Chapter Three: Vision
Jaclyn smiled at Harry shyly as they both fell silent. Why did he suddenly seem so quiet? She shrugged it off as Harry turned to break Ron and Hermione up. It looked like Hermione was about to slap Ron. She was rolling up her sleeve ominously.
"It was nice meeting you!" He tossed over his shoulder as he walked between the two quarreling friends. Jaclyn snorted amusedly to herself and walked up to the train on the platform. She turned to look at the overhanging clock. There was a half hour until boarding time. She strolled along the platform as the crowd slowly thinned out. All the students were busy crushing their luggage desperately into the compartments. She had no luggage, so she didn't need to rush. She reached the end of the train and looked down the black, damp tunnel. The train obviously went underground to get away from the city so as not to attract attention to itself.
Suddenly, something moved in the shadows. Jaclyn leaned closer, swaying off the edge of the platform and looking over the tracks. Something small was skittering among the wooden rails, squeaking. She squinted, her eyes slowly focusing. It was a pack of – rats! She stumbled backwards in disgust. She disliked wild rats with a passion. They were so, well, filthy. They were plague-carriers, after all. She shuddered and turned away. Pet rats were all right, she didn't mind those. They were actually pretty cute. The huge, gray, patched up sewer rats, on the other hand, were a little repulsive. It didn't help that they had infested her house for two years when she was a child. She still had a scar where one had bit her on the finger. She had only been five, and she had thought they looked so cute. When she reached out to pet one, it had lashed out at her. She had almost died of whatever that rat had been carrying. Nothing against them personally, it was just a reflex of hers to avoid and hate them. She had been forced to get a rather painful series of shots because of that stupid rodent.
The train whistle blew. Jaclyn ran towards the nearest door and slipped in as the train began to shudder into gear. The corridor had many sliding doors, and they were all closed or half opened. She began to walk down, looking in open doors to see if she could find a seat. They were all occupied. When she reached the last compartment, she was desperate. A blonde-haired boy looked at her with a sneer as she looked in. She quickly left and walked back down the hall desperately. Nope, no compartments were free. She saw a door connecting the train car to another. She went through it and entered a kitchen. The place smelled wonderful, like chocolate and candy. A frail old lady was working cheerfully at filling up a cart with sweets. There was food piled up on all the tables.
The lady straightened and saw her. "Ah, there you are, Clarissa! I was worried you wouldn't come!" Her wrinkled face beamed at Jaclyn. In fact, the old lady herself seemed to be beaming strangely, almost glowing.
"Um, I'm not -"
"Of course not, hon." She nodded understandingly at Jaclyn. "Now take this cart around for all the hungry dearies, they must be starving!" Jaclyn opened her mouth, and the lady swooped down and stuffed a chunk of chocolate in her mouth. "Honey, you look so thin. Have this. Now, don't you worry, I'll take care of the rest of the food, you just run along with the cart!"
Jaclyn shrugged and wheeled the cart back to the passenger area of the train. The old lady looked so pleased to see her Clarissa; she didn't want to disillusion the poor woman. Besides, it wasn't like she had anything better to do, except further embarrassing herself while trying to find a seat. She walked down the corridor, asking the people in the compartments if they wanted anything off the cart. By the time she had entered the last car, she had sold a fair amount of candy and was feeling quite pleased with herself. "Ahhh, one more compartment, and then I can go back to finding somewhere to sit." Jaclyn mumbled to herself, pleased. She opened the sliding door and asked cheerily, "Anything off the cart?"
"Jaclyn?" said a vaguely familiar voice. She looked into the compartment. It was Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were staring at her incredulously.
"Um, hi, guys. So, do you want anything to eat?" She looked at them, feeling a little uncomfortable under their stares.
Harry opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. Ron snorted and said, "What Harry means to say is, 'Why, yes, I'll take the whole cart, thank you.'"
Harry frowned and punched Ron in the arm. "No, I don't, Ron. I meant to say what Jaclyn was doing, working the cart." He turned back to Jaclyn. "So why are you doing that, anyway?"
Jaclyn shrugged. "I just had to. This old lady, she practically pushed me and the cart out the door. I think she thought I was someone else."
Hermione snorted. "I hate people who are pushovers. Like you. They're the reason pressing issues like the enslavement of house elves still exist. You and Ron are birds of a feather." Ron yelped and glared at Hermione. Jaclyn looked at Hermione doubtfully.
"Um, okay, I guess I'll take that as a no." Jaclyn said as she began to push the door shut.
"NOOOOOOO!" Ron yowled despairingly. He threw himself at the door and pushed it back open. "I'll have two boxes of chocolate frogs, please." He threw a dirty look at Hermione. "And that git over there apologizes. She hopes you understand what a crazy loon she is about house-elves." Hermione tutted.
