Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter character's or anything related to the works of J.K Rowling. I only own the plot and original characters you may notice as you read this chapter.

I do not have a beta to help with any errors in this chapter, or any of the other chapters you may read from this installment. Thank you for reading this, and let me know what you think.

1938, King's Cross Station

Ophelia Darwin looked with full disbelief at her grandfather, only before she turned her head to see the sturdy pillar for bricks off to the side. "But I don't want to run and crash into the wall," she muttered politely as she could to the old man with her mother and father present.

"You won't crash into it," Gregory Darwin urged the child, "I promise you won't." The old man had now considered pushing his granddaughter into the pillar himself, but figured his daughter-in-law would not be very displeased with him. "I can't believe you aren't excited, Ophelia! I could hardly contain myself when I got my letter from Hogwarts."

"Yes, well, not everyone has your…" Wendy Darwin was at a loss for words to pleasantly describe her father-in-law's behavior, "your boldness."

Ophelia's eyes strayed off to her father, "I don't know anything about magic." Her voice was sullen and serious. "What if I'm not good at it-or worse," the child's dull green eyes widened, "what if I'm not even average at it."

Ben Darwin clasped a hand on his daughter's shoulders, he deeply wished he could tell her about how great being a wizard was and how much fun Hogwarts could be. Though when you're a squib-Hogwarts was something more you heard about-not a personal experience. "Then work hard to be good." Ben's voice was firm and soft, "Pipa, at least give Hogwarts and magic a chance, eh?"

The child was about to open her mouth to shoot back a retort she found justifiable in her mind, only to be cut off by her father.

"The year Poppa accidentally brought back a pixie from a trip with his wizarding buddies does not count, Pipa." The main provider of the Darwin household shoved his daughter as gently as he could towards the sturdy pillar between platforms nine and ten.

"Ben," his wife warned, "don't push her."

Poppa added a different set of advice for his son. "Push her faster, or she'll miss the train!"

Ophelia's mouth pulled into a semi-pout. It didn't seem like things were going to the way she wanted them to and by the end of the day: Ophelia would be attending a new school, with new people, in practically a new world far different than what she knew.

"I'll write often," The child said as she leaned in to hug her parents.

"Not too often, Pipa," Wendy said as pulled she away from her daughter, "it might make me think you're not making friends."

Ben rolled his eyes at his wife statement. For a muggle who prompted herself to be a woman of medicine and science, she was all too eager for their daughter to make friends with other witches, wizards, and all the other creatures in that world of magic. Both Ophelia and her father knew her mother meant well.

"Remember," Poppa started when she went to hug him next, "your first year will be a breeze." The old man planted a kiss at the top of her head, "Especially now since I've told you pretty much all I know for the first year."

Ophelia pulled away from the embrace with a smaller pout and replaced it with a small, smile; she walked into the pillar. Much to her surprise, she actually did step through. Not one to take the scenery in when tardy, she rushed straight to the train and hoped she could find at least a relatively quiet compartment to hide in.

"Excuse me, can I sit here with you?" Ophelia was nearly towards the end of the train before she found a compartment that wasn't either stuffed with students or loud. She felt lucky that finally there was a compartment that was quiet.

The boy she directed her question to looked away from the train window and tossed a lazy glance over; he couldn't have been older than her but something about him seemed older in her view.

"No," was the boy's curt reply. He looked incredibly smug for someone Ophelia knew was probably the same age as her.

"There's nowhere else," Ophelia reasoned with the boy, she took note of his black hair and pale skin. "All the other compartments are loud or overflowed with students." She moved into the compartment anyways and slid the door shut. How rude, she muttered in her head.

The boy's brown eyes bored into her green ones as she sat down opposite of him. "I'll curse you," his tone was even and confident, and once again: smug.

All over a silly train compartment?

A quick twinge of fear shook her body before Ophelia remembered something. The fear was replaced with confusion. "Curse me, what do you mean curse me?" Her eyebrows furrowed together, "You can't possibly know any curses...we don't learn those in our first year." Of all the things Poppa had told her about the first year of attending Hogwarts, learning about curses was definitely not one of them.

It was the boy's turn to furrow his eyebrows at her. "What?" A slight flare of irritation lit up his face for a brief second before becoming blank. "Then what will we be learning?"

Ophelia felt a form of sadness for the boy...she couldn't place her finger on it but he seemed off in a way.

Didn't he have someone to tell him what to expect?

"You were speaking a moment ago," the boy seemed irritated, "what will we be learning?"

Ophelia Darwin told this demanding little boy everything her Poppa told her; word for word and in detail. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he processed the information that flew out of her mouth carefully; eventually the girl even told him what she knew about the wizarding world as well. Even if it was something she knew barely anything about.

As soon as she finished explaining everything she knew; he stood up silently and left the compartment. Leaving her alone to slowly realize the train had stopped moving and right outside the train-there stood Hogwarts.

While the rest of the evening moved like a blur to little Ophelia, two things stuck themselves into her memory.

The first thing she experienced was the delayed feeling of excitement of being in Hogwarts; she had been dreading it all summer, and even most of that day until she finally stepped foot into the world of magic. Then when the sorting hat screamed out of "Hufflepuff", a small part of Ophelia knew that she would be fine.

The second thing that would stick with her was the boy who she met on the train; she hadn't realize that neither one of them gave out their names to each other until he was called up to be sorted in a house. Tom Riddle was his name, a Slytherin student who somehow made a bigger part of Ophelia feel nervous.