Through the Looking Glass
The hum of individual conversations all blended into one filled the train station, while a few low quality speakers played music faintly into the cacophony in vain, as the music was quickly overcome by the loud conversations. People pushed their way through the crowds, moving in all different directions - toward the information booth and each of the trains lined up along the platforms. Other children yelled goodbyes and exchanged last minute hugs. Through all of this, four siblings stood dejectedly against a faded tile wall, watching as a loose newspaper was blown along the ground in the wind created by a train pulling away from one of the platforms. They were lined up in a row, the two good-looking girls in between the tall, athletic-looking boys.
"I can't believe we're going back to school after all of this," commented the younger boy, sighing and a shaking his head.
The older girl swept a piece of her long dark hair back behind her ear distractedly and replied rationally, "We knew that it would happen eventually, Ed." She looked down at the younger boy as she said so, but there was something in her eyes that agreed with him for all of her sense.
"Yes, but it is a bit of a let down after being Kings and Queens again, Sue. You have to admit that." The older boy argued, running a hand through his blond mane in an equally distracted manner.
The younger girl wrinkled her freckled nose at her brothers and sister. Her red hair bounced with a life of its own as she informed them, "We'll go back some day. You don't have to be so glum about it all, Peter." There was a glint of excitement in her eye that couldn't be quashed by any amount of disappointment at going back to school.
"You'll go back some day, Lu. But remember what Aslan said? Time's up in Narnia for Susan and me," Peter reminded his younger sister gently, replying from her other side.
"I can't believe that Aslan would leave you out of it. No more adventures? No more magic? That's not right!" Lucy protested loudly. Her indignant manner drew the attention of several passersby, who gave them curious looks as they passed, making for their own trains.
Edmund shrugged casually and replied, "We'll just have to find our own adventures." He clearly didn't share in his younger sister's displeasure.
"As long as those adventures don't involve any more new worlds, wars, or odious prophecies, I'm up for an adventure," Susan replied somewhat restlessly. "It's been a year since we left Narnia."
There was a moment of silence as each of the siblings considered their adventures in the magical world. Breaking out of quiet reflection, Peter asked, "It was from this station that we left last time, wasn't it?"
Lucy hopped from foot to foot as she reminded him excitedly, "We felt the magic pulling at us." With a giggle, she recalled her favorite part. "And Sue thought it was Edmund, and she yelled at him!"
"Yes," her older sister replied, shooting a venomous glare at her younger brother. "I remem- Ow!" she exclaimed. The brunette was not pleased with the sharp tug she had felt on her hair. Looking around for the person who had pulled her hair, she rounded on her younger brother again. "Ed…"
"Hey, it wasn't me!" The boy protested mildly, holding his hands up as some sort of defense against his incensed older sister.
"Oh, really, then who was it?" Susan asked as she posed crossly. "Was it the wind again?"
Peter hesitated to break into their argument, but he felt that it was his duty to pull his younger brother and sister away from the quarrel. "I think it is happening again. Look." He pointed at the area of the station's wall where a distortion in the air was becoming visible.
The two squabbling siblings turned to follow Peter's hand and saw an all too familiar sight. The platform was emptying, as they could see by the flickering light. Time itself seemed to slow under the Pevensies' watch. The pull of the magic became more insistent, and the four siblings turned to see the wall behind them falling away to reveal a dark portal.
"Here we go!" Lucy cried out, grabbing her sister's and eldest brother's hands as Susan reached out for Edmund's. Hands linked, the four Pevensies stepped forward into the void.
--
The train chugged on steadily as students sat about in different compartments, talking to one another after a long summer apart. Four of those students were lucky enough to have managed to find a compartment to themselves. They sat on either side of the door, two boys and two girls. The girls read quietly while the boys devoured the pile of food spread on the seat between them.
"I still can't believe it," Hermione said, dropping her copy of the N.E.W.T.s Arithmancy book to her lap so she could speak to the darker haired of the boys. "They didn't make you Head Boy! How could they not make you Head Boy?" She shook her head, incredulous at the choice of Head Boy for the year.
"I don't know," Ron replied, struggling to open a chocolate frog. "I was sure they'd give it to him too. At least I knew it wouldn't be me." He shook his head, casting a sidelong glance at his best friend before dropping his gaze to the card that had fallen from the sweet package. "I've gotCyprian Youdle, again."
"They wouldn't make me Head Boy; I get into too much trouble," Harry said, effectively ending the conversation about what Ron and Hermione clearly believed to be the wrong choice. "Besides, I'm happy being Quidditch Captain again," he added as he turned to Ron. "I don't have that one yet. You going to keep it?"
Handing over the card, the occupant of its portrait now snoring, Ron answered, "Nah, I've got three of him already."
"Who exactly is this Noodle person?" Hermione asked as she once again dropped her thick new book. "I've never heard of him." The tone of her voice indicated that if, in her years of combing the Hogwarts library, she had never come across the wizard, he should not have had a chocolate frog card dedicated to him.
Shaking his head at Hermione's disturbing lack of knowledge about things that really mattered, Ron sighed and retorted, "It's Youdle. He's the only Quidditch Referee to die during a match." He explained the last part patiently, as if to a child.
Ginny laughed at her brother's seriousness and ducked back behind her copy of Teen Witch Weekly. Harry's face could be seen scowling up at them from the cover, emblazoned with the words, 'Harry Potter: The Chosen One'.
"And that got him a card?" Hermione asked, her tone still decidedly skeptical. "I thought there were supposed to be important people on those cards. That's not a great accomplishment, now, is it?" She snorted.
More giggles came from Ginny's direction as she shared a knowing look with Harry from behind the shelter of her magazine. The first row of the school year had just begun. Harry looked back at her with a grin of his own and raised an eyebrow. Ginny mouthed back at him, "Stay out of it," shielding her mouth with Teen Witch Weekly so that Hermione, sitting beside her, wouldn't be able to see.
Ron was getting wound up as he attempted to think of an appropriate comeback when swirling light began to fill the compartment. The four Gryffindors had just enough time to draw their wands before four other slightly disheveled people were dumped into the middle of the train compartment.
Looking around wearily at the Gryffindors' wands, the eldest of the four Pevensies said, "Well, Sue, you did say that you wanted an adventure."