Amisty gazed around the platform, her eyes widening when she spotted the scarlet steam engine, smoke puffing out in thick, wispy clouds.
Amisty didn't come out of her trance until Harry tapped her lightly on the shoulder, "Come on, let's get on the train,"
She nodded and followed him to the back of the train, where an empty compartment was, lugging her trunk with her.
Amisty handed Echo to Harry so he could put her inside the compartment first, along with Hedwig. Both friends attempted to heave Harry's trunk into the cabin, to no avail.
"Ugh, this is hopeless," Amisty sighed in defeat after trying to push the trunk up once more, only to have it crush Harry's foot.
Again.
"Want a hand?" A voice asked right by Amisty's ear, resulting in her leaping backwards with a yelp.
"Yes please" Harry gasped in relief, taking a step back from the dreaded trunk.
"Oi, Fred! C'mere and help!" The stranger called.
When Amisty regained her composure, she turned around, and caught sight of the two red headed twins they had seen cross the barrier before.
"Jumpy, aren't ya," one of the boys commented, chuckling when Amisty stuttered on her words and her face flushed.
Now that they had help, Amisty and Harry's trunks were snuggled in the back of the compartment.
"Thanks," Harry said, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Yeah," Amisty smiled, forgetting about her embarrassment for the time being.
"What's that?" One of the boys asked, pointing at Harry's forehead.
Amisty glanced at what they were talking about, not at all stunned to see that it was about the lighting bolt scar.
"Blimey" said the other boy, "Are you-?"
"He is," the first boy answered the question. "Aren't you?"
"What?"
"Harry Potter" the boys said in unison, the level of wonder in their voice completely even.
Definitely twins.
"Oh him, yes, yes I am" Harry replied.
The boy's eyes widened, and Amisty sent a glance in Harry's direction, it was happening again.
She watched as Harry slowly turned red, before letting out a breath of relief as she heard the boy's mother's voice, calling them down.
The boys glanced at Harry once more, before leaving the compartment and hopping off the train.
Amisty watched as the red headed family talked before everyone boarded the train. The youngest boy, Ron, stood wiggling as his mother cleaned something on his face. She swallowed a laugh. The tall boy she had seen earlier strode towards his family importantly, already in his robes, a bright yellow and red badge shining on his chest.
The twins joked around for a bit, before the tallest boy kissed his mother's cheek, and boarded the train.
Now their mother turned to the twins and seemingly scolded them about something.
Not wanting to pry, she directed her attention elsewhere. That is, until she noticed the twin's eyes light up in excitement, and she motioned for Harry to duck down.
Amisty, although unintentionally, picked up part of the conversation as the little girl exclaimed,
"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please..."
"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really Fred? How do you know?"
"Asked him. Saw his scar, It's really there, like lightning."
"Poor dear, he was ever so polite when he asked how to get on the platform, even letting his friend go first!"
"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?" Amisty sent another confused look at Harry, earning yet another 'I'll tell you later look'
This was getting out of hand.
"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school," Their mother replied, her tone shifting to more stern.
"All right, keep your hair on," The trains whistle sounded, making Amisty wince at how loud it was.
The harsh noise echoed in her ears, echoing.
"Hurry up!" Their mother exclaimed, ushering them off.
The boys raced onto the train. They leaned out of the window, and Amisty saw her mother kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.
Amisty's heart wrenched as she saw the little girl crying. She wanted to run down there and comfort her, but the train already started to move.
The girl ran up with the train, keeping pace until it had sped up too much. She stopped running, waving instead.
Amisty peered out the window, watching the train station vanish from her view as the train rounded the corner. Soon enough houses were flashing by, blurring more and more as the train sped up. The door of the compartment slid open, revealing the youngest boy from the family of redheads.
"Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full," He asked Harry.
He shook his head, and the boy slumped down into the seat.
The boy sent a glance in the green-eyed boys direction, before quickly looking away, Amisty was beyond confused and frustrated.
"Hey, Ron!" Two voices chorused, it was those same twins.
Amisty jolted slightly, before smiling at the boys kindly.
The two grinned back, one turned to the who she assumed was Ron, "Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train, Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there,"
"Right," Ron muttered.
"Harry," The other twin turned his head to face him, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. What's your name?" Everyone turned to look at Amisty.
"Amisty River," She replied, holding out her hand to shake.
The twins both gave her a dramatic handshake, mischievous grins on their faces.
