Hello! and welcome back to the second chapter of The Children of the Legends! I know, I said I wasn't going to write it until I got some reviews on the first, but since won't let me post up chapters with just author's notes, and since this was just begging to be written, I decided to just get it over with. But this time I'm sticking to what I said. I want at LEAST one review to know if I should go on or not. I don't even care if you just say, "Hey this is good write more!" or "It's ok, you should change a few things", or whatever. Of course, constructive criticism would be appreciated, but just saying SOMETHING is better than nothing. And with that said, on with the show (story?)!
The Children of the Legends, Chapter Two: Train mayhem and a new character!
Stephanie threw her legs onto the seat, hooked her headphones over her ears, and hit play on her mp3 player. She started singing along to "Argue" by Matchbox 20, doing a surprisingly good rendition for a girl.
Mark wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Can't you listen to something else? Like something from this country? Or could you at least sing in your head? I hate U.S music; it all sounds the same.
Stephanie lowered her headphones with a glare. "Well then, what would you prefer, sir?" she said in a sarcastic version of a subservient voice. "I have a wide variety to choose from. I have German Death Metal, a huge amount of Japanese songs, or a few French songs. Oh, but wait, you don't like anything in a different language. Well, I have Euro Dance, which coincidentally you HATE, and a few more songs like this. Which you hate. Guess you'll just have to live with my decision." (1)
He raised his eyebrows at her fury, and then decided it just wasn't worth the fight. "Look, I didn't mean to annoy you, alright? I'm sorry. I just don't like Matchbox 20 that much; you know that. Just tell me your list of songs in English, please?"
"Yeah, yeah, alright, hold on… hmmm…" She shuffled through her music a bit. "Um, well, how about Bohemian Rhapsody? Its American music, but Queen's members are from Britain."
"Yeah, I guess that'll work."
"You guess? Ah, whatever." She smiled, then put her headphones back on and started singing to Bohemian Rhapsody, again rather well for a girl.
Mark smiled faintly. Stephanie did have a rather good singing voice, whether she was singing a girl part or a guy part. It was also a fact that she had no problem telling people.
Halfway through the song, about 3 minutes later, the compartment doors slid open. Mark looked up, surprised, because the train had been in motion for a little while. He stared at the girl that had just walked in, who had black hair and grey eyes and was so skinny she looked like she was about to blow away.
He noticed that she was staring back nervous and nudged Stephanie, who was singing "Galileo" at varying levels. She glared at him, but when he pointed towards the girl, she hastily pulled off her headphones and paused her mp3 player.
"Um… hi. When did you get here?"
The girl shuffled her feet. "Um, just a few seconds ago. If you wouldn't mind, can I stay in here with you guys? There are a few boys in the other compartments who won't stop bothering me." (2)
"No problem, no problem at all! Have a seat, milady." Stephanie gestured dramatically at the seats around her and seemed pleased when the girl chose a spot near her.
Mark rolled his eyes and sent a pointed stare to Stephanie, who duly ignored it.
"So kid, what's your name?" Stephanie asked.
"Stephie, get over yourself." Mark muttered. It was a known fact to all that knew Stephanie that she had a huge ego and thought herself many years ahead of her pears thought-wise. It was just as well that he had said it to himself or it would have started a familiar argument, which they had WAY to many of.
"Solet" the girl said, responding to Stephanie's query. She pronounced it as Sol-ay. "Solet Longbottom."
"Longbottom, that sounds familiar…" She mused. "Wait, would you by any chance be related to Neville Longbottom?"
"Um, yeah, he's my dad. Why?" Solet asked nervously. Not many people had heard of her dad, and she wasn't sure she was comfortable with it.
"Hey, my dad's told me a lot about your dad. My name's Stephanie, by the way. Stephanie Potter." She held out her hand and waited for the reaction that was sure to come.
Sure enough, Solet's eyes widened and she reached out to shake Stephanie's hand reverentially. "Potter? As in the daughter of Harry Potter, the defeater of the Dark Lord?"
"The one and only" She said proudly and not a little arrogantly (A/N: Sarcasm abounding). "Oh, and this is Mark Weasely, son of Ron Weasely and my best friends since forever." Stephanie nudged him, and he obligingly extended his hand.
Solet shook it, a look of amazement on her face. "This is just so weird. Oh, not that I'm saying you're weird or anything, just that my mom and dad have said so much about Harry. And his friends too, of course. They were always heroes to my dad. Not that I'm going to judge you on that, I'll get to know your personality's first. Not that…"
Stephanie smiled at the frantic Solet and cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry, plenty of people judge me on my dad. I'm used to it. It's funny when they finally realize what I'm truly like."
"Crazy" Muttered Mark.
"And proud of it!"
"But I don't think you're crazy." Solet protested.
Stephanie laughed. "I like you kid. You've got class. You also know what to say to make people feel better."
Solet blushed. "Thanks. Not many people want to be friends with me. I get flustered really easily, as you can tell."
"Yup, that was a little obvious." She frowned. "Hey, what's your mum's name anyway? I bet my dad would want to know who his childhood friend married."
