Chapter 3

Sitting on a neat bed at the orphanage Ariana had just finished packing her things and was preparing to cast her first spell.

She knew it was possible to do magic before the first year at Hogwarts. Hermione herself had confessed to this, and would the ministry investigate every bout of accidental magic muggle-born produce as babies? She believed the bullshit 'trace' was placed on you as soon as you joined your first year at the famous school.

She had with her the 'Standard book of spells, Grade 1'. Flipping to the first spell she found the 'Wand lighting charm'. The page had a lot of useless information like who invented and what their inspiration was. Skimming through the boring contents she located the method to cast the spell.

It didn't have any complicated explanations other than the incantation.

It was obvious it wasn't a difficult spell by any standard, and only required trial and error to get it right.

Grabbing onto her wand Ariana made sure to keep away from anything that easily set on fire, like the book said, and made her first attempt.

"𝐋𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐬!" She incanted, tightly gripping her wand...

Nothing

Not even a single spark. Not letting her failure discourage her, Ariana continued to try for about 11 minutes before she managed to get a small white light going.

The book states that the average first year muggle-born student took around 18-20 minutes to cast the spell for the first time. Safe to say she felt a little smug. It took her another 2 minutes to use the counter-charm 'Nox' and put the light out.

She spent the rest of the night going through and trying the easy spells and trying to make them work. Although the only success she had was the 'Unlocking Charm', 'Fire-Making spell' and the 'Locking Spell'. No luck with anything else, not even the 'Mending Charm' that Hermione was capable of before Hogwarts.

However the Fire-Making spell came to her with extreme ease, even easier than 'Lumos'. This was unexpected as the book went on record saying it was meant to be one of the more difficult spells for first years.

Ariana was starting to wonder if she was already turning into a certain bookworm, reminding herself that books weren't always 100% accurate and that exceptions always existed.

Although it was getting late, she didn't want stop and decided to keep practising. It wasn't until 2am that she heard one the adults in the orphanage roaming the halls. Rushing to put her things away, she got under the blanket and drifted off to sleep.

...

It was the next the morning and Ariana was up early. Dressed in the casual clothes, she waved goodbye to everybody in the orphanage alongside the Matron as the cabbie drove off. The ride was mostly silent as she didn't have much to say.

When they reached the nearest London's tube station she told the Matron she could head the rest of the way herself.

Swiftly taking the tube to Kings Cross Ariana noticed she was a little early and began to ponder on the future whilst searching for Platform 9 and 3/4.

Her first thought was Hogwarts Houses. She was sure that Gryffindor was the best house for her situation. Yes, not all Gryffindors are good witches and wizard, Peter Pettigrew being a perfect example, but she knew a lot people still thought that way.

She was fairly certain a student could choose what house they placed into, but that might be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time Harry was an exception to a rule. It wasn't easy to remember all the details of the sorting hat.

Another thing on her mind was how she was going to help Voldemort. The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth.

There were many opportunities, like helping him revive early this year using the philosophers stone, or next year with his diary. She could just do nothing and jump in the last second during the battle of Hogwarts and save Voldemort to fight another day... however the last one didn't seem smart. There was also ratting out Snape to Voldemort.

Ariana thought her best bet was to steal the Horcruxes. She already planned to move Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem from the Room of Requirement as soon she thought of somewhere safe to hide it.

Another idea was to help Diary Tom Riddle possess Ginny Weasley, convince him to murder Harry in his sleep using a knife. Not magic. That didn't work so well last time and it seemed like an unnecessary risk.

Ariana was cut off from her thoughts as she spotted the Platform and the magic wall she was meant go through. Pushing her trolley of luggage with and owl on top she rushed forwards.

Arriving at the wall she anxiously positioned herself for the run. Going through wasn't the problem, rather it was the muggle thought that she'd just crash into the wall and fall over.

"I can do this" Ariana whispered.

Tightly shutting her eyes the red-head took a deep breath and sprinted with all her luggage. She felt a slight breeze brush past her as the sound and vibe of her surroundings changed drastically. The loud footsteps of people rushing to work was replaced with the shouting of parents and children saying their goodbyes.

Slowly opening her eyes she gazed at the large 'Hogwarts Express'. It was much taller than she thought it'd be.

"Yep, it's gonna take some time to get used to this." Despite the situation, she had cracked a genuine smile.

Not wanting to dilly-dally Ariana headed straight to the back of the platform where one of the crew members took all her things and securely placed it in the last car with magic.

Making her way on the train she wondered around for awhile until she found an large empty cart. She had arrived her early for this specific reason. Taking a seat she pulled out her wand and waved it in a very specific manner.

"𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐬"

Reacting to her magic the door slam shut loudly and locked itself.

Ariana opted to avoid the main characters during the train ride to Hogwarts, so as to not influence the houses they were sorted into.

As far as she remembered Harry was meant to be sorted into Slytherin until he heard rumours of it being a 'dark' and 'evil' house that supported Voldemort and convinced the sorting hat otherwise. She didn't want to risk her existence stopping the boy from being a Gryffindor.

Gazing out her window, she sat back and got ready for a long journey.