Okay, this chap isn't quite as short as the last one…it was going to be heaps longer but I split it into two, hence the name 'Part One'.
Hows about thankies here instead? OK.
michelleywelley: thanks! I dunno about the parents thing, maybe one of them knows more than they're saying, hint, hint, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more!
Michael: I reckon not enough stories have left handed people in them, and my little bro's left handed, so what the heck? Thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind.
Okay, I had a total of TWO reviews *sob, sob* and that makes me feel unloved. My own BROTHER didn't review, damnit! Oh well, I can deal with him later.
Chapter Four – The Hogwarts Express Part One
On their departure from Diagon Alley, Tom the bartender had explained to them about Platform 9 ¾. Still, Charlotte was nervous about running headlong into a brick wall.
Of course, everything ran smoothly and the family found themselves in front of the scarlet Hogwarts Express. Students and parents mingled on the platform, saying final goodbyes. A large group of people, many redheaded, caught her eye.
"I'm fine, Mum, I'm not a baby – hey!" cried the redheaded girl as her mother enveloped her in a huge, motherly hug. A fiery-headed boy, presumably her brother, hugged his parents and made his way to the front of the train, his sister and a brunette in tow.
"Goodbye, Harry dear," the mother said, hugging a raven-haired boy. "You take care and I'll see you at Christmas."
"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley. Bye, Lupin!" He hugged a middle-aged weary-looking man and turned to the rest of the group. "Bye!"
"Don't I get a hug, Harry?" a woman with disturbingly pink hair asked, a look of mock hurt on her face. Harry grinned and hugged her. "Bye, Tonks. See you at Christmas!"
Surprisingly, Harry didn't follow the others to the front of the train. Instead, he lugged his trunk onto the fourth carriage and wave to the group again.
Charlotte turned to her own parents. "Well, um…" she stammered, not wanting to be the first to say goodbye.
"Goodbye, honey. You'll write lots, won't you?"
"'Course I will, Mum."
She turned to her father. "Bye, Dad," she whispered.
"Have fun, Chars. We'll see you at Christmas, yeah?"
Charlotte smiled. "Yeah."
She kissed both her parents in turn. "I'll miss you,"
"We'll miss you too."
There was a short silence. "Well, er, bye,"
She wheeled the trolley towards the nearest carriage, the sixth one down. Her father followed and helped her get her trunk onto the train.
"Do you want some help finding a seat?" he asked. She shook her head.
"I'm fine."
He looked surprised. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
He smiled. "Bye, hon."
He stepped off the train, as the engine had started and smoke was beginning to pour from the smokestack. He blew a kiss to his daughter.
Charlotte blew one back. "Bye, sweetheart!" a now teary Mrs. Vaughan called to the moving train. "Write lots!"
Charlotte nodded, waving. But all too soon, the platform was out of sight and she was alone.
She lugged her trunk along three full carriage corridors before she realised she was never going to find an empty compartment. She was about to summon all her courage and open the door of the nearest compartment when she heard a voice in her ear.
"Would you like a hand?"
The boy with jet-black hair from the platform, Harry, stood behind her, gesturing towards the heavy trunk she had been dragging along behind her. She nodded gratefully, noticing his eyes were a startling green.
Together they heaved the trunk into the corner of the compartment. "Are you sitting anywhere? You'll find everywhere is normally full by now."
Charlotte shook her head. He opened the door to the now empty compartment he had just vacated and ushered her in.
There was an awkward silence, and Charlotte was not tempted to break it. Her shyness was back yet again.
"So, uh…" Harry began. "Um, I'm Harry. Harry Potter."
Much to his surprise, this got no reaction from Charlotte except "Oh, er…nice to meet you."
Harry waited for her to continue. When she did not, he decided to find out more himself.
"And, uh…your name is…?"
"Oh," Charlotte replied, a blush creeping up her face. "I'm Charlotte Vaughan."
Harry glanced around the compartment, deep in thought. Finally, "Pardon for asking, but…are you Australian?"
Charlotte nodded. "Thought so," he said. "Uh, is this your first year?" She nodded.
"Your…sixth?"