"Oh, um, my mum is Luna"
"Luna? Luna Lovegood?" When she got an affirmative nod from Solet, Stephanie burst out laughing, arousing curious stares from the other two currently sharing the compartment with her. When she rolled off of her chair and lay on the ground laughing, Solet knit her eyebrows together in confusion.
"Hey, what's so funny about my mum?"
Stephanie quickly stopped laughing and forced an innocent look onto her face, which was almost ruined by her panting from laughing so hard. "Um, nothing, of course nothing's funny about your mum. It's just… surprising that they married." She looked at Mark pointedly, who's eyes suddenly lit up in recognition of the joke. He laughed, and then put his hand on his mouth to stifle the rest, which almost won the battle but was contained at the last moment. (3)
Solet cocked her head in confusion, and then shrugged, deciding that she didn't want to know enough to annoy the first real friends she'd had in a while.
"I guess it does make sense, though" Stephanie mused, bringing Solet out of her reverie. "Your mum is Luna, and you're Solet. I'm guessing your name is a form of Sol, the Spanish name for Sun?"
"Yeah. I was just going to be named Sol, but my dad convinced my mum to make it sound like a girl's name. So they got Solet."
"That would have been rather funny if you had been named Sol. Hey, do you…"
She didn't get to finish her sentence as a voiced cut in. "Aw, isn't this just so precious? It's a meeting of the second generation of losers."
All the eyes in the carriage shot to the door, where Delano Malfoy was leaning nonchalantly against the door frame with a bemused look on his face.
"But I do believe there's one person who could make it better, make it just the second generation. HE could take the loser-ness away."
"Oh, really? I don't know anyone like that. I think anyone in the second generation of the GOOD people that MATTER is here already."
Delano pretended to be insulted. "Why, Stephanie, I can't believe you would forget about me. I'm certainly better than anyone in here. Especially that pipsqueak over there." He gestured towards Solet, who 'meeped' and tried to hid behind Stephanie. It was a futile effort, however, as Stephanie was still sitting on the floor.
Realization hit Stephanie like a lemon wrapped around a brick. "You! You're the one who was tormenting her in the other carriage! You and your lackeys!"
Delano smiled. "Par for the course, Potter."
"Hey, where are your lackeys anyway? Too scared to come and face me?"
Delano grinned evilly. "Don't worry Potter; I could take you down easily if I wanted too."
Stephanie growled, her eyes like ice as she stared him down. "Alright then, let's go. My dad's not here to stop me this time and I feel like finishing what I started."
"What? And dirty my hands again? I just got them clean from the last time you touched me." He looked at his hands with disdain.
Mark spoke for the first time since the fight started, which effectively cut off whatever Stephanie was going to say in response. "Just get out of here, Delano. No one wants you, and we're almost there. Go change already."
"Fine, I'm going. Can't wait to hang out with you… people… like this at school." He waved sarcastically as he exited. Solet couldn't help but give a huge sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I'd like to change him into something" Stephanie muttered between gritted teeth as she slipped on her robes over her head. "I'd like to change him into a frog; it would suit his personality better. It wouldn't be changing much though." She gave a sympathetic smile to Solet. "Don't worry; I'll make sure nothing happens to you at school."
Solet smiled. "Thank you so much. I'm so glad that I have a friend like you." She blinked, wondering if Stephanie would mind being considered her friend.
Luckily, she didn't seem to care. "No prob kid, I'll take care of him. At least, if SOMEONE will let me." She turned to Mark with a venomous look on her face. "Why the hell did you stop me? You know I could kill that bastard easily. Even with his cronies, who were conveniently missing."
Mark wondered briefly why that stuck in Stephanie's mind, then brushed it aside and replied, "Do you really want to be expelled before the castle even comes into sight? Besides, you'll have many more chances at Hogwarts, and you might even know more and stronger spells by then."
"Hey yeah, you're right." Stephanie grinned an almost sadistic smile as she sat down and snapped her headphones back on. Then she dropped it as she started singing along with "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers, which started yet another argument about her choice in music between her and Mark.
As Solet look apprehensively between the two combatants, she couldn't help but echo the thoughts they had both had when they first stepped on the train.
'This is certainly going to be an interesting year…'
End of Chapter Two
(1): That's pretty much based off of my own mp3 player.
(2): Three guesses as to who THAT was…
(3): Can you just imagine what Harry and Ron had to say about "Loony" Lovegood?"
A/N: Hope everyone liked it! As you can see, I'm trying to make Solet out to be kind of like her dad. But remember, you can't always judge on first appearances! (Ooh, foreboding, foreboding. Okay, not really, but I can pretend).
Oh, and Stephanie doesn't really want to kill anyone that much. She's just like me; she has a very dry sense of humor. She's mostly a pacifist like me, though as you can tell she doesn't mind a good fight now and again. And the main reason they aren't using magic to fight is you can't do magic outside of school, and they only know like two spells apiece anyways.
Guesses on whatever, like the whole crony thing, is highly acceptable. I don't even know where this is going, I'm just riding along. Hey, I'm on a train too! Okay, bad pun…
One more thing. I know I went off the cannon path, but I seriously thing Neville and Luna would be a really good pair. Well, happy writings, and see you next time!
Oh, and review please!
"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."