New Story, Notes at the bottom! Me no own - all but OC's belong to Rowling.
The entrance to Platform 9 ¾ was one of the most remarkable things that muggleborn Indigo Clark had ever seen. Her closest friend, who had, incidentally, also been given an invitation to the magical school, Hogwarts, was glancing around her like it was normal. Like she hadn't just run through a solid brick Indigo looked behind her, the brick gave way to a grand archway, leading to the bustling station beyond. Where normal people moved on their normal daily errands, as if that was just a regular brick wall. Like it didn't lead to an entirely new world. When she turned around, it looked just like a passageway, with a brick arch and people walking past onto their own work, unable to notice anything. Like they were normal. Like they weren't standing in a steam-filled train platform at what she'd previously assumed was just regular old King's Cross, eagerly awaiting the train that would take them to the boarding school they would soon be attending. The boarding school that would be teaching them magic. That they would be able to use for the rest of their lives. With the wands in their bags.
She was going to a magic school. To do magic homework. With her magic friends.
Indigo may or may not have been freaking out.
She felt distinctly out of place, surrounded by parents in what she'd recently found out were wizarding robes. Her own set, the robes that were uniform for all students at Hogwarts - the wizarding robes she had in her bag with her magic wand all resting with the books on Transfiguration and Charms and, her personal favorite, the Care of Magical Creatures. She dragged that behind herself on a cart, tugging on a lock of her brunette hair absentmindedly as she walked. Her eyes, the deep blue that she'd been named for, hadn't stopped darting around their small group, taking in all the quickly moving people that were actively practicing magic in the area around her, and her mouth, which had fallen open at the sight of Niccole disappearing into what was seemingly a brick wall had yet to close.
Niccole O'Sullivan, however, was walking next to her easily, smiling as she spoke lightly with the other girl. Her trunk was being dragged behind her, looking the same as she always did. Her stereotypically red hair was falling in her eyes, the basic boy's cut she'd gotten at the beginning of the summer having grown out long enough to be shaggy and drive Indigo insane. Her green eyes shined from behind the red framed glasses that covered her eyes, and the smirk that was always on her face firmly set in place. The dusting of freckles on her slightly round face were so numerous that her skin simply looked slightly darker than it truly was from a distance, and her red jeans and black hoodie contrasted the pale skin completely. Niccole continued chattering on, seemingly oblivious to whether or not the other girl heard her as she continued walking through the steam.
Though Niccole didn't show it, she was quite nervous about the new school, and was absolutely ecstatic that her best friend had happened to show an affinity for magic, despite being from an entirely muggle family. She wouldn't be facing what was ahead alone.
"So… my mom told me about this part," Niccole started, as if the aforementioned woman wasn't standing over them that current moment. "You get on the train, and who you choose to sit with kinda sorta determines who your friends are for the rest of your time at the school." That caused Indigo to stop, turning to stare hard at her friend.
"Wait. For the rest of the time? What happens if we sit with someone we don't like? Or we're stuck in a compartment with someone we hardly know? Or… or…" The girl slowly trailed off however, as a comforting hand fell on her shoulder.
"Indigo, it'll be okay, don't listen to my duplicitous child. It's not forever, especially since you two are facing the challenge together." Seanne O'Sullivan smiled down at them, ruffling her daughter's short hair. "And I expect both of you behave, or McGonnigal will be writing me directly. For you too, Indigo!"
She opened her mouth, as if to continue, but was cut off by the high pitched whistle of the train echoed around them, preparing to leave. It drew Indigo's eyes to the large train, and she gaped at it for a moment. It may not have been magical, but it was spectacular, and having never been on a large steam engine before, she stared at it for several seconds. Her eyes caught another girl, about their age with black hair cut even shorter than Niccole's hanging out an open window of the train. Her whole torso was out and in her hands was what seemed like a regular polaroid camera. She quickly framed shots and took them, disappearing back into the car, apparently to deposit the image somewhere inside, then immediately popping back out like a prairie dog. The strange girl seemed to just notice Indigo when her daze was broken, however, by Seanne urging them to begin moving in the direction of the machine. Before Niccole could dash off, her mother caught her by the arm, planting a kiss on top of her head.
"You better be good, Niccole." She paused and looked to Indigo. "You, on the other hand, I'm not worried about." She kissed the top of the Indigo's head and released the two, allowing them to sprint to the train, dragging their luggage behind them.
Indigo had just climbed through the door of the train behind Niccole when she heard her friend's mother shout behind them.
"I love you both! Behave!"
