Metanoia • Harry Potter • Book I

Chapter 8

Word Count: 2537

Keziah woke up rather pleasantly, several hours later. The sky outside was an inky purplish-black, the Scottish highlands blending together in a whir of darkness. She sat up lazily, feeling her joints click into place after spending so long in a weird position.

"Good morning," Harry called, laughing slightly. Keziah rolled her eyes, and pulled her hair out of its messed-up bun, running her fingers through her knotted locks.

"Hmm, yes, morning. Are we nearly there yet?" she yawned. She vaguely noted that there was somebody else in the compartment but for the moment, she ignored them.

"Think so. You should probably put your robes on. Do you want us to go out?" 

"Nah. Toss me them and I'll just pull them on for now," Keziah muttered. A few seconds later, the robes hit her dead on the face. She pulled them over her head and moved into a sitting position, glaring at her brother. Her eyes slid down the seats to settle on the other person in the compartment. Ron Weasley. After proper rest, Keziah found it much easier to reign in her excitement and quickly switched on the personality that had kept her afloat for her entire school career.

"Who's your new friend?" she asked, pulling back her hair into a ponytail. Judging by the window, she didn't look too bad.

"I'm Ron Weasley," said Ron nervously. Keziah felt slightly relieved, knowing he was as nervous as she was.

"Keziah. Pleased to meet you," she said kindly, shaking his hands. "I'm guessing Harry told you I'm his sister?"

"Nah, I was too embarrassed," Harry laughed, dodging one of the train's seat-cushions. 

"By the way, we, erm, we saved you some sweets." Ron gestured awkwardly to the small pile of sweets beside them. "I think your cat stole some of the cakes and a pasty."

At that moment, Aslan jumped down from the metal rack above, chewing slowly on a long piece of liquorice. Keziah smiled slightly and leaned down, petting her cat behind the ears.

"It's fine. If he gets sick, I'll take him to Hagrid. It'll be his own fault, the greedy bugger," Keziah said affectionately, still giving Aslan ear scratches. "Now, can you pass me one of those blue toffee-thingies."

"These? Do you mean the bubblegum?" Ron asked, picking up a neon-bright blue sweet wrapped in equally colourful paper. Keziah nodded, holding out her hand for Ron to toss it over. She caught it with ease and popped the sweet into her mouth, sighing at the instant rush of sweetness.

"What flavour is this?"

"Don't know. Some sort of berry, I think. But they don't lose flavour for days," said Ron, losing the nervousness. He was right. Every time Keziah chewed the piece of gum, another wave of flavour burst inside her mouth, just as lovely as the first. 

The train slowed down a few minutes afterwards, a disembodied female voice drifting out of the walls "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Keziah's stomach lurched with nerves, anxieties that had been buzzing around her head all summer returning with full force. She scooped Aslan back up into his cage with difficulty, the cat deciding to spontaneously turn into liquid, as cats do. Paired with his larger-than-necessary body, it had taken nearly five minutes, especially since Keziah had to stop twice to smack the laughing Harry and Ron on the heads. But she managed to do it, eventually, with minimal injuries.

The three of them stumbled down the train corridor, shepherded out with the throng of students. The amount of noise hurt Keziah's ears. She shivered slightly in the cool, night air, her robes slightly too thin for the Scottish atmosphere. Then an orange lamp came bobbing over the heads of the crowd, and a familiar voice bellowed through the mist.