Mum told me I couldn't wear my Hogwarts robes to the train station. She muttered something about the International Statue of Security, but we both knew the real reason. She didn't want me seen with the family in Gryffindor robes. Why is Mum embarrassed of me? Because I'm an Allen. Eleven generations of Allen's have been in Ravenclaw, and then Celia comes a long, and gets herself sorted into bloody Gryffindor (In case you were wondering, of course to spite my mother I wore my Gryffindor robes).
Hello, I'm Cecilia Allen, but everyone calls me Celia (please not Cece). Sixth year Gryffindor, Chaser, disappointment to my family, and co-best friend of Rose Weasley. Which was my entry ticket the whole crazy world of the Wotters. In case you've been living under a rock, the Wotters are the Weasley/Potters, children, nieces, and nephews of the golden trio, who defeated the greatest dark wizard in history. So their famous. And there's like, a million if them. 90% of them have red hair, that's the easiest –
"CEEL!" And there was one of the Wotters himself. Albus Potter, son of the most famous wizard in history (arguably), cousin of Rose, and her other co-best friend. I turned around to see James Potter grinning at me.
"Made you think I was Al" he smirks. James Potter seems to think his purpose in life is to annoy people. I swat at him. "Where is your brother? Or your cousin?"
"Which one?" He asks. I roll my eyes. He knows very well which one. Though I guess it is a fair question. He has like a hundred. "Rosie's on the train, apparently doing homework. Al's floating around somewhere"
"Rose still has homework left?" I ask incredulously.
"I think she's doing some extra credit thing" he shivers at the thought of extra credit.
"Good" I sigh. "I was worried for her sanity."
"See you around Ceel," James says. "And you're playing Quidditch this year?"
"That's not even a question"
"Good" he grins.
James heads towards several red heads, as I look around for either Al or my family. I see mum and dad a little ways away, talking to Stephanie Mazer's (a Ravenclaw in my year) parents. I approach my parents. We're not quite past not saying goodbye when I go away for four months. I hope.
"Mum?" I ask. She gives a sigh, all she needs to say to tell me my presence is not appreciated in this conversation.
"Yes, Cecilia?"
"I'm going to get on the train, so I'll see you at Christmas" Mum gives me a brief hug, and Dad pats my shoulder.
"Good Bye, Cecilia. Be good. Work hard on your school work, I know that can be hard in a . . . Ah, less focused environment" I ignore the jab at Gryffindor. I'm not in the mood to fight right now. Mum plows on "Stay out of trouble. Don't get detention. And for merlins sake don't spend so much Time flying"
I plaster on a smile, and mum gives me a sort of half hug, before turning back to Mr. And Mrs. Mazer, who are awkwardly looking away, not wanting to impose on our goodbyes. Really, I couldn't care less, but I don't think mum would appreciate me telling them that.
The narrow train corridor is full of students lugging their trunks and we cages down the hall, finding friends, and places to sit. I head towards the back of the train, to our usual compartment.
I always regret packing so much stuff while I'm lugging my stuff around. If only I was seventeen. I should have asked James to levitate my stuff she I was talking to him. He probably would have laughed at me. I continue lugging my trunk down the hall. The one time I'm grateful I don't have an owl.
"You need some help?" I deep voice asks behind me. I turn to see a tall, dark haired, and undeniably attractive boy standing behind me. I vaguely recognize him as being in my year, or maybe the year above, but not in Gryffindor.
"Sure" I say gratefully. He grabs my trunk and lifts it with ease. He has a book bag slung over one shoulder, but he must have set his trunk and owl down already.
"Where to, my lady?" He says jokingly.
"Um. . . This way" I gesture down the train. We head past a group of giggly third years, including one of Rose and Al's cousins I recognize as Lucy. She squints at me, with I look I can tell means the whole family, and hence the school, will know if this development within a few hours. The trials of being an honorary Wotter.
"Luca Larken" he says, introducing himself.
"Celia Allen" I say.