Niccole scoffed slightly as the pushed through the relatively crowded aisle, looking for a place to sit. It wasn't until they'd gotten to nearly the very back that they found a nearly empty compartment. The only other people in the car were a few people who had yet to notice them, or each other, it seemed. One was the girl from before, who had closed the window and was arranging the different pictures she'd taken on her knee and sorting them with a quick ease. The other was ignoring them as well, but he was completely still. There was an elf owl perched on his back, and his torso was sticking out the window, he'd apparently taken up the position after the other girl started sorting the images. The only time he moved was adjust the direction he was looking. Niccole and Indigo didn't begin speaking to one another until they'd gotten their luggage situated and taken their seats.
"So… What do you think the sorting ceremony will be like?" Indigo's voice was soft and scared as she leaned towards Niccole. The other girl smiled leaned back to Indigo, whispering conspiratorially.
"Well… I hear you have to fight a troll!" Niccole's voice raised dramatically, eyes widening comically and hands spreading apart as if in wonder. Indigo would have believed her too, had the girl arranging the pictures not spoken up with a scoff.
"As if." She'd only looked at them for a moment before refocusing her attention on the pictures in front of her, and Indigo hardly got a flash of ice blue behind thick and large black framed glasses that almost seemed too big for the young girl's face. Too soon, however, the eyes were hidden behind a curtain of hair that was too dark a black to be natural, her attention turned back to the images in front of her. Indigo stared at her, expecting the protest to turn into an explanation, then deflated as the girl made no other outward signs of continuing anything but sorting out the polaroid images in front of her. She turned back to Niccole, who had virtually deflated after being shot down from her trick and glared for a moment, before a soft voice got her attention again.
Both the elf owl's eyes and the boy, whose torso was now inside the train looked at them, both rather similar. The boy's were wide, and a soft amber, set in skin of a tan color. His black sheet of hair had been hastily thrown from framing his face, one side behind her ear, the other simply thrown from her cheek to splay itself across the chair behind her. While he was standing up, it'd probably almost brush his waist. Indigo shook her head for a moment, as if clearing it.
"Ah… I'm sorry. What did you say?" The brown eyes were slightly unnerving as they had yet to blink, and tan-skinned boy repeated himself.
"They put a sentient hat on you, it reads your mind, says where you go. It's simple, really." He spoke as if it was obvious, but Indigo was caught on the bit about a sentient hat and blinked at the boy. His attention had turned from Indigo to Niccole, however, and when he spoke again, it was slightly louder.
"Truly, that was mean. You should be kinder to people coming from muggle households." Niccole let out a scoff at the chastising.
"Indigo isn't from a muggle house. She's been around my house enough to know what magic is." Indigo raised an eyebrow at her best friend's brash tone and was about to reply when there was a light tap on the door to the compartment.
When the door swung open, the four kids met the wide black eyes of a boy, already in his uniform robes, staring at each of them with a small black kitten cradled in his arms.
"Um… hello… There was nowhere else available… may I join you?" He bit his lip, almond shaped eyes darting around at each of them in turn. No one spoke for a moment, until Indigo nodded, smiling widely at the newcomer. Niccole loudly greeted him, a wide grin resting on her face.
"Hi! Name's Niccole O'Sullivan." She offered her hand, and the other boy smiled a small smile and shook it.
"Jannik. Jannik… Fawley. And this is Muffin." He said his surname hesitantly, and plowed on through the rest of the statement, proudly announcing the name of the cat. However, the girl with the pictures seemed to be stuck on his own name, eyebrows shooting up.
"Fawley?" she asked, and he didn't reply for a moment before nodding slightly. She nodded in reply, eyes narrowing.
"Name's Cara." Moments after she finished speaking, her attention again seemed grasped by the images that she had now begun putting into a small set of folders. The boy hanging out the window didn't even look up as he distractedly greeted Jannik.
"Hello, Jannik. Been a while." He nodded, slightly flustered as he gave him the barest of looks, running a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.
"Hey, Aedan. It has." He seemed to expect him to continue for a moment, but when Aedan didn't seem to want to seek any further conversation, however, and Jannik shrugged slightly, turning his attention to the two girls not currently engaged in an activity. An uncomfortable silence enveloped them for a moment, before Indigo began speaking again.
"Any idea which houses you guys want to be sorted into? Seanne told me a lot about Hogwarts..." Her voice grew in strength as she reached the end of the statement, noticing that her question had drawn the attention of the other people in the compartment, but faded into dreamy remembrance after a moment.
Niccole nodded immediately, a wide grin on her face.
"I'm going to be in Gryffindor, of course! It's the only place that someone like me would go!" Indigo smiled as Niccole stood, placing a foot on cushion of the chair, brandishing her arm as if she was holding a sword.
