The European Bee-Eater is a small bird, averaging about 28cm in length, with richly-colored feathers and a slender body. It has a rich chestnut crown that looks red in certain lighting that blends into gold on its back. The forehead is white, the throat is yellow bordered by black, and the underparts are blue and emerald green. It's wings resemble that of a hummingbird in their triangular shape, but are much longer and more slender. They inhabit mostly southern Europe and are a strongly migratory bird, with a diet of bees and dragon flies.
They also happen to be Elena's favorite bird.
Perhaps this is why, instead of a powerful barn owl, or a majestic snowy owl, Papá relents and buys her one of these instead. Pio, named after one of Abuela's favorite nursery rhymes, flutters in annoyance after the third bump Elena has pushed her trolley over, shaking his small cage that has been tied to the top of her other belongings. Kings Cross Station is huge. Enormous. Gigantic. Collossa-
Elena has to stop thinking of adjectives for the mammoth station so she doesn't run into family of redheads, heading towards Platform 10, and she smiles when she sees a pair of twins hounding what appeared to be their older sister.
"Fabian! Don't start!" She scolds one of them, slapping him on the back of the head as they hurry to catch up with their parents, "Arthur and I are simply friends," she says, her voice sounding high-pitched on the end of the last word.
Elena finds it a little difficult to understand what the twin on her other side fires back, partially because she is still getting used to everyone speaking English all the time, and partially because she is not sure what it means when her ticket says to board the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 and 3 quarters. She is not confident enough to ask one of the guards, so she decides to continue following this odd bunch of red-haired folks, silently wondering if all of the Scottish wear green kilts and have red hair.
So caught up in her musings, she doesn't notice when the redheads begin to disappear through the wall between Platforms 9 and 10, much less so that she doesn't notice when she follows them right through the wall as well.
Starting in shock at having just realized she had passed through a wall, Elena looks at the sheer amount of people on this Platform. Families upon families are saying goodbye to their children, friends are greeting each other excitedly, and even a couple of the older students are kissing in hidden corners, all beside a gleaming red train. Her mind reeling as she figures that there must be more people on this Platform than in Iliane itself, Elena discovers she is still blocking the entrance by the wall when the sharp angle of someone else's trolley digs into the small of her back and nearly rips her burgundy dress. Letting out a short, but loud nonetheless, yelp! Elena stumbles out of the way and pulls her own trolley towards where other families are loading their own luggage.
Being of a small and slender stature, even for an 11 year old girl with too much clothing and chocolates hidden away in the secret corners of her school trunk (Abuela always nagged her about her sweet tooth, saying it would soon go straight to her hips) Elena knew she wasn't about to put herself through the embarrassment of trying to load her own trunk onto the train. Looking around, she tried to find the first bored looking older student she could, making a quick note to heavily invest in some sort of charm to make her luggage weightless, she was only sure it would increase over the span of the next seven years. She had the horrible tendency to overpack, Antonio always made fun of her for that whenever the two of them went on weekend trips to Madrid and the coast with Tío and Papá. He would only laugh and laugh, until she got some local boy to help her out, and then suddenly it wasn't as funny.
In this moment, when the ticking hand of the station's clock neared closer and closer to boarding time, it was more stressful than anything. Finally spotting a sandy haired boy with a couple of scars on his arms and his face next to a tired looking man and a beautiful woman Elena could only assume was his mother, Elena fluffs her hair a couple times and approaches the trio shyly. She is embarrassingly aware of her accent, and the way she rolls her 'r's and the thick way that words come out in English, so she speaks maybe a little too quiet at first when she catches their attention.
"Hello. My name is Elena James and I was wondering if you could do me the kindness of helping me with my luggage? I will be forever grateful," she smiles here politely, the dimple in her right cheek accentuating the roundness of her cheeks in contrast to the soft point of her chin. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin smile gently down at the girl with the heavy accent and disproportionately large luggage. Mrs. Lupin gestures for her son to help her load her trunks onto the train, and the sandy haired boy springs into action from where he had been silently rooted. Elena grabs her cloth bag with her change of clothes and Pio's cage that has been covered in a light blue cloth to shield him from the English weather. In the pocket of her trench coat she has a few of his favorite treats, which no one knows she caught herself, as pretty girls aren't supposed to go around touching and playing with "creepy crawly creatures." Nonetheless, Elena finds that she loves the feeling of getting dirty and feeling the squirming grasshoppers with her pinky, something warm bubbles in her chest. What would Mamá think of her now!
