Chapter 2: One Small Step

Julia opened the door to the last compartment on the train and came face to face with Harry Potter. Well, actually, he was sitting perhaps a meter away from her, but when something like this happens to you, distinctions hardly matter.

Julia stared. He had messy black hair and glasses and hadn't seemed to notice she had entered the compartment yet. He was deep in conversation with another boy who had ginger hair and seemed to be physically incapable of tucking his shirt in.

"God I hope no one else comes in – how cool would it be to have a compartment all to ourselves?" the ginger boy was saying, eagerly.

Julia flushed crimson and was about to turn around and leave when the two boys finally noticed her, taking in the messy chestnut hair pulled back into an even messier bun, and anxious, grey eyes.

Realizing she was caught, Julia cleared her throat. "Er…could I sit here?"

The ginger boy flushed a peculiar shade of red that clashed horribly with his hair. Clearly, he'd realized Julia had heard the latter stages of his conversation. "I'm Julia, Julia Pearce," she added hurriedly.

Harry Potter spoke. Julia's anxious gaze swung from his friend back to him. "I'm Harry, and this is Ron."

Julia nodded, awkwardly tucking a piece of hair that had already fallen out of her bun behind her left ear. "Well..um..I'll just sit down."

Amelia had helped her stow her trunk away at the end of the carriage before leaving, but Julia still managed to possess an impressive itinerary of carry-on luggage. Too short to reach the baggage rack above their heads, she settled herself down next to the boy called Ron; a mountain balanced upon her knee made up of her rucksack, scarf, coat, and Pudge's case precariously topping the haphazard pile.

After an increasingly awkward silence, Harry decided to speak again. "Is that your owl?"

"Yeah" Julia said fondly, looking at Pudge who was sleeping peacefully in his cage.

"I have an owl too – I called her Hedwig."

What an odd name for an owl Julia thought. Hedwig.

Deciding that she better include the other boy in their conversation Julia turned. "Do you have an owl Rupert?"

"It's Ron."

Julia's cheeks burned bright red once again. "Oh…sorry…so..do you have an owl, Ron?" She saw Harry wince out of the corner of her eye.

"No."

Another awkward silence. Despite meeting Harry Potter, Julia was beginning to regret entering his compartment.

She fiddled with the bottom of her pink sweater nervously, feeling Ron glare daggers at her. She wondered how she'd so badly offended him.

"Erm –" she cast around wildly; she couldn't handle awkward silences, instead plowing forwards with more questioning despite the obvious train wreck that was occurring. "- What's your family like, Ron?"

"Large."

"That's nice. I'd love to have brothers and sisters; I'm an only child. It would be great to have brothers – but I wouldn't want to be the youngest –" shut up! She scolded herself mentally, as she heard the incoherent babble she was nervously spewing out. "- I reckon being the youngest – well, everyone would have done everything before you and after a while nothing you did would really look impressive anymore, would it?" She stopped talking abruptly, ending with a question that possessed an air of hopeless desperation. "I mean, because your siblings would have done stuff before you."

"I'm the second youngest -" Ron muttered, somewhat grumpily.

Julia, taking him to be agreeing with her, stopped fidgeting with her sweater and grinned. "So you don't have it too bad, then," she said, brightly.

"- out of seven."

Julia resisted the urge to dig herself a hole in the ground and disappear into it, and instead resolved to sit in silence for the rest of the journey, miserable.

Harry proved himself to be completely useless at breaking the tension between Julia and Ron. In fact, everything about Harry Potter was surprising Julia: he wasn't at all what she expected.

He looked…overwhelmingly and surprisingly…normal.

"What?"

Julia moved her eyes from the window to look at Harry, surprised that her self-imposed silence had been broken so quickly. "What, what?" she asked, confused.

Harry Potter's green eyes flickered with hurt and irritation. "You just said that I wasn't what you expected."

Julia's eyes widened. "I said that out loud?"

"Listen" Ron butted in irritably. "No offense or anything, but wouldn't you rather hang out with some of the first year girls?"

"But I…didn't mean that you're not what I expected in a bad way -" but Harry didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked quite put out. Probably, he'd been hoping that nobody had been expecting anything about him – which was just silly, Julia reflected, because he was Harry Potter, and he had saved the entire wizarding world from You-Know-Who, and – Julia sighed mentally as she took in the less-than-welcoming expressions on Harry and Ron's faces. It probably wouldbe for the best if she just left.

She grabbed Pudge's cage - Pudge letting out an indignant hoot at being woken up in such a manner – and made her way out of the compartment.

That was a complete disaster.

Julia frowned. Amelia had said making new friends would be hard, and she had been right. Amelia was usually right. It was just that, after her small collision with two of her first year peers, it suddenly hit her how hard it would be.

Or maybe she was just completely socially awkward.

But how was Julia to know that Ron was touchy about family, and not having an owl? And she couldn't control what she accidentally said out-loud…

To Julia, everything seemed very unfair right about now.

She ambled up and down the hallway slowly for a while, looking for another compartment that was not full of scary seventh years until she presently heard a loud angry voice.

Julia turned round and came face to face with a girl with bushy brown hair and pretty eyes. "Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley" the girl stormed, barely even noticing to whom she was ranting, "are the biggest idiots I have ever met! I mean they got into a fight before we even got into school, and Ron ate a sweet he dropped on the floor! Can you believe it?"

"Actually…I can."

"I swear they're both mentally challenged!"

"Harry Potter's mentally challenged?"

"Probably not," the girl admitted. "But Ronald Weasley definitely could be. He tried to turn his rat yellow. We don't learn that kind of magic until fourth year and he was doing the wand movements all wrong."

She stopped and looked at Julia, as if to measure whether she'd understood the severity of the ridiculousness that was Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. A slow smile had already spread across Julia's anxious face.

"What?" The girl asked - the tips of her ears going slightly pink - she abruptly looked self-conscious about her out-burst.

"Nothing…I'm Julia Pearce," said Julia, juggling Pudge's cage underneath her left arm and sticking her right hand out. The girl, after a brief hesitation, took it quickly. "Hermione Granger" she said in a business-like tone that couldn't conceal a tinge of excitement. "It's very nice to meet you Julia."

A/N I hope I captured Harry, Ron and Hermione's voices okay in this chapter – I'm really going to work on getting the characterization right in this fic, so please let me know what you think so far.

Thank you, Tangolikeoak, for your review – it's nice to see that people are reading and enjoying this story!

Last Of The Lilac Wine