A/N: Thank you my two whole reviewers, Freak And Proud, and Delphie. YAY! I give you each a study newsie that remembers your schedule, and helps you study for tests! It's like a palm pilot, but much nicer to look at! Enjoy!
I know that this story is going slowly so far, but if you think about it, in a real chapter book, it would take more than a few couple paged chapters to get you into the climax of the story, right? Well, this isn't a baby chapter book, okay guys.
Chapter 4:
Silently Tyhler dragged her heavy trunk down the steps and out the back door. She left the door ajar as she scurried across the driveway and over to the garage. Fumbling with the keys that she had found hanging right beside the back door, she let herself in, and set her trunk down, looking for the key to the Bentley. She finally found it, and she leaned in the driver's door long enough to pull open the lock to the backseat and gently set her trunk on the backseat, and carefully shut the door, making sure to leave everything the same as it was before she had come in. Then she replaced the keys on the hook, and went to bed. Earlier that day, she had calmly told Mrs. Henderson that she had made an appointment with a hairstylist for the next day, so that she could go to her new school with normal colored hair, so she could fit in, be popular, and concentrate more on her studies. The old lady took the bait quite easily. Mrs. Henderson told her she would send Miles to drive her there and back the next day, and even get her there early, just in case.
When she woke up the next morning, Tyhler got dressed and put her toothbrush, and other important articles into her backpack, before slinging it across her back and heading down the stairs.
"Tyhler, what was the name of this salon?" Mrs. Henderson asked her.
"Miss Trina's Nails and hair. It's right down the street from King's Cross station." Tyhler said with a smile.
Mrs. Henderson proceeded to look up the number and call the place. After being told that Tyhler did, indeed have an appointment, she was satisfied, and gave her the money to get her hair done, and called Miles over to run her into town.
Tyhler grabbed the keys from the hook by the door, and cheerfully said, "I'll go unlock the car. I'm just so excited."
Knowing that if Miles opened the door for her, he would see the trunk in the backseat, Tyhler hurried to unlock the garage, and the car door, getting herself situated in the backseat. Her plan worked like a charm. When he pulled up to the curb to let her out, she asked him about the train station, and he went on rambling about it long enough without paying any attention to her, for her to push her trunk out in front of her, and set it on the sidewalk before hopping out herself.
Without even noticing the trunk sitting on the sidewalk next to her, he pulled away, after warning her to be on time in meeting him back in the same spot in precisely two hours.
She waved at him until he turned the corner, then she hoisted her trunk over to the nearest baggage cart, and wheeled it into the station. Looking at her watch, she realized she was almost an hour early for her train, but she figured she would find the right platform anyway.
The station was moderately busy, with a few trains having just left, and loved ones leaving the station after telling their goodbyes to them. She pulled her ticket out of her pocket again, looking at the number on it. Platform 9 ¾. Why did she not notice the peculiarness of that before she ran away from the house? She walked back and forth between platforms nine and ten before deciding to sit down. All the benches nearby were full, so she decided to sit in the ground between platforms nine and ten. She put her cart in front of her, and plopped herself down. Expecting to meet the solidness of a brick wall, she was caught off guard when she didn't, and somersaulted backwards and ended up sitting on her knees facing a brick wall that had a sign on it that stated that she had found platform 9 ¾. She gingerly reached her arm towards the solid looking wall, and her hand disappeared. Standing, she stepped through the wall, grabbed her luggage cart, and pulled it back through with her. Turning around to see the rest of the platform, she found that it didn't look too much out of the ordinary, other than the fact that it was deserted.
So she sat down on an empty bench and waited.
That lasted for about five minutes before she got bored. Leaving her luggage cart there, knowing it would be safe, (considering the fact that no one was around) she casually walked back through the wall, and went looking for a drinking fountain. After quenching her thirst, she looked around the terminal for something interesting to do. Her eyes settled on a large man with a bushy moustache standing next to a woman that looked like she weighed about as much as his arm. On one side of the couple was a pudgy blonde boy, his eyes darting around the station, as if he was trying to watch everywhere at once. On the other side of them was a skinny boy with dark unruly hair that was leaning on a luggage cart that that had a cage with an owl in it resting on top of the trunk.
