A young girl with fair skin and dark hair trailed behind a tall man through the crowded train station. The man walked briskly, with purpose, and the girl followed suit, like she had been taught. Both had their heads held high and were expressionless, not showing any hesitation or confusion, though the man's face seemed to be on the verge of disgust.

He was impeccably dressed in black robes and held a cane in his hand as he walked. People going past him looked at him strangely, but he ignored their inquiring faces. The girl looked around more rather than dismissing the strangers passing by. She was dressed in a black dress and green jacket, looking just as straight cut as the man she followed. But her bright eyes betrayed her excitement.

They walked through the train station with no stops, no faltering, knowing exactly where they needed to be. The man continued until he reached the column between platforms 9 and 10, then he turned to the young girl with him and spoke. "You must run straight at the wall, and don't hesitate otherwise you won't get through," he explained. The girl nodded as a reply, gripped the handle of the cat carrier in her hand, and backed away from the column to get a running start. When she ran forward, she started to have doubts but quickly shook them out of her head. Now is not the time for doubt, she thought to herself.

Before she knew it, she was through the wall and on platform nine and three quarters. The girl looked around the platform and noticed a multitude of wizarding families chatting and saying goodbye to one another. She then stepped aside, away from the wall, unsure if her godfather was right behind her or not. But alas, he popped up right next to her. It didn't surprise the young girl that he would apparate instead of going through the portal.

Together, the two trekked towards the train, the Hogwarts Express. The man halted at the sight of a man of shorter stature, shabbier clothes, and red hair. "Arthur," he hissed out, his expression contorting into a sneer as he looked the other man up and down.

The red-haired man, Arthur Weasley, picked his chin up in mild defiance. "Lucius, pleasure," he snipped in return. "I didn't expect to see you here." He glanced at the girl at Lucius's side. "This one yours? Thought you only had a son."

"This is my goddaughter," Lucius corrected. "Unlike you, I do not have a train-full of children." Their exchange was noted by Arthur's family who stood nearby. All of the red-haired children knew who the tall man was. His platinum blond hair was recognizable to anyone-Lucius Malfoy. They couldn't hear what was being said, but they knew it wasn't a friendly conversation. It was polite but had fowl undertones. "You might be familiar with her father though. Rabastan Lestrange? This is his daughter, Carina."

Arthur's eyes widened, albeit not enough for most people to notice. Some of his children noticed though because it added to his slight change in behavior. Arthur would recognize the Lestrange name anywhere as most wizards would. "It's nice to meet you, young lady," he said politely.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir," Carina replied curtly. Arthur partially frowned at her being so uncordial, so unlike how a child usually acts, although he shouldn't expect anything less from a member of the Lestrange family.

Lucius couldn't take much more pleasantries. "What number child are you toting off now?"

Arthur didn't appreciate his patronizing tone. "My twins, but the rest are none of your concern," Arthur promised.

"I wouldn't want them to be." The Hogwarts Express blew the horn, signaling it was almost time to depart. "If you'll excuse us, we have luggage to put on board. I'm sure I won't be seeing you around."

With that Lucius turned on his heel and walked away with Carina hurrying at his heels. Once they were a distance away from the red-haired man, Lucius pulled out small versions of bags from his pocket and set them on the ground. He then pulled his wand out of his cane and recited, "Engorgio." The bags grew back to their normal size for Carina to take them onto the train. Lucius raised his gaze to Carina. "Have a good year. I expect to see good grades on your report card."

"You will, sir."

"Very well. We'll see you at Christmas break." He helped put the luggage on the train, and with that, Lucius bid the girl farewell without another word or gesture, not that Carina expected a hug. He disapparated, returning to the Malfoy Manor.

Carina hopped onto the train and dragged her luggage to a compartment. After finding an empty compartment, she took off her jacket and sat down, letting her cat, Corvin, out of his cage. She sat for a few minutes in silence, petting the sleek black furball in her lap, which she didn't completely mind since she preferred to be alone. But she didn't like to be lonely, and a part of her felt it there, sitting on a large train with many people her age but no one to talk to.

Not too long after she sat down, two heads popped into the compartment. Two red-headed boys with freckles and lanky limbs had opened the compartment door. "Hello!" the first one exclaimed.

"Can we sit here?" the second one asked just as enthusiastically.

Carina looked over them warily, remembering seeing them on the platform when her godfather was talking to someone he apparently knew. The identical twins looked similar to Arthur, so Carina made the connection between these two boys and the "twins" Arthur said were starting school at Hogwarts this year. "Sure," Carina allowed; although, part of her thought they'd have sat down anyway.

