Alice Chapter 1: All Aboard!
"Come along! Else you'll be late for the train!" called my dear older sister Teagan.
She wouldn't have missed my first boarding of the Hogwarts express. She had even taken the morning off from St. Mungo's Hospital for it!
"We're coming Te-te!" said one of my twin brothers. "Yeah, don't get your knickers in a twist!" called the other. This caused Teagan to frown.
"It's almost 11, and I don't want to have to drive you sorry lot all the way to Hogwarts, AND DON'T CALL ME TE-TE." She fumed.
I sighed. It wasn't easy having seven siblings, but what are you going to do? I thought. I ran through the barrier after my darling siblings as the train let off a warning call.
"Don't let the twins fool you into doing something stupid, as the undoubtedly will", said my oldest brother Morgan as I boarded the train.
"US? Try to fool our darling little sister?" said Keagan.
"You WOUND us sir. I don't know about you Keagan, but I am simply HURT." cried Rowan, who was being melodramatic and clinging to the step rails and pretending to swoon.
"Just SHUT UP and get on the train!" our older brother Liam yelled, shoving them both onto the cart. "You're both such pains." He said, muttering a stream of insults in French under his breath.
I rolled my eyes and clutched my owl cage tighter. I gave Morgan one last hug and prepared to board when a girl with long light brown hair cried out "Wait!"
She was pulling a trunk with her own owl cage on it, and running as fast as she could without toppling over.
"Oh, dear." Muttered my other brother, Killian, under his breath as he went to go help her.
"Thanks!" the girl said. She had an American accent with a soft French lilt to it. Her voice was very musical.
"It's no problem." Killian said smiling and lifting her trunk onto the train.
"Hi, my name is Alice Caileigh Fonte." I said grinning and offering my hand in friendship.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Niccolette Decker." She said taking my hand and shaking it.
"Would you like to sit with me? It's my first year, at Hogwarts and I'd prefer not to sit with my brother", I said in a hushed tone, hoping they wouldn't over hear me. "Oh, I'd love to! Moi aussi!" Niccolette said, cracking a grin. I had a feeling we'd be great friends.
"Tu parles le francais aussi? You speak French?" I cried with delight.
"Oui! Je suis tres couramment le francias praceque ma mere francaise et ma famille voyage beaucoup! Yes! I am very fluent in French because my mom speaks French, and my family travels a lot!" She responded.
I beamed. "Mine as well, I mean, my father, he's French, and my mom is Irish as you can probably tell by my accent." I said as we walked to find a compartment for the journey, each clutching our respective owl cages.
"That's cool! Oh! What a pretty owl you have there!" she said making cooing noises at my cage. "What's his name?"
"Archemedes, Father found him on the job. His original owner was slain by a dark wizard, and this little guy had nowhere to go. I've been raising him ever since," I said.
"What does your dad do?"
"He's an auror."
"Really? No way! Mine too!"
You're kidding!"
"Nope!"
"I wonder what else we have in common."
The time seemed to fly by. It turned out Niccolette and I had a lot in common. We both liked food; we both had similar tastes in music and similar ideas for fun activities.
"Wow, I'm glad we met!" I declared happily munching away on some sandwiches Teagan had thought to pack me.
"I am too! I mean, I was worried I wouldn't make any friends, the only company I really keep are my brothers Cristofer and Alex." Niccolette said, a sort of solemn tone creeping into her voice.
"I know how you feel, the only real people I ever got to socialize with were my own brothers, and two sisters We're a total of seven kids, me included." I responded.
A serious silence fell into our little compartment until it was shattered by a boy with short jet black hair, and flashing hazel-green eyes bursting into our compartment.
He was taking deep, ragged breaths as if he had been running for a bit.
"Who are yo-", I began, but he shushed me. Suddenly two large figures bounded by our door, and when they were well down the hallway, the boy let out a deep sigh of relief.
"WHO ARE YOU?" I asked the minute his hand slipped away from my mouth. "And WHY are you in OUR COMPARTMENT!"
"Who? Me? My name is Kingsley Cartwright, and as for what am I doing here? Don't worry about that," he said, casting a gaze out the door briefly and shutting it again and taking a seat by Niccolette.
"What makes you think we won't throw you out?" She asked.
"Uh, you're nice?" Kingsley responded.
"Wrong!" I shouted, jumping up and cracking my knuckles, doing my best to look intimidating.
Kingsley just laughed, and the quiet tension that had been building ever since he entered the compartment vanished. I grinned and sat down.
"My name is Alice, and this is my friend, Niccolette. " I introduced gesturing first to myself, then to her.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Kinglsey."
"It's a pleasure to meet you two. I really am sorry, however, for bargaining in without knocking. I thought this compartment may have been empty." He said leaning back in the seat.
"It's quite alright Kingsley, you're forgiven." Niccolette responded.
"Err, if you don't mid me asking, exactly who were you running from?" I asked tilting my head to the side.
"Well, I got into a little bit of trouble with some 3rd years is all, no biggie." He said quickly.
Nicolette put her face in her palm.
"You're a trouble magnet, aren't you?" she asked.
"What gave that way?"
"It's okay; you're in like company with me around." I told him grinning.
We all then began to discuss many a different things for the rest of the train ride. It turns out we all had a lot in common with each other, and became pretty good friends by the end of the ride.
It felt like no time at all when the train pulled to a halt.
"I guess it's time to go." Niccolette said.
"Well, let's go, nothing to fear!" Kingsley declared standing up
"Allons-y." I said standing up and opening the compartment door to our first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.