Well, here we g- oh wait, disclaimer: I DON'T own Harry Potter, or anything that falls under that heading, that all belongs to J. and Warner Bros. But if I did... heheheh, the world would be a different place.
Well, enjoy. *or not :3* ~ UnicornSoup *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~~Platform 9 3/4~~ My eyes widened as I fell through the barrier- partly because I wasn't crushed, mostly because I was hurtling towards the floor. I managed to put my hands out just in time, awkwardly pushing myself up, and brushing my hands on my jacket. I looked up.
Wow.
Platform 9 3/4 was packed, a stationary scarlet train lay on the tracks, and upon the station were so many families, so many people. People like me, I thought to myself, sighing with a swell of acceptance, only to burst and deflate myself as I was reminded; not the same. These people had families, I thought sadly to myself as I watched a boy pull a face at his mother as she hugged him tightly, he broke away and walked onto the train, running his hand through his black, unruly hair as he did so, these people had parents. But most of all, these people weren't- weren't- Bash!
I crashed into someone, and spun to face them at once- he was about a head taller than me- which was a lot, I had always considered myself to be rather tall- and had black hair which was much neater than the boy's who I had just watched get on the train, even though I was pretty sure that untidy-ness was the desired effect of the train boys hair. He shot a look at me from his dark eyes, which were slightly hidden by the hair that fell into his eyes, and I felt my face grew hot- he seemed haughty, and I would probably end up on bad terms if I didnt apologise quickly. I drew a sharp breath and did just that, profusely.
My words seemed to just be a stream of babble with a few 'sorry' s thrown in. I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, and a glint in his eye, and I drew another breath to continue my babbling, just as he broke into a barking laugh. It took me completely off guard, and I realised how stupid I must've looked, and stopped immediately. Here I was, basing my fact upon appearance, and look where it got me. His laugh slowly detoriated, until it was nothing more than a low chuckle, and I realised at once how wrong I was, his laugh wasn't taunting, it didn't even seem like he was mocking me; for one odd moment I very nearly joined in, but he stopped his laughter and looked me in the eye. 'It's okay, seriously.' His eyes glinted as he said this, as though I was missing some private joke.
'Uhm, yeah... I noticed.' I couldn't help but grin back- this whole scenario was a bit ridiculous.
'Heheheh...' he streched his arms out at the back of his head. 'No need to worry about me, I won't freak out on you...' he muttered something that sounded distinctly like 'unlike my parents..' '... Nah, it's Lucy and his little gang that you gotta look out for.'
I was more than slightly bewildered, and very, um, overwhelmed, but took the chance to introduce myself 'I'm Charlotte.'
'Sirius.' He stook out a hand with a grin, and I shook it. The train blew its whistle, and Sirius very nearly bolted whilst still grasping my palm. 'Whoops' he said with a sheepish grin, and this time released my hand before diving for the train.
After a short while of contemplating, and stalling to avoid bumping into Sirius again, I, too, boarded the scarlet train. I wandered aimlessly for a compartment, looking for an empty one, or at least one with definite first years. I took my time getting onto the train, I didn't want to end up in a compartment with Sirius. He seemed nice enough, but at his height he was probably a second year, and with him knowing 'Lucy' he was almost definitely not a first year. I sighed to myself as I drifted among compartments, all of them full, but all of a sudden, the compartment door in front of me was pushed open, and out of it came a storming pair, a redheaded girl and a boy with a beak-like nose,trudging off as if they had just had an argument. And judging by the sounds inside of the compartment, the other people felt like they had won. I peered inside, out of pure curiosity, and was dragged inside, the door shut behind me. I almost let out a yelp, but I stopped myself as I pulled my eyes open, and saw Sirius grinning down at me 'Hello there, Charlotte.' I blinked twice.
'Hello again, Sirius.'
I turned to the seat across, and there was the boy with the unruly hair, grinning over at Sirius. 'Hey, no fair! I thought it was a lucky dip- I didn't know you knew anyone!'
'Yeah, well, I got lucky!' Sirius grinned.
'Lucky dip?' I asked, my curiosity once again getting the better of me.
