Chapter 13 – The Hogwarts Express
Lizzie was standing behind a line of people she couldn't find a way through when someone tugged on her sleeve. It was one of twin boys she'd seen on the other side of the platform.
"You can get on up there," he pointed.
"Thank you," she smiled.
"I'm Fred Weasley, brother here is George..." he introduced.
"Nice to meet you, thanks again for the help, I'm Azalea," she said, and stepped up onto to the train entrance, snagging a seat in the empty compartment nearest.
"Blimey it's- " she overheard one of them say, she'd already forgotten which names went to which, they were identical.
From the window she could hear them again. "Ron, go sit with that girl we saw back there," one of them said.
"Shut up," he grumbled.
"Leave your brother alone," his mother said to the boys.
"No, you don't understand, that's Azalea Potter," one of them said.
"Heavens, is it really? I was wondering why she was alone. You best be nice, you hear? Don't go prodding her," their mother warned. Lizzie closed her eyes at this, she'd went from being the gum on the bottom of a shoe of every other girl at Sacred Heart, to being the one everyone somehow knew and shouldn't be prodded. She didn't know if this was any better. Maybe slightly better, but something told her it was more than she could chew.
Lizzie looked up a face peering in nervously from the compartment door about an hour later, and smiled politely up at the red headed boy about her age that she recognized from the platform.
"Hi - do you mind? Everywhere is full, my brother's friends were relentless," he said timidly.
"No not at all, I'm friendly to my kind," she said pointing to his hair and smirking. He smirked back with some relief and sat down across from her.
"I'm Ron, Ron Weasley," he introduced.
"I'm - I'm Azalea, Azalea Potter," she responded and his eyes widened.
"I thought they were lying," he muttered.
"Who?" She asked.
"My brothers... the twins - " he gestured. "Is it true? Do you really have the scar?" He asked quietly.
Lizzie pushed her bangs aside and he looked back in amazement. "Blimey," he whispered.
"Azalea Potter..." he said under his breath.
"You can call me Lizzie, and by can, I mean please do, not a fan of Azalea," she said.
"Why Lizzie?" He asked curiously.
"My dad called me Lizzie. I don't remember much but have always remembered that," she explained. He stared at her rather intently.
"You went to live with muggle relatives, right? They call you Lizzie?" He asked.
"My aunt does," she admitted bitterly.
"I noticed you were alone on the platform?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah, my uncle refused to let me come. I got a bit creative... when I didn't see the platform anywhere, I thought he was right that it didn't exist," she said looking out the window.
"You didn't know about any of this?" He asked astounded.
"No. This huge detail was conveniently left out...for the last nine years..." she explained with a half-hearted laugh to increasingly concerned looking eyes.
"Everyone is going to know who you are you know? You're in books!" He said excitedly. Lizzie smiled weakly.
"Did you go to muggle school before?" He asked.
"Catholic school in Surrey, yes," she answered. "You'll have to fill me in on this place, I'm clueless," she laughed, he nodded sweetly.
Lizzie purchased them some sweets off the trolley but stood up abruptly when one of the candies exploded. She left in a hurry to find the trolley lady and buy another. Ron didn't realize it in time to stop her.
Lizzie's wavy hair was up in a high ponytail and danced as she walked hurriedly down the train corridor. Compartment doors that were open went silent and looked around with craned necks as she went by. She caught eyes with one of the twins and it dawned on her the train now knew she was on it. Lizzie clenched her jaw and asked the trolley lady about the candy.
"Sorry to bother you - I'm not sure why but one of candies basically exploded is that - that's not supposed to happen is it? Can I buy another?" She asked awkwardly and heard people in a nearby compartment choke on their laughs.
"Are you a muggle born dear?" The trolley lady asked sweetly.
"No..." Lizzie said apprehensively.
"Those need to be eaten quickly. You can buy another but it will do the same," she answered. Lizzie figured she looked like an idiot and shook her head. Before retreating back to compartment, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
She turned her hand and saw one of Ron's brothers she'd already met. "C'mon," he gestured kindly with a smirk. He pushed her into a full compartment and shut the door.
"In the flesh," he said pointing to Lizzie, she flushed pink.
"George this is mean," his brother said, "mum said to leave her be."
"Well obviously she needs some guidance. We can help, Azalea," he assured.
"You can call me Lizzie..." she said slowly.
"I'm Lee Jordan," a quirky looking older black boy said, and outstretched out his hand. Lizzie shook it with a weak smile. "Angelina Johnson," a very pretty black girl next to her said with a grin. "Alicia Spinnet," an older blonde girl said. "Kenneth Towler," a handsome black-haired boy said with a smile. They all appeared at least few years older than her.
"What house do you reckon she'll be in?" Lee asked.
"House?" Lizzie asked the group now attempting to mask their amusement.
"Houses! There are four, you're sorted by personality traits mostly I believe. We're all in Gryffindor...there's Hufflepuff who we have no problem getting on well with, Ravenclaw who often get a little testy, and Slytherin... they're our rivals," Kenneth explained.
"Her parents were in Gryffindor, both of them I think," George said.
"But who knows really. Watch her sorted to Slytherin," Lee laughed.
"That's not funny," Angelina said reproachfully.
A tall brunette boy opened the compartment, he looked even older than the rest of the lot and they all perked up.
"Heya, Wood," Fred said.
"Whole team! Good!" He smiled and sat down.
"Team?" Lizzie asked George.
"Quidditch," Wood said shortly, eyeballing her. "I thought your little sister didn't start until next year?" He asked George. The compartment laughed.
"No! Wood!" Fred said laughing. "This isn't Ginny... this is Azalea Potter," and the boy's eyes widened.
