*
Mary-Sue stared out of the window. London was quite cool, she thought. It was pity they were living in some strange village miles away from it. That would have made the one thing about moving to England bearable.
She had lived in Australia all of her life and loved it there. Now, as a result of her father's promotion, they had moved to the village of Dilwich, right in the middle of nowhere. Back home, she had been a normal teenage witch, hanging out with her friends, going shopping and talking about boys.
Now she would have to find new friends. If that was possible. Moving from a small Australian school to a large, very British one would be hard. She had decided that already. Her father parked the car and they all got out.
"King's Cross Station. Platform 9 and three-quarters, here we come." Mary-Sue shivered as her parents unloaded the boot of their new Porsche. It was meant to be the end of summer, for goodness sakes. British weather was awful.
Together, the family walked into the large, smoky station, pushing Mary-Sue's luggage on a small trolley.
A large security guard walked past. Mary-Sue's dad tapped him on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, sir." The guard turned to him. "Could you tell me where platform nine and three-quarters is please?" The guard looked at him blankly, and walked off, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "foreigners."
"Well...we're quite stuck," Mary-Sue's dad said cheerfully.
"Mmm." Mary-Sue's mother rolled her eyes. "Well, nine and three quarters is usually between nine and ten. Let's check between those platforms." Together, they went over to the two aforementioned platforms. A family, it seemed, consisting of six redheads and two other children, both with darker hair, was milling around right where they wanted to go.
"Go on, Ginny," said the mother.
"I'm going," replied the girl named Ginny. Mary-Sue looked at her curiously. Ginny took a few steps backwards and ran straight into the wall between the two platforms.
Mary-Sue's dad let out a long exclamation. "Ahhh...so that's how you do it. How clever!" The man who appeared to be the father turned to him.
"Hello," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm Arthur Weasley. I'm guessing your girl's new to Hogwarts." He nodded at Mary-Sue.
Mary-Sue's father grasped Mr Weasley's hand and shook it firmly. "Tom Davis," he said. "Very nice to meet you."
Mary-Sue and her mother wandered over to the rest of the family. The mother turned to greet them.
"Hello, I'm Molly Weasley. I've got four kids at Hogwarts, Ginny, Ron, and Fred and George who're twins." She smiled at Mary-Sue. "You look about the same age as them dear, how old are you?"
"Uh, I'm 15."
"Same as Ron, Harry and Hermione then."
Three children, a girl and two boys spun round to see them. Mary-Sue blushed.
They came and greeted her with a chorus of friendly 'hellos'.
"Hey, are you Harry Potter?"
The boy with dark hair blushed. "Yeah."
Mary-Sue smiled shyly. "I'm Mary-Sue."
"I'm Ron." The other boy stepped forward.
"And I'm Hermione."
"Hey." Mary-Sue smiled again. "So...is this how you get onto the platform? You walk through a seemingly impenetrable wall?"
They all nodded.
"Right."
"Look, I'll show you," said Ron. He grabbed his luggage and wheeled it round to face the wall. "Mum, Dad, I'm going through!" he called, and ran straight at the solid brick.
"Now you see him, now you don't." Hermione took hold of her luggage. "I'm going now…unless you want to?"
"Um…you go."
Mr Davis came up behind Mary-Sue and rested his hand on her shoulder. "You know what to do, don't you, darling? It's quite ingenious, you really wouldn't-"
"Yeah, dad…whatever. I'm going now." She kissed him on the cheek. "Bye mum."
"It's less scary if you run," Harry advised.
"OK." She took a deep breath and wheeled her trolley, fast, at the wall. She waited for the terrible smash that would tell her she had done it wrong, but instead, she went straight through to the other side. Unfortunately, she had gathered a lot of momentum and found that she couldn't stop.
"Whooaa…" Oh, holy crap. She had tried to swerve out of the path of Hermione and Ron, and had hit the side of the train instead. Ron and Hermione rushed over to help her. They straightened her trolley and asked if she was alright.
"I'm fine," Mary-Sue mumbled, but she was more interested in the train. It was so beautiful. It was a new train and was painted a really gorgeous shiny red with the words 'Hogwarts Express' written in black writing. Guiltily, she examined the dent she had created. It wasn't really that bad. Just really deep. And quite big.
