Off Track Finished

“Hm. Does it?” Sage never really thought her parents jobs' were ‘cool’. They were just like everyone else’s parents who just happened to have careers in magic. Her folks being scholarly-inclined meant that they tended to be a bit distracted, ever busy and sometimes downright odd. It was difficult for Sage to imagine a life without magic, honestly. It might seem like a mundane occurrence to Sage but she could never imagine a reality without it.

“I’m sure they’re just like your folks.” Sage shrugged. Teaching was a noble calling, but she wasn’t sure what an account-nent did exactly. Still, any occupation that provided a living was bound to be just as honorable.

Was she nervous? Sage nodded, albeit reluctantly. Besides tackling the unknown, she was apprehensive for reasons she was ashamed to admit. While she knew what to expect, there was no way of knowing how things would truly pan out, was there?

Sage grimaced. She supposed she sounded like a know-it-all now.

“I’ve only ever heard stories about it, really.” Sage paused, eyes trained on the horizon, thinking about the last time she had attended school. Was it when she was 6 or 7? Sage's parents had chosen to take her out when her magical tendencies first surfaced. She'd been homeschooled since then. Any memory of that brief stint in school was fuzzy at best, of course.

"We'll make it somehow." The girl cheered lightly, feeling happy to have been of some help to Sophia.

"If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I can. Though I would hate to spoil the experience for you."

Sophia grinned and laughed lightly.

"I dunno if this experience can be spoiled. I mean," she tapped her book with her index finger, "I've been skimming through the books I had to get just to know what to expect, and there's a lot of amazing things at Hogwarts."

So far, Sophia had gone through the motions of getting ready for this new school year with the expectation of being a social outcast, so her relationship with her textbooks thus far was only natural. She didn't expect to actually make a friend. Now she had to do the impossible, though.

She had to find a way to segue this pleasant conversation into a possible friendship at the school. But how did she do this without making a fool of herself? She was socially awkward at the best of times. Taking a deep breath that she hoped Sage didn't see, Sophia spoke up.

"Maybe we could have a, like, study group or something?" she suggested, hoping it was a normal thing to ask, "You're probably going to be amazing at all of this, and who knows? Maybe we'll have some classes together too."

She tried to keep the hope out of her voice. She certainly didn't want to sound desperate. No one made friends by being desperate.

If anything can be gleaned from this interaction, it’s that Sage now has something to look forward to. She had a familiar face to look for in classes, if they shared any, which Sage sure hoped would be the case.

Now, she ought to propose a partnership of some sort; but she didn’t want to impose on Sophia’s kindness, nor did she want to half-heartedly befriend the girl for her own benefit. Was there some way to express this genuinely?

In the end, it was Sophia who’d brought it up, as natural as an afterthought was to a winsome idea. For that, Sage was eternally grateful.

“Yes, of course!” Sage fought the grin pulling at her cheeks. She must look quite the fool to be so eager about this ‘study group’. Sage registered the invitation as an offer of friendship - why, it was akin to being handed a rope with which to pull herself out of the friendless pit Sage so dreaded. Oh, thank the stars!

“Oh, you. Being new to magic isn’t such a bad thing - I reckon you’ll see things differently than most, and like you said, who knows? It could be your strength.” Sage allowed for a moment of silence to permeate the room. She wondered how Sophia might react at her first intentional attempt at magic, yet another thing the brunette looked forward to witnessing.

Around this time, the sun began its slow descent towards the horizon, their conversation punctuated by the occasional train whistle. Sage’s ears pricked at the soft squeak of wheels rolling down the aisle .

“That must be the trolley witch.” The girl perked up, craning her neck to peep at the corridor. She felt her pocket for her coin pouch, feeling the weight of several sickles against her thigh. Her mum wouldn’t mind if she splurged a little - all in the name of friendship and future endeavors, right?

“What say you to a celebratory snack or two?”

It was around this time that Kim happened to slide open the door to Sophia and Sage's compartment. He was a boy who liked staying in places with fewer people, at least when it came to seating arrangements. When he'd first gotten on the train he'd selected the first compartment he'd come across. But that one had filled up completely with ten occupants, including himself.

Such a number was way too much for him. So he'd gone off in search of another one.

