Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and under no circumstance do I claim ownership to the series.

Chapter 1: Unsightly Redhead with the Scar

A/N: Contrary to popular belief, I didn't name Evanna after the actress who portrayed Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies, Evanna Lynch. I simply wanted a name where I could use the nickname Eva and this was the first name that came to mind. (Of course, that is the nickname I'm making her boyfriend use for her, and he doesn't come in until she's older.)

I know the title sucks, but I couldn't think of anything else . . . Haha, yep, I am lame, thanks for noticing! If anyone has any better title suggestions (especially as the story progresses) please feel free to run them by me! Who knows? Your title could win!

Also, this is my first attempt at Fem!Harry, so please, constructive criticism and no flames! Remember, even just saying, "Good job." fills my heart with joy and makes me want to update for you awesome people! (Yes, you are all awesome. Even though I don't know you, I know you are awesome.)

A scrawny, red-headed girl ran a finger across the feathery head of a beautiful snowy owl. She smiled wearily as the bird gave an indignant hoot. Withdrawing her finger from the cage, she whispered, "Just a few more hours now, Hedwig, and then we'll be at Hogwarts. We'll be free."

The girl's name was Evanna Potter. She had unruly dark red hair, startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead. She was a rather tiny girl with a malnourished looking body. This was mostly because she had spent about ten years of her life under some stairs, pretending to be nonexistent, while she lived with her loathsome relatives, the Dursleys (her Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin, Dudley). There's one more thing that sets Evanna apart from the rest: she is, in all aspects, a witch.

She had always known she was different. Whenever she got exceptionally angry (which wasn't often, but when she did, she would fully explode), things around her would blow up or something similar to that. Just recently in fact, she had set loose a snake at the local zoo! She smiled fondly at the memory. It was something she was strangely proud of.

Fiddling with her brand new wand (Holly, Phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple; another thing Evanna was quite proud of), she thought of all the things Hagrid had told her about. How she was a real witch, how her parents had truly died, how she was going to a magic school called Hogwarts, how she had defeated the darkest wizard of all times without even trying. Yes, her entire world had been flipped upside down, left, right, sideways, and back again within seconds. At least her life isn't boring anymore.

Evanna flipped her braided hair over her shoulder, examining the paper on which she had drawn a rough sketch of Rubeus Hagrid, the kindly gamekeeper who had helped her discover she was a witch and gather everything she needed for her first year at Hogwarts. Evanna was an artist, that was for sure. She had learned on her own, by drawing everything. The Dursleys had forbidden her to do so (for reasons unknown to man), but being the rebellious little girl that she was, she did it anyways. Much to her delight, when Hagrid had taken her to Diagon Alley, she had stumbled upon a wonderful sketchbook, complete with a set of pencils and pens and other things to help her draw. She had bought this without a second thought and was very glad she had done so. Now, the first sketch to grace the pages was a drawing of Hagrid, the first person to have actually made her smile.

The full moon shone through the window of her bedroom (an actual bedroom!) and she felt happiness swell up within her. By this time tomorrow, she would be at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Perhaps, just perhaps, she might even make genuine friends there.

For a girl who had no idea how to get onto a platform that was supposedly nonexistent, she sure had figured it out fast. Evanna had simply followed a family of gingers that had been discussing Muggles (non-magical people) and they had told her that to enter the platform, she just had to run into a solid brick wall. Needless to say, she watched them do it first. Then, wonderfully, she had made friends with them!

She sat in a compartment with Ron Weasley, the youngest boy of the family, with herself as the main topic of discussion. She had willingly shown him her scar (which she generally hid behind her hair) and even willingly discussed the death of her parents (a topic she was not very open with). She was just so happy at the prospect of having a true friend for once in her life!

"I never knew I wasn't supposed to say it!" Evanna was retorting, as an elderly woman came up to their compartment, pushing a trolley of candies. "Besides, it's just a name! A really stupid name too!"

Ron was still gaping at her in awe when she went to examine the many wizarding sweets to choose from. Not many were daring enough to say You-Know-Who's name out loud, especially not many children. Ron liked Evanna's personality; sweet and kind one second, the next she'd be yelling like mad. He was in every more of an awe when Evanna dumped some of everything onto the empty seat across from them.

Evanna raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Well, go on! Let's eat this stuff!"

Ron gladly tossed the sandwiches his mum had packed for him aside and dug into the large stash of candies his new friend had bought. He felt a bit awkward, being with this girl who was not only famous, but pretty rich too. She didn't seem to mind or care that Ron didn't have fame or fortune; she just happily accepted him as a friend.

"He's gone!"

Ron looked over at Evanna, who was staring at a chocolate frog card in her hands. It was of Dumbledore, but apparently the headmaster had gone to look around. Ron was surprised that Evanna was so surprised.

