Lex sits alone in the train compartment, already wearing her robes. The red tie sits against her throat, and she plays with a small lump of putty in one hand. She wishes she could be sitting with her sister right now, but Hannah had insisted that she wanted to make friends on her own. Staring out the window, Lex subconsciously rolls her wrist around to stretch it, and winces when pain shoots up her arm.
A knock comes from the glass door, and Lex jumps and turns to see who it is.
It's the Ravenclaw girl, the one who had transferred to Hogwarts halfway through the year last year from some small school in America. Lex doesn't remember her name, but waves her in. The girl is in Lex's year, she knows that much. She's carrying a three-legged, rather grumpy looking cat.
"H-hi," the girl murmurs. "Um, may I sit with you? Everywhere else is either full, or they're all first and second years…"
"Sure, go ahead," Lex says. "I'm Lex. You're new here, right?" The girl nods, and quietly introduces herself as Alice. "So what school did you come from?"
"It's called Hatchetfield Academy for Witches and wizards," Alice says. "It was a private school in my hometown."
Lex helps her put her trunk overhead, then Alice sits down across from her. The cat curls up in the seat next to Alice, and she introduces him as Bucky. "I'm working on making him a magic prosthetic," she says, "but I'm having trouble with getting it to stay on without hurting him more."
"I have a friend who's really good at charms," Lex says. "Maybe he could help you? He's in Ravenclaw, too. Our year."
"That might be nice," Alice says, smiling softly.
They sit in silence for a few moments, totally at ease. Then a newcomer arrives, sliding the door open without knocking. It's a boy their age, not yet wearing his school robes. He's got a cat following him, too, and something small clutched in his hand. Lex sighs and gets his attention.
"You're supposed to wear those, not carry them around," she chastises her best friend gently.
Ethan Green shoots her a tiny glare, and reluctantly puts the small objects over his ears. "They hurt sometimes," he tells her. His voice is slightly slurred, but clear enough now that he's wearing his hearing aids.
"I can't translate for you all the time," Lex reminds him. "You're gonna have to wear them in class to take notes. Promise me?"
He huffs, but makes the promise nonetheless. He glances at Alice, and Lex quickly makes introductions.
She does it again just a moment later when two more arrive: Ethan's housemate, Deb, and Alice's housemate, Grace. Ethan takes a seat next to Lex, and Grace and Deb both sit next to Alice. Another friend joins them, the Ravenclaw Lex had mentioned before. As Peter joins the party in the rapidly-filling compartment, Lex feels herself start to get slightly overwhelmed.
Excusing herself, Lex bolts for the nearest bathroom. Ethan and the others continue to make quiet conversation.
Deb flirts with Alice a bit, but it seems to go right over her head. Peter and Grace talk about which classes they're excited for this year. Ethan stares out the window, tempted to take his hearing aids back out. He feels a tap on his shoulder, and turns.
"What electives are you taking this year?" Deb asks him.
"Um, I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Art," Ethan lists off.
"Oh, I love Care of Magical Creatures!" Alice says cheerfully. "Newt Scamander is my role model- I actually got to meet him a few years ago. He and his wife were touring the smaller schools in America, doing talks on how to properly handle certain creatures. It was incredible."
"You know he was a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts," Deb tells her. "Like me and Ethan!"
Ethan hides a smirk, seeing how hard his friend was trying to impress the oblivious American girl. A cat meows from outside the compartment door, and Ethan lets it in. She's small and orange, with a broken tail and a limp from one of her front paws. The boy frowns.
"What happened to you, Polly?" he asks softly, scooping her up gently.
She purrs in his arms, keeping the bad paw close to herself. Ethan tries to gently grab it, to examine it, but Polly growls low in her throat so he backs off. He sets her down on the seat next to him, where Lex had been sitting, but she climbs into his lap and butts her head against his hand. Chuckling, Ethan pets her head gently. Eventually she moves on and makes her rounds to the others in the compartment, all of whom love on her and coo over her bad paw. She doesn't let any of them near it.
The other cats present, Bucky and Cas, sniff at her as she comes close to them. Polly lets them, until she gets bored and wanders off. Peter lets her back out of the compartment.