"Well, see you later. Amisty, Harry," They dipped their heads and shut the door.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron asked out of the blue.
'Here we go again' she thought, rolling her eyes.
She stared out the compartment window, thinking about what Hogwarts would be like. How would she learn anything? Would the classes be difficult? Worries and thoughts flooded her mind until a loud clattering noise reached her ears.
The boys glanced over at her in concern before continuing their conversation. Amisty clamped her hands over her ears as the clattering got to an almost deafening level of noise.
Soon the racket became so overwhelming that she was gritting her teeth in pain.
"Amisty, Amisty are you okay?" She could barely hear Harry. Her eyes were wide in surprise, pupils dilated.
"Can you not hear it?" She asked sharply, certain that they were just joking with her.
There was no way they couldn't hear the noise. It was like a building crashing to the ground.
Ron and Harry shook their heads, and Amisty was even more confused. She let out a muffled cry as the commotion got unbearable.
Suddenly, the noise stopped abruptly, and the compartment door slid open, revealing a nice looking witch pushing a cart
"Anything off the cart, dears?" Harry jumped up from his seat, and went out to the hall.
Amisty removed her hands from her ears, watching the cart with suspicious eyes. When Harry returned, he was carrying an overflowing pile of sweets and pasties.
Harry handed Amisty a pasty, before urging Ron to have one too.
Amisty bit into the pasty carefully, dropping it onto the table as the witch moved to push the cart down the hall yet again.
Her hands flew to her ears, and she prepared herself for the overwhelming noise. But it never came. She looked around, confused, and lowered her hands. What was going on?
"Whats wrong?" Harry finally asked, his brow furrowed in concern.
"So you're telling me that you couldn't hear that?" She asked, bewildered and confused.
"Well, I mean, I heard it once it got close. But you clearly heard it way in advance," Ron replied, shrugging.
"How come you're not covering your ears now?" Harry questioned, picking up her pasty and pressing it into her palm.
She took another bite, letting the sweet flavour coat her tongue as she thought.
"I can't hear it now. This is weird," She ran a hand through her hair, clearly stressed out over the recent events.
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, and Ron told her that after the sorting she should go to Madame Pomfrey.
Amisty nodded, even though she had no idea about what that meant.
The boys continued their conversation while she ate the rest of her pasty, mulling over her thoughts.
Harry and Ron began eating jelly beans from a colourful box, occasionally spitting one out or making a bitter face.
Suddenly, Amisty heard a knock on the door. Startled, she concealed her jumpiness by opening it. There was a boy around her age looking to be on the verge of tears.
"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" He asked. The three of them shook their heads and the boy cried. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," Harry replied kindly, giving him a reassuring smile. Amisty nodded, grabbing a box of candy from Harry's pile and handing it to the sniffling boy.
"Yes," the boy mumbled sadly, "Well, if you see him..." And the boy exited.
"Don't know why he's so bothered. If I had a toad, I would lose it as quick as possible. But to be fair, I brought Scabbers, so I can't really complain" Ron grumbled, giving a distasteful look at yellowish-grey rat lying on his lap.
Amisty looked at Scabbers with interest, snoring gently.
"He might have died, and I wouldn't even know the difference," Ron scathed. "I even tried turning him yellow yesterday, hoping it might make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll prove it..." He began looking around his trunk, emerging with a sad looking wand.
It was covered in scratches and chip marks, with some white hair sticking out the end.
"Unicorn hair's showing. Anyway," he rose his wand above his head, Amisty and Harry watching intently, when the compartment door rushed open, again.
The boy was back, except with a girl. She already was in her Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she asked, her tone clipped and professional sounding.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," Ron replied, but she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, instead her gaze was on the wand in Ron's hand.
"You're doing magic? Let's see it, then," The girl sat down.
Ron looked aghast.
"Um, okay," Ron mumbled awkwardly. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
Amisty watched intently, sighing inwardly as Ron waved his wand and nothing happened, Scabbers was still a dull grey, and snoring.
"Are you sure that's a real spell? I've tried a few simple spells, and they all seemed to work-" Amisty had stopped listening around there.
She felt around in her trunk for her wand, feeling the slightly textured wood brush her fingertips.
She wrapped her fingers around the thin wood, pulling it out and spinning it around. That is, until she noticed the silence in the compartment. Everyone stared at her.
"What did I miss?" She asked, an awkward smile spreading across her face.
