THIRD PERSON POV
Running about the train station at nine-and-three-quarters was a gifted young witch and her little brother, Ryan. Only two years younger than his older sister, he stayed close to his role model who, in turn, stayed close to her mother.
"Rissa!" A nearby voice cried out. The girl in question turned around several times before she spotted Amelia Julis, her neighbor. She waved furiously, and her friend ran over to her, knocking over another person's books in the process with a mumbled "sorry."
"Hey Amelia!" Larissa greeted her.
"Have you heard?" Amelia panted, stooping over to catch her breath. "Have you heard?"
"Heard what?" Larissa questioned, knowing full well that it would come out anyways.
"Harry Potter is here!" Amelia exclaimed, jumping in excitement and bumping into her parents behind her. "Oh, sorry mum."
"Harry Potter?" Ryan repeated, his mouth wide open. "As in, the Harry Potter who defeated Voldemort?"
"I saw the scar and everything." Amelia assured him. "Last I saw him, he was boarding the train."
"I'm going to school with Harry Potter!' Larissa realized with a start, a grin spreading across her face. "We might be in the same house, taking all the same classes..."
"You won't be doing anything unless you get on that train this instant." Larissa's mother humphed. "Go on, now. Where's the cat?"
"Tonnie's right here on the cart, mum."
"Mummy, can't I go to Hogwarts with Larissa?"
"Two years, Ryan."
"THERE HE IS!" Amelia shrieked, pointing to a window on the train. There indeed was a black haired boy with cracked glasses, and - barely visible - a lightning scar on his forehead.
Larissa's eyes widened as she spotted him, right before he pulled out of the window. Waving frantically to her parents, and giving Ryan a huge hug, she ran towards the train, leaving her luggage with a red-haired man with a nametag "prefect" as they burst into the crowded train.
Suddenly shy, Larissa and Amelia hung back a bit, not willing to go and socialize.
"Look at how big it all is," Amelia whispered to Larissa. "Are all the students on this train?"
"I suppose so." Larissa whispered back. "Hey, where's your owl?"
Amelia held up her cage, showing Larissa the tawny-feathered owl, who ruffled up at the sight of the cat. "Tonnie, meet Robin Hood."
Neither animal seemed too pleased to meet each other. Robin Hood seemed quite happy to stay in his cage, and Tonnie half-opened her eyes to glare at him for a moment before closing them again.
Someone bumped into Larissa from behind. "Oi, watch it." She snapped, turning around to face a pudgy boy with downcast eyes.
"Sorry... hey, Trevor!" He called desperately. Larissa looked around for a boy named Trevor when she heard a hiss and looked down at her cat in her arms, who was hissing at something on the boy. Larissa followed her gaze and was affronted by a bulgy, disgusting toad.
"You - whatever your name is - you have a bloody toad?" She spluttered, my eyes shifting from the boy to the revolting creature in his hands.
"Neville Longbottom." The boy muttered. "His name is Trevor, my Great Uncle Algie got him for me."
"Come on, students, out of the way." Said the red-haired boy Larissa had left her luggage with, stepping smartly into the train and closing the door behind him. "The train will be starting soon anyhow, and it's hard to get a good compartment."
Larissa and Amelia shared a look before the giggles came over them, and Neville sighed as he plodded along with them, separating from them almost immediately.
"We need a compartment to ourselves." Amelia decided. For several rows there was none to be found, but miraculously there was one near the end of the line.
The moment they sat down in compartment C5, the giggles started afresh.
"My goodness, did you see that prefect? Dreamy." Larissa sighed.
"He certainly is something." Was Amelia's comment. "I wonder who exactly he is, anyway."
"I wonder what you think about him." Larissa said slyly.
Amelia flushed, but was saved by the entrance of another boy, who wordlessly sat down and stared out the window. Amelia and Larissa shared another glance before breaking down into another fit of giggles.
"Pucey." The boy said after a bit. "Adrian Pucey."
"Larissa Hamilton." Larissa said after a moment's pause. "This is my friend, Amy Julis."
"Ha, ha." Amelia said cutting her a glare. "Amelia Julis, thank you very much. Amy is only to my close friends."
"Quite reasonable." Adrian remarked. "I do not recall seeing you two before. What houses are you in?"
"We haven't been Sorted yet." Larissa admitted yet. "We're only first-years. But... what about you, Pucey?"
