The First Chapter:
AKA: How a Bunch of Strangers Made it Their Personal Mission to Make My Life Hell.
Some people don't believe in coincidences, some people do - but seeing as those people probably still believe in the tooth fairy their opinion will not be noted. Now, seeing as I don't believe in a tiny minuscule person that flies around collecting toddlers sugar-coated fangs you can correctly assume that I sure as hell don't believe there is such a thing as coincidences. However, on the day I met them, my beliefs where probably still on vacation, otherwise I may have approached the situation differently, and maybe might have even not ended up in mess. But, alas, as much as coincidences may not be a thing, destiny is. Which means that no matter what my original attitude was, I probably still would've ended up in the exact same spot with the exact same people.
Ah yes. Destiny. My old enemy. How many times had it gotten in the way of my plans? The answer was a simple one. To many times. Had it not been for its meddlesome fingers plucking at the strings of fate, my life would have been different. Very different. Many may disagree, arguing that destiny is just a figment of our imagination, put there so that the lesser of us may be able to understand why things may happen. They even go as far as to say that we build it inside our heads as a coping mechanism of something to blame when things go wrong.
I will probably be the first among the crowd to admit that I have blamed destiny for practically everything that went wrong with my life. And I would've been right in blaming it too. Was I so delusional in doing so? Probably. I've never really been known for having a sane head upon my shoulders - actually, now that its been brought to my attention, none of really came close to what a person's description of 'sane' would be. Then again, we where a bunch of Witches/Wizards that go to a magic school.
So, destiny, coincidences, Witches & Wizards, school, and magic. Mix them all together, and you get the beginning. Where it all started. The first step of to 100,000 foot journey.
It was the first day of my Third Year of Hogwarts. I had gotten up extremely early that day just so I could come to the train station (run into a wall) and get an empty compartment. After having to spend my first year with a bunch of rowdy Gryffindors, I had made it my personal mission to get my own compartment, and glare at anyone who had dared to even look at the door twice. They generally ran away quickly after that.
Letting out an angry sigh, I glared at my book. For a magic school, it really wasn't that much of a magic transportation, was it? I mean, a train? Why couldn't the founders have dreamt up something a little more creative. Like flying carpets. Or Floo Powder. Heck, that was already a thing! So why couldn't we use it? Well, according to Headmaster Dumbledor it 'wasn't safe'.
"Pompous pratt." I muttered under my breath, thinking of the grey-bearded wizard. I didn't really mean it - although that was mostly because I was more then certain we was capable enough to utterly destroy me before I even blinked.
"Who is?"
Upon hearing a strangers voice, my head whipped up to see a short girl with a ginger pixie cut leaning against the compartment door- my side of the compartment door.
Ignoring her question, I shot her a glare over the book cover, "Did I say you could come in?".
"Nope!" She chipped, jumping onto the opposite seat, positioning her back away from the door and tucking her knees in under her chin, "I was going to ask, but you seemed a bit preoccupied insulting the air."
I wisely decided not to engage in a verbal spar with the red-headed Scotsm'n, and instead focused my attention on the book, continuing my internal scowling. The red-head tried to get my attention, but I tuned her out, flipping a page in my book instead of rising up to her words.
"Erklings are elfish creatures, three feet tall on average..." I mumbled, tracing a pale finger under the words on the page, trying my hardest to focus on creatures eating habits then the yelling and shouting that had started outside the compartment. I caught the red heads dark green eyes, and gave her a slight glare, mentally conveying to her that I blamed the commotion on her appearance. She just gave a smirk in response.
The shouting grew louder and more intolerable, and it became impossible to even concentrate on the bloody pictured. Slamming the book shut, I stood up ready to go out there and give the jeering crowd a piece of my mind. Before I could even touch the door handle, it flew open. A frazzled messy haired boy rushed in, slamming the door behind him. I stood there kind of shocked, debating whether or not to throw him back out into the vultures claws. Luckily - or unluckily in my case- I didn't have to make the decision.