"No, are you serious!? Sorry, rude of me. I'm Oliver Wood," he said extending a hand. "Captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team, this is the team, minus Lee and Ken, hopefully they've introduced themselves," he looked around with mild reproach.
"They did. Nice to meet you. What's quidditch?" She asked innocently.
"Bless her heart," Kenneth laughed into his hands. It made Lizzie flush red.
"Shut it, Towler, be nice," Alicia said reprovingly.
"I'm sorry...Azalea," Wood said apologetically, frowning at his friend.
"You can call me Lizzie, I'm not a fan of Azalea," she said again.
"Why Lizzie? Not Lea?" Angelina asked.
"My dad... called me Lizzie," she explained for the second time that day.
"You remember them?" Fred asked curiously.
"Not really, but I remember that," she said with a weak smirk.
"Well, Lizzie, we'll take you to the field sometime, yeah? Your dad played, saw his name in the captain's hall. It's a sport played on broom. You play sports?" Wood asked.
"I played tennis in school. Ran track..." she said, hoping to relate to someone but they all stared back blankly.
"You know, small green ball, low net, head sized rackets? Track, you run in circles around a track... wow, this sounds exceedingly dull in comparison to broomsticks," she tried to explain.
"You went to muggle school then?" Lee asked to break the silence.
"Well, yeah. It was an all-girls catholic school," she explained simply.
"What's that like?" Wood asked curiously.
"It's like something mean in between hell and purgatory," she said.
"You religious then?" Kenneth asked.
"Depends on who's asking and if they're holding something that hurts to be hit with or not," she mumbled. George nudged Fred in approval over her sense humor.
"Was it family that took you? They never explained where you went," Kenneth asked, Angelina nudged him in the ribs.
"My mum's sister and her husband. They're muggles. But... well... never mind," she said dismissively.
"You were completely alone on the platform; they couldn't see you off or something?" George asked.
"Oh, no. They refused to let me come. When I couldn't find the platform, I started to worry I made this all up. Was about to buy a one-way ticket somewhere before I overheard your mum," she explained.
"They didn't want you to come? You didn't already know?" Angelina asked completely perplexed and the others fell into awkward silence.
"No... I didn't know," she admitted and silence ensued.
"When did you find out?" Fred asked.
"Well, they had to personally deliver my acceptance letter because my uncle kept burning them, so... found out shortly thereafter... part of me never really believed they died in a drunk car accident, but I definitely wasn't expecting the brief recap I was given," she explained.
"Merlin..." Lee said quietly. Lizzie suddenly felt awkward and wanted to leave.
"I should probably get back to Ron before he thinks I abandoned him," she said, awkwardly rubbing her head.
"Nice to meet you," she said politely, and headed back toward where Ron was sitting, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and apprehensive.
"Not what I was expecting," Alicia said. Angelina agreed.
"She's cute though. In like an adorably clueless kind of way, tiny though... do Catholics eat?" Kenneth asked. Alicia frowned at him.
"She doesn't even really know who she is, Towler... drunk car accident, horrible thing to tell a kid," Fred said reproachfully.
"Wouldn't she remember though?" Kenneth asked.
"She was three, idiot," Alicia spat.
"Bets on her house?" Lee asked, changing the subject.
"Gryffindor," the twins said in unison. Lee and Oliver nodded.
"I'm betting Hufflepuff," Alicia said, seems sweet.
"Slytherin... just you know... it'd be interesting, wouldn't it?" Kenneth said, and Angelina smacked him hard in the arm as he chuckled.
"I'll go with Ravenclaw then, she seems brainy, maybe..." Angelina said.
"I'm sorry! Your brothers ambushed me and introduced me to the quid something team," Lizzie said rounding the corner back into the compartment, but nearly stepped on the feet of a bushy haired girl sitting across from Ron lecturing him about spells. He gave Lizzie a bit of a desperate look to help him.
"Have you seen a toad? a boy named Neville has lost one," the girl asked.
"No toads…unfortunately. I'll keep a lookout though," Lizzie said reassuringly.
"Sorry, I'm Hermione Granger," she introduced assertively.
"Pleasure, I'm Azalea Potter, you can call me Lizzie," Lizzie said.
"Oh, you're the one they were talking about," Hermione said with an enthusiastic smile.
"Yeah, I'm the one they're all talking about," Lizzie grumbled, suddenly feeling extremely overwhelmed.
"You should change into uniforms," she said to Lizzie as she sat back down in the compartment with Ron.
"Wait, what?" She asked.
"For the welcome feast. I think we need to be changed by the time we get there," Hermione explained.
"Crap," Lizzie whispered. "I don't have anything with me, they kept it... because..." she explained feeling frantic.
"Why did they keep your stuff?" Ron asked.
"Because... I wasn't allowed to bring it home..." Lizzie said pathetically.
"Why?" He asked incredulously. Lizzie looked down sadly and shook her head at the floor.
"Percy?" Ron asked, looking up.
"I was told to bring this to Azalea Potter," he said, smiling weakly. It was a brown wrapped parcel. Lizzie opened it and pulled out one of the uniforms she bought in Diagon Alley weeks prior.
"Jesus, thank God," she whispered, hugging the bundle of clothes.
"Thank you," she said to Percy who nodded.
"I'm Percy Weasley, honor to meet you," he said with an outstretched hand.
Lizzie shook it and tried to smile back.
"You don't like this do you?" Ron asked.
"Um, it's just really different. It's not sitting well... everyone here knows more about me than I do," she said. They were alone now and she looked out the window at a figure in the distance down in the trees that gave her pause.
"Well, nobody knows anything after 1983, so..." he said reassuringly.
"Yeah, but trust me, you wouldn't want to," she said, and rubbed her temples. Something told her this was going to be like landing on Mars in comparison to the life she was used to.