CHAPTER TWO
"Bye Bin Bin!" called Thiviya after her sister,
"We'll miss you!" squeaked Vivekka loudly.
"I'll be at Radha Aunty's for Christmas, I promise!" Winthya shouted back as she took one last look at her sisters before dragging her suitcase up the stairs to enter King's Cross Station and catching up with her cousins, Manoj and Mathavan.
"You okay Winthya?" Manoj asked her just before they stepped through the wall of the third pillar between platforms nine and ten.
"Yup, I'm okay," she replied half-heartedly and Mathavan turned to look at her and saw that she was definitely going to miss her sisters.
Manoj and Winthya walked through the wall first and Mathavan followed.
"Another mudblood," Mathavan heard Clement Yaxley say loudly as he arrived through the wall on to platform nine and three-quarters. Kiri who stood next to him sniggered.
"Shut the hell up, Yaxley," Manoj shouted angrily.
"Come on Manoj," Winthya was tugging at his arm. "Let's just find a seat on the train. Come on Momo" she said over her shoulder at Mathavan.
Winthiya followed Manoj and as Mathavan started to follow them, both Kiri and Clement barged into Mathavan as they strutted past him which make him drop his suitcase. "See you in the great hall, 'Moooo Moooo'" said Clement imitating a cow and they walked off to the opposite end of the train laughing animatedly.
"Idiots," Mathavan muttered under his breath.
He joined Winthya and Manoj in a compartment which was occupied by Lily and Stephanie who were all deep in conversation.
"-just a loser. Just ignore him, Winthya," advised Manoj.
"What took you so long?" Stephanie asked Mathavan as he sat down next to her.
"Bumped into two of the loser brothers. But Binbin, just wait until you get to Hogwarts. You're gonna love it," he added.
"I know!" said Winthya excitedly. "I can't wait!"
"I wonder where Malfoy was though," said Manoj.
"He probably got bored of Yaxley and was looking for first years to bed to hang around with."
"Haha maybe," Manoj replied.
The Hogwarts Express started to move and the five occupants of the compartment made themselves comfortable.
"So how long does it take to get to Hogwarts?" asked Winthya.
Lily who was looking eagerly at Winthya ever since she got on the train, spoke first.
"Wow you're like totally American!"
Winthya smiled and corrected her.
"Nope, I'm Canadian."
"So Canadians speak like Americans too? That's so cool! Is it true Canadians pronounce 'out' as 'uhwoot'?" Lily asked in the same excited tone.
Winthya and Mathavan laughed.
"No it isn't," she said still laughing. "But you're not the first to ask me that," she added as she purposefully threw a pair of evil eyes at Mathavan but was smiling at the same time. Mathavan struggled to stop laughing.
Lily smirking as Mathavan snorted to stop himself from laughing finally said: "The journey is about an hour long by the way,".
"Oh okay thanks," replied Winthya smiling at Lily. The smile was returned by Lily.
Manoj and Mathavan were now giving each other an arm-wrestle on the pull-out food table. It seemed to take a lifetime for the back of Manoj's hand to touch the table.
"That's five in a row mate," Mathavan gloated.
"But you've got bigger arms than me; There's no point in keeping score," Manoj admitted.
Mathavan seemed to be satisfied with this answer as he lay back in his seat looking proud of himself.
"Yeah enough of the macho games Mathavan," said Stephanie. "You always win."
"Alright, alright, no more macho games," Mathavan conceded in defeat.
"I've got cards," Winthya said hopefully.
"Nice one Bin Bin," replied Mathavan.
"Are these muggle cards? I've always wanted to play muggle card games," admitted Stephanie.
"We could play spoons?" suggested Winthya.
But they didn't have spoons so they used candy sticks from the food trolley and played 'sticks' instead. There was a lot of banging on the table and girlish squeals from the five of them; Most of the girlish squeals came from Mathavan. They had to pay extra visits to the food trolley as Winthya kept on snapping the candy sticks that she snatched at. The others didn't mind these extra trips as they used this as an excuse to fulfil their cravings for sweets. Winthya won three games in a row.
"You're just too quick with your hands Winthya. You might make a good seeker. Mathavan and Manoj made the Gryffindor quidditch team in their first year even if they were filling in for-" Lily was cut off by a voice on the train.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
As soon as the announcement was over the boys let the girls change first and stepped outside. Even after all the broken candy sticks they had helped themselves to they still made their way to the food trolley. They entered the next carriage and suddenly stopped in their tracks. The girl they saw at the food trolley looked awfully familiar.
"Is it me or has Scorpius Malfoy found a spell to turn him into a girl?" asked Mathavan.
"Must be his sister. That is so weird. They look so alike! Apart from her having dark brown hair," said Manoj.