Deb's still trying to impress Alice.
"I've got my own garden back home," she says. "I've got a muggle plants section, and a magical plant section. You could almost say I'd like to be the Newt Scamander of plants!"
"That sounds nice," Alice says. "What kind of muggle plants do you grow?"
"Flowers and herbs, mostly," Deb says. "Especially violets. I love violets."
"Me too!" Alice exclaims. "They're so pretty, and they smell amazing."
Deb seems a little disheartened, but hides it well.
Meanwhile, Grace and Peter have moved on to talking about their own cats, who are both somewhere on the train.
"Lucky is such a flirt," Peter sighs. "He won't stop trying to get with other cats, but only the males. I think he's gay- which is fine! I just didn't know cats could… I dunno, do that."
Grace giggles. "Lucifer's not much better," she says. "But he seems to go for guys and girls. He's an equal-opportunity cat."
"Oh, God, what if they're together right now?" Peter asks, sounding slightly horrified at the idea. Grace goes from giggling to full-out laughing, and the sound makes Peter blush ever so slightly.
On her way back from the bathroom, Lex passes her sister's compartment, and waves. Hannah's sitting with two other first years, both boys, and they seem to be doing alright. Lex recognizes one of the boys as Ethan's cousin, Oliver, although she has no idea who the other kid is. He's laughing with Hannah, though, so Lex guesses they must be having fun.
She heads back to her own apartment, feeling much better, and reclaims her seat next to Ethan. He gives her a mildly worried look, but she subtly shakes her head, and uses sign language to tell him, I'll tell you later.
He frowns, but accepts the answer. They join in the conversation, which has turned to the topic of favorite spots to study in and around the castle.
"I really like the astronomy tower," Peter says. "Especially when it's dark outside, and you can see all the stars."
"Mine's the library," Grace admits. "I know, it's so boring and cliche, but I like the comfy chairs in that back corner near the restricted section."
"Those are nice chairs," Lex agrees.
Deb talks about a spot down near the greenhouses, and Alice says the Ravenclaw common room. Ethan mentions the normal willow tree down near the lake, and Lex agrees with him.
"That's my favorite, too," she says.
At some point, Ethan heads to the bathroom so he can change into his school robes. By the time he comes back and sits down again, Lex is trying to fight back a yawn. She can't, however, and eventually stops trying. She lays her head on Ethan's shoulder, eyes drifting closed.
He blushes, and Deb gives him a knowing smirk. He glares at her, then pointedly glances at Alice, who is fussing over her cat again. Now it's Deb's turn to blush, and she quickly looks away. Ethan rests his head on Lex's, taking out that hearing aid so it doesn't dig into both their skulls, but he leaves the other one in for now. He's still blushing a little, but as long as no one looks at him he can handle it.
Peter stretches his back, reaching up behind him to scratch one spot.
After another hour or so, Ethan's drifted off to sleep. The train whistles, indicating that they've arrived, and it jerks both Ethan and Lex awake. They blush, avoiding each other's eyes, and follow the others off the train.
Lex spots Hannah getting shepherded to the boats with the other first years, and is pleased to see her still with the two boys from earlier. Now there's another girl with them, as well. They pile into a boat together, and Hagrid leads the little fleet across the lake.
Every other student heads toward the line of "horseless" carriages waiting to carry them up the hillside to the castle. Very few of them can see the thestrals, but Lex is one of them. She pretends she isn't. The friend group claims one for themselves, laughing and chatting as usual, as if nothing awkward had happened back on the train.
As they pull up to the castle doors and all climb out of the carriage, Grace gets dizzy and falls over. Peter and Lex catch her before she can hit her head.
"Sorry," she mumbles. "That happens sometimes if I get up too quickly… low iron in my blood. It's- it's kind of a muggle thing…"
"I get it," Lex says. "Wizards kinda suck when it comes to 'muggle things', even if it probably affects wizards just as much. Like my ADHD, or Ethan's partial deafness."
Peter mumbles something to himself, but no one but Grace catches it. She frowns, but doesn't say anything just now. She'll wait until she can talk to him alone about it.
