Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters or concepts, blah blah blah – those belong to JK Rowling kthx (lucky bitch . ). I do, however, own Xanadu Severina.
Sarafina Radcliff is (c) Kiara Rae ), and Sanuya Kynnata is (c) Cy ). Any other characters belonging to people other than me will be duly credited. Thus far, every fan-created character I use and will use I have strict permission to use directly from their creator, so don't bust my ass about copyright infringements.
Enjoy!
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"We're here!" her father exclaimed all-too-cheerily as they pulled into a parking spot at the station.
Xanadu stroked Oreo's soft black head and looked into her warm, white-encircled eyes and, feeling invigorated, unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door and pulled the little cat close to her chest protectively. She swung her legs out the open door and headed around to the back of the car, where her father had already begun unloading her bags into a trolley her mother had sneakily whipped up without any muggles noticing.
"I can bring Oreo on tha train, can' I?" Xanadu asked, stroking Oreo in hopes of drawing some comfort from her silky fur.
Her mother smiled gently. "Of course, dear. Now, we'd better get moving; your train leaves in less than half an hour!"
Xanadu smiled back, her courage drifting slowly back to her a piece at a time. She placed Oreo gingerly in the basket of her trolley and pushed off towards platforms nine and ten, a thousand thoughts still zooming through her head. It didn't take long to get there, despite the seething throngs of hurried muggles and the occasional boldly coloured cloak or pointed black hat she spotted every now and then.
Her father pulled out her train ticket and handed it to her, and she grasped it between clammy fingers, staring at it dumbly for a few moments before shoving it in her pocket and staring with a sinking feeling in her stomach at the divider between platforms nine and ten.
"It's really quite easy, dear," her mother cooed, sensing her anxiety. "All you have to do is run at the wall and think about something else, and you'll get right through." Xanadu looked at her nervously. "We'll be right behind you."
Xanadu took a deep breath and stared down the wall. It looked awfully real to her. Real and hard. Oreo licked her fingers with her warm, rough tongue, and she purred genially, relieving a good deal of her tension. She took another big gulp of air and started towards the wall. The lyrics of a thousand different songs flooded her consciousness, and she focused on one them and was busy setting them to music when she found herself in the middle of a completely different train station. She looked from the shiny scarlet steam engine waiting expectantly on the tracks, to the sign overhead that said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock, to the place where the old barrier had been and the sign there that now read Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and she couldn't help grinning satisfactorily.
Moments later her mother strode casually through the barrier, followed closely by her father, who had been holding her hand in order to pass through. "Here we are," her mother said brightly, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. Her father was staring awestruck around the new station, his mouth gaping like a little boy in a candy store. "Come along then, let's find you a seat!"
Xanadu traced car after car before finding one towards the back (reserved for fifth year students, of course) which wasn't full to the point where she'd have to sit next to a complete stranger. She loaded her bags and said her goodbyes to her parents, hugging each one tightly about five times and smothering them with black kisses before finally boarding the train. She forced herself to think about everything she was going towards, rather than everything she was leaving behind, and grinned and waved wildly out the window at her mother, who was now crying hysterically, and her father, whose eyes were watering up proudly. She sat there for a moment, flooded with the strongest feeling of pride she'd ever known, before a thought occurred to her.
She moved Oreo gently off her lap and stood up at the window. "I'm goin' te get changed," she called out to her parents. "I'll see you in a year!"
"All right, dear," her mother called back through tears. "Remember, we love you!" Her parents beamed at her one last time before she pulled the curtains over the window shut tight.
She got up and slid the door to her compartment shut, paranoid that prying eyes would find her half-dressed in the middle of the aisle. Her hands caressed the smooth material of her robes, and she was temporarily mesmerized by the magick that seemed to course through their very threads. She tore off her clothes ravenously, eager to get into the robes she would be wearing for her first year at Hogwarts, and she was pulling the skirt up past her knees when the door slid open and a head appeared, one bright blue eye twinkling at her, the other hidden by a messy lock of silvery hair. Xanadu practically fell over backwards.
"Oops, sorry mate!" she exclaimed, ducking back outside the door without so much as a blush on her pale face.
Xanadu finished tugging on her robes indignantly and with considerably more haste, and when she was done she stomped over to the door and opened it with a bit more force than she had intended to. "May I 'elp ye?" she asked irritably. The girl turned around and flashed a wicked grin at her.
"Yeah, I was wonderin' if anyone was sharin' this compartment with ye," she replied, pushing past her and taking a seat across from Xanadu's belongings. "Based on that little exposure, I figured there wasn't. Nice panties, by the way."
Xanadu blinked indignantly and shook her head in slight disbelief before turning around and heading back towards the booth she had been seated at. She slid into her seat slightly hesitantly, examining the girl who had now become her new seating partner. Other than the sudden intrusion into her compartment, the newcomer seemed to Xanadu to be virtually harmless. She was picking a mint from a silver container she had retrieved from her pocket, and her legs were crossed at the ankles.
"So, ya got a name, or should I just call ya She-Who-Wore-the-Halloween-Panties?" the girl inquired, popping the mint in her mouth and snapping the lid closed rather definitively.
"It's Xanadu," she replied with a wicked grin, extending her hand to be shaken. "Though She-Who-Wore-the-Halloween-Panties does have a certain ring to it."
The girl grinned back in a similar fashion. "Sarafina. And I must say, it's nice to meet yer acquaintance – and not just because of the panties thing, either."
Xanadu let out a good laugh and found herself quickly settling back into a comfortable state. "Is this 'ow ye normally find a good seat – look fer someone 'oo's changin' and barge in on 'em?"
"Nah, that's too 'ard; I can 'ardly ever catch anyone with their pants down around 'ere. It's rather disappointing, I must say. Though I was rather 'oping to find a Slytherin in 'ere." She paused for a minute as if she'd just realized something, and then said "I'm in Ravenclaw, by the way. Something about being brilliant, I don't know. What about you? What's your story? I've never seen ya around 'ere before."
"That's 'cause I'm new 'ere," Xanadu replied, and noticing Sarafina's confused expression, she proceeded to tell her the story of how she'd gotten to be where she was; she was in a very trusting mood at the moment.
Sarafina raised and lowered her eyebrows. "Bloody fascinatin'," she replied finally. "I bet yer the oldest student te ever enter Hogwarts in their firs' year."
"That's wot I'm worried abou'," Xanadu said with a snicker.
