Y/n/n - your nickname
King's Cross was crowded. Y/n, though she had been here many times before, suddenly became very afraid of getting lost. However, she simply brushed aside her newfound fear and followed her brother Percy.
After a few minutes of walking to Platform 9 ¾, she noticed that a dark-haired boy had started to follow them. She tugged quietly on Ron's sleeve and pointed to him, trying not to be too obvious. Ron looked and shrugged.
When they got to the entrance to the platform, they paused.
"Alright Y/n, why don't you go first?" her mother asked. "And Percy, you follow her."
Her stomach twisted into an excited knot. She rolled the trolley toward the brick wall. Although years of experience told her otherwise, she couldn't help but flinch as she passed through, expecting to run into a normal wall rather than through a magical barrier.
She slowed as she saw the familiar scarlet steam engine waiting there (just for her, she liked to think). Her cat hissed.
"Quiet, Socks," she whispered into his cage. He immediately quieted. She turned around to wait for her family to come through the barrier.
Next came Fred and George (she was certain she was the only one who could always tell the difference between the two), and after that, Ron and the dark-haired boy. After that was her mom, Ginny, and her dad. (Who wants her to be wrong about telling the difference between Fred and George? Comment or vote if you do)
She looked curiously at the dark-haired boy as he stared at the engine like it was the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to see his face.
He started toward the engine as it gave a loud whistle. She looked at Ron.
"Who is he?" she asked. Ron shrugged.
"He asked Mum for help finding the platform."
Strange, she thought. He must not come from a magical family. Is that why he came alone? Why aren't his parents here?
She hugged and kissed her parents goodbye and hurried onto the train. She stopped when Fred and George passed her, looking very excited.
George grabbed her by the shoulders. "You'll never guess who we just met, Y/n/n."
"Who?" she asked.
"You know that dark-haired boy- you can't deny that you saw him, we know you did," Fred replied. "Well... turns out, he's Harry Potter."
"Really?" she asked. "Wicked. But... shouldn't he have guardians? It looks like he came here alone..."
Fred and George shrugged. "Beats us."
They scurried away. She started strolling down the train, seeing which compartments were full and which weren't. Most of them were; others had people who looked like they didn't want to be bothered.
When she got to the end of the train, she found a compartment that contained the twins.
"Hello again, Y/n," Fred greeted her. "Fancy meeting you here."
She rolled her eyes. They landed on a boy with jet-black hair; that wasn't him, was it? She hadn't gotten a very good look at his face.
She rolled her eyes. "It looks like this compartment is full, so I'll go now. See you two later!"
With that, she closed the compartment door and began searching for a compartment again.
Down five doors, she found Ron and yet another black-haired boy.
"Hey Y/n," Ron said. "Found anywhere yet?"
"No," she replied. "Everywhere's full."
"Come sit with us, then," Ron offered. "There's room for one more."
She came in and sat down in the seat next to Ron, across from the boy. "Who are you?" she asked. "Er- I mean, not to be rude or anything. I saw you were following us, and I was curious."
"That's alright," he said. "I'm... I'm Harry Potter."
Y/n's eyes widened and she looked at Ron, who nodded in confirmation to her unasked question.
"Wow, you're Harry Potter? What's it like in the Muggle world?"
He hesitated and Y/n realized she was probably asking too many questions. "Sorry. You don't have to answer that."
"Well..." he said. "It's alright, I guess. I mean, the Dursleys aren't that great, but if I can get away from them it isn't too bad."
"Who're the Dursleys?"
"They're my family- er, the muggle family I was sent to live with since, you know..."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
"No, it's alright. I never really knew them anyway."
The compartment door slid open. A round-faced boy stood there. "Have any of you seen a toad? His name's Trevor and I lost him."
Ron and Harry shook their heads.
"You know, I might have seen him somewhere," Y/n said, vaguely remembering a toad hopping around on the platform. "I'll help you look for him."
"Really?" the boy asked, his face brightening. "Thanks!"
"My pleasure," she said as she got up. She exited and closed the compartment door again. "What's your name?"
"Neville."
"I'm Y/n."
"Thanks for offering to help, Y/n," Neville said gratefully. She nodded.
"So," she began, her detective instincts kicking in. "When was the last time you saw Trevor?"
"Back at the station," Neville replied. His face paled. "Oh no," he said. "I must have left him there!" His breathing started becoming unsteady.
"Shh, it's okay, Neville, let's not jump to any conclusions," she comforted him.
"But you're right, the last time I saw him was at the station, I've left him, I'm never going to see Trevor again!" Tears began to well in his eyes.
"No, no," Y/n said again. "I have a feeling I might have seen him hopping around in one of the compartments. Let's go look."
He wiped at his nose. "All right."
Thus the search for the toad commenced. Y/n narrated their every move in her head, seeing everything in black and white, having no idea where all this was coming from. Mysterious jazz music began to play in her head, featuring an upright bass.
