It had been almost a year since that day in Diagon Alley, and now it was finally time for Johnny to start his first year at Hogwarts. During the year he had available, Johnny had practically memorised his books and trained Quorra to be on her best behaviour.

When ten thirty struck, a vast range of emotions hit Johnny like a dump truck. Sadness, nervous and stress were just some of them. Luca packed the boys trunk in the back of the car and ushered his son and daughter in, they didn't have long until the Hogwarts Express left.

"What exactly did McGonagall say to you about this magical platform?" Caterina asked as her Doc Marten clad feet rushed along to keep up with her brother and father.

"Run at the wall between platforms 9 and 10," Johnny said quietly, so the Muggles (non magic folk) couldn't hear the bizarre thing that came out of his mouth. When the platform signs came into view, Luca stopped suddenly, causing both his kids to crash into him.

"Cazzo! (Fuck!)" Both kids yelled in unison, causing the eyes of passing strangers to look over at them.

"Language!" Luca scolded, clipping his two kids around the ear. "Can we come with you onto the Platform?"

Johnny nodded and took a deep breath, shutting his eyes as he walked forward, preparing himself for the impact of a solid brick wall, but it never came. He opened his eyes to see a magnificent scarlet steam train in front of him.

"Johnny!" He heard an excited voice yell. He turned to see Hermione rushing towards him, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight hug. He still wasn't used to the physical contact that came with being friends with Hermione, but he was slowly getting used to it and not patting her awkwardly anymore, so that was a big plus.

"Ah," Luca said, coming through the barrier with Caterina in hand. "This must be the girl Il mio ragazzo (My Boy) keeps talking about."

"Papà (Dad), please..." Johnny groaned, blushing furiously as his friend and sister smirked at him.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Scaletta,"Hermione smiled, shaking Luca's hand.

"Please, Luca is just fine."

With that, the whistle signalling that the train was about to leave went off, and Johnny hugged his sister and father tightly.

"Sii buono, fratellino. ti amo (Be good, little brother. I love you)," Caterina smiled, hugging her brother tightly and placing a kiss in his hair.

"Ci vediamo a Natale, sii buono, ragazzo mio (We'll see you at Christmas, be good, my boy)," Johnny nodded, hugging his father one last time and followed Hermione onto the train after handing over his trunk to one of the workers, Quorra laying in her cage, sound asleep.

"Good summer?" Johnny asked, waving at Luca and Caterina one last time as the train rolled out of King's Cross.

"It was great! Mum and Dad took me to Paris!" Hermione said excitedly, taking a now awake Quorra into her arms. "What've you dome? Anything productive?"

"I read the course books again-"

"I swear you're read them about a thousand times!"

"Says you," Johnny said, smirking at his friend who blushed and waved him off. "I went to Sicily to see my Grandparents too."

At that precise moment, a very upset and pale looking boy opened the door of the compartment, his lip quivering as a fresh tear rolled down his cheek.

"H-have you seen m-m-my toad? I've lost it," the boy managed to stutter out, looking at the ground as an embarrassed flush crossed his cheeks.

"We haven't, sorry," Johnny said, offering the boy a reassuring smile.

"But we'll help you look," Hermione said, pulling Johnny up by the front of his robes and following the toad-boy out of the compartment. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, and this is Johnny Scaletta."

"It's Italian," Johnny said to the boy who wore a confused look.

"N-Neville Longbottom," Johnny snorted but got elbowed in the ribs by Hermione who glared at him, practically telling him to behave himself.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Hermione said, entering the compartment that was occupied by redhead and black haired boys. She had a bossy sort of voice.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said the redhead, but Hermione wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then," she sat down. The redhead looked taken aback, which made Johnny laugh.

"She gets like this," Johnny reassured him, suffering another blow to the ribs from Hermione.

The redhead cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. The rest on his lap stayed gray and fast asleep, making Johnny burst into laughter, holding his stomach.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

The black haired boy looked at the redhead, and was clearly relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"I'm Johnny Scaletta," Johnny waved from where he stood.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course -- I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking Neville and I with her.

"They seemed alright," Johnny shrugged.

When the train finally stopped, Hermione and Johnny piled out of the train, being pushed around by the older years making their way to the carriages.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

A giants big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads, making Hermione and Johnny look at each other with dropped jaws.

"C'mon, follow me -- any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed the half-giant down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Johnny thought there must be thick trees. Nobody spoke much. Neville, who still hadn't found his toad, sniffed once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the half-giant called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" He called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Hermione and Johnny were followed into their boat by Ron and Harry.

"Everyone in?" shouted the giant, who had a boat to himself. "Right then -- FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" He yelled as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said the giant, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock, coming out at last on smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

At everyone's nod, he raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.