Anna eventually found a seat in an empty carriage with nothing but other trunks in it about five minutes into the journey. She stowed her trunk (after much huffing and heaving), reassured Felix who seemed very disgruntled and gave a loud angry hoot when asked how he was, changed into her black robes and sat down in one of the seats nearest the window. She watched the changing landscape as the train sped through it and felt more relaxed than she had all morning, her mind wandered back to the previous hours and with a jolt she remembered her dream, which sent shivers down her spine. As far back as she could remember Anna had had these dreams (they occurred quite rarely though) they were always the same; she woke in a dark cold room sick with fright then something or someone chased her, she could never see 'it' but she could her the resounding footsteps it made, and she would run and run until (in her dream) she fainted or she was woken up.
A sound from the corridor outside woke her abruptly from her musings, loud guffawing and cackling followed as a voice drawled something, which she couldn't quite hear. Four people emerged into the carriage Anna turned around from the window to stare at them. There was a blonde girl with a face which looked like the face of a breed of dog which Anna couldn't remember the name of, a tall boy with cold grey eyes, sleek blonde hair and a pointed face, and two large, menacing, stupid looking boys one with a pudding bowl haircut and long ape-like arms and the other with short bristly hair and dull deep set eyes, all in robes of black with an emblem of a silver snake on a green background.
The girl looked around still cackling until she laid eyes on Anna, she gave her a reproachful stare than turned to the two large boys (who, to Anna seemed like bodyguards) " I thought you two had saved us a carriage? An empty carriage." She screeched
"And this carriage appears to have someone in it." The blonde boy added, and looked at them questioningly "So how can a carriage be empty when there is someone in it," he said slowly as if speaking to a very stupid child, the girl continued to stare at Anna "I know you where thick but I thought that you could at least count." He said despairingly
The boy with the pudding bowl haircut said in a deep grunt "It was empty when we left it, sorry." The girl rolled her eyes, the other large boy said in a low rasp "Yeah, sorry."
They turned to look menacingly at Anna, who by then had become bored with the conversation and had turned to look out of the window once again. They seemed to be waiting for something, she looked round at them, the girl seemed to be puzzled, she gave Anna the once over and said in a what - the - hell - are - you - doing - here sort of way "Who are you anyway? I haven't seen you before, you look new, but you're too old to be a first year." She turned to the blonde boy and asked almost desperately "Who is she, Draco?" Anna laughed and thought as if he would know. Draco looked at Anna and drawled, "Who the hell are you?" by this time the two larger boys were cracking their knuckles and looking intimidating. Far from intimidating her it just annoyed her, she looked over at the boys, rolled her eyes, sighed and said confidently "I am Anna Safire, I'm new but I am not a first year I am going to be a 6th year, you haven't seen me before, because up until very recently I went to Durmstrang and I am not going to move because when I found this carriage it was empty. Who are you anyway?" she smirked they seemed quite taken aback by her little speech, she looked around at them expectantly and haughtily. Draco motioned for them to sit down, they settled down.
"I am Draco Malfoy," he said importantly, he pointed to the boy with the pudding bowl hair cut, "that's Crabbe and the other ones Goyle." He said in a bored voice, Anna nodded in acknowledgement, then the girl spoke, "I'm Pansy Parkinson." They held out their hands and each in turn shook her hand (she thought that her hand might be broken after Crabbe and Goyle's handshakes). The butterflies seemed to have reduced in size and she felt sick with hunger rather than nerves.
She decided quickly that she wanted these people to accept her, "Pleasure to meet you all." A winning smile played across her lips, Malfoy had relaxed and lounged in his seat as if he owned the train and Pansy continued to stare at her intentionally. Feeling slightly uncomfortable Anna decided to start a conversation, after all (even though she tried her best not to show it) she was bursting with questions about Hogwarts; she knew that her Mother and her father had attended the school (when she thought about her father she felt a sharp stab of anger and grief). "What is Hogwarts like? My aunt said it was a good school." She tried to
sound casual but ended up sounding sarcastic when mentioning her aunt. Malfoy laughed scornfully the others followed his lead, Anna thought that Crabbe and Goyle sounded like trolls.
"What, with that old coot running it? It has gone to the dogs! Most of the teachers have favourites like Potty,"
"And that know it all, mudblood cow, Granger! " chipped in Pansy with loathing etched across her pug-like face.
"Yes, surprising isn't it? That they let filth like that in!" Malfoy finished, Anna found herself at a loss for words, she didn't know what he was talking about (upon questioning her mother about hogwarts she had received nothing but a deep sigh and a tight lipped frown) they were all looking at her intently she swallowed and nodded.
"What about Durmstrang? My father said that it was a good school; he was friends with the headmaster, did you know?" he said proudly.
She laughed, a sound like the tinkling of little bells and shook her head, happy to be on a subject she knew a lot about "Well, Durmstrang is gloomy, dark and freezing cold in winter, we I mean the students are only allowed to light fires for magical purposes. They have a relatively new headmaster Because Professor Karkaroff disappeared at the end of my 4th year. People say that is too much of a coincidence that he went missing around the time that he who must not be named came back to power; he was supposedly in league with him at the height of the dark lords' power last time, but because he deserted you know who, he got scared of the Dark Lords' wrath and ran away. Anyway, since the new Headmaster arrived it has supposedly 'improved' because they have a new lesson called 'defence against the dark arts' but it hasn't. The ministry got scared after hearing those rumours and thought that we had been learning the dark arts, but we hadn't which is sort of a shame really." She looked up at them, they seemed to want to question her further.
She hurriedly cast around for a change of subject, in doing so she focused on the silver snake with a green background emblazoned on their robe fronts. Curiously she asked "Whats the snake? Does it symbolize something?" As Anna looked again she saw a blue badge with the word prefect written across it in gold.
Malfoy followed her gaze with a smug smile.
"We're all in Slytherin house, the only decent house there is. All of my family have been in Slytherin me and pansy are the slytherin prefects." Upon hearing her name mentioned pansy sat up taller and gave Anna what she thought was a superior stare.
"How many houses are there?"
"Four: Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor." Pansy replied
They were still talking about all the houses and their differences when the lunch trolley came (awaited by an eager Crabbe and equally eager Goyle) and went and had just about finished when the train slowed to a halt outside a small platform with a sign swinging in the breeze, which read "Hogsmeade Station" in proud brass letters.
"Here we are." Malfoy said, they all stirred, stood up and collected their belongings, walked out and stepped out onto the small platform.
