Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.

2 years later...

The sunlight filtered in through the half shut blinds so rays shone on Euphemia's purple duvet. With sleep clouding her eyes, she rose with a groan and reluctantly dragged herself out of bed.

Her legs feeling like lead, she traipsed over to her calendar with her fountain pen to cross off yet another day only to find that there were no days left to cross.

Any sleepiness within her disappeared immediately and energy suddenly filled her like mad, her excitement radiating off her. It was finally time for her to go to Hogwarts!

Euphemia bounced away from the calendar where 1st September was surrounded by hearts and stars with the words Hogwarts in Euphemia's best copperplate.

She got dressed in her favourite robes (or more so ones approved from her mother) and quickly braided her long brown hair neatly with purple ribbons tied at the bottom.

Casting an excited eye on her ready packed Hogwarts trunk, she bounced downstairs but not before double checking it really was 1st September and it really was the day she  would finally be able to go to the school she had dreamed of for so long.

Cassiopeia Black sat with her back to her daughter, sipping her tea haughtily whilst her husband was hidden behind the newspaper.

Marius, Euphemia's ten year old brother, was moodily prodding at his bacon, moving it around the plate.

"Marius! Eat your bacon properly!!" Arcturus snapped and Marius jumped violently before stuffing the meat in his mouth.

Euphemia cleared her throat loudly and her mother looked up and beamed. "Oh darling, you look gorgeous! Just like a proper lady. You'll make a fine member of the Noble House of Black!"

Inwardly, Euphemia rolled her eyes; she really couldn't be complimented without a mention of the Blacks. Blah blah blah, she didn't care.

After eating (in silence as per usual) Cassiopeia busied herself by neatening up Euphemia's smartest robes and getting Tibet to collect her trunk whilst reminding Euphemia be a lady.

"For goodness sake, Cassie, leave the girl alone, she's got enough problems without you adding to them! The girl has expectations, she does!" Arcturus snapped at his wife.

"Well unlike you I am actually trying to be a good parent by helping her in remembering her place!!" her mother hissed back, venom lacing her tone.

"You'll never be a good parent no matter how hard you try! That's what you do all the time Cassiopeia! Try but don't succeed!"

Euphemia winced as her mother puffed up with rage and all she could wish was that they could be a normal family.

She still didn't see how her parents ended up together as she believed in true love not true hate which seemed to be the only thing her parents shared in common.

Cassiopeia and Arcturus had only married in order to maintain the pure bloodline and this was the problem the family faced daily.

The family got a lot of strange looks from the muggles as they swished past in their robes but Cassiopeia and Arcturus just gave them dirty looks full of disgust which were met with utter confusion.

Eventually, her parents grabbed both her and Marius and disappeared with a loud crack, arriving in front of the barrier.

Euphemia knew how this worked, having once seen her cousin Druella off to school 3 years previously and so ran at the barrier with no fear or trepidation.

Entering the platform was like shifting into another dimension, transferring to another side of the earth - and Euphemia could hardly contain the gasp that her mouth released.

An enormous, scarlet train stood in front of her, breathing fire like a dragon and that very smoke floated over the heads of the chattering crowd as cats of every colour wove around legs and meowed from baskets and owls hooted from their cages into the steam.

Children hung out of windows, waving madly and mothers shouted out warnings, passing forgotten items to their kids.

Students, some already in their school robes, others wearing Muggle clothes or casual robes like Euphemia reminisced and greeted their friends after a long summer apart.

"Well this is it, Euphemia Cassiopeia Ophelia Black! Time to make the family proud and live up to traditions that have been in the Black family for centuries, dear," Cassiopeia reminded her daughter, brushing her hair back off Euphemia's forehead and placing a kiss there as she squirmed beneath her mother's grip, still exasperated by the use of her full name.

"And love, don't be afraid to curse a couple of half bloods!" she added under her breath, sending a death glare to a family stood only metres away.

The mother was fussing around her daughter, sorting her hair with her wand as the dad looked around in awe and disbelief - evidently new to the whole magical experience.

Minutes later, after the blows of a whistle alerted Euphemia to board the train, she stood waving as her family got smaller and smaller and smaller and when they were practically gone, Euphemia headed down the train in order to find a compartment.

Eventually after looking for an empty one, she gave up and knocked on the nearest one which held a girl about her age looking into a cat basket.

If Euphemia hadn't known better she would've said the girl was talking to the cat but that just wasn't possible.

