Rise to Power

7. Little Women

7. Little Women 

"I'm gonna miss you," Asterin said, hugging Charlie tightly and burying her face in his shirt.

"Don't worry, I'll be home by Christmas, then break, and by next year you'll be riding the train with me," Charlie said, hugging his younger sister back.

"And you'll write?" Asterin said, looking up.

"Yes. Now get off. I need to get on the train before it leaves." Charlie said as he shook Asterin off, looking towards the brick wall. 9 ¾. How am I supposed to get through? He thought, head tilting in question at the wall.

His mum could always see right through him. He was rather a closed book to everybody but his family, but they knew him all too well and his mum set a comforting hand on his shoulder, tilting her head slightly downwards so that it was unnoticeable to muggles. But Sorin, who was passing by, could still hear her as she lowered her voice "Just run straight into the wall, and you'll be on the other side." She had said, passing it off as a clearing off the throat before giving him a little push forward so that he stumbled a bit.

"Alright," he breathed, looking back to where his parents and sister were standing, his father giving him a small nod, before running straight into the wall.

It was a joke, wasn't it? I'm just gonna run into a wall and make a fool out of myself, aren't I? I swear if this is a- and before he knew it, he was standing on the other side, watching as many kids and their families were saying their last goodbyes before the children boarded the train.

~~~~

Sorin Fortescue pushed his trolley along platform 9 ¾, marveling at the bright red train while walking beside it and towards the entrance. He was one of the first kids there, only about 5 other families with him, he observed. He saw one family whispering to each other as they stared after him a look of distaste on their face. He heard a faint "What's someone like him going to Hogwarts for?" and took off fleeing to the train, blushing furiously. Who cares if he was early? It was better than being ridiculed on a completely unfamiliar platform. Sorin dragged his bags into the hall, his toad perched lazily on his shoulder as he started looking for the compartment he wanted to sit in.

Once he'd found a nice compartment, he carefully pushed his things up onto the top shelf before settling down and making himself comfortable in his seat, his toad now sitting in his hand, having happily jumped off and now croaking mindlessly on his wrist. He pulled up his feet and sat crisscrossing his legs, folding them underneath himself a bit uncomfortably and opening the page in his book where he'd left off and started reading again, his eyes roving the endless pages, putting thought into every word he looked at, and tracing the letters as he went.

After a few minutes alone, the compartment door opened, a girl with sandy blonde hair and chocolaty eyes peeked her head in. "Sorry, is it alright if I sit in this compartment? The train's filling up fast," she trailed off picking at the dirt underneath her fingernails nervously.

Sorin blinked, then realized that she was actually talking to him before shaking out of it and quickly answering. "Oh, uh, yeah. You can sit here." The girl smiled and pulled her things into the compartment, putting them on the shelf next to Sorin's, before sitting across from him.

They sat in a moment of silence, staring at each other awkwardly before the girl spoke up. "I'm Poppy," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. "What's your name?"

Sorin took her hand slowly. "I'm Sorin. Fortescue. Sorin Fortescue." He said. Poppy smiled brightly, Sorin giving her an awkward grin in return. "Well, Sorin Fortescue, what book were you reading?"

"Oh, uh, Bright April." He said holding up the book before thinking how weird it was to casually hold up a book and set it back down in his lap. Poppy didn't seem to notice, or if she did she didn't mind how awkward he was being. "I haven't read that one yet. It's by Marguerite de Angeli, right?" Sorin nodded. Poppy held up her own book. "I'm reading Little Women right now, but I should read that one when I'm done. It doesn't seem too long, yeah?" She said, looking up at him for an answer. Sorin shook his head quickly.

Poppy started reading her book, biting her lip softly as she focused on the words. Sorin watched her, working up the courage to ask her a question. Any question, just desperate to continue talking to her. Sorin didn't have the best luck making friends, or having conversations with people for that matter. He inhaled and then asked, "Whattypeofowlisthat?" all in one breath, averting his eyes from her and looking at the soft white owl perched in the cage. Poppy looked up, laughing softly.

"A snowy owl," she said, looking over at it. "Her name is Umbro." She said, smiling fondly at her owl.

Before he could answer, the compartment door slammed open. "Poppy!" A girl with black hair and cool blue eyes called, looking at Poppy with a huge smile on her face as Poppy lit up. The girl looked out into the hallway, yelling "Minnie! Down here!", a small "Coming!" being replied from the other end of the train before shoving her stuff on another shelf and plopping down next to Poppy. She looked over at Sorin, who was confused as to what was going on, and that showed very clearly on his face.

"I'm Mia!" She said, smiling brightly, with her tooth caught on her smile. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sorin," he said quietly as a big "oof" was heard outside the compartment just before a "Sorry, my bad." and soon enough, there was another girl with a mix of light brown and dirty blonde hair with hazel eyes coming into the compartment with her things as well. She shoved her things up on the shelf next to Mia's, her cat jumping onto the seat next to Sorin. Sorin jumped and quickly moved over, the cat staring at him. The girl sat down next to Sorin in the same fashion Mia had, lifting her black cat up and setting it on her lap.

She looked up at the girls across from her, smiling a toothy grin before looking at Sorin. "Hey, I'm Minnie. Sorry, did my cat scare you?" She asked softly, noticing his discomfort.

Sorin nodded quickly, eyes wide. "Yeah just a tad," he said, his voice a little bit higher than before. The girls giggled, and Minnie looked over at Poppy. "Hi, Poppy. How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks. You?" Poppy replied, blushing slightly.

"I'm great," Minnie said as her cat started purring. "Oh, not now, Pluto!"

Poppy looked over at Mia. "Where's your sister?"

Mia groaned loudly, rolling her eyes. "Step-sister. She's probably with that friend of hers, Mona." She said in a mocking tone. "The two of them do everything together. At home they'd go into Ella's room for hours, giggling loudly and being annoying," she said, slumping down in her seat before bouncing up, reaching for her trunk, and digging through it. She pulled out a small piece of paper, reading it before shoving it in her pocket. "I promised my cousins that I'd go try and find them on the train later," she said, sitting back down. "So, Sorin, are you in your first year too?"

Sorin looked up from the book he was reading, shocked that she was talking to him. "Oh, uh, yeah," but he was quickly cut off from what he was about to say as the compartment door opened once more.

A pale boy with dark brown hair and honey eyes rushed in with his things, out of breath. Sorin quickly recognized him as the boy he passed outside of platform 9 ¾.

He turned around and jumped a little when he saw four pairs of eyes staring up at him. "Oh. Hi, uh, sorry. All the other compartments were filled. I'm Charlie Nott."

Minnie smiled up at him. "Hi! Well, I'm Minnie, that's Mia and Poppy, and this is Sorin." She gestured to everyone. "I'm sure we can make room for your things." She said, standing up and moving trunks around. "It'd be easier, of course, if Mia didn't have an obnoxiously large trunk." She muttered under her breath, Mia hearing and swatting her with Poppy's book.

Charlie gave a relieved smile and put his things up, sitting down next to Sorin.

And with that, the train was off.