Chris's POV
I stumbled to a stop after rushing through the barrier. For a moment I stood and marveled at the Hogwarts Express. The scarlet steam engine puffing, starting on its journey...
A shove from behind me brought me back to reality.
"Hurry! Get on the train," Cassandra shouted as she brushed past me and climbed onto the train.
"Hey! Don't leave me behind," I replied as I jumped aboard with her. "It was your fault that we almost missed it in the first place."
Cassandra looked down guiltily and I opened my mouth to apologize but Cassandra just turned away and started walking down the train compartment. A little miffed, I followed her until we reached the last compartment where the girl who had helped us was sitting alone looking worried.
"Hey do you mind if we sit here?" Cassandra asked with a relieved smile. "Everywhere elses if full."
"Sure, I don't mind at all," the girl said, what was her name again? Was it Harriet or something?
"Sorry for asking but what was your name again?" Cassandra asked, voicing the question we were both wondering about. "I'm really bad with names."
"I'm Hermione Granger," she replied smiling slightly. "I'm in Gryffindor house"
"What's Gryffindor like?" I asked, thinking back to what Cassandra said a few days ago.
"It's great, the head of Gryffindor is Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher." Hermione said. "She's strict but she cares about our well-being."
"That's nice," Cassandra said. "Some my muggle teachers were horrible. They hated kids and yet were teachers for some unknown reason."
"You went to a muggle school?" Hermione asked. "Are you two muggle borns?"
"No, I'm actually a pureblood but in America wizards live among muggles and conceal their magic." Cassandra said.
"And I'm a halfblood," I supplied. "My name is Chris by the way, and this is my cousin Cassandra."
"You're cousins? Hermione asked, surprised. "You two don't look much alike."
It was true, while our heights are pretty similar our looks are very different. While I have pale skin she has slightly dark skin from her Indian father. My skin looks like snow while she appears to be permanently tan. I have curly light brown hair that falls just below my shoulder while she has straight light brown hair that falls all the way to her waist. I have blue-grey eyes which reflect my every thought while her blue-green eyes are always unreadable. Our personalities are different as well. I'm loud and she's quiet. She cares about her grades while I don't. I have lots of friends while she only has a few close friends. The only thing we have in common is our stubbornness, which has got both into trouble a couple of times.
"Yeah, we get that a lot," Cassandra replied while I was lost in my thoughts. "by the way, you looked worried earlier. Is something wrong?"
"Oh, my friends didn't get on the train," Hermione said in a concerned voice. "I don't know how they're going to get to Hogwarts."
"Really?" I asked. "If you don't show up the first day do you get expelled or something?"
Hermione's eyes filled with worry and Cassandra elbowed me in the ribs for upsetting her. Cassandra's eyes wandered to the window and widened.
"What the heck is that?" she said pointing out the window. I looked and squinted at the large object hurtling through the clouds. It wasn't shaped like a bird or a plane. It's Superman! I privately laughed at my own joke but then gasped in shock when I saw that the flying object was actually a car.
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked not quite sure I could believe my own eyes.
"It's the Weasley's flying car!" Hermione exclaimed. "They're going to get themselves expelled! Why are they always getting into trouble."
"I presume those are your friends?" Cassandra asked, pressing her nose to the window to get a closer look at the car.
"Yeah, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter" Hermione said, looking out the window. She smiled, "They're my best friends."
"The Harry Potter?" I asked. "The one who defeated the Dark Lord as a baby?"
"You mean Voldemort," Cassandra said bluntly, eliciting a gasp from Hermione.
"You said his name," Hermione whispered.
"Yes as Dumbledore once said, the fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself." Cassandra said.
"How do you know that?" I asked skeptically. "You've never met Dumbledore in your life."
"My dad greatly respects Dumbledore and told me all about him," Cassandra replied.
"Dumbledore really is a great wizard," Hermione said. "To think that's he's known even in America."
What's that supposed to mean I thought to myself, slightly offended.
"Dumbledore is known all over the world," Cassandra said. "He's known to pretty much every witch and wizard."
"I only knew that he was headmaster at Hogwarts" I said. "I didn't know he was so famous."
A moment of awkward silence passed when a rattling was heard and a smiling woman asked, "Anything from the trolley dearies?"
Cassandra rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out few coins, quickly counting them. She then held them out and asked, "What can I get for this?"
The trolley lady smiled and said, "For that I can get you three Chocolate Frogs, two boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and a Pumpkin Pasty."
