Chapter 6: The Hogwarts Express

The train had been on its way for a while when Bella finally found a compartment with an open seat.

"Hello," she said as she stuck her head in. "Is this seat taken?"

Inside the compartment were three boys and one girl. Two of the boys were big and beefy and were flanking the third boy in their seats. The girl seemed to have a permanent sneer on her face. The third boy finally answered and Bella noted that he was the same blond haired boy she had seen getting to the platform.

"I guess," he answered in a bored tone.

Bella nodded in thanks as she took the closest seat to the door that also happened to be the furthest seat from the sneering girl.

"What's your name?" the girl asked her.

"Bell Darling," Bella answered.

"Pansy Parkinson," the girl replied while holding her hand out. As Bella shook Pansy's hand, the blond haired boy decided to bring the attention back to himself.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," he announced. He did not offer Bella his hand, and when Bella offered her hand, he merely ignored it.

"So what house are you hoping for?" Pansy asked everyone in the compartment.

All three of the boys chuckled at her question while Bella just looked at Pansy strangely.

"Oh come on Pansy, you know we'll all be in Slytherin," Draco said once he had stopped laughing.

"I was asking her," Pansy answered Malfoy while gesturing at Bella.

Bella swallowed and was about to answer when the compartment door slid open. Standing in the doorway was a girl Bella's age with frizzy brown hair and slightly bucked teeth.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" the girl asked everyone in the compartment.

Draco and Pansy sneered while the other two boys seemed to be trying to process the girl's words.

"Why would anyone bring a toad?" Pansy asked snidely. "Oh wait, is it yours?"

The girl frowned at Pansy's question. "No, a boy in my compartment lost it and asked me to help him find it," she answered in a calm tone. "If any of you see it, please give it to a boy named Neville Longbottom."

At the sound of the boy's name everyone in the compartment except Bella chuckled. Even the two slower boys managed to laugh at the girl's words.

"If we do happen to find it, we'll be sure to let you know," Draco said in a tone that suggested otherwise.

"Do you need help looking?" Bella asked hoping she could get away from Draco and Pansy. She had a feeling that they were not the right people to be around if she wanted friends she could count on.

As if she was reading Bella's mind, the girl nodded. "Actually, yah. Neville would probably like it if you helped too."

As Bella left the compartment, she said, "Um, thanks for the talk."

Bella and the girl continued along the train looking in every compartment until they came to one with two boys. One of the boys was getting ready to perform magic on his rat while the other one was watching and eating what looked to be an assortment of candy. The boy that was trying to turn his rat yellow had red hair and freckles adorned his face like ornaments on a Christmas tree. The other boy was the same dark haired boy Bella had seen in Gringotts.

"Have you seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost his," the girl asked the two boys as Bella hung back. Both of the boys replied no as the girl began talking again. "Are you doing magic? Let's see it."

Both boys shrugged to each other as the red haired boy began his spell.

"Sunshine daisies, butter, mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" the red headed boy said in a rush. The rat did not turn yellow not even as if it had too much sugar.

"That's not proper magic you know. I've been learning some basic spells but nothing to special," the girl said as she walked into the compartment and Bella followed her.

"Oh yah, like what?" the red haired boy challenged.

The girl shrugged her shoulders slightly as she drew her wand and pointed it at the dark haired boy. "Oculus Reparo," she commanded. The moment she finished the spell, the dark haired boy's glasses repaired themselves and lost the bit of tape that was on them.

The red haired boy stopped chewing his sweets and the dark haired boy took off his glasses and looked at them.

"I'm Hermione Granger by the way," the girl said to the boys and Bella.

"Harry Potter," the dark haired boy answered. "What's your name?" he asked Bella.

Bella blushed as she tried to answer. "Bell..."

Harry smiled at her as Hermione asked the red haired boy his name.

"Ron Weasley," he answered with chewed up sweets in his mouth still.

"Charmed," Hermione replied. "You two should really change into your robes, I suspect we'll be arriving soon," she continued as she stood up and Bella followed suit. Hermione turned around in the door way and commented to Ron, "You've got dirt, just there," as she rubbed her nose.

Bella waved good bye as she exited the compartment, not trusting her voice not to squeak.

Soon the girls had searched each compartment and found no sign of Neville's toad. They were heading back to Hermione's compartment when they passed Draco's compartment.

"Um, Hermione, can I go with you?" Bella asked hesitantly. "Draco's kinda a jerk."

Hermione nodded. "Sure, we've got room in our compartment. And you need to change into your robes too."

Bella nodded. "Is this your first year?"

"Yah, I can't wait, can you?" Hermione exclaimed happily. "I didn't even know about magic until Professor McGonagall visited."

"She visited you too?" Bella asked as they came to Hermione's compartment.

Hermione nodded again as she said, "A teacher always has to visit new students if they've never heard of magic. Both my parents are muggles, so she had to visit and explain things to us. So that means your parents are muggles too?"

"Well, my father might be but I don't even know him and Mum's an American witch so the school didn't know about her," Bella answered. "What's a muggle?"

Hermione smiled. "That's just a term for people that can't do magic," she responded as she pulled open the compartment door.

"Did anyone know where Trevor was?" A fair haired boy asked Hermione.

"Sorry Neville. No one's seen him," Hermione answered as she sat down. "This is Bell," she continued as Bella sat down next to Neville.

"Hi," Bella greeted him as another boy in the compartment looked up.

"Hello, I'm Jared," the boy said as he nudged the sleeping boy between him and Hermione.

"Huh, what?" the boy mumbled as he woke up. "Oh, hi," he said once he focused on Bella. "I'm Dustin. Um, who're you?"

"Bell," Bella answered smiling at his behavior.

"Well, Bell, hey that rhymed!" Dustin exclaimed to Jared. Jared nodded his head, urging him to finish his thought. When Dustin did not continue, Jared sighed.

"You were saying something?" he implored to Dustin.

"Oh, I was saying that she still needs to get into her robes because we'll definitely be there soon," Dustin finished in a rush.

"Oh, right," Bella said as she grabbed her bag off the floor. "Um, is there somewhere to change?" she directed at Hermione.

"There's a lavatory at the front of the cart," she answered.

Bella stood up and exited the compartment as she said thanks. She returned a few minutes later to Dustin and Jared trying to wrestle on the floor of the compartment while Hermione and Neville just pulled their legs up onto the seats.

"Hey Bell!" they both managed to say at the same time.

They immediately pulled apart so that Bella could take her seat again. Once Bella had taken her seat, they continued their wrestling. Bella had just enough time to pull up her legs as they rolled around even more.

"I swear, you two are complete barbarians," Hermione commented to the boys.

"Thank-you!" they both answered in unison, much to the dismay of Hermione.

"I hope we get there soon," she murmured as she looked out the window and at the sunset.