Amazing cover by Julia Kim, also known as @soulofstaars!
Ananya Adur is the daughter of a set of very prestigious muggle politicians who are not pleased to find out that she is different from what they expect of her: she is a witch.
In fact, they ar...
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"Trolley! Anyone want anything from the trolley?" A voice called, startling the two from their books. Ananya and Harry looked at each other, giggling, then raced to catch up with the gangling lady pushing a cart full of sweets. After Harry filled his pockets full of sweets and Ananya bought a chocolate frog, they headed back to their compartment, only to find the youngest red-headed Weasley boy, Don or Jon or something like that, standing beside the door.
The boy looked nervous. "There's nowhere else to sit except here...could I please join you? I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley." So it was Ron, not Don. Hm.
Harry grinned at the boy, then Ananya. "Sure, come on in." He opened the door for the other two to pass, then entered himself and sat. Ron looked between the two, then sat next to Harry and immediately started talking. Ananya just rolled her eyes and reopened her book, which she was about three-quarters through. Falling in a deep trance, she crammed as much information about Hogwarts in her brain as possible before she was pulled away by a girl bursting into their compartment.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost his." The girl had bushy hair and large teeth, which intrigued Ananya, who'd always dreamed of being a dentist. "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger. And you are?" Hermione looked at Harry, who smiled, then at Ron with a scrunched nose.
"Harry Potter. Nice to meet you." The dark-haired boy held out a hand, but Hermione surpassed it to instead gasp.
"Really? I've read all about you. Is it true that you have a scar?" She leaned forward, reaching for his forehead, but Harry flinched away.
He smiled tightly. "Yes. I've got a scar." He brushed back his bangs, then pushed them down again.
Hermione sighed and reached for her wand. "Sorry. Mum and Dad have always said I'm bossy. Anyway, want me to fix those?" She pointed at Harry's taped-up glasses with her wand, not waiting for a response before she whispered, "Reparo," and Harry's glasses were fixed.
Ananya's eyes widened. She'd only seen one person do magic, and it was Professor McGonagall when she'd tried to convince Ananya's parents about magic being real. "That was quite nice of you, Hermione."
Hermione jumped, not expecting to hear a girl speak. "Gosh! I didn't see you there. What's your name?"
"Ananya Adur." She held out a hand, just like Harry had, and shook Hermione's. "Are you a first-year too?"
"Yep. My parents don't have magic, and they were so very excited that I'm a witch. What about you?"
Harry, whom the question was clearly not directed at (Hermione had been looking straight at Ananya), shook his head. "My parents are dead. Hagrid, he's the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, told me that my mum was a muggle-born and my dad was a pure-blood. But my aunt and uncle don't have magic, and they were...upset."
"Well, m'family is pure-blooded. They sure hoped that I wouldn't be a Squib."
The others' eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What's a Skweeb?" asked Ananya, who thought that the day was getting curiouser and curiouser by the minute. Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement, looking at Ron questioningly.
He blushed under the attention. "A squib is a person who's born to magical parents, but they don't have magic themselves. Fred and George, my brothers, said that some staff member named Filch is a Squib." He shrunk back in his seat after his little speech and looked at Ananya. "You didn't tell us how your parents reacted to you being a witch."
Ananya's face darkened, and she pursed her lips. "They were unhappy." With that, she reopened her book and returned to reading, ignoring the others for the rest of the train ride.