Fifteen minutes later, Mary-Sue was sitting in a compartment with Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ron's little sister, Ginny. They were laughing and joking when the compartment door slid back. A boy stepped in, followed by two others, about twice his size. Mary-Sue eyed him appreciatively. He had beautiful blond hair that was so fair it was almost white, and piercing blue eyes. He glanced around the compartment until his gaze came to rest on Mary-Sue.
"Who are you?" He articulated his words perfectly, so that the sentence came out clearly and smoothly.
"I'm Mary-Sue," she said, smiling confidently, showing her perfect white teeth. Mary-Sue was never really shy when it came to cute boys. She was extremely pretty, and knew this. She had long light brown hair, with natural blonde highlights and blue eyes. A dusting of cute freckles covered her nose and cheeks.
"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." Mary-Sue had to bite back a giggle. He was just like James Bond – only sexier.
Mary-Sue was just about to say something flirtatious when she realized how the atmosphere had changed. Everyone was glaring at Draco.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry stood up.
"I just came to see the new girl," he said, with a smirk.
"Well, you've seen her, and unless it really does take that long for certain things to pass through your thick skull to your...brain, you can go now."
Draco lazily raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure." He turned to leave, but just before he went out, he smiled at Mary-Sue. An I'll-See-You-Later-Cuz-I-Think-You're-Pretty-Sexy kinda smile.
Mary-Sue waited until she hoped he was out of earshot before asking, "Who was that?"
"That's Malfoy. Rich little git. His dad was one of You-Know-Who's inner-circle followers," Ron replied.
"Oh. I um...need to use the bathroom," she said, getting out of her seat.
"OK. Turn right out there and keep going."
"Thanks." Mary-Sue practically skipped out of the compartment. Draco had turned left, she'd noted. Sliding the door shut behind her, she went in search of Draco Malfoy.
She wandered down the aisle of the train looking out of the window and searching for any sign of Draco. Suddenly, she saw him. He had just come out of his compartment and was alone. He spotted Mary-Sue and looked her up and down.
"Hi Mary-Sue."
"Hey."
Draco came and stood beside her. "Wanna go find something to eat?"
"Um, OK." They walked in silence for a while, side by side.
"So…" Draco started the conversation. "Where did you go to school before?"
"Oh, Alleyn's Study of Magic. It was really small, like less than a quarter of the size of Hogwarts."
"Do you miss it?"
"Well…yes, but y'know, Hogwarts could be better," she said, giving Draco a coy smile. He grinned.
"I'm sure it could be." He took her hand and led her into a room to their left. "Food," he said, gesturing around. They were in a large-by-cupboard-standards room, with shelves on every wall.
"Although…you know there are better things than food in life…" Mary-Sue blushed as he drew her closer to him and started kissing her. She kissed him back, but drew away after a while.
"What's wrong?" murmured Draco.
"I-I smell gas." Draco frowned. "Can't you smell it?"
"Yeah I can…but this is a new train. A gas one. It's just smelling like that because it's new."
"Maybe." But (clever old) Mary-Sue wasn't convinced. She let Draco kiss her one more time, before opening the tiny ventilation window.
"Are you OK?" Draco put his arm around her as she leant out of the window. Mary-Sue drew her head back in, looking frightened.
"You know on the platform…?"
"Ye-es…"
"Did you see me crash into the side of the train with my trolley?"
"Disturbingly, the blind rats saw you."
Mary-Sue ignored the sarcasm. "I think… I think I created a gas leak."
Draco just stared at her blankly.
"The train could blow up any second!"
"Shit."
"Yes…shit." Mary-Sue's words were slurred.
Draco leant slowly out of the window to see. "The gas shmells funny." He giggled.
Mary-Sue giggled too. "I love you Draco."
"I love you Mary-Sue." They kissed for the last time.
Draco was the first one to go. The gas went to his head, and he slumped against Mary-Sue. Mary-Sue looked down at him. "Draco…? Draco…? Dra…co…" Mary-Sue collapsed to her knees. What…a…sweet…way…to…be…asphyxiated, she thought to herself, before blacking out.
The two teenagers lay there for a minute or so, before the gas finally fulfilled its more horrific purpose and blew up the last carriage of the Hogwarts Express. The other six carriages, shaken by the blast, and the shock of the last carriage being extricated so forcefully, derailed and crashed against the hills.
In the last carriage, only two bodies were recognisable, preserved by something…special.
(Hahaha...old Mary-Sue's not so clever now, is she?)