Chapter 7 - The Train

"Are you ready to go through the barrier? Remember, just run at it," said Mrs. Parker.

"Nicholas, you go first."

Nicholas lined up the cart with the barrier and started to run at it. Just when he thought he was about to hit it and get hurt, the crimson Hogwarts Express appeared before him. All around him were students chatting about their various summers.

"Wow," he said as Holly appeared next to him. They stood there a few more minutes while their parents arrived before going off to find a compartment.

There were a few empty compartments at the end. They chose one and got settled into it.

"The train is leaving in five minutes. We're going to go now before the crowd gets too big. We have to say goodbye," said Mr. Parker.

"I can't believe you two are already going to Hogwarts. And in a few years, you will too, Elizabeth," said Mrs. Parker.

Nicholas and Holly hugged their parents goodbye and promised to owl them as often as they could. When they were gone, and the train had started off Holly exclaimed,

"I can't believe we are actually leaving for Hogwarts! I have been waiting for this moment all my life!"

Nicholas nodded, looking out the window. For all he wanted to go to Hogwarts, he would miss the Isle of Drear and his family. No matter what Holly said with her talks of finally returning to the mainland, he knew the Isle would always be home for him.

Holly noticed that Nicholas wasn't paying attention to her rantings about Hogwarts and told him,

"Nicholas, don't be sad about leaving home. We all have to do that sometime. Anyway, well be going back for Christmas and Easter breaks. And after that, we're staying home during the whole summer. Now let's go and find our friends."

As if on cue, someone knocked at the door at that very moment. Holly slowly opened it, revealing a rather tall boy with carrot-colored hair and chocolate-brown eyes. He moved aside to reveal a girl with long black hair and bright green eyes. They looked somewhat familiar.

"Hi, I'm Emily..." said the girl, smiling. "Wait, you look familiar... Parker, right? Nicholas, and Holly?"

The twins nodded.

"Emily Potter? And Jeffrey Weasley? It's nice to see you again." said Holly politely.

"We were looking for a compartment to sit in," said Emily, twitching her head in impatience. "All the others are full."

"Well..." Holly looked at Nicholas, who ignored her, watching the green countryside streaming past them. Hogwarts was said to be in Scotland, so maybe it wouldn't be too much unlike home.

"You can sit here," Nicholas said brusquely. He had to stop thinking of the island. Hogwarts was his future, his home for most of the next seven years. He had to get used to it. "How have you been? Since we left, I mean."

"Well, actually, I have to tell you, we've been looking for you. You remember that horrid girl Sasha Malfoy? Well, she said that you two would support neither her father nor my father. That's not true, is it? You're not going to support a servant of the Dark Lord Voldemort, are you?" Emily sounded like a true recruiter.

"Umm..." What was this all about? Sasha's and Emily's childhood rivalry had gone as far as to have them compete for followers? Why them? "Why us? Why are you trying to gain our support?"

Emily looked worried. She exchanged glances with Jeffrey before he said,

"We don't know. But our fathers all told us that you were important to have on our side. Probably something about your parents's research." There was a knock on the door. Both Emily and Jeffrey jumped. Emily walked towards it muttering under her breath,

"If it's Sasha I'll kill her." or something like that. It turned out to be the food seller, and the kids each bought piles of their favorite sweets. Nicholas liked pumpkin pastries, and he grabbed for the last one when someone got it just before him.

"You have to be quick if you want the reward," teased Emily, waving the pumpkin pastry in front of him, smiling. Nicholas smiled back and tried to catch the orange package. Every time, Emily managed to pull it out of the way just in time. After a while they collapsed on the floor laughing.

"You're so quick. I usually win at that kind of thing." gasped Nicholas.

"My father always called me Windfingers. I used to snatch his papers away from him if he worked too much. But now he hasn't been back home in such a long time. He sends letters, but it's not the same..." Emily smile had faded. "He's always off hunting some criminal or another. Sometimes I wish he wasn't and Auror but something more boring, like Aunt Hermione. She's an accountant." She grimaced.

"Dad said Aunt Hermione once was an Auror," injected Jeffrey. "He said they all were Aurors together, him and Hermione and Uncle Harry, traveling all around the world. But then Mom got pregnant and your mom got pregnant, so they had to stop."

