"Molly!" A frustrated voice could be heard calling up the stairs on Hillandale Drive in southern London. There were a few loud grumbles as a woman, no older than 35, plodded up a staircase. "Molly Camden!" The voice was louder and more irritable this time, "You should've been up twenty minutes ago. You're going to be late for your first day of school!" Under a pile of twisted white sheets and a foot of long chestnut hair a girl of eleven drowsily rubbed her eyes. She stretched her mouth in a yawn and blinked up at her mother,
"Mum, school doesn't even start today. I might miss the train... but I won't be late for school." Molly knew that this would only antagonize her more, but she had fun watching the different colors that her mother could turn. Alice Camden was already a step ahead of her daughter, however. When Molly looked up to see how angry she had made her, Alice grabbed the blankets, tugged, and sent Molly sprawling to the floor. With a smug laugh, Alice turned on her heel and marched out of the room,
"And see that you make that bed, too, or you won't be making the train or your school on time." Alice shut the door leaving her daughter grumbling as she picked up the sheets and flattened them back onto the mattress. Just because she knows I hate to be late, Molly muttered under her breath as she put her pillow back in place.
The truth was, Molly had her morning planned down to the second. She knew exactly what outfit she was wearing, and exactly how she was going to fix her hair. She knew, not because she was obsessive compulsive, but because this was going to be hew first day at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts was not just any school. It was a school of magic. Molly was going to develop her skills as a witch. Like most of the kids who were starting that day, she had known that she was going to go to Hogwarts for most of her life. Her father was a wizard and her mum was a witch. And her father's father was a wizard and her mother's mother was a witch. Every member of her family, as far back as she could trace, had gone to Hogwarts to learn to use their magic (except for one uncle who, for some reason, had decided to attend a french school, Boba something or other.) As the names of her relatives floated through her head, it felt like a flock of butterflies was swarming in her stomach. And I'm going! she thought, nervous excitement sweeping over her.
Carefully, Molly tied her hair back in the light blue ribbon that she had picked out for the day. It coordinated just right with her light blue tank top, which coordinated just right with her light blue socks, which set off her light green eyes just right. She surveyed herself in the mirror. Not bad, she decided. She pretended to laugh at a joke then smiled warmly at herself in the mirror, "I'm Molly Camden," she said, reaching a hand out into the air.
"Me too," came a curt voice from in front of her. "and if you're quite done..." The voice trailed off and Molly glared the image of herself in the mirror that had just spoken.
"You don't have to be so rude!" She said and stalked out of the bathroom.
Alice was standing in the kitchen finished up breakfast when Molly came out. "Are you ready to go, then, dear?" She asked, wondering at the annoyed look in her daughter's eye. Molly stared at her mother and answered huffily,
"Of course I'm ready to go." Her mother, still wondering, carried her dishes to the sink and set her wand to cleaning them. Alice threw another glance at her daughter and the expression on her face, then suddenly realizing the cause she tried desperately to hold in her laughter.
"Is there something wrong, sweetheart?" She said with the most serious face she could muster. Molly let out a sigh and said,
"You know, Mum, as much as I love this place. I really hope that somethings change around here while I'm gone this year." Alice put on her confused motherly look and said,
"What do you mean, Mol?" Molly's face was now breaking into a smile as well,
"Mum, if that stupid mirror is still here when I come back..." She trailed off, and the sound of Alice's laughter still danced around the kitchen as they walked to the car.
On the way to the train station, Molly sat back, thinking of all the things that would soon be happening. She wondered what kind of friends she would make, and if there would be any cute new boys. She'd met some of the new first years already, because they'd been her playmates for her whole life. Her best friend, Annie Hale, had decided she wanted to go to some American school, though. Oh well, she told herself encouragingly, I'm sure I'll make other friends.
They pulled up to King's Cross Station with forty minutes to spare. And before any other student was even on the platform, Molly had said goodbye to her mother, loaded her trunk, and become comfortable in a spacious compartment. She sat staring impatiently out the window, hoping that the train would start moving soon, when the compartment door slid open. A tall blond girl with bright blue eyes walked in, and smiled nervously at Molly.
