Can't Fall Behind at the Starting Line

The classes at Hogwarts seemed fairly simple.

That was what Eliana thought after memorizing her textbooks for the eighth time.

For her, reading a few books and committing them to memory wasn't hard. Besides passing the time, she kept going over them because practice made perfect.

They were all starting school the same year, but children born into Wizard families must have learned plenty already, unlike an ordinary kid like her!

The thought made Eliana anxious. Good heavens, they had a ten-year head start on her!

She was already behind at the starting line!

Anxiety.

Time to memorize the textbooks again!

She also secretly tried a few spells. Knowledge had to be put into practice, after all.

Most worked quite well. Most notably, she used the Levitation Charm to lift a rag to the ceiling. She wasn't very skilled, and it kept falling on her head, but she eventually got the ceiling clean.

It had been a struggle, so when she finished cleaning every ceiling in the orphanage and discovered a spell called the Scouring Charm later in the book, she was furious.

She tried it a few times, though, and perhaps because she was figuring it out on her own, it didn't clean quite as well. That made her feel a little better.

Lumos was useful too. She no longer had to turn on the light when she got up to use the bathroom at night.

Once, though, she put too much force into it, and her wand tip shone so brightly that the rooster in the backyard thought dawn had come. Its crowing nearly woke the entire orphanage.

Those were only minor mistakes. Transfiguration was where she made a big one.

Eliana had wanted to fix Mrs. Brown's chair, which had stood on a brick for years. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make its short leg longer. While she was cursing and waving her wand around, some movement triggered the magic, and the whole chair exploded.

Oh no. I'm going to get punished.

She learned from it, though. After repeatedly recalling how she had moved and what she had been doing when the chair exploded, then practicing, she managed to recreate the tiny Explosion Charm. She named it Little Firecracker.

It wasn't powerful or much use in a fight, but it cracked nuts perfectly every time.

That was handy because Mrs. Brown liked buying chestnuts left over from the previous year. They were cheap and plentiful, and the children loved them. But a year in storage left them shriveled and hard to peel. Mrs. Brown's fingertips always turned red when they ate chestnuts—until now!

The orphanage had gained Eliana, a high-speed automatic Chestnut Roaster. She cracked chestnuts quickly and cleanly, though if you paid attention, they seemed to taste faintly of fire.

After eating them for two straight weeks, however, the little ones begged her through tears to stop cracking them. They said they were turning into chestnuts themselves.

The Chestnut Roaster was forced to retire.

The Chestnut Roaster was not pleased.

Time flew, and before long, September first arrived.

The ticket said the train left at eleven, but Eliana was packed and ready outside the orphanage gate by five thirty that morning.

The little ones who had come to see her off could barely keep their eyes open. "Eliana, isn't it a bit early to leave?"

Eliana frowned at the sleepy little chicks.

"I'm waiting for the train, not the other way around. And I've never taken a train before, so of course I have to go early and leave myself plenty of time in case I make a mistake!"

"You should do the same if you ever take a train to school. Better early than late, better ahead of schedule than behind. If you miss the train, you'll have to buy another ticket. Do you think money grows on trees?"

The little chicks nodded furiously, not daring to argue. Their nervous promises even eased the sadness of parting.

"Eliana." Mrs. Brown waited with a smile until she had finished lecturing them, then stepped forward to straighten her collar. "Take care of yourself. If anyone bullies you, tell us. I'll go speak to your headmaster."

"I will." Eliana thrust up an arm. "Don't worry about me, Susan. I don't think any of them could beat me!"

The worry vanished from Mrs. Brown's face, leaving it blank. "And don't bully anyone else!"

Eliana didn't answer. She had already hurried away with her luggage.

Mrs. Brown watched the lively little bird spread her wings and fly off.

Eliana had seriously underestimated herself.

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Although she had never been to King's Cross Station or ridden the subway, she followed the signs accurately and made every connection without trouble.

She reached King's Cross Station at exactly eight in the morning.

"Platform 9 3/4."

Eliana looked at her ticket, then at the solid-looking wall between the plastic signs marked 9 and 10.

"Hmm. See? Coming early was the right call. I've still got time to panic and find my way." Eliana spoke calmly to herself, then checked the ticket again. She hadn't misread it.

She walked around the station's platforms, checked every nook and cranny for a Platform 9¾ sign, and returned to the space between platforms 9 and 10.

It had to be here.

Eliana recalled how Dumbledore had tapped the bricks leading to Diagon Alley. Narrowing her eyes, she began counting the bricks in the wall.

There were twelve bricks in each horizontal row. Vertically, there were fifty-two if she started at the top of the signs, eighty-four if she started at the highest point of the arch, and 224 if she started at the vaulted ceiling. Since it was Platform 9¾, she should start from the sign marked 9 and find where the horizontal and vertical counts met...

Eliana soon narrowed it down to three bricks to test.

She drew her wand and tapped the first.

The wand sank straight in, as though the wall wasn't there at all.

Eliana's eyes widened. She cautiously pressed her hand against it, and it passed through just as easily.

She pulled back her wand and smiled. Now she knew how to reach Platform 9¾.

She took her luggage and walked straight into the wall.

Her vision darkened for an instant, then cleared. She stood on a platform beside a deep-red steam train, with a Platform 9¾ sign hanging above the archway.

She was a genius!

Eliana gave herself a little praise, then boarded the train with her head held high, like a kitten fresh from victory.

It was still early, and almost every carriage was empty. Eliana chose one near the back. She had never been on a train, but she had heard they moved fast. If the driver failed to see a mountain or a rock and crashed into it, passengers in the rear carriages might still have time to jump off.

She was going to become a peerless great Wizard. She couldn't meet an early end here.

She opened Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration and read to pass the time.

As the sun rose, the platform grew noisier. The noise swelled, and then someone knocked on her compartment door.

"Hello." A messy-haired boy with green eyes cautiously poked his head in. "Could I sit here? The other compartments are full."

"Of course." Seeing how tightly he gripped his suitcase, Eliana gave her wand a casual wave. "Wingardium Leviosa."

The suitcase wobbled toward the overhead luggage rack, then settled gently onto it.

"Wow, thank you. You're really good at spells." The boy's bright green eyes gleamed like a sunlit lake. "Are you an older student at Hogwarts?"

With a touch of reserve, Eliana said, "No, I'm new too. My name is Eliana Rich."

"Is your whole family made up of Wizards, then?" Harry asked, looking interested.

What did he mean by that?

Eliana studied Harry warily.

History of Magic didn't say it outright, but after memorizing it ten times, Eliana had picked up enough hints buried in the text to work out that, in past centuries, some people from Wizard families had looked down on Muggle-born Wizards.

What, had she run into a relic of the bad old days on her very first day of school?

The boy might be foolish enough to carry his heavy suitcase by hand instead of using magic, but he had clearly bought a lot of things. He even had a plump owl for a pet. He looked like one of those wealthy, aristocratic Wizards. Would he look down on a Muggle-born orphan like her?

"No. I don't have a family. I used to live in an orphanage, and nobody there could do magic."

If he says anything rude, I'll blow him up with Little Firecracker!

Eliana tightened her grip on her wand.