She follows the boy, Remus, she learns his name when his mother kisses his cheek loudly and tells him to write weekly (he turns scarlet), onto the train and they begin to look for an empty compartment. They dodge various sparks and stray spells, pets who have been accidentally set loose, and a particularly enthusiastic couple in green trimmed robes. Finally, they claim a compartment near the back of the train and Elena is absolutely positive that English wizards are insane.
"Are train stations always like this," she asks Remus, who has yet to introduce himself properly, mind you, pulling off her merlot trench coat and handing it to him so he could hang it in a mostly unused coat rack right next to their compartment. Remus quirks an eyebrow when he sees she is still wearing a thick black cardigan underneath her trench coat that hangs loosely over her thin frame and dress.
"So cold?" He quips.
Elena furrows her brow, not completely understanding his sarcasm, since it bloody well is cold.
"No, well, I mean - yes, but that is not what I am saying." Pausing in her words to try and remember the correct words, Elena crosses her legs daintily and continues, "I mean, is it always this hectic?"
Remus smiles at this, and nods in affirmation. "I can't speak much for Hogwarts since this is my first year as well, but Platforms do have a certain way of being... overwhelming."
Elena sits up at this and her eyes shine brightly, "Yes! Overwhelming," she repeats, trying to pronounce all the vowel sounds and consonants as Remus had done, pleased at having learned a new word.
Remus starts, as if having suddenly realized his manners, and introduces himself with a kind smile. "I'm Remus by the way, Remus John Lupin."
Elena smiles back at Remus and pulls her hand out of her pocket. It is full of chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate oranges, and other varieties of dark and milk chocolate. Remus widens his eyes at the gleaming confectionary with a look in his eyes Elena has never seen before. Desire. She can't help but flush for some reason when, still glazed with that same look, Remus puts his hazel eyes on hers. "Quieres? Do you want?" She asks, already knowing what his immediate answer will be.
They spend the next hour and a half sharing chocolates and speculating about what the magic school will bring. Remus is interested in Iliane and Elena wants to learn more about the suburb he grew up in just outside of sprawling London. She tells him about her Papá's vineyard and the hacienda, as well as stories of her Abuela's travels from long ago. He is fascinated to learn that she not only speaks Spanish and English, she also knows a bit of Italian and French that Mamá has taught her. Elena is jealous that Remus knows so much about so many things, even telling her about the four different Houses they would be Sorted into. She is not one to hold grudges though, and she continues to share her chocolates with him.
She is about to show him Pio, lifting the blue cloth from around his chirping cage, when two boys with impossibly messy hair stumble into their compartment. One, a boy with light brown eyes and round wire glasses crouches down onto the floor of their compartment, and the other, a boy with regally high cheekbones and curls as dark as night is shutting the door behind them. He glances out the window and pulls down the curtain when he catches the view of something unpleasant. The intruders don't seem to realize they are not alone until Elena curves an elegant eyebrow and asks thickly, "What do you think you are doing?"
Glasses turns around and shushes her rudely, pulling a shimmery fabric from his robe's pocket, and motions to the other boy to get close just when the door slams open. Elena and Remus look up into the face of one of the older students they had seen while getting on the train, a boy with long platinum blonde hair that had been entangled with a pretty girl with the same green on her robes. Displayed on his chest was a proud looking badge with a gleaming "P" on it. His crystalline eyes scan the room as if searching for something out of place and his upper lip lifts into a sneer when he sees the many chocolate wrappers surrounding Elena and Remus.
"I trust you two have not seen a pair of troublemaking buffoons around here, have you?"
Elena shakes her head, eyes wide and determined not to cause any trouble so soon, something in the back of her head wondering when the boys had disappeared from their compartment. Or had it just been a dream?
The haughty blonde sniffs in disdain, still looking down at the two first years from his nose, "Very well then. Change into your robes, we'll be arriving soon." With that said, he slams the door closed and goes back towards the front of the train.
All is silent for less than a minute. Then Elena is screaming something in Spanish because there are two floating heads in their compartment. More than that, they are the floating heads of the troublemakers the blond boy was looking for. Three pairs of frantic hands go to cover her mouth before the prefect can come back and give them all detention before they have even stepped inside of Hogwarts. Pio is frantically buzzing around his cage, concerned for his señorita and ready to nip at anyone who tries to harm her.
