It's a quarter to eleven and I'm trying to escape my over-protective mother so I can get onto platform 9 & ¾ , which is proving difficult.
"Mum," I whine at her. "Please just let me get on the train."
"Honey," she says, while trying to kiss my cheek. "I'm not going to see you till Christmas, I'll miss you."
"You have dad," I say to her, trying to escape.
She refuses to let go.
"Your father is away at work so much," she says as if that's my fault. Dad works at the ministry and works over time nearly every night. Mum stays at home and letting me leave every year is hard on her- not to mention me since she's incredibly over protective.
"Mum, really, I have to go."
She sighs and releases my from her airtight hug. I take the barrier at a run before she can find a reason to call me back. I close my eyes and then reopen them to see the shining Hogwarts Express gleaming red and black at me through smoke. My black Long-Eared Owl, Ebony, screeches at me; he never seems to get used to the barrier.
I heard my name shrieked across the crowd and jump up to see over the heads of other students, I've always been a bit on the short side. I see Pansy Parkinson waving furiously at me and making her way through the mass.
"Rae," Pansy says breathlessly when she reaches me, "We've already got a compartment; I've been waiting for you."
"Thanks, Pansy," I say but I'm already dreading the long train ride. Of course Pansy would want a compartment with Malfoy. She helped me load my large trunk and Ebony onto the train. She hopes on board and we're halfway down the train when it starts moving slowly out of the station. Some doors were open showing students waving furiously at their parents and several first years crying.
Pansy slides one of the doors open towards the back of the train and flops down next to Malfoy and one of his goons, Crabbe. Maybe it was Goyle, I can never tell the difference. I sit down between Blaise and his other thug. Blaise winks broadly at me; I wrinkle my nose and inconspicuously edge as far away from him as possible. Blaise has a thing for me and is very, very, open about it.
He leans over the few inches I had managed to put between us and hooks his arm over my shoulders. I can smell his after shave, which is burning my nose. Then, suddenly, he recoiled as if I had burned him. I glance up at him to see him staring across the compartment at Malfoy, who's glaring at him. Blaise pulls back and scoots back towards the window and mopes silently.
Malfoy takes the lull in conversation to launch into a story about his dear father and what a wonderful man he is. I take this time to make a mental list of anything I might have forgotten at home: Books, quills, ink, owl, clothes, robes. Everything seems in order.
Does this guy ever stop bragging about his father? "My father this," "My father that." It's so annoying.
"Father has been saying for a long time what an old fool Dumbledore is, especially now that Potter seems to think he saw You-Know-Who last June and Dumbledore believes him. Everyone at the ministry thinks father is right about him," Malfoy drawls on. He's talking about his favorite subjects and will be at it for awhile. They're his least favorite but at the same time they're his favorites: Father, Potter, and Dumbledore.
I roll my eyes at the ceiling. He notices my annoyance and stops in his "Daddy ministry" story to sneer at me.
"What's your problem Garrick?" he asks, pulling his eye brows together. He used my last name, Garrick, like he always did when referring to me.
I'm a little taken back by his comment; he's seen me roll my eyes at him before and always ignores me. "No, I'm not interested, Malfoy," I say calmly, I'm not going to give him the same attitude he's giving me.
"Well, if you're not interested in my parents, let's talk about yours," he says it with a smirk, like he knows something I don't.
"What are you talking about?" I ask, starting to get angry
"I saw your mother before we got on the train," He does a bad impression of my mum's voice. "'Oh Rae! Don't leave me, you're father is gone so much.' Really Garrick, you'd think your mum could just keep a hold of herself, people were staring. Pathetic."
Crabbe and Goyle grunt, I suppose their version of laughter, and Blaise roars along with Malfoy, who obviously found his insult hilarious. Pansy laughs weakly, not sure if she should laugh along with Malfoy to stay on his good side, or stand up for me.
I pull out my wand, Elm 11 ½ inches with unicorn hair, and point it at him, standing up on impulse. "Leave my mum alone!"
"Ooh," Malfoy says with mock terror. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Alright Malfoy," I say stowing my wand back in my robes and sitting back down, "if that's how you want to play it. I just want to know, how much is your father paying your mother to stay married to him? Because obviously, he's paying everybody at ministry, why not your mum as well?"
Malfoy's mouth opens and closes several times before he manages to get something out, "Don't insult my parents."
I smile sweetly at him. "If you're going to insult mine, expect it back!"
While Malfoy and I were arguing, Blaise's arm has started to make its way around the back of my seat, again. Crabbe and Goyle had dumbstruck looks on their faces and Pansy's eyes were wide at my come-back towards Malfoy. Malfor glared angrily at me before finally turning back to Pansy who distracted him by preening him.
The train slows and finally stops. I'm the first one up and out of the compartment before anyone else had even moved. I hear Blaise muttering behind me ask "What's her problem?"
I get off the train and hear Pansy screaming my name behind me over the other noises. I stop and let her catch up with me.
"Rae, that really wasn't nice of you," she says when she gets close enough for me to hear her. "I mean really, Draco was just trying to be funny."
"Really? Well, I have a hard time distinguishing jackass from humor," I say without looking at her and stocking ahead.
"Rae," she whines, "I know you don't like Draco, but be nice to him."
"Pansy, I'm nice enough not to jinx him when I'm around him. Don't ask me to not stand up for myself when he insults me and/or my family."
She sighs knowing she can't change my mind. I shove a 2nd year out of the way to grab a carriage. Pansy follows after me and sits down across from me. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle appeared at the door a minute later and settled down next to us. Malfoy gives me a look that I can't distinguish. The carriage lurched forward and took us back to Hogwarts.