𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐌𝐘 - 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

three | the train

-THREE-

The scenes outside rushed by in a blur of greens and browns, and the floor trembled as the train chugged and whistled down the track. Khalida looked outside the window and immediately grabbed her sketchbook as well as notebook. Pulling out a clump of drawing material, she began to draw.

As she let the time pass, a boy with flame red hair and another with a mop of messy jet-black hair appeared at her compartment door.

"Can we sit here?" Asked the redhead. "Everywhere else is full." 

Khalida nodded, and slid her sleeping kneazle towards her carefully. She put her sketchbook away and lifted Lilith onto her lap, stroking the cat's soft fur. 

"Nice cat." Said the black-haired boy.

Only then did Khalida get a good look at the boy, and a sudden flash of realisation made her gasp, "You're Harry Potter!" The boy, Harry, laughed and said he was. 

"You're...?" She trailed off, looking at the redhead. 

"Ron Weasley," said the boy, "Nice to meet you." 

"And you." Khalida smiled. "The name's Khalida Lupin." 

Soon the trio were talking as though they'd been friends for years, when it had really been no less than twenty minutes. In those twenty minutes, Harry had used a bag of money to buy almost everything off the trolley cart, and tried his first chocolate frog. Well, the frog escaped from the window, but Harry got his first collectable card. Ron introduced the pair to his pet rat, Scabbers. 

"By the way, this is Scabbers." He said, picking up his rat. "A bit pathetic, isn't he?" 

"Not the most...interesting pet, I'd say. But he isn't pathetic." Replied Khalida. 

"Easy for you to say! You've got a kneazle!" He realised that the cat was on the girl's lap and said, "Lilith doesn't find rats appetizing...does she?"

"No," the girl laughed, "She's got more of a fancy for mice, not rats." 

"Fred gave me a spell to turn him yellow." Said Ron, "Want to see?" 

"Yeah!" Exclaimed Harry. Khalida nodded and sat more comfortably, ready to watch this crash and burn. 

"Ahem," Ron cleared his throat, "Sun-" 

They were interrupted by a girl with bushy brown hair coming to the compartment door. "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." 

"No." Came Ron's reply. 

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then." The girl's expression became a little haughty, as Ron cleared his throat and said, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" He waved his wand around, but nothing happened. 

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" Asked the girl. "I've tried a few simple ones myself." She sat in front of Harry and pointed her wand at his glasses, saying, "Oculus Reparo." The tape whizzed off the green-eyed boy's glasses and it, as the spell suggested, magically repaired itself. "Holy cricket!" Exclaimed the girl, "You're Harry Potter! I'm Hermione Granger." She added. She glanced at Ron, who was stuffing his face. "And...you are?"

"Ron Weasley." He said, his mouth full of food. 

"Pleasure." Said Hermione. Her brown eyes caught Khalida's bronze ones as she smiled, "Khalida Lupin's the name." 

Both of their gazes lingered a moment too long on each other, and as Khalida ran a hand through her long hair nervously, Hermione said, "I think you should change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon."