Ch 1 The Beginning September

"Goodbye Emily" I whispered to the little girl whose arms were clasped around my middle. My mother had already left the station to return to my father, who'd waited in the car. I didn't mind though. Emily was the only person in my family I wanted to say goodbye to anyway. I pried her small hands apart and placed them by her sides. She pouted so I gave her one last kiss on the forehead and a smile. I love my little sister to the ends of the earth, but nothing on the planet of earth will cause me to miss my first day of my first year at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Buh bye Jaycee" she grinned with all her might and waved, trying to disguise the tears that were quickly forming in her dark brown eyes.

I didn't want to be late. But I'm not heartless. I dropped my bags and picked her up by her waist. She shrieked with delight as I spun her 'round and 'round. Her long dark blond locks stung as they hit me in the face.

"I'll be back really, really soon!" I said patting her fringe back into place.

"You promise?" She buried her head in my shoulder. I felt my sleeve grow damp.

"You won't even know I'm gone." I placed her on the ground, told her to go back to mummy and that I'd her super soon. She sniffed and wiped her nose and turned around.

I felt my own eyes start to burn and bit my lip as I watched her tiny form dragging her feet toward the exit. She'll be alright, I told myself. She's not like me.

V V V V V V

The red train was gleaming and magnificent. All around parents were hustling and bustling trying to get their kids on in time, girls were squealing as they caught a glimpse of each other after have being separated for two months, boys were laughing and slapping on another on the back as they told of their summer stories, little siblings were whining, and tired looking teachers on duty herded the students towards the coaches.

Wide-eyed, and in a daze, I drifted towards the nearest coach. It was all a bit too much to take. I had to keep telling myself it was real. And happening. I was finally free. I was finally around people just like me. 11 years of wondering why I was so different. They didn't want me to go. They said there was no way they were paying to make me weirder. My parents that is. I managed to convince them though. It took weeks, but they were happy to have me out of the house. I was glad. Here, I was normal. I smiled, then, catching a glimpse of myself in a dark window, faltered. Staring straight back was a pair of eerily golden eyes. Freaky. That's what my father calls them. I'm a freak. My eyes are freaky. What happened to them that one time was freaky. That's all I'll ever be. A freak. Even here would I still be a little... different?

A boy with long, shaggy dark hair nearly bowled me over as he accidentally ran into me. Suddenly startled after being lost in thought, I jumped and instinctively lashed out, hitting him in the eye.

"What the hell was that for?" He angrily spat, rubbing his eye from on the ground.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry! It was an accident! I didn't mean to!" I held out my hand to help him up. He surveyed my outstretched hand, narrowed his gray eyes, pushed himself up off the ground and deftly walked away. I awkwardly ran my hand through my tousled, short, dark blond, hair. My fringe tickled the tops of my eye lids as it fell back into place. Good one, Jaycee. Already making enemies. Though I did think he was a little rude.

The train let out an enormous noise and I quickly dropped my bags off and scrambled to get up the steps onto the coach. All the compartments were already filled, so I had to walk all the way to back to find one with room. There were two girls sitting there already, whispering to each other.

"Can I sit here?" I smiled politely.

The one with long fire-y hair frowned and the other sighed.

"Uhhh... well... we were sort of..." the second girl started, shifting in her seat.

"No." Her redhead friend cut her off. She turned her back on continued the conversation. "So do you know what he said next? He goes, go out with me and I'll never tease him again. Can you believe that! I was like; uhh I'll go out with you when hell freezes over!"

"What did you say then, Lil?" Her friend asked, intrigued.

I rolled my eyes and left the compartment with a slam of the door. Along the corridor I saw a boy with sandy blond hair surrounded by three other boys. I approached them to ask if I could maybe hang out with them, but soon realized the three bigger boys were clearly not wanted by this other one. Three on one? What were the odds on the sandy blond one?

"Hey!" I shouted from halfway down the corridor. The three turned around. The boy with the shoulder length white hair leered at me. The other two were big and stocky, and by the looks of it, exceedingly stupid.

"Leave him alone! What'd he ever do to you lot?" I walked toward them trying to make myself look as tough as possible. Tweedledum and tweedledumber snickered as the first boy raised an eyebrow. He turned back to the smaller boy.

"Look Lupin, you have a rescuer. Someone to protect you from us big scawee bullies" he mocked. I frowned. How dare he. I'm a threat. I can be threatening. I pulled out the wand I had been carrying around for the past month and polishing each night with reverence.

