Chapter 02- The Crash
September 1st"I can't believe it took you so long to get ready," James snapped at Anne as they ran to the Platform 9 ¾.
Anne said nothing as she ran next to her mother, who was accompanying them. They finally got to the platform and Anne looked around nervously.
"Come on, Anne, James, go get a seat," Hermione said, kissing both in the cheek and handing them some money. "Have a good term, and write when you get to Hogwarts."
The siblings nodded as they got inside the train and James waved to their mother. "James! Hi!" A very pretty girl with blond hair was smiling at Anne's brother, who simply smiled.
"Hi there, Sophia," James said, turning to look and Anne. "Sorry if I leave you, but…" James left Anne standing in the corridor while people passed by her.
She dragged her trunk along and looked inside the compartments, looking for familiar faces. "Anne!" Wayne patted her on the shoulder and Anne grinned at him.
"Looking for a compartment?" he asked.
"Yeah, guess so," Anne nodded. "Got one?"
"Sure, let me help you," Wayne said as he carried Anne's trunk. They got to a compartment which already had two of Wayne's friends in there.
"Have you seen any of my friends?" Anne asked as Wayne sat down.
"I think I saw Andrew and June Lambert together before I got into the train," Wayne said.
"Oh," Anne said. She smiled at Wayne's friends, Darren and Spencer, and they smiled back. The four of them chatted about their summer and Quidditch (of course Anne avoided saying she had not slept well over an unfinished letter) and a while after they had bought things from the candy trolley, Anne excused herself.
She wanted to find one of her friends, but she seemed to have no luck. She was booed away from an Slytherin compartment (Anne was sure that Wanda McMahon was among them), some Ravenclaws merely ignored her and she was just about to give up when she heard footsteps behind her and she turned around.
Anne's thoughts and feelings collided with each other, making her slight light-headed and nervousness ran though her body. Chris was standing there, his hands in his pockets and he seemed as stunned as Anne.
He seemed to have grown a couple of inches in the summer, and his brown curly hair was a bit messier than usual. They stared at each other in what seemed an eternity until Chris let out a nervous chuckle.
"Hey there," he grinned.
"Hey there," Anne echoed breathlessly.
"Nice summer?" Chris asked, trying to sound normal.
"No," Anne said honestly.
"Yeah, mine was kind of lousy, too," Chris said, running his fingers through his hair. "Managed to escape my stepmother's dreadful haircuts, though."
"I can see that," Anne chuckled.
Chris looked at her closely and frowned. "How come you didn't write to me all summer?"
Anne hesitated. "About that…"
The compartment door next to Anne burst open and Marcela emerged from it. "ANNE!!!" They embraced tightly and Marcela beamed.
"I told Chris to go look for you," she said happily. "We were getting kind of bored just the two of us."
Anne's eyes looked at Chris and then she looked back at Marcela. "It seems I got here first," Anne said.
The three of them entered the compartment and Chris sat next to the window, avoiding to look at Anne.
"He's been so weird," Marcela whispered, "I mean, everything's sort of okay between us but he seems distant somehow."
"Probably because he's getting used to you two breaking up," Anne whispered back.
"He ended it. He shouldn't be weird," Marcela muttered. "I'm the one that should be mean to him or something. But I had the time to mull things over the summer and I'm okay."
Anne forced a smile as she tried hard not to look at Chris. "Now that you two finished whispering about me, how many OWLS you got?" Chris asked, still looking outside the window.
"I got six," Marcela said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Andrew got twelve though!"
"He's the one with the brains!" Anne chuckled. "I got nine, which was okay with Dad, but Mom went completely mad when she saw I failed Potions."
"You failed Potions?" Chris snorted. "Now, that's a surprise!"
"But it's not like I want to be an Auror," Anne shrugged. "Or an Elf-rights defender."
"Good point," Marcela said as she got out a copy of The Quibbler.
Marcela started reading and Chris stared longingly at Anne. Anne merely smiled and turned to look at the front page of The Quibbler, feeling elated inside.