After Nala's trip to Diagon Alley, she'd come back to find Harry serving his longest punishment yet for setting a snake on Dudley. Secretly, Nala was over the moon but she didn't let it show because she so wanted to go to Hogwarts. Then Mr Dursley had taken them to an island because Hogwarts kept sending Harry his acceptance letters. Much to the Dursley's dismay, Harry had gone to Diagon Alley and would now be off to Hogwarts with Nala.
Harry's last month at the Dursleys was far from fun. True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry that he wouldn't sit in the same room as him but it did get kind of depressing when your only company was an owl. Little did he know that Nala would be more than willing to speak to him. Harry hadn't been told about Nala, so it was much to his surprise that they had a new ferret in the house. The ferret, of course, was Nala's. Sprout had told her that though it wasn't on the list, ferrets are fine.
On the last day of August, Harry decided it would be wise to speak to his Aunt and Uncle about getting to King's Cross Station the next day, so he went down to the living room, where they were watching some kind of quiz show on television. Nala was sat on the floor, gazing intently at her cousin. Harry was about to clear his throat to let them know he was there but Nala beat him to it.
"Er- Thanks Nala. Uncle Vernon?"
Vernon grunted to show he was listening.
"Er- I- er- I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to- to go to Hogwarts."
Vernon grunted again.
"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"
Grunt. Both Harry and Nala knew that meant yes.
"Thank you."
He was about to go upstairs when Vernon finally spoke.
"Where is this school anyway?"
Harry realised for the first time that he didn't know, "My ticket just says to get the eleven o'clock train from platform nine and three quarters. "
Vernon and Petunia stared. Nala's breathing faltered. What if her parents thought it was rubbish and didn't let her go?
"Don't talk rubbish," Vernon said. "There is no platform nine and three quarters."
"It's on the tickets," Nala spoke up meekly when she realised Harry wasn't going to answer.
"Tickets," Harry asked slowly. "As in ticket in the plural?"
"I said ticket didn't I?" Nala said worriedly. "Who else would be going?"
"Barking," said Vernon. "Howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going tomorrow anyway, otherwise I wouldn't bother."
"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked.
"Dudley's got to have his ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings and Nala..." he trailed off. The two Dursleys didn't want Harry to know until he had to.
"What about Nala?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"That's enough questions, or I won't take you," Vernon said. "Now don't you have.... packing to do?"
Harry nodded and ran upstairs, things falling together in his mind.
Nala was coming too.

"Bye Mum, bye Dad," Nala bid her parents goodbye. Petunia had carefully stacked Nala's things onto a trolley but was leaving her now as Dudley's appointment was soon. Clearly, Vernon was being nasty to Harry. The two parents left, leaving the cousins alone.
"Where do you think it is?" Harry asked. This showed how nervous he was. He hadn't spoken to Nala since realising she was off to Hogwarts.
"It's probably something like when we went to Diagon Alley and we had to tap a certain brick," Nala wondered.
"Yes but we can't go taking our wands out and tapping random bricks!" Harry snapped.
"Look; I don't know! At least I'm coming up with ideas though!"
"Sorry," Harry mumbled. At that moment, a group of people passed behind them and Nala caught a few words of what they were saying.
"-packed with muggles, of course-"
Nala swung round and beckoned for Harry to do the same. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, each with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like the cousins'- and they had an owl. The people up ahead stopped and the cousins did too.
"Mum can't I go?" begged a small girl, who Nala hadn't noticed before.
"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you first."
What looked like the oldest boy marched towards platforms nine and ten. Nala watched, careful not to miss anything. A large group of tourists had come, obscuring her view but she knew what he'd done. He'd gone straight through it. Nala hurried forwards, not realising that she'd butted in front of the others in the family and went through the wall. It was an odd sensation, she didn't feel anything at all. Nala hopped onto the train and found herself an empty compartment. She was sat alone for a while when a set of twins walked in.
"Oy, Fred," one of them hissed to the other. "Is that-?"
"She is," said the other, Fred. "Right?"
"Okay...What?" Nala asked, confused.
"The girl who butted in front of us."
"Oh, her," Nala said, a little embarrassed. "I mean, yeah. Sorry about that."
"Don't be," Fred them said. Nala shot them a confused look.
"We've decided we like you," the other explained.
"Right..." Nala said slowly. "I'm honoured."
"You should be."
Nala just snorted.
"Little Princess," the other twin said.
"Will you...?"
"Be part...?"
"Of our pranking team?"
"I will," Nala said gleefully. "But why are you calling me Little Princess?"
"Because we don't know your name," the two said in unison. Nala rolled her eyes at them.
"Nala. Nala Dursley," Nala said.
"Okay, Little Princess Nala," the other twin said.
"Okay... hold up. I'm not a girly princess," Nala said. She pointed at Fred. "Also, I know you're Fred-" she moved her finger to the other twin's face "-but who are you?"
The second twin held his hand dramatically to his heart.
"Haha, George, she doesn't know your name," Fred teased.
"Fred and George then?" Nala guessed. The boys nodded. "Freddy and Georgie."
The twins moaned in offence but Nala had already decided. They were Freddy and Georgie.
Nala wanted to know some more about the two boys.
"Are all of your family wizards?" Nala asked. They nodded.
"I think," said George.
"Although we might have a muggle second cousin or summat," Fred continued.
"What about you?" George finished.
"They're all muggles, apart from Aunt Lily. She was a witch," Nala said.
"Aunt Lily?" Fred asked.
"As in Lily Potter?" asked George, astounded.
"Yeah, I think so," Nala said. She guessed because Harry was a Potter but her parents never talked about Lily.
"Wicked!" the twins said together.
While they'd been talking, the train had left the busy cityscape of London and was now speeding them all past fields of cows and sheep. They went quiet for a bit, watching the fields lap past.
At around half-past twelve there was a great clattering outside and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley dears?"
Nala leapt to her feet, but the two twins grew pink ears as they muttered something about having brought sandwiches. Nala had never exactly been deprived of sweets but Dudley had always got first pick, leaving her snickers and things nobody likes. She was ready to buy loads of wispas (a chocolate bar that she'd had over a friend's and had loved) but there weren't any normal sweets. There were Bertie Botts Every-Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands and other strange sweets Nala had never seen before.
Nala's parents had swapped her some money so she had enough for this, Sprout had hinted sweets on the train.
"Uhhh, can I have three pumpkin pastes and-er, um, three chocolate frogs and- er-er-er, um three cauldron cakes and a box of every flavour beans please?" Nala asked. She handed the lady the money and went back to her compartment. She gave Fred and George one of each thing she'd bought. and placed the beans on the table in the middle after opening the lid.
It wasn't long before they had to get changed and leave the train. Nala whispered goodbye to her ferret named Kirra. Apparently they had to leave everything on the train.
"Well, goodbye Little Princess Nala."