Evander
I sighed as I boarded the train quickly, pulling my trunk behind me, which was far too heavy for my liking. As I made my way down the passageway of the Hogwarts Express, I looked out the window, watching the new students milling around and talking to different and friendly faces, and the old ones returning, eyes shimmering with glee as they ran up to hug and greet their friends. But my head filled with sadness and a feeling of strange repulsion, because, unfortunately, no one ever did that for me.
I'll admit it, I've never actually made any really good friends at Hogwarts.
I can't say I was the most friendly eleven year old. I wasn't shy. More like mysterious,brooding, introverted. Or standoffish and argumentative as all my professors liked to say.
So needless to say, I didn't make any close friends. And by close I mean the type of friends I could tell literally anything to. Yeah, I had my dorm mates, the other people in my classes, the other kids on the Slytherin Quidditch team. But to anyone with a pair of eyes and a working brain attached to those optic nerves, I really didn't have that many friends.
And it's not like I couldn't make them, there's plenty of people who would like to fill the Evander Cameron friend slot, but I guess I'm just so in love with myself that I don't need anyone else.
I stow my trunk away in the baggage holders and slip into an empty cubicle. Perks of not having people to say hello to- you never have to sit with people you don't want to if you're on the train first.
I start to read the book I have with me, nothing of magical interest, just something that Muggles consider 'popular teen fiction'. But I can't concentrate. The noise, the smell of candy and baked goods and the general nostalgia that comes from this train journey every year is so distracting that I can't focus on the words on the page. My head is jumping from one thought to another so quickly that it seems like reading is the last thing I want to do, even though I think it's certain that an activity that helps me avoid other people is at number one right now.
I'm so annoyed that I groan and sigh before putting my feet up on the seat next to me. The there's a knock on the wall of the compartment, before a girl with chestnut brown and robes with hints of blue that tell me she's a Ravenclaw pops her head into the compartment. She's in my year, I've seen her before, I think she might play Quidditch? I'm unsure though.
Really the only thing I know about her is that she's kinda cute. But not really. Also, I fiercely want her to go away.
"Hey, do you have any spare seats?" She asks, smiling in a 'please me and my friends really don't want to sit with the first years' kinda way. From experience I known that it is only too easy to say no and be stuck with some obnoxious second years who believe they practically own the place. So, to save myself I decide to invite them in.
"Yeah." I say nonchalantly, making a gesture that's halfway between a shrug and a wave. She enters, before poking her head out the door, gesturing for someone to enter.
"C'mon guys, I found us seats!" She calls,before two more people enter. One of them I know. Carson Teagan is kinda moderately famous. Mainly because he's a tall, blonde pure blood who's pretty good a Quidditch. He's also considered good looking. I don't see it that much myself.
The other girl is anything but something I would've expected. Her hair is a pale platinum blonde, which would've been remarkable in itself, except for the fact that it's streaked with blue, pink, and black, with white blonde streaks still showing. She has two gold studs in her ears and snake bites in her lip. I wonder how she gets away with it.
In comparison to Caron and snake bites girl, the chick who first asked me if she could sit here seems normal. She has long brown hair streaked with blonde that I suspect is from the sun, and it's pulled into a long plait over her shoulder. She's got grey eyes that are sprinkled with flecks of brown, and as she goes to push some hair out of her face, I notice two things. One. Two black studs are placed in her ears. Two she has a long silvery scar running down her left forearm that marks her out to be that girl I accidentally pushed off her broom in the Quidditch grand finals last year.
Oh no.
Oh no oh no oh no.
Erynn
Yes, I know who Evander Cameron is. And judging by the look on his face he's just remembered who I am. I don't know wether to remain calm or burst into laughter. Judging by the situation I'm gonna deem number two inappropriate to the situation.
"I'm Erynn Ansley," I say, holding out my hand for Evander to shake, which he does, before smirking irritably. Irritating for me that is. "These are my friends, Carson and Tilly.' I say gesturing to them, before they sit down in the two seats across from Evander, leaving the one empty seat in the compartment next to Evander. Tilly smiles and winks at me. I send her a scathing look in return. Tilly needs to stop matchmaking where matches are not present.
"I'm Evander." He says nonchalantly, before going back to his book, though I can tell he's not really focused, his eyes are darting all over the place.
"What electives are you guys doing?" Carson asks as a general question. I can tell he's trying desperately to lighten the mood and break some of the tension between us and Evander but I really don't know if he's succeeding.
"Arithmancy, obviously." Tilly says with a mischievous grin. "You know how much I hated Divination- the whole course was complete made up rubbish. You also know how much I hated Professor Trelawny. I absolutely had to get away. Besides Arithmancy wasn't that difficult overall." She laughs and tosses her brightly coloured hair over her shoulder. I notice her sneak a quick glimpse of Evander, to see if he reacted to the fact that, out of all the people at Hogwarts, Tilly chose Arithmancy.
Whilst there's no visible reaction on Evander's part, I'd be surprised if he wasn't in the least shocked about my rebellious friend choosing such a mundane, difficult subject.
"What about you Carson?" Tilly says, returning his question to him.
