Chapter 2
It was finally September 1st. Families were making their way to King's Cross station to get to platform nine and three quarter, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting for the students attending the magical school that was Hogwarts.
Catherine was standing with her parents on the platform, waiting for her cousin to arrive. She was worried that there wouldn't be any free compartment and that they would end up sharing a compartment with future Slytherins. Finally, she saw a redhead arriving on the platform.
"Finally!" said Cath when Jody arrived in front of her.
"What? Still have 5 minutes before the train leaves." Said Jody, staring at her cousin.
"Maybe, but by now, probably all the compartments are full. We will be stuck with strangers..." said Cath, glancing at the scarlet train.
"Perfect occasion to meet other 1st years and make friends" said Jody, clearly aware that meeting people wasn't Catherine's thing.
"What if we are stuck with future Slyths?" asked Cath.
"They won't eat us... Slyths are not all evil. Look at my mom..." said Jody, glancing at her mother.
Cath looked at her aunt. Pale and blond, she was very strict. She wasn't evil and gave great gifts, but Cath knew she had never really accepted her mother's marriage with a muggle-born. Not that she hated Cath's father, but the fact that he wasn't from a pureblood family was bothering her. Ten years after the final battle and purebloods still had a hard time accepting the fact that wizards were marrying muggle-borns or muggles. Would it ever change, Cath wondered.
"Cath? You're coming?" asked Jody, already hoping on the train.
"Hmmm? Oh, yah, coming... Let's avoid future Slyths. They are mental kids that result of cousins marrying each other." said Cath, smirking.
"Hello stereotypes..." sighed Jody.
They waved goodbye at their parents as the train was leaving before exploring the train to find a compartment. Most compartments were full. Finally, as Cath was about to give up and just sit in the corridor, Jody yelled: "Oh! There's just one boy in that one!"
Cath got up, yelling back: "Is he a future Slyth?"
"Sorry, can't say... it's not written on his forehead" said Jody, opening the door of the compartment.
"Haha, very funny... " grumbled Cath, as she joined Jody, looking inside the compartment.
"Excuse me... do you mind if my cousin and I sit with you... not many free compartments..." asked Jody to the boy.
He turned around, looking at both girls. Cath nearly had a stroke as she recognized Chris Ainsworth.
"Of all things holy, what are you doing here?" asked Cath, surprised.
"Going to Hogwarts, like everybody else on this train" answered Chris blankly.
"Nonono, what are you doing here... alone in a compartment. Where are all your father's fan?" asked Cath, looking around as thought she expected a bunch of fans to jump out of nowhere.
"They left after getting the autographed pictures my father gave me and after asking me some questions, about my father..." answered Chris, wondering why Catherine was looking around as thought a stampede of his father's fan would pop out of the blues and crush her.
"Well... that's sad... Come on Jody, lets go find another compartment" said Cath, starting to walk away.
"No way. We found a compartment, we stay." said Jody with determination as she grabbed Cath's wrist.
"Fine, I'll go find another compartment..." grumbled Cath, trying to free her wrist from Jody's grip.
"You might end up with future Slyths..." said Jody, smirking.
"Ooohhh, you had to use that against me you evil redhead... fine, but who says HE won't end up in Slyths?" said Cath, frowning as she nodded in Chris' direction.
"Both my parents were Ravenclaws..." said Chris, slightly smirking as he observed the two cousins.
"See... Now sit and read your book." said Jody, dragging her cousin inside the compartment.
"Fine..." grumbled Catherine, sitting down.
"Thanks", said Jody, smiling at Chris.
"You're welcome..." replied Chris, shrugging.
Chris got out a Quidditch magazine as Jody started to look outside the window. Cath was reading for the 3rd time Hogwarts: A History, eating Berie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as she was doing so. Ten minutes passed when someone quickly opened the compartment.
"Ah! Finally! A compartment with an empty seat!" said a girl as she sat down.
"Hum... Sure... you can sit here... you're welcome" said Chris, staring at the girl who had just sat next to him.
"Oh, sorry... can I sit here?" said the girl, smiling.
"Hum... yeah..." replied Chris, looking startled.
"Thanks... Oh, aren't you two the girls I saw at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" asked the girl, looking at Jody and Cath.
Cath slowly looked up from her book while Jody looked at the girl, breaking out of her daydreaming.
"Par...?" started Jody.
"Creepy smile girl!" said Cath, in a state of shock.
"CATH!" said Jody, smacking her cousin.
"That's ok... but my name is Jadzia Delauney." she said, looking at Chris.
"Pleasure..." he mumbled.
"What's your names?" she asked as she looked at all the compartment's inhabitants.
"Jody Jonson" said Jody, smiling, as she extended a hand.