The man scowled at the skinny dark haired boy, and said, "Traffic was better than could be expected, we can get rid of you three quarters of an hour earlier than to be expected. Don't you dare think of coming back for a visit unless you have to." The man barked at him before turning without saying goodbye, and sauntered back towards the parking lot.
Intrigued, Tyhler watched the boy as he made his way across the platforms, and casually leaned on the barrier between platforms nine and ten, before disappearing through. Overjoyed at the prospect of finding someone that could answer her questions, she followed his example and casually disappeared through the wall.
"Hello, who're you?" She asked him, walking up beside the boy.
Jumping with surprise, he looked over at her. She was dressed in the most interesting outfit he had ever seen. She was wearing a black shirt with florescent green netted sleeves that went over her hands, and even had holes for her thumbs to poke through. Her pants were matching florescent green plaid, and covered with metal rings and hooks and such, as well as extra fabric strips criss-crossing all over the place. She blinked at him, waiting for an answer.
"Harry, Harry Potter, and you are?" he asked.
"Tyhler Phelps." She grinned.
"Are you here for Hogwarts?" Harry asked her.
"Yup!" she said, pulling out a now wrinkled acceptance letter from her back pocket and holding it out to him.
Taking it from her and skimming it, he asked, "So, are you a muggle?"
"That's right." She confirmed with a nod.
Handing the letter back to her, he asked her, "Where are you from. I mean, originally."
"New York, America. I've only been in the country for a few weeks."
Before he could ask her another question. Another person burst through the barrier into platform 9 ¾.
A woman in her mid 20's scurried towards them. She was dressed in what could be described as business casual, and held out her hand for a handshake with the both of them.
"Hello, hello!" she greeted as she shook their hands. "I see I should have been here earlier, I wanted to be here before anyone else. Breanna Blashak, and you are?" she asked them.
"Harry Potter"
"Tyhler Phelps"
"I'm Hogwart's new ambassador to the muggles, and head of the brand new house. "
She ended up recruiting them to go find other new students and bring them through the barrier onto the right platform, after, of course, they loaded their things onto the Hogwarts express, as it had chugged to a stop while they were talking. Harry showed Tyhler where to stash her trunk, and they headed back out through the barrier. They spent the next 40 minutes directing muggles through the barrier, before they got to go load the train themselves, leaving Ms. Blashak to cover for them. They climbed into the compartment where they had stashed their things, and found that Ron, Hermione and Ginny had already recognized Harry's trunk, and claimed the compartment as their own.
As Ron, Hermione and Harry chattered about what they did that summer, Tyhler and Ginny struck up a conversation. They immediately bonded, though at first sight, they looked like complete opposites.
"My mum almost croaked when my brother Bill came home with his ear pierced." Ginny giggled.
"My mom actually took me to get this one done." Tyhler said, playing with her lip ring. It was my fifteenth birthday present.
"What's your family like?" Ginny asked.
"Well, my dad died when I was little, some factory accident, or something, so it's just mom and me." Tyhler said, "She's great though. She works at an art gallery, she's a buyer. What about your family?"
Ginny shook her head, "I can't imagine having a family that small! I'm the youngest out of seven children. Seven! It makes life crazy. Well, there's my mum and dad, and Ron's the next oldest…"
Hearing his name, Ron looked up, listening to their conversation for a minute before getting back to his own.
"… and Fred and George, they're identical twins, they're opening up their own joke shop soon. Percy's working his way up the ladder at the ministry of magic by letting higher and higher people use him to wipe their feet on." She giggled "Bill works for Gringotts, that's our bank, and Charlie's over in Romania, he works with dragons."
"Dragons are real?" Tyhler exclaimed. "That is SWEET!"
At that proclamation, Ginny burst out in giggles, "You have such an interesting way of talking! Sweet?"
