Chapter 7- The Rain and the Train
Disclaimer: If you wanted to get right down to it, the only thing either of the authors own is a disproportionate propensity to be lazy and procrastinate. We don't own Harry Potter or his universe.
As she finished packing and double checking her luggage in the room she shared with Randy and Meagan at the Leaky Cauldron, Sarah thought back upon her first whole day in London, trying her hardest not to forget the pleasant span of time.
When they had finally arrived two days prior, their first stop had been at the Leaky Cauldron to check in and drop off their luggage, and then hastily proceeded to do their last minute school supply shopping in Diagon Alley. While eating dinner on their first night in London, the three siblings had discussed their plans for the next day, as well as Meagan's immediate fascination with every good looking guy that crossed her path.
The next day, the siblings had gone site-seeing around London to its famed spots like the London Bridge, the Tower of London, Big Ben, and even Buckingham Palace, from the outside gates, and Piccadilly Circus. It had made for a busy and tiring day, but all in all, Sarah found her first days in Britain to be surprisingly enjoyable. But as she gazed out the window that afternoon, she couldn't help but feel that today would be different. It was, after all, raining. 'What a wonderful omen. The day we board the train for Hogwarts it rains.' She thought to herself as she closed her suitcase and looked towards her siblings.
"Meagan, come on! It's not the end of the world if you don't look absolutely spiffing. We're only going to school, you know. It's not like you'll be walking down the aisle or something. Geez!" Randy called impatiently from in front of the bathroom door.
"Randy, this is my one chance to make a great first impression on people I will know the rest of my educational career. I have to make sure I don't mess it up. It's crucial to my social life at Hogwarts." came Meagan's voice from behind the bathroom door.
"Meagan, we only have 30 minutes to get to the station, or we'll miss the train. And then you won't have to worry about your social life at Hogwarts because you won't have one. So if you're so worried about having a social life you might want to worry less about whether you should wear this lip stick or that mascara and more about just getting there," Sarah called from her seat at the foot of a bed.
"Alright, alright! I'm out! Let's go! I don't want to miss the train," said Meagan as she stepped into the room done up more than either Sarah or Randy had seen her for a long time.
"Uh-uh," Randy said. "You got near an hour in there, you can let me take five minutes to brush my teeth," he objected.
"But Randy-!" Meagan started, but was cut off by the slam of the door in her face.
Sarah stood and snapped her fingers in front of Meagan's face to get her twin's attention. "Got everything?" Sarah, the voice of reason asked. Meagan just nodded dumbly. "Good," Sarah continued. "Come on, we'll go and get a taxi or something. Bring your things," she added, seeing Meagan's expression. "Randy!!" she yelled, beating at the door to the bathroom. "We're going down, we'll meet you outside!" She was answered by a garbled word that sounded close to a yes. "Alright, let's go," she said brightly as she went down the stairs.
There was a loud clatter behind her causing Sarah to turn, only to see Meagan holding one of her many cases of luggage with a look of dismay, its contents scattered across the stairs. "Ugh!" Meagan said, frustrated, as she tried to scoop everything back in. Sarah quickly deposited her things at the bottom of the stairs and hurried back up to help her sister shove things haphazard into the large suitcase. "Dumb latch," Meagan said as they finally were able to close the thing. "It's all loose now."
"It'll be fine," Sarah said, taking another one of Meagan's bags for herself before picking up her two suitcases and walking out to the sidewalk and waving down a cab. The driver looked at the two girls with a good amount of confusion but opened up his trunk obligingly and began to help the two girls shove their belongings (mostly Meagan's) into the small trunk of the car. Just as he had thought that was the last of it, Randy came walking quickly up with his two large suitcases. "Room for two more?"
"No," the cab driver said, a look of shock on his face. "No, no. Those will have to go in the back with you lot," he said, making a face.
"No matter," Sarah said as Meagan slipped into the back seat, only to have one of Randy's heavy suitcases plopped on her lap. "Scoot over, sis," he said, sitting next to Meagan and placing the other on his legs before looking over at Sarah. "Guess you get to sit up front," he said with a small shrug, to which Meagan only glared at Randy for saddling her with his bag while her sister went Scott free.
"Where to?" the frazzled cabbie finally asked once the three had settled themselves in.
"Erm… King's Cross Station?" Randy said, trying to remember.
"Right," the cabbie said, quite relieved. "Off we go," he said, then quickly merged into the long line of cars.
