Chapter 3! Let's see what's going to happen on the train...

Mel and I stayed in the corridor for a while to catch our breath. My trunk seemed to be moving around a lot for some reason, so I lifted the lid to see what was going on. As soon as the lid was up, a huge black owl, which looked just like my stuffed owl, flew out and landed on my shoulder. I gave Mel a quizzical look. In return she told me that everything would be explained in a few minutes. We walked down the corridor looking into the different compartments which were all occupied.

Mel kept looking inside them and then she stopped and knocked on the door of one. We waited a bit and then a boy who seemed to be about our age, maybe even a year older, wearing the same clothes we did, with only exception his yellow and black tie, and turquoise hair came out. "I was starting to think you had been run over by a hippogriff," he told Mel in a comical way. Mel squealed with excitement and hugged him. Then the three of us went into a compartment which was by chance empty.

Once we'd sat down Mel coughed a bit to get my attention. I'd been pretty occupied looking at the owl that was still perched on my shoulder. "Danny," she said "This is Teddy Lupin," she motioned to the boy with turquoise hair who waved at me. "Teddy," she told him "This is Danny Odny." He waved again but I wasn't in the mood to wave back. "I know you have many questions which need to be answered," Mel continued "But you will have to hear something first and then ask them. Probably some of them will already be answered by then."

"What you need to know is that your life isn't exactly what you thought it is," she started "Your parents died when you were two years old, that's true. But what you didn't know is that they were murdered by dark wizards. Yes, wizards. Both your parents were wizards, but we'll discuss that later. Your aunt is a Squib, which means that although her parents were wizards, she does not possess any magical powers. So, she didn't think she could raise a magical child and left you. I am not on her side, I still think what she did was unfair, but you have to know why she did it.

"You are a wizard, Danny. Just like your parents, just like all your family, just like me, just like my parents, just like Teddy, just like everyone on this train. Wizards tend to show signs of their magical abilities from a young age, mostly when they're angry or scared. That's why, in situations like that, I was there to prevent the magic from showing, as it would uncover the magic world, which should not happen.

"But I think I have to tell you who I am as well. My name is Melena Andrews, as you know, and I am eleven years old, like you. Before we were even born, one of the greatest wizards, Albus Dumbledore, knew about you. He knew that you would come and who you were. He also knew, don't ask me how, that your parents would die, so you needed protection. My parents owed him much, because during the second Wizarding War, he aided them very well. So he went to them and they swore to protect you in any way they could.

"When your aunt left you at the orphanage, my parents decided to do something, which I still can't believe that they did. They took me there as well, saying that my parents had died. We met and became friends, which was exactly what they wanted. We were meant to meet.

"Young wizards often show signs of accidental magic, which confirms that they aren't Squibs, more often when they are angry or scared and I was always with you at those times to make sure no Muggle, those who aren't magical, find out about us. But, remember that time a pot plant nearly fell on Jason's head? That wasn't an accident, Danny! You caused it, but we could easily hide that.

"I visited my parents every day. That theatre club I went to isn't really a theatre club. It was created by my parents for the purpose of seeing me, but it soon developed into a wizards' get together place. That's where Teddy and I met. But he started school last year and couldn't come until summer, so I'm glad we're starting too now.

"Yesterday at the zoo, you proved that you possess a gift not many wizards have. You're a Parselmouth, you can talk to snakes. This almost confirms some thought we have about you, something Dumbledore didn't have time to tell us before he died. I went to my parents, they called an urgent meeting and we discussed everything. Everyone was furious you didn't know you were a wizard yet.

"I was supposed to tell you years ago, but I couldn't! Every time I thought you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore because I'd been hiding something like that from you. Of course, I did try to bring the wizarding world closer to you. I gave you an owl which was enchanted to turn into a real owl at eleven o' clock on the day of your eleventh birthday, the day you would start Hogwarts. And those jellybeans are from our world as well. Everything I've ever got you is!

"I think this is everything I had to tell you. Please don't judge me by all this. I don't think nothing is worse than losing you as a friend, Danny. You've been my friend forever and I don't want to lose you now that we've been through so much together."

I honestly didn't know what to say. Here was my best friend telling me that my whole life was a lie that she herself had been a part of. I was beginning to wonder if she was really my friend. Maybe she wasn't, she was just playing along. I was just an all too ordinary boy who only just found out who he really was. She'd much rather have someone like Lupin for a best friend.

"Won't they go looking for us at the orphanage?" I asked. I wouldn't have really bothered to ask anything, but this question had been in my mind ever since we left.

"We made sure that they will forget our entire existence," she answered "We're never going back!"

I felt as though I'd just fallen out of a cloud and hit the ground hard. We were never going back? I understood that Mel had her parents and stuff, but I was really an orphan. I didn't have anywhere to go. What would I do now that I couldn't even go back to the only place that had taken me in? I felt anger boiling inside me. Mel had come up with this whole plan and hadn't even bothered to inform me.

As if she'd just remembered something, Mel put her hand and pulled out an envelope. "This arrived two months ago," she said and gave it to me. I opened it and read the letter.

Dear Mr. Odny,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Headmistress

So, I even got a letter saying that I was a wizard. And Mel had hidden that too. But that wasn't all. She was still hiding stuff from me, I could tell. There were still things I had to learn that she wasn't telling me. But why had she been pretending all these years? Why was the only person I thought understood me suddenly turning out to be a liar? Why was my whole life falling to pieces?

There was silence for a moment and then Lupin spoke. "I don't like your colour," he said gesturing towards Mel's hair "It's too dark."

