"Hoot. Hoot."

Evie looked up at the sound of an owl hooting to see her strange, black-feathered blue-eyed owl flying towards her at full speed, something glittering gold attached to its right leg. She held up her right wrist, and the black owl landed on it steadily.

Evie gently untied the red string from the owl's leg and saw that it was a golden ticket for a ride to Hogwarts on Platform 9 and 3/4. "Nine and three-fourths," she said aloud skeptically. Then she shrugged. "Well, whatever. I know what that means, but whoever came up with this ticket idea sure is dull. Where'd you get this, Pluto?"

Pluto, her owl, hooted, and she sighed when she remembered that Pluto couldn't talk. "Never mind. Doesn't matter. Let's go, Pluto. Where's Neptunia?"

As if on cue, a silky figure slinked out of the darkness and over to them. "I'm here."

Normal people would have freaked out and said, "No way! How is a cat talking?! I must be dreaming!"

Goes to show that Evie's not normal. Or it's the fact that she's the one who accidentally cast the accidental spell that allowed Neptunia to talk.

Flashback

Four-year-old Evie walked down the alleyways of Diagon Alley, strutting with an annoyed look. Even at this time, she was still a complete trouble-maker who didn't care about others at all.

She walked around when her 20/20 vision spotted movement in the darkness ahead. She blinked once before heading over cautiously, scooping the silky black cat from the dark, holding it in the air an arms length away from her. "Your name is Neptune now," she told it matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, a notch in her belt came loose and her third wand (she only had three at the time) dropped to the ground with a clatter and a small spark of blue sparks.

Evie sighed, leaning down to pick it up and dropping the cat when--

"You know, just out of preference, I think I'd rather be called Neptunia."

"Neptunia has a nice ring. You're one smart cat. You're coming with me after all, Neptunia," Evie ordered, sticking the wand in her belt. "Let's go."

"You are one fussy princess."

End flashback.

...and that was pretty much how the story went down.

"How do you guys want to get to the station?" Evie asked her pets as Pluto hopped onto her shoulder and she lowered her arm.

Neptunia licked its silky fur calmly. "Enter like a witch. Ride a broomstick. Better yet a Firebolt."

Evie considered this. "That actually sounds really cool. You're genius, Neptunia. Come on, guys, time to steal a Firebolt. Eh, I guess we should say, in quotes, 'borrow.'"

***

After forming an image in her mind that she was invisible to Muggle eyes, she zoomed through the sky above the busy crowd of Muggles on her newly stolen--ah, sorry, permanently borrowed--Firebolt broomstick, Pluto on her shoulder and Neptunia tickling its chin with its tail next to Evie.

"Place is full of Muggles," Evie grumbled to Neptunia.

"Pretty much," Neptunia purred in agreement. "It's a Muggle train station, after all. Oh, look, here we are, Platform 9 and 3/4. Meow."

Neptunia gave a convincing meow (talking or not, she was still a cat), remembering the rule that she wasn't allowed to speak to any other Muggle or wizard except for Evie as Evie directed the Firebolt downwards towards the ground. Facing the third wall in Platform 9 and second-to-last wall from Platform 10, there was a large family of redhaired wizards and witches standing before it. The lady who was obviously the mom was directing her children into the wall, where they immediately vanished through the wall. But from the crowds weaving in and out, it was hard to tell. Right then, a boy ran up to the lady--a familiar looking boy--and asked her a question, puzzled. The lady laughed.

Evie frowned. Why, that's Harry Potter, isn't it? Such an innocent little boy doesn't know what he's just dragged himself into. Whatever, doesn't matter to me in either way. "Move it, peeps!" She hollered as the Firebolt swooped in low. The lady shrieked in surprise and yanked her trolley and her son and daughter out of the way. Harry Potter jumped out of the way himself, but Evie rolled her eyes and hopped off the broomstick before grabbing it with her free hand, swinging the bag of textbooks over her shoulder. "You're in my way."

"What do you think you're doing, child?!" The woman exclaimed to her in a shocked tone, dusting her daughter off gently. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"You're only embarrassing yourself," Evie scowled at her truthfully. "Muggles can't see me right now, but they sure can see you. Besides, I'd rather not associate myself with poor people." Judging from the supplies in the woman's cart and their rattled condition, she could at least suspect that much.

"What did you just say?" The woman demanded.

Evie shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me either way."

"How dare you--"

Annoyed now, Evie narrowed her eyes into slits and turned the look on the woman. "Did you say something?"

"I--"

Neptunia rubbed against Evie's ankles, peering up at her with bright blue eyes that seemed to read, 'you're wasting time.' Evie sighed. "Just shut up. Whatever. Get out of my way next time." Neptunia hopped into Evie's bag of textbooks as Evie shoved a Muggle who was passing by out of the way. The man yelped in surprise at being pushed by nothing, but only frowned and kept walking, supposing he tripped or something. Evie tossed her Firebolt in the air and hopped on sitting sideways like a princess or a bride. The Firebolt shot forward and she vanished through the wall.

