I step off the express, and onto the crowded platform of nine and three quarters. I quickly find Tonks standing in the crowd, and rush over to her.
"Hey Rita! How was first year? I remember when I was a first year!" Tonks says.
"It was okay... Can we just go home now?" I ask. The smile slips off her face, and is replaced by a look of confusion.
"Um, yeah, yeah. Let's go home..." She says softly, helping me with my trunk and leading me out of the station.
"Did you do good on your exams?" Tonks asks as we sit at the small round table eating breakfast the next morning. I nod my head as I chew my bite of muffin.
"I passed them all."
"That's good, I knew you would. You're like your mother," Tonks says approvingly. She is always saying that. I look like my father but I got my maturity level and smarts from my mum.
"I'm going to go upstairs and unpack," I said softly, throwing my napkin out on my way out of the kitchen. I climbed the stairs with silent footsteps. I could wait for the next term at Hogwarts, that was for sure. It didn't take too long to put my stuff away, so I decided to lay down for a while. I laid spread out o my bed, and Pepper jumped up on me. He laid down on my stomach, and started purring loudly.
"Are you happy to be home, Pepper? I am," I mumble to the cat. I doubt he can understand me, I don't know why I'm talking to a cat. He picks his head up and looks at me. He closes his eyes for a mere second, opens them again, and lays his head back down. Maybe he can understand me. Who knows? I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
The sunlight peeks under my eyelids, forcing me awake. I sit up slowly blinking sleep from my eyes. I rub my face with my hand, and swing my legs off over the side of the bed. I slowly change into new clothes, going through the motions. Tonks knows that I'm not like him... Why can't anyone else see? Why does everyone hate me? I never said I was proud of my father... I pulled my hair up into a braid, and walked down the stairs; feeling a little better than yesterday.
"Hey Tonks. I'm going to go for a walk," I call out to Tonks, who is reading The Daily Prophet at the table. She looks up at me and tells me to be careful before looking back down at the newspaper. I closed the door behind me, and plugged in my earbuds. They might be a muggle device to listen to music on a muggle device, but I like them. Besides, I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school. A song starts playing through the wires. I look at the name of the song. It's called That's How You Get The Girl by a muggle singer, Taylor Swift. i start humming along as I walk slowly towards the small park at the end of our road. It doesn't take too long to get there. I walk right up to one of the swings. I sit down on it, facing the trees behind the small park. The song continued to play through my earbuds into my head as I swing back and forth. This happened most of the summer. Tonks took me to the lake a few times in the next town over, and my life got a little more complicated. You guessed it: Puberty. i got taller, my clothes smaller. My face widened out, and more blemishes appeared. The Hogwarts letter came soon after, and Tonks took me to get new books and longer robes.
"All the boys are going to be so mad they didn't want to be friends with you last year! You'll show them, Rita!" Tonks said proudly. I chuckled.
"Sure. If they can get over the fact the my father killed people, that is," I replied.
"I don't see why they care. You're pretty, smart, and nicer than most girls your age. It shouldn't matter what your parents did or didn't do," she said.
"That should be a famous quote, Tonks." I laughed.
"Maybe," She said, laughing with me. We walked into the robe shop to get new robes, and when I looked up, my smile fell and my laugh died on my tongue. In front of us was Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Oh great.
"Hello dear, back for new robes? My you got taller!" Madam Malkin said. The two boys looked up to see who the owner of the shop was talking to, and Ron frowned when he saw me. Last year, Ron had towered over me by at least a foot. Now, I was at least six inches taller than him. Ha! Take that, you Git!
"Yeah, I grew too much over the break!" I said back, ignoring the glares Ron threw my way. I stepped up on the little circle platform, and Madam Malkin immediately got to work with taking measurements.
"Come on, Harry. Let's go," Ron said while never letting his glare falter. They walked out of the shop, and I decided right then that I wouldn't let anyone's hatred towards me affect me this year. I was going to do my own thing. I wasn't going to let anything bring me down this time. I'm ready for anything they throw at me. This time, it won't affect me.
NPOV
I ran down the stars with my trunk hitting every step. We were going to miss the train if we didn't hurry and get to the station. I got into my grams car and she started driving towards kings cross the moment my door closed. We didn't live too far away, but the trip did take some time. we finally got there and raced through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. I looked through the crowd for familiar faces, but I couldn't find anyone. I got on the train, and found an empty compartment to put my trunk. I sat down on one of the seats, waiting for the express to start moving forward. I heard the compartment door slide open and I turned around expecting to see one of my friends. A girl from Gryffindor in my year was standing in the doorway with her trunk and a basket tucked safely under her arm.
"Do you mind if I sit in here? Everywhere else is full," She says confidentially. Weird, wasn't she the girl that everyone hated?
"Uh, sure." I said back, not wanting to be rude.
"Thanks. Neville, right? I'm Rita Black. You probably already knew my last name, though!" She laughs. I don't see what's so funny... She sat down across from me, and pulled out a book from her robes. She looked taller than I remember.
"What are you reading?" I ask. She looks up and our eyes meet.
"Tuck Everlasting. It's a muggle book," She states, before looking quickly down at her book again.
It wasn't my fault; It was the only compartment that had room! If it was anyone's fault, it was Neville's. And why did he have to keep distracting me? I don't even know why it was so distracting! I've never felt like this before. He eyes were just so... mesmerizing. How the hell did he get so cute over the summer?! I tried, I really did, to focus on my book. I was saved from further embarrassment though by Hermione. Thank Merlin for that girl.
"Hey Rita! How was your summer? I'm sorry that I didn't really talk to you that much last year, I had Ron breathing down my neck, yelling at me every time I got up to sit by you," Hermione apologized.
"It's fine. I wasn't bothered much. Being alone is okay," I said, shrugging. Ron was such a git. Hermione and I talked for the rest of the train ride. We got off the train together, and walked towards the carts being dragged by nothing. Well, the things that pulled the carriages were invisible, but still. Hermione, Neville, and some other kid from our year. We laughed when Neville's toad jumped on my head. I think I laughed hardest though. I felt happier than I had in a long time. Maybe I didn't need a whole lot of friends; just a few close ones.
"I should have not listened to Ron ages ago!" Mione said as we laughed some more.
"Yeah, I don't see why he dislikes you so much. You seem nice enough to me," Neville said. My cheeks grew warm, and I think my heart skipped a beat.
Soooo, how was it? i know, I know! I really do suck at writing!
~MMJ 3