Author Note: This is my first fanfiction that anyone besides my best friend has ever seen, so let me know if you like it or if it's any good. Any constructive criticism is appreciated since I really want to improve my writing. Let me know if you want more or not, because I might not continue it otherwise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything from that universe. The brilliant JKR does and I praise her imagination. Most of the dialogue from this chapter is from the Sorcerer's Stone.
"Have a wonderful time at Hogwarts, dearest!" mum said as she hugged me tightly. My mother, Avalyn Haughtry, was here at platform nine and three-quarters to send me off to wizarding school. Wizarding school! I finally get to go to Hogwarts! After years of hearing about it from my older brother, Xander, and from just about everyone else my parents forced me to meet, I get to be there myself!
"Thanks mum," I said after she was done choking me. "I'm sure it'll be great."
"Write as soon as you're sorted. And remember to befriend the Greengrass girl or the Nott boy," dad said as he gave me a firm handshake. My father, the great Tyrell Haughtry, was not emotional. He did not hug. So how could that be a tear in his eye? "Just… be safe, Kendria. And have a good time."
"Thank you, father. And don't worry, I will."
At that moment Xander appeared from the crowd that had swallowed him, ready to help me lift my trunk into the empty compartment near the back of the train. His dark eyes were hidden by his flop of black hair, but it didn't hide the way his cheeks were flushed from snogging whatever girl he found this time.
"Are you sure you're ready for this, baby sister?"
"Of course I am. I've been waiting for this forever. And don't call me baby!"
"Just don't let the thestrals scare you," he said with his usual teasing grin. The very same one he probably used to get the last girl to start talking to him. Apparently he has dashing good looks; I think he's arrogant and annoying.
"Oh, shut up. They're invisible. I'm taking the boats this year, anyway. I read about it in Hogwarts: a History."
"How many times have you read that now?"
"I'm only on my third time through. Besides, shouldn't you be catching up on reading? You do have your O.W.L.s this year."
Knowing that books were his weak point, I successfully avoided any worse teasing that might possibly happen. After my trunk was put away, he ran off through the other groups of families to find some of his friends. I settled into a corner of the compartment with my book and looked out the window at the station. People-watching was sort of a hobby of mine.
I leaned back against the crimson, plush seat and scanned my eyes across the platform. The smoke from the train made it sort of hard to see, but I caught sight of a family of redheads talking near my end of the train. All of them were boys at schooling age with a little sister that would probably be old enough next year. The youngest boy looked as though he was going to be a first year this year as well. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for him.
A clattering from outside distracted me from the family. Someone else was probably having trouble with their trunk. I didn't get up because I wouldn't be able to lift a trunk without a bigger person, and I was comfortable here. Whoever it was was making progress though, because a snowy owl in its cage was set on the seat opposite mine. They were still having trouble though, because no one else appeared in the compartment.
Someone must have come to assist because I heard him say, "Want a hand?"
The person in need replied, "Yes, please."
It must have been a heavy trunk because they needed another person, "Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"
They slowly made their way into the compartment and tucked the trunk into the corner opposite mine. I guess they never spotted me, and I didn't reveal myself for one of the reasons I didn't help with the trunk: you can learn much more through eavesdropping.
"Thanks," the owner of the trunk said. He was a small boy, quite skinny, with messy black hair and glasses. He pushed his hair away from his eyes, revealing his forehead, and the scar upon it.
I stifled a gasp as one of the red-haired helpers asked, "What's that?"
"Blimey," added the other identical one. "Are you—?"
"He is," the first one said again. "Aren't you?"
Throughout all of this I recognized them as the twins from the family I was watching earlier. Their twin-talk confused the dark-haired boy whose identity I already guessed at.
"What?"
"Harry Potter," the twins said in perfect unison.
Obviously unused to being recognized, Harry was turning red as he replied, "Oh, him. I mean, yes, I am."
Someone yelled through the open door, "Fred? George? Are you there?"
The twins yelled, "Coming, mum," as they jumped off the train.
Harry sat down in the seat next to the window. He just kept looking out the window and didn't bother to look around the rest of the compartment. He was watching the same redheaded family that I was observing earlier. It made me feel kind of weird to be watching a person who was watching someone else, so I went back to watching one set of people.
The redheaded boy that was a first year was currently getting his nose cleaned by his mother. It was obvious that he found this embarrassing, and it looked like his brothers were getting ready to tease him.
"Mum—geroff," he said as he escaped. I could just make out the voices through the open window.
My prediction came true as one of the twins said, "Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?"
"Shut up," said the boy whose name I guessed to be Ron.
"Where's Percy?" asked his mom.
"He's coming now," and yes the boy was. He was already in the school robes and was wearing a prefect badge. My brother wasn't well-behaved enough to be a prefect, but I recognized the badge from the book I was currently reading.
"Can't stay long, Mother. I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves—" Percy said before one of the twins cut him off.
"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy? You should have said something, we had no idea."
They started to do the twin-talk thing again as the next one said, "Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it. Once—"
"Or twice—"
"A minute—"
"All summer—"
"Oh, shut up," Percy said.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" asked one of the twins.
"Because he's a prefect," said the mother. "All right, dear, well, have a good term—send me an owl when you get there." She gave the prefect a kiss before he walked towards the prefect compartments.
She turned on the twins and immediately started lecturing them. "Now, you two—this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've—you've blown up a toilet or—"
"Blown up a toilet, we've never blown up a toilet," said a twin.
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum," said the other.
"It's not funny. And look after Ron." So I did get the name right. Ron what though?
"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."
"Shut up," Ron said again.
I tuned out when the twins told their mother that Harry Potter was on the train. Instead I tried to figure out what about the family was familiar. Red hair, and what seems like a lot of kids. Percy is a prefect. Troublemaking twins. That was it! Someone had pranked the Slytherin common room last year. Xander had complained about it in a letter home. The older kids suspected Fred and George Weasley, two second year pranksters. The Weasley family! Dad had ranted to me and my mother then about the family of "blood traitors" for hours. He had said that he was going to complain to Arthur, the father, at work the next day.
The train then gave a high-pitched whistle, startling me from my own train of thought. I watched the three Weasley boys climb on the train, and then saw their little sister cry.
Leaning back against the compartment wall closest to the door, I went back to my book. Finding this much out about Hogwarts just made me even more excited to go there and see it all for myself. What house would I get sorted in? Slytherin, like my brother and the rest of my family? Hufflepuff? Not likely, but still a possibility. Gryffindor? I hadn't heard much except bad things about that house. Then again, that might be due to the discrimination due to the blatant lack of care about blood status that house exhibited. Or the feud between Slytherin and Gryffindor that turned them against one another the minute they were sorted. But then again, I could be a Ravenclaw, with all my fellow nerds.
The door then slid open, and Harry looked away from the window. The boy named Ron then walked in. And that's when they noticed me.