"Hi," she said a little tentatively. "I hope you don't mind if I sit in here, there's no one else on the train yet, and it's kind of creepy being in one of these rooms all alone." Molly returned her smile and held out her hand, like she had done in front of her mirror at home,
"Molly Camden, I'm a first year, are you?" The blond girl nodded her head as she introduced herself,
"Brooke Andrews. I'm so nervous!" She said, though she didn't look it. "My brother started here two years ago. He loves it so much, but I don't know. It's just so crazy, you know? My parents both went here but I don't know if I can do it. I've never been great with magic. I couldn't even fly on a broom properly until I was eight." When Brook finally ended, Molly gave her a sympathetic smile and said,
"I'm an only child. So everything I know is from my parents. They both loved it too, they were Ravenclaws. What about your parents?"
"Hufflepuffs," she said, with a meek sort of grimace.
In five minutes, the girls had established that they both wanted to be Gryffindors, neither of them knew what the sorting actually was, and they both thought that transfiguration sounded just plain cool. As their topic slid to books, the compartment door slid open again, and they both turned to see who had entered.
A very tall, very redheaded boy had stepped into the compartment. He was busy shutting the door again, and hadn't seemed to notice that Molly and Brook were there. "Ha." He said to himself after he had shoved a long stick through the handles of the door. "See if you can get through that, Malfoy." He stood back, admiring his work for a moment then turned to sit down. His eyes fell to Brook, then shifted to Molly, and then his ears became as red as his hair.
"Ah... erm. Sorry. I... ah... sorry." He muttered again, and then he un-barricaded the door and scooted through it before either Molly or Brook had time to piece together a sentence. They simply turned to look at each other and shook their heads. Molly raised one eyebrow and said,
"Okay," and they resumed their discussion about Hogwarts.
Before too much time had passed, Molly and Brook had become friends; and the train was pulling to a stop. They had changed into their jet black robes five minutes earlier and were currently discussing Alexander Marticello, the very smart, very cute author who had written The Wizard of Dungeon Lake, the most popular book in a century. In a flock of students, Molly and Brook made their way off the train.
"He's so adorable!" Brook cooed as she admired Marticello's winking and waving photo on the back cover of his book, "And I mean, to write like that, he's got to be hilarious too, you know?!" The girls' giggles were cut short when Molly slammed into a person who had stopped in front of her.
"Oof!" She grunted very unfeminely, "What in the--" She cut herself short. Up ahead they could here shouting and a small crowd was forming in a circle.
"You-- you," came a loud, furious voice. A sneering voice followed and reverberated around the crowd,
"What, little Artie? It's true! If your family--" All Molly could see was a tuft of bright red hair peeking over the shoulders of someone in front of her, but she could hear how the sneering voice trailed off in fear. Someone gasped to her right and orange sparks flew up into the air from the middle of the circle.
"If you ever," came the first voice again, "ever, say another word about my family, you'll get a lot worse than that." They watched as the crowd parted nervously on the other side, and the tuft of red hair vanished.
Slowly, people began to disperse, whispering quickly to one another. Molly and Brook began to move forward, wondering what had happened; but they didn't wonder long. Beside Molly, Brook gasped and nearly fell as she tripped on a black pile of robes laying on the ground.
The pile moved; then it groaned. With a look somewhere between distress and annoyance, Brook carefully bent over and pulled the cloak away. A pair of pale blue eyes stared up at them from under a crop of nearly white hair. A dark bruise was beginning to form around the right eye; in fact, the boy looking up at them looked like he had just been through a war-- and barely survived.
