The Silver Duo - Part Three

Chapter Six

Finally, it was time to go back to Hogwarts.

Anna had just said goodbye to her parents and gotten onto the Hogwarts Express, looking for Kane. She went through three carriages until she finally caught a sign of him; one of the stupid songs he listens to, coming from a compartment along the car.

Sit there in your heartache

Waiting on some beautiful boy to...

She lugged her trunk and owl toward the sound (the owl seemed to be plugging her ears), tracking it to a compartment with a bunch of people listening outside the door, probably kids who never heard the Killers before. Wizarding families. So old-fashioned.

Anna slid open the door and Kane looked up at her.

"Anna!"

"Hey!"

She sat down across from him and put her feet on her trunk, setting Violet, her owl, next to her. The train let out one last whistle and started moving. As they left the station into open air, they saw that it was pouring rain, the sky dark. Kane stopped his music.

"I told you to not bring that stuff here. Seriously, don't you listen to—"

"Anna, what happened at Hawaii! I got your owl, and... What the heck!"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was in a rush. Anyway, so it was dark, so..." she told him the whole story, and when she was done, Kane was completely silent. "Yeah. I know."

"Dude, that's... crazy! What're the odds that the first time you go to America... dang."

"Yup."

They sat for a second in silence. Then, for no reason, they started cracking up like they just saw the funniest thing ever.

Just as their owls started getting annoyed, the compartment door opened and Luna Lovegood appeared, the girl with that weird magazine who sat with them on the ride back home the year before.

"Hey Luna! How was your summer?" he said.

"Oh, it was wonderful," she said airily, a faraway-type look on her face, like always. "Me and Daddy went hunting for Shnickerbockers, but apparently they moved north for the summer. But we found a nest of eggs and we think they're Humdingers." She sounded dead serious. Anna almost burst out laughing, but when she looked at Kane he looked like she'd just said she went, like, skiing or something normal for the summer. Sigh.

"Cool..."

They sat there in an awkward silence. Anna and Kane automatically started petting their owls.

"Here, you can sit down," Anna said. Luna hadn't moved at all, smiling airily at nothing in particular. She sat down on the seat. More awkward silence...

Finally the door slid open again to reveal Blaise.

"Hellooo."

"Blaise! Here." Kane took his bag off the seat next to him. Blaise sat down.

"When'd you get an owl?"

"Oh... I'm not sure. They didn't write it in the fanfic... kind of a tiny plot hole"

"Kane!" Anna hissed.

"Oh, right. Yup."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, okay."

They sat in another awkward silence. They forgot what they were talking about.

"So... how's your mom doing?"

"She's... fine," Blaise said shortly. Apparently he didn't like to talk about his mom.

More awkward silence... This time it didn't stop. Everyone just looked at each other, like they were trying to see who stole the cookie from the cookie jar.

There was a knock on their door that seemed so loud it made Kane jump in his seat. Blaise slid open the door and there stood a tall, black figure... the outside lights flickered back on and it was just the Trolley lady.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Everyone took out their money and got stuff, the trolley rolling back down the train. Anna looked out the window while eating Cauldron Cake. The sky was quickly darkening, the rain still pouring. Kane and Blaise were talking about stuff they were going to do at Hogwarts.

"I think I'm gonna sign up for Quidditch," Kane said. Anna snorted so hard Cauldron Cake came out of her nose.

"Please, like you know anything about that."

"Shut up, I'd like to see you try."

"You could only fly if you were attached to strings and an plane was lifting you."

"Who was the one that caught the Snitch last year? Oh, yeah, it was me."

Even though they sounded mad, they were smiling. Luna and Blaise were moving their heads back and forth, like a ping-pong game.

"What's a plane?" Blaise asked.

That was too much.

Anna and Kane burst out laughing like they were holding it in the whole day, and they probably were. They didn't even notice the train slowing down until it came to a complete stop and they hit their heads on the walls.

"Why're we stopping?" Anna said, a smile still on her face. She looked out the window while Kane looked out the compartment door, a bunch of other kids doing the same all along the car.

"There's someone moving outside the window..." Anna said. They all looked outside and saw shadowy figures shifting in the shadows through the rain.

"Wait... that's a—"

"It can't be..."

"Maybe we broke down?"

Suddenly, everything went cold. It was more than cold. It went down past their skin and bones, into their souls. Suddenly Kane's lack of Quidditch skills didn't seem funny anymore. Nothing seemed funny anymore.

Then the lights flickered off and everything was dark.