'Girl! GET DOWN HERE!' I grinned to myself as I knew why my staring at the wall of my room was being so rudely interrupted by Uncle Walrus, aka Uncle Vernon. I happily skipped down the stairs, passing Harry, my two years younger brother, who was cracking up in the hallway. 'What did you do to them?'

'You saw or you wouldn't be laughing!' I had indeed turned the entire family pink, like the pigs they were.

'Funny how they know it's you,' Harry said seriously.

'I've done this enough so they know who it is. What, they wouldn't think dear "Dudles" did it,' I snickered. 'Call the muggle police if I don't come back alive.'

'I will,' he answered dryly, knowing full well that I wasn't really joking. When I was ten and Harry was eight Uncle Vernon had broken my arm, and I had gone to the muggle hospital.

I was eating my bit of stew for supper quietly in my room with Harry next to me on a chair when Uncle Walrus nearly knocked down my door. 'YOU BLASTED BLOODY GIRL, YOU STOLE DUDLEY'S RADIO!

'Did you, Kalmine?' Harry asked, looking desperatly to me. He was always trying to avoid trouble with our so called "family" and was obviously trying to clear this up. I was not the same, even then. I was a more of an uncontrollable person, with more if a stupid streak and a sort of feisty personnel. The only thing we shared were looks, I had the same dark chestnut waves that went to my elbow and green eyes inherited from my mother, Lily. The difference was I was a female and I was older.

'No, I didn't,' I calmly shoveled another forkful of food into my mouth, taking a very long time to chew and swalllow.

'HE SAYS YOU DID, STUPID GIRL!' Vernon was turning red and I was positive the neighbors could hear.

'I am not stupid!'

'Kal, calm down,' Harry put a hand on my arm.

'He called me stupid, Harry! He's the stupid one, he can't tell that his son is a liar!'

Vernon turned as red as Dudley's toy firetruck. 'HOW DARE YOU CALL DUDLEY A LIAR? HOW DARE YOU CALL ME STUPID, AFTER ALL I HAVE DONE FOR YOU UNGRATEFUL WENCHES OF CHILDREN! I HAVE GIVEN YOU SHELTER AND FOOD AND CARE!'

'Listen here, girl. You are the stupid one who has a boys name. What respectable woman calls herself Kal?!' Vernon grabbed my arm and twisted it so it nearly snapped. I let out a squeak of protest and struggled to get free, but his meaty hands held fast.

'But we aren't adults, I am not a woman!' I breathed, hardly able to cope with the pain longer.

'Now let go of her!' Harry shouted finally. He might have been less intense than I, but he was still brave and still hated seeing people hurt. My little brother had a good heart. Now was hardly the time to be proud and emotional over him, though, because my uncle shoved me away from him with my arm still twisted. A sickening crack echoed in my own ears as my arm snapped like a twig and the pain multiplied enormously.

The only thing they fought about was who was going to drive me to the hospital.

Two years later I got my letter. I learned I was to go to Hogwarts, that was what the unexplained events were. Why I could talk to snakes, why animals did what I wanted, why things around me would just fall to the ground or explode when I was angry.

The train had been magnificent. It was a red and black steam engine that said; Hogwarts Express on the side.

The train was were I had met my best friends.

A girl about my age was crying and stumbling around the tracks, confused. I heard the yelling from another compartment and understood they had said something offending, all I heard was "Mother" and "Mudblood scum" which didn't sound nice at all.

'AY!' I shouted down the hall at them. 'Leave her alone, you bloody cowards!'

'Why don't cha make me?' A homely boy that was clearly older than me said. 'I'm Steven Goyle. Never insult a Goyle, girlie!'

'Yeah, well, I'm Kal Potter, and I don't give a damn!' He noticeably did a double take.

'Potter? As in, Kalmine Potter, the one that survived Voldemort and played a part in saving your brother, the Boy Who Lived?'/

I shrugged, 'That's what Hagrid told me in Diagon Alley!'

'Mudblood lover Potter then? What a waste of a good name...'

'What's a mudblood?' I asked snidely, hoping I didn't seem like a child asking this.

'An inferior person of low blood status, because their parents aren't wizards,' he rudely recited. I wondered what had happened to that poor brainwashed bloke.

'Care to test whether or not your blood is really better than hers? Because I could get some.' I sneered and he took a step towards me, threateningly. I tensed, I talked tough but I really didn't fancy getting in a fight with an older boy.

'Oi! Leave them alone Goyle, just get back in your bloody compartment!' A voice came from behind me. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside the compartment where the voice came from, with the crying girl who had stopped crying by now.

