The Train Journey

Caly and the boy sat in silence for a few moments. Their faces were mirrors of each other showing the excitement, nerves and joy of being off to Hogwarts. Caly was also pretty pleased that she seemed to have already made one friend. Then she realised she didn't know his name and he didn't know hers. She couldn't keep calling him 'the pale boy' inside her head.

"My name's Caly. Caly Hautly. Well actually my real name is Catalina but I prefer Caly."

"What like the flower?" The boy asked.

"Flower?"

"Oh yeah I forgot. In our world there's a flower called Catalina. It's really, really rare. There isn't one in the greenhouses in Hogwarts and that's saying something. It can cure any sickness, heal any wound no matter what's infected it. It's petals contain the elixir of life so if you crushed them and drank the juice regularly you'd be immortal."

"Wow."

"Yeah. My name's Scorpius, by the way, Scorpius Malfoy." Caly nodded unable to think of anything to say. Then she asked the question that she had really wanted to know the answer of ever since he had told her how to get onto platform 9 ¾.

"Why does your dad hate me?" Scorpius sighed.

"He doesn't hate you per se. He just people like you."

"What do you mean?"

"He hates people who are muggle born. My father is a blood purist." Scorpius' face was contorted with anger, hate and disgust. "He is pure blood, all wizard blood, he thinks that's the only type there should be. You're muggle born, no wizard blood, he thinks you're scum." There was pause as Scorpius gave the window stares that would melt the glass.

"And you?" Scorpius looked at her very seriously. "I despise all my father's ideals. However I will fully understand if you wish to vacate this compartment. I just hate the reputation I will have to dismantle." Caly examined him for a second and then she decided she believed him. Then the compartment door opened.

A boy and a girl walked inside. The boy had untidy jet black hair, green eyes and glasses. The girl had brown hair, eyes and a good smattering of freckles. They were talking happily until they spotted Scorpius and their faces became very serious. Caly frowned and looked between them. Scorpius' face had become exasperated. He turned to Caly.

"This is what I meant about dismantling my father's reputation."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad went to school with their parents. He was in the same year as his dad and her mum and dad. They hated each other. He also hated his mum." Scorpius gestured back at the boy "She was the year below but she was her." He gestured at the girl again. "dad's little sister. No doubt they have been well indoctrinated in the horrible things that happened between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. I don't doubt the fact that they already hate me." Scorpius looked deflated and Caly felt sorry for him.

"Well that's ridiculous. You haven't even met. You can't hate each other just because of what happened between your parents, some people turn out to be very different than their parents. You should take a chance to get to know each other. Do you hate him?" She asked the two cousins standing in the doorway. They looked at each other and then the boy said

"You're muggle born."

"I know. Does it really matter? I've already been knocked over by his dad for being that so if you're going to give me grief please find another compartment." They both looked shocked and then shook their heads vigorously.

"No, no we don't mean that at all. My mum is muggle born." The girl said "We just wondered because if he's sitting with you knowing you're muggle born he must be different from his dad." There was another awkward pause before Scorpius said

"Are you going to sit down then?" The two looked at each other and then hauled their trunks into the luggage racks and sat down opposite each other, with the girl next to Caly and the boy slightly awkwardly next to Scorpius. They sat in silence for a moment before they remembered that Caly didn't know who they were.

"I'm Rose Weasly." She proffered her hand.

"Catalina Hautly, Caly." She shook Rose's hand.

"Hey we're both named after flowers, weird." Both girls laughed and then the boy stuck out his hand.

"Albus Severus but everyone calls me Al." Caly looked at him carefully as she shook his hand.

"Do you have an older brother?"

"Yeah I do, how do you know?"

"Well when I was trying to get my trunk onto the train I was near this couple who were er… snogging and then this boy who looks like you except with neat black hair and brown eyes comes up and interrupts them. Then the girl, Victorie, got her boyfriend who had blue hair to lift my trunk onto the train. It was weird she kept calling him Teddy."

"Yeah that was my brother James and Victorie is our cousin and Teddy is my god brother."

"And you two are cousins, right?"

