Hey there, thanks for deciding to read my fanfic! Now, I know Harry Potter takes place in the 1990's, but there will probably be several references to modern day media; mainly for comic relief. Also, the timeline is going to jump around a lot so I'll mention at the beginning of each chapter or in an author's note when the chapter takes place. Right now, our story takes place during The Golden Trio's first year at Hogwarts, right after Christmas break. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters in the story, except for my OC Arla Paxton.

The Escapades of Three Slytherin Girls Chapter 1: BRAKE!

Daphne Greengrass boarded the Hogwarts express, eager to see her friends again and slightly sad at the thought of not being able to see her family again for months. Honestly, Daphne sometimes wondered if the founders of Hogwarts really thought it was a good idea to send eleven year olds away from their parents for the first time and then had to be Sorted in front of hundreds of people; surely the experience, in some cases, could result in therapy, and Daphne was constantly amazed no one she knew had gone to therapy because of it. Still, Hogwarts was amazing though.

As she walked down the train, she finally found the compartment she was looking for and went inside. Inside the compartment sat a witch in her year with curly auburn hair, hazel eyes, and a light spattering of freckles across the face. This girl's name was Arla Paxton and she was, at the moment, waving her wand at the door and muttering incantations under her breath. After Daphne came into the compartment, Arla pointed the wand at the door once more, repeated the incantation, and it locked.

"Where's Tracey?" Arla asked upon noticing Daphne.

"Why, hello to you too," Daphne greeted as she walked over to her friend and gave her bone-squeezing hug. Both girls grinned, obviously glad to be going back to Hogwarts.

"Well, we still have ten minutes before the train leaves," said Arla, peering out the window. "I'm sure Tracey will make it in time."

Daphne's green eyes lit up suddenly, an idea striking her. "Say Arla, how about a bet? I will bet you five galleons that Tracey will miss the train. "

Arla smirked. "You're on."

The minutes passed as the girls talked about their vacations, but Tracey Davis was nowhere in sight. Finally, as the train started to move and it appeared as though Arla had lost the bet, she looked out the window once more and noticed a very thin and petite girl shouting and running to keep up with the train, however it appeared that the train was not going to stop for her. Arla's eyes flickered to one of the walls of their compartment, where the emergency brake rested.

"Arla, what are you-"But Daphne's reply was cut short with a loud Screech! And both Daphne and Arla fell over and slammed against the wall, and slumped onto the floor.

"Okay, I've got just one word for you, Arla," Daphne growled. "Ouch!"

Just then there was a knock on their compartment door and Arla smiled as she saw who I was from the window.

"Alohomora." Arla declared as she pointed her wand towards the door and it swung open.

Tracey Davis stood their beaming at her friends. "Hi, guys!" She greeted cheerfully. "The train just stopped right now, thank goodness, or else I would have missed it and- hey, what happened? "Tracey's onyx eyes scanned the room as she took in Daphne and Arla knocked down on the floor.

"She," Daphne said, pointing to Arla, attempting to make herself look angry but then burst into a fit of giggles. "Okay, I'm not going to lie," She gasped between giggles. "That- was- brilliant!" She shrieked and high-fived Arla.

"Well of course it was, I am the second top student in our year, next to that Hermione Granger," Arla said with a sneer. Hermione was Arla's rival a school, and Arla was determined to beat her in grades, but so far that had not happened yet. "Oh, you owe me five galleons, by the way," Arla added to Daphne.

Daphne stared at Arla for a moment, then" What does you being second best I our year have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, I just felt like mentioning it." Arla commented offhandedly, and then reminded Daphne," All right Daph, cough up the galleons now , if you please."

"Fine, Fine." Daphne said with a sigh and handed Arla the money, who accepted it happily.

'Will someone please tell me what happened?" Tracey wailed, the suspense becoming too much for her. Daphne and Arla laughed, but decided to put their friend out of her misery by explaining how they had made a bet about whether or not Tracey would miss tee train.

"So, you honestly thought I would miss the train?" Tracey questioned Daphne. Daphne shrugged.

"What can I say, Tracey? You have been known to be late and forget things before now, and while your imagination is a very fascinating wondrous place, we both know there have been occasions where you may have become a little too caught up in it; the Theodore Nott's Robes Catching on Fire Incident for example…"

"I keep telling you, that was an accident!" Trace blushed.

Daphne nodded. "And we know that; believe me, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. May Theodore Nott be happy in the afterlife…"

"Uh, Daphne," Arla remarked, staring at Daphne. "Theodore Nott isn't dead."

Daphne's jaw dropped. "You mean he's still alive?"