"I hope we got everything…" Meagan began with a frown. "I mean, I think I got all my stuff, but some of my suitcase was still kinda empty…"
"Meagan, don't you dare complain about empty space. You made sure all that was filled up when you took us into every stinking clothing shop in London," Randy muttered.
"What? I just wanted to look…"
"And buy a new wardrobe," Randy shot back. "For heavens sake, Meagan, we went into at least half a dozen shops that didn't even sell things for women."
"What? They had good sales…" Meagan said defensively. "Besides, I was going to get you something for your birthday," she added.
"The only thing you got were phone numbers from the guys who were in there shopping," Sarah said, turning in her seat to look at the pair.
"And I don't swing that way, Meg, so don't even think of putting those together as a birthday present," Randy said with a good natured grin.
"Ha ha, funny," Meagan replied. "You're no better, pulling pranks on the Royal Guard…"
"You can't come to London and not, Meagan!" he protested.
"Uh-huh. Sure. I'm just glad the guy didn't do anything…" Meagan said as she shook her head.
"Enough!" Sarah finally said with a grin. "It looks like we're here, anyway," she said, watching the driver park the car.
"Kings Cross," the driver said, coming out of the car. "Shall I help you with your luggage?" he asked wearily.
"No, thanks," Randy said. "I think we can manage," he replied as he paid the man and took the things out of the trunk and put them on a trolley Sarah had managed to find.
Ten minutes later the three of them found themselves on the magical platform, still amazed at the brick wall which had become as permeable as water as they walked through. "Come on!" Randy called urgently. "They're getting on!"
The three quickly unloaded their things and got on the train, finding a compartment for them and sat gratefully after storing their luggage.
As they sat in their compartment, Meagan again began checking and rechecking her appearance. To which Randy simply rolled his eyes and Sarah was far to occupied to notice as she was busy watching the crowds inside and outside of the train.
"Sarah, do you think my hair tie matches my blouse? I should have worn my blue sneakers, I knew it. But, no! I had to wear my pink ones." Meagan said, to Randy's annoyance.
"Huh, oh, Meagan you look fine. You always do. Stop worrying." Sarah replied, coming out of her reverie.
"Are you sure? Cuz I feel like I'm missing something."
"You are… a brain. And the common sense it takes to know when to stop." Randy exclaimed from beside Meagan.
"Geez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. And if I didn't have a brain I wouldn't be alive. Silly." Meagan responded, feeling very proud of her ability to make an excellent come back, in her mind.
"Randy, chill. It'll be ok. You know the image-conscience stage only lasts until she sees some 'oh so gorgeous guy'" Sarah remarked form the other side of the compartment.
"Easy for you to say. You just happened to get to take a nice shower and get ready without being in a big rush. And you seemed to be quite preoccupied this morning." Randy retorted.
"Oh, Randy, your hair is a mess. Here, let me fix it for you." Meagan said cheerfully as she reached for her brother's hair.
"No, you leave me alone!" Randy shouted while squirming away from his younger sister. "Don't touch me! Don't even think about it, you hear? No!"
"Meagan, honestly, leave him be. And Randy, try not to be so loud. And for your information, I've just been thinking a lot lately." Sarah replied absent-mindedly.
Randy and Meagan both opened their mouths to argue, but were interrupted by a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!' Sarah said as she bounced up from her seat next to the window.
"Hmph!" replied an agitated Meagan, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ignoring her sister, Sarah stood and worked the latch on the door. "Oh, 'ello," Sarah as she opened the compartment door to see three young men.
"Er, hello. My name's Cormac McLaggen. And I just happened to notice that we haven't met before. And, you see, I know almost everyone at Hogwarts. So, of course, you can imagine my surprise to see someone I don't know," said the handsome boy in the middle, who seemed to be the ring leader of the group. "So I thought I'd remedy that situation as quickly as possible," he added with a grin.
"Well it's… very nice to meet you, Cormac. I'm Sarah. And this is my twin sister Meagan and my older brother Randy. We're from Australia," Sarah replied politely.
"The pleasure is all mine," he replied smoothly as he placed a small kiss on the back of her hand. "Perhaps you'd like to join me in our compartment? We could get to know each other better…"
"Actually, I'd rather stay here with my family. But thanks for the offer," Sarah replied, retracting her hand from his grip.
"It was my pleasure. Maybe I can show you up to the castle when we arrive," McLaggen replied, gracefully recovering his poise after its minor falter.