"That's not true. How could Mom get pregnant if Dad was traveling around the world?" said Emily, laughing.

"Well..." everybody started laughing.

Maybe Hogwarts wasn't going to be so bad after all.

The train was almost to Hogwarts and the kids were changing into their robes when there was a knock at the door. Holly opened it to reveal a girl with brown eyes and auburn hair. Nicholas almost didn't recognize her.

"Sasha Malfoy? What happened to your hair?" Exclaimed Holly. Sasha's hair had been her father's pale blond the last time they had seen her. Even Emily looked shocked.

"I dyed it. Holly, right? And Nicholas. I came to talk to you, but I see Emily got to you first. I just wanted to tell you that sometimes people change. And that parents don't always make the child. I've come to ask for a truce, Emily."

This time Emily's jaw dropped.

"What! You're a Malfoy! Malfoys don't offer truces to Potters!" Emily look completely shocked. It was as if someone had done the impossible, had made pigs fly or had turned straw into golden thread.

"Yes, you hadn't expected this." Sasha laughed. "A truce would be the last thing my sister would offer, or my mother. I really meant it, Emily. I'm tired of this rivalry. My sister hates me, so who best to become friends with but those she hates?" She turned to leave. "Oh, and by the way, avoid Sophia and my mother. They're horrid." Sasha grimaced as she disappeared the way she had come.

Emily still looked dumbfounded.

"How could she do this? It defies her family, her honor. And dying her hair! The Malfoys are very proud of their hair. She must be trying to trick me! There's no other way she would have done that. But what does she want...?"

"Emily, are you sure about this? She seemed pretty sincere to me," Holly looked confused as well. "Sasha and Sophia never liked each other. Her words sounded true."

"Malfoys can lie like snakes," Jeffrey said in complete seriousness.

"You should -" The train screeched to a halt before Nicholas could offer his opinion. They all walked solemnly out of the train, Emily and Jeffery trying to puzzle out Sasha's intentions together, the twins astounded by the others's certainty that Sasha was lying.

"How could their rivalry grow so much?" mused Nicholas as they stepped out of the train.

Outside, the dark station was lit by a multitude of lanterns floating overhead. Most of the students were heading right, towards a dirt road on which stood what Nicholas could distinguish as a multitude of horseless carriages. He started walking that way before a loud voice called them back.

"First-years, over here. This way, first-years." The speaker was a middle-aged woman in sky-blue robes. Her gray-streaked blond hair was pulled back in a braid. As all the first years gathered around her, she stomped her feet in impatience at having to wait in the cold. Emily pulled her cloak around her, but Nicholas left his as it was. The weather was colder than this on the Isle, even in summer.

The woman led them off, saying,

"I am Professor Von Struddle, the Assistant Headmistress and Transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts. I trust that you have had an adequate trip. We will be taking boats across the lake to get to Hogwarts." Her words were quick and crisp, as if she couldn't wait to stop talking.

When they reached the lakeshore, they finally saw Hogwarts castle.

It was amazing. The castle towered over them, ablaze with lights from every window, Hogwarts had many towers and turrets sticking out every which way like chimney stacks, but it dominated the setting majestically,

The boats were small, fitting only four people, so the twins jumped in after Emily and Jeffrey. The boats started off on their own. Emily started excitedly,

"We know what she wants!"

"Who?"

"Sasha, you nimwitt!" Emily became solemn. "She wants you."

"Us?"

"Remember? Our parents all sent us to get you. We got there first, so she offered us a truce so she could get you anyway!" Emily looked proud of her deduction.

"But if she wanted us, why didn't she come earlier? Before we got to know each other. If it was a race, why did she take so long to come?" Holly looked as unconvinced as Nicholas felt.

"Malfoys don't always make sense. The only thing that you know for sure about them is that there out to trick you." said Jeffrey with absolute sincerity. Emily nodded along.

"Duck!" The boats approached a cliff face covered in vines, and the students ducked as the boats slid smoothly through the ivy. They reached a small harbor of pebbles that led to a massive oak door. Professor Von Struddle pushed through the whispering students and knock on the solid door.