"I'm not surprised that you'd want to be in the house of the brave and chivalrous. What about you... Aedan? Was that right?" Aedan nodded once, and seemed to think about it for a moment.
"Honestly, I'd probably be put into Ravenclaw. I enjoy learning a lot…" he nodded after a moment, and Indigo realized that her statement was over and nodded. Jannik didn't wait for prompting, instead smiled at the attempt at creating conversation.
"Honestly, I think I'll be put in Slytherin. Simply because it's where my entire family has been. Why should I change that theme?" His voice was bitter when he spoke about his family. His eyes slowly drifted to the ground and a pink flush spread across her face as he realized what he'd said. Indigo suddenly felt the urge to move and comfort the other, but Niccole, ever oblivious, interrupter, breaking the tension easily.
"What about you Cara? What house do you think you'll be in?" Cara's attention had been grabbed by the scenery flashing outside the window - which had slowly changed from being tame and inhabited to transitioning slowly into more and more wild.
"Well, Gryffindor is everyone's dream, right? The brave ones, the heroes. And if you can't make it there, then it'll be the Ravenclaws. The clever ones, the smart ones. If not them, the Hufflepuff - because you'd rather be the loyal one, the good friend than the conniving Slytherin. The ambitious one, or the evil one" She shakes her head and returns to gazing out at the fields by the train. Indigo looked at Cara, confused, as Aedan shook his head.
"That's not true. Slytherin are ambitious, but they protect their own. And they're certainly not entirely evil, just as not all Gryffindor are heroes. It depends on the individual." His statement had fallen on deaf ears, however, and she shook her head before turning back to the rest of the group, finally carefully climbing in from the window and closing it with a satisfying whump.
"What about you, Indigo? Where do you want to go?" The younger girl shrugged.
"I'm not sure," she began slowly, tugging at a lock of her hair. "Hufflepuff is the one known for loyalty and hard work, right?" At Niccole's nod, she continued with more confidence. "Then I'd like to be a Hufflepuff."
Cara's scoff caught her off guard.
"Why's that a problem?" At Cara's continued silence, she turned to her best friend. "Cole?" She noticed that she sounded slightly more defencive than she'd intended to, but easily dismissed it.
"Hufflepuff are where the people that don't fit in anywhere else go, duh." Cara jumped to respond, and Niccole easily dismissed the other girl's statement. Indigo glared at the other girl, and Aedan's loud sigh caught their attention, leaving them to tear their gaze away from each other. He opened his mouth to begin his protest, but Jannik beat him to speaking.
"So I hear their lake has a Giant Squid," he spoke, with a slightly excited voice and a wide grin, almost desperate to move away from the source of conflict. Indigo blinked for a moment, watching his face for any sign of misleading.
"Wait. There are magical animals too?" Her voice was incredulous, and the small titter of laughter that was easily overshadowed by the snort that echoed out of Cara. The other girl shook her head and pulled a book from her bag testily.
"Yes, of course there are." There was a laugh in Niccole's voice as she replied, but it wasn't cruel. Instead, Indigo looked to the other girl and her grin widened. "And let me tell ya, they're really really cool." Indigo's face immediately brightened as Jannik once again began speaking, smiling brightly.
"Honestly, with an entire world of new things and magic, did you expect anything different?"
Their conversations continued to ebb and flow, with eventual contributions from both Aedan and Cara on a regular basis.
By the time the express pulled smoothly into the station, they were all friendly, getting even the occasional smile from Cara, something that, when it had happened the first time, had Niccole, in characteristic dramatic form, falling from her chair and clutching her chest. Which, of course, prompted Cara to hit her in the shoulder with a heavy boot.
Of course, when they actually got off the train, the mixture of the man twice the size of any other person ushering the 'firs' years' to boats and the icy air around them had the new students shaking in their shoes again.
Niccole felt Indigo's hand slip into hers, and Niccole paused for a moment, then nodded once and reached to grab Jannik's hand. Despite his shocked expression, he smiled after a moment and seized the hand of Aedan. In moments the entire group had joined hands silently.
"Wait…" Indigo spoke quietly, as if to not shock the large man. "Aren't we going across the lake? The one with the giant squid in it?"
So this is going to be a rather large story, and a study on what I think students other than the Golden Trio were going through in the war. And it's an attempt at showing the houses and house interactions in a different light. Lemme know what you think - I wrote this in less than a day.
If you have any questions about my OC's, leave a review or PM me, I'll get back to you.
Edit 7/31/2017 - Um. I'll work more. Aeden's now male!
WInglet