Ch.2 Train

It had been hard to board the train, but Leah had figured it out eventually. Walking through the stone pillar was a little confusing at first, but she noticed millions of little kids doing the same thing.

No one looked twice at her, so she had sat in the nearest empty compartment. She had the contents of her trunk spread out on the table in front of her. She wasn't really paying attention to the items and had long past figured out the mechanisms of the 'wand'.

She was way more concerned about the fact her throat was on fire. She had no idea what was wrong with it. It was a terrible feeling, and she remembered the words of the note. "Feed only on animals"

It sickened her that she knew on instinct what it meant. All the sudden she turned to see someone open the door. Instantly her brain went wild. Her throat burned and her thoughts were all cut to one thought: Kill the human. She was about to jump at the child when a thought struck her.

She had thought of the boy as human. Not only that, he smelled like food. She decided to try to hold her breathe for as long as possible, avoiding the smell. The boy sat down, oblivious. He inched towards her.

"Don't you dare!" she shouted. He looked at her quizzically.

"I- I don't like people sitting near me." He frowned and then shook his head.

"Are you a first year, too?" he asked. "I hope I get sorted into Gryffindor, they're the best. Did you hear the Harry Potter was in Gryffindor? I definitely have to be in the same house as him, I've got an entire scrapbook full of his stuff, rare memorabilia and everything. Oh, is that an issue of Witch Weekly in your trunk? Man, you sure are into crizzle, aren't you-"

"Can I see it," Leah realized she had unlimited holding breath time, so it didn't hurt to use a little every now and then. She wanted to see this Harry Potter scrapbook.

"What- oh the scrapbook?" The boy pulled a red leather binder out of his satchel and set it on the table. Leah took her trunk and used it to pull the book to her, staying at the edge of the table. She grabbed the scrapbook and opened it.

The first page had first year written in bad handwriting at the top. It had blurry pictures of a black-haired boy flying on a broomstick, little golden pieces labeled 'snitch wing'. A small twig labeled 'Harry's first broom'. A picture of a red stone.

She flipped the page and it was labeled second year. There were other broom pictures, and a picture of a giant snake. There was some sort of smoldered mass labeled 'Collin's Film'. She flipped throughout the pages, marveling at the detail of which this boy had gone to.

"Who was this boy?" she asked. The boy stopped.

"Are you a flipping MUGGLE?" he asked. Leah had no idea what a Muggle was, so she shook her head no, the burning in her throat reigniting.

"He was the savior of our whole WORLD!" The boy yelled.

"What's your name?" Leah asked, trying not to look totally suspicious.

"Isaiah," he replied. "Hey, what's your favorite Quidditch team?"

During the entire ride, Isaiah told her everything about the wizarding world, frequently commenting on her idiocy and innocence.

At the end of the train ride, right before they were called off the train, Isaiah turned to her.

"Blimey!" he yelled, jumping back and hitting the wall. "Your eyes are- are red!"

Leah thought fast. Her mind seemed to compute like lightning, she could think a thousand things in a millisecond.

"Spell gone wrong," she replied. "I'm getting contacts later, but it might even change those from time to time.

Isaiah seemed to buy it, and Leah sighed in relief. She hung back and let him go ahead, finally breathing. What was happening to her?