"Ohh noo. Rescuer has her wand" he said in a baby voice.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pointed my wand, praying to anyone listening that this worked. "Petrificus Totalus!"

I opened one eye, then seeing it was safe, the other. I puffed out my chest with pride. The first boy was frozen on the ground and his two sidekicks nowhere to be seen. The endless reading of those spell books hadn't been for nothing! The sandy haired boy tentatively stood up, wide eyed.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" He breathed, staring at my victim.

"I read a lot over the holidays." I simply stated.

"Mine don't work that well."

"Oh... well... I practiced a lot too. I used to torture the neighbour's cats for fun before anyway."

He chuckled. "Remus Lupin."

"Jaycee Aigleigh" I nodded.

After a bit of an awkward silence he crinkled his eyebrows and said, "I've never seen gold eyes before."

"Uhh..." What was I meant to say to something like that?

"Oh! They're pretty" he quickly continued.

"Thanks," I laughed, "Pretty different, that's what they are. My family says they're 'freaky.'"

"Your family's nuts. I think they're awesome." He smiled. "Want to go find a compartment?"

"Sure." I replied happily.

"Firs' yers! Firs' yers! All firs' yers!" The biggest man I had ever seen in my entire life blundered by gathering all the first years behind him.

Remus looked at me. "That's us, we better follow him."

I agreed and we headed off in pursuit of our classmates. Among the group were the two girls who had brushed me off earlier, the three boys I had beaten, the horrible boy I had accidentally punched, a pretty girl with dark brown hair and startlingly blue eyes, a boy with messy brown hair and glasses, another blond boy, plump, with watery eyes and a red face, and a curly haired blonde who smiled a lot. We walked towards the lake while Remus filled me in on the houses of Hogwarts.

"Gyffindor's the best obviously" I stated, brandishing his wand. "For the brave of heart!"

I looked at my slightly shaking hands. That wouldn't be the house for me that was for sure.

"Really," he continued jogging to keep up with the giant man, "any house is better than Slytherin. That's where all the dark wizards and witches end up. Ravenclaw is for the smart people... that wouldn't be too bad, that house" he mused, "and they say Hufflepuff is for the very loyal, but I think that's where they put the ones that aren't smart, brave, or evil. There's some kind of test they put you through to determine the house..."

Test? Oh my Gosh. No one had warned me about a test. My hands were now definitely shaking.

"Mary McDonald" I heard a voice behind us. It was the smiley honey haired girl.

"Jaycee Aigleigh" I replied and shook her hand.

"Remus Lupin" Remus grinned.

"I'm so nervous for the sorting, aren't you? My older brother said that we had to battle a dragon! Can you believe it! I think he was lying though... he does that often." She amicably chattered to us. She seemed really nice. Remus opened his mouth to reply, but the giant cut us off.

"Four t' a boat. Dun shove like a pack've 'ippogriffs now" What on earth was an Ippogriff? I looked at the fleet of small boats floating gently on the shimmering lake. I wondered if it was too late to turn around.

Faintly, I followed Mary, Remus and another girl who said her name was Brianne Bell into one of the creaky wooden boats which immediately began moving towards what I assumed would the castle, itself. It was very serene on the boats. Everyone was utterly silent, respecting the beauty of the lake... until...

SPLASH!

"JAMES! I AM GOING TO-" gurgle...cough "KILL YOU! AHH SOMETHING'S GOT MY LEG!" It was the boy I had punched in the face. I noted to myself that he had one shiner of a black eye. For a reflex, that was pretty good. The boy called James was laughing hysterically. He pulled his friend back into the boat and flinched, expecting revenge, only it never came.

Because everyone had suddenly stopped giggling and were staring wide eyed and open mouthed at the magnificent castle before them.

I had never seen something so beautiful before. There were turrets and towers, stained glass windows, and archways. It was exquisite. All thoughts of turning back abandoned me and I sat in awe for the rest of the boat ride. I was here. For the next 7 years this was home. I sat up straight and grinned widely as the boats hit the shore, grabbing Remus' arm in excitement. I couldn't wait for the adventure to start.

Thanks for reading :) You know... if you did. Then again, if you've gotten this far chances are you've read the whole thing. Anyway! I really want to upload all my prewritten chapters already, but I'm just going to have to restrain myself so I was thinking weekly updates. Review pleaaase! That would make me reaally happy XD