisfied. I had purchased a long, simple red gown that touched the floor. It had thin straps that thickened and criss-crossed down the back. Lizzy got a really cute little midnight blue dress that came to her knees. It was fitting at the chest and then poofed out near the bottom. The poofy part had a matching midnight blue mesh over top and it was enchanted to have a subtle sparkle.

"What else do we need?" Lizzy asked, now excited to continue shopping.

"Well, Dad said he'd meet us at Ollivander's Wands... why don't we get you a wand?"

"Yay, wand!" Lizzy was so happy, she skipped all the way to Ollivander's. I already had my wand. It was eleven inches long, made of mahogany and contained a dragon heartstring.

When we reached the shop, Dad brought Lizzy inside and suggested I wait outside so I didn't take up any extra room. As I waited outside the shop, a boy passed by with a man I assumed was his father. The boy was almost six feet tall. He had wavy, dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes and a rather charming smile. He walked by me and smirked. That's when I noticed his father go into a shop alone, and the boy approached me.

"Hi." he said shyly making eye contact. He had the nicest eyes... He looked back down again and sideways shuffled closer to me.

"Hey." I greeted.

Right away he noticed something different about me. "You're not from here are you?"

"Nope." I smiled and looked him in the eye. "I just moved here from Canada."

"Really?" he asked, sounding so intrigued to be in the presence of a witch from North America. "I'm Cedric, by the way. Cedric Diggory."

"Sara Hughes. That's Sara without the 'h'." I smirked.

"Nice to meet you, Sara." He made my legs feel like jelly. "So you just moved here?"

"Yeah."

"What school are you going to?"

"Euh... Hogwarts."

"Really?" Cedric's face perked up. "What year?"

"Sixth."

"Me too."

"Nice."

"So, err... do you have any plans for the summer?" It was only still July, so it was an appropriate question.

"Well, my dad told me we've got tickets to the Quidditch Cup coming up."

"Blimey, you're joking, right?"

I chuckled. "That's what I said. We can't afford them, but my dad got them from the Ministry because he's Fudge's new assistant or something like that."

"Hughes... now I remember! My father mentioned your father transferring to London to work alongside Fudge."

"Cool." I smiled. Cedric had to stop making me smile right now, or I would lose it.

"So you like Quidditch?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. I used to be on my school's team. I was a chaser."

"Oh yeah?" He didn't say it bossily. He said it like he was genuinely interested. "I'm captain of the Hufflepuff team. I'm a seeker."

"You're a Hufflepuff? Hm, I don't know which house I'd like to be in yet."

"Oh, well Hufflepuff is good. So are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Really, anything but Slytherin is what you want."

"I beg to differ." a new voice said from my left side. The voice belonged to a boy slightly taller than me. He had sleek blonde hair and the most colourless eyes I'd ever seen. They were such a pale blue that it was practically grey. "I'd say Slytherin was a damn good house. Taught me well."

"Mind your own business, Malfoy." Cedric's voice was stern as he talked to the boy.

"Who's your girlfriend, Diggory?"

"Sara Hughes." I introduced myself without thinking.

"Hughes?" Malfoy sneered. "The new one working for Fudge?"

"Yeah, that would be my dad."

"My father works for Fudge as well. But there's a difference between our fathers: Fudge respects mine."

"Would you go away?" I blurted. "Cedric and I were talking nicely before you came along."

"And what are you going to do if I don't?" That's when I drew my wand. What was I thinking? You had to be seventeen to do magic outside of school. I could get expelled before I even started at Hogwarts. "Oh rubbish!" Malfoy chuckled. "You're too young to do magic!"

"Yeah she is," Cedric sneered as he pulled his wand out from his robes, "but I'm not." The closer Cedric's wand got to Malfoy's throat, the more he whimpered in panic.

"Draco!" a tall man with long white-blonde hair snapped. "Come here!" Malfoy ran clumsily towards the voice about two shops down.

"What a bloody git..." Cedric muttered under his breath.

"He does seem unpleasant." I agreed. Suddenly Cedric's father emerged from the store opposite Ollivander's.

"Well, I should get going." He said as he saw his father wave at him. "See you at Hogwarts!"

"Bye Cedric!"

As if on cue, Lizzy and Dad came out of the shop.

"So how did it go?"

"I got a cool wand!" Lizzy smiled. "It's wood and it's got a feather in it!"

Dad chuckled. "It's ten inches, made of pine and has a phoenix feather inside."

"That's what I said!" Lizzy stomped stubbornly.

"I know Liz," I smiled, "I got it."