Till The End | h.p

the hogwarts express

The boy nods and runs straight at the wall and disappears like the others. Ron, Sam, and Molly follow suit. As Sam stairs at the beautiful, bright red train, she feels her nerves fade into excitement. It seems the dark haired boy next to her shares the same feeling.

Molly hugs Sam and Ron, "Good luck, dearies. We will see you at Christmas."

She gets a little emotional and hugs the two of them tightly. They make their way onto the train and find a cabin close to the back. Ron helps Sam put her trunk onto the bars above. They both sit close to the window on opposite sides of each other as the train takes off. The raven haired boy, walks into their cabin.

"Can I join you? I don't really know anyone else," He asks sheepishly.

Sam smiles and motions for him to sit down next to her, "Yeah, of course."

He gives a shy nod and smile and sits down next to her.

"I'm Samantha, by the way, Samantha Jackson, but call me Sam. And this is-"

"Ron, Ron Weasley," he says as he holds out his hand for the boy to shake.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

Ron gasps.

Sam rolls her eyes, "Oh, honestly Ron, don't get starstruck."

"So it's true! I mean, do you really have the...?" Ron points towards his own forehead.

Harry looks with confusion, "The what?"

Ron leans forward slightly and whispers, "The scar?"

Harry chuckles, "Oh." He pulls his hair up to show the scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.

"Wicked!" Ron exclaims, "You know, Sam's mum was best friend's with yours."

Harry turns quickly to the girl. She smiles and looks toward the ground, "My mum used to talk about your mum, Lily, all the time. And you, of course! We used to play together when we were little." Sam gave a comforting smile. "I'm really sorry, by the way. Your parents seemed lovely."

Harry gives a small smile, "I never really knew my parents."

Ron speaks up, "Sam didn't really either."

She lets out a breathy laugh, "Yeah, I'm not exactly ginger like this idiot."

"Hey!"

"I noticed," Harry laughs, "I mean, not that you're an idiot, I'm sure you're not! I just meant that she's got really dark hair."

Sam chuckles as Harry fumbles over his words, "My mum died the same way yours did, only she died when I was six. My dad left when I was little."

Harry gives her a small, knowing smile, "I'm sorry, that must've been hard. You actually got to know your parents for a while."

She shrugged, "Mum was amazing."

Right around this time, the trolley swings by their cabin, "Anything off the trolley, dears," an elderly woman asks.

Ron raises his crushed sandwich looking disheartened, "No, thanks. I'm all set."

Sam gives a small, close lipped smile. Harry looks between the two and reaches into his pocket pulling out a bunch of Galleons, "We'll take the lot."

Ron looks in amazement, "Woah."

As the train continues on its journey, they sit and eat the loads of candy and snacks.

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans?" Harry asks.

Sam chuckles, "They mean every flavor."

Ron pipes up, "There's chocolate and peppermint and there's also spinach, liver and tripe."

Harry looks disgusted as he pops one into his mouth.

"George sweared he got a booger-flavored one once." Sam laughs.

Harry cringes and pulls the chewed up candy out of his mouth and places it in an empty wrapper. He picks up a new candy.

"These aren't real frogs, are they?" He asks.

"It's just a spell. It's the cards you want!" Ron exclaims.

Sam nods in agreement, "Each pack's got a famous witch or wizard."

"I've got about five hundred meself," Ron says.

Harry's chocolate frog jumps out of the box and onto the window. It climbs up the side and hops out the window.

"Oh, that's rotten luck. They've only got one good jump in them," Ron states.

Harry looks at his card, "I've got Dumbledore!"

"I've got about six of him," Ron says and he takes another bite of his taffy.

Harry looks back down at his card, "Hey, he's gone."

Sam laughs and shakes her head, "Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day, can you?"

A small squeaking noise sounds and Harry looks to Ron's lap where a rat is pushing its head into an empty box.

"This is Scabbers. Pathetic, isn't he?" Ron says with disgust.

Harry shrugs one shoulder, "Just a little."

"Fred gave me a spell to turn him yellow. Wanna see?" Rons says excitedly.

Harry smiles, "Yeah!"

Ron sits up and clears his throat as he pulls out his wand. Sam rolls her eyes. Just as Ron's about to start, a bushy haired girl walks up to the cabin and looks in and around the seats.

"Has anyone seen a toad, a boy named Neville's lost one."

They all shake their heads, signalling 'No'.

She looks at Ron, "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see, then."

As Sam looks at the girl, she notices her light brown hair which is quite frizzy and her nose is turned up in a know-it-all way. Sam isn't one to quickly judge a person, especially by first impressions. She has a habit of seeing the best in people.

Ron clears his throat, yet again, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He shakes his wand violently, but nothing happens. He turns to Harry and Sam with a slight shrug. Harry gives a shrug back.

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it."

Sam doesn't like the way the girl says things, but despite that, she tries to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Ron looks at Sam and Harry and nods his head to the girl, in a 'Is she serious?' sort of way.

"I've only tried a few simple spells, myself, but they've all worked for me." The bushy haired girl walks into the compartment and sits down next to Ron and turns to Harry, noticing his slightly broken glasses.

"For example:" she says as she points her wand at Harry's face, "Oculus Reparo." Immediately, Harry's glasses shape up and look brand new.

"That's better, isn't it?" She asks. She turns to Sam with an accomplished smile, Sam gives an impressed one back. The girl might be a little snooty, but Sam could surely remedy that.

"Holy cricket, you're Harry Potter! I'm Hermione Granger." She states and turns toward Sam.

"I'm Sam Jackson." She gives a polite smile.

Hermione turns to Ron last with a disdainful look, "And you are..?"

Ron turns his nose up ever so slightly, "Ron, Ron Weasley."

Her lips turn into a tight line, "Pleasure." Hermione turns back to Harry, "You three better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving at Hogwarts soon." She stands and begins to exit the cabin, but turns abruptly and looks to Ron, "You've got dirt on your nose. Did you know?" She points to the side of her own nose, "Just there." She walks back down the corridor as Ron quickly rubs his nose.

Harry turns to look at Sam with an incredulous look and Sam gives a light chuckle.