"Maybe," she agreed. "Thank you again for stopping by to check on us," Sarah said before turning to shut the door again.
"I'll see you then," He said, more of a statement than a question as he turned to leave.
She waited patiently by the door as he and his entourage left for their own compartment. Checking the hall once more for other passersby that might be interested in dropping by to be friendly, she noticed the boy she'd bumped into at Flourish and Blotts on her first day in London. As he passed she smiled politely with recognition and he nodded back in returned. But as he continued on she couldn't help but notice the girl that seemed to be permanently attached to his arm and the sour expression that seemed to be directed at her. Shaking off the feeling as nothing she closed the door.
"What was that all about?" demanded a red-faced Meagan. "And why in the world did he seem to be ignoring me? And who was that boy you smiled at?"
"Meagan, calm down. It was nothing. I have no idea why he was acting like that. I don't read minds, you know. So I have no idea why he paid so much attention to me, but if you were listening I tried to bring the two of you to his attention," Sarah said defensively. "You know I don't feel comfortable in the spotlight. And if there was a way to go back in time and put you in my shoes, I would have done it. But there isn't. And the other boy I bumped into the other day at Flourish and Blotts when I got my quills. Remember, you saw him too... made a comment about England 'being full of total hotties'? I was only being friendly. The smile was just one between acquaintances. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't even know his name, and I can assure you he doesn't know mine! So don't get upset with me. I did turn Cormac down, after all. So there," she replied, quite offended by her sister's questioning.
"I still don't understand why you are all of a sudden getting all the attention!" Meagan variably whined. "Especially since I'm the one that put so much effort into her appearance this morning and all you did was get dressed the same way you always do. It's just not fair," Meagan responded.
"Look, I'm sorry you're not having the best day today. But it's not my fault! I told you I didn't ask for this to happen. I'd much rather it was you he asked to go with him instead of me. I don't understand this anymore than you do, so stop getting all huffy about nothing!" said Sarah, sitting back down next to the window.
"Yeah, Meagan, leave Sarah alone. It's not her fault," Randy added, coming to Sarah's aid.
"Oh, yeah! Go ahead and take her side why don't you! I don't know why I even thought you'd take my side- You never do. You two always take each other's side. No one ever takes mine," Meagan fumed as she stood. "So if you don't mind, I'm going to find the Trolley Lady," she shouted as she exited the compartment.
"Arrrggghhh! Why does she always do that?! It's so irritating! Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that we're twins. She's so… so… different from me! Sometimes I can't even understand her!" Sarah exclaimed, rubbing her head in agitation.
"I know. But remember, today is a big day for Meagan. Or, at least, in her mind it is. And so she's really stressing out. And we both know how she gets when she's stressed. The littlest thing can set her off. And what just happened was just one of those things, apparently," Randy said, trying to comfort Sarah.
"I know, I know. But it's still so… aggravating," sighed Sarah as she put her head against the cool window.
And so the two siblings sat awaiting the reappearance of their sister. Soon enough the train was moving toward its destination. After a long while, Sarah got worried enough about her sister's failure to return that she stood up to go look for her, thinking Meagan had gotten lost and couldn't find her way back. Just then Meagan stepped through the door with treats in hand.
"I was just going to look for you. I thought maybe you'd gotten lost," Sarah explained, responding to Meagan's confused look.
"Oh. Well, I wasn't lost…. It just took longer to find the trolley than I'd expected. And… I just wanted to apologize about earlier I didn't mean what I said. It's just… I got so caught up with how much I wanted to fit in that I forgot what's more important. Being kind to the ones that love me just the way I am," Meagan mumbled. "Soo… Do you forgive me?" she asked, staring adamantly at her shoes.
"Of course, we do! We know that today's a big day for you, so don't worry about us. But..." Sarah said with a grin, "I know I want some of those chocolate frogs and I'm sure Randy wouldn't pass up the opportunity to share some of those licorice wands with you." she added, turning the conversation away from previous events.
"I certainly wouldn't mind at all!" called Randy from his seat across form Sarah.
"Thanks, you guys. I knew I could count on you." Meagan replied as she gave out some of the candy to her siblings.
"No problem. Thanks for the candy," Randy said as he unwrapped the candy in his hand. "Mmmm. You know, I love licorice wands!" he added, happily munching on his licorice wand.
"We know." The twins cried in unison, causing the three to burst out laughing. And so went the rest of the train ride.