Molly bit her lip and held out a hand to help the bruised boy to his feet. He stood up and surveyed them; then in a sneery, if not condescending voice, he asked,
"Who are you?" Brook dropped her jaw the curt remark, but Molly elbowed her in the side and she shut it again. Molly put on her well-practiced smile and introduced herself,
"I'm Molly Camden, this will be my first year here," The boys pale eyes shifted expectantly to Brook, but Molly didn't miss a beat, "and this is my friend Brook Andrews. She's a first year too." The boy seemed to be satisfied, and he stretched out his hand to Molly,
"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy. I'm sure you've heard of me." The half-smile that Brook had pasted on her face fell away instantly,
"Why would we ha--" Molly's elbow hitched into her side again, and answered Lucius in her politest voice,
"Brook means, I think," She shot a glare at Brook through the corner of her eye, "that we're sorry, but we haven't heard of you." Malfoy quickly retracted his hand, muttering,
"Andrews... Camden... I thought..." His face changed to match the sneer in his voice. Brook narrowed her eyes,
"You thought what?" Her voice was threateningly low.
"I thought," Malfoy sneered, " seeing as I've heard the names Camden and Andrews before, that you were pure-bloods, but obviously you're just little mud--" Brook cut him off with a gasp. She would have yelled or screamed, but she seemed at a loss for words. Molly took her friend's moment of hesitation to speak. She cleared her throat,
"My parents are both wizards, if that's what you mean, Lucius," she paused, glancing at Brook; she was still stumbling on words in her rage, "so are Brook's." Malfoy sneered a little more,
"But you haven't heard of my family?" Molly shook her head, as though she was explaining to a child. Malfoy grunted. "They must have been Hufflepuffs then."
That was the last straw for Brook. Her eyes grew wide in shock, then she jumped.
Malfoy smacked the pavement before he knew what was going on. Molly stared in horror as she watched her new friend roll over the ground with Lucius Malfoy. She heard muffled screams and winced as she listened to the sound of hair being yanked out of someone's head. Silently cheering for Brook, she noted that most of those muffled screams were male.
"Hey! Break it up! Break--It--Up! First day of school, and I have to deal with this already! Cuts, scrapes, bruises... I'll talk to Dumbledore about this... Certainly, I will." A short woman with brown hair, graying at the roots, walked up. "I said stop!" She shouted in a shrill, frustrated voice. Brook and Malfoy continued to fight. The woman's eyes threatened to pop out of her head. "Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!" The woman had drawn her wand and frozen both of them.
"Mum, school doesn't even start today. I might miss the train... but I won't be late for school." Molly knew that this would only antagonize her more, but she had fun watching the different colors that her mother could turn. Alice Camden was already a step ahead of her daughter, however. When Molly looked up to see how angry she had made her, Alice grabbed the blankets, tugged, and sent Molly sprawling to the floor. With a smug laugh, Alice turned on her heel and marched out of the room,
"And see that you make that bed, too, or you won't be making the train or your school on time." Alice shut the door leaving her daughter grumbling as she picked up the sheets and flattened them back onto the mattress. Just because she knows I hate to be late, Molly muttered under her breath as she put her pillow back in place.
The truth was, Molly had her morning planned down to the second. She knew exactly what outfit she was wearing, and exactly how she was going to fix her hair. She knew, not because she was obsessive compulsive, but because this was going to be hew first day at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts was not just any school. It was a school of magic. Molly was going to develop her skills as a witch. Like most of the kids who were starting that day, she had known that she was going to go to Hogwarts for most of her life. Her father was a wizard and her mum was a witch. And her father's father was a wizard and her mother's mother was a witch. Every member of her family, as far back as she could trace, had gone to Hogwarts to learn to use their magic (except for one uncle who, for some reason, had decided to attend a french school, Boba something or other.) As the names of her relatives floated through her head, it felt like a flock of butterflies was swarming in her stomach. And I'm going! she thought, nervous excitement sweeping over her.
Carefully, Molly tied her hair back in the light blue ribbon that she had picked out for the day. It coordinated just right with her light blue tank top, which coordinated just right with her light blue socks, which set off her light green eyes just right. She surveyed herself in the mirror. Not bad, she decided. She pretended to laugh at a joke then smiled warmly at herself in the mirror, "I'm Molly Camden," she said, reaching a hand out into the air.
