Dark Magic

The Express Train

I had hardly slept a wink, unable to contain my excitement for the next day. Professor Snape had left me some money, which he had retrieved from a vault containing wizard currency (galleons) that my parents had left for myself and my brother. So, I had enough money to buy myself breakfast and lunch on the way to the school.

I had been up almost all night reading through the potions book as my teacher instructed. I could only hope that Snape would be my potions teacher. He would be the only person I knew besides Ash, who had slept on my bed with me through the night. I did not mind the mice in the room and, of course, neither did she.

I would need to make a good first impression, maybe even make some friends on the train. So I took my nicest outfit I owned and plaited my hair so that it would be nice and wavy when we arrived.

The journey to the platform wasn't very long, and Ash followed me the whole way there. She would have to go back in her cage when we boarded the train and be put in the back carriages with the other pets.

I found platforms 9 and 10 at King's cross easily. And I found myself clinging onto my trolley for dear life as I closed my eyes and began running at the wall. To my disbelief, and as Snape had told me, I ran straight through it and appeared on the other side, on Platform 9 and 3/4. Ash jumped onto the trolley and into her cage, and I found a compartment as close to the back as I could.

The other students waved to their parents out of the windows, but I found myself curled up on the chair as I continued in my potions book where I had left off. There were around 70 pages left; I could easily have those finished by the time we arrive. 

"Excuse me?" I looked up, and my eyes met those of a red-headed girl with a button nose and freckles to match. She smiled shyly, "Do you mind if I join you? My brothers kicked me out of their compartment."

I shook my head, motioning towards the seat opposite me. "Not at all." She nodded, struggling to carry her trunk inside. I got up from my seat and helped her lift it onto the shelf above her seat. "Thanks." She huffed, finally taking a seat.

"My names Ginevra Weasley, but everything calls me Ginny." I smiled towards her outstretched hand, gladly accepting it with a firm shake. "Nice to meet you. I'm Emerald Potter."

Her eyes widened at my introduction and had she not been sitting in her seat she grew pale, on the brink of passing out. "Merlin's, No way! My brother said you was alive but I didn't believe him!" She gasped.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, "How would your brother know about me?" I scoffed, knowing that, as Snape had said, the Potter name was quite a famous one- just not mine.

"Because he's best friends with your brother, Harry." She reached over and grabbed my hand, "Come! You have to meet him!" She pried me from my seat before I had a moment to protest, and we began running down the train.

"RON!" She called over and over again as flocks of students came to their compartment doors, angered by our disturbance. Two identical, red-headed boys with the same button nose peered through one of the doors, staring at us both, "Ginny! What are you playing at?" They shrieked at their younger sister.

She gasped for breath, coming to a halt in front of them both, "Fred, George-have you seen Ron and Harry?"

"Not since this morning - Percy said he didn't even see them get on the train." One of them stated. Ginny looked confused, "They couldn't have missed it, could they?" She pried.

They both shrugged, "Who knows?" Before the other one finished, "Who's this?"

I shook my head dismissively, not wanting to make the same mistake I did with Ginny, thus gaining the same reaction from them. "Oh, I'm-"

"-Emerald Potter!" I gasped at the statement, as the voice did not come from Ginny, but someone behind me. Turning, I found a girl, not much taller than myself, with mousy, brown, frizzy hair  and slightly larger teeth than average.

"I couldn't believe it when Harry told me you was alive!" She gasped, wide-eyed as she reached out to shake my hand, "My name is Hermione Granger." She introduced, before her gaze averted back to Ginny over my shoulder, "Oh, and I didn't see Harry or Ron board either."

"That's odd." Ginny sighed, pursing her lips a little at the statement. Hermione's grasp still held onto my hand, a little tighter than before, "You and Ginny must come into our compartment. I've got so much to ask you about!" She spoke excitedly, but I shook my head once more.

"Actually, I was hoping to get ahead on some reading, but feel more than welcome to join them, Ginny." I forced a smile, finding myself very uncomfortable in this unfamiliar territory.

These people actually wanted to get to know me? I was not a stranger to popularity, especially at the orphanage. But it was a negative popularity, that lead to bullying and more isolation than is good for a person. All of these people knew me, but I did not want it to be like before. I had a habit of pushing people away before they could do the same to me. Maybe things would be different this time?

But my introvert nature stopped me from pursuing a friendship with the young witches and wizards around me, and the comfort of my own compartment beckoned me.

Before anybody had the time to protest, I apologised and made my way back to my compartment with haste. 

"Colloportus." I spoke simply as I shut the door, preventing anyone else from entering as I sat down and enveloped myself into reading. I had been alternating between the Potions book from Professor Snape and 'The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1' provided for my charms lessons, and lots of these charms were proving rather useful. Maybe next time I could try to make friends with the Weasleys and Hermione Granger? What a gift it would be to finally have just one friend.

But the inevitability ate away at me that I would soon be meeting a sibling I never knew I had or even thought I wanted. Would he want to know me? He might think I am a freak like everybody else. Who knows? But secretly, deep down, I hoped-more than anything in the world-he would want to know me and maybe even grow to like me...