The Half-Blood Princess- d.m

II*

*slight mention of alcohol usage*

serena's pov:

I made my way into a train compartment after my encounter with that little prick, scurrying past all the fellow wizards and witches. After passing a few compartments, including the teacher's department, I was on my own. I looked around through each row of seats with worry, fearing I won't find an empty seat for myself. After what felt like many minutes, I found an empty compartment. I sat down, putting a small backpack next to me, hearing many scared animal noises from afar.

"Crookshanks! Get back here!"

I look around to see a girl with curly brown hair running past the compartments.

She turned around and opened each compartment until she got to mine.

"Hello, have you seen a cat by chance? He has frizzy ginger hair, sort of mean," she went on a tangent describing this poor cat.

"Yeah, I mean, I might've. A lot of animals have gone to the compartment behind," pointing behind me.

"Thanks uh-, I've never gotten your name, are you new?" she started to continue trying to guess my name before giving up.

"Name's Serena. Yeah, I am new unfortunately. I've heard from a little bird called the Daily Prophet that you're Hermione," swiveling my legs around to face her.

"Oh, yeah..the Daily Prophet sort of exaggerates," she chuckled. After a few more minutes of light banter, she gets up and starts for the sliding door after seeing her cat run down the hallway, "I'd love to stay and chat some more Alana, but I have got a cat to catch, see you," she smiled and scurried off.

I sat back down in my original position in the now empty compartment, pulling a magazine out of my bag when all of a sudden my nostrils get a big whiff of a smell called 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓋𝑒. Smells like Slytherin. 

I knew that smelled familiar. Father described it as a smell that only kids with boatloads of money have. Teenagers from all years came past my compartment, almost looking like a sea of green robes with how many were in the train car.

I clutched my bag, praying that I wouldn't have any run-ins.

After seeing the sea of green die down, I laid my head on the cool glass window and my eyes became heavy. I ended up falling asleep for the rest of the train ride.

*fast forward three hours later*

The train finally came to a halt at a path leading to Hogwarts. I grabbed my trunk that felt as if it weighed 50 pounds, put on my plain robes and stepped off. Immediately, we had to go onto carriages that were assumed to be pulled by magic, but I truly knew it was pulled by thestrals. 

The cold air sent chills to my whole body. The night dusk's smell reminded me of our Swiss vacation cottage that resided in the alps. The trees surrounding us along with the thestrals were magnificent. From the looks of it, Hogwarts on the outside seemed like a very photogenic place or as the Americans say, very Instagram worthy.

After the long journey to the castle, I finally made my way up the stairs into the Great Hall. I was nervous considering I was the only sixth year getting sorted. All the abundance of red, green, yellow, and blue robes along with each house expressing their pride made me feel alone, knowing I didn't belong anywhere. Before too long, we made our way to the front of the room.

Standing before me was a tall but proper, older lady that was behind a stool where the sorting hat sat. She looked like a proper British gran but she held some sort of significance with her long cloak and her witch's hat that laid at a very specific angle on top of her head.