"Welcome to my humble abode and safe haven stranger!" The Scottish girl greeted him, patting the spot next to her with her foot, "Pay no heed to the Sphinx." She added to him, gesturing in my direction, "Her bark is worse then her bite."
"We've just met." I reminded her, settling back into my spot, legs stretched ahead of me, back against the window, and facing the wall. Well, now that the yelling had stopped (I would quite possible be correct in assuming that it was the guy that was the reason for that) I was mostly facing my book. Briefly glancing down at my watch to confirm that the train would be leaving soon, I became aware of a set of eyes on me.
Looking up, I met the curious gaze of the guy. His head was tilted sideways while he stared. His dark blonde hair was rather ruffled from the fiasco that occurred in the hallway, but his dark eyes gave aware none of his feeling on this. Instead they studied my every move.
Slightly extremely unnerved, I gave him a tight smile before turning my attention back to the book on my lap, intending on finishing it before the train arrived at Hogwarts. However, it seemed blondey had different intentions, as he cleared his throat attempting to get my attention.
"Need a cough drop?" I asked flatly, not even bothering to lift my gaze from the book.
"I- I uh... just wanted to... " He paused to nervously swallow, "Er.. thanks for letting me in."
Rolling my eyes, I pinned him with a 'did-you-seriously-just-interrupt-my-reading-for-this?' glare, not letting his own piercing eyes waver me, "Thank the red head." I told him, indicating my head in said persons direction, "I was debating whether or not to through you back out." Shrugging nonchalantly I flipped another page, "Still am actually."
They both recoiled slightly, obviously neither of them expecting that kind of response. "Oh." The red head said, "Uh..." She looked around the train compartment awkwardly, both of them unsure of what to do. To their luck, before the awkwardness became too out of hand, a storm of squeals and girlish yelling erupted from outside the cabin.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" I snarled, slamming the book shut for the second time that day. Swinging my legs off the seat, I stalked towards the door. Again.
"Don't kill anyone?" the redhead said, ending it as more of a question then a request.
I gave a dark chuckle, "No promises." I muttered.
There where a bunch of female bodies in the hallway, several of them where squeezing against the door as to get a closer look of.. whatever was causing the choir of strangled cats. Grabbing the glass door handle, I wrestled with it to get the door open. Despite my tall stature, I wasn't all that strong to begin with, and the added weight on the door due to bodies pressing against it really really wasn't helping.
There! The door budged open. And as I opened my mouth to yell, I was assaulted by the overwhelming smell of perfume. Against my own will, my body hunched over and let out a few strangled coughs. While my head and sight was angled at the ground, someone came barrelling in, promptly knocking me off of my feet and onto the cold ground. There was a sliding sound followed by the compartment door being slammed shut. "Colloportus" The red head muttered, and there was a corresponding click sound, followed by a series of bangs from the other side of the door. Looking up I noticed that the horde of girls had turned their attention toward the compartment, and the otherwise clear view of the hallway was muddled up by a bunch of faces pressed against it. Like... tourists ogling a rare species at one of them muggle zoo's.
"So sorry." a new voice spoke, "I wasn't quite aware that that may have happened."
Straightening myself, and brushing imaginary dirt off of my muggle clothes, I was faced with yet another person in my compartment. The new newcomer was also male. Discovering that he was quite a bit taller then me, I scoffed loudly before plopping down in my seat, glaring at the few remaining females in the door-window. I was even more displeased when he sat where my legs where going to go.
Now that I didn't have to embarrass myself by looking up at him, I studied the newcomer from over the top of my book. Dark hair styled into a 'smooth' fringe, a cocky smirk that seemed to be branded onto his face, and light brown that had... some sort of unsettling twinkle in them. Also he was built like an ox. Which was just typical.
"Er... hi." Blondey greeted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
Red Scott decided to save him of extreme embarrassment and pipped up. "Welcome to my humble abode and safe haven stranger!" she greeted again. "Pay no attention to the Sphinx, her-"
"Are you a robot?" I snapped at her, "because if you insist on greeting .person who walks in here the exact same way... I will activate your off switch."
