Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe is not mine. Although I do admit to locking Blaise and Draco in my closet. And duct taping their mouths shut. And… okay I'll stop there.
No one replied. Thank you. You all make me feel so special.
And yet, the story is here. Strange… for all of you who are waiting on other fanfics, let me tell you that this was ready at the same time as Chapter 1, and that's why its going up. NO I did not write this in the past few days. I can't even write my English paper and you expect me to write fanfics? Okay, so you do, but still… blerk, I'm not getting out of this one, am I?
Anyways, enjoy.
Chapter 2, with no title, since I didn't really divide it into chapters when I was writing. Hence the strangeness of it.
And so it was that Caranora climbed onto the Silver Fang, a connecting train to the Hogwarts express, with Rinaldi, her white rat, in her pocket, and Poe, her raven, in his cage under her arm.
The ride to London passed quickly. She had decided to try to get a nap in, but it seemed to her that no sooner had she closed her eyes she had to open them again.
"Boy, that was fast," She commented to the porter.
"Silver Fang's da quickest train dere is." The porter replied in an amazingly strong Chicago accent. "Powered by some sorta powerful magic."
"Oh… thanks…" Caranora said. She wondered if people in London would think that her accent was strong.
Stepping out of the train, she found herself on a platform.
"Just wait dere, da Agwerts Express'll be her in fifteen minutes." The porter called after her, and closed the door. There was a hum, and suddenly the Silver Fang shot off.
Caranora looked around timidly. Her trunk and bags were standing to the left of her. Looking the other way she saw a few people standing on the far end of the platform.
She set Poe's cage onto the ground and sat down on the trunk. Rinaldi stirred in his sleep in her breast pocket, and she patted him gently.
The fox passed by, sniffing the ground curiously as it went.
"Hey, did you come here on that silver train?"
Caranora turned to see a black haired boy standing a few feet away from her. He looked to be about her age. She was a little taken aback, having never really had much contact with other kids. The ones back in her old school always left her alone and wouldn't talk to her.
"Uh… yeah…" She replied, a little nervously. "I… came from Chicago."
"Really?" The boy was surprised. He stepped closer. "Well, I'm Blaise Zabini."
"Er… Caranora Smithe." She shook the hand he offered her.
"All the way from Chicago, huh?" Blaise looked at her. "I heard that they closed the American school down for a few years, but I thought they'd send people to Canada or something."
Caranora shrugged. Poe rustled his wings, gave out a loud caw. Blaise looked around, spotted the cage. He crouched down in front of it.
"Whoa… a crow?" He said.
"A raven…" Caranora corrected him. "His…his name is Poe."
"Nice name." Blaise said, then stood up. He looked over at her. "Nice bird, too. I had to get a ruddy barn owl."
He pointed behind him, and Caranora saw another pushcart standing there, laden with trunks and bags, and on top sitting a large cage. A dirty-brown colored owl sat in it, and gave out a morose hoot when it met her gaze.
"Its… nice…" She said. Blaise grimaced.
"I wanted a Great Horned, Eeylops had a huge silver gray one, but," And here he scrunched up his face and made his voice squeak. "An owl is an owl, Blaise, and as long as it flies and carries mail, its good enough."
Caranora laughed at his imitation, and he joined her.
"Grandmum," He explained after they had stopped laughing. "My mum and dad are off on business, and now Grandmum is too old and tired to wait for the train with me, so I'm all alone." Blaise looked over at her. "What about you?"
"Hm? Oh… well…" Caranora fidgeted a little. "I… don't know who my parents were. I was raised by two old Squibs, but they didn't tell me anything about the Wizarding world until a few weeks ago."
"Really?" Blaise looked at her surprised, then chuckled. "Seems I have a lot to teach you then."
Caranora looked at him, surprised herself. He grinned at her, and she smiled back timidly.
Just then a loud hoot broke through the air, and both of them turned to see a large red steam engine pull in with its load of cabins.
"Come on!" Blaise said, motioning for her to grab her things and taking hold of his own. "Lets make sure we get some good seats."
They hurried onto the train and grabbed a cabin. Caranora sat down near the window, and Blaise sat down across from her.
"So…" He started, looking at her as if inspecting her. "You have no idea who your parents were?"
"No, none." Caranora said. She sat there for a second, then reached over toe her small bag and pulled out the box containing her wand. "Well, I do have this. It used to belong to my mom… or at least they say so."
"Wow…" Blaise took the box from her and looked at it. "This looks familiar… but I don't know why."
The fox stood on the seat next to him, also looking at the box.
Blaise handed the box back to her, and she set it down next to her on the seat.
There was a moment of silence, during which Blaise fidgeted a little and Caranora stared out the window.
Suddenly the door to the cabin slammed open, making both of them jump in their seats. They turned to look at the door just as a large boy walked in.
"Oh, its you." He grunted at Blaise, and settled down on part of the seat.
"Nice to see you too, Goyle." Blaise said, although a sneer started to curl his lips.
There was a flurry of words outside, and another large boy stumbled into the cabin. He tripped over one of Goyle's outstretched legs, and almost fell on Caranora. Muttering a 'sorry', he had a strangely surprised look on his face as he sat down on the far end of the seat.
The next boy to enter wasn't anywhere near as big as the first two. He had a pale, pointed face, icy gray eyes, and blond hair that was slicked back severely. He gave a quick look around the room, his eyes settling on Blaise finally. He smiled, and although Caranora thought it seemed a little more like a smirk than a true smile, it seemed genuine enough.
"Blaise." The boy said in way of greeting.
"Draco." Blaise grinned at him, and Caranora relaxed when she realized that the two must be friends.
But now the blond, Draco, looked at her, and she felt herself shrink under his gaze. She wasn't used to attention, especially from people she didn't know.
