The day I was to head back to Hogwarts was similar to the previous year. There was a flurry of activity around the house as I packed and moved all my things. 

"Hurry up Alex or we'll be late." Mum pleaded as she passed by my bedroom.

"I've almost got everything packed." In my bedroom, I hastily stuffed a few more things inside my trunk. Just as I was getting about to call out that I was ready, Athena meowed at me, trying to get my attention from the other side of the room.

I looked over and found her sitting on my dresser next to a seemingly empty ceramic plant vase. Once I saw the jar next to her, I glared at it in suspicion. I could have sworn that I meant to pack that away last night. But, it seems as if the bearded mushroom had cleverly made me forget about its presence.

I flicked my wand towards the invisible mushroom and muttered, "Tricky little bastard aren't you?"

With a quick spell, I sent it zooming across the room and once it was tucked safely inside my trunk, I headed downstairs with my trunk floating behind me.

I found my mum tapping her foot impatiently at the front door. She gave me a look over before nodding her approval and called out, "Sasha! Rebecca! Hurry up. We're waiting on you."

While we were waiting, I pulled out Athena's collar from my robe. Kneeling, I attached it to her neck. She narrowed her green eyes and hissed her disapproval as her black horns and dark blue wings were magically tucked away.

"I know, little one. But if you don't have it on, you can't come with me to Hogwarts." Wanting to reassure her, I added, "Besides, I will make sure you get the chance to stretch your wings."

Athena chuffed her displeasure, so I picked her up and put her on her my shoulder. Ever since she had forced herself to grow the previous year, she had grown almost too big for my shoulder.

As Athena kneaded my shoulder, pleased at being on her favorite perch, Rebecca and Sasha came trudging down the stairs. 

"We want to go to Hogwarts," they declared in unison. 

I chuckled at their proclamation. It seemed that the twins believed that if they demanded it, it would happen. 

"Girls, we’ve had this conversation before. You're only six years old, and you have another five years before you're old enough to go to school." Mum patiently explained.

"But we want to go now," Sasha whined.

"Time goes by faster than you think. Before you know it, you'll be eleven and ready for school.” I bopped her on the nose and added, "Just think. When you two start school, I'll be in my sixth year."

"Hmph." She sniffed and turned her head away.

Once we had all gathered, we made our way out to the road, and Dad signaled for the Knight Bus. 

When the bus had arrived and we all loaded up, it took off and after a few quick stops, we arrived at the train station in London. 

After going through the train station, we found the platform between nine and ten, I quickly pushed my cart of belongings towards the brick column that led to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.  

On the other side, the platform was full of students and parents saying their goodbyes. After my family joined me on the other side, I turned to my mum and confirmed, "No singing birthday cards this year, right?"

Her eyes shifted, and I complained, "Mum, we talked about this!"

"I don't see what's wrong with showering my son with affection on his birthday," she protested.

I turned to Dad for backup, and he said, "Honey, we agreed, no singing birthday cards."

"Fine, I promise no singing letters" she quickly agreed with a smile.

I felt like she accepted the ban too quickly, so I added, "Or any other colourful displays of affections that may embarrass me."

Mum's face flushed in embarrassment, giving away that she had been planning on getting around the ban by being creative.

Knowing it would be months before I would see my sisters again, I bent down, scooped them into a hug, and whispered, "I'm going to miss you two troublemakers. Be good for Mum and Dad, and I'll see you at Christmas."

I had to pry Rebecca and Sasha off of me and I gave Mum and Dad a hug goodbye as well. Like the previous year, going to Hogwarts was a bittersweet experience. 

As I pushed my way through the crowd towards the Hogwarts Express, I heard a voice call out, "Hey Alex!"

Turning, I saw Alicia standing next to two adults, who I assumed were her parents. 

The size difference between her parents almost made me smile. Her dad was tall, well over six feet, and her mum stood only a few inches over five feet.

As I approached them, Alicia said, "Mum, Dad, this is my friend Alex."

