4

Chapter 2

The Hogwarts Express.

Eleven year old Rachel Kennel stared at her ticket. Platform Nine and Three quarters, is there any such platform? As she tried to think, Rachel slowly chewed on her fingernails. Sure, it was a bad habit but somehow, she could not stop herself.

"Rachel, stop that," a sleek brunette slapped Rachel's fingers. Rachel scowled.

"Mummy, why did you that for?" Rachel scrunched her face. The woman rolled her chocolate eyes.

"God, I don't know what I am to do with you, Rachel," said her mother as she continued on to unload Rachel's baggage onto a huge trolley. "You have the looks of an angel but the personality of a wicked witch."

"Mum," Rachel pushed the trolley. "I am a witch!"

"Shush! You ought to be more careful of where you're saying 'I am a witch' Rachel. You can't just blurt it out," Rachel's mother stopped the trolley. "Well, you know the drill, get inside there."

She pointed to the brick wall. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure about this? Aren't I going to crash?" asked Rachel.

"Well, if you're not a witch but I think you made it clear that you are definitely a witch after that beaver incident," said Rachel's mum, who was referring to when Rachel had changed two of the most popular girls in her normal school into big beavers with huge front teeth after hearing them calling her a buck teeth beaver. Rachel thought it was quite an accomplishment.

Rachel gave a chuckle.

"That was funny, good thing you didn't have a spell to reverse their buck teeth situation," Rachel smiled.

"It wasn't funny. Besides, you can't do that in Hogwarts," Rachel frowned.

"Why are we here then? I don't want to go to a boring, rule tight school," Rachel claimed.

"It's not going to be boring, trust me," Rachel's mother smiled. Rachel nodded. She stared at the brick wall for a moment. Fearlessly, she pushed her trolley to the brick wall. Rachel opened her eyes. She was in another station filled with men and women in cloaks of all colors.

"I did it! Wicked!" she exclaimed. Rachel's mother followed behind her.

"Rachel, I just gave the trolley to the driver, you don't need to worry about your baggage," she smiled. Rachel raised her eyebrows as her mother stared at her.

"Why are you staring at me like, mummy?" asked Rachel.

"Oh! Darling, I just can't believe you're going to Hogwarts!" Rachel's mother hugged her. "Promise me you'll be good and that you'll get high marks for everything?"

"I will promise you that I'll get high marks but I still have to pull pranks at people-

Rachel's mother frowned.

"It's a gift, mum."

"Well, alright then, let's just find a place to sit down for a while," Rachel's mother took her to the nearest bench but there was already somebody sitting there: a girl and her father. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'll check if there's if there's any other bench-

"Hermione, is that you?" asked the father of the girl. The girl glared at Rachel's mother, Hermione. Hermione smiled at the man.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"It's me, Cormac, Cormac McLaggen, we used to date a few years ago, remember?" the man took off his hat. Rachel stared at him and thought that he was not the type of guy her mother was looking for.

"Cormac! It's been long! How are you?" asked Hermione.

"I'm doing great. I'm a Quidditch player for the Chudley Cannons. I got married, had a daughter, here she is, Celestine," Cormac showed his blonde haired daughter who was filing her nails. "Hello there! What's your name?"

Rachel hesitated to answer but did after her mother gave her a nudge.

"Rachel."

"Weasley, I –

"No!" Hermione stammered. Cormac raised his eyebrows.

"Well what happened to?" Cormac stopped as he saw the expression on Hermione's face. He nodded and asked Celestine to talk to Rachel for a while.

They did not talk, actually, it was more of a staring-each-other competition. Rachel, being the socialist that she was, started their conversation.

"Nice cloak," Rachel said, commenting of Celestine's velvet red cloak.

"Thank you, couldn't say anything about yours though," Celestine continued filing. "What's that, Muggle's clothes? What's up with your hair anyways? Those braces, God, they make you look U-G-L-Y."

"Puh-lease, look at yourself. You're short, fat on the thighs and let me guess, you spent two Galleons just on buying those horrible looking bracelets?" Rachel smiled. Her heart was blazing with fire. So she was wearing normal clothes, who could blame her? She was a daughter of a Muggle born. She had to wear braces, just for another year and who cares what Celestine thinks of her hair style. She liked her straight brown hair to be pinned. Rachel was pleased that Celestine didn't say anything about her eyes. She loved her hazel eyes.

Celestine moved closer to Rachel.

"See you in the Sorting Ceremony, Rachel."

Rachel coughed.

"I might add: use toothpaste."

She smiled and walked to her mother who just said her goodbyes to Cormac.

"It's nice to see old friends," Hermione claimed.

"Yeah, right," Rachel mumbled. "Don't trust men, mum, they can really hurt you in the end."

"Rachel, are you still upset about-him?" asked Hermione. Rachel took her first step into the train.

"I'm alright, mum, take care. Bye," Rachel waved. Hermione waved back. Rachel walked into the train. She was trying to find a compartment. She found one and decided to settle there.

Suddenly, two young girls opened the corridor. One was a Chinese girl with long black hair and the other was a fair blonde girl with two huge blue eyes.

"Can we sit here with you?" asked the Chinese girl. She had a talkative voice. Rachel nodded.

"I'm Rachel, Rachel Kennel," Rachel took out a hand. The Chinese girl took it.

"Anna, Anna Yong," the girl smiled. Rachel took out a hand to the blonde girl. She took it.

"Valentine, Valentine Creevey," she had a soft voice. She looked out for a while.

"You expecting someone?" Rachel asked. Valentine nodded. As soon as she was about to open her mouth, a blonde boy burst into the compartment.

"Hey! Valentine, there you are! Oh, lovely friends!" the boy said excitedly.

"This is my twin brother, Nicholas," Valentine introduced.

"Nick, for short," Nick smiled. "Val, I've already got a compartment with these boys, you don't mind, do you?"

Valentine shook her head.

"I 'm so happy I don't have a twin brother," said Anna as Nick left.

"You should try having one, it's disastrous," said Valentine. Rachel laughed. "So this is it then, a starting of a beautiful friendship, I expect."

"It definitely will be," Rachel agreed.