Once Elena has settled down, the boy with the magic cloak introduces himself as James Potter and explains that they are not demons, the cloak can make them invisible when they put it on. He also tells her that the blond boy ("Malfoy," he smirks) was chasing them because they had thrown a dungbomb at him while he was chatting up Narcissa Black.
"My dear cousin," says the boy with the midnight curls, turning his stormy grey eyes onto Elena. She has never seen such eyes. "The name is Black, Sirius Black," He offers with a smirk and cocky tilt of his head.
"Elena James."
"Remus Lupin."
James pulls out a pack of violet and yellow cards, "Anyone want to play a round of Exploding Snap?"
The boys agree to teach a confused Elena how to play and laugh good-naturedly when she almost singes Remus's robes and lets out an embarrassing yelp. James tells her the rules of the game and Sirius makes sure to whisper conspiratorially the secret to winning without getting your eyebrows burned off. Elena likes this oddly violent game much more than the poker games Papá and Tío sometimes let her in on, the room full of tobacco smoke and Papá with his tie draped across his shoulders. He always asks her not to tell Mamá that they have been playing.
Elena likes this group of rowdy boys and they don't seem to mind that she sometimes stumbles on her words or her rolling 'r's. She hopes they like her too, and it seems so by the way they ask her questions and smile goofily whenever she says their name in her strong accent.
The train is almost at the station now, and the boys respectfully step out while Elena changes into her uniform. She does not know how to feel about Sirius's twinkling grey eyes when he asks her for a chocolate orange. She gives him two and gives James the last of her chocolate seashells that she has taken out. The four walk as a group off the train and grab a boat with a nervous looking boy named Peter. Elena has never seen anyone as tall as Hagrid. When Hogwarts is finally in view she gasps because she has never seen anything as beautiful in her life. The boys are already becoming fast friends.
Elena is nervous when she has to step off the boat, but Sirius offers her his hand and so she gets off without a problem. He does not let go until they have reached the great double doors leading to what the lady in the pointy hat called the Great Hall. Elena is surprised to see the ghosts, she has never seen one before. Everything here is so straightforwardly magical. They wait in large group of other children their same age, some talking rapidly with their friends and others looking as queasy as she feels. She can hear someone saying something beyond the Great Doors and then they open up, what seem like millions of other students in black robes are seated at the four long tables taking up most of the room. The ceiling is the most incredible she has ever seen, reflecting the billions of stars and even the distant galaxies in the night sky. Floating candles light their way and they file down the center of two tables towards a stool with an ugly looking hat and the stern witch from before.
She has a list from where she calls the names of the other children. Elena doesn't have to wait long until her name is called.
"Elena James!" They have shortened it, just as they do with everything in this country. UK, ECB, EU, MoM. Elena James.
She smoothes out her skirt and throws back her shoulders, her brown waves tickling her sides. She is painfully aware of the eyes on her and of the sound of her clacking heels. Sitting on the creaky stool, she tries not to gasp when the hat is shoved on her head and her mind is filled with a foreign voice. She doesn't quite pay attention to what the Hat mutters before the rip in its seam opens like a mouth and it shouts, "Gryffindor!"
It does not take long for the other children to be Sorted into each of the four Houses. She notices that the House in green has the awful habit of sneering, while her own seemed to be full of rowdy people. The blue and yellow Houses each seemed to be the more calm of the four, but her thoughts go blank when she sees the feast in front of her eyes. Elena does not fill her plate as much as her Housemates do, not entirely used to a big dinner or dinner at all really. She talks to a girl with hair like fire and emeralds for eyes that remind her a bit too much of Antonio. She does not finish her dinner.
When they have finished the trek up to the Gryffindor Tower and the prefects have made sure they all knew the password to the Common Room, Elena slips away from her chattering Housemates, determined to get some rest. Slipping into her nightgown and grabbing her stuffed bunny from her trunk, Elena settles into bed, not completely conscious but very aware of the adventure Hogwarts was sure to bring.
There you have it! A pretty fast update I would say :) Look forward to the next chapter and see how Elena settles in to her new classes!
Guest: Thanks so much for reviewing! I'm glad you liked it and are enjoying all of the characters so far! I'm trying to make this story as original as possible.
Until next time everyone! Make sure to follow, favorite, and of course, review! Send me questions, ideas, or just tell me what you loved, I always look forward to it.
Vera