Hello there. I'm Dagmar1927 and here is my (rather long) first story involving characters from from history and 'Arry Potterness. Please review with cabbages and have a very lovely day. :) Oh yes, I'd probably better mention that Queenie is Princess Victoria of Kent (soon to become Queen Victoria.) Not that it's a vital part of the plot or anything, but I thought you'd better know...
2nd September 1977
The teenage girl leant against the wall behind Kings Cross station in London. Two heavy trunks and a cage containing an eagle owl rested beside her. She looked at her watch and tutted at the time; quarter to ten, just as three figures hurried up, dragging a smaller one behind.
"Hello Minnie!" cried the fastest girl, her short blonde bob swishing over her face, "We got her alright!"
"Yes, but you couldn't've done it at a worse time Queenie," said a short girl with curly mouse-brown hair. She was carrying a cactus under her arm and had compost under her fingernails. The small figure rolled her eyes. "Alright ladies," she sighed, "I'll try to master the time-turner so I don't appear suddenly in front of some random muggle in this dress alright?" said Queenie, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at them. "Now where're my other clothes..." she rootled around in her trunk, which was significantly grander than the others', and pulled out a red jumper, a grey pleated skirt and a pair of black high-heeled shoes. "Oh do hurry up Queenie, we don't want to miss the train again do we?" piped up the girl sitting on her suitcase, holding a first aid kit in one hand and a small beige owl in the other.
"Sorry Poppy, but this dress has so many buttons and Lezhen would kill me if I broke it," Minnie grinned at her fellow classmates and looked at her watch again. "Five minutes girls!" she said, with malevolent glee. Queenie eventually undid the final button and pulled the elaborate satin gown over her head, which caused her friends to give screams of laughter. "Oh do shut up," she snapped, pulling the jersey on and hastily doing up her skirt, 'you know full well that corsets are normal where I come from."
"Sorry Queenie, you know we're only joking, but we have two minutes to get from here to the platform before eleven o'clock, so we'd better run," said Pomona (the girl with the cactus), as Queenie jammed her feet into her shoes. Seizing hold of luggage, all five of them tore round the building to the station entrance and sprinted as fast as they could towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten. With barely half a second to spare, they vanished though the supposedly solid wall and burst onto platform nine and three quarters, just as the scarlet train began to chug away. Pushing past waving relatives, the girls dashed towards a door, which a red-haired girl was holding open for them. Poppy jumped in first, followed by Pomona, then Yolanda, the Queenie and finally Minnie and they all landed in a heap on the floor. The red haired girl began to laugh as they untangled themselves and stood up. "We saved you a compartment, but Arthur really didn't think you'd make it,"
"Oh him of little faith, thanks Molly," said Yolanda, picking up her case and following her friends down the train. They opened the door to find a red-haired boy and a black cat with jolly brown eyes playing chess on a seat. "Hello boys," said Minnie, throwing her cases into the luggage rack, and helping the others do the same, as she was by far the tallest. Queenie was the last in and shut the door, just as Arthur and the cat began bowing and salaaming. "Oh we are not worthy, o' mistress!" cried Arthur, sarcastically from her feet. "Oh stop it, both of you, and especially Tiddles!" the cat gave a perturbed yowl and suddenly transformed into a tall dark-haired teenage boy. "Tiddles indeed! Well, we make a fine lot don't we? One quiddich nut who looks like a hawk-"
"Oh ha ha," said Yolanda, picking up a magazine.
"A plant-obsessed midget with a hair-care problem, Poppy, who's positive that everything is injured, a deranged Scottish occasional cat-woman, a muggle-obsessed idiot, a mysteriously dark and handsome young man who has the wondrous power to turn into a feline and a minute Princess with a glare to melt lead and a Persian problem."
"And me?"
"Oh you're alright Molls! Just this lot-OW! I though you were meant to be dignified Queenie!"
"Only when I'm at home; this isn't 1836 anymore in case you hadn't noticed."
"Ooh-ooh-ooh! Hark at 'er! Anyone'd think she was the Queen!"
"For the hundredth time I am not the Queen, well, not yet anyway...i really hope my uncle survives until I've finished my NEWTs, otherwise I'm going to be a bit stuck aren't I?"
"Yes, probably, but even so, you'll have a crown and servants and palaces and nice dresses and go to parties and balls and dance with the most lovely men in the kingdom and-"
"And be up to my elbows in paperwork because my relatives were too busy having a good time to worry about such a trivial matter of running the country. Sometimes I wish I could swap places with you Poppy. Life would be so easy..."
"Oh god, cut it out will you Queenie, we all know you're a princess in denial, but you're also our chum and a witch, so stop moping around and watch Arthur turn Yolanda purple or something!" said Tiberius, with a yawn.
