Effervescence | h.p.

i | xi. the arrival

On the Hogwarts Express, Harry and Lyra looked for an empty compartment for the two to share. It didn't take a particularly long amount of time for the two to find themselves settled into seats that sat across from each other.

Tired and quiet, Lyra sat with her left side to the window. She lay her head against it, immediately feeling the sadness of leaving her fathers overwhelming her a bit.

Harry was upset to see his best friend so disappointed to leave. He was sad about leaving his parents but he felt he needed to be strong, if not for himself, for Lyra. He needed to stay positive and keep an upbeat feeling in the compartment, no matter how sad they both felt. They still had each other, and that would be enough incentive to keep a good attitude for a while.

"Aren't you excited to learn magic? Then when we go home for the holidays, we can all celebrate together. Doesn't that sound like fun, Ly?" Harry questioned.

He just needed to keep her mind off of the growing distance between her and her fathers. He just needed to keep her distracted until she was surrounded by new friends.

"Yeah, I guess," she shrugged as a response.

She was tired from a lack of sleep last night, due to excitement and nightmares plaguing her mind. Her thoughts were under the surveillance of a thick, dark cloud that had been formed out of her worse fears. She didn't want to discuss her thoughts and fears from last night with anyone. She didn't want to burden them anymore than they were already just by having her and her emotional baggage around.

"You had a nightmare last night, didn't you?" Harry asked, gently.

He somehow knew when she had, had nightmares the previous night. Call it intuition but he somehow knew, even when Lyra didn't tell any other living soul.

Lyra just let her eyes widen to show her astonishment towards Harry's attentiveness when it came to knowing what she was thinking about.

"Um . . . would you be mad if I answered yes to that?" she questioned. She didn't need to answer his question, her response was answer enough.

"Ly, you know you can always talk to me, right? You can tell me when something bothers you. I won't tell anyone anything you don't want me to share — we've always swore by that. It wouldn't change suddenly now, but I'm getting worried about you. You're more quiet than ever, and you were already always quiet. I just want the truth," he said, truthfully and strongly.

"I know. It's just . . . I-I don't really like talking about them," she answered just as truthfully.

"That's all right. Just . . . please at least tell me next time, okay?" he asked.

"I will," she promised.

She knew she would likely break that promise, but it was the only way out of the conversation.

All of a sudden, a boy appeared, sliding open the compartment door. "Anyone else sitting here? Everywhere else is full."

Shaking their heads, Lyra and Harry decided one of them would move so the new boy with red-hair would be sitting on his own bench. Harry decided to get up and move next to Lyra, who was still resting her head comfortably against the window.

"So, who are you guys, then? I don't think I know you guys," the red-head said to the other children.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter," then Harry indicated to Lyra, continuing, "and this is my friend Lyra Lupin-Black."

"Are you really Lyra Lupin-Black?" the boy asked with wide, hopeful, excited eyes.

A little unnerved and shocked by his reaction to her name and not Harry's, she picked up her head slightly and gave a quick, suspicious nod.

"Wicked! Did you really defeat . . . You-Know-Who and get hit with the killing curse?" he asked, enthusiastically.

"Er — yeah, I guess so," she drew out the ending, unsure of where this was headed. "Um, sorry but, I don't think I caught your name," she said with a slight tone of questioning towards the end of her sentence.

"Oh, sorry — erm — I'm Ronald Weasley. I go by Ron usually, though," the red-headed boy said, who was now identified as Ron Weasley.

"Cool," Harry said in response. He was hopeful that this Ron would be friends with him and Lyra and would be a bit better than the blond-headed boy they had previously met in the robe shop.

Silence took over the compartment for a little while after that, with Ron looking at the only girl in the compartment with adoration and surprise. He looked at her as if she would disappear if he took his eyes off of her for more than the time it took to blink.

Feeling his stare for a while and becoming irritated with his gawking, Lyra snapped a bit.

"You know, you don't have to watch me sleep. I'm not going anywhere," she stated boldly. Then she mumbled, "Unless you keep staring at me like that. Then, I'm bookin' it." Only Harry could hear the last part, which make him break out into a small fit of giggles.

His contagious laughter began entering Lyra's ears, causing her to let out a small laugh. Eventually, Ron let himself loosen up a bit around one of the most famous people in the Wizarding World and laughed with the others. Soon, the whole compartment was full of happy laughter and when they finished, they had basically forgotten what was so funny. Well, Ron never knew what the others had found so funny in the first place.

At some point in their journey, a bushy-haired girl came in when Ron was about to perform a spell on his rat. Milo didn't seem to like the rat very much, so Lyra had to keep a tight, firm grip on his collar. Milo already wasn't very nice to anyone who wasn't Lyra, but this was a new level of dislike she had never seen him act on.

The girl's bushy hair was brown in color. She had quite large front teeth, a boy with her, and a rather bossy sort of voice. She said to the compartment's occupants, "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one." At the end, she indicated to the boy next to her, who was apparently Neville.

After an uneventful few minutes where the brown-haired girl asked a few silly question, told a bit about herself, and her telling everyone her name was Hermione Granger, the girl left. She recommended quickly before she left that the three should change before they arrived at the castle before taking the toadless Neville boy with her.

Changing into their robes and finishing the sweets Lyra and Harry bought to share at the beginning of the train ride, the three found themselves ready to attend their school's Welcoming Feast they had been told about. The train arrived at the station a few minutes after the trio was done preparing their arrival.

Getting off the train with each other, all first years were called over by a giant of a man. He had a big, hairy face and a large, scruffy beard that barely allowed the kids to see his black, beady eyes. He requested that all the first year students get into boats in sets of no more than four.

Then they were off to Hogwarts.