The American Badger and Her Lion

Train Rides and New Friends

My mom's eyebrows raised, realizing the problem. "Ah, yeah. Where we're from, they were called No-Maj's. You know, no magic. Get it?"

The couple shared a knowing glance. They either assumed my poor mother was stupid or not from around here. I prayed it was the latter. "You have a daughter. I'm guessing 11 years old and starting school at Hogwarts this year? So is our son, Nathaniel," the mother said.

I studied the boy for a moment. He had light blonde hair and green eyes. Freckles danced across his thin, pale nose. I noticed quickly that he was quite taller than me, and I was already pretty tall. I stuck my hand out for him to shake with a grin. He shook my hand once before letting go immediately after.

"And this is our daughter, Julieanna." The mother placed her arm around the little girl with pigtails of gold. "She's only 8, so she'll be starting soon. And I'm sure you assumed this is my husband, Edward Vaughn. I'm Madeleine. And you are?"

My mom's smile grew, getting the moment to talk. "I'm Josephine Banks, but feel free to call me Jo. This is my daughter, Amelia." I tried my best to copy her smile. I was not entirely comfortable with these people just yet.

The father stood there quietly, and you could almost watch the gears turning in his head, "Banks," he spoke slowly as if tasting the words on his tongue. "I knew a Banks once. What's his name, if you don't mind me asking."

A pit slowly started to form in my stomach. I could tell what was about to happen, but I couldn't stop my mom before the words tumbled past her lips. "Marvin. Marvin Banks," she muttered softly. When he nodded, my mother continued. "He was my husband. He died just last year. He, umm," she paused, the words catching in her throat. I squeezed her hand tighter as a way to comfort her. "It's a complicated subject."

Edward swallowed hard, a difficult expression crossing his face. "My condolences for your loss. I was good friends with Marvin. He was always a kind man, a Slytherin like myself."

The conversation fell into an almost awkward silence. Thankfully, a clock chimed overhead, cutting the pause. Almost immediately, the energy shifted.

"Okay, we must hurry, or we will all be late. To get to Platform 9 and 3 Quarters, you just run straight for that wall," the father said. I nodded and turned to the wall but hesitated. This couldn't be real. Running into a wall?

My mom knew I was hesitating because she asked, "Can you go first? My daughter seems a little uneasy about this." I'll need to thank her later. They nodded, and Edward and Nathaniel moved forward. The two began racing to the wall and vanished into it.

I staggered backward, not believing what I'd just seen. Two people completely disappeared into a solid brick wall. It was like magic. Well, it was magic.

Suddenly, my mom grabbed my shoulders, and we ran to the wall. We were so close now I could see the grout in the brick. Squeezing my eyes shut, I prepared for impact.

However, when I opened my eyes, my face had not, in fact, been busted open with a brick wall. Instead, we were standing in front of a beautiful scarlet train. "Hogwarts Express" was written on the side in beautiful gold lettering.

A whistle blew, and I nearly jumped out of my sneakers. We gave my luggage, except my bag, of course, to a courier and I boarded the train. Finding an empty compartment, I slipped inside and moved to the window. My mom was on the other side, and I pulled the glass down to talk to her.

"I'll write to you as often as possible, I promise," I said, hanging halfway out the window. Hot tears were threatening to fall down my cheeks. I'd never been far from my mom, and I was unlikely to see her until winter break. She smiled softly, catching my eyes watering.

The way her dark brown eyes looked at me was so full of hope for me and the future I was heading to. I wish I could still remember how she watched me from the platform.

"Don't worry about me. You have fun and make new friends. Learn a bunch of different spells. Just know, Dad would be so proud of you," we both smiled sadly, and I could see her eyes watering as well. "I love you so much, sweetheart. You be good."

I reached my hand out, and she did the same. Grabbing hold of my hand tightly, she squeezed.

"I love you too, Mom. I'm going to miss you." Slowly, the train began pulling away from the station. I tried my best to hold onto her, but eventually, I had to let go. She pressed her hand to her mouth and blew one last kiss.

Sliding back in the compartment, I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and sat down, placing my bag beside me. I busied myself with looking out the window when a knock at the door startled me from my thoughts.

Nathaniel, the boy I had met earlier, stood on the other side of the glass door. With my hand, I made a "come in" motion, and he slid the door open.

"Can I sit in here with you?" He seemed nervous, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "All the other compartments are full and..." He trailed off, looking to the side.

"Go ahead. I was actually worried I wouldn't have anyone else here with me."

His face split into a wide grin as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The bench in front of me was soon occupied by the nervous boy.

An awkward silence filled the room slowly, and I cleared my throat before speaking, "So, your name is Nathaniel Vaughn?" I paused, waiting for his nod. "If we're going to be friends, I can't call you Nathaniel. It's just a mouthful."

If he could smile any more, he would've. "Nate is just fine. I've always wanted a friend who could call me Nate. My mother would've said 'Nate' isn't proper for a pureblood."

I beamed back at him. "Well, you're free to call me whatever you'd like. Some of my old friends called me Mel."

His eyes lit up. "I love that. Mel." He said the name as if getting the mouth feel for it. "Now we have little nicknames for each other."

We both chuckled for a moment before I spoke up. "Do you know anything about Hogwarts? Like, my mom went to the wizarding school in America, so I have no idea what'll happen."

Nate spoke animatedly about Hogwarts. How we'll be sorted into different houses, I still have no idea what that means, but we might not end up in the same house. "My parents wouldn't tell me how we're sorted. Said it was a surprise, whatever that means."

My heart sank thinking about not having my friend with me. We wouldn't be able to hang out all the time. What if he got friends in his "house" and liked them better.

"My parents want me to go into Slytherin, just like my father." He explained the different houses and what each one stood for. "Father says that the worst house to be in is Hufflepuff. He said they're the weakest of houses. 'To be seen as weaker would be the downfall of a strong wizarding family,'" he said as if it was a fact. There was something else in his eyes. Disbelief? Panic?

I tried to shake the fear of failure off my chest. From what I understood, you can't pick your house. How is it fair to blame something like that on something so small?

Soon, the trolley witch came by. I would tell her we didn't want anything when Nate pulled galleons from his pocket. He paid us to share a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. I ended up with an earwax-flavored one. We ended up with chocolate frogs and licorice wands as well.

We continued to talk about whatever came to mind. Old friends, family, childhood, hobbies. I showed him my Walkman and some cassettes I'd taken with me. Nate had never heard anything like that, used to having to take his music lessons.

Eventually, it became dark outside. We slipped our robes on and got ready to arrive.

"I wonder what it'll look like when we get there. I mean, no one really knows what Hogwarts looks like until they get there."

"I have a feeling that we will know pretty soon." Saying that he looked out the window. I did the same. Across a lake, we could see what looked like lights but couldn't actually see anything because of the darkness. I could make out an outline of a castle, but nothing definitive.

With excitement and nervousness reignited, the train's brakes squealed, and we slowed to a stop. We were finally here.