4. The Train Ride

By the time September 1st came around, barely a month after Sypriana's trip to Diagon Alley, the newfound witch could barely contain her excitement. She was practically bouncing in her seat all the way to King's Cross Station. Even her little hiccup at finding Platform Nine and Three-Quarters hadn't dampened her mood — Elixyvette had been waiting for her between Platforms Nine and Ten and showed her the neat little trick to get onto the hidden platform.

And just a bit before eleven, the two girls had said their goodbyes to their families — Mrs. Marchesi had given Sypriana a tight hug and a kiss on her forehead while Elixyvette had been passed between her parents and three younger sisters before her parents kissed her on her cheeks.

A whistle sounded as the two boarded the train, and as the train began to move, Elixyvette's mother began to cry. Elixyvette's sisters ran after the train, waving their hands, until the platform ran out, and Elixyvette and Sypriana continued to wave goodbye until the train rounded the corner.

The two girls made their way towards the end of the train and moved their trunks into an empty compartment.

"How long until we reach the school?" Sypriana asked, hopping onto the cushioned seat.

Elixyvette sat next to her. "Early evening, I think."

With hours to kill, Sypriana took out her sketchbook and was about to continue her sketch from yesterday when Elixyvette let out a gobsmacked gasp.

"Did you draw that?" she asked, her eyes almost larger than her glasses. "That's amazing!"

"It's nothing much," Sypriana nevertheless beamed under the compliment. "I'm just sketching out a lot of Da Vinci's works so that I can learn anatomy."

"Nothing much?" Elixyvette repeated in utter disbelief. "Nothing much are the stick figures I draw! What you're drawing is pure art!"

And so, for the first couple of hours, Sypriana explained how beginner artists are generally advised to draw and paint copies of the old masters' works and how she had gravitated towards Da Vinci because the sketches in his notebooks. She was in the middle of showing Elixyvette a few of the sketches she managed to copy almost perfectly when the compartment door opened.

"Found her! Looks like she left us for a new friend!" a teasing voice said.

Instantly, Elixyvette went rigid and angled her body almost protectively between the two boys and Sypriana. For a moment, Sypriana wondered why her friend reacted the way she did. Were they bullies? Sypriana assessed the two newcomers — her mother ran a martial arts program, and even if the two boys were wizards, Sypriana knew she could still beat them up if they tried to bully her and Elixyvette — but then the two boys chuckled and slid into the seats across from them.

"Relax," the other boy said, mostly directing this to Elixyvette. His words had a slight accent to them, his L's sounding very much like his R's and vice versa. "We're not going to bully your friend. Your dad just asked us to help keep an eye on you two."

Elixyvette seemed to relax for the most part.

"Yeah, right now, you're the one being prejudiced against us, Lizzy," the first boy continued, still with a teasing Cheshire cat grin. "Just because we're purebloods doesn't mean we hunt down muggle-borns for sport."

"Muggle-borns?" Sypriana turned to Elixyvette. Pureblood was pretty self-explanatory to an extent, but Sypriana had only heard the term muggle-born once when Mr. Wong had first introduced himself as her wizarding foster guardian.

"It's just a term that means a witch or a wizard who was born to non-magical parents," Elixyvette explained. "But blood status doesn't really matter anymore, especially not since the Second Wizarding War."

"Unless you're part of one of the old families who still adhere to blood status," the second boy added.

"Like the Valerious," the first boy said under a fake cough.

Elixyvette glared at him.

The name Valerious sounded terrifying, but Sypriana decided not to continue the topic, instead asking out of curiosity, "Are you a pureblood, too, Lizzy?"

"My family and I don't care about blood status at all, Sypri," Elixyvette answered very quickly. "Just like Ethan and Jun here." She narrowed her eyes at the two boys as if daring them to challenge her. "Ethan, Oppa, this is Sypriana."

"Oppa?" Sypriana asked.

"It means she fancies him!" Ethan laughs.

Elixyvette's cheeks flushed red. "I don't fancy Jun at all!"

"See? If she's not using his name to talk about him, then she's using his name only when she's denying her feelings for him!"

