Dell pushed open the door of the first mostly-empty compartment she could find and plopped herself down on the seat next to a girl whose mass of blond hair was covering most of her face. Throwing her trunk onto the rack, she took a cursory look at the girl. She was tall, with slightly worn robes that didn't quite cover her scratched-up ankles and wrists. She wasn't doing anything in particular, just looking out the window at the passing countryside. She turned her head as Dell came in.
There was a moment of silence in which each person waited for the other to start the conversation. Finally, Dell had had enough.
"Hello," she said. "I'm Dell. You?"
"Alyssa Johnson."
Dell sought desperately for a topic of conversation that did not involve blood purity, dark lords or family allegiances.
"You a first year?" she said at last.
"Yes."
"What House do you think you'll be in?"
"Hufflepuff."
"Ah. I don't know. I mean, I think I'll be in Slytherin, maybe Ravenclaw, or—I don't know," Dell finished lamely.
Alyssa didn't say anything.
Like as to a desperate air-crash survivor stumbling upon a cool oasis in the burning desert, Dell grasped at another conversation prompt.
"Do you like Quidditch?" she asked, and breathed a silent sigh of relief as Alyssa's eyes lit up.
"Oh, yes! I absolutely adore the Holyhead Harpies! Did you know that the year before last they scored fourteen goals against the Wimbourne Wasps? I supported them before that, of course," she added smugly.
"Oh. Cool," Dell managed.
"Yes! And I have the collectible cards for every single member since 1203! Except Ginny Weasely, because she's super rare, and Kelda Dubby, because—well, I just haven't found one of her. And Vivvie Lemon. But pretty much no one has a Vivvie Lemon card, so that's alright." She didn't say anything for a moment, and just as Dell dared think that Alyssa had exhausted her supply of Holyhead Harpies information, she burst out with more. "I went to their game against the Tutshill Tornadoes last year and they won! I never thought I'd see the day when Gwenog Jones purposefully stopped her seeker from catching the Snitch… but it turned out it was a good choice because otherwise they would have lost the league…"
Dell closed her eyes and tried to drown out the consistent flow of Holyhead Harpies facts. She had hoped to start a conversation with Alyssa, to obtain a friend, but if a conversation was a dialogue between two or more people than this wasn't one; it was a monologue.
Her thoughts turned to the last summer she had had with her father. Shifting slightly in her seat, she cast her mind in the past.
The small house on the Irish countryside was no longer quiet and peaceful. There were shouts and bangs coming from the woods, and Rodolphus Lestrange was fighting to get out of the house before the Aurors arrived. And then there was Dell, a small ten-year-old clinging to her teddy bear as her father bustled frantically around the room, trying to find something, anything, that would enable him to get out with his daughter and escape Azkaban.
The ministry had put the Trace back on Rodolphus, with the help of fancy, new-fangled magic and Hermione Granger. Apparition was out of the question, as was an invisibility charm, but Rodolphus was entertaining the hope that he could find some item such as a Portkey that did not leave the Trace.
He didn't find anything. Dell screamed as the Aurors knocked out her father, and then, as she struggled against them, her as well. That was the last she ever saw of Rodolphus Lestrange.
Jerking herself back to the present, she observed as the compartment door was forced open and her cousin, Scorpius Malfoy, entered.
"Hi, Dell," he said, then turned to Alyssa. "Hi whatever-your-name is."
Dell nodded and smiled, and Alyssa gave a small "hello"—her Holyhead Harpies monologue had ended some time ago and her talk-time had exhausted itself.
"Do you want some candy, Dell?" Scorpius asked. "I was in a compartment at the front of the train where the candy lady's already passed." Dell shook her head but thanked him all the same, and Scorpius turned to Alyssa and gestured to his bad of candy.
"Thanks," the girl said quietly, taking a Cauldron Cake. Scorpius nodded.
"What are you two doing?" he asked.
"Not much. Alyssa was telling me about the Holyhead Harpies."
"Mm. Fancy a game of chess?" Dell brightened at this. She had brought several books, but she didn't feel like reading, and chess was something that would alleviate her boredom. The youngest Malfoy reached into his bag and brought out a small collapsable chessboard and a box of figurines.
"White or black?" he asked her.
"I like black, but you can choose." Dell raked her fingers through her hair.
"I like white, so that's perfect." He unfolded the board and started to set up the pieces. "Made any friends yet?"
Dell made a face and as they half-heartedly fought for domination on the chessboard, she explained briefly about what had happened in her previous compartment.
"...so then they kicked me out," she finished.
"You shouldn't say these things, Dell. They might be true, I don't know, but a lot of people get offended by the idea of dirty blood." He inspected his fingernails for dirt, then looked up again. "If you want to make friends I wouldn't go spouting out stuff like that. Or tell people your last name."
Dell scowled heavily at that.
"It's not my fault my dad-" she she turned her gaze to Alyssa, who was looking vaguely at the two cousins. "-did what he did. And you've got a legacy associated with your name as well, so why do you tell people it?"
"It's different for me. My mom sided against- the, uh, person in the end." He glanced out the window. "Looks like we're here. Grab your trunk, let's go."
The two jostled their way off the crowded train. It was pouring outside; thick sheets of water were tumbling down from the heavens above. A large figure was visible through the storm- a enormous, gray-haired man, hefting an umbrella above his head.
"That's Hagrid," Scorpius explained to Dell. "My father told me about him." From his smug expression Dell got the definite impression that her cousin was enjoying knowing far more about Hogwarts than she did.
Whatever, she thought, Goodness knows he's been far kinder to me than he had to. I can handle smugness. Let him gloat if he wants to.
"First years this way!" came the cry over the howl of the wind and the anxious chatter of the students. "Over here! Yer going across the lake!"
It came to Dell's attention that using small rowing boats to cross the lake in stormy weather seemed to serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than drenching the first years and making them as cold, miserable and hungry as possible by the time they reached the castle. She sat huddled in a boat with Scorpius and two boys called Jefffrey and Leonus as their means of transport magically propelled itself. She almost wished they'd had to row it- at least that would have kept her warm.
After what seemed an eternity, she stepped stiffly onto the shore in front of the castle. Sand crunched under her feet as she looked up at the daunting building in front of her.
Wow, was all her mind processed.
Hogwarts looked as thought it came from some medieval recreation, complete with battlement and heavy oak doors, which were just now being pushed open by a very short man in blue robes. He cleared his throat.
"Welcome, new students of Hogwarts. I am Professor Flitwick, Deputy Headmaster, Charms teacher and Head of Ravenclaw House. If you would now follow me I will lead you to the Great Hall, where you will be Sorted into your Houses."
The troop of first years traipsed after him into a huge room with a high, vaulting ceiling. There were four long tables laid parallel to each other and absolutely jam-packed with students. The staff and faculty had their own table at the front of the room, but dominating everyone's attention was- an old, shabby hat sitting atop a wooden stool.
Dell frowned, and turned questioningly to Scorpius.
"What's the-?"
"Sorting Hat," he explained briefly. "That thing's going to determine our family for the next seven years."
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Oof. For some reason, that was kind of hard to write.
Alyssa Johnson's name, hair color and shyness belong to HayHaySpen101.
Please review! If I don't get many reviews, chances are I won't update for the next month and a half.
~Kero out.