"I'm going on with Study of Ancient Runes." He says. "Unlike you, I found Arithmancy incredibly difficult." He says, looking kind of flustered. Tilly lets out a snort of laughter. Carson rolls his eyes at her. "Yeah, I know we can't all be brilliant like you Tilly." He says jokingly.
Conversation with my friends is always like this at the start of term. Boring, mundane things that are so uninteresting I think we almost send ourselves to sleep talking. But it's these small boring things that we just have to know. We haven't seen each other in three months, and we now kinda have to know every little thing about one another before we can go back to normal.
I don't know, we're odd friends.
"Hey, Erynn, what about you, are you continuing with Study of Ancient Runes?" Carson says hopefully "I don't want to be alone." He adds with a grin.
"Nah dude. I'm continuing with Care of Magical Creatures. Runes was way too academic to be fun." I say. I'm glad that I'm doing Care of Magical Creatures. That stuff was fun, and there weren't any annoying kids in my class. It was cool.
Tilly, noticing how we'd very obviously left Evander out, and, let's be honest, to mess with everyone a bit, says to Evander "What about you Evander, what elective did you choose?" She asks.
Evander looks up from his book. "Care of Magical Creatures." He says bluntly, before flicking a lock of his shiny black hair from his face. I groan inwardly. I'm now stuck with him in my class. So much ugh.
Desperately trying to escape the conversation, which was rapidly becoming more awkward, I stand up and announce that I'm going to try and find the sweets cart. Tilly offers to come with me. We exit the compartment and walk quickly along the train.
I sigh inwardly. Escape at last.
Carson
Erynn and Tilly leaving me with Evander was irritating to say the least. I didn't know a thing about this guy. And he was more anti social than Erynn. That's a talent.
So, I basically wasn't going to be able to talk to the guy. Which gave me time to think. And I needed a lot of that.
What the heck would I need to think about? Well. Relationships.
It's not like I've actually had very many of those. Neither have my friends. Well by friends I mean Erynn. Tilly's my friend, sure, but literally every week she's got a new guy (or even girl a couple times) that she swears is her other half. And she's made it her mission to find Erynn and I dates.
She's been unsuccessful thus far. Erynn is too picky and too much of an individual for Tilly to have found someone right for her. And me? Well, that's an entirely different story. Because according to Tilly, half the girls at school are crazy for me. But here's the issue. I'm not crazy for them. Because the thing I've recently realised is that maybe girls aren't my thing. And maybe guys are.
And yeah, I was planning on telling them. In fact, I was planning in telling them on this train ride. But then Tilly arrived late. As she always does- I don't know why I didn't think about that- and we couldn't get a compartment to ourselves. So I obviously couldn't tell them in front of Evander. And I still don't know if I even can tell them.
What would they even think?
I don't know and don't wish to find out. I don't know what I could say. Maybe I just shouldn't say anything. So I just sit there, in silence, with Evander sitting across from me, reading a book. Ignoring me, just like every other guy in the school.
Tilly
"So what do you think of Evander? He's cute right?" I ask Erynn. She rolls her eyes at me.
"Tilly. You really gotta stop trying to set me up with people. Let alone people who pushed me off my broom in one of the most important Quidditch matches I've ever played." She said, looking more upset than normal when I tried to fix her up with people.
Oops. I forgot how much that game meant to her. How upset she was when she fell and lost the game for her team. Or at least thought she lost the game for her team. I'm sure it wasn't completely her fault.
Though I personally think she and Evander would be am excellent match. They're so similar. They're both star Quidditch players, top students, more anti social than a cat in a blender- it should've been perfect. I should've finally had a win on my record.
But their obviously damaging history together and Erynn's blatantly obvious hate for Evander are just the things I need to turn what could've been amazingly great into a sad heap of nothing on the floor.
So we continue to walk down the corridor of the train, dragging our feet along the thick red carpet that lined the floor. We were on a mission. A mission to find sugary treats that would rot my teeth. I gotta admit, I was excited.
Coming from a Muggle family, I have to say wizard sweets and you know, everything, is amazing. So amazing. Getting on this train is the highlight of my year. Well maybe the second most highlight. The actual highlight of my year is coming back to school and seeing all the teachers faces when the see my new piercings or hair colour. And also seeing how long it takes before I'm sent to the principals office about said piercings or hair colour.
Finally, Erynn and I catch up with the cart. Erynn gets her usual. Chocolate frogs and the sherbet lemons they always seem to sell for some reason. I get whatever's there. And I get a lot of it.
Because sugar is excellent. And wizard sugar is even better. Erynn and I make our way back to our compartment in comfortable silence. I sit down next to Carson and wink at Erynn as she sits down next to Evander. She rolls her eyes at me before picking up a book and reading. Tired of all this nonsense, I decide to go to sleep.
I lay my head down on the windowsill, and peer out at the countryside rolling by. The gentle thud of the train bouncing up and down sends me to sleep quickly.
I have no idea how long I was out but I woke up to the distinctive jerk in the trains journey that signified that Hogwarts was just around the corner. I looked out the window, and there it was, in all it's gothic glory.
I grinned. I was back.
I was home.