Twice Chosen | Esmerelda Potter

5. The Train Ride

"Well, Harry, if we spend more time together, you reckon that we will finish each other's sentences?" I say. Harry laughs in response. 

"What did you name your owl?" I ask, pointing to the snowy white owl perched on his shoulder.

"Oh! I named her Hedwig, from one of the spellbooks I read," he replies. "What about you?" 

"I named her Captiosus. It's Latin for smart." 

The train lurches and the it begins to move. I hear parents yelling at their kids to have a good time and to be safe and not to get in too much trouble. I glance out the window and see a lady running to try to catch up with her son on the train, who is trying to reach for the galleons she has in her hands, that he obviously forgot. He finally grabs them and she retreats, wheezing. I giggle at the sight.

"How was living with Aunt... what's her name?"

"Aunt Petunia," Harry responds. "And Uncle Vernon, and then Cousin Dudley."

"Anyway, how was it like? Are they tolerable at least?"

"No, not at all. I told you, I felt like I was their servant. They made me cook and clean for them." Harry looks down at the ground. 

Harry smiles a bit. "I manage to scare them anyway, not on purpose at least. I accidentally set a python on Dudley at the zoo a few weeks ago." 

"Accidentally?" I ask.

"I somehow made the glass vanish and the python crawled out. Back then, I didn't know that I was magical, so it was very strange. Now, I feel like I can explain it now."

"I understand. I made strange things happen like that all the time. Like once, there was this girl, Gabriella Charlotte Mason, she thought she was so great, just because she had three names, anyway, she loved to torment people, especially me, just because she claimed that she 'didn't like my hair' or something like that. But also I used to be able to make items levitate, and she..."

"You can?" Harry asks.

"I could, somehow. I haven't been able to do it for a good three years though. Not sure how I was able to do it though. Anyway, she came over to try to do something, I'm not even sure what, and she stepped right in front of this huge ditch behind her. Suddenly, she began to float in the air, oddly enough, and then she dropped right in the ditch, which was full of water, since it was raining all night. She never spoke to me again after that."

Harry giggles. "One time, my cousin tried to torment me as well at school, and before he could beat me up, then, all of a sudden, I somehow appeared on the roof. I thought it was the wind, that it was strong enough to put me there, but now..."

The compartment door slides open, revealing the red-haired boy from the train. 

"Can I sit here? Everywhere else is full." I nod and he sits down next to Harry.

"I'm Ron, by the way," he says. "Ron Weasley."

"Harry. Harry Potter."

"I'm Esmerelda Potter." 

Ron gasps. 

"Do you have the...scar?"

"Yeah." Harry lifts his hair to reveal his scar. 

My scar from that night isn't on my head, like Harry's, but on my left thumb. One time, it stung terribly when I was eight. My whole hand froze up and I couldn't do anything with it until the pain stopped. I still don't know why it happened.

"Esmerelda has a scar too." I glance over at the two boys, whose eyes were wide at the promise of my scar. I show my left thumb and Ron gasps.

"Woah! Wicked!"