How to Prevent a War

The Train Ride

Tom sighed while he made his way through the masses of people on platform 93/4 towards the front of the train. All parents tried desperately to cling one last time to their precious children before they were shipped off to Hogwarts until Christmas break. It annoyed him quite a bit honestly, not that he would ever tell anyone. He was the Golden Boy, the perfect student, Slytherin Prefect. That last one had him smirk proudly and he brushed his finger over the silver pin on his robes. It had been much too easy to charm his way into the hearts of his idiotic teachers and peers.

Tom slowed his pace when he felt a heated glare aimed at his back and turned around to find a boy staring hatefully at him. The genius teen quirked an eyebrow at the other male whom he had never seen before but seemed to be related to the Potters if he had to guess, and glanced towards the brown haired girl and four redheads, three boys and a girl, and an adult man who looked an awful lot like an older, unkempt version the young Orion Black the year below him. They too looked unfamiliar to him, though the redheads looked an awful lot like the Weasley family. Those last few made him narrow his eyes a bit. Being a Slytherin and a close family friend of the Malfoys, he wasn't a big fan of the wide spread family of noisy redheads.

Deciding that it were most likely the new students that would enter Hogwarts this year and their guardian, Tom smiled as friendly as he could with such evil glares on him and waved at them. He felt accomplished when the two youngest boys and the red haired girl turned away from him and the brunette girl waved back shyly and uncertainly. The man and the two older redheads just narrowed their eyes at him in suspicion.

With a genuine smile on his face this time, Tom continued on towards the first carriage of the train before entering and walked towards the Prefect cabin with a purposeful stride. On his way, he was greeted by some other students and replied politely every time, while he would usually disregard most of them with indifference. He was in a too good mood for that now though.

When he and Lucretia Black, the Head-Girl, entered the Prefects' compartment, they found one other person already present there. Tom smiled and nodded towards the platinum blonde, silver eyed 7th year Ravenclaw girl. Lucinda Malfoy, Prefect and his old housemate Abraxas' little sister, looked up from her book and greeted him back in the same way before resuming to read. The girl simply loved to read, she could barely ever be found doing something else, except during classes.

"How was your summer?" Lucretia asked the platinum blonde politely.

The Blacks and the Malfoys were close family friends for generations already and always formed a strong front together. Added to this, Lucinda Malfoy was best friends with fellow Ravenclaw Cedrella Black, who might not be the most liked in her family, being a Ravenclaw instead of a Slytherin, but she was still of the oldest pure-blood family in the country.

It took a little while before the girl looked back up to answer, but when she did, she did so with a gentle smile on her lips.

"Not much to say really," she replied calmly.
"We simply spent it at home."

"That sounds rather lovely to me," Tom said, smiling sadly, a fake sentiment of course.
"I would very much like to be able to do that with a family of my own."

"I suppose you're right, it was nice to have so much time to spend with my father and brother," Lucinda nodded.

"Speaking of which, how is your brother, Lucinda?" he asked, more out of politeness than actual interest in the subject.

"He is very nervous about his engagement with Ravina Lestrange, but other than that he is fine," the near-white haired girl replied chuckling.

Tom nodded and looked away. He cared little for communicating with this girl as she was rather shy and naïve, but she was also the daughter of one of the most powerful pure-blood families in England and her brother had proven most useful to Tom in the past. He had long since decided that she was worth the effort, if not for her dull conversations, than at least for the connections she and her family provided him with.