"Is this compartment free?" she asked politely, as her mother had taught her. The girl nodded and beckoned her in shyly.

"I'm Euphemia Black, what's your name?" Her mother had always told her to check what their blood status was first but Euphemia didn't think it really mattered whether they were half or pure.

"Minerva McGonnagal. Euphemia you say? That's a pretty name." There was a noticeable Scottish lilt behind the words but Euphemia thought it pretty, like the girl really.

She had quite thick brown hair tied back in a ponytail and sparkling green eyes. There was a carefree air around her that Euphemia liked and she smelled of strawberries and blossom leaves.

"Well why thank you. You can call me Mia, though - Euphemia can be a bit of a mouthful for some. My Muggle friend back home -" she broke off as Minerva's face had just sunk into absolute misery. "I say, are you quite alright?"

"I'm - I'm fine. Well...no, I'm not. You see, my best friend back home is a Muggle too and well....he can't come here. It's the first time we've not gone to school together. I've known him since I was 3. His name is Dougal. Dougal McGregor."

Euphemia's breath stopped for a moment, excitement taking over her body and pumping through her veins at the discovery that there was another girl out there with a muggle friend, that she wasn't the only one.

The dawning thought that not everyone thought as her family did was actually rather overwhelming and Euphemia couldn't stop herself from beaming but quickly regained her composure so she could comfort this other girl. Maybe they could be friends!

And so, as Euphemia had wished, the two young ladies became friends. They started discussing their Muggle friends and Euphemia brought up that she had parents who were very prejudiced.

It turned out Minerva was half blood but Euphemia was okay with that. She had to explain to Minerva about the Sacred 28 and all the Grindelward purity war that had ended two years ago, in 1945 and in exchange, Minerva informed Euphemia of Hitler's regime with the Jews.

It all sounded very similar to Euphemia. Each was a man trying to gain power and killing millions just because of their own prejudiced reasons.

Pathetic and cruel, that people would want to hurt others just because of stupid prejudices.

About half way there, the trolley witch came along and Euphemia immediately jumped up to buy treats.

Minerva followed her a little cautiously, picking up her purse of wizard money that her witch mother had given her.

She was confused with her money at first so Euphemia aided her and soon they had a moderately large pile of sweets.

Minerva hadn't really tried any of the sweets she had bought, having gotten the ones Euphemia recommended so it was quite funny for Mia to watch Minerva try all the wizard sweets.

"Eugh. What is that?" Minnie spat the bean she had just swallowed out into her handkerchief as Mia giggled uncontrollably at her friend's disgusted expression.

Their "fun", however, was cut short by a rowdy boy running in, shouting at the top of his voice.

The girls watched in alarm as he swept his ruffled hair out of his eyes, throwing what looked like a soft ball to another boy on the side.

"Excuse me? What on earth do you think you are doing?" Minerva demanded, standing up with a dignified air around her which led Mia to smirk.

The boy looked her up and down, smirking. "Who are you, the ol' Queen? Shall I bow down low to her majesty?" Minerva didn't flush or flinch, to Mia's utter surprise - as she would.

In fact, her mouth became a very thin line and her eyes narrowed, "Don't show disrespect like that, you rude ignorant little boy. Shame on you. What's your name anyway? I'll put it down for you to see someone. You know, to sort out your little childish brain that obviously can't process manners?"

Euphemia couldn't help but think she sounded like a teacher, disciplining a child especially as the boy's eyes widened and he shrank back.

Euphemia disguised a snort of laughter behind a hacking cough and Minnie turned 'round and smirked before composing her stern face again, hands on hips. "I'm Fleamont Potter though please call me Charlus."

"Why on earth would I call you something that isn't your name, you imbecile?" Minerva snapped, exchanging an exasperated look with Mia.

"Because it's my middle name! I go by it!" and then he flinched as she stepped forward, "Don't hurt me! I ain't done nothing wrong!"

Euphemia could tell he wasn't really scared, just more intimidated that he was being threatened by a girl. Well, she thought, shows strength for girl power.

"What are you even doing here anyway?" Euphemia asked, speaking up for the first time since the boy had entered their compartment.

Charlus looked over at her, one eyebrow raised as he had not actually noticed the small brunette girl that was seated in the corner.

"And you are?" he asked, a gleam of interest in his eyes as he looked her up and down, eager to learn the name of this mysterious but good looking girl.

