Chapter 1
Gwen knew that the transfer from America was a good thing. She knew that they had to make the move, other wise Ty would lose his job. It was kind of weird making the move just a few months before school started. She needed to get used to things in England. The different phrases, the accents, the background. It was way different from her small town in Texas. It was weird having it gloomy and chilly. She was used to scorching heat and the constantly changing weather.
She sighed and continued brushing her shoulder length, very curly blonde hair. It could be worse, Gwen thought to herself. She could've moved in the middle of the year. Lucky for her, it was her first year. That meant that not a lot students would know each other. That gave her a chance to a fresh start where no one knew each other unless their families were close. She hoped that not a lot of people would notice her accent. Or lack of.
Maybe if she just kept her mouth shut- the thought quickly left her mind for that probably wouldn't happen. She furrowed her eyebrows and put her brush away and stared at Belle. It was a strange request on the school supplies list but she had a barn owl in a cage just the right size for it sitting on her desk. She didn't know why the list said that she needed one.
A knock ripped her away from her thoughts. "Gwen, time to leave."
"Coming mom!" Gwen quickly called back as she grabbed her owl and hauled her trunk down the stairs with much effort.
Even though her family was mostly Pure Blood, besides the muggle her mother had married after splitting up with her father and the muggle's kids, they didn't rely on magic. They tried to blend in with the other muggles and lived as most muggles did. Ty grabbed Gwen's trunk and put it in the back seat of the family car, along with Belle.
Gwen ducked, because of her taller than normal height, into the passengers seat in the front and waited slightly impatiently for her mother. Endless possibilities of the year ran across her mind. Her hazel eyes snapped up as the drivers door opened and in stepped her mother. She started the car and they drove to the Kings Cross station.
Half an hour later, they reached their destination. During the car ride, Gwen's mother explained the significance of having an owl. It was kind of like sending an email. Except with birds.
She nervously fumbled with the hems of her shirt as she watched her mom unloaded her trunk. Gwen quickly took Belle out of the car and put it on the trolley, her trunk quickly following.
Krissy looked around for platform 9 & 3/4. When she saw no such station, she frowned and looked for other wizards. There was a woman and a girl with a similar looking trolley and and owl by a wall. They seemed to be arguing. She walked toward them, Gwen quickly pushing the cart behind her.
"Excuse me, do you know how get to platform 9 & 3/4?" Krissy asked the woman calmly. She was a slightly dark middle aged looking woman with black hair just past her shoulders and dark brown eyes. The woman looked at her and smiled.
"Hello, I'm Yolanda. Me and my daughter were just discussing how to get there," the girl rolled her eyes. The girl also had a dark complexion and brown eyes, though she had full rimmed sea foam green glasses and hair the color between red and brown.
"Mother, I just need to run into the wall. Stop making such a big deal," Gwen knew that she was going to like this girl. Gwen looked at her mother to find a strange look on her face.
"Run into the wall?" She asked curiously, turning back to the girl. "Are you sure?" The girl nodded again.
"Yeah, saw a bunch of red heads doing it. Figured they were wizards," She shrugged. Before anyone could stop her, she got a bit of a running start then ran straight through the wall. Gwen gaped at the display. She quickly followed in suit.
When she reached the other side, she gaped again. There stood a huge train and the many passengers and families on the platform. She was so busy marveling at the sight, she didn't realize that she had let go of her trolley and walked a few steps away and tripped over air. She let out a tiny squeak and accidentally took a boy down with her.
When she processed that she was on top of a boy, she immediately stood back up. Gwen turned a brighter red than the boy's hair.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" She stuttered out, trying to help him up. The boy just chuckled.
"It's okay. I'm Fred, and you are?" He smiled at her. She just sighed.
"The clutz," she muttered. Then she turned even redder. "I mean! Uh, I'm Gwen!" She stammered. Fred smiled wider.
"Are you new here?" She just nodded, not talking in fear of making an even bigger fool of herself. "I could tell by your American accent," she raised her eyebrows.
"My accent? Yours is super thick and everywhere. It gets a little tiring to listen to all the time," she replied without hesitation. Then she realizes what she just said and her eyes widen. "I mean!" Fred cut her off.
"It's fine," he smiled at her.
"Gwen!" She turned around to see her mom and Yolanda and her daughter come over to her direction.
Gwen turned back to Fred and smiled apologetically.