"I'd like that." Cassandra replied and she gave the trolley lady all her money getting only a few bronze knuts back.
"Anybody else want anything?" the trolley lady asked.
"No thank you," Hermione politely declined.
"I'm with her," I said indicating Cassandra.
The trolley lady smiled and left, the cart rattling as she made her way back to the front.
"Where did you get that money Cassandra?" I asked. "I thought we were all out."
"There was a bit left over from our food money," Cassandra replied. "Bedsides this is 'technically' food isn't it?"
I laughed. "Sure Cassandra, sure."
She frowned, "Guess who isn't getting any now."
"Hey! I was just joking," I exclaimed.
Cassandra held out a Chocolate Frog for me which I delightedly reached for, However just as I was about to grab it, she whisked it away. This went on for a bit until I snatched it away and Cassandra sat back, giggling.
"I get your Chocolate Frog card though," Cassandra said already grappling with her Chocolate frog which was hopping around in her lap.
"Whatever," I said, resigned. I opened my Chocolate Frog and tossed Cassandra the card before biting the frog in half with a satisfying crunch.
"I'm going to get changed into my school robes now, you should too Chris," Cassandra said as she pulled her trunk down and pulled out her new robes.
"Okay," I replied. "We're probably almost there anyway." All of us then changed into our school robes. When we were finished there was a knock on the compartment door and two gangly fourteen-year-old redheads walked in. They looked like twins as I couldn't tell them apart. They were kinda cute though. Cassandra blushed, which shocked me as she never blushes. At least not when boys are concerned.
"Hey Hermione," One of the boys said. "Have you seen Ron? We never saw him on platform 9 3/4."
"Oh you didn't see?" Hermione said. "He and Harry took your flying car."
"What!" The twins exclaimed in unison. "And they didn't take us!" Then the twins noticed us.
"Who are these two?" One of them asked. I waited for Cassandra to introduce us as she is usually the one to introduce us. To my surprise she was still flustered, so to save us from an awkward silence, I began the introduction.
"I'm Chris," I began. "And this is my cousin Cassandra." Cassandra smiled, obviously embarrassed but keeping a poker face despite the red in her cheeks.
"I'm Fred," one of the boys said.
"And I'm George," the other boy said.
"Are you two firsties?" Fred asked. "And is that an American accent I detect?"
"We're actually starting as second-years," I replied. "And yes we're both from America. Our parents home schooled us in magic for the last two years. In America witches and wizards start their training at 10, but there are no wizarding schools. Everyone is taught by their parents or relatives."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "What about muggle borns and orphans?" Finally, Cassandra got her voice back.
"Muggleborns are found by the closest living wizards and are informed of their magic and are trained by them. Whenever a wizard is orphaned, wizarding families adopt them." Cassandra said. "Since there aren't many of us in America no wizard or witch is left alone."
"That's very interesting," Hermione said. "Does that mean every witch and wizard is treated equally or are there still disputes over blood status?"
"Yeah, no one really cares about blood status except for those who have moved to America recently." Cassandra replied. I heard the compartment door close and saw that Fred and George had left. I immediately took the chance to interrogate Cassandra.
"What was that all about?" I questioned Cassandra.
"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked, deliberately avoiding eye contact.
"You know what I mean," I said staring at her intently, making her shift uncomfortably. "You were blushing, you never blush."
"They were very attractive," Cassandra muttered quietly, not blushing but obviously embarrassed.
"You've met plenty of attractive guys before, but you still never blush. It's almost unnerving how good of a poker face you have." I said. "What's so different about these guys?"
"I don't know," Cassandra said indignantly. "I can't help how I feel. For some reason I just couldn't speak when I saw him."
"Him? Which one do you mean?" I asked.
"Fred," Cassandra sighed dreamily. "Oh my god, I'm acting like a lovesick girl" She sighed and looked down.
"You've got it bad," I said shaking my head. "I'm surprised, you've never struck me as the lovesick type."
"I'm not!" She exclaimed. I gave her a look with a raised eyebrow.
"This time's different," Cassandra said. "I don't know why though."
"Fred is a pretty nice," Hermione piped up after listening for a while. "He messes around a lot but he's a nice guy."
"Well it's not like I'm going to do anything," Cassandra said. "Eventually I'll move on. Like we should in this conversation."
"I'm only letting you off now because I think I see Hogwarts coming up," I said looking out the window. Sure enough, a giant castle loomed in the distance.
"We're almost at Hogwarts!" I exclaimed excitedly. I pressed my hands to the windows and watched as the train sped closer to Hogwarts.