"Thanks," the first one laughed. The two boys sat across from Carina on the opposite bench. She immediately began analyzing them, taking mental notes of their differences, such as a mole on one of their necks and a certain freckle being in a different spot. "I'm Fred and this is George." Fred had a freckle to the left of his mouth that was closer to his lips than the one George had and George had a mole on the right side of his neck.

"Carina," the girl introduced. "It's a pleasure."

The boys smiled in unison. Carina had a feeling they occasionally talked in unison as well. "Likewise," George replied. "So, we saw you on the platform earlier."

Carina didn't have time to reply before Fred started talking. "You're a Malfoy?" he questioned. She noticed that he stressed "you're" when asking, but to her it didn't sound patronizing. It held genuine curiosity rather than contempt. It was probably the hair.

"No," she stated simply.

"No?" the twins chorused. "But you were with Lucius Malfoy."

"He's not my father," Carina corrected. "He's my godfather. I pity his actual child."

The twins hummed contently and with brimmed with amusement. "Honesty? We approve," they observed together.

One of her eyebrows raised slightly. "Well, I don't see a point in lying."

"That's good," Fred commented.

"What's your last name then?" George inquired.

Carina hesitated slightly. She didn't necessarily mistrust them. On the contrary, she found them rather amusing already and couldn't see any reason to dislike them, except for maybe the mischief so obviously clouding their eyes. Simply, she didn't like the connotation her last name held, and she didn't want to scare two potential friends away.

She took a deep breath and lifted her chin, as she was taught to never show weakness. "Lestrange," she forced out.

The twins' eyes widened slightly and they looked at each other. Carina thought that would be the last pleasant conversation she had with someone going to Hogwarts who wasn't completely mental and focused on outrageous beliefs, but the twins surprised her.

"Lestrange, huh?" George repeated with a questioning gaze. Carina didn't react. She doesn't repeat herself.

"The Weasley Twins are glad to meet you, Carina Lestrange," Fred finished.

The trio chatted together lively after the awkwardness ceased. They got along well when Carina began to show more of her true, outgoing, fun-loving self rather than a wary shell. The twins enjoyed joking around a lot, making jokes and poking fun, but they had good hearts, which Carina noticed right away, especially when they talked of their family. Loyalty is hard to come by.

The train hadn't left the station too long ago, so people were still finding compartments to sit in. That being said, another first-year opened the compartment door. He was shorter than the twins and had his dark hair pulled into dreadlocks. The boy seemed just as outgoing and entertaining as the twins. "Is it alright if I sit with you all? All the other compartments are full," the boy asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," George responded. The boy sat down next to Carina. "What's your name? I'm Fred and this is my brother, George."

Carina lifted an eyebrow at him and his brother, watching their grins turn from friendly to mischievous. "I'm Lee," the boy introduced, not noticing the shift in their smiles nor the wink from Fred to Carina. Lee looked at Carina expectantly. "And you?"

"Carina," she stated simply.

Lee gave her a friendly smile, undoubtedly to resolve the slight tension that had emerged with his arrival. Granted, said tension was only coming from the girl. She obviously wasn't a huge fan of too many people. "Are you all first-years as well?" he inquired. After receiving nods from the other three, Lee continued to talk. "What house do you think you'll each be in? I heard loads from my dad about Hogwarts. He was in Hufflepuff, but I hope I'll be in Gryffindor."

"Everyone in our family has been in Gryffindor, so we'll probably be there, too," Fred answered.

The twins turned their heads towards Carina, wanting to hear her answer. They seemed quite enamored with her, maybe because of her quick transition from cold and dejected to warm and friendly and back. "I don't know for sure where I'll go. We don't learn that until we actually get sorted," Carina tells them, beating around the truth, but not quite lying.

"Oh, come on, you have to have an idea," Lee protested.

"Tell us," Fred cajoled.

Carina shrugged. "I read a lot so maybe I'll be in Ravenclaw," she replied nonchalantly. But she knew differently. She'll most likely be in Slytherin, like her parents, like her godparents, like her grandparents. She didn't mind it in all honesty. Carina knew she was ambitious. She wanted to be a mediwitch which is no easy feat. And she was cunning as well, able to deceive people with her outward look while observing them carefully to get a good judgment on them. A typical Slytherin.

"Well, it's better than Slytherin," Lee commented, unknowingly digging himself into a deep hole. Carina knew he didn't mean to be prejudiced against the snake house. It was most likely something he learned from his parents. But even then, Carina had been taught to hate anyone who didn't conform to Salazar Slytherin's belief system, yet she made her own beliefs, probably because she never truly understood how Muggle-borns, half-bloods, and pure-bloods were different from one another when they could all do magic. "My dad says that's the house with the most dark wizards. I mean, You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, and so were his Death Eaters."