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day, can you?" Ron asked. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her . . . Do you want it? You can start collecting." Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.

"Help yourself," said Evanna distractedly, shifting the chocolate frog card in her hands, examining it with interest. "But, you know, in the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron was amazed. No wonder Evanna had been so surprised. "Weird!"

Evanna began to rummage through her trunk to find her camera, her intent to show Ron a Muggle photograph. She didn't find her camera, but she did find a picture of her cousin as a baby. (How did that get in there?) She showed Ron the photo anyways, laughing along with him as they examined the baby which had an uncanny resemblance to a beach ball, and which didn't move, much to Ron's utter amazement.

"Sorry, but have you seen a toad?"

They turned to see a round-faced boy, who was nearly in tears, standing in the doorway of their compartment. Evanna immediately felt sympathy for him, though she didn't know exactly why he needed a toad.

When both she and Ron shook their heads, the boy bit back tears, saying, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!" He sighed. "If you see him, I suppose . . ." He trailed off before going to the next compartment.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

Both looked down at the rat snoozing on Ron's lap. Evanna did find it quite pathetic, though that would be too rude to admit.

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look . . ."

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

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

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She invited herself into the compartment and sat next to Ron. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er — all right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"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, without pausing for breath. Evanna stared at the girl in awe for a few seconds, then realized that staring was quite rude and stopped.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered, looking irritated at the girl, who had been truthfully quite rude.

"Evanna Potter," said Evanna politely, trying to ignore the bluntness of Hermione.

"Are you really?" Hermione asked. "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 Evanna, feeling dazed and slightly annoyed by this girl.

"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. By the way, you've got dirt on your nose, did you know? Right there." And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron, rubbing his nose angrily before throwing his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"I doubt he would do that — " Evanna began, but Ron just laughed.

"'Course he would! He and Fred do stuff like that all the time. Though usually it's worse," Ron said. Evanna blushed slightly; she had thought the twins were really funny.

For the next while (neither had kept time), they discussed which house they thought they'd be in (Ron hoped for Gryffindor, where his whole family had been in (including his five older brothers, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George), and Evanna felt she was best suited for Gryffindor or Hufflepuff), and what Quidditch teams they supported (Evanna, having never heard of Quidditch before, listened to Ron explain the sport). It seemed to have only been minutes (though it must've been hours), when they arrived at the station. Upon exiting the train, Evanna felt two hands patting her head. She shot unamused looks up at the Weasley twins, watching them laugh and dart away from her. They could make her laugh, but they could also push her buttons.

Then she beamed as a giant of a man lead the first years up towards Hogwarts. "Hagrid!"

"Alright there, Evanna?" he asked, before calling out, "Firs' years! Firs' years, follow me!"

Though following him was no easy feat; he lead them down a steep, narrow path that was slick with mud. It was one thing to avoid falling flat on your face and it was another trying to keep up with Hagrid in the dark. He took far larger strides than any of the first years did and some had to run to keep up.

"So it's true then?" came a voice from behind Evanna. She turned around to see a rather pale boy, with sleek blonde hair, gray eyes, and quite pointed features. He didn't look a sickly pale, but he did have an air of meanness around him. "This unsightly, scrawny redhead with the appalling scar is Evanna Potter?"

Evanna felt her lips form a scowl. Who did this boy think he was? Though it may have been true (Evanna didn't think too highly of herself), he had no right to be rude! "Yes, I am," she announced, with her head held high. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He glanced at Ron, who was currently trying to not faceplant in the mud by clinging to a tree. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held out his hand, as if Evanna would actually ditch Ron for him!

Evanna gave a short laugh. "I hope you don't mean yourself! Because I think I've got you perfectly figured out, and you definitely do not fall into the category of 'much better.' Nor do the Weasleys fall within the 'wrong sort.' Goodbye!" Evanna grabbed Ron's arm, pulling him away from Draco Malfoy, who glared after them with pure malice.

But she stopped short when the narrow path opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. That had to be Hogwarts. It was an enormous, absolutely magnificent castle with many turrets and towers and it was settled atop a mountain just across the lake, where several boats sat, awaiting the first years to board. Evanna nearly forgot to get into a boat when Hagrid told them to, because her awe had her rooted to the spot. Ron had to tug on her sleeve to get her to join him in the last available boat with Hermione and Neville. Evanna's reverence of Hogwarts never stopped, not even for a second.

A/N: Yay, meeting Evanna Lily Potter for the first time! I didn't give her a name that started with H for a number of reasons (including the one at the Author's Note at the top of this chapter), and I might disclose those reasons later on.

Please review! ~Jayce