Ari loved Platform 9 ¾. She loved the hustle and the bustle, the collection of people talking, and the noise. She liked how the steam would spiral out of the top of the red train that had carried millions of student to Hogwarts. She loved the cosiness of the train, and the waving people you could see outside the window. What she did not like was trying to find a compartment.
After her twelfth try at finding a relatively empty compartment, she came across one that only had four people in it. But it was the people inside that worried her.
Lily Evans was a fiery, red headed Welsh, with a temper bigger than James Potter's ego. This is good, since it was constantly taking down his ego. She had emerald colored, almond shaped eyes, and fine features. She was also leggy and thin, standing at a good 5'9. She was head girl, and one of the smartest girls in school.
She had 3 best friends, Alice Duncan, Talia O'Callaghan, and Mary McDonald.
Alice was a petite, though not as short as Ari, blonde with pretty dark green eyes. She was a half-blood and proud of it, and was in love with Frank Longbottom, though they hadn't started dating yet.
Talia O'Callaghan was… well the only way to describe her was Irish. She had the Irish temper, and the drinking prowess of a 40 year old bar rat. She had the typical Irish blue eyes, and ridiculously long tawny brown hair. She could sit on it when she let it down, which she never did. It stayed in place in a braid that wouldn't dare try to get loose, because it would get in the way of her Quidditch playing. She was a chaser on the team, and probably could go pro if she felt like it.
Mary McDonald was a quiet bookworm. She had soft golden eyes, and short wavy caramel locks, with a bang that was always held back from her face with a barrette to match her outfit.
These girls were Ari's roommates. And she was pretty sure they hated her. Ari never really spoke to anyone, and when she did it was one word answers. She couldn't force anything out of her mouth after that, she couldn't help it. She was really that shy. But her roommates took that as she thought she was too good for them, and proceeded to hate her.
She knocked on the compartment, and their heads swung towards her.
"Could I sit?" Ari asked in a quiet voice, "Everyone else is full."
She stood there in fear, while they looked at each other in the way that best friends could.
"Sure, Arianna." Alice said at last. I always knew she was the nicest. Ari thought as she went to sit in the empty seat next to the window and Lily.
"Well, I will be back soon, ladies. Have to go yell at Prefects. And Potter." Lily said, after another long look at her friends, and an uncomfortable silence.
"Bye Lily, have fun. We'll remember to get you Licorice Wands when the trolley lady comes around!" Talia yelled at her retreating back.
"Did you really have to yell at her back? You're making a scene. Again." Mary scolded Talia, looking at her over her book, her reading glasses partially hiding her eyes.
"Do you have to wear your glasses halfway down your nose? You look like a librarian. Again." She shot back. Mary sniffed and went back to reading.
"C'mon, this is our last train ride! Can't we get through it without one spat between you two?" Alice begged. "You do this every year and it annoys me!"
"Well, Alice, now it's a tradition. If we didn't do it, then you'd be bored." Talia said, popping a bubble, and flipping through a Quidditch magazine.
Ari smiled at their banter, as she looked out the window. They had started on their journey while she was searching for a compartment, and the English countryside was flashing by. It wasn't raining for once, and it looked quite nice outside.
"You guys! Stop reading and talk to me!" Alice whined "What did you two do this summer!"
"Quidditch, Quidditch, ate, slept, more Quidditch, got drunk and beat up my brothers." Talia reported, finally glancing up from her magazine and putting down, "What I do every summer."
"You're boring. Mary what about you?" Alice questioned.
"Read, Read, ate, slept, Read some more, visited you, and avoided my sister." Mary said copying Talia with a smirk, "What I do every summer. What about you Miss Alice, how did you spend you're summer, snogging Frank?"
Alice turned as red as a tomato. "No. Sadly. We all know he doesn't know I'm alive. Besides, I'm not pretty enough to catch the attention of Frank Longbottom."
"That's not true."
The three girls looked at the source of the noise. Ari was looking at them with a blush on her face, partly for listening to their conversation, and mostly because whenever someone looked at her she lit up like a Christmas tree.
