Jupiter Hollow was nestled between the rolling hills of the English countryside somewhere between Manchester and London. It is one of the last all wizarding towns in the United Kingdom. Jupiter Hollow was a simple little town as far as towns went. There was a main street lined with all the essential stores a simple wizard could need. An apothecary, a general store, a cauldron repair shop, those sorts of things. Clusters of neat, little homes were dotted around Jupiter Hollow. They were brightly colored and well kept. The people took pride in their homes and it showed.

The air around the sleep village was quiet and the gnomes were up early and burrowing happily away in the morning air. Gnomes like burrowing in the morning. The worms were out and wiggling away and that was the best time for the gnomes to play.

It was a very subdued morning in the Skeeter house and everyone, especially the furniture were grateful for it.

Rita's breakfast of sliced apples, dusted with cinnamon and toast was just what the healer ordered. She sat at the table, her little legs swinging rapidly under the table writing in her journal. It was a rub to her father, but he wasn't going to say anything about it. She was behaving and that's all he could ask for at this point.

Rita was bursting with excitement. She was finally going to Hogwarts and she already had a sidekick. How fantastic was that? And Hiccup was proving to be a very efficient gopher. Though she was going to have to work on his level of deviance.

“We better hurry if we want to be on time.” her mother announced laying down her copy of Witch Weekly and draining the last of her coffee with honey. It was a disgusting concoction of unholy ingredients if you asked Rita which you didn't have to. She would tell you even if you didn't ask. And that was what she was writing in her journal even as I am writing her story.

Rita hopped of her chair and skipped into her room to retrieve her trunk and her bag. Her mother got up to clean up the kitchen before the family was off.

Hiccup came barreling into the kitchen. He was out of breath and his tiny chest was rising and falling. This was the most exciting day of his little young life and he was not going to miss it. Even if he had a whole piece of toast stuck to the back of his hair. The toast was quite happy you know. Rita's mother gently removed the toast and gave Hiccup an affectionate run on the bead. Hiccup's eyes were bright and alert. “I'm ready.” he announced with his camera hung around his neck and his wand in his back pocket.

Rita returned to the kitchen, “I'm ready too.” she gave Hiccup a little pat on the top of his mousy brown head.

And they were off. They had to walk into town to the owl office to catch a portkey to King's Crossing. Rita's mother was scared of flooing. A bad childhood experience will do that to you. The floo network would deny any of those erroneous charges. It worked perfectly fine and there was no two ways around it.

There were only two other families sending their children off to Hogwarts and the Skeeters and Hiccup were the last to arrival before the portkey was ready to go. The parents went off to talk amougst themselves and whatnot. Calamity and Carl eyes Rita and Hiccup like they were frog spawn and Rita and Hiccup eyes Calamity and Carl like they were a potions experiment.

“See you are still dressing like you're blind,” Calamity told Rita.

“Bold words from a girl who's name means disaster.” Rita shot back. The two had been at each other's ruffled collars since Rita had poured ink over Calamity's toy racing broom. 'She had it coming,' Rita had told her parents. Calamity had cut one of Rita's pigtails in retaliation. And over the years they had one upped each other every chance they got. Now that the two had proper wands and were going off to Hogwarts without their parents around to restrain them, it was no telling what the two were going to get on with.

Hiccup and Carl were just there to keep the bloodshed to a minimum. Though Hiccup fainted at the sight of blood he wasn't going to be that much help.

“Alright the portkey to King's Cross is leaving in 30 seconds. Everyone place a finger on the wagon wheel.” The postmaster called. Rita thought it a tad odd to use a wagon wheel, but she didn't say anything as she elbowed Calamity almost knocking the ginger girl over. There was no time for a witty remark as the portkey activated and everyone was whisked off. Hiccup let loose a tiny yelp before they vanished. His stomach wasn't built for traveling by portkey.