"Slytherin." The boy said somberly. "I'm a third year at the moment. I play on the Quidditch team; chaser. My friend, Terence - he's the Seeker."
"No offense-" Amelia started...
"-none taken-"
"But I was under the impression that Slytherins were bullying gits, not..." she trailed off.
"Capable of genuine human conversation?" Pucey chuckled. "Well, you'll find the oddity here and there. Terence is convinced I should have been put in Hufflepuff, and he's not the only one." Pucey paused, choosing his words carefully. "Terence and I sometimes feel like strangers in Slytherin. But it's the best house, I'll tell you that. I hope you get in it."
"Into Slytherin?" Amelia repeated, not sure if she had heard him correctly. "I thought Slytherins were evil!"
"Have you been listening?" Pucey sughed, exasperated.
"She has the attention span of a rabbit." Larissa informed him, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, it's amazing how she manages to... woah."
The train gave a sudden lurch, nearly causing Tonnie to fly out of the compartment had she not been digging her claws into the seat. Pucey gripped the seat as the train slowly started to move, gradually picking up speed.
"There is a young boy running alongside the train waving a bag." Pucey observed.
At that moment, Larissa paled. "Ryan!"
She flung open the window. With incredible timing, Larissa's brother threw the bag into the compartment. Larissa ducked, but Pucey caught it with the skill of a Chaser passing the quaffle.
"Thanks!" Larissa screamed, waving her hands. Ryan beamed, waving back and jumping up and down until he was out of sight as the train went around a bend.
Pucey was still holding the bag when Larissa turned around and sighed in relief. He shook the bag a little bit, listening to the clinking objects inside. "What's this?"
"Money, and food for Tonnie." Larissa took the bag and ruffled through its contents, sitting down next to Amelia again. "Oh, and Grandfather's quill... I must have forgotten this at the house, I suppose Mum had to summon it..."
But Pucey had jumped up, and stuck his head out of the compartment. Amelia joined him, and finally Larissa had to come, too. The cause was evident, for loud screeches were coming from down the row.
A tarantula was climbing over the walls, much to the dismay of the girls a few compartments down. One seemed to have fainted as the enlarged spider crawled over their compartment door, the tarantula easily the size of a child. An African-American boy with dreadlocks was laughing with a small crowd behind him.
Larissa watched, paralyzed, as the tarantula made its way closer and closer to the group...
"Reducio!" Pucey bellowed, waving his wand. With a flash of purple light, the spider shrank to a remarkably small size. "Wingardium Leviosa" made the spider float into the box the boy was holding.
The dreadlocks boy glared at Pucey. "I was just having a bit of fun, Pucey."
"Well, have your bit of fun someplace else, understand, Jordan? Or do I need Angelina to tell you?" Pucey sneered.
Jordan took a defiant step forward, but one of his red-haired friends pulled him back, and they went into a compartment.
"Lee Jordan." Pucey scowled, closing the compartment door and locking it. With a defeated sigh, he sat down. "Pranking left and right with no thought of anything else."
"I'm sensing some tension here," Amelia butted into his venting. "What have you got against Lee Jordan?"
Pucey reddened, but was spared the question by a knock on the door. Larissa opened it to a woman with a cart, laden with sweets and snacks.
"Anything off the cart, dears?" The woman asked, turning the cart slightly for a better view.
Larissa and Amelia muttered a "no, thank you" but Pucey jumped up and went outside. The door slid shut behind him, and the two girls shared glances.
"Rich boy." Amelia muttered. "I don't even know what half this stuff is. You know I'm not all magical."
"Hey, didn't I say you can have some of the things Mum packed me?" Larissa comforted her friend. "I persuaded her to pack those brownies you really like."
"Nah, I'm not really hungry," Amelia said, looking out the window.
Larissa shrugged helplessly, and Pucey re-entered with a small shopping bag full of things. He looked curiously at them. "Why didn't you get anything?"
"Some of us aren't overflowing with money at the moment, Mr. Pucey." Amelia snapped, her gaze not moving from the window.
Larissa looked apologetically at him. "Sorry, Pucey..."
"You can call me Adrian, I don't mind." He half-smiled. "My dad's a school governor, he gets paid a lot for it. I made a deal with the Quidditch team that I'd buy a whole bunch of sweets and have a party in the common room sometime."
Amelia looked at him. "I never thought of you Slytherins as the party type." She said curiously.