One thing Carina had the hardest time doing was holding her tongue. "And Phineas Black, Andromeda Tonks, Dorea Potter, Horace Slughorn, Merlin." The three boys were in stunned silence as they gazed at Carina. Lee thought he had offended her and knew from experience that you shouldn't make a girl mad. Fred and George, however, thought of the encounter as fun and were glad to learn more of Carina's temperament, which so far seemed similar to theirs.

"No matter how many great wizards Slytherin House produces," George began.

"Our mother would disown us if we were sorted with them," Fred finished.

Carina smirked and recalled the incident on the platform. "By the look your father was giving Mr. Malfoy, I'm not surprised."

Lee's expression lit up in intrigue. "Did something happen?" he asked.

"Our father and Malfoy had a small spat on the platform," Fred explained, intentionally leaving Carina out of the mix of it. He understood why she didn't advertise her last name, and saying she had a connection to Lucius Malfoy would only make her a target. And Fred didn't know much about Lee and what his reaction would be.

"But we didn't hear what it was about," George told him, both twins looking disappointed. "Our mum spotted us trying to get closer."

Lee looked even more let down than the Weasley's. He very much enjoyed gossip. Then he looked up in confusion, his dreads bouncing a little with the movement. "Wait, why was Lucius Malfoy on the platform anyway?" he asked. "My dad said he only has a son a few years younger than us."

"Beats us," the twins voice together.

"Carina, did you hear anything?" Lee asked again, pulling the girl from her thoughts, drawing her attention away from the window.

The young Lestrange looked at the dark-skinned boy. She wondered whether to tell him the truth or relish in the short amount of time of him not knowing she was the daughter of a convicted Death Eater. "Mr. Weasley was wondering why Mr. Malfoy was at the train, thinking he only had a son," Carina explained. "Mr. Malfoy made a snide comment about Mr. Weasley having too many children compared to his only child. Then he told Mr. Weasley of his godchild that he was escorting."

The half-blood looked stunned. "Wow," he breathed out. "I wonder who his godchild is. And who would trust the Malfoys to watch their child." That didn't offend Carina in the slightest. A normal person wouldn't trust the Malfoys at all, but her father isn't sane. "You must've been pretty close to hear that much."

Carina shrugged. "Yeah, I'm just glad I'm not at Malfoy Manor." Lee chuckled at her statement, not making the connection of her being the goddaughter of Lucius Malfoy. He also didn't know that she was genuinely glad she wasn't there because she'd already spent too much time there. Lee hadn't put two and two together, making Carina feel slightly relieved.

"Anyway," George interjected.

"As much as we'd love to continue talking about that slimy git," Fred added.

"What class are you excited for?" George completed.

Lee still looked weirded out from their twin thing of completing each other's thoughts and sentences. "Charms," Carina informed, filling up the silence coming from the third boy. "Or Defense Against the Dark Arts. I've read a lot of books on spells and already practiced them, so I can't wait to learn more."

"You're joking, right?" Lee asked. "Underage wizards aren't allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts."

Carina tsked at him. "That's what the Ministry says, but really, they can't detect who performed magic, only that magic is being used. So basically, wizarding families with children can do all the magic they want, but Muggle-borns will be the ones punished because no wizard is in their vicinity that could do the magic as well. The Ministry leaves it to the parents to enforce."

At the rate the train ride was going, Lee Jordan would have a permanent confused and stunned expression. "How did you learn that?" he questioned. "I'm not sure I'm going to take the word of an eleven-year-old girl."

She shrugged, not caring. "My-my aunt told me. Her husband works closely with the Ministry and he's also one of the governors of the school."

"I feel like our mother has been intentionally keeping that information from us, Georgie," Fred said.

"Wait, I thought you were George," Lee interrupted, pointing at Fred.

"Am I?" Fred asked.

"Or am I?" George repeated. "I'm Gred."

"And I'm Forge."

"Or am I Forge?"

"And I'm Gred?"

"Who knows!" the twins exclaimed.

Lee simply looked like he wanted to jump from the window or hit the two upside their heads. He then turned to the only girl in the compartment. "Did they do this to you as well?" he inquired.

Carina shook her head. "No," she replied truthfully. "I remember who both of them are, but I don't know for certain if they were telling me the truth."

Exasperated, Lee shook his head as well, fervently. "This is going to be a long train ride."

Hello there. Honestly, I wasn't even sure if I should post this, but I wanted to know what people thought about it. Hope you like it! Please review!