"What?" Talia said.
"You're really pretty, Alice. I love you're curls. And Frank watches you whenever you're not looking."
The three Gryffindors shared a mystified look. They had never heard their room mate say more than three words strung together, and never a compliment. Plus they never imagined her voice like that. It was soft and accented. They had expected something high pitched and obnoxious.
"How do you know?" Talia asked bluntly, obviously going to be the spokesperson in this conversation.
Ari blushed some more. "I… I have a lot of time to watch people. And we were potions partners last year, and you sat in front of us, Alice, and he spent of the time watching you."
"Well, thank you Arianna." Alice said slowly.
"You're welcome," They lapsed back into silence, Alice pulling out Witch Weekly, Talia returning to her Quidditch magazine, Mary looking down at her book again. With a sigh, Ari pulled her current book out of her bag and continued reading it.
"I'm back!" Lily sang as she walked into the compartment twenty minutes later, all of them still reading. "Didja miss me?"
"Nope." Her friends replied in unison.
"Hmph." Lily pouted, but then looked around. "…. Arianna, what language is that in?" she asked suddenly.
"Hm?" Ari looked up with a start, she wasn't expecting one of them to actually talk to her on their own free will. "Oh, it's Italian."
"Do you speak it, or just read it?" Lily asked.
"It's actually my first language. I was born in Italy, moved to Spain, and then came to England for my schooling, Lily. Do you speak Welsh?" At least that's what she said in her head. What actually came out was "Speak it. First language."
"Oh." Lily said.
Alice looked up then, "So were you born in Italy then, because you have an accent."
"Yes. Then we lived in Spain." Success! Ari thought, A normal sentence.
"How'd you end up in Hogwarts then?" Talia questioned. Man, this kind of feels like the Spanish Inquistion! Maybe I should've volunteered this information 6 years ago. But I was even more shy then…wait, they asked me a question and I haven't answered yet!
"My parents thought Hogwarts was the best academically. My mother was Beauxbatons, and my father went to an all boys school in Italy." Ari answered, finally volunteering information about herself without blushing too bad, or coming off rude.
"Really?" Lily asked, amazed that her closed off roommate was actually talking to them. 6 years and the beautiful girl had spoken to her maybe twice. She had thought that maybe she was a blood purist, but she had no problem talking to her now. Maybe it was a language barrier?
"Is that why you don't talk to us? Because English is hard?" Alice asked nicely, smiling.
"No, I have no problem with English. You just seemed like you were having fun without me, and I was very much shy when I was young. It's better now. Back then, I could barely talk two words to anyone other than my parents and house elf." Ari said, smiling, maybe they can be friends now!
"Oh…" The three of them said together, slightly embarrassed that they had not bothered to talk to their roommate after the first few times.
"Well, what did you do this summer, Lily?" Alice said, changing the conversation around, causing Mary and Talia to groan.
"You already know what she did, Alice you spent the summer with her! Besides we do the same things every summer. The only interesting thing that could've happened is if she started dating Potter." Talia yelled at her.
"Which is about as likely as a porcupine growing blubber." Mary said which caused all the girls, including Ari to look at her strangely. She shrugged and returned to reading.
"Well…. What did you do this summer Arianna?" Alice turned to her suddenly, causing her eyes to go wide with the sudden inclusion in the conversation.
Man, they keep talking to me, and I keep not expecting it. Get it together, Rossi, be a normal social person!
"I mostly stayed with family, visiting. They live in France, Italy, and Spain, so we did a lot of traveling." Ari explained. "And you can call me Ari, the only person who calls me Arianna is my mother, and my grandmere."
"That's really cool!" Alice said. The girls then got into a conversation about the places they had gone to, and Ari actually contributed.
The train ride was perfect. Up until they walked in.
Two chapters in a day, I obviously have no school ;-)
I'll start writing the next chapter either tonight or tomorrow, and I'll probably have it up this week, unless school gets in the way. Then you have to wait!
Ciao, Flame
PS. I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I would force them to have the next part of Deathly Hallows out by now!