"Yep." When their conversation ended Scorpius turned to Albus and offered him his hand. Albus looked at it confused and then took it saying.

"My name is Albus Severus Potter it is a pleasure to meet you."

"My name," Scorpius replied "Scorpius Hyperon Malfoy and it is a delight to meet you too." They kept sombre expressions for a few more seconds whilst Caly and Rose shared raised eyebrows and fought to contain their giggles. Then all four of them collapsed in laughter. When Scorpius repeated it with Rose you could barely hear what they were saying because they were laughing so hard.

Just after they had come to their senses their compartment door opened. The head girl Victorie walked in and smiled at her cousins and Caly. She frowned ever so slightly at Scorpius and then shrugged it off figuring that, seeing as, Rose and Albus were sitting there by choice, there wasn't a problem.

"Are you alright; Al, Rose?""Yes Vic we're fine." Rose said, whilst Al rolled his eyes.

"Well I did have to check up on my baby cousins you know."

"We aren't your baby cousins Vic. Lily, Hugo and Lucy are all younger than us."

"Yes but they aren't on this train. At Hogwarts you two are the babies of the family, get used to it." With that she left, her long silvery hair whipping behind her. Scorpius was staring curiously at her.

"Is she part veela?" he asked slowly after a long pause.

"Yeah, a bit." said Al "It's funny though cause Dom, she's her younger sister, looks nothing like that. Dom's ginger like her dad and then Louis is like, full on veela you wouldn't think him and uncle Bill were related."

"What's a veela?" Caly asked cautiously not wanting to offend them. Al looked at Rose, who glanced at Scorpius who just shrugged.

"It's kinda hard to explain." He said finally glancing back across at Rose and Al looking for support.

"They're really beautiful women." Rose said confidently. "They have this kind of weird charm on people but you don't want to get on the wrong side of a true veela 'cause they transform into ugly birds heads and grow talons. They originally come from Bulgaria I think."

"Well Victorie, Dominique and Louis aren't Bulgarian sounding name. They seem more French."

"Yeah aunt Fleur is French which is why she doesn't have the whole bird side, she's not a proper veela."

"Are there male veela?" The three glanced between each other again.

"Not sure I've never seen one but there must be some."

"So your cousin…Louis? Has this charm?"

"Yeah, he can get away with anything. I swear he could murder someone and the law enforcement guys would throw it out the door." Albus, Rose and Scorpius all laughed and nodded but Caly didn't get the joke properly so she searched for more conversation.

"So you have a lot of cousins."

"Oh yeah." said Rose "We have loads of cousins. I have a little brother called Hugo and Al has an older brother James, as you already know, and a little sister Lily."

"Another flower."

"Yep."

"And then there's all our other cousins who we aren't quite as close to." Al cut in. "There's 7 others; Victorie's oldest, then Fred II he's two years younger, then Molly II who's a year younger than Fred, Roxanne and Dominique are a year younger than that, then there's James, me and Rose, then Lily and Hugo are two year's younger than us, Louis a year younger than them and finally baby Lucy who is 7." There was a pause after this impressive list. Caly mouthed at Scorpius 'wow'. He nodded and then asked.

"Are all those at Hogwarts in Gryffindor?"

"No, actually only James, Fred and Roxie are."

"Really? I thought these things run in families, I mean I want to break mines tradition, but 'cause you all were."

"Well Aunt Fleur never went here she was at Beaubaton and Aunt Audrey was a Hufflepuff."

"I guess it wouldn't take much to guess that none went to Slytherin."

"No." Rose said crisply. "Vic and Dom and in Ravenclaw and Molly went to Hufflepuff."

"Ahh, and where do you want to go?" Their answers were instantaneous and the same.

"Gryffindor."

"Thought so." Scorpius smirked.

"Well do you want to go."

"Not really sure." Scorpius looked worried. "I really don't want to end up in Slytherin but I'm kinda worried about what may do if I'm not. Sometimes I want to go Gryffindor just to really annoy dad but sometimes I think that Ravenclaw would be a better compromise; I mean there's nothing wrong being intelligent and witty." Rose nodded and Albus grinned at him and then turned to Caly.

