Unexpected

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The train was busy. Scratch that, the train was absolutely packed. I'd never seen more kids in my life.

"How will the others know where we are?" I asked James, who was tugging me along the corridor.

"Well Rose is just behind us, and I'll go get Al if he gets lost." He told me, "Here we are."

He slid open the door of one of the train compartments, and sure enough, Teddy and Victoire were snogging in the corner. Molly was sat near the door looking horribly awkward.

Louis appeared and coughed behind us, "Excuse me," he said in his rather lovely French accent, "Hello, Clara."

"Hi," I replied as I walked in, "All right Molly?" I sat down next to her after having put my trunk on the little storage rack above my head.

"Uh... Great thanks. Excited for school?" She was always a little awkward, and the snogging probably wasn't helping.

James began chatting to Louis about something, "Yeah, really excited!" I laughed as I passed Asha to Molly, "Just hold her for a sec?"

I walked up to Teddy and Vic and cleared my throat, nothing happened. I tried a different approach, "Ted the train's leaving!" I yelled.

He jumped backwards away from Vic, "What? Clara what are you-?"

"I'm making this situation a lot less awkward. Harry and Ginny are waiting for you on the platform by the way." I told him.

"Ouch, brushed off by the 11 year old." Victoire smiled, her faint French accent shining through.

Rose bustled through the door, "Teddy, you know you're too old for school now?"

Teddy threw both of his hands in the air and laughed, "All right, I'm leaving!" He kissed Vic on the cheek and proceeded to hug me tight, "Have fun Squirt, I'm gonna miss you. Write to me okay?"

I grinned up at him, "Only if you write to me."

"Well of course I will." He grinned, ruffled James's hair, and left.

Rose was settling down next to Vic by the window as Freddie appeared in the doorway.

"Hi James," he grinned with all of his teeth as he lugged his trunk in, "Clara! Hey!"

"Hey Freddie!" I bounded over to him and squeezed him tight. If only I could see him more often.

"Where's Albus?" Louis asked.

"Talking to Harry, he was just coming when I left." Answered Rose.

And right on cue, Al burst through the door, "Man, my trunk's heavy." He was grinning, he actually looked happy. James helped him stuff it on the shelf and they sat down to the sound of the train leaving.

Two twin girls my age with curly brown hair and freckles came running in, "Oi Sam, give it-" one started. They noticed James, stopped, and said in unison, "Hi, James!"

"We've got the wrong compartment." The second one explained.

"Hey guys, you looking for Sam?" James stood up. Sam Collins was James's best friend. He'd come over last summer, so I knew him quite well.

"Yeah, he took my owl's cage." The first twin replied.

"Are you Sam's sisters?" I asked, I'd heard of them before.

"Sadly, yes." They both said, "I'm Harper and she's Marie. No, I'm Marie. You're Harper. Oh, shut up. You started it...!" I couldn't even tell which one was talking, "Anyway, must dash," they said, "Nice meeting you!" They ran out and James followed shortly after.

The only other eventful things that happened that journey was that we all got changed and the trolley came round (Louis got a cat food flavoured bean, but he made me swear never to repeat that story).

Then we arrived. The train clanked to a stop and I reached for Asha in her cage and my trunk, as did Al and Rose.

"Leave it," Victoire said, "It gets delivered."

So we all got off the train.

It was almost pitch black. I could just see a lot of people and a large figure I knew to be Rebeus Hagrid from various stories I'd heard. He was calling out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere please!" Whilst holding a lamp.

I didn't let go of Al's arm once as we sat through the little boat trip that took us up to the castle.

I was cold until I made my way inside, I couldn't see anything outside, it was too dark. I made a mental note for tomorrow to have a look. We stood in a line as everyone else sat down.

We were ready for our sorting.