"Yeah" Tyhler grinned.
The sound of the door to the compartment opening caught their attention. As everyone turned to look, Draco Malfoy and his two larger than life sidekicks, Crabbe and Goyle stood leaning in the doorway. "Granger," Draco sneered at Hermione, "I've got good news for you. It seems that they're not just letting mudbloods in, like yourself, but they're flat out letting straight mud in now."
Everyone's eyes flicked over to look at Tyhler, who looked ready to burst. "Who's the slimeball?" she asked Ginny, her unblinking eyes not wavering from Draco.
"Mr. Malfoy, to you." Draco told her with an air of importance.
"No, actually, I think slimeball is, in fact, a better name for you." She scowled, leaping to her feet
"Why you little…" Draco muttered, pulling his wand out of his pocket.
"If you want to fight, fight me without your little magic wand." She said, spitting out the last two words.
"Alright." Draco said through clenched teeth, handing his wand to Crabbe, and walking towards her.
Harry and Ron stood up and blocked him, and were quickly joined by Hermione and Ginny.
"Do you have no standards at all?" Ron asked with disgust, "Fighting a girl, what's wrong with you, Malfoy?"
"What's going on here?" asked the witch that was pushing the food cart.
"Nothing." Draco said fiercely, turning and snatching his wand from Crabbe's hand as he walked back out to his own compartment.
"Anyone hungry, kids?" the witch asked them.
"I'm starving." Tyhler said, fingering the money given to her for a haircut.
"Um, you can't use that here." Hermione started to tell Tyhler, but the witch cut her off.
"We now accept different forms of money." The witch said, pulling out an interesting looking calculator.
"Sweet." Tyhler exclaimed, looking over the weird assortment of candies and treats she had never seen before.
Tyhler came back into the compartment with an armful of treats that she dropped on her empty seat. "Thanks for standing up for me." She smiled at everyone. "Want something to eat?" she asked, and let everyone pick something.
Their compartment door burst open again, this time by a boy none of them had seen before, who asked the room, "Kara, Are you in here?"
Hearing no answer, he turned to close the door and go out, but Ginny's voice stopped him.
"Who's Kara?"
"My little sister, she's eleven. Only this tall, brown curly pigtails" He said, motioning her approximate height.
"Well, leave the door open, and we'll watch for her. If she comes by, we'll have her stay here with us." Hermione offered.
"Hey, thanks." He grinned as he walked off down the aisle.
"Do you know him?" Tyhler asked, scooting her food over so she could sit down.
"Nah, new student." Hermione said before a little girl with brown curly hair, who was walking down the train with tears in her eyes, and a large ginger colored cat in her arms, caught her attention.
Rushing to the door, Hermione asked the girl, "Are you Kara?"
Turning back around, the little girl nodded. "How do you know?"
"Your brother was looking for you, come in and sit down, he said he'd come back and look in here in a few minutes."
Kara grinned with relief, and squeezed into the already full compartment with the others.
"I thought he'd gotten off the train." She said. I was chasing after this cat. I don't know who it belongs to.
"What are the odds?" Hermione asked, that's Crookshanks, my cat.
After Kara had gotten halfway through the pumpkin pasty Tyhler had given her, her brother came back to find her.
"Edan!" she burst out with excitement rushing towards him.
After they were safely back in the compartment they had come from, sitting with a two students that had been telling them all about their adventures at Hogwarts, Neville Longbottom and Colin Creevey.
"What were you doing?" Edan asked her.
"There was a cat." She nodded.
"Bit it's ok, I found it's owner, that nice girl with the brown hair, it was hers."
"Oh, who was she?" he asked.
"She had a funny name." Kara said, scrunching up her forehead in thought.
"Hermione?" helped Neville.
"Yeah, that was it!" Kara grinned as she settled more into her seat, watching the countryside swirl by through the window.
A/N: whew, long chapter!!! Seven pages, according to Microsoft word. Don't you think that deserves a review? Please?