"Sorry everyone. I won't mention it again."
They arranged themselves around the carriage and began to relax for the journey ahead. Minnie and Tiberius were playing chess, urged on by Arthur, Molly was knitting what looked like a tea cosy from green wool using her and Arthur's wands, Yolanda and Pomona were reading (Bludgers I Have Known by B. Snofflebank, and Oh Look a Fig, by Eric von Nutcase), Poppy was trying to turn her owl (Florrie, after Florence Nightingale) into a goblet without much luck, and Queenie was eating a cheese sandwich and staring out of the window. A young witch pushing a trolley slid open the door. "Anything off the trolley dears?" she asked.
"Ooh yes please!" cried Queenie, abandoning her sandwich, "Shall I get everyone something, as I'm the only one who's changed my money for the fourth year in a row!"
"Oh thanks Queenie, pumpkin pasties all round please and a good helping of chocolate frogs," said Tiberius, as his knight was battered to oblivion by a pawn.
"Can I have some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans please? And some liquorice wands, ooh and a fizzing whizzbee for Molly and a packet of sugar quills and a never-ending gobstopper for Tibs and a-"
"Alright Poppy, I tell you what, I'll have eight pumpkin pasties, eight lots of beans, thirty chocolate frogs and one each of everything else. Thank you!"
"Blimey!" said Arthur, eying the pile of food covering the whole table.
"Yes...maybe you over-did it a bit Queenie..." said Tiberius, as his King was flattened by a Jiving Muffin as it merrily bopped along the board.
"Nonsense! I don't know about you but I'm starving!"
"Really Queenie, you're going to be unbelievably fat when you're older-you've got an appetite like a horse!"
"Well thank you Tiddles," she snapped, taking a bite of pasty. He stuck his tongue out at her and picked up a bag of humming sherbet, that was emitting bars of Greensleeves.
"Oh grow up you two-OW!" exclaimed Minnie, as a well-aimed licorice wand smote her forehead, "Oh, sorry Queenie, p'raps not the best choice of words!" she smiled at her friend, who was only four foot eight even though she was seventeen, like the rest of them. A small group of tiny first-years hovered outside. "There she is!" squeaked one of them; a little boy with messy black hair.
"Oh no, every year it's the same, GO AWAY!" shouted Queenie, wrenching open the door and glaring at them. She slightly lessened the effect by being only about two inches taller than one of them, but they skedaddled nonetheless. "I'M A PRINCESS ALRIGHT? NOW GET OVER IT!" she bellowed down the train, causing a couple of second-years to gasp and hurry into the nearest compartment.
"Temper, temper!" chided Tiberius, with a smug grin, which was wiped off his face a moment later when he suddenly grew antlers. Everyone roared with laughter, before Poppy normalified his head again. The door slid open again and a tall blond boy, already in his robes, said: "Tiberius, Minnie, you've got to go to the prefects' carriage now, but you'll have to change first."
"Alright Rupert MacMillan, keep your hair on," grumbled Minnie, throwing her robes on over a red kilt and white blouse. Pomona, already in hers, followed Rupert, Tiberius and Minnie to find the Ravenclaw and Slytherin prefects (Horace Scamander and Zelda Lovegood in Ravenclaw, and Hortense Macnair and Zac Ganymede in Slytherin.)
"How on Earth did Tib become a prefect?" said Yonalda in an incredulous voice.
"Bribery I should think," replied Queenie, unwrapping a levitating bon-bon. Arthur snorted with laughter, as it flew up suddenly and hit her on the nose. Poppy opened her first aid kit hopefully, but shut it again when the sweet was retrieved and eaten.
"I can't wait for Quiddich to start again-now that I'm captain I get to pick the whole team," said Yolanda, putting her robes on over a Chudley cannons polo shirt.
"Well count me firmly out," said Molly, putting on her tie.
"And me, I prefer riding horses to brooms anyway, and I'm not very good."
"To be fair Queenie, you'd be better if you didn't try to fly sidesaddle all the time - a broom is not a horse after all," said Arthur, nibbling a chocolate frog.
"We're nearly there. Arthur, you take all the food you want and I'll put the rest in my bag, so we can have a midnight feast," said Queenie, licking a blood flavoured lollipop (being an animagus had its disadvantages if you turned into a carnivore.)
The train stopped in a cloud of steam, and the prefects hurried back to collect their luggage. Everyone piled out and made their way through the throng to one of the horseless coaches that would take them to the school.
Thanks for reading and PLEASE review. Oro. That's latin for 'I beg'. Do you want more or have your retinas been insulted enough already?