"Me too," came a curt voice from in front of her. "and if you're quite done..." The voice trailed off and Molly glared the image of herself in the mirror that had just spoken.
"You don't have to be so rude!" She said and stalked out of the bathroom.
Alice was standing in the kitchen finished up breakfast when Molly came out. "Are you ready to go, then, dear?" She asked, wondering at the annoyed look in her daughter's eye. Molly stared at her mother and answered huffily,
"Of course I'm ready to go." Her mother, still wondering, carried her dishes to the sink and set her wand to cleaning them. Alice threw another glance at her daughter and the expression on her face, then suddenly realizing the cause she tried desperately to hold in her laughter.
"Is there something wrong, sweetheart?" She said with the most serious face she could muster. Molly let out a sigh and said,
"You know, Mum, as much as I love this place. I really hope that somethings change around here while I'm gone this year." Alice put on her confused motherly look and said,
"What do you mean, Mol?" Molly's face was now breaking into a smile as well,
"Mum, if that stupid mirror is still here when I come back..." She trailed off, and the sound of Alice's laughter still danced around the kitchen as they walked to the car.
On the way to the train station, Molly sat back, thinking of all the things that would soon be happening. She wondered what kind of friends she would make, and if there would be any cute new boys. She'd met some of the new first years already, because they'd been her playmates for her whole life. Her best friend, Annie Hale, had decided she wanted to go to some American school, though. Oh well, she told herself encouragingly, I'm sure I'll make other friends.
They pulled up to King's Cross Station with forty minutes to spare. And before any other student was even on the platform, Molly had said goodbye to her mother, loaded her trunk, and become comfortable in a spacious compartment. She sat staring impatiently out the window, hoping that the train would start moving soon, when the compartment door slid open. A tall blond girl with bright blue eyes walked in, and smiled nervously at Molly.
"Hi," she said a little tentatively. "I hope you don't mind if I sit in here, there's no one else on the train yet, and it's kind of creepy being in one of these rooms all alone." Molly returned her smile and held out her hand, like she had done in front of her mirror at home,
"Molly Camden, I'm a first year, are you?" The blond girl nodded her head as she introduced herself,
"Brooke Andrews. I'm so nervous!" She said, though she didn't look it. "My brother started here two years ago. He loves it so much, but I don't know. It's just so crazy, you know? My parents both went here but I don't know if I can do it. I've never been great with magic. I couldn't even fly on a broom properly until I was eight." When Brook finally ended, Molly gave her a sympathetic smile and said,
"I'm an only child. So everything I know is from my parents. They both loved it too, they were Ravenclaws. What about your parents?"
"Hufflepuffs," she said, with a meek sort of grimace.
In five minutes, the girls had established that they both wanted to be Gryffindors, neither of them knew what the sorting actually was, and they both thought that transfiguration sounded just plain cool. As their topic slid to books, the compartment door slid open again, and they both turned to see who had entered.
A very tall, very redheaded boy had stepped into the compartment. He was busy shutting the door again, and hadn't seemed to notice that Molly and Brook were there. "Ha." He said to himself after he had shoved a long stick through the handles of the door. "See if you can get through that, Malfoy." He stood back, admiring his work for a moment then turned to sit down. His eyes fell to Brook, then shifted to Molly, and then his ears became as red as his hair.
"Ah... erm. Sorry. I... ah... sorry." He muttered again, and then he un-barricaded the door and scooted through it before either Molly or Brook had time to piece together a sentence. They simply turned to look at each other and shook their heads. Molly raised one eyebrow and said,
"Okay," and they resumed their discussion about Hogwarts.
Before too much time had passed, Molly and Brook had become friends; and the train was pulling to a stop. They had changed into their jet black robes five minutes earlier and were currently discussing Alexander Marticello, the very smart, very cute author who had written The Wizard of Dungeon Lake, the most popular book in a century. In a flock of students, Molly and Brook made their way off the train.