As soon as her dad heard my name, his nostrils flared out in annoyance. He glared at me with his dark eyes and grunted, "Hmph." 

Her mum was a little more diplomatic and said, "It's nice to meet one of Alicia's friends."

I smiled at her Egyptian accent. It reminded me of my Aunt's way of speaking English.

Wanting to improve my standing in her eyes, I greeted her in Arabic, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Spinnet."

Alicia's mum smiled at me and said, "I'm glad Alicia had found some friends at school."

"It would be better if those friends didn't put my daughter in danger," Mr. Spinnet grumbled under his breath. 

Alicia elbowed her dad in annoyance, "Well, it’s nice that you guys met." She grabbed me by the arm, dragged me back towards the train, and called out, "Love you. See you in December."

"Nice to meet you two," I added.

When we got on the Hogwarts Express, we tried to track down the compartment that Cedric and Anna were reserving. 

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

We searched the railcars until I saw Cedric wave me from one of the compartments. Once we got our trunks stowed away, I took a seat next to him.  

Seeing that Cedric was the only one inside, I questioned, "Where is Anna?" 

He shrugged. "She said she would be back soon."

Soon after we got settled the train loudly whistled, indicating the upcoming departure. About 10 minutes after the train started rolling, Anna showed back up and took a seat next to Alicia. 

She reached over, picked Athena up, and started spoiling her immediately. 

The one thing that sucked about the Hogwarts Express was the time it took to travel from London to Hogwarts. It was between six and seven hours. In a world with apparition, port keys, and the floo network, one would think that there would be a more efficient way to get students to Hogwarts. After all, Hogsmeade is a purely magical town right outside Hogwarts where they could have students arrive.

When I voiced my complaints to my friends, Anna argued, "I kinda like it. It gives students a chance to reunite with their friends."

"I'm with Alex on this," Alicia asserted. "Where did the Hogwarts Express come from? Who built it?"

Everyone turned their eyes to me for answers. "That's easy to answer."  I paused for dramatic effect, and explained, "We stole it."

"How could you possibly know that?" Anna demanded.

I smirked and replied, "One of these days, I need to introduce you guys to my uncle."

"So how did they do it?" Cedric asked.

Remembering what Uncle John told me, I explained, "The whole idea came from Minister Ottaline Gambol. Apparently, she was intrigued by the Muggle invention and saw the potential in trains. She conducted an operation that needed one hundred and sixty-seven memory charms as well as the biggest concealment charm ever performed in Britain. They ended up stashing the train at Hogsmeade, but then, to their chagrin, they realized it was useless without a railway and station."

Anna laughed and said, "I bet those muggles never got over it, memory charm or not."

Around halfway through the trip, the compartment door slid open. I turned to see Micheal Whithorn standing in Gryffindor robes, with a few of his cronies standing behind him.

I noticed that his long brown hair had been sheared off into a buzz cut. "I know it was you," he angrily hissed.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," I replied in my most fake innocent voice.

"I spent three days at St. Mungos before they figured out a mask was causing my hallucinations. My dad thought I was a nutter!" He roared.

Anna snorted, and Micheal turned his angry eyes towards her. Before he could say anything to her, I quipped, "It sounds like you got a little taste of karma. Maybe you should think about that the next time you feel the urge to take what belongs to others."

Micheal turned his dark eyes back towards me. I saw his hand twitch towards his robe for a second, not about to be ambushed again. I stood up and flexed my wrist, shooting my aspen wand into my hand. 

Sneering at him, I said, "Try it. I dare you." 

Right as an impromptu duel was about to break out, a silky voice interrupted, "What do we have here? Are you two trying to match the redheaded twins in getting detention before school even starts?"

Coming down the railcar hallway was a tall, pale, black-haired teenager with a green and silver Slytherin prefect badge attached to his black robes.

As he took in the scene, he drawled, "Didn't you understand me? Get lost, or I'll put you in detention."

Micheal gave me one last furious look and promised, "This isn't over."

