CENTER p September 1, 1991 /p /CENTER
p "Come on Issy, the train will be leaving any minute. We can't wait on the platform any longer for Ron," Cedric said, pulling on his sister's arm and waving to his parents. /p
p "But Ced," Isolde whined, looking around. "I promised him I would meet him on the platform!" /p
p "Well, the train is moving, so you need to get on. We were late getting here, so he is probably on the train by now." /p
p "Oh, fine," Isolde sighed, grudgingly getting on the train. /p
p She was a tiny girl, whose hair was pulled back tightly from her face into a bun at the nape of her neck. She wore one of her favorite loose yellow Polos and had buttoned, rather unfashionably, all three of the buttons to the collar. She wore her dark blue jeans around her stomach that looked as though they could have been Cedric's. Even though her mother never gave her Cedric's clothes, Isolde still wore jeans, much to her mother's distaste, that were shaped like boys' jeans. She had white Keds on her feet with smudges of dirt on the toes and yellow bobby socks neatly folded above her ankles. /p
p Cedric wanted Isolde to sit with him, but Isolde wanted to find some students in her year to sit with. She finally settled on a compartment with two others. One was a girl about the same height as Isolde, but with bushy brown hair. She was reading a book when Isolde came in, but looked up and smiled. /p
p "Hi," she said, sticking out her hand. "I'm Hermione Granger and this," she said, pointing to the boy next to her, "is Neville Longbottom." /p
p "Hi," the boy squeaked. He was a rather plump looking boy with dark hair. He seemed to be searching for something. /p
p "Are you sure you don't want to stay with me, Issy?" Cedric asked. /p
p "No, I'll be fine, Ced. Could you just put my trunk up there? I can't reach." /p
p "Cedric wrestled the truck onto the racks above them, hugged Isolde and went off to find his friends. /p
p Isolde and Hermione talked for a while, and Issy was beginning to like this Hermione and hoped she would be in Hufflepuff with herself. After they finished the sweets they had bought off the trolley, Neville sighed exasperatedly. /p
p "I can't believe it! I lost him again!" Neville said frantically. "Gran's gonna kill me!" /p
p "What did you loose?" Isolde asked, putting her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. /p
p "I've lost my toad for the third time this month! If I don't find him, my Gran is gonna kill me!" /p
p "Don't worry," Hermione said, placing her book down. "We'll help you find him. We'll split up. Isolde and I will go one way, and Neville, you can go the other." /p
p So, the three of them took off down the train aisles, asking if anyone had seen a toad. They came to the final compartment where two boys sat with sweet wrappers all over the seat. One of the boys had his wand out and pointed to a rat that sat on his lap. /p
p "Have either of you seen a toad hopping around here? Neville Longbottem has lost one," Hermione said importantly. /p
p "No," said the redhead who Isolde immediately recognized as Ron. /p
p "Oh," Hermione said, spotting the wand and sitting down next to the boy. She motioned for Isolde to sit as well and she did, shyly sitting next to the raven haired boy who was actually kinda cute. /p
p "Is that magic your doing? You know your underage don't you and that according to the law witches and wizards under seventeen may only use magic in self-defense. You must be muggle born. I am too but I've been reading up on all of the laws so as not to break one myself. I'm Hermione Granger by the way. And… you are?" /p
p Isolde watched as the boys stared, mouths agape, shocked at the speed of her speech. Isolde was quite shocked herself, but had gotten used to Hermione's fast talking along the ride. /p
p Ron slowly turned his head to the raven haired boy beside him and then back at Hermione before responding, "I'm…um… Ron Weasley and both my parents are wizards" /p
p "Oh," Hermione said disdainfully as she stared at the smudge of chocolate along the side of his mouth. /p
p "I'm Harry Potter," the raven haired boy said, holding out his hand. /p p "Holy Merlin!" Isolde exclaimed turning to get a good look at him for the first time since she sat down. "Are you really?"
p Harry smiled at her and Isolde noticed how cute his scar looked peaking out from under his mess of hair…. /p
p "Well I know all about you, of course," Hermione continued. Harry slowly drew his gaze from Isolde to the speaking Hermione, but Isolde couldn't tear her eyes from him. /p
p "I've read all about you. Did you know your in tons of books were required to read for Defense Against the Dark Arts? Like The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts… and… and Defending Yourself … the Potter Way? /p
p "Am I?" Harry said distractedly, smiling at Isolde again. Isolde suddenly had an urge to shove Hermione out the door to shut her up so she could have some alone time with Harry. /p
p But just as the thought entered her mind, her face reddened and she couldn't figure out why she was feeling this way. She quickly suppressed the emotion, which came quite easily to her seeing as she had to do it many times daily at home. She forced herself to look over at Hermione, who had continued to talk. /p
p "…found out everything I could if it was me. Do either of you know what house you'll be in? Isolde said her brother is in Hufflepuff so you'll probably go there Isolde. I've read through Hogwarts a History a few times and I do hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounded the best one, but Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad either…Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon. You coming Isolde?" /p
p Hermione had stood up and was now waiting by the compartment door for Isolde. /p
p Isolde smiled at Hermione before saying, "Yeah, I'll meet you back at our compartment, okay?" /p
p Hermione just shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the compartment. /p
p "Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. /p
p Isolde laughed and Ron smiled at her. /p
p "She's not really that bad," Isolde said shyly to them. "I got to know her; she's very nice. Muggle-born as you heard. Her parents are dentists." /p
p Ron and Harry just smiled. /p
p "Oh, Is. I was wondering where you got off. I was waiting and waiting, but Fred and George made me get on and the train was leaving..." /p
p "Oh, don't worry Ron. Cedric and I came late. Apparently, my Mum found out how much Ced spent on those robes and flipped her lid and…" but she stopped, blushing and said, "Well, I better be off. I hope to see you soon." /p
p Ron and Harry followed her out with their eyes as her robes flipped around the door. /p
p Disclaimer: Anything relatively recognizable belongs to the Queen of Potter herself, J. K. Rowling. Isolde and any other original characters belong solely to me./ p