Yes, this is a Mary-Sue parody. Sort of. But hopefully not the usual kind. It is also a sort-of-crossover-only-not. You can read it without knowing the… other world (although it might be more fun if you do know it) so I'm not telling you just yet what it is. If you can guess, congratulations.

II(:

Prologue

There was something there. It was so white it almost seemed to glow in the dark and it was moving really fast. Hagrid followed it as quickly and silently as it was possible for a man of his size. Finally, as it ran across a clearing, the gamekeeper caught a glimpse of it before it disappeared back into the forest. It was just a unicorn. It had to be. It was unicorn-sized, unicorn-shaped and even unicorn-coloured. But there as something wrong with it. It was, Hagrid was quite sure of it, not one of his unicorns. And Fang was scared of it. Sure, he wasn't a very brave dog, but he shouldn't be that scared of a unicorn.

'Where'd it come from?' Hagrid muttered.

He bent down to look at the hoofprints in the mud, but he could hardly see them in the darkness of the Forbidden Forest at night.

'Fang?' he said to his dog. Fang just whimpered.

'Aw, c'mon. We gotta do it.'

Very reluctantly, the dog pressed its nose to the ground.

'Good boy.'

After half an hour of tracking they found it. The place it had come from. One of the reasons the Forest was Forbidden. And even though it was a warm summer night there was frost on the ground. Hagrid tightened his grip on his umbrella. Fang sniffed and ran away. The half-giant swore.

XXX

A beautiful young woman walked down Diagon Alley, looking around with curiosity and mild amusement. She was tall and almost unnaturally pale, with long dark hair, and wore a simple yet elegant red dress. Sometimes she walked into a shop and came out with her bag slightly heavier than it was before. By the time she entered Mr Ollivander's shop, she already had a pointy black hat (Madame Malkin didn't quite understand why she found the hat so fascinating), several sets of the most fashionable robes (mostly in dark colours) and a slightly nervous-looking white owl in a cage.

Ollivander stared at her, slightly confused. Sure, she was beautiful. Almost too beautiful to be real. But there seemed to be something wrong with her. She did not remind him of anyone he'd met before. That was odd. He had sold wands to several generations of wizards. He had met most new students' parents. Well, maybe she was a Muggleborn? But she seemed completely unfazed by all the magic of Diagon Alley. She was not discovering a new world. She was doing her shopping. And, of course, she was too old to be buying her first wand ever. She had to be at least seventeen, possibly older.

'I'd like to buy a wand,' she said.

'Oh. Of course, of course,' Mr Ollivander said. She was making him nervous. 'I'll find something for you.'

He looked around at the stacks of boxes and picked one that seemed right.

'Here,' he said 'Try this one.'

She did, but nothing happened.

'What is your name, by the way?' Mr Ollivander asked handing her another wand.

The girl thought about it for a moment, as though the question had surprised her.

'Marie Suzanne O'Doome,' she finally said as if it explained everything. It didn't. 'I'm a… foreign exchange student, I guess,' she added. And just then a twelve-inch unicorn hair wand in her hand fired some of the most beautiful sparks Mr Ollivander had ever seen.

XXX

It was the last day of August an Harry Potter was packing. It had been Hermione's idea, of course. Harry probably wouldn't have come up with it himself, but now he thought it was quite good. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life now that Voldemort was gone and the war was over. He had wanted to be an Auror once, but now he thought he'd had enough saving the world for a while. He couldn't think of anything else he could do though. He might as well give himself some more time to think about it. It seemed like it was going to be fun. Just another year at Hogwarts, without any mysteries, monsters or people trying to kill him. He could play Quidditch, go out with Ginny, hang around with his friends and not worry about anything worse than his NEWTs. He could just have a year of normal life now. All he'd ever wanted.