"What is you can't find one?" The newbie asked, his light brown eyes sparked with amusement.
Meeting them with a cold stare I responded flatly, "Then I'll make one." The brunette recoiled ever so slightly, and scooted a closer to the wall opposite of me. The two on the other seat gave him a glance, silently telling him that he better get used to it.
"So..." The blonde cleared his throat again, his black gaze settled on me again, "What are you reading?"
Momentarily caught off guard, my eyes flew wide open, before they quickly formed a glare. Truth be told, I had expected (and hoped) for them to ignore me. "None of your business." I shot back, before tracing a picture of a merperson lightly with my finger.
"I think for the sake of out existence we should let her read." Red Scott pipped in, and I mentally applauded her, "Besides, seeing as you two may be stuck here for a while... I never caught your names."
Blondey shifted slightly in his seat, angling his body so he could extend his hand towards Red Scott comfortably, "Ives Ashford, Manchester, England... err... third year?" Sensing he was probably going to babble, Red Scott quickly shook his hand.
"Charles Owen." The brunette added in quickly, probably also sensing that 'Ives' was going to babble, "Cardiff, Wales. Also Third year." He flashed what was probably a comforting smirk in Ives direction, but it only seemed to unsettle him more.
"Heather Emery." Red Scott added, doing a criss cross with her arm to shake both of their hands, "From Glasgow, Scotland. Also in the beloved third grade."
"What, really?" Brunet- er... Charles gasped, "All three-"
Thinking 'oh what the hell' I cut him off. "Four." I stated, "Tori Wright. Ireland."
"'Tori'?" Heather said, "Isn't that short for- Er.. never mind." She wisely decided not to continue her sentence upon seeing my glare.
Decided to finish my personal challenge, I opened the book wider, and sunk into the information, decided not to pay attention to the people surrounding me. Soon after the train had started. There where a few more conversations, mostly with Ives stuttering his way through a sentence, Heather coming to his rescue with a hyped helping sentence, while Charles just sat there with an arrogant smirk that I had come to assume was branded on his face. Occasionally I butted in with a snide comment just to remind them that I was still in the compartment.
Then by the time the Trolley Lady came around, the crowd in my cabin started to dissipate. Charles - upon seeing that his fan girls where long gone - decided to go see if he could find his friends, but not before mentioning that we weren't 'half bad' . Which, coming from him, was probably a comment?
Ives left shortly after that. He actually managed to string together a coherent sentence that was kind of funny. ('Thank you for not kicking me out Tori.') Which left a small smirk on my face, which I hid from the Red Scott.
Heather herself stayed around for quite a bit afterwards. Despite her being an extremely chatty lass, she said that she just wanted a few more quite moments. Which where promptly broken about 10 minutes later when a group of her squealer friends came walking down the hall.
"That's my cue!" She pipped up, gathering all of her candy wrappings and shoving them into her pocket. Her friends looked in, all of them making 'hurry up' gestures with their hands.
Realising that I was probably supposed to say something, I handed her a wrapper that had managed its way under my seat, "It wasn't completely terrible meeting you." I admitted,then quickly adding, "Although if you ever attempt to sit with me again, I will shove you head first out of the astronomy tower."
"Miss ya too Tori." She chuckled, then opened the door and fell right into the clutches of her friends who carted her away.
Looking around the now-empty compartment, I was struck with an uncharacterised pain of lonesomeness. I had never really been one to enjoyed social interaction... but I supposed after a severe withdrawal of something you dislike, something out of ones comfort zone wasn't an entirely healthy thing.
Realising, that despite all of the needless distractions, I had also managed to finish my book, I decided that it was quite possibly time to don the robes again.
"Guess third time isn't always the charm." I muttered, staring at the approaching castle in the distance, subconsciously fidgeting my Green and Silver tie.
7.8 Pages, 2521 Words
Next Chapter: The Sorting of Harry Potter & The Discovery of Houses.
Interesting Character Fact:
Heather likes to listen to Moonlight Sonata when (well, if in her case) she studies.
ALL questions and comments are appreciated - as long as they are appropriate.