Mel made a fake offended face "Excuse me," she said "I've never seen you in any but turquoise!"

"I swear it was black this morning!" Lupin said "Gran didn't want us to attract too much attention and I wanted to match with Harry so I had it black until I was on the train. Seriously, though, why dark purple?"

Mel rolled her eyes and then screwed up her eyes in an expression as though she was trying to remember something, and her hair turned turquoise. I had to try really hard to not make my mouth fall open or my eyes pop out of my skull.

Mel opened her eyes and started laughing. Lupin playfully punched her on the shoulder. "Don't you dare," he told her "Turquoise is my colour!" Mel screwed up her expression again and her hair turned orange. "There, happy?" she said and stuck her tongue out at Lupin.

They kept laughing and talking for quite a long time, until a boy wearing the same black and yellow tie as Lupin knocked on the door of our compartment and asked him to come with him. He then left and I couldn't help but feel relieved.

"I know you might not like him right now, but he's a great guy," Mel said when he was gone.

"You didn't tell me about your hair," I said coldly. Mel looked confused for a moment but then smiled.

"Oh yeah, I must have forgotten," she said "I'm a Metamorphmagus, I can change my appearance when I want to. When I was little and couldn't control it yet, they had to put a spell on me to make sure nothing happened during the day. In the end I liked that I could change my hair colour so I changed it every day. Teddy is one too."

I had to keep myself from snorting. Teddy, everything had to do with Lupin, Mel's real best friend. I was so frustrated at everyone and everything and it made a really bad mood in addition to my lack of sleep. I decided I was too tired to think of anything right now, so I curled up on my seat, shut my eyes, and was asleep in seconds.

I had weird dreams when I slept. It started off with a snake. It twisted around and around until finally it stayed still. It formed the shape of an S. It remained still and then it started to change. First into a locket with the snake on it, then into a book with a leather black cover and the snake on it and lastly into a wand with the sign carved into it.

But then my dream changed and I had no time to wonder what the snake meant. I saw everything I remembered of my life. My parents leaving, my aunt leaving me at the orphanage, me and Mel hanging out, us playing games, Jason sticking my head in the toilet, Mel coming to my rescue, the visit to the zoo.

It wasn't the same though, something was different. The Mel in my dream seemed colder, more distant, as if she wasn't really there. Maybe she wasn't. She'd just admitted that we'd met because others had planned it anyway. Maybe my dream showed me what the real Mel was like.

I woke, yet again, to someone shaking me. It was Mel again. "What time is it?" I asked her.

"I don't know but we're almost there so I thought I should wake you," she answered. She sounded hurt. I sat up but she refused to look at me.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk in your sleep?" she said.

Uh oh, I could sense where that was going. "No," I answered.

"Well, you do."

"What did I say?"

"That I was never really your friend because of this plan."

I knew it.

"You know Danny," she said "Just because we were meant to meet doesn't mean nothing was real." With that she simply opened the compartment door and left.

I looked at the door through which she'd vanished for a while and then turned to the window. My mouth fell open. The huge castle which we were approaching must be Hogwarts. It was enormous!

Soon, the train stopped. I guessed we had to get off it so I got up and headed to the door. Mel hadn't taken her trunk with her when she left the compartment so I left mine there as well. I followed some kids out of the train and tried looking for Mel.

I thought of my owl, but he had sat perched on a rail while I slept and had vanished somewhere now that we were still. I didn't look for him, he must know what he was doing.

I gave up, there were too many people. I loud booming voice was calling "Firs' years this way. Firs' years this way." I guessed I must be a first year so I followed the voice and soon found that it belonged to a huge man. And when I say huge, I mean huge! He could have easily been six feet tall.

He was holding a lantern and gesturing to all the first years to follow him. When we stopped, we were by a lake and there were many boats. So we were going to ride the boats to get to Hogwarts. Why? The rest of the students didn't come this way. The giant told us that there should be four students per boat.

I hopped on a boat with two more boys and a girl. One of the boys was obviously shorter than the other and had black hair, while the other had curly mousy brown hair which reached his shoulders. The girl looked a lot like him, she had the same hair, even the same length, and the same nose and mouth. The only difference were their eyes, the boy's were something in between green and blue and the girl's were brown.

"All aboard?" the giant asked. As soon as the reply "Yes." came, the boats started moving, taking us closer and closer to Hogwarts.

"I'm George," the boy with black hair said.

"I'm Danny,." I said.

"I'm Anemone and this is my twin brother Felix," said the girl.

Twins. Well, that explains everything.

"Which House do you want to be in?" George asked.

"Dunno," Anemone said "I mean, most of my family have been in Ravenclaw and I'd love to be there too."

"I don't care," Felix said "As long as I get to be with Annie. No one has ever separated us and I won't allow some hat to do it. What about you?"

"Well, Hufflepuff's the easy choice and I guess I fit the description," George said.

What on Earth are Houses? And what about hats? I had no idea how to answer a question like that. Maybe they'd forget me I won't have to answer.

"What about you, Danny?" asked Felix.

"No idea," I answered. At least it was close to the truth.

We didn't talk for the rest of the ride. When we finally reached the shore, we hopped off the boats and followed the giant to the front gates. There, an old lady wearing green robes was waiting. "Thank you, Hagrid," she said. The giant, Hagrid, left us and we followed the lady, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall up a staircase.

We waited outside for no apparent reason until she came back and told us to go inside.

Let me know if you like the story and want to read the next chapter! See you next week :))