'Yeah- oh, James by the way-' the boy with the untidy hair told me ' we grab anyone who looks in to come and sit with us- great fun, its how we got old Snivelly in.'
I ignored the last comment, and just introduced myself 'I'm Charlotte.'
'So I realised.' replied James, with a devilish grin.
'Shame she didn't get to meet dear Snivellus, don't you think, James?' Sirius gave a melodramatic faint and nearly elbowed my eye out in the process, and James' eyes glased over as he began to daydream of this 'dashing' Snivellus.
'Oh yes, lovely Snivellus was such a dashing character, with his beautifully protuding nose, and his-' 'I think I have seen "Snivellus" before', I cut in, finally unable to deal with any more of either James' fluttering eyelashes as he metioned 'lovely Snivellus' nor anymore of Sirius' dramatic swoons as he thought of his 'dear Snivellus's many charms.
Their heads immediately swivelled in my direction 'You did?' James asked, now fixedly staring at me.
I rolled my eyes. 'Well he was kinda making his dramatic depart as I passed the compartment.'
Sirius just grinned and slid his hands behind his head- I narrowly avoided being decapitated by an elbow again- 'Ah, well, time flies at its' own pace, you can't expect me to remember-'
He cut off his philosophy as the compartment door slid open, and a head only just peeked through before James snatched it up and slammed the compartment door again. 'Heya there, I'm James' he grinned menacingly at the new entry. 'Remus.' He seemed a little shaken at what had just happened, but more relieved than anything else. That I could relate to. Being relieved for being relieved of the chore of finding a compartment. We all introduced ourselves just as Remus grabbed his trunk and reached inside. At our questioning gazes, he smiled and shook his head, revealing light scars on either side, 'Don't you think it's about time to get our cloaks on?' Everything just went in a mad frenzy as all of us- bar Remus, who seemed to be very organised- struggled to find and put on our plain black cloaks. When we managed, and sank back in our seats, feeling entirely pleased with ourselves, a little witch came toddling in with a food trolley- which Sirius and James bought a huge amount from- and Remus had the sense to ask her when the train would be getting in. 'Oh, theres quite a while yet...' she said with a little cackling giggle. I stiffened, and could just about hear James' and Sirius' hearts give out a weak tha-dumm. 'Worked so hard...' James whispered meekly, sinking into his seat. 'For nothing...' moaned Sirius, sliding across the floor. I shared a look with Remus, and we both pulled them up; well I tried and failed with Sirius, and he ended up getting up of his own accord and grinning at me, which I of course returned with a polite scowl which quickly dissolved into a smile.
As the train chugged on, Remus was staring at Sirius' chocolate frogs - I had just been given a lecture on wizarding sweets by James- with such of a longing that even the dense Sirius noticed. 'Here have some, everyone have some!' 'YAY SHARING!' James pitched in, and knicked half of Sirius' sweets, but Sirius was too busy giving a weird speech of the joys of sharing to notice.
And so, contendedly full of sweets, I rested my head upon the rest, and drifted off into a delightful sleep.
When I woke up, It was to the jolt of the train- it jolted so much, in fact, that I was thrown off of the seat, much to James' amusal and Sirius' joy;
'Hallelujah, sitting on the table was so uncofortable!' As we made our way through the crowd, I was forced to listen to James' explainations of me sleeping on Sirius, and Sirius having to move- he explained with such horrific detail (as if the thought of falling asleep on Sirius didn't horrify me enough) that I ended up stuffing my fingers in my ears and shouting 'la la la', which got me some very odd looks. However, looking around; at James' face as his explainations became less verbal and more and more physical; and Sirius' open laughter as he listened to James' clearly false explanations; and Remus, as he glanced over at me and broke into a smile, reflecting mine; I didn't care about the odd looks, I had friends.
Heheheh... It was a joy to write, so I can only hope for you to feel the same when reading it.
I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit to hear about Charlotte's history, but until then, I'm afraid you'll have to cope with my bait-throwing and incessent teasing.
Bite away, my lil fishies, bite away.
However, I will pay attention to any reviews *fingers crossed* and the storyline is very open to change.
We have seven full years ahead of us, after all!
~fanficcyname