"Well of course he's still alive," Arla stated incredulously. "How could you not notice that? I mean, that incident happened weeks ago, and he's still been in all of our classes, completely unharmed; his robes weren't even badly singed when that happened. Professor Snape performed an Aguamenti spell on him as soon as Tracey's cauldron exploded…"

What was true though was the fact that Tracey was a daydreamer. What had happened at the time was that Tracey had been having a wonderful daydream about bunnies and imps while she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing in Potions and somehow this resulted in her cauldron exploding and sending sparks flying all over the place. Daphne had joked at the time that sparks were literally flying between Tracey and Theodore, though at the time Tracey did not find this particularly amusing, so Daphne dropped the subject until now.

A moment later the conductor of the train marched into their compartment and he did not look happy. "Did any of you young ladies pull this break?" He demanded angrily.

The brake had obviously been pulled, though no one wanted to admit to being the one who pulled it. Under the icy glare of the conductor though, Tracey felt herself shiver as his beady eyes shifted diown at her. Tracey was actually quite shy and easily intimidated, especially by authority figures; she was usually only social and more outgoing when she was talking to her friends and close family members. Therefore, she caved in. "Arla did it!" Tracey cried, pointing at Arla, who now looked outraged. "But please don't expel her! She was only doing it to save me from missing the train! "Tracey started to sob. The conductor was a bit startled at the hysterical pre-teen's reaction, and felt more than a little uncomfortable at making a little girl cry. (Tracey was very short for her age.)

"Oh, all right!" He admitted defeat. "Your friend won't get in trouble, but none of you are permitted to touch that break under any circumstances, understand?"

And after hearing a resounding chorus of "yes sir." The conductor made his way back to the front of the train. As soon as the conductor was out of earshot, Arla locked the door, and the three girls burst into laughter.

"Thanks Tracey, I owe you one," Arla chocked out as she laughed.

"I can't believe that actually worked!" Daphne exclaimed. "I never knew you were such a good actress Tracey!"

Tracey gave a modest embarrassed sort of smile. She really was shy but she was good acting at the same time and had decided to use both of these skills to her advantage.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, the girls talked about what they did over the Winter holidays and what kinds of presents they had received. Arla had gone back home to Ireland; that was where she was born and where both of her parent s lived; although her father had attended Hogwarts and like her had been sorted into Slytherin, her mother was born and raised in Ireland and he had agreed to live there with her when they married. Tracey and Daphne had visited their families over vacation too and talked a little about that as well.

"I got new duck tape for Christmas ," Tracey was saying now as she showed them the duck tape she had brought on board the train. The girls oohed and ahhed over the sight. Tracey was an avid duck tape collector and had managed to obtain some beautiful designs over the holidays. Daphne snapped her fingers suddenly.

"Tracey, cover the window on the compartment door with duck tape!" Daphne snapped her fingers as Tracey did as she was asked.

"Must you snap your fingers at everything?" Arla inquired pleasantly, though with only a faint trace of annoyance being as this was something Daphne did frequently that over time Arla grew to consider a bad habit. Daphne shrugged.

There was a reason for this strange request- or rather command- of Daphne's though. All three of the girls were in Slytherin, but unlike some of their housemates they were not that prejudiced against Muggles and Muggleborns; in fact they weren't prejudiced at all. The only reason Arla disliked Hermione Granger did not have to do with the fact that Hermione was a Muggleborn, but rather mainly that she seemed to beat Arla at everything in school.

Tracey and Arla were both half-blood, though neither Tracey nor Arla had a single parent on either side of their families that were Muggle or Muggleborn. Tracey had a pure-blood witch for a mother, and a half-blood wizard for a father. Both of Arla's parents were both half-bloods.

However, they both knew some things about Muggle Technology and culture and in all honesty had a slight obsession with it. They had both practically had nervous breakdowns the first week into Hogwarts upon finding that none of their Muggle technology worked, being as somehow their parents- despite each girl having at least one parent who had attended Hogwarts- had neglected to tell them that Muggle technology did not work within the walls of Hogwarts.

Meanwhile, Daphne was a Pure-Blood who had never before even heard of Muggle technology and when she found out the cause for Tracey and Arla's source of distress, she could not help but become interested. And it was due to this that the girls formed a plan; they would use their Muggle Technology on the train rides to and from Hogwarts, however they did not wish to get caught by their housemates, so Tracey would duck tape the window on their compartment so no one could see what they were doing, and Arla would lock the door so no one could get in.

Now Daphne was talking about her vacation, and her family, but mainly her younger sister junior to her by two years named Astoria. "Seriously, it was painful for me say good bye to 'Stori. She is literally the absolute cutest thing ever! I don't know how I can possibly last another term without her." She sighed. Tracey and Arla listened with interest; neither one of them had ever met the youngest Greengrass sister in person, but Daphne talked about her constantly and had shown them photographs. Arla had informed Tracey once that what Daphne had was known as a "sister complex."