Inside where where three boys that were also first years, made obvious by their lack of house robes. I had read about the houses and heard about it from Hagrid.

'I'm Fred Weasley, this is my brother, George-' the ginger who had pulled me in and spoken up for us introduced.

'We're identical twins!' The boy who looked exactly like Fred said.

'She can see that, you git!'

'I was just saying-' George defended but the third boy spoke up.

'I'm Lee Jordan,' Lee clarified. 'Like they said, they're Fred and George Weasley.'

'We saw you talking to Steven-' began George.

'And we wanted to say-' Fred picked up.

'See you in Gryffindor.' They finished together, freaking me out.

I beamed, 'Really? You think so? Gryffindor was the house I wanted!'

'You'll be in it,' Lee said confidently. 'So, what's your name?' He gestured slightly to the girl who had been called a mudblood earlier.

'Well, I trust you heard my name?' I looked at the both of them. They all nodded.

'I can't believe it, a real Potter!' George exclaimed happily.

'What, have people pretended to be me?' I asked mockingly. 'Why wouldn't I be real?'

'You know what I mean,' he muttered with a slight smile. 'Let's see how your wording is when we give you-'

'The Name Test.' Fred finished once again. It really was odd. 'You have to guess who's who.' They ran around until I lost sight of who was Fred and who was , they halted next to each other and looked at me expectantly.

How was I going to do this? I racked my brains, and a newspaper article I had once read popped into my head. It had said that people subconsciously react to their own names. So I held a finger up and said, 'George!' and sure enough, the boy on the right twitched. 'Aha!' I pointed at him. 'People automatically react to their names! Take that!'

'That was bloody brilliant!' Lee laughed, 'My days of confusion are over!'

'You have only known us about an hour!' Fred protested.

'Confusion that would have come,'

'True, mate,' Fred answered back.

We had all been friends ever since.

'It's O.W.L year!' I groaned to the twins as we disembarked the Hogwarts Express together, brushing past stray first years and clumps of second years alike.

'Don't remind me!' George rubbed his head. 'Nobody told us we would have to actually pay attention to the stuff we learned in class!'/

'You'll need to borrow my notes,' I waved it off. 'I hated taking them, but it looks like it was actually a good thing after all!'

'What are you talking about?' Lee sidled up next to us.

'O.W.L.s,' we all chorused together.

'It freaks me out when you three do that,' he mumbled, 'I thought there were only two twins!'

'Yeah, well some of us don't need to worry,' Fred nudged my side, meaning he meant me. 'You have top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures and even Muggle Studies!'

'So I can't be worried?' I demanded. 'All that comes easily to me, Fred! I don't try too hard, but during a test it could be different.'

'How is that natural?'

'In Defense I've encountered half of what they talk about, plus my parents were both talented in it, Potions because Snape likes me, Charms is just easy since I study them for fun sometimes, you know, because I was a muggle,' I ticked them off on my fingers and lowered my voice as I said it, not wanting to sound boastful. It was true, I had a pretty big natural advantage. 'You know how animals naturally like me, so I'm set for Care of Magical Creatures, and I live as a muggle every summer, plus before Hogwarts for eleven years of my life, so of course I'd be good at Muggle Studies!'

'Rubbish,' he flicked my hair playfully and I punched his hand away.

'Anyway, what about the other subjects? What about Divination and Herbology and Arithmancy and History of Magic and Transfiguration?'

'Who cares about those?' Fred asked carelessly. 'What do you plan on doing with your future anyway, that would make those important?'

'I don't really know,' I sighed, depressed. Fred and George already had big plans for a joke shop which they had shared with me, so many people in my year had their ambitions set straight as a needle. Then there was me. I didn't see myself in any job I had heard of in the wizarding world or the muggle one, they all seemed rather dull, and I detested the idea of staying with the same work for my entire life, like that of an Auror required.

'Figures,' he said with a smirk. 'C'mon, fancy getting some food in the kitchens?'

I took his arm and allowed Fred to lead me out of the room happily, trying to chase the excessive thoughts of my unstable future behind in exchange for carefree thoughts on tickling fruit and food alike.

A/N:

Hey all! As you can see, I edited this chapter a bit. There was a careless mistake in there about Sirius Black, who she hadn't known about at this point yet but it is fixed now!

Also, I'm updating AGAIN because of another mistake: it was all in weird code print! Why didn't anyone tell me, or was it just on all the devices I used? Bottom line is I spent an hour HAND deleting all of it.

Thanks, REVIEW!

Stay awesome,

Maria