"Seventh," he corrected. "Though it doesn't seem like too long ago that I was sitting alone here, afraid that I would be the class reject. Then sitting with Ron, learning about the magical world…" He seemed lost in his memories, though he soon snapped out of it. "But is there anything you'd like to know?"
Charlotte thought for a moment. "That was a silly question, really," Harry continued. "If I'm right in saying you're a Muggle-born?"
"Apparently," Charlotte replied, uttering her fourth statement in Harry's presence. "It sounds like you are too,"
"No, that's Hermione. Well, I may as well be, but technically I'm not."
Charlotte was confused, and it must have shown on her face, because Harry backed up a little.
"I'm sorry. I forget how much you don't know! You see, I'm an orphan and I grew up with Muggles, my aunt and uncle. But my parents were both magic."
"I…I'm so sorry," Charlotte whispered. "I had no idea."
"Don't worry," Harry replied cheerfully.
Charlotte was amazed that he could talk so freely about his deceased parents. "Your aunt and uncle…are they your only living family?"
Harry nodded. "I hate them. They hate me. It's been all right lately though, because they're afraid that Moody or Tonks is going to come and turn them into toads."
Charlotte was confused again. "I'm sorry, but, you keep mentioning friends of yours and I don't know who they are."
"Oh, uh…Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are my best friends and have been since first year. Ginny Weasley is Ron's little sister and she's been a friend since then too, a really good friend since fifth year, two years ago. She's in sixth year now."
Charlotte nodded. "Where are they?"
"At the front of the train. Hermione's head girl, which isn't surprising 'cause she's been top witch since first year, and Ron and Ginny are prefects, so they have to go with her to meet the new prefects. But I have no idea where Luna and Neville are,"
Charlotte frowned. "Oh, Luna's a Ravenclaw sixth year, Ginny's friend, who usually hangs around with us. Neville's her boyfriend, and he's a seventh-year Gryffindor with Ron, Hermione and me."
She was lost yet again. "Ravenclaw…is that a Hogwarts house?"
"Oh, yeah…there's Ravenclaw, which is supposedly for the smart ones, but look where they put Hermione…Gryffindor is our house, apparently the brave ones…there's Slytherin, the evil ones and Hufflepuff, who're basically anyone else."
Charlotte nodded. "How much do you do in these houses?"
"Uh, well…you eat at the house table in the Great Hall, you have lessons with your house and sometimes another house as well, you sleep in your house's dormitory and you root for your house Quidditch team."
Charlotte had no idea what Quidditch was, and said so.
"Ah, well…if you get me to explain it then it'll take all day. You see, I play Quidditch and I hate it when anyone gets it wrong so I'll have to tell you all five-hundred fouls and everything. At least, the ones I know…"
Charlotte smiled. He reminded her of herself when someone asked her about netball.
The awkward silence was back.
"Oh, er…that's a pretty necklace, Charlotte. Did you get that is Australia?"
Charlotte looked down at her silver necklace. It was a little fairy holding an amethyst orb to its chest. She'd never taken it off for as long as she could remember.
"Yeah, my sister gave it to me when I was, like, four. Well, she's really my cousin, but she was like a sister to me. She moved in with us for a few years until she turned twenty and decided to move to England. She gave this to me just as she was leaving. I have no idea where she is now,"
"What was her name? You never know, she could still be here,"
"Yeah, maybe." Yeah right, Charlotte thought. "Her name was Dora."
Something clicked in her mind. "My cousin went to Hogwarts. Hilary Hicks. Dora's mother."
"Just a sec! Her mum was a witch! She went to Hogwarts! What if Dora was one too?"
Harry smiled. "How old was she when she moved in with you?"
Charlotte thought for a moment. "She was seventeen years older than me, and I was only a year old, so she must have been eighteen."
Harry nodded. "That fits," he replied. "You leave Hogwarts at seventeen or eighteen, depending on when your birthday is."
"Mine's June," Charlotte said. She was beginning to open up to Harry now.
"What day?" he asked, suspicious. What if it had been the day Sirius or Cedric had died?
"The thirtieth,"
Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "That's only a month before mine," he noted. "But I'm six years older than you, so…"
She decided not to ask why he was so nervous about the month June.