"He's so adorable!" Brook cooed as she admired Marticello's winking and waving photo on the back cover of his book, "And I mean, to write like that, he's got to be hilarious too, you know?!" The girls' giggles were cut short when Molly slammed into a person who had stopped in front of her.
"Oof!" She grunted very unfeminely, "What in the--" She cut herself short. Up ahead they could here shouting and a small crowd was forming in a circle.
"You-- you," came a loud, furious voice. A sneering voice followed and reverberated around the crowd,
"What, little Artie? It's true! If your family--" All Molly could see was a tuft of bright red hair peeking over the shoulders of someone in front of her, but she could hear how the sneering voice trailed off in fear. Someone gasped to her right and orange sparks flew up into the air from the middle of the circle.
"If you ever," came the first voice again, "ever, say another word about my family, you'll get a lot worse than that." They watched as the crowd parted nervously on the other side, and the tuft of red hair vanished.
Slowly, people began to disperse, whispering quickly to one another. Molly and Brook began to move forward, wondering what had happened; but they didn't wonder long. Beside Molly, Brook gasped and nearly fell as she tripped on a black pile of robes laying on the ground.
The pile moved; then it groaned. With a look somewhere between distress and annoyance, Brook carefully bent over and pulled the cloak away. A pair of pale blue eyes stared up at them from under a crop of nearly white hair. A dark bruise was beginning to form around the right eye; in fact, the boy looking up at them looked like he had just been through a war-- and barely survived.
Molly bit her lip and held out a hand to help the bruised boy to his feet. He stood up and surveyed them; then in a sneery, if not condescending voice, he asked,
"Who are you?" Brook dropped her jaw the curt remark, but Molly elbowed her in the side and she shut it again. Molly put on her well-practiced smile and introduced herself,
"I'm Molly Camden, this will be my first year here," The boys pale eyes shifted expectantly to Brook, but Molly didn't miss a beat, "and this is my friend Brook Andrews. She's a first year too." The boy seemed to be satisfied, and he stretched out his hand to Molly,
"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy. I'm sure you've heard of me." The half-smile that Brook had pasted on her face fell away instantly,
"Why would we ha--" Molly's elbow hitched into her side again, and answered Lucius in her politest voice,
"Brook means, I think," She shot a glare at Brook through the corner of her eye, "that we're sorry, but we haven't heard of you." Malfoy quickly retracted his hand, muttering,
"Andrews... Camden... I thought..." His face changed to match the sneer in his voice. Brook narrowed her eyes,
"You thought what?" Her voice was threateningly low.
"I thought," Malfoy sneered, " seeing as I've heard the names Camden and Andrews before, that you were pure-bloods, but obviously you're just little mud--" Brook cut him off with a gasp. She would have yelled or screamed, but she seemed at a loss for words. Molly took her friend's moment of hesitation to speak. She cleared her throat,
"My parents are both wizards, if that's what you mean, Lucius," she paused, glancing at Brook; she was still stumbling on words in her rage, "so are Brook's." Malfoy sneered a little more,
"But you haven't heard of my family?" Molly shook her head, as though she was explaining to a child. Malfoy grunted. "They must have been Hufflepuffs then."
That was the last straw for Brook. Her eyes grew wide in shock, then she jumped.
Malfoy smacked the pavement before he knew what was going on. Molly stared in horror as she watched her new friend roll over the ground with Lucius Malfoy. She heard muffled screams and winced as she listened to the sound of hair being yanked out of someone's head. Silently cheering for Brook, she noted that most of those muffled screams were male.
"Hey! Break it up! Break--It--Up! First day of school, and I have to deal with this already! Cuts, scrapes, bruises... I'll talk to Dumbledore about this... Certainly, I will." A short woman with brown hair, graying at the roots, walked up. "I said stop!" She shouted in a shrill, frustrated voice. Brook and Malfoy continued to fight. The woman's eyes threatened to pop out of her head. "Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!" The woman had drawn her wand and frozen both of them.