"Okay, then." Jaclyn got out the correct amount of chocolate frogs and handed them to Ron carefully. "Here you go. Ten sickles, please."
"Yeah, sure. Go on, then, Harry. Pay up."
Harry blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Ron's ears turned red. Jaclyn noticed and smiled. "Well, we're all going to be eating these, aren't we?"
Harry shrugged. "I guess. All right, then." He paid up.
Hermione giggled. "You realize Ron will eat all of them, don't you? He's such a pig!"
Ron stared in outrage. "I am NOT!" They began to argue. Harry met her eyes and shrugged. There was something sad about him. Jaclyn wondered why he looked so depressed.
She smiled at Harry, shrugged back at him, and closed the door of the compartment on the increasing noise as Ron threw a shoe at Hermione. Hermione shrieked. Jaclyn shook her head as she wheeled the cart away. What a funny group of friends. She had never had such a close circle of friends the way Harry did. She wondered if she would ever get a true friend like that. It probably would never happen. Friendships like that just didn't come naturally to a girl like her.
She reached the kitchen where the sweets had been. The old lady was gone. So was all the food. She shrugged and left the cart where it had been before, then walked back out. A tall, menacing lady was walking down the corridors. "Do any of you know where I might find a Jaclyn Murray?" She asked of a trio of giggling girls. They shook their heads and ran down the corridors.
Jaclyn walked up to the woman. "I'm Jaclyn Murray. Did you need to see me?"
The lady nodded. She was wearing green velvet robes, and looked very imposing. She pushed her glasses back up her nose bridge and brought a large bundle out of a bag she was carrying and handed it to her. "This contains your uniform robes and your school supplies, including your books. There are no replacements, so I expect you'll take very good care of them." She peered through her glasses sternly. Jaclyn nodded. "Good." The lady turned and walked back down the hall, then vanished quite suddenly.
The train began to slow down. Jaclyn looked through her bundle and found her uniform. There were five sets of robes, and one set that looked prettier than the others. She put on one of the standard robes over her clothes and tied her bundle up again. The train drew to a halt and students began pouring out of the compartment doors, chatting happily. They were all wearing robes that looked like hers, except theirs had different badges with pictures of animals on them. They filed slowly out of the train. Jaclyn waited until everyone had left, then slowly walked out.
There was no school anywhere Jaclyn could see. She looked around in confusion. Suddenly she saw Hermione. She rushed over to her. "Hi, Hermione. I was just wondering if you could tell me where I'm supposed to go?"
Hermione looked at Jaclyn. "Well, you're a new student, right?" Jaclyn nodded. "Then you should go with the students over there." She pointed to a crowd of lost-looking kids.
"Thanks, Hermione!" Jaclyn smiled gratefully. Hermione nodded and walked away. Jaclyn headed towards that group. A giant man walked up to them.
"So, all ye new students follow me! I'm Hagrid, an' I'll be takin' ye to yer new home!" Hagrid boomed. They formed a silent line and followed him into the gloom as the sun began to set. They sat four to a boat, Jaclyn sitting with three whispering girls who completely ignored her. The boats seemed to propel themselves. They turned a corner around a mossy bank and the school came into sight.
Everybody gasped, except for Jaclyn. She didn't want to have noise ruin the moment as she stared at the beautiful castle in front of them. The moon had risen behind it, and it glowed behind the building, making the whole thing look like it had jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale. The boats drifted closer and then bumped silently against the shore.
Everybody jumped out of the boats and walked up a grassy slope to two massive double doors. Hagrid stooped down to the brass knocker and hit it against the doors with a resounding crash. The lady who had given Jaclyn her bundle appeared and opened the doors. "Welcome, first years. You will follow me directly to the dining hall; we are running slightly behind schedule. I am Professor McGonagall, and I will be teaching you very soon, I suspect." With that rather brief greeting, Professor McGonagall turned and whisked away down a cavernous hall. The students followed her in a clump, footsteps echoing off the walls.
They reached the double doors which swing open, seemingly unaided. Jaclyn drew in a breath as the dining hall slowly came into sight and they moved up between the tables full of whispering students towards a platform with a lonely stool set upon it. What would happen now?
A/N: Ya, I know, lame ending, but I had to end somewhere before the sorting hat came! Anyway, things get really good next chappie! Good lord, I just babbled on and on, didn't I? Oh well. I just had a lot to say, I guess. Anyway, I know this chapter was probably a bunch of nothing, but I needed to do it, because – what's that a knockin' on ma door? Why, it's the PLOT, my friends, the PLOT!