"Not all of us were stiff Death Eaters, you know." Adrian grinned. "Anyway, the cart woman told me to tell you to go ahead and get your robes on. As you can see, I've already got on mine, but that's because my stepmum had me put them on before I boarded."
Leaving Tonnie and Robin Hood in the compartment with Adrian, they grabbed their robes and left for the nearest bathroom, which was actually quite near. They decided to simply slip their robes on over their normal clothes, therefore getting back to their compartment faster and having more time to chat with Adrian Pucey. Unfortunately, by the time they got back to him, the train had stopped and they were at Hogwarts.
Adrian looked amused. "Your cat certainly is something." He told Larissa as she hurried to grab her things. "You just missed Terence, he left a few minutes ago... you missed the announcement too, you better hurry to catch the boats. By the way, did you hear? Harry Potter's on the train, famous bloke, but of course you know him. Vanquished the Dark Lord he did, and we're all better off for it... you'd better go, I can hear Hagrid now..."
"Firs' years!" A man's voice bellowed.
"That'll be Hagrid." Pucey said quickly, rising. "Hurry, leave your luggage and your pets, they'll be taken care of. Relax, you'll be perfectly alright. Go on, then, don't miss the boats."
With that final word, the girls streaked after the line of first years, finally catching up to them. Amelia wandered around, but after tripping on something slimy she decided to stay close to Larissa.
"Oi, look over there!" Larissa pointed.
The two girls stared at a vast castle, seeming to glow and sparkle with the shining windows.
"Look at those towers!" Larissa heard another girl say to no one in particular. "I bet royalty lived there, I'm simply sure of it."
Larissa turned, trying to locate the voice, but it was drowned out by the crowd of voices, springing 'ooohs' and 'aahs'.
"No more'n four to a boat!"
"Look!" Amelia yelped, pointing.
Larissa tore her eyes away from the gleaming castle to gaze at a giant of a man, towering over the rest of them. Under his watchful gaze, the girls were quite speechless, and wordlessly climbed into a boat with another girl with long, light brown curly hair and a blonde boy, who folded his arms and sniffed.
"Who're you?" Amelia asked, trying to spark up conversation.
"Draco Malfoy, of Malfoy Manor." The boy said snobbishly. "I come of a long line of purebloods. And who are you?" His tone of voice clearly said he didn't expect us to be of any importance, compared to him.
"Florence Lawrene." The girl folded her arms likewise, her cheeks flushed from the night winds. "Half Veela."
Malfoy suddenly looked interested.
"Amelia Julis." Amelia rolled her eyes. "And this is Larissa Hamilton."
"Blood status?" Malfoy questioned.
"Purer than yours." Amelia snorted.
The boy's eyes narrowed. "What House do you think you'll be in?"
"I have absolutely no idea." Larissa shrugged, and the other girls echoed in some variation of that statement.
"Well, I hope I'm in Slytherin." The boy said importantly. "Father says it's the best House and he ought to know, he was in it too and he's on the school board."
He looked at us curiously. "There are people at this school who shouldn't be. You know, mudbloods and half-bloods. Disgusting, they are... not proper magical folk, you know. I can help you out there, you know; so you won't mix with the wrong crowd."
Larissa glanced at her friend. Amelia seemed positively ruffled, but returned Larissa's steady gaze.
Larissa could practically hear the wheels in her friend's head turning. While it sounded like he was just trying to recruit them to his crowd, she could see where sticking with Malfoy could be useful. If he was as well-known as he made himself out to be it might be useful, but if he was pompous, spoiled, and as much of a git as warning signs told her he was, it could be disastrous.
The question is, she told herself, what is best for Amelia and I?
"Let's wait and see what Houses we're sorted in." Larissa said cautiously.
The other two heartily agreed.
Hello, my Potterheads! How are you doing today? Are you enjoying this story so far? Kind of hard to say, since this is only the first chapter, but I made it nice and long for you. Over 2000 words! Amazing, am I right? Well, it's one of my longest-ever chapters, so don't expect this length for every chapter.
The girl you see in the picture is Larissa.
Also, guess what? Every so often I'm going to pick a random commenter or voter from a random chapter and they will get a shoutout. In fact, if they so wish it, I'll even make them a minor character in the story! This chapter's shout-out is to @DarkeCatnip for being my best friend and being awesome! Round of applause!
Her character will be... well... you'll see!