As he and his friends stormed off, I mocked, "Anytime."

I turned to see the Slytherin prefect eyeing my aspen wand with his green eyes. After I put the wand away, I said, "Thanks,"

He turned and gave a lazy wave. "Just doing my job, I'm sure we'll meet again.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed on his left hand was a familiar looking ring with a silver spear engraved on it. I looked back at him in curiosity. This was the third time I had seen that particular type of ring. Once on the hand of a wizard at the dueling regionals in Brazil, and the other at Madam Yu's shop in China.

Distracting me from my thoughts, Anna giggled, "What did you do to Micheal?"

Grinning evilly, I replied, "I put a cursed mask on him the night before we left. It makes you start seeing things, and the longer you have it on, the stronger the hallucinations get. All you have to do to remove the curse is to take off the mask. I was counting on it taking a while to figure out because it isn't a common curse used in Europe."

I dug out the article written by Rita Skeeter detailing Micheal's freakout and the embarrassment to the Nimbus Racing Broom Company. Everyone got a kick out of the story and laughed.

The rest of the journey proceeded without incident. I had been expecting Fred and George to make an appearance, but it seems as they were too busy being in trouble.

We all slipped on our Hogwarts robes right before we arrived. Unlike the previous year, when we took the boats across the lake. This year, we would be taking the carriages pulled by the thestrals. 

When we all got off the train, we could hear Hagrid directing the first years to the lake as he did for us the previous year. We selected an empty carriage and loaded our luggage inside.

I found it a little curious that I couldn't see the thestrals pulling the carriage. Most of my memories from my previous life had faded away, but I vaguely remember seeing people die at the hospital.

I wonder if it's because it was a previous life and not in this life. I mentally shrugged, magic was weird like that.

As the carriage pulled us away, Cedric said, "I can't wait for the opening feast."

I nodded. "Yeah, the welcoming feast is always impressive. It will be interesting to see the opening ceremony from a new perspective."

When we arrived at the great hall, we all went our separate ways. I saw Roger Davis waving at me from the Ravenclaw table. He was sitting next to our other roommates, William and Ryan. They had saved me a seat next to them.

At the front of the Hall, I saw all of our professors, excluding Professor McGonagall, sitting at the head table. Soon, she entered with all the first years, and the Sorting Hat gave a similar speech as the previous year.

The sorting ceremony seemed to move along fairly quickly. It's funny, I seem to remember it taking longer to finish when I was a first-year. 

After the last name had been called, Professor Dumbledore stood and said, "It's good to see all your familiar faces, as well as all the new ones. Before we begin the feast, I think we should begin the year with our welcoming Hogwarts song."

Professor Dumbledore took a deep breath, began waving his arms as if he were conducting a symphony, and the whole hall erupted in song,

 "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something, please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they’re bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we’ve forgot,

Just do your best, we’ll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled in delight, as if there were nothing in the whole world that he would rather be doing.

Clearing his throat, Professor Dumbledore motioned towards a new face sitting at the high table and said, "Now, to begin with, I would like to introduce Professor Cross. He is replacing Professor Rathpick as your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

The middle-aged professor stood up and gave a shallow wave to the great hall. The most remarkable thing I noticed about him was his unremarkableness.

He wasn't too young or old. His brown hair neither long nor short and with his average height, I imagine that he could slip into a crowd and disappear.

Once the new professor sat down, Professor Dumbledore continued, "Now that we have gotten the introductions out of the way, it falls to me to bring up a few rules that students seem to forget every year. I would once again like to remind everyone that spell casting in the hallways is not permitted.

Students throughout the hall twittered in amusement, the day they can stop a thousand students from misbehaving would be the day the world ends.

"Also, I would like to remind our students to stay out of the Forbidden Forest." Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes seemed to meet mine, and I flushed in embarrassment.

Professor Dumbledore went on to mention a few more rules before he said, "Alright, that's enough rambling from this old coot. It's time to get to what everyone had been waiting for, let the feast begin."