Rita landed on her mother's foot and Hiccup landed on Calamity's head. It was a very excited landing all around. Calamity shoved Hiccup to the ground and trounced off after her brother and parents. Rita wiggled her fingers as a farewell after the ginger menace. She helped Hiccup to stand and they both went off to grab carts for their trunks. They were racing through the train station with their carts and laughing. Rita stopped the pulled up her socks when a strangled cry prickled the hair on the back of her neck. She looked up and followed the sound. It was coming from behind the rubbish bins next to the lifts. She had no idea what could have been making that noise and her and Hiccup were utterly surprised by what they found.

It seemed to be a moving grey ball caught in the string of a ballon. “What is it?” Hiccup asked as Rita set to work untangling the grey ball.

She shrugged as her nimble fingers quickly disentangled the tiny ball. It fluttered its wings and looked up at the both of them. “Its an owl,” they both said in unison.

The owl hooted and flew up to Rita's shoulder and nipped her ear affectionally. “Guess its yours. The letter said we could bring an owl.” Hiccup told her as they walked their carts back over to their waiting parents. Everyone else had moved to on the platform only Rita's parents remained.

“What is that?” her mother asked pointing to the little owl perched on Rita's shoulders.

“I rescued her from a string,” Rita announced proudly. She rather thought her mom would know a owl when she saw one. “Her name is Quill.” The owl hotted softly at the proclamation of her name. Rita's mother shook her head and tuned around to see where they needed to go. Rita and Hiccup had no idea where they were going as neither of them had any siblings who had gone to Hogwarts before them and Rita's mother and father had gone to other schools.

It was an uncomfortable few minutes as they all looked around for the platform. “Look they have an owl too,” Hiccup pointed excitedly as a group of people moving through the train station. Rita led the way as they followed in their wake.

It took them all by surprise when they were confronted with a brick wall. “Where's the platform?” Rita asked. She was sure she saw that other family head to that point. Hiccup walked over to the wall and went to reach to touch the brick and fell through. “Hiccup!” Rita shouted and ran toward the wall. She was going after her friend, and that she did. Right through the barrier and right into Hiccup who had just picked himself up and was dusting off his backside when Rita plowed into him. Quill shrieked and took flight.

The air whooshed out of his lungs as Rita's larger body fell on top of him. “Gerrofff,” he wheezed as Rita's parents walked through the barrier.

“What are you two doing?” Rita's mother asked.

“Oh mother do stop it.” Rita shot back as she picked herself up and helped Hiccup to stand. She really hated when he mother asked the painfully obvious questions. Rita felt it lowered her intelligence to have to answer her.

Rita looked around at all the families and their children. Filing away the scene to write about it later in her journal. “Where should we sit?” Hiccup asked in his small voice. He only used it when he was nervous and scared. She finally got a good look at the gleaming candy apple red steam engine that was to ferry them to Hogwarts.

It was the most beautiful thing Rita had ever seen, and it was taking her away from her parents for a whole year. “We can sit anywhere,” she breathed. Quill resettled on her shoulder. Quill nipped at her ear just to let her know how upset she was about that little incident earlier. “Ouch,” she thought that was a little uncalled for. But she let it pass.

Hiccup followed after her as she walked up and down the train looking for a place to sit. Most of the cabins were filling up with friends and acquaintances. There was an empty one toward the middle, “We can sit there.” she announced. Her father was already loading her trunk into the cabin.

Once everything was settled her turned to his daughter, and she looked up at him. He wasn't sure what to say to her. They had never had a good relationship, well Rita wasn't sure she liked her parents to be honest. She gave him a stiff hug and he patted the top of her head. She gave her mother a look and boarded the train. This was going to be a great year, she thought to herself.

Hiccup followed her into the cabin. It took him some effort to pull himself up onto the seat. He hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, so forgive him just this one time. Rita hopped up easier than he did. They were the only two in the cabin. Rita hoped that someone else would join them. Not that she didn't enjoy Hiccup's company, but this was the first time she was away from him and didn't have her parents trying to run infererence with Rita's runaway mouth.

And she was going to enjoy the train crash.