The moment Jared had gotten his letter he had been thrilled.
Of course, the letter hadn't exactly come as a surprise, Jared was a half-blood, his mother a muggle-born and his father a pure-blood. He'd been ready for this day for years, and now here he was, standing on the platform of nine and three quarters, trunk in hand.
"Are you sure you have everything?" His mom asked.
"We can always owl him anything he might've forgotten." His dad added.
"Right, right." His mom smoothed a hand through Jared's hair. "I can't believe our little boy is growing up!"
Ugh, both of parents were too emotional. He just wanted to get on the train and not see them for another couple months.
"Don't forget to be nice to Evan, his mother said he's been going through a hard time." His mother reminded him gently.
Yeah, he remembered Evan, he had his heard from his father that his mother had come to the ministry in a panic. His mother was a muggle and his dad a pure-blood, so when his father left them, his mother didn't know how to care for a magical child.
Jared guess she figured it out, as he spotted Evan down a little ways on the platform, his mother looking nervous and out of place as she seemed to try and cheer Evan up. The pudgy boy was begging her not to leave him, that he'd go to a muggle school, and she almost looked like she wanted to agree with him.
Before she did, the train roared as it rolled into the track, stopping magnificently before them. Jared's mother squeaked.
"You're going to have so much fun, Jared!" She smiled. "I'll write to you every week, no, twice a week!"
"Oh good." Jared mumbled, tugging his trunk over to the entrance, where everyone was lined up. "Bye, love you." He got into line before they could shower him in embarrassing good-bye kisses. It's not like he was dying, he'd see them in a couple of months. However, as soon as he got into line, he began to wish he had stayed back for a bit.
"Hi, I'm Alana!" The girl in front of him turned around. "I can't believe this is actually happening! When my family first got my letter, we all thought it must've been some sort of joke, but then I got all these instructions on what to pick up and what magic was, things started making sense! While I was in Diagon Alley I picked up a bunch of books on the wizarding world, and it's absolutely fascinating! I used to want to be a lawyer, but I've been researching careers and I think that I want to study hard to be a healer."
Dear lord, does this girl breathe?
"Oh, yeah, cool." Jared replied. "I'm Jared."
"It's nice to meet you!" Alana beamed. "Oh, we should sit next to each other on the train!"
"Yeah, that'd be great." Jared said with absolutely no sincerity, but it didn't seem that Alana picked up on that hint. The two climbed onto the train and found an empty cart. He flopped down near the window and Alana sat across from him.
"I've also been doing research in the houses at Hogwarts, it's such a great idea that they split everyone off according to personality, it'll make it easier to make friends!" Alana chimed and Jared gave her a hum in reply, leaning his head on the window.
There was a slight tap on the door as Evan slid inside awkwardly, "Can I sit with you guys?" He asked. Jared frowned at the boy, his robes were a mess. Was it possible to get clothing fifth-hand?
"Of course, come take a seat next to me!" Alana patted her seat and Evan complied, sitting down next to her.
"Hi Jared, how have you been?" Evan asked, giving Jared a small smile. God, was Jared gonna be stuck with these two?
"I'm okay-"
"Evan, do you know much about Hogwarts or was coming here a surprise for you?" Alana asked. "It was a complete surprise for me, my family thought it was a practical joke at first." The train started moving forward, and Jared watched out the window, spotting his parents waving frantically at him. He gave an awkward wave back and sighed.
Evan hesitated, eyes wide, "Um, it's kinda a long story. I knew about Hogwarts, but my mom can't do magic-"
"Your mom's a muggle." Jared corrected.
"-right, a muggle." Evan nodded.
"Oh, is that slang! That's so fascinating, what other words are there?" Alana asked eagerly as once again the door to their cabin opened, this time revealing a pissed-off, lanky boy with long, dark hair and a shorted girl with brown hair and blue barrettes that looked equally pissed-off.
"Can we sit here." The boy said as he flopped down next to Jared, clearly not caring how he answered.
"Oh, sure, that's cool." Jared said sarcastically. The girl took a seat next to Evan, deliberately not sitting next to the boy.
