Chapter 1

Neville Longbottom was pretty sure he was going to throw up. He never thought this day would come. He never thought he'd be boarding the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 ¾, and neither had most of his family. A small part of him was excited, but mostly he just felt sad that his parents weren't there and anxious that he'd fail at everything miserably.

He looked up and down the hallways, trying to find an empty compartment in the midst of hundreds of people much taller than him. Finally, he reached a compartment that only had one girl in it who looked about his age. Mustering up all his courage, he opened the door.

"C-can I-I sit here?" Neville asked, feeling his face flush.

The girl looked up at him and smiled. She had big front teeth and lots of brown hair, but her face was kind of pretty and her smile was nice.

"Sure!" she said brightly. "I'm Hermione Granger! My parents are Muggles and I'm so excited to be going to Hogwarts! Are your parents Muggles or are the wizards? I've memorized all our books and everything is just fascinating! I think Transfiguration and Charms seem wonderful and I can't wait for the next lesson. What are you looking forward to?"

Neville stood at her, too in shock to speak. Had she really memorized all the books? Gran and all the rest of his relatives didn't mention anything about memorizing the books, so he shouldn't have. Right?

"Uh—"

"Silly me! I'm sorry; I tend to ramble when I'm excited and I forgot to ask your name. What's your name?"

"I'm Neville. Neville Longbottom."

She smiled at him again and for a second he thought she would make fun of his name, like most new people he met.

"It's nice to meet you, Neville," she said kindly and Neville decided he rather liked Hermione Granger.

A few other first years came in. Their names were Susan Bones, Dean Thomas, and Terry Boot. They talked for a while but when Neville reached for his bag, he realized something. Trevor was gone. Instantly, he felt his eyes fill with tears. His mum loved frogs, so he got Trevor so he'd have a reminder of his mum while at school. And he'd already lost it.

"Is something wrong, Neville?" Hermione asked, looking concerned.

"M-my toad's gone," he answered with a shaky voice.

"Then we'll go look for him," she announced in a bossy voice, standing up. "Come on then. We'll go around and ask people if they've seen your toad. Bye Dean, Terry, Susan! It was nice to meet you!"

For the next twenty minutes, they looked up and down the train for Neville. Hermione was kind and confident and ridiculously smart. Neville hoped they would end up in the same House so that he'd have at least one friend at Hogwarts. Maybe then it wouldn't be too bad.

Authors Note: I promise they'll get longer as it gets going. I aim to cover most of their lives, so it'll be a long one. Stick with it if you want to!

Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter related and I am definitely not J.K. Rowling (no matter how much I wish I were).