That's what Platform 9 and 3/4 means, of course. Evie reappeared through the wall on a different platform labeled 9 and 3/4, clutching her Firebolt in one hand and her bag of textbooks in the other. Neptunia yawned and glanced around to make sure nobody was looking before asking, "Hey, are you sure I can't take a bite out of Pluto?"

"Shut up, Neptunia," Evie scoffed as Pluto hooted indignantly. Her spell trying to get Pluto to talk had failed, so she had given up on that some time ago because she didn't want to hurt Pluto. "You know you can't do that."

"Pish," Neptunia complained, looking away.

"So let's get on the train then," Evie suggested, making her way towards the door of the train.

"Ticket?" The conductor asked.

Evie scowled. "Neptunia, where'd you put it?"

Neptunia blinked at Evie in confusion before digging her paw into the bag of textbooks and catching the golden ticket in her claw and raising it up to Evie. Evie snatched it and handed it to the conductor, who took it with a chuckle. "That's one smart cat you got there."

"Shut up," Evie snapped, her heel clicking as she stepped on the train.

She stalked into any random booth and sat down, tossing her things on the couch and locking the door. Whenever people peered in curiously, she'd send them a piercing glare that sent them running. Finally it came to the point where she got tired of it and sighed, pulling down the shade on the door. Once she had done that, she plopped down on the couch, popping open a drink and taking a sip. "What was the school called again, Neptunia? Wart something? Warthogs? Completely slipped my mind."

"Other way around," Neptunia replied. "Hogwarts, right? I'm amazed at your poor memory, Evie."

"Shut it," Evie scoffed, though not in a mean way like she did with everyone else, more in an annoyed way.

Neptunia yawned. "Oh, well, I'm tired, so wake me up when we're there. You can also wake me up when you let me take a bite out of Pluto."

Pluto hooted indignantly, flapping its wings furiously as Evie stroked its head, scowling. "I'm pretty sure we've been over this, Neptunia; you know you can't."

"Well, whatever," Neptunia curled up in a ball on the couch across from Evie and Pluto, falling asleep immediately.

Evie sighed, leaning back in her chair and staring out the window in a bored trance.

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the door. Evie rolled her eyes and Neptunia's ear flickered upwards briefly in annoyance. Evie ignored it, hoping it would go away, but it was only followed by another, more persistent knock. "Is anybody in there?" A girl's voice asked loudly.

"Yep, we're occupied," Evie said icily.

The girl didn't seem bothered, though. "Could you open the door for a moment, please?"

Evie groaned, pulling out her newest wand and pointing it at the door. The wand sparked in a shower of pink and Pluto flew up to avoid them, landing on the windowsill. The door creaked open. "What do you want?" She asked crisply, tucking her wand back in her belt.

"Have any of you--oh. It's just you?" The eleven-year-old girl had curly brown hair with hazel eyes, {A/N: description, again, this'll be the last one, I promise} and she looked at Evie in disbelief. "I thought someone else was in here with you."

"Well unless you believe in talking cats or talking owls, then you're out of options," Evie replied coldly. "What do you want?"

The girl ignored her question again. "You shouldn't be sitting in a car by yourself, you know. There are other people who need a place to sit as well."

"They can go find their own seats."

"That's not nice."

"And I'm not a nice person. Suck it, Princess, not all people are Picture Perfect Mr. Nice Guy," Evie retorted.

"Anyway, I'm Hermione Granger," She said, sitting down next to Neptunia (who said she could sit?). Neptunia hissed and leaped onto Evie's lap, where she curled up again and went back to sleep.

Evie stroked Neptunia's ears gently, but her tone was the exact opposite. "Why do I care?"

"You're going to Hogwarts, right?" The girl asked. "First year?"

Evie scowled, gently setting Neptunia on the couch and shooting to her feet. "That's it. Get out. Now."

The girl looked startled. "What do you mean?"

Evie slammed her hand on the window. "Get. Out!"

The girl crossed her arms. "And who's going to make me?"

"Don't make me have to," Evie warned.

"You don't scare me," The girl countered.

In a swift movement, Evie had yanked out Wand #6 and was pointing it at her face. The girl looked startled, but then Evie hissed, "I'm not kidding around, Princess What's-your-name. Get. Out."

The girl walked out of the cabin and then immediately blinked the moment she stepped past the door, as if thinking 'What am I doing here?'

Evie walked over in two strides, slammed the door shut, locked it, stuck out her tongue, and yanked down the shade again.

She plopped back on the couch next to Neptunia with a sigh.

Manipulating people was just so handy, you know?

***

Thirty minutes later, Neptunia's ear flickered upwards and she rose, stretching. "I think we're there. The engine sound is getting softer."

Evie looked up from where she had been reading a book out of boredom and climbed to her feet, stretching as well. Then she tossed the book on the other side of the cabin and scooped up her things before heading out the door.

"Finally," she scowled, pushing through the other people who were exiting and heading for the door. "That was too long for my liking."

A/N: Hey there! Just wanted to say, if I'm really into something, I CAN get a few chapters done in a day, but this one was really long because I guess there was just a lot I wanted to put in there. I really hope you still like it though, so please enjoy!

~Princess_Fairytale

Word count: 2006