"What about you?"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about." They all looked dumbfounded.

"Didn't you read your books?" Scorpius gaped out eventually.

"I couldn't keep them in the care home with me, other kids would find them. They stayed with Herb."

"What?"

"Herbert, but we mentally and verbally, when he's not in earshot, call him Herb."

"Okay and who is he?"

"The only carer who knows the truth."

"Oh."

"But anyway what are Griffindoor, Ravensclaw, Hufflenpuff and Slithering?" It was possible that they were more shocked by what she had just said. Then they all launched into explanation.

"They're the houses!-"

"We basically live with which one we're put in-"

"It's Ravenclaw, it's not like a raven owning a claw-"

"You can own points for doing good stuff and get docked for being naughty-"

"The one who has the most points wins the cup-"

"We also play inter-house quidditch, but you don't know what that is-"

"Four teachers our heads of houses and sometimes they aren't impartial-"

"There are divisions between the houses; Slytherin and the rest of the school especially Gryffindor-"

"We are sorted by our attributes-"

"Wait, STOP!" They went quiet. Caly pointed at Al. "What did you just say?"

"I said we are sorted by our attributes."

"Meaning?"

"Well the four houses have different traits associated with them. Gryffindor's are brave, chivalrous and daring. Ravenclaw's are clever, witty and you know just ridiculously intelligent. Hufflepuff are loyal, trustworthy and caring. Slytherin's are cunning, sly and er…." Al trailed off glancing over at Scorpius.

"You can say it. They are manipulative."

"Yeah so you get the picture."

"Yeah think so but I don't think I suit any of those houses."

"Well that's kind of the point of the sorting, it finds a place for you."

They spent a lot of time after that discussing Hogwarts, or rather Caly sat and listened whilst the others related the stories their families had told them. She didn't mind not being an active participant in the conversation because it gave her a good chance to find out a lot about her new school. She had been so focused on shopping with Hagrid that she had neglected the opportunity to find out a lot of information. A lot of Al and Rose's family seemed to have a nose and appetite for trouble. Scorpius didn't have much to say either 'cause he obviously wasn't keen on talking about his dad and Caly had a suspicion the older Malfoy didn't have a general chat with his son.

Her next shock came when the lunch trolley arrived at around 1:00. She was amazed she had been on the train for 2 hours already it had seemed so much shorter. When the old women rattled up next to their compartment. Caly, with a sinking heart realised she had completely forgotten that the journey may be a long one and had therefore forgotten to pack some food, had no money; muggle or wizard. Her three friends had stood up and were all rummaging around in their trunks and pockets for money. Caly's money troubles, however, were forgotten when she saw the contents of the trolley.

It was completely….different! She was staring at the strangest assortment of snacks ever. There were strange pastries and sweets that were like the magical variety of muggle sweets. Her three friends were watching her with an amused expression on all their faces.

"I guess it would be to much to ask for a tuna sandwich?" They all collapsed around laughing and bought their sweets. When they came back in she had not expected them to have their arms full with what looked like all the trolley. They threw it onto the empty seats before chucking random packets at her.

"What the?"

"We decided we would show the wizard way of things."

"But I-I couldn't take-I can't take-"

"Just eat the food."

The rest of the journey passed quickly. They changed into their robes at one point but then went back to eating sweets and talking. Caly was fascinated by their sport Quidditch. It was played on brooms! It sounded fun but Caly was afraid of heights so it was a big no for her. She managed to eat every type of sweet there. She even ploughed her way through a whole box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean, swallowing even the most disgusting bogey flavoured one. This feat of courage made the others all sure she would land herself in Gryffindor.

Caly had completely forgotten her nerves by the end of the journey. She was high on sugar and she was with people she could count as friends. She was bemused by the fact she had made three friends on the train ride as she had always been labelled as 'freak' and 'weirdo'. But then she realised that what made her stand out in the muggle world made her fit in the wizard one. This didn't stop all the fearers returning when the train pulled to a stop at Hogsmead station.