"We wouldn't have had to be in the same cart if you hadn't made us late." The girl huffed.
"Shut up, Zoe, you shouldn't even be here." The boy rolled his eyes.
"I have just as much right to be here as you do." The girl, Zoe apparently, replied.
"Hi, I'm Alana!" Alana leaned forward in her seat to smile at the two newcomers.
"I'm Zoe." Zoe nodded, acknowledging Alana.
"Connor." The boy snorted, sinking down in his seat.
"Are you two twins?" Evan asked lightly. Both of them looked disgusted.
"No, that's my little sister. The only reason she's here is because we're close enough in age to be shipped out together to Hogwarts. Really, she should be going next year." Connor glared at Zoe.
"Shut up, you haven't got a magical bone in your body. Really, for a pure-blood, you would've thought you could at least work your wand right." Zoe snapped back at him.
"It's a weird wand! It has a mind of its own, besides, I haven't gotten a proper chance to use it." Connor snatched his wand from his robes, revealing it.
"As if that's the problem." Zoe leaned back in her seat and it was silent again.
Speaking of wands, Jared figured it was as good of a time as any to show off his sweet wand. He'd had it specially made and picked out. Jared removed it from its place in his robes and held it out delicately.
"Look At mine, it's a 10 1/4 inch dogwood, with a phoenix feather core." Jared said proudly, puffing his chest out a bit.
"Jesus, you're talking about it like it's your dick." Connor snorted, Jared raised his wand at the boy threateningly, even though the only spell he knew was Lumos, and that wasn't very frightening.
Connor simply stared back at him, smirking. "You're funny." He licked his lips and leaned back, watching as Jared lowered his wand.
Jared felt his blood boil, the nerve of this boy. He thought he could just waltz in, insult him, and Jared would be just fine with that?
"My wand's cool too! Here it is." Alana pulled at a delicate, dark wand. "It's an 11 inch ebony with a dragon-heartstring core."
"You guys have all these cool ones, but mine has a unicorn hair core." Evan frowned.
"Unicorn hair wands are very good, Evan! I've done the research, they are very faithful to their owners, so it'll never leave you!" Alana told him, patting his shoulders.
"Hear that, Ev, something won't leave you for once." Jared rolled his eyes and looked out the window again.
Evan looked hurt.
"Sorry, what did you say your name was again?"
Alana asked Connor.
"Connor Murphy." He replied, sitting up straighter. Jared's eyes went wide.
As in, the pure-blood, very wealthy, wizard family, the Murphy's?
"Our family is a long line of pure-bloods, not a single drop of muggle blood in our veins." Zoe said proudly. Alana scrunched up her face, she was obviously confused by this.
"What's wrong with muggle blood?" Alana asked, Connor snorted.
"It's filthy." He replied simply.
Jared had already decided he didn't like this Connor. Only Jared could make fun of his new friends, fuck him.
"It's almost as filthy as your fucking mouth, so shut up." Jared snapped. Connor clenched his jaw, his wand appearing from his robes.
"Since you seemed so eager to point your wand at me earlier, why don't you put your money where your mouth is, huh?" Connor's eyes glittered with anger. Not backing down, Jared began to pull his wand out of his robes. Before he could, Connor shouted out,
"Flipendo!"
Jared was knocked back against the window. Hard. His wand dropped from his hand as his head spun.
"Connor!" Zoe scolded.
"Oh my gosh, Jared are you okay?" Evan had rushed over to the boy.
"I'm fine." Jared grunted, refusing the help and getting up himself. "But you better watch yourself, Murphy." He glared at Connor as he snatched up his wand.
"Or what, you're gonna point your wand at me again?" Connor laughed. "Do you even know how to use it?" Jared flushed red, but stood his ground.
"Get out of my cabin!" Jared demanded, staring Connor down. Connor squinted for a moment, watching Jared carefully. Then, without a word, the boy stood up and waltzed out of the cabin.
Jared sighed and flopped down onto the seat.
It was going to be a long year if he had to put up with that boy.