"I know" Luca laughs. "Honorary red head number 3124"
I snort. I'm a bit surprised he knows me, I don't have a famous name. I suppose the Wotters do get a lot of attention, and I hang around with them basically all the time. And I play Quidditch.
When we arrive at our usual compartment, Luca hands me my suitcase, and smiling says "See you around, Celia Allen" I stand outside the compartment for a second, grinning to myself, before sliding the door open and stepping inside.
"I swear Quincy, I'm working right now and I'm very sorry but I cannot look over your defense essay" Rose says, without looking up from the parchment she's hunched over, which is filled with her tiny, cramped handwriting.
"Nice to see to too, Rose" I say, shoving my trunk onto the overhead wrack. I swear, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I play Quidditch all the time, I should be stronger. James Potter can carry be around (don't ask) like I weigh as much as a pillow, and I can barely lift up my trunk.
"Celia! I haven't seen you in ages!" Rose says, setting down he quill, and getting up to give me a quick hug. "How's your family been?"
"Tiring" I say, collapsing down on the seat across from Rose.
"Same. I've been at the burrow. Living James and Fred can be trying"
"At least they don't think you're a disappointment" I say.
"Mum probably does sometimes" Rose sighs. Rose is a desperate over achiever, if you couldn't already tell. Just then the compartment door slams open, and three people pile in.
"Rosie, darling. It's been to long" Quincy says, sitting down next to each other, grabbing her essay, and passing it off to Al, who hands it off to Matt.
"Hey! Quincy!" Rose says, looking in fear at her essay. You'd think it was her baby.
"Don't you need to be at the prefects meeting?" Matt asks, sitting down next to Quincy, and wrapping his arm around her. Quincy and Matt have been going out since forever (AKA fourth year) Al sits down next to me. Rose checks her watch, and starts packing her stuff, and grabs her essay from Matt, though he doesn't out up much resistance.
"Bye Celia. Save my seat?" Rose asks.
"Sure. Give my siblings my worst" I say sarcastically.
"Will do" Rose grins.
"So, Ceel." Al says. "James told me he heard from Lily that she heard from Lucy that you where snogging some Ravenclaw in the corridor"
"What!?" Quincy exclaims. "Tell. Me. Everything."
"We were not snogging! He offered to carry my trunk to my compartment" I say.
"Hmm..." Quincy says. "Hmm..."
"Who was he?" Matt asks.
"Luca Larken"
"Ooh, he's hot" Quincy says appreciatively.
"Quincy!" Matt and Al exclaim simultaneously.
"I'm a sixteen year old girl, Matthew, I'm allowed to have hormones. But don't worry, I find you much more attractive"
They kiss, leading to Al and I simultaneously yell "Get a room!" They break a part of it, and Quincy sticks her tongue out at us.
"So how was France, Quincy?" I ask.
"Oh, it was great! I hadn't seen Julia in forever, and Michael's - you know, her husband - doing good too. And little Maisie is the cutest. . ." Quincy had spent the summer in France, with her much older sister Julia, her husband Michael, and there eight month old daughter Maisie. After she finished telling us about her France trip, Quincy and Matt excused themselves to go "visit some people" and we all pretended we didn't know it was so they could go snog.
"Exploding snap?"
"Exploding snap." Al started dealing out the cards.
"How was it, at your house, I mean?" Al asked, looking at me.
"It was. . . You know, the usual. Mum and Dad causally mentioning I had failed them, taking little jabs at Gryffindor and how I wasn't in Ravenclaw several times a day, Clea being her little ass kissing self, and Mark being, well, Mark. Though: fun fact, mum persuaded Grandma Elspeth to write me out of her will because I, and this is a direct quote 'have no potential in life, and I'm just a hole her money will fall into.' Mark and Clea can actually uphold the family name, so they should get the money" I finish brightly.
Al winces. "Yikes Ceel, that's messed up"
"And there still my family"
"I'm sorry, I mean. . . . Obviously" Al says, obviously thinking he offended me.
