From the moment Alice Norton got back from Diagon Alley until the first day of school, she crashed at the Norton family estate in London. Professor McGonagall had told her the Hogwarts train picked up students at the big London station.
Alice was super careful not to mess around with magic on her own—she didn't want to end up like some Muggle-born kids who tried teaching themselves spells and blew it. She figured she'd wait until classes started.
Still, her crazy natural talent meant every time she picked up her wand, it felt like she could just blurt out a spell and boom, magic. She kept that urge locked down tight.
These past few days, she'd also been messing with the Soul Banner on her wrist. Turns out it wasn't just for refining, nurturing, and controlling souls—it could react to soul-related items and even hit people with a soul-shaking vibe that left them stunned for a sec.
Of course, both effects depended on how strong Alice was. If the soul item or the person she was trying to rattle was way above her level, the banner wouldn't do squat.
Thanks to that, though, she figured out the moving Dumbledore photo Uncle Taylor brought home wasn't a soul artifact—just a regular magical gadget.
Bummer. She'd been kinda hoping her first soul in the banner would be the legendary greatest white wizard ever!
School start day rolled around fast. Alice pushed her luggage cart through the busy London station.
She knew regular people couldn't spot Platform 9¾, but who cared? She'd run into someone heading there eventually.
Her late dad always told her: "When you gotta do something you've never done before, don't stress. Tons of people have already figured it out—just follow their lead."
Alice lived by that. Sure enough, her eyes lit up when she spotted that big family of redheads from Diagon Alley.
She confidently trailed behind them. The little redheaded girl noticed Alice following and tugged her mom's sleeve. "Mom, someone's tailing us."
Her mom—a pleasantly plump lady—turned around. Alice flashed a polite smile and said, "Just heading the same way."
The mom smiled back just as warmly and went right back to chatting with her four redheaded boys.
Alice eavesdropped a bit and had to hold back a smirk. All four are really her kids?
She'd figured they were cousins or something. Nope…
She shot the mom a look of total respect.
Their family didn't exactly scream "loaded," though.
As she walked, Alice daydreamed. Wonder if there's a chance to bring the Norton family businesses into the wizarding world someday? That'd be pretty cool.
She also spotted that Harry Potter kid from Diagon Alley, looking totally lost and stressed, glancing around like a deer in headlights.
Yup, he had no clue how to get to the right platform either.
Alice watched Harry work up the guts to talk to the redhead family.
She casually leaned in to "overhear," nodding along.
So the redheads were the Weasleys, and they had a first-year too—Ron Weasley.
And the way to Platform 9¾? You just charge straight into the wall between platforms 9 and 10.
Alice gave Harry and the Weasleys a quick nod, then pushed her cart and crashed right through the barrier.
The two Weasley twins—who looked like the hyper type—saw it wasn't one of their brothers coming through but a pretty, classy-looking girl. They froze, exchanged a look, and just stared.
Alice ignored them and frowned at the chaos in front of her.
So loud!
A million students were crammed near the front cars, chattering like crazy while owls hooted overhead. The noise made her ears ring.
She glanced toward the back and picked a car that looked a little quieter.
Even there, most compartments were packed. The ones that weren't full had groups of kids who clearly knew each other. Alice didn't want to barge in and kill the vibe.
After checking a few, she slid open the next door and raised an eyebrow.
Hey, it's that guy.
Draco Malfoy was parked in a seat, flanked by two beefy boys who looked like human bulldozers.
Alice grinned. Sandwiched between them, Malfoy didn't look nearly as tough as he thought he did.
She gave a polite smile, ready to keep looking… but then—
"Mudblood!"
Alice froze mid-door-close.
She got that plenty of wizard families called non-magical folks "Muggles." She could roll with that, even if she didn't love the term.
But "mudblood"? Nope. Hard pass.
She'd read about it in some wizard notes Uncle Taylor bought. Total slur against Muggle-born witches and wizards.
Alice licked her lips—not exactly ladylike—and stepped back into the compartment. Super politely, she asked:
"Excuse me, what was that? Didn't catch it."
Malfoy glanced at Crabbe and Goyle. The two goons hadn't caught up yet, but they could tell this fancy-looking girl was pissed about the "mudblood" thing.
They looked to Malfoy, waiting to see how he'd play it.
Malfoy knew he had to say something. He was still salty about how Alice had brushed him off last time. So he locked eyes with her and repeated, slow and clear: "Mudblood."
Perfect.
Alice nodded silently, then smiled. "I don't know any spells yet, but some things work just as well as magic at this stage."
"Like a Muggle-world version of Stupefy—a punch to the face!"
Before the words even finished leaving her mouth, her fist slammed straight into Malfoy's nose.
For a split second, Malfoy's world spun. His knees buckled; he wanted to collapse right there. He fought to stay conscious.
Alice saw her first hit didn't drop him like she wanted, so—bam—she threw a second one.
Malfoy's legs went wobbly. He fumbled for his wand to fight back, but his head was swimming.
Crabbe and Goyle started to move in to help, but one look at Alice's eyes made them slowly raise their hands—like whoa, we're cool.
Alice saw them chill out, flashed a sweet smile, and pointed at the half-dazed Malfoy. "I don't care what you think about Muggle-born kids, but don't ever call me that again. Got it?"
"Also—he started it, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, she bounced out of the compartment.
Joke's on me if I stick around. Once the Soul Banner's stun effect wore off and Malfoy snapped out of it, he could hit her with who-knows-what spell. She wasn't dumb—these pure-blood kids grew up with magic. They'd have tricks she'd never seen.
But the second she stepped out, she nearly ran into a bushy-haired girl and a kinda awkward-looking boy. Both had their mouths hanging open—they'd definitely seen her throw hands.
Question was, how much?
Alice stopped, blinked innocently at them.
The girl finally spoke. "Uh… have you seen a toad? Neville lost his."
Then she added, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. This is Neville Longbottom."
"And… that was awesome."
Neville nodded like a bobblehead in agreement.
…
Alice shut her eyes and sighed. Yup. They saw everything.
There goes my classy-lady image!
AAAAAHHHH!!!