Chloe stepped into King's Cross Station with a glint in her eye and a swagger in her step. She was twelve years old now, a second year. She was bigger than the first years, bigger than her little sister, who had to stay home this year, bigger even than she had been a year ago. She could wear what she liked on the train, not huddle nervous in a Hogwarts sweater. She could go and find a compartment with her friends, not sit by herself with her licorice wands. She was independent and free and...

"Oi! Watch it!" A Muggle brushed past her with a large suitcase.

Apparently she was independent and free and in the way. Sighing, she lifted her trunk and hauled it through the large brick wall. No one on the other side seemed surprised at the gawky teenager melting through the wall with a trunk and a cat basket. To the contrary, everyone ignored her. They were too busy greeting old friends and waving to new ones and gathering trunks and throwing paper and just making noise. Chloe hefted her trunk into the train, and then stepped one booted foot into the carriage.

"Chloe!" It was Ginny Weasley, one of her friends from first year. Ginny nearly knocked her over with a hug, her red hair flying. When she finally wormed her way out of the hug, she looked her friend up and down. Chloe adjusted her posture self-consciously as Ginny gazed at her Slytherin varsity jacket, black miniskirt, black nail polish and cartoonish ponytails.

"Wow, you've really grown." It was true. She had grown a foot over the summer, taking her from a teeny eleven-year-old who was barely four feet tall to a confident twelve-year-old over five feet in height. Ginny, on the other hand, had barely grown, but her hair was even redder than usual, if that was possible. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was wearing a red sweater and a mustard-colored miniskirt. She looked like a Gryffindor cheerleader, and despite herself Chloe bit back a laugh. Sometimes, even though she was a nice girl at heart, she had difficulty breaking her Slytherin habits.

"Do you want to sit with me and Luna?"

Chloe thought for a moment. If she sat with Ginny and Luna, she would be happy, but she would feel an awful lot like a third wheel, because Ginny and Luna spent time together after classes every day. She could find Ron and Harry and Hermione, but Ron had a bit of a rude attitude when it came to Slytherins, even perfectly nice ones. Or she could find her Slytherin companions and sit with them. They might have a bad reputation, but she fit in with them. She felt like she was a puzzle piece, and they were pieces that fit next to her, connected with her, made her feel welcome.

"Maybe I'll drop in later," she conceded, giving Ginny a sweet, if slightly falsified, smile. "I'm going to go and sit with my house."

Wheeling her trunk along the winding train corridor, Chloe felt a sense of relief. In one well-phrased sentence, she had just gotten her way out of hours of taking quizzes from back issues of The Quibbler, of painting nails with Ginny's globby homemade nail polish, of throwing back whole handfuls of Bertie Bott's beans and trying to guess all of the flavors. She slid open the door to the Slytherin compartment, feeling at home.