After a while of this though, Tracey suggested looking at their Muggle technology now so that they could use it while they could and talk more about vacations after they reached Hogwarts, to which the other two girls readily agreed. Arla pulled out a laptop from her bag while Daphne watched on in awe. Daphne was usually very talkative, but she fell silent at the sight of Muggle Technology. Though inevitable later on she would always freak out.

Meanwhile, as Arla set the laptop up, Tracey searched her bag for her Muggle electronics, but found none. It was then and there that she remembered that in her haste to catch up with the train she had left her Muggle things in the luggage compartment instead of in her handbag. "Uh, guys, I think I might have left my things on the luggage rack." Tracey gulped. A hushed silence fell. Aboard the Hogwarts express, the luggage rack for belongings one would not need while on the train were placed in a separate car on the train where they would be taken up to the students' dormitories later on. Meaning that there was no way Tracey could obtain her Muggle Technology until after they arrived at Hogwarts, by which time it would be too late, unless…

"I HAVE A PLAN!" Daphne announced loudly, causing Tracey and Arla to fall over in surprise.

"Might you tell it to us in a normal voice?" Arla grumbled.

Daphne ignored her and went on," Tracey, you can go to the edge of our car, and when you give me a signal, I'll pull the brake so you can safely jump across to the other car without having to worry about then cars moving while you jump. Then, you can sneak inside the other car, grab your electronicy-thingies, jump back, and return to our compartment. Meanwhile, Arla you can go out to the trolley to buy something so no one will be able to say you pulled the brake, an after I pulled the brake, I'll sneak on over to the bathroom so if anybody interrogates me about it, I'll say I was in the bathroom at the time. "

A stunned silence fell before Arla whispered," you know, that could actually work."

And so it was that the three girls followed this plan. When Tracey had reached the end of the train she put she flashed Daphne a peace sign; tis was to be their signal. Meanwhile back inside the compartment, Daphne had an insane sort of grin plastered across her face.

I've always wanted to do this; she thought to herself and then yelled loudly as she pulled down the handle," BRAKE!" The train stopped abruptly. Once it stopped, Daphne ran out of the compartment and in the excitement no one seemed to notice her. Tracey opened the door that separated the gap between the two cars and jumped across. After gathering her electronics, she raced back inside the other car and headed back to her compartment, along with Daphne and Arla. On the way back, they were interrogated once more by the conductor, though the three girls were able to support each other in that they were not their when the brake was pulled so it cold no have been them. (Tracey lied that she had gone to the bathroom too.) After being left by the conductor, the girls locked the door and were finally able to relax with their Muggle electronics before they got to Hogwarts. After a couple of hours or so, Tracey could not help but let her eyes wander over to the emergency break while Arla and Daphne laughed over some computer video they were watching.

I better not touch that brake, Tracey thought to herself. I bet if I just extend my hand ever so slightly, I still wouldn't be able to touch it. Tracey extended her arm a bit further. See? Nothing. Just a little more…

Still nothing transpired. Tracey pondered this for a moment; she could probably stretch her arm out all the way, she mused, with her fingertips just inches from the brake and still nothing would happen. Tracey proceeded to try this. Meanwhile Daphne and Arla were laughing harder than ever at the video they were watching, shaking in their seats. Daphne punched Arla's arm lightly, and Arla squeezed hers playfully back.

Slowly… Slowly… Tracey told herself, and just when her fingers were centimeters from the emergency brake, she pulled back. That's as far as I dare to-

Tracey's thoughts were interrupted by something –or rather, someone- crashing into her-

…go. Tracey completed that thought, only to find the train came to a complete stop. Looking up, she found that Daphne had crashed into her; Arla must have pushed Daphne too hard, causing Daphne to crash into Tracey, and for Tracey's hand to slip and pull the emergency brake.

Oh no… Right at that moment Tracey found the door to their compartment slide open, and out stepped the conductor. Tracey and her friends tried to splutter an explanation, but the conductor would not hear it, and separated Tracey away from her friends and into a compartment by herself for the rest of the journey, and assured her he would be talking to the Head of her House. Daphne and Arla stared after Tracey mournfully and apologetically, though Tracey comforted herself with the thought that at least the conductor let her bring her Muggle electronics with her.

Note: I actually do like Hermione, I think she's a great role model for young girls- and just people in general- to look up to; in fact, she's one of my favorite characters. It's just that Arla doesn't like Hermione being as she beats Arla in everything at Hogwarts, and as we could gather from Arla actually stopping the train just so she could win the bet, she clearly dislikes losing and being second best; so any Hermione bashing coming from Arla is not my own personal opinion about Hermione. More of that will be elaborated later on…

Anyway, the purpose of this chapter was mainly for exposition, to get to know the personalities of the three main characters in this fic, which may come into play later on, and give a bit of an idea of what sort of antics these three will be up to in other chapters. Next chapter will introduce some other characters though, and may be a little more action packed… I'm not going to say any more other than that. What will happen next time? You'll have to read and review to find out! Please review!