"And, you are…?" The boy asked, but Caranora found herself at loss for words. Thankfully, Blaise didn't.
"This is Caranora Smithe," Blaise said, standing up. He gave her an encouraging smile. "Caranora, this is Draco Malfoy, currently my so-called best friend."
Blaise gave him a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye, and Draco glared back at him. After a moment both laughed, and Blaise sat back down in his place.
Draco, in the meantime, had noticed the box containing Caranora's wand.
"Is this yours?" He asked, picking it up. The girl nodded as he looked over the emblem. "Looks familiar…"
"Doesn't it?" Blaise asked, leaning forward and looking annoyed. "But I can't figure out why…"
Draco shrugged, and opened the box. He pulled out the wand and looked at it thoughtfully.
"Looks nice…" He started to say, but suddenly the wand gave out an angry hiss and shot out red-hot sparks. He dropped it in alarm and surprise. "What the…?"
Caranora blushed slightly as she bent down to retrieve the wand.
"That's… its… well, it's never done that before." She said, giving him an apologetic look. "But then again, you're the only other person to touch it."
Draco was looking at the wand with a mixture of surprised, wonder, and annoyance. Blaise leaned forward in his seat and took the wand.
"Let me see…" As he held it, it began to hiss and spark again, but he didn't let go. "This is actually getting… hot."
He tossed it to Caranora, who caught it reflexively. She had feared burning herself, but the moment the wand touched her hand the hissing stopped and it cooled down. Goyle and the other big boy sat there staring at the wand, a little scared.
"That's strange…" Blaise said. The train gave a sudden jerk, and he glanced outside. "Moving, finally."
"What's your wand made of?" Draco asked, setting the box back down and sitting down next to Blaise.
"Lets see if I can remember…" Caranora said quietly. Mr. Smithe had told her what was in it. "There used to be a paper with it, but it got lost… okay, its (and here she recited exactly as Mr. Smithe had told her) 8 ½ inch, ebony, with a hair form the mane of a Nightmare."
Blaise whistled appreciatively.
"Now that's something… They were always really rare, but it's said the last herd was destroyed…" He thought for a second, "How long ago again."
"6 years." Draco said, but his voice was a little shaky. They turned to see that his already pale face had blanched to stone white.
"Draco? Are you all right?" Blaise asked.
"I'm fine." Snapped back the blond, then leaned back in the seat and crossed his arms. All through that time though, Caranora never saw his eyes stray from her wand. She turned to Blaise.
"Why were the Nightmares destroyed?" She asked, intrigued. Before Blaise had time to open his mouth, Draco had leaned forward again.
"You don't know?" He asked, a little harshly, though thoroughly shocked to discover she didn't know.
"No." Caranora squeaked.
"The Nightmares were rampaging." Draco said. "They'd run around and destroy any bloody thing they could get their teeth on."
"They'd gone mad," Blaise added, nodding, "There was talk that the person who controlled them had been killed, so they were out for revenge."
"Well, that can't be that bad…" Caranora started, looking closer at her wand. She looked up to see everyone giving her shocked looks. "The revenge, I mean… If someone killed their master, they have the right to go out there… and… yeah…"
Caranora fell silent. She had never really spoken her mind out like that to anyone before, and had expected them all to look at her as if she was a little off her rocker. But, though they all looked mildly surprised, both Blaise and Draco seemed pleased.
"Can't blame them, hm?" Blaise grinned.
The door opened suddenly, and two girls walked in. Caranora saw a grimace pass over both Blaise's and Draco's faces, but then quickly disappear as they turned to the girls. She also turned to look at them. Both were larger than her, and one had a definite, pug-shaped nose. It was this girl that squealed loudly when she saw Draco, and plopped herself down next to him, ignoring everyone else. Blaise rolled her eyes as she began to speak.
"Draco! This is where you were hiding." The girl exclaimed. "Oh, I would have found you sooner, but Daddy said we had to take a taxi! Can you believe it? He wanted me, his one and only daughter, to get in a car, non-magical, with some muggle driver! I told him that there was absolutely no way I would be going to the station in some taxi! Said he didn't have the time to…"
"Hullo, Millicent." Blasie said loudly over the other girl's chatter.
"Hullo yourself." Millicent replied bitterly. She glanced at Caranora, then sat down next to her and extended a hand. "Millicent Bullstrode."
"Uh…" Caranora took her hand. "Caranora Smithe."
"She's from Chicago!" Blaise leaned forward, away from the deafening chatter.
"What?" Draco looked over. He was obviously not paying much attention to the other girl's chatter and desperately looking for a way out of it. "You didn't tell me that."
"Forgot." Blaise shrugged.
"Forgot, right…' Draco said.
The other girl had stopped her talking, looking quite annoyed at having been interrupted. She looked at Blaise as if seeing him there for the first time.
"Oh… Hello Blaise." She said simply.
"Hello Pansy." Blaise replied sweetly. She glared at him for a moment.
During this time, Millicent had tapped Caranora in the side and leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"Don't introduce yourself and you won't have to listen to her…" She advised, and Caranora nodded.
Instead of introducing herself, she pulled out The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), and started reading it, pretending to be absorbed. When she next glanced up, the chatter had started again. She saw that Millicent had followed suit with a book. Blaise had his forehead pressed against the glass of the window, his eyes unfocused. Draco was doing his best to keep his participation in the conversation with Pansy to a minimum. Goyle and the other boy (Crabbe, she learned form Millicent), were sitting by the door, and were the first up when the food cart rolled by.
End Not: Please R&R. I'll give you cookies and ice cream cake if you do. If you don't, you'll have my cat boy's at your place shredding your window treatments and trashing your sock drawers.