"See you guys after the feast?" Lex asks, and they all nod. They head to their separate tables- Lex to Gryffindor, Ethan and Deb to Hufflepuff, and Peter, Alice, and Grace to Ravenclaw.
Lex ends up sitting next to fellow fifth year, Teddy Lupin, and gives him a shy smile. He returns it, and she quickly looks away to hide her blush. Ethan notices from his seat, and scowls into the table. Deb nudges him, not having seen the exchange between the two Gryffindors, but he shrugs her off as the deputy headmaster enters with the gaggle of first years.
Professor Hidgens sets the Sorting Hat on a wooden stool in front of the podium where Headmistress McGonagall will make her speech later, and steps aside. The hat sings its song, different every year, then Professor Hidgens starts calling out names. First is a girl named Hayley Anderson, who gets sorted into Gryffindor. She's the one who had joined HAnnah and her new friends on the boat ride to the castle. Then there's a couple of boys, then another girl, then Hannah Foster.
She's sorted into Hufflepuff, and shyly goes to sit next to the only familiar faces at the table, Ethan and Deb. Lex cheers for her, glad that even if she can't be in the same house as her sister and keep an eye on her, at least she knows Ethan can. Oliver Green is next, and is sorted into Gryffindor. Lex internally promises to keep an eye out for him, for Ethan's sake. She knows they're almost as close as she and Hannah are.
There's another boy, then the one from the train compartment with Hannah and Oliver. His name is Tim Houston, and he's sorted into Slytherin.
A couple dozen more names are called, and finally ends with a girl named Sofie Zeigler, another Gryffindor.
Professor Hidgens takes the Sorting Hat off to the side, and takes his seat. Professor McGonagall rises from hers, and introduces herself to the great hall at large, even though the first years are the only ones who don't know who she is. She makes a couple announcements, generic ones like Filch's list of banned items (which itself includes everything sold at Weasley Wizard Wheezes or Zonko's Joke Shop), staffing changes (Professor Maddox is taking over the choir, on top of her duties as art professor), and reminders about curfew and common rooms.
Then the plates on the table fill themselves with decadent food, and everyone digs in. Lex fills her plate with all her favorites, the ones she's especially missed since the closing feast last June. Looking over to the Hufflepuff table, she's pleased to see Hannah eating well. Ethan's sitting and laughing with her, and she's smiling, which makes Lex smile.
Teddy nudges her. "Is that your boyfriend?" He teases lightly, and Lex blushes.
"No," she says. "Ethan's my best friend. He's sitting with my sister, Hannah."
"Oh, that's neat!" Teddy says, grinning. "So then you don't have a boyfriend?"
Lex shakes her head slowly. "Um… no… why?"
Teddy doesn't blush, but his hair fades from its signature turquoise to a dark maroon. "Oh, um, no reason," he stammers, going back to his food.
Lex hides her frown, and drops the subject. Soon enough, dinner is replaced with dessert, and she picks at a slice of peanut butter and chocolate pie. Glancing back to the Hufflepuff table, she sees Hannah absolutely going nuts with the different chocolate desserts. Ethan picks at something small on his plate, eyeing Hannah's chocolate mountain.
Lex snickers as she goes back to her food.
Eventually, the dessert disappears too, and Professor McGonagall announces for Prefects to lead their first years back to their dormitories for the evening. Teddy gets up, giving Lex one last shy smile, before doing his Prefect duties.
Lex goes to meet up with her friends as they'd planned, but Ethan's nowhere to be seen. Deb isn't much help, either miffed at Lex for something, or too absorbed in Alice to have noticed. Knowing Deb, Lex thinks it could be either.
With a sigh, Lex goes to her dorm.
She gets into her pajamas, and crawls into her four-poster. Drawing the curtains tight around the bed, she charms them to stay closed until she can open them in the morning. She's had one too many close calls of her roommates going to wake each other up and accidentally getting her instead, especially on mornings where Lex could have slept in because she didn't have class until later.
Polly curls up at the foot of her bed, and quickly falls to sleep.