"Oi!"
Mathavan and Manoj turned to face the owner of the ever so familiar call.
"What's up Malfoy? Good summer?" Manoj asked sarcastically.
"Don't play nice with me Manoj "Gayman". What are you doing? Do you know who that is you're bullying?" and he nodded in the direction of his sister who turned around at the sound of Scorpius Malfoy's voice.
"Honestly mate, we didn't say a word-"
Scorpius drew his wand. Mathavan and Manoj did the same.
"Don't lie to me! If I find you upsetting Paulina again, I'll have you! Paulina let's go," ordered Scorpius Malfoy.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of that carriage to the compartments that the Slytherins usually sat in.
"Well that was..." Manoj said deciding on the best way of finishing his sentence.
"Not normal?" suggested Mathavan.
"Definitely not normal," Manoj agreed.
The girls arrived at the food trolley and as the boys made their way to their carriage they heard Winthya trying to buy a number of candysticks so they could play 'sticks' at Hogwarts.
The train finally arrived at the school and Winthya joined the rest of the first-year students who were going to be led up to the castle in boats with Hagrid.
Manoj, Lily, Mathavan and Stephanie however were to be taken to the Hogwarts castle by victorian carriages which appeared to pull themselves.
"What house d'ya reckon Winthya's gonna be in? She says she wants to be in Gryffindor," said Manoj.
"Then she'll be in Gryffindor without a shadow of a doubt. The hat takes into your account your interest before making a decision," Mathavan explained and noticed that he was attracting suspicious looks from Lily.
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"I read about it in a library book last year," he said truthfully.
He stumbled across the subject during a History Of Magic project about the history of the four houses. However he wasn't prepared to tell his friends about exactly what the sorting hat said about him on his first day at Hogwarts just yet.
"Fair enough."
Lily appeared to finally give up on her suspicions. Mathavan was slightly relieved to see the muscles in Lily's cheekbone relax however felt mostly guilt about keeping this secret from his best friends. 'You can live with this' Mathavan thought to himself. The carriages that pulled themselves reached the gates of Hogwarts and Professor Flitwick was waiting for students to tick them off the register.
"Right let's see who we have here," he said to himself in his squeaky voice.
"It;s great to see you again Miss Delacour-Weasley. Did you enjoy your Summer break?"
Professor Flitwick was the head of Ravenclaw house and he absolutely adored Stephanie as she was the cleverest Ravenclaw student in the year.
"Yes sir, my dad took us to visit Uncle Charlie in Romania," explained Stephanie. "I had a great time."
"Oh that sounds wonderful. I shall see you at the feast," said Professor Flitwick beaming brightly at Stephanie.
"Miss Potter, Mr Rayman and Mr Sonic, I have you marked in now. You may all proceed to the Great Hall."
Indifferently toned and timed chants of 'Yes Professor' were heard from the four of them. They entered the Great Hall and Stephanie took a seat on the Ravenclaw table and Manoj, Mathavan and Lily took their seats at the Gryffindor table but positioned themselves as close to Stephanie as possible.
"I can't wait for the sorting to be over. I'm starving!" said Mathavan carelessly loudly.
"You're cousin's getting sorted and all you can think about is food. You're such a pig," Lily said disapprovingly.
"Hey pigs bathe in their own poo! I'd rather be a..."
Mathavan paused and thought to himself for a second. "What am I trying to prove here?" he asked himself looking utterly confused which made Lily giggle.
"Go on Bin Bin!" he then shouted as the first-years began to walk through the middle of the Great Hall lead by Professor McGonagall who threw a sour angry look at Mathavan which told him that his outburst was out of line. He mouthed 'sorry' silently and Mathavan thought disbelievingly that the end of Professor McGonagall's mouth twisted into a smile for half a second but then returned to its sour unwelcoming position. Winthya caught his eye, blushed and smiled nervously. Manoj gave her a thumbs up and Lily waved. She returned Lily's wave but this time with a big smile across her face. She knew she had a new friend before she even got put into a house and was truly grateful to Manoj and Mathavan for sitting in Lily's and Stephanie's compartment on the train. The first-years were now getting sorted and Mathavan complained many times in Manoj's ear about the hat taking too long with it's decisions as hunger got the best of him. Finally after what seemed, according to Mathavan, a lifetime a certain name was called up by Professor McGonagall.
"Vulpix, Winthya."
Winthya put on the hat eagerly and it was on her head in a slant so that only her left eye was visible.
"Hmmmm..." they heard the hat say. And a few seconds later, the hat made it's decision.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Winthya gleefully jumped up from the seat as the rest of the Gryffindors greeted her and she squealed in celebration with Lily after she hugged her two cousins. Stephanie looked on from the Ravenclaw table feeling a little left out.