Unlike Ethan who was laughing wholeheartedly at Elixyvette's expense, the corner of Jun's lips tilted up into a lopsided smirk. Sypriana, however, bit the inside of her cheeks to keep a grin off her face, but when Elixyvette turned to face her with her red cheeks buried in her hands, both girls couldn't help but giggle at their funny faces.

"Anyways, Elixyvette," Jun said once the laughter died down. "Did you remember to bring the Luna Lovegood card?"

"Oh, yeah…" Elixyvette opened her trunk and, after some time rummaging through it, pulled out a pentagonal box. Inside the box were various cards, each with a different person pictured on the front. Elixyvette shuffled the cards until she reached one with a woman who had dirty blonde hair and protuberant silvery eyes that seemed to be dreamily distracted. She passed that card into Jun's waiting hand. "Here you go."

"See how she has a present for Jun but none for us?" Ethan mock-whispered to Sypriana as Jun thanked Elixyvette, but Sypriana only rolled her eyes at his joke.

"What are those?" she asked Elixyvette.

"Chocolate frog cards," the little Asian girl replied. "They're trading cards with famous witches and wizards on them, and people love to collect them. The one I gave Jun, I already had another copy — Luna Lovegood, she's the wizarding naturalist who discovered a whole bunch of new species."

"Jun's obsessed with her." Ethan got a light punch on the shoulder from his friend.

Elixyvette, ignoring the little interaction, shuffled through her little collection again before handing one card to Sypriana — this card had a woman with a long mane of bushy brown curls. "This one is Hermione Granger, the most famous muggle-born witch. She helped Harry Potter defeat Tom Riddle."

"Tom Riddle?" Sypriana asked.

"Lord Voldemort," Jun supplied while Ethan said in his creepiest voice, "The Dark Lord."

Both Jun and Elixyvette glared at him.

Sypriana recognized the second name from when she skimmed A History of Magic and the third name as a moniker Voldemort's followers had used. She eyed Ethan warily now.

"I'm joking!" Ethan insisted, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Just because I'm a pureblood and a Slytherin doesn't mean I support him! I just like to joke around!"

Sypriana raised an eyebrow. "You're already sorted?"

"Yeah, Jun and I are one year above you and Lizzy. Jun's a Hufflepuff, and I'm pretty sure Lizzy's going to be in Ravenclaw. Got any idea which you're going to be in?"

Sypriana shook her head. "I feel like I have qualities for all four houses…" She had gone over the section about the four houses in Hogwarts, A History a few couple of times after the trip to Diagon Alley, too excited for the term to start. "I'm worried I won't be placed in a house."

"Don't worry, Sypri. That won't happen." Elixyvette assured her. "The Sorting Hat will put you in the best house possible. I heard the current headmistress, Professor McGonagall, had a hat stall, but the Sorting Hat managed to come to a decision in the end."

"She was put into Gryffindor, right?"

Elixyvette nodded, adjusting her glasses. "Just like Hermione Granger."

"Yeah, but she was a bit too smart to be a Gryffindor, to be honest," Jun shrugged. "She's called the brightest witch of her age — she should've been a Ravenclaw."

"Like you should've been in Slytherin because of your interest in the Dark Arts?" Elixyvette challenged.

"Hey, that's different! I like researching the possibilities that's lost to us when magic is labeled as dark or good! I'm not like Ethan here who's calling Voldemort the Dark Lord!"

"Be a Slytherin, Sypriana," Ethan coaxed, not at all coming to his friend's defense. "Tell the Sorting Hat to put you in Slytherin and then we'll all get a good laugh out of it! Imagine, the first muggle-born to be sorted into Slytherin house in centuries!"

Sypriana had to admit the idea sounded very appealing. She wanted to make her mark in this new world thrust upon her, but for some reason, she still wavered between what house she wanted to be in. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin… She wondered which house she'd be sorted into.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of JK Rowling. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

This chapter was a bit longer and the next one will be too, but don't expect all of them to be this long. I just had a lot to pack in this one.

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Leave a review and tell me what you guys think!