AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, just a warning; I like stupid jokes…like could-only-make-a-third-grader-laugh jokes. I also have a tendency to come up with really complicated personal jokes that no one (but me, a few friends, and that crazy lady on my curb with the microwave) would ever understand. So far there are already a couple of those in here – both obvious and stupid and obscure and pointless. Bare with me in the end you'll like this I promise.
Oh! Also, this is all told in both story style and journal style, from multiple people's eyes but only Isolde's diary. Just a tip.
Live, Love, Lie10:35, July 31
I had to run to catch the train. I got stuck at the entrance to the platform. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. A nice boy showed me how to get in eventually. Run right through; the obvious option. Wizards are weird.
11:14, July 31
It was really hard to find a compartment. I wound up sharing one with someone else. Somehow, this boy fell asleep right after the train departed. More weirdness, but at least I'm sort of alone. He'll have a shock when he wakes up and finds me in here.
I'm excited. Elated. Wow, never thought I'd use that word seriously. I am serious, though. I can barely sit still, I'm so happy. I feel like a chihuahua, you know all nervous and jittery. I don't know if I'm writing in this right, but this is working for me, so I don't care.
Hogwarts will be so much fun!
12:30, July 31
Okay so I'm officially the most bored I have ever been in my life. Sleeping Beauty still hasn't woken up, I don't have any music and all my stuff is in the luggage compartment. I've only got my robes, the unnecessarily enormous bag of candy Camille (my foster mom, btw) packed me and this journal. I guess I'll have to come up with something to write.
How about how I wound up here? Its good enough for me so it must be for you, too.
I got my letter about a month ago. Out of the blue one day Minerva McGonagall was sitting on my loveseat. She'd been waiting for me when I came home from school. My parents were across from her on the couch awkwardly watching her. A visit from anyone that made my parents feel awkward was strange enough – so I did not need the freakiness of that up-tight old lady telling me that every weird occurrence in my life was due to magic.
Okay so she didn't exactly say every weird occurrence was magic, but she might as well have. Whoever thought it was a good idea to tell eleven year olds that they were wizards and witches was a total idiot. I about died. Actually, I started laughing uncontrollably. It got worse when I saw how serious Camille and David (foster dad) looked.
She wound up making my dog float half-way across the living room before I believed her. Camille and David looked really worried. Later on they told me they had always expected something like this, ever since I was a little kid. Apparently I was a bit more exciting than the average mischievous kid. I agreed, then, that I'd attend Hogwarts.
McGonagall returned about three weeks later and took me to Diagon Alley to buy my things. That was probably one of the most interesting, and boring shopping trips I've ever had. That woman can't have fun. I liked seeing all the neat wizarding stuff, though – I also liked seeing Camille's face when I brought home my new pet owl, Shattenjager.
2:47, July 31
It just occurred to me that I like really uncommon names. My name is uncommon, too, it could be hereditary. Shattenjager is German, pronounced Shawnyaer, so its not that weird, but my name is Isolde Freya Dystopia. That is weird, right? My parents must've been a lot more creative than Camille. The best she could do when my only 'sibling' was born was Edmund Lawrence Elson. So plain, so ordinary; poor kid.
2:58, July 31
Sleeping Beauty is finally awake, and all I had to do was stub my toe and shriek like a banshee. I'd say what a pain, but I loathe puns. Turned out I was right, though, he was really shocked to find someone else in the compartment.
4:00, July 31
Not helping much that he's awake. He's kind of quiet. Introduced himself as Cedric Diggory, managed some small talk, then started staring out the window. I didn't expect to become immediate best friends or anything, he was being a little rude, and it makes things awkward for it to be that quiet.
=|*|=
I ran through King's Cross Station as quickly as I could. I'd woken up later than I'd meant to and I barley had time to catch he train. I found an empty compartment much more easily than I expected. I stretched out on one bench, my back to the window.
I woke up to a painfully loud and shrill yelp. I started and sat up straight. I didn't remember falling asleep. A girl was hopping around in front of me, she was holding onto one foot. I watched silently as she flopped down onto the other bench, pulled her shoe off and rubbed her toe. She had really little feet.
"Uh…Are you alright?" I asked warily
"Eh, You're awake?" she said through gritted teeth, "I stubbed my toe. I'll be fine, it just hurts. Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."
"S'alright," I yawned "How long was I asleep?" I asked after glancing down to her foot again.
"Well, If you fell asleep right after the train left…four hours. You were asleep when I found you." She rubbed her foot a little less as she counted the hours back
"You've been in here for four hours?" I asked leaning back against the wall
"Yeah, you're a really sound sleeper, you know?" she smirked "You snore, too."
"That's not true! I don't snore." I protested
She put her shoe back on. "It doesn't hurt anymore?"
"Nope."
I smiled "Talking helps make you forget about something hurting."
"Thanks." She gave a weak smile in return
"You're accent's kind of odd." I noticed, "Where are you from?"
"I just moved to Snape, last month. I'm from South Africa." She started digging through a pack that sat on the floor in front of her.
She pulled out a little black thing. The words Pop Rocks were written in bright green and pink on one side.
"What's that?" I asked as she tore a strip from the top
"Candy. You can't tell me you've never had Pop Rocks! Honestly, you Brits are so weird. Hold out your hand." she came and sat by me
"If you live in Britain, you're a Brit, too, you know." I said holding my hand out palm up.
She held my already steady hand still and poured some of the tiny green sugar crystals into my palm. Her hand was very soft, but a little cold. She watched closely as I, slowly, dropped the candies into my mouth. I could see she was fighting a smile.
Pop! There was a sudden snap, like a microscopic explosion inside my mouth. Then, another. And another. I stared at the girl in front of me in wonder. She started laughing.
The Pop Rocks lived up to their name they popped away in my mouth (and down my throat, when I tried swallowing them) for a minute straight. The girl laughed every time she looked at me.
"Guess, I should've warned you, but the fun of eating Pop Rocks for the first time is the surprise when they pop." She giggled when they were all finally gone. "I'm Isolde Dystopia. How about you? You haven't told me your name, yet."
"I've been busy eating you're insane Muggle candy, I'm sorry." I might have been a little too sarcastic, " Its Cedric Diggory."
"Nice meeting you, Diggory." She smiled.
"You, too." I turned and looked out the window.
It was quiet for a long while. I stole a few glances at her from the corner of eye every now and then. She kept writing in a plain, little purple book with a design of a foxglove indented on the cover. Her black hair was long and too heavy for her tiny body, fell around her in a great, waving heap. Once in a while her lips would pucker, her eyes would unfocus and she'd stop writing for a minute or two. She was odd. Everything about her was, but I figured it was probably because she was foreign.
=|*|=
6:00, July 31
Finally off the train. Diggory's silence was so terrible. I practically ran from the compartment so I wouldn't have to walk with him. Mean of me, huh? You try sitting next to a guy that is either sleeping or completely silent and when he actually does talk he is honestly rude and want to hang out more. Don't want to? Hmm, I wonder why.
8:30, July 31
The feast was absolutely amazing. I stuffed myself so full I think I might split. I was sorted into Hufflepuff, which is really cool, but so was Diggory. He didn't sit next to me, but we weren't far apart.
I met a ton of people. Mostly guys, as usual. The girls were talking mainly about stupid giddy things that I didn't care about so I kind of avoided them. all the guys around me seemed pretty nice. Some of looked at me a little weirdly, though. They were all Quittich-crazed. It seems like I'm going to have quite a bit of competition next year at tryouts.
Bed now! I'm completely zonked, I'll write again tomorrow.
Always and Forever,
Isolde