"Pleasure" replied Jadzia, still smiling as she shook Jody's hand.
"Chris Ainsworth..." said Chris, nodding politely.
"Oh! You are the son of Phillip Ainsworth, aren't you. great to meet you. I'm sure you're going to be an excellent Quidditch player. Now, what's your name?" said Jadz, looking at Cath and still smiling.
"Catherine... McMahon..." said Cath, staring at the smile.
"What a lovely name! So what house do you guys think you're going to be sorted to?"
"Ravenclaw..." said Chris, smirking lightly.
"Gryffindor" said Jody.
"Noooo, you're gonna be in Hufflepuff" said Catherine, grinning.
"Are you nuts?" said Jody, smacking her cousin again.
"What's wrong with Hufflepuff?" asked Jadz.
"It's the house for leftovers" grumbled Jody.
"AND they are covered in bees" said Cath, still grinning.
"They are loyal..." said Jadz, staring at the two cousins.
"That's all they are. Gryffs are brave, Slyths are cunning, Ravens are clever and Huffs... well, they are loyal. It's nothing compared to the other houses... In fact, I'm sure that most members of other houses are loyal... Except maybe Slyths..." said Cath, raising her eyebrow.
"See, they are better than Slyths." pointed out Jadz, smiling again.
"Anyone is better than those crazy people who will end up marrying their cousins." mumbled Cath.
"I'm sure not all of them will end up marrying their cousin... some will end up alone because all their cousins got married and no one else likes them" said Chris, smirking.
"Poor Slytherins... having such a bad reputation" said Jadz, sighing.
"Oh, they were looking for it. So many dark wizards came out of that house." grumbled Cath, wondering why Jadzia was defending Slytherins.
"Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor last time I checked and he was a follower of You-Know-Who." said Jadz with a smirk.
"One Gryff in the middle of the thousands of Slyths following Moldyshorts. Lesrange, Malfoy, Dolohov, Carrow, Avery, Crabbe, name it, they were Death Eaters the whole lot of 'em." said Cath, ready to defend her opinion that Slyths were crazy evil peoples.
"Regulus Black, a Slyth, turned out to be good after all. Severus Snape was a mole for the Order of the Phoenix..." startd Jadz, ready to defend the Slyths as everyone deserved a second chance.
"Only because of Lily Potter!" pointed out Catherine.
"See, love made him see what was the good side" indicated Jadz.
"Nooo, he didn't mind if Harry or James were killed, he just cared about Lily. If Voldie had spared Lily's life, Snape would have stayed with the Death Eaters" grumbled Cath.
"Maybe but..." started Jadzia.
"STOP!" yelled Jody.
"What?" ask Cath and Jadz at the same time.
"I don't care if former Slyths were evil or not. Don't care if the future ones are Junior Death Eaters or not. You find bad people in any house, except maybe in the goody-two-shoe house of Hufflepuff. Being a Slyth doesn't mean your evil, means your cunning and that you'll do anything to get what you want. That's it! So stop arguing over the Slyths. I don't want to hear my cousin arguing about some random topic for the rest of my school life. If so, I'll throw myself in the lake and drown." said Jody, looking exasperated.
"You can't swim?" asked Jadz.
"No" said Jody, surprised none of the girl had protested at what she had said, especially her cousin.
"She was always afraid of water" mentioned Cath.
"How can someone be afraid of water?" asked Chris.
"I dunno, I love water and swimming" replied Cath, shrugging.
"I like playing in dirt..." said Jadzia, a bit randomly.
"I like flying around" said Chris.
"Oh sure you do, son-of-a-Quid-star" mocked Cath.
"Am I stuck with that stupid nickname for the rest of my life" asked Chris, looking slightly worried.
"Nope, will be my pleasure to find another one" said Cath, sticking out her tongue.
" Great..." sighed Chris.
"So, what do you like to do Jody" asked Jadz, noticing that Jody hadn't joined their random conversation about what they liked to do.
"She likes to boss people around. Her dream is to become a prefect and then a Head Girl and to make sure that I don't break any rules." answered Cath.
"Since when is your name Jody?" asked Jody, staring at Catherine.
"Meh" mumbled Catherine, shrugging.
They kept talking as the train was making its way to Hogwarts. Cath tried different nicknames for Chris, but none of them seemed to work as much as "son-of-a-Quid-star". When the train finally arrived, their general reaction was: "Aw crap! Forgot to put on my robe! ". Jadz added: "We can all change here real quick" while Catherine was yelling: "Get out of my, need to go change in bathroom NOW!", Jody saying: "Oh my goodness... can't believe I forgot to put on my robes. I'll never be a prefect now!" and Chris was, well, just putting on his robe. They finally exited the train, joining the other first years that were standing in front of a giant.