"No. Your right. It is messed up. It just hurts more because it I my family."
"Come here" Al says, and I snuggle into him. He brushes some hair out of my face. "However messed up your family is, you have us. Quincy and Matt and Rose and me. And I know, that deep down, however Gryffindor you are, your mum and dad love you"
I feel tears on my face, and quickly wipe them away. After a long pause, I speak. "So how was it at the burrow?"
"Good. Crazy, but good. James and Fred dyed all the girls' hair green"
"No" I say incredulously. "I saw James, and he was alive. They can't have died the girl's hair."
"Somehow, they survived. The girls were pissed."
"I thought James learned by now angering the Weasley women only ended in being hexed." There was an incident in fourth year, were James and Fred stole all the girls shoes. It wasn't pretty. And Rose had to shrink my shoes, and since I charmed them back to normal they`ve been a bit off color.
"Apparently not. But James and Fred were staying at Cassidy`s for the week, so they had an alibi. I don't know how they did it."
"Then how do you know it was them?" I ask.
"James told me. And showed me the dye."
"I suppose they could have charmed it so it didn't go into effect for a couple days." I muse.
"That's what the girls came up with, but they can't prove it, and unlike most pranks, James and Fred haven't fessed up. Lily still hit him with her Bat-Bogey. I swear, if I ever get on her bad side. . . ."
We play exploding snap for a while longer, until Rose enters the compartment looking mad, closely followed by Scorpius Malfoy. Flynn trails after them, looking worried. Rose whirls around to face Malfoy a soon as she enters the compartment. "Go away, Malfoy. I was having a perfectly good day, and now leave me in peace!"
"As you wish, Weaslette." Malfoy drawls, flicking his wand around, but not doing anything.
Rose pulls out her wand. "I`m warning you, Malfoy!" He gives one last smirk, and exits the compartment. Rose screams in annoyance, and throws herself down on the seat. Flynn sits down next to her, but a safe distance away. Flynn is the other sixth year Gryffindor prefect.
"How was the prefect meeting?" I ask Flynn. He shrugs.
Rose was back to working on her essay. "It was just Malfoy being a git, as usual"
"You okay, Rosie?" Al asks.
"Don't call me Rosie." Rose says. This time the door flies open to reveal Quincy and Matt, looking flushed and rumpled.
"Had a good snog?" I ask. Quincy sticks her tongue out at me.
"Budge over" Quincy says to Al and I. We both scoot over, and Quincy sits down next to Al. Matt sits down across from her, next to Flynn.
"We have news" Matt says.
"About your sister" Quincy says to Al. It's basically a rule of Hogwarts life that there must be drama on the Hogwarts Express. Term has to start with a bang.
"What?!" Al exclaims. The biggest fault of the male Wotters is there tendency to be over the top over brotherly. Last year, Lily went out with Logan Kinkaid, and Gryffindor from the year under us (meaning he`s a year older then Lily), for about two weeks. Until he was tracked down by the Wotter boys. Which makes every boy in the school afraid to date a Wotter girl. Luckily I have been free of that, but I`m not actually part of the family. Or maybe it's just my lack of a social life.
"We saw her snogging Logan in an empty compartment." Quincy says.
"What?!" Al was better than James, I`d give him that.
"It was a three second kiss, Quince, not a snog" Matt said.
"Still! She`s only 14!" Al says
"And when did you have your first kiss?" I say. Al mutters something under his breath. "What did you say? Twelve?"
"As you very well know." Al says, narrowing his eyes.
"So stop hyping on Lily. It was a little kiss. If your ruin it for her I will not be your friend for a week."
"That's the best you can do?" Matt asks.
"Fine." Al says. I grin.
"Alright, Quincy, I`m done with this, I can look over your defense essay." Rose says, rolling up her parchment.
"Yay!"
This is just me putting a foot back on the water. I`m sure where - or if - this is going, but I hope its going somewhere. Reviews are much appreciated!