The Hogwarts Express was exactly as she imagined—and yet, somehow, better.
The platform buzzed with magic and excitement as Hallie Potter stood between her parents, clutching her new wand and an enchanted owl cage (inside, a sleek gray barn owl blinked at her with the kind of judgment only owls could manage). The scarlet train loomed ahead like a beast purring with steam and possibility.
"All packed?" James asked, ruffling her hair.
"Packed, polished, and primped," Lily said, straightening Hallie's new robes with a mother's precision. "You'll write, won't you? Weekly letters. Or daily. Whatever you like. And remember—"
"I'll be fine, Mum," Hallie said with a smile, trying not to laugh at the way her voice still made her sound like a character from a fairy tale. "Really."
Lily looked like she might cry. James wisely took her hand. "Let her go, Lils. Let the girl conquer the school."
Hallie stepped toward the train, then paused, her heart fluttering in a way that wasn't quite nerves. She turned, hugged them both tightly—and in Lily's arms, something inside her settled. There was no grief, no ache, no lingering loss. This time, she had them.
Then she climbed aboard.
Finding a compartment was easy. Too easy.
"Oi—are you Hallie Potter?" a redheaded boy poked his head out of a compartment door. "There's room in here!"
Inside sat the boy—clearly a Weasley, based on the flaming hair and hand-me-down robes—a brown-skinned girl with a confident gaze, and a small boy already half-buried in a stack of Chocolate Frog cards.
"I'm Ron," the redhead said quickly. "Ron Weasley. That's Padma Patil, and that's Neville—he's a bit nervous but he knows all about plants."
Padma gave a polite nod. Neville squeaked out a hello.
Hallie smiled. "Nice to meet you. I'm—well, you already know."
"Course we do," Ron said with a grin. "You're in the Prophet all the time. But you're not all stuck-up like I thought."
Hallie sat down and the moment she did, the entire compartment seemed to relax.
Ron began talking more. Padma softened. Even Neville, shy and skittish, edged closer.
She didn't mean to do it. The Charm, as she had started calling it in her head, just happened. People warmed around her like moths to candlelight. It wasn't about looks alone—though the reflection she'd seen in the train window was undeniably adorable—it was deeper. Voice, tone, aura. A pull of sincerity wrapped in a glowing smile.
She wondered, not for the first time, what this would mean in the long run. Could she turn enemies into allies? Critics into companions?
But right now, it just meant she had friends before the train even left the station.
By the time the trolley came by, she'd shared half her sweets, convinced Ron that maybe gobstones weren't that boring, and somehow drawn a dreamy, artistic Ravenclaw girl named Luna into the mix from the corridor.
"You're like a magnet," Luna said, watching Hallie eat a Fizzing Whizzbee. "But not the metal kind. The moonlight kind."
Hallie blinked. "Thank you…?"
"It's a compliment," Luna added serenely.
Hallie was learning that magic wasn't always wands and spells.
Sometimes, it was how people looked at you—and how, by just being, you changed the atmosphere of a room.
As the train neared Hogwarts, they changed into robes. Hallie stared out the window, watching the looming silhouette of the castle appear across the lake. A gasp slipped from her lips.
There it is, she thought. The place I only ever read about. And now it's mine.
She saw her reflection in the glass—those huge green eyes, the wild red hair, the delicate smile.
She didn't look like a boy in a girl's body anymore. She didn't feel like one either.
She was Hallie Potter. Charming, clever, and utterly herself.
And she was ready for magic—not the dark kind, or the tragic kind, but the warm, living kind that danced through laughter and discovery.
A new life.
A real one.
And maybe, if this was the kind of story she was now in, even a little romance... someday.