I took a deep breath, come on, Abby, you can do this. "Excuse me," I asked the passing older student with a yellow and black badge on his robes. "Could you please help me?" I gestured to my trunk.
"Sure thing"
He lifted the luggage onto the train, and I thanked him as he followed it inside and disappeared into the throng of people inside.
I looked at the train, daunting as it was with its billowing smoke and gleaming sides. Having decided I wasn't brave enough, I checked my trunk was just inside and turned to look at the other people on the platform. People watching: my nerves calmer.
I gazed at the sheer mass of people. Students talking to each other about their holidays, parents seeing their kids off, and pets noisily protesting their cages. It was so...normal. And reassuring. After being told I was going to go to some mysterious boarding school because I apparently have fictional abilities – magic, I kind of needed a reality check. These people may not be so different after all. I watched a group close by. Two fathers loaded a couple of trunks on the train, nearby a boy and girl were (judging by their body language) nervously talking. I had flashbacks of similar scenes when we saw my older sister off to her boarding school.
The familiarity was comforting.
It wasn't quite enough to leave me completely happy, though. I was about to enter into a world that I didn't even know about until early August. I knew no one here, which wasn't a huge problem, I had always made friends reasonably quickly, had no idea what to expect in the school, and was pretty sure I was going to be useless at anything resembling a 'magic lesson'. At least I would get an explanation of some sort.
The train gave a whistle, jolting me from my musings, I clambered onboard as it began to move.
The jam of people was now worse inside the train. Weaving in and out of everyone, I tried to find a compartment to sit in. There didn't appear to be any empty. Cursing myself for not getting on the train earlier, I came across one with only the boy and girl from the platform inside. Figuring this was as good as I was going to get, I steeled myself and slid open the door.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Watching Mother and Father disappear as the train pulled out of the station, I thought to myself, well this is going to be a fun year.
Turning away, I entered the compartment my father had placed my belongings in, and took a seat. A year probably full of taunts, misunderstandings, and most likely alienation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not so much a pessimistic thinker, it's more like I'm a realist. My father has explained to me again and again the sort of preju-
"Hey, you. Are these seats taken?" I looked up, annoyed. A group of five had opened the door and were looking in, expectantly. Having no real reason to say yes, I shook my head and they began to noisily enter and drag their trunks and a couple of own cages in.
The one who had spoken sat opposite me, sizing me up. Feeling a little put off, I decided to do the same. He looked to be a second or third year, Slytherin by the looks of his green and silver scarf covering his owl cage. Brilliant.
"Smith," he introduced himself. "Benjamin Smith"
I prepared myself. "Scorpius Malfoy"
The reaction was predictable. One of the girls gasped, a boy suddenly looked suspiciously at me, and Smith sneered.
"Malfoy? Son of Draco Malfoy?" I nodded my assent. "I'm surprised you're even allowed to Hogwarts, considering the damage your family did to it." He gave a humourless laugh. "Ignore that, I'm surprised you're even allowed out in public, considering your family stock." He turned to his friend and proceeded to ignore me
I looked around the others in the compartment. Aside from a girl who was determinedly not meeting my gaze, there was only distaste being sent my way. I was cornered next to the window, they knew far more magic than I did, and I had the suspicion I would meet similar remarks anywhere else I went on the train. It was a complete no win situation, but probably good practice for the year ahead.
I decided to see how long I could last before I snapped and had to leave to try somewhere else.
Yep, a great year ahead.
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Albus was continuing to be obsessed, as we sat in our compartment. It was a little annoying, to be honest. Sure, the nervousness about which house we were going to get in was also felt by me, but he seemed to still be concerned about the possibility that he may get into Slytherin.
Going by family history, he was very likely to be in Gryffindor, as was I. Even if he was placed in the only other house he had actually though about, Slytherin, it wouldn't be such a bad thing. Sure, my father and a couple of uncles would make some jokes, however really our family would accept pretty much anything we do.
"Al, stop worrying about it," I said, breaking the silence.
He looked up surprised. "I'm not. Dad talked to me about it and I'm not so worried now." He paused. "I was thinking about how maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I was in Slytherin. I still want to be in Gryffindor though, James wouldn't let me live it down if I was a Slytherin."
I grinned at him. Yes, that was true. Albus' elder brother liked to tease Al. A lot. Probably the reason for Al's impressionability. "What about if you were in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?" I asked.