We begin to walk down the corridor, no idea where the toad might be. There may be other, more efficient ideas to get us started, but we have no time. The toad must be found immediately.
I open the first compartment door. "Hello," I say, looking around at the people in the compartment. "Have any of you, by chance, seen a toad? We seem to be missing one."
"What are you doing?" Neville asked. "Now you're acting all weird."
Y/n cast a glance toward him. "I'm trying to help you find a toad. I don't know exactly what's going on either. It's like I'm in one of those Muggle mystery movies."
I cringe as I say that aloud. Everyone in the compartment looks at me weirdly. I hook my thumbs in my pockets and sigh.
"Look," I say. "There aren't very many toads you see around. Nobody seems to like them. If you saw a toad, tell us where you saw it."
A girl with bushy brown hair stands up. "I might have seen it," she says in a voice that, to me, implies that she is the culprit.
"AHA!" I shout, dramatically pointing to her. "IT WAS YOU WHO STOLE THE TOAD THAT BELONGED TO THIS YOUNG MAN! TELL ME, GIRL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO POOR TREVOR THE TOAD?!"
"Y/n, calm down!" Neville said. "She didn't steal my toad. He usually just hops off anywhere."
I gasp. "So... your toad has been lost before?"
Neville shakes his head and sighs. "That's not what-"
"You're in cahoots with this woman, aren't you?!" I ask him. "You were with her from the very beginning, plotting all of this so you could MURDER ME! I should have known from the moment you walked into the compartment. I trusted you, Neville. How could you?"
Neville grabbed Y/n by the shoulders. "Y/n, I'm not in cahoots with this girl. I have never met her before in my life. Where are you getting all of this?"
Drat, he's not lying. I can see it in his face.
"Sorry," Y/n said, shuffling on her feet a bit. "I guess I got a bit carried away." She turned to the brown-haired girl. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I don't know what's wrong with me."
"That's alright," she said, still somewhat confused. "Would you mind if I joined you to help look for the toad?"
"Really?" Neville asked. "You would help?"
"Yes, if that's alright."
They left the compartment with the new girl. "My name is Hermione Granger. Who are you two?"
"I'm Y/n Weasley."
"Neville Longbottom."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Hermione said. "Now, where should we start?"
They continued down along the corridor, then back up again. Finally, they made it back up to Ron and Harry's compartment. Y/n stood outside and let their words crumble into mush in her mind as she stared into the compartment across from them, which contained the boy she'd seen earlier in Fred and George's compartment. Why'd he move?
Hermione and Neville came back out.
"Would you two mind sitting with me for the rest of the way?" Neville asked.
"Sure," Y/n and Hermione replied in unison. It turned out that the compartment right across from them was the one that Neville had chosen. They all sat down in it, and the boy scooted closer to the corner of the compartment, pressing his nose deeper into his book.
"So," Hermione said. "What's your magical descent?"
Is she a pureblood? That sounds like something a pureblood might say.
"Pureblood," Neville replied. "We weren't sure I had enough magic, though, so we were kind of surprised that I got in."
Hermione nodded and turned to Y/n. "What about you?"
"What do you care? You wouldn't like me anyway because I'm a bloodtraitor apparently."
"A what?"
"A bloodtraitor."
"I don't know what that is."
Really? "So... you're not one of those purebloods that think they're better than everyone else?"
"Er, no.. what would make you think so?"
"I, uh, I guess I just assumed from the way you asked that question. It's usually the kind of question some egotistic pureblood might ask you in your first conversation."
The boy snickered at that comment.
Hermione shook her head. "No, I come from a Muggle family. I've studied up on all the types of magical descent, but I've never heard the term bloodtraitor before. What's that supposed to mean?"
Ah, so she's a Muggleborn. "It means I'm a pureblood but we don't hate Muggles so the other purebloods treat us like scum."
Hermione made a sound of protest at that. "That is not fair in any way. Why do they even care? We're all human anyway."
"It's because they're all idiots," Y/n replied. The boy chuckled. She looked over at him again, her mouth beginning to tug into a grin. If he'd looked up, there was no sign of it because his face was as close to the book as it had been before, the only difference being that he smiled a bit.
Hermione and Neville left again to go look for the toad, but Y/n didn't even notice because she had been staring at the boy so contentedly. She watched the changes his face went through as he read the book. Eventually, she looked away from his face and read the title of the book. Hamlet, it read. She wondered what it was about; she'd seen a book with that title before once or twice when she babysat for the Muggles who lived near their house but had never picked it up to see what was in it.
Hermione and Neville came back. Since Hermione was already in her robes, she reminded the rest of them to get them on as well. Y/n headed towards the back of the train, where there was a magically expanded area for the bathroom and changing. She quickly changed and went back to the compartment. She saw that the boy was no longer there when she came back.
About a half-hour later, the train pulled into a station next to a little town and screeched to a stop. Y/n rushed out the door and made her way out of the train as soon as possible.
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