Blank Sheet

Platform 9¾

The first of September had come, Medea was shaken by excitement and acted as if she had drunk too much coffee. This wasn't her first day at a new school, as she was a transfer from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, where she spent two years each, due to her complicated family situation, but that didn't ease her agitation. When the orphanage's staff called her downstairs, she grabbed her trunk and heaved it all the way down.

They apparated into an alleyway next to King's Cross and left for Platform 9¾. The square was crowded and the train station gigantic, Medea could barely take in the new information and the great places.

People bumped into her, men shouted and it smelled of cigarettes and alcohol, even though both were forbidden. She didn't let these things impact her travel to Hogwarts but kept smiling, trying to see everything.

They stopped in front of platforms nine and ten and Medea was about to ask what was going on when Rory, a seventh-year, started talking.

"Ok guys, all you need to do is run through that wall to get to Platform 9¾. It is important that the Muggles don't see us, which is why you're just gonna run to my command, understood?" he asked in a severe tone, turning and watching out for muggles.

Medea was doubting this method, weighing the possibility of the older ones playing a prank on them, but she still hadn't decided what to believe, when an older girl ran at the barrier and disappeared.

"Hey, you worried?" a girl turned up next to Medea, "don't be, it's super easy! You have to run at the barrier, that's it," she smiled and Medea already thought she was a nice person, "When I was a first-year, I nearly didn't run out of fear," she chuckled over herself, "I'm Caecilia, by the way."

This made Medea relax a bit and she took a deep breath. The older seventh-year counted again, it was their turn to go. She would have actually liked a few seconds more, but now that everybody stared at her, she just ran.

Soon her feet moved without her controlling it anymore and the barrier came closer and closer. During the last meters before the crash, her brain came up with thousands of ideas what to do now, one being more impossible than the other.

When she opened her eyes again, which she had closed out of fear of the crash, she found herself on a great platform with a scarlet steam engine on which it said Hogwarts Express. She released the breath she hadn't known she had been holding and mustered the sing saying Platform 9¾.

The unpleasant smell of cigarettes had been replaced by the smoke of the train. The platform was crowded and Medea was afraid she'd miss something if she blinked, when she noticed, her trolley was still way too fast. 

She tried to stop the trolley but didn't manage in time. Instead, she bumped into someone.

Well, it was unclear if she ran into him or he ran into her, but in the end, it didn't matter, because they were both lying on the floor, the trolley fell over next to them and the trunk slid a few meters away.

"Ouch!- I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop the trolley anymore, are you hurt? I really didn't want this, I'm so so sorry!" Medea apologized several times. She got up, her hip hurt and she was sure she fell right onto it.

The boy she ran into had already gotten up, but he didn't seem angry. His brown eyes were sparkling with amusement under his red hair. His face was full of freckles and when he smirked at her, he seemed to be in his element.

"Well, you're a passionate one! But no worries, it just so happens that I am single," he smiled and then turned to arrange the trolley and put the trunk onto it.

"Oh no, um...I didn't-," she started, but the boy interrupted her.

"No problem, I know!" he said and smirked once more. Just then, an identical copy of him turned up right beside the boy.