Millie suddenly felt a sharp pain on her forehead and her vision was blocked. It only took her a second to realize that the hair smashed into her face belonged to her best friend.
"Josie-" she began before she was loudly interrupted by the hyperactive blond. She just listened to her friend's non-stop chatter with a smile. She walked with Josie towards the train, placing her gift on top of her luggage.
As she followed the bubbly blond, a group of boys caught her eye. She pegged them to be Slytherins, since she knew most of the Gryffindors because of Josie and Ravenclaws because they shared classes with the Hufflepuffs. They were gathered around Tom Riddle, Head Boy for this year. Millie never really thought much of Riddle; he was always giving off an air of being above everyone.
Just before she turned away, however, one of the boys caught her eye. She couldn't remember his name, but he was handsome boy with brown hair and deep eyes and somewhat stiff bearing. When he saw Millie staring at him, he smiled shyly and seemed to soften all around. Millie blushed and looked away, embarrassed at being caught out. When she glanced back at him, he was no longer looking at her, but seemed to be amused about something.
Millie tugged her luggage onto the train, following Josie with a small smile.
When they got to the compartment and found Josie's owl had been charmed Millie just stood outside and watched the impromptu lesson, wondering what that had been about with the Slytherine boy. Once everything had been taken care of, Millie joined the others in the compartment and at her friend's urging, opened her gift.
"Well, Jack," Millie began, unwrapping her present, "Muggles use tools to fix things. If they can't fix it, they find someone who can and usually pay for the service." She had finally gotten the wrapping off her gift (Honestly, I should just teach Josie how to wrap things and get it over with…) and simply stared at it for a moment.
"It's a… lunchbox?" she half asked upon seeing it, failing to smother her laughter. It was an aluminum Snow White lunch box. As a Muggleborn, she knew she took advantage of her childhood in the Muggle world. Josie was a pureblood witch, and so going into the Muggle world would seem like an adventure. "This is such a pip! I love it, thank you!"
She leaned over and hugged her friend, grinning. Just then, the train began to move, and the sudden jerk of the car threw Millie back into her seat. She smiled and pulled out a book, hoping to study some charms before the Volgers distracted her too much.
Before she could so much as open her book, though, the compartment door slid open, revealing three of the Slytherin boys Millie had seen earlier. She recognized them now as Raptus Lestrange, Levis Nott, and the one who had smiled at her that she now remembered was Acerbus Avery. Lestrange and Nott had smirks on their faces and Millie could tell they just wanted trouble.
"Look what we have here, boys," Lestrange sneered. "A pack of blood traitors and their pet mudblood!"
Millie felt her ears go red.
"Oh look, the mudblood has a toy!" Nott reached out and grabbed her lunchbox. Millie shouted in protest, but found herself on the receiving end of Lestrange's wand. "What should we do with this, hm?"
"Oh I think anything a rotten mudblood touches should be destroyed, right?" Lestrange grinned evilly.
"Quite right," the other agreed. He pointed his own want at the Snow White lunch box and said, "Deletrius!"
The lunchbox turned to dust right before their eyes.
Avery grabbed Nott's arm and hissed, "Hey, Lev, what's the deal?" He glanced at Millie and gave her a quick apologetic look before turning back to his friend.