"Euphemia Black, it's a pleasure to be acquainted," Euphemia introduced herself rather primly, offering her hand to Charlus Potter, a boy she knew came from a blood traitor family but what her mother didn't know couldn't hurt her.

Charlus' look of interest immediately was replaced with a look of disgust and he removed his gaze from her.

"Black?" he spat, having grown up with being told that all Blacks were evil and dark wizards.

Euphemia nodded, baffled at his reaction but Charlus said no more, simply turning from her and asking for Minerva's name, leading the two to also be acquainted.

Charlus made to walk out the door after that but Minerva stopped him by placing her hand on his wrist, preventing him from going any further.

"Hang on, you didn't answer Mia's question from earlier. And you didn't give a reason as to why you were so vile to her just then," the girl reprimanded. making Charlus roll his eyes in exasperation.

"Okay fine," he mumbled, disgruntled before stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I came in here to hide from my friend, Alastor Moody, because I nicked a few of his chocolate frogs and the old Scottish boy wasn't having it-" Charlus' joking demeanour quickly faded upon seeing Minerva's stern gaze and quickly carried on, "And I reacted like that because all Blacks are dark wizards," he shot a dirty look in Mia's direction, who felt indigence boil up in her at once but the obnoxious boy had already winked at Minnie, ruffled his hair arrogantly and swaggered off with a gentlemanly but mocking, "Good day ladies!"

Minerva rolled her eyes, looking at Mia in exasperation and there was a break of silence before the two burst into giggles from the slight tension but amusement of the situation.

A simple look from Minnie to Mia silently said that neither judged the other for whatever barrier that was in the way of their friendship and the girls started working on a handshake for them to have, the pair equally delighted to have found the other.

~~~

"I swear, her face was priceless!" Charlus Potter exclaimed, whilst stood on the seat in their compartment, as Alastor Moody rolled around in laughter below him as his friend did an impression of the girl that had told him off before.

"Anyone would think she were a teacher, the way she was carrying on!" Florean Fortescue, another first year that was sharing the compartment and the very boy who had been throwing the soft ball around with Charlus earlier, said with a grin spreading across his freckled features.

A smaller boy sat in the corner, immersed in his reading, his feet hardly reaching the ground for he was half goblin and was more interested in his Charms textbook that he was in the story that that boisterous boy was recounting.

"What'd you think of it, Fil?" Alastor asked Filius Flitwick as Charlus and Florean had now moved onto talking about never melting ice cream and how wondrous it would be if such a thing existed.

"I think it was rather funny, this girl sounds interesting," Filius answered mildly, his eyes never leaving his textbook which caused Alastor to lean over to see what was so intriguing, only for him to wrinkle his nose in distaste.

"I don't get Charms, personally," Alastor started a conversation, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "I always liked the idea of Defence against the Dark Arts better. Constant vigilance and the like," he spoke, glancing out of the window, his deep blue eyes following the British outdoors that were displayed through one of the slightly condensed windows of the Hogwarts Express,

The train sped past fields and fields of cows and crops and trees that swayed in the breeze but also went past in such a green blur that no one could really admire the view outside, despite the golden rays that shone down on the fields and farms making the outdoors look even more appealing, with wind blowing the autumn leaves about as the last of the summer air started to leave the England countryside.

Alastor Moody and Filius Flitwick were now having a conversation about which houses they would wish to be sorted into when they got there and soon the excitable Charlus and Florean joined in, the former complaining that if he got Slytherin he would rather go home and the latter remarking that Gryffindor or Hufflepuff sounded rather appealing.

A couple of compartments down sat Minerva and Euphemia, who had in fact been joined by one of Euphemia's cousins, Walburga, who was also in the first year.

Mia had warned Minnie not to mention anything of her blood status as Walburga could be rather obsessed with them if they were spoken of, not unlike the rest of her family.

Conversations galore were taking place up and down the train, friends were telling stories of summers and certain students were meeting up to snog or engage in Prefect meetings, discuss plans for the next term or to change into their robes as they were fast approaching Hogwarts.

Cats meowed, frogs croaked, rats squealed and several brooms were actually being flown up and down the corridors by some lively Ravenclaw chaps.

The Hogwarts Express was alive with chatter and laughter, though one particular girl was sat by herself, sinking and wallowing in her own self pity and loneliness as the train pulled into the station, darkness engulfing the magnificent scarlet body as steam poured out onto the platform and the surrounding area.

They had reached their destination.