"Your name, what's your name?" The brown-eyed girl asked.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Amisty River, nice to meet you," She replied with a smile, moving her green eyes back to her wand once again.
The girl nodded, and continued her conversation with the boys.
Finally the chit-chat ended, and the girl walked out with, "You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
Once she left, Amisty looked up, "What was her name again?"
Harry laughed, "Hermione Granger,"
"Okay, thanks,"
Amisty took a long look at the pale wand in her hand, before she tucked it snugly back into her trunk.
Now she was stroking Echo, who was hooting softly, through the bars of her cage. Amisty barely jumped this time when the compartment door opened yet again, this was starting to get old.
She turned her head to see who the new visitors were, groaning inwardly at the sight of the blonde brat from the robes shop. He clearly wasn't too happy to see her either, for his silver eyes turned steely when they spotted her.
"Is it true? Everyone's talking about how this is the Harry Potter's compartment. So it's you, isn't it?" He asked.
Glad to see his voice hadn't lost the boring tone.
Amisty sent a death glare in Harry's direction, having yet to know why everyone was so obsessed with him.
"Yes," Harry replied, glancing at the other two boys who entered the compartment.
Amisty turned around so her back was facing them at an attempt to hide a snarl. Something about them rubbed her the wrong way. It didn't help that they flanked the boy like guards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle" He gestured to the boys next to him, "And my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy,"
Ron coughed slightly, probably hiding a snigger.
Amisty smiled to herself, glad she wasn't the only one who disliked him.
Draco Malfoy glared at him, "Think my name's funny do you? No need to ask what your name is. My father told me all about how the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children worth having." he snarled.
Amisty whirled around and stared at him in disbelief, her mouth wide.
"What? Do you have something to say?" he asked, the level of venom in his tone faltering slightly.
"Yes, yes I do!" Amisty exclaimed, getting up from her seat so she was right in front of him.
"Amisty..." Harry warned, placing a hand on her shoulder. She just shrugged him off, her eyes narrowed into little green slits.
"I think we should let the girl talk for herself, Potter," Draco growled, returning her glare.
"I would like to know what gives you the right to say those kinds of things to my friends? Did your parents not teach you what manners were? From what I've heard so far, Ron is ten times the person you are, so don't you dare insult his family like that. Especially in front of me," She hissed, jabbing her finger into his chest.
"You better watch your mouth, Amisty. And how can you talk to me about manners when you don't even have a family, hm?" Draco taunted, grabbing her wrist and pushing it down. Amisty felt her heart sink at his words, "Hit a soft spot, have I? What a shame."
The black-haired girl stood there for a few more seconds, glaring at him with a clenched jaw before she turned around and went back to her seat.
A cruel smile curved the edges of his lips, and he turned back to Harry, "You'll find out soon that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go around making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry refused to take it.
"I think I can tell the difference between the wrong and right sorts myself, thank you very much," Harry replied coldly, sending a glance in Amisty and Ron's direction.
She and him traded glances, and she nodded. In a surge of triumph, she noticed a faint pink tinge on Draco's cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he threatened. "Unless you become a bit more polite, you're going to go down just like your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either. You hang around with people like the Weasleys and that big oaf Hagrid, and that'll rub off on you"
Ron and Harry stood up, Amisty soon leapt to her feet as well, anger radiating off her in waves.
"Say that again," Ron snarled, his face bright red.
"Oh, you're going to fight us now, are you," Draco smirked.
"Only if you don't get out, now," Harry growled, taking a step forward.
Amisty glanced at Draco's goons. She could take them.
Maybe.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we? We've eaten all of our food and you still seem to have some," Draco replied, and Goyle stepped forward to grab a chocolate frog from the pile.
Ron lunged forward, but before he could reach his target, Goyle leaped backward with a sharp yell of pain.
Amisty watched with a grin on her face as Goyle lifted his finger, Scabbers hanging off of his knuckle, not noticing the hands behind her.
When Scabbers finally flew off Goyle's finger, Amisty felt herself being lifted up into the air and out of the compartment.
Harry and Ron to busy checking to see if Scabbers was okay to notice her capture.
Amisty shrieked, but was cut off short as someone covered her mouth with their hand.
"Keep quiet and maybe I'll forget about what you said," A familiar voice sounded in her ears. Amisty narrowed her eyes, her fists clenched at her sides.
It was none other than Draco Malfoy.