"I've gotta go. My mom, uh, is calling. See you later?" She starts walking backwards. She stumbles but quickly regains her balance. Fred smiles at her and nods before turning back around.
Gwen turns around to see her mother right in front of her. She has a knowing look ghosting her face.
"Who was that?" Gwen blinks.
"Uh, a friend?" Could she call him her friend? They just meet a minute ago. Krissy looks past her daughter.
"Well, don't scare him off, ok?" She smiles and kisses her daughter's cheek. "I've gotta go but stick with Shelly," Gwen tilts her head in confusion.
"Who's Shelly?" Krissy motions to the redheaded girl they met a few minutes earlier. Gwen nodded hugged her mom one last time before heading toward the train.
Shelly walked up next to her.
"I'm finally getting away from my family," she sighed. Gwen have a her a weird look. Shelly noticed and explained. "My parents are a pain and my little brother is a brat. Everyone else is just plain annoying," Gwen nodded.
"I understand. Ever since my mom remarried, family means chaos,"
"Let's find a compartment. Hopefully they aren't all full," Gwen nodded in agreement. They both boarded the train and looked through the window to see if they were full or not.
When they finally found an empty one, Shelly reached for the handle, only to be stopped by another hand. They turned to see 2 other girls staring right back at them. One had a pale complexion and long wavy black hair reaching past her shoulder and light brown eyes behind purple full rimmed glasses. The other had a slightly dark skin tone and dark brown eyes, dark brown slightly wavy hair almost reaching her mid-back sitting on her head.
"We found this compartment first," Gwen immediately said. The pale girl opened her mouth to reply, but the other girl beat her to it.
"No, we did," she argued. Her eyes narrowed.
"No, we did," Gwen argued back. This continued for a few minutes, only stopping when they heard the compartment's door close. They all turned to the compartment and went in.
There sat a short brunette whose hair reached almost passed her mid-back. She lifted her head to reveal brown eyes which hid behind her black full rimmed glasses. She had a skin tone between pale and tanned. Mostly pale, though. She was reading a rather thick book that sat on her lap.
After the girl looked over the four, she went back to reading her book. Gwen cleared her throat.
"Uh, excuse me, we had this compartment first,"
"We, as in you two, or you two?" She motioned to the two groups that were just arguing.
"Us," they said at the same time. They looked at each other and scowled, except for the pale slouched girl. The brunette put a disbelieving expression before rolling her eyes. Before they could start arguing again, she cut in.
"Just share, gosh, and shut up would ya? I'm trying to read," she motioned to the book on her lap before getting comfortable leaning against the wall with the window and going back to reading. The pale girl awkwardly sat down first on the side of the brunette, sitting as close to the door as she could.
The other three slowly followed in suit. Gwen sat directly across the pale girl, Shelly sitting next to her. The other girl sat directly across the reading girl.
They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes. The reading girl slammed her book close, making everyone jump.
"Well, I'm Ashley Mitchell but I tell everyone to call me Ash, don't call me Lee," she narrowed her eyes before continuing. "I'm transferring from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America. From your lack of British accents, I'm guessing you're transfers too?" The other four slowly nodded. After another few seconds of silence, Ashley nodded impatiently for them to introduce themselves.
"I'm Destiny Garcia," the dark skinned spoke up. "I'm transferring from Barcelona, Spain,"
"I'm Shelly Harper and I'm from Busselton, Australia,"
"Gwen Taylor and I'm from uh, Converse, Texas, in the US," they all looked at the pale girl to talk.
"Oh! Uh, I'm Haley Sanchez, I'm from, uh, Montpelier, France," she smiled awkwardly.
Ashley gave a big sigh and slumped down in her seat.
"Thank you for that minute of courage," she muttered under her breath, but they all heard clearly. She straightened back up and smiled shyly.
"Yeah, I don't usually act like that. With confidence, I mean," she chuckled nervously and returned to her book.
"What're you reading?" Destiny asked curiously.
"Oh I'm not actually reading, I'm just pretending since my parents are watching through the window," she replied without turning around. "They're the muggle dressed short ones. I'm just gonna have this book open till we leave the station,"
As if on que, the train whistle rang and the train chugged out of the station. As she said, Ash closed her book and shrunk it down to the size of her hand then put it in her shoulder bag, taking out a journal and a pencil.
She opened it up and started writing? in it. They couldn't tell what she was a doing. Without looking up, she started talking.
"So do any of you know anything about the school?"