A/N: My first Harry Potter fic! Collaborated with a bunch of friends from school. Next-gen fic, bunch of OCs. I tried as much as possible to stick to the story, but I'm pretty sure I failed at like a major part of that. You know, I was going to write something uber fluffy. But my friend was like "ARGH NO PLEASE NOT FLUFF". So yeah. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except like what I own. TRAGIC, ISN'T IT.
:a Harry Potter next generation fanfiction:
Hidden Fire: Prologue
Hayden Slatter nervously straightened her skirt and flattened her shoulder-length brown hair. The steam from the Hogwarts Express made the entire of Platform 9¾ cloudy and misty, but that didn't hide the fact that she was probably the only student there who was alone. All by her lonely self.
As she pushed her luggage and owl along, trolley wheels squeaking unceremoniously and clanking unnecessarily loudly on the drains. Why was it that when she wanted to be invisible, which shouldn't have been all that hard, it was impossible?
And this was the case every single year. Was life a bitch or what?
To have her parents killed in a car crash when she was three.
To lose her older brother in a knife fight at some bar because he'd been mistaken as some dude who'd stolen some random other man's girl.
To have been living with her aunt since then. As much as her aunt was nice, she was never home.
And now, her first year at this Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. No, she wasn't eleven, she was sixteen. And that would probably make life all the worse.
Life sucked. Big time.
Hayden managed to get on the train, hauling all her stuff up by herself, and thanks to her not having parents — or anyone at all, really — to distract her from getting on the train early, find a nice, suitable compartment from the wide and largely empty range available.
She stashed her stuff away and let her wand drop onto the seat. Pressing her nose against the window, she closed her eyes briefly at the cold. Then she wiped away some of the condensation and looked out onto the scene on the platform.
Kids everywhere. Young children laughing, screaming, running around. Newbies looking around apprehensively and hugging. Older students standing around, chatting, hugging, kissing, acting cool. Parents smiling, crying, scolding.
She swallowed audibly, successfully holding back tears — results of years and years of practice — and spun around, just as the compartment door slid open and a bunch of people walked in, talking excitedly.
The undeniably cute boy in the front, messy brown hair standing almost on end, stopped short on seeing her. His eyes widened in apology and he started backing out, only to crash into his friends, who had apparently decided not to move.
What was it about her that made people want to run away? Hayden sighed.
The boy he'd crashed into smirked at Hayden and remained motionless. A girl with flaming auburn hair tied in a ponytail smiled (not unkindly) at Hayden. "Is this compartment full?"
Hayden shook her head and gestured at the empty seats. The girl grinned, "I'm Lily. Lily Potter." And she started pushing her companions into the compartment. All the boys were ridiculously cute (maybe it was something about this place), all the girls extraordinarily pretty.
The last boy to enter was a blonde with blue-grey eyes that were somewhat warm yet cold. Something stirred at the back of Hayden's mind. This boy... She knew him. She didn't know from where, when or how, but she knew him. The boy seemed to know it too. He stopped at the door, took one look at her, mumbled something and scurried out of the compartment.
R&R please! I know it sucks, so give constructive criticism okay?