He looked at me with a glazed expression. "Hadn't thought of those," He admitted (Ha! I knew it!). "Nah, James wouldn't be so bad if I was in either of those houses, its Slytherin he would be more unbearable about."
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes Al thought more about what others thought of him than the consequences for himself. I pulled out my History of Magic textbook, and began to read. If my cousin wasn't going to give any descent conversation, I may as well entertain myself.
He rolled his eyes at me. "Haven't you read that enough, Rose?" We aren't even at school yet, and you've probably read the entire course for the year." He thought for a moment. "And next year."
I rolled my eyes again.
He didn't really understand why I liked to read so much. I realised my family pretty much though it was me following in Mum's footsteps or trying to, but really I felt no pressure whatsoever to do so. I just needed to know as much as possible about how everything worked. I always have and always will. That wasn't the entire reason for reading now, though. I was nervous. I wouldn't admit it, but Dad had kind of got to me with his talk about disowning if I wasn't in Gryffindor. I know he was kidding, but still I was a bit worried about what it would mean if I was separated from my family and placed in a completely different house like Ravenclaw or Slytherin (Hufflepuff was unlikely, I was too selfish). Probably a little like alienation, I thought. Mum and Dad and my various other relatives were quite house proud still, considering they hadn't been at school for ages, so it would be weird to not be able to share a bit of that.
Stop it Rose. You haven't even been sorted yet. You're probably worrying about nothing.
I turned the page.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Looking at my cousin reading, I sighed. Once she opened a book, she wouldn't re-surface for a while.
To be honest, I hadn't thought much about Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff as possibilities for me to be put in. They just seemed like...weaker... houses. Don't get me wrong, they are nice enough people and everything, and loyalty and brains are important, but they just don't seem right to me. Gryffindor would be much more like me, or Slytherin. I suppose there isn't really anything wrong with a bit of ambition.
The door to our compartment opened, interrupting my thoughts. A small brown-haired girl looked in shyly.
"Um, can I please come in? The other compartments are kind of full."
"Yea, sure, come on in. Rose will move some of her stuff for you," Rose looked up from her book and began to shift the stuff she had taken out of her trunk when she had retrieved her book as I replied.
The girl sat down, next to Rose. We all awkwardly sat there for about a minute. I coughed. Rosie began to look at her book again.
"Err, hi," the girl said. "I'm Abby Robertson. First year."
Rose looked slightly apprehensive. "Oh, I'm Rose Weasley and this is Albus Potter. We're also first years."
We looked at Abby carefully. At the mention of our names, she didn't seem to react beyond polite curiosity that usually accompanies learning a name. Which was odd.
Rose glanced at me. We sat awkwardly for another couple of minutes. This time the silence was broken by my brother James.
"Ooh Albus! Got yourself a girl friend already?" he said, looking at Abby, who proceeded to blush. As did I.
"What do you want?" I asked him. Hoping he would just leave.
"I just thought I'd let you know that maybe Slytherin wouldn't be such a bad house for you to be in, the green might suit your eyes. Anyway, have fun bro."
I glared at him as he left, smirking.
"Don't mind him, Abby," Rose told the still blushing girl. "James doesn't quite understand the idea of being polite."
"He's my older brother," I chipped in.
"And has been attempting to convince Al he's going to be put into Slytherin," Rose continued, as if I hadn't said anything. Typical.
"Slytherin?" Abby asked.
"Yea, the school house," I said.
"Oh"
"So, Abby, do you have any siblings?" Rose asked.
"Yup. There are four of us. Two older, and a younger sister." She looked at our faces. "None of them are here, I'm the only one in the family to ever go to Hogwarts" Ah, that explained the lack of reaction to our names. "What about you guys?" she asked.
Looks like the awkward silences may have been finished with.
AN: Not all chapters are going to have all the point of views, just the first few as I introduce characters/ the Sorting and common rooms. Hope there isn't too much confusion with this story being told from four perspectives, I'm sort of using it as practise at characterisation and it would be hard to properly tell without this separation. I will make it easier in the other chapters by placing the character's names before their segments however.
Asteria
Update 15/02/11: There will be a wait of about 10 days till my next update as I am going out of laptop range and starting Uni. After that, the next chapter should be up...Sorting