The morning of September 1st, Clarke snuck out as the sun rose from the horizon. Silently, he called a cab and with two bags in hand left his home for what he hoped would be forever. As he rode in the back of the yellow car, he wondered if the school would be as glamourous as his father had always described. He spent the entire ride, captured in his thoughts and at the end of it, he used money stolen from his mother to pay the driver.

From that point forward, he went to work looking for the train. For over an hour he searched for the correct one, and to his dismay he didn't find it. As the adrenaline that had given him the courage to run away, began to fade, the anxiety and distress he had been holding at bay hit him like the train he was searching for. With no idea of what else to do, the child curled up in a corner of the station and began to cry. As time passed he slowly lost the energy to weep, and soon fell into a shallow sleep.

While Clarke hadn't been able to find the Hogwarts train, many other children who had been given guidance on where to find it were able to. One such girl was Eloise Harper, a little brunette pureblood who had lived most of her life in the muggle world. She had been on her way to where the train was stopped when her eyes caught a glimpse of a very small child hidden away in a nearby corner. "Uncle Westley, please… can we help?" she asked softly tugging her uncle's sleeve. Her uncle followed her gaze and nodded. He allowed her to go on to check the boy, who he believed to possibly be a homeless child.

Eloise Harper approached Clarke with a smile. She gently shook him awake. "Hey, are you alright?" she questioned in a soft tone to keep from frightening the boy. Clarke shook his head meekly.

"I can't find my train. It's not here. I checked all of them and when I asked about it, the guard said he had no idea…" he explained with a voice hoarse from crying.

"I can help." Eloise stated brushing some hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear. "Where are you going?"

"To Hogwarts, it's a magical school and supposedly there's a train here but I can't find it.. I'm.. I'm starting to think this was a joke.." Clarke admitted, furiously rubbing away tears that threatened to spill with the sleeve of his blue button up. His response caused Eloise to laugh.

"It's not a joke, silly! I'm going there too. Would you like to come with me?" she queried with a large smile that stretched from ear to ear. She then took his hand and dragged him back to her uncles. "Uncle Westley, Uncle Hunter, this is,.. What's your name?" she asked looking over at the boy.

"It's Clarke…" the other child replied softly in almost a whisper.

"His name is Clarke, he's going to Hogwarts too, isn't that grand?! Eloise insisted with an enthusiastic grin. Westley Harper examined the child and gave a cautious smile. While Clarke looked like a nice enough boy, it was concerning how he didn't seem to have any sort of guardian near him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Clarke, I'm Westley, I'm Eloise's uncle," he greeted keeping his concerned smile on his face.

"Love, we should get these two to the train. It's just about time for it to leave," Hunter, Westley's dark haired husband told him. Together, the young adults walked to the column in between stations 9 and 10.

"Alright, so how you get there is you run straight into it, also it's like fairy dust so you have to believe or it won't work," Eloise told him. "Now you first," she gave the other boy a small nudge and with his eyes shut he ran full speed at the brick column.

He ran through the bricks and straight into a boy chatting with a few friends. The boy barely noticed him other than to give him a disgusted look before walking away. Clarke sheepishly stood up and watched as Eloise and her uncles walked in. Quickly Eloise's uncles gave her kisses and hugs goodbye before letting her board the train with Clarke trailing behind her.

At first the pair stayed together and even bought snacks to share, but about half an hour into the ride Eloise wandered off to chat with friends and Clarke was left alone. After she left, Clarke went straight to pulling a book from his bag to read. He was completely buried in his book when another boy shuffled in and sat across from him. "Hello!" he addressed with a grin causing Clarke to jump.

"Oh um.. Hi?" he mumbled looking up at the other boy. This boy had light brown hair that fell just below his ears, dark brown eyes, and a large grin that seemed plastered on his face.

"I'm Chris, are you a first year too?" he asked with a smile. "Is that your actual eye color? It's so blue…"

Clarke blushed and sighed. He tucked a piece of paper into his book to mark his page and set it beside him. "Yes I am and yes it is," he answered trying to keep his slight annoyance from showing. He imagined that this conversation could go one of two ways from experience, either he could hurt this boy's feelings or he could get beat up for a wrong comment.

"So what are you reading?" Chris questioned, causing Clarke to light up like a christmas tree.

"Oh um well.. It's about a boy who leads a rebellion against a corrupt government," he began. Once he realized Chris was looking at him with curiosity shining in his eyes he continued. "The book starts with this government, it's completely corrupt. They have these walls that go around the entire kingdom to keep out these mutated animals that live in the lands surrounding it. To keep these walls up, they take money from the aristocrats, you know the rich people of the kingdom. The aristocrats don't care as long as they get something in return. So the government starts taking children from the lower classes of the social pyramid and giving them to these aristocrats to fund their walls and defense. Most of these kids don't live good lives, one child is Basil Smith. Now Basil was from a lower aristocratic family, he didn't need to sold but because his father died, his mother decided she wouldn't keep him because he wasn't very strong because he had a bad heart. He-" he was then cut off by Chris.

"Well what happens to him? Also this sounds really dark," Chris commented as he grew more intrigued.

"That's what I'm about to tell you. Anyways, Basil is sold to this awful man who uses him for…" he then lowered his voice a little, "he uses him for sex and keeps him locked away in a dark room. Basil lives like that for five years but then he takes an opportunity and kills his master and runs away. For months, he lives on the streets becoming so unrecognizable no one can find him. One day he meets a girl named Bethany, she'll become his best friend later. He finds out she's also a slave but she's still following her master's commands. So he goes and helps her escape, They live together, stealing and trying to come up with a plan before Basil decides they should start a rebellion by collecting slave children and bringing them to the forest where they could learn to live away. This plan works and slowly but surely they have a group of over 20, and the group only keeps growing. They don't turn to violence until cops find a half the group in town and kills them. So then to defund the wall, they start to kill aristocrats and save the slaves that way. My favorite thing about it is that it's first person of Basil and then also of a cop who becomes important later," Clarke described. He spoke with such enthusiasm that it made Chris happy he asked.

"That's quite the story, would you recommend it?" Chris asked.

"I'd have my recommendation written on my headstone," Clarke insisted. From there, the conversation only grew and in almost no time the pair became good friends. Clarke learned about Chris' love for videogames, his favorite food was spaghetti, and that he was a halfblood like him. In exchange, Chris learned more about Clarke's love for reading, the fact he had lavender candles in his bag because they calmed him down, and he ran away from home because his parents were against magic. By the end of the train ride, Chris was sure that he and Clarke would be best friends in no time.