However, that one had also filled up, and now he was on the hunt for a third one. If this one also filled up, he would just stay though because the likelihood of finding another was highly improbable and by that time the trip should be nearly over. Kim quickly looked over the occupants and seeing only two inside, both girls, his lips twitched into a faint smile. Good.

Hopefully it wouldn't fill up too fast like the other two from before.

Both girls were seated on one side, leaving the other side open and Kim nodded towards the empty side. "Hey. Mind if I sit with you guys? The other compartments are too crowded." He told them and waited to see if they would let him stay there. The trolley witch came over behind him and Kim stepped into the compartment, just so the woman could offer her treats to the girls inside. But he didn't take a seat yet, not until they'd agreed to let him stay in their compartment.

The witch stopped and addressed all three of them, asking if any of them wanted any treats. Kim had a decent amount of money on him, Yoon's parents had given him a lot to take with him in case he needed something. But he was going to save most of it for emergency purposes. It wasn't like he wanted or needed anything and it was always good to have some backup money available.

Sophia was overwhelmed. Not in a bad way, mind you, but there was a lot going on and she frankly didn’t know what to do with herself.

Her hands reliably held onto her book, thankfully, but it was her eyes that were so traitorous. They couldn’t seem to decide whether to focus her sight and attention on Sage, the closest thing to familiarity in the compartment, the new kid, a total unknown and possible upcoming victim of Sophia’s social awkwardness, or the tray full of exotic goodies.

Before she could allow her attention to be drawn fully to the (surely unhealthy) goods on display, though, she turned to the new kid who was still standing.

Whoo boy, she thought with a self-deprecating chuckle. She’d finally become accustomed enough to Sage that she could make some semblance of eye contact without crying or being a complete social potato, but could she do it again?

She forced herself to maintain eye contact and fought against her every instinct to look at her shoes. She allowed herself a small glance to Sage, but that was it.

“Sure,” she answered, “Go ahead.”

She then allowed herself to look away and scan the goods of the ‘trolley witch,’ as Sage had called her. If nothing else, it was a good excuse to break eye contact. She hated eye contact.

Safely looking at the edible goods, she introduced herself.

“I’m Sophia Nelson,” she said, trying to figure out what half of the things she was staring at even were.

Satisfied with her introduction, she resumed her scan of the strange menagerie before them.

--- The Slytherin who became a Gryffindor ---

One of the girls had red hair, glasses and freckles. The other had what looked like brown hair, green eyes and a lanky build. As Sophia forced herself to make eye contact with him, Kim could almost sense her nerves. It was obvious from the way she was looking at him that she didn't feel very comfortable. He didn't know what the reason was but it didn't much matter to him now. Whatever she was thinking about him was irrelevant since they weren't friends.

When Sophia agreed to let him stay, Kim nodded and took a seat opposite from where Sage was currently sitting, assuming that neither girl would want to sit next to him. After all, they were girls and he was a boy, it might be a little awkward for them. He waved his hand at the trolley witch, letting her know that he wasn't going to purchase anything from the cart at the moment. And then he reached into his robes to produce a book, Magical Drafts and Potions.

It was one of the required books for First Years.

Yes, he intended on getting some reading in before they got to Hogwarts.

Sophia spoke again and at first he thought she was talking to her friend, but when he didn't hear a reply from the other girl, he looked up at her. She was talking to him. Ah.

It seemed as if she wanted to start a conversation. Of course she did. Maybe she'd give up though after introductions, as he didn't care for small talk. It literally had no purpose and he thought people tended to use it only to hear themselves speak. "Kim Sato." Kim said and opened his book, letting his eyes flicker over the pages. Even though he looked busy reading the book, his ears were still open and if the two girls started talking again, he'd hear them.

Whether or not he'd respond was another matter.

English || Mandarin || Parseltongue || Japanese || Korean

Sage didn't think boys were on the Honeydukes' menu.

The girl blinked at the newcomer, eyes flickering towards the trolley witch's cart before glancing at Sophia. Was she alright? The girl seemed to have that deer-in-the-headlights look again, Sage thought.

"Hullo," Sage nodded at the boy first, then flashed a polite smile at the elderly witch. "Good afternoon, madam."

Sophia had joined the chorus of greetings when she appeared to have calmed down enough. She seemed very curious about the sweets - the colorful wrappers and labels were eye-catching to be sure.

"Sage Lilly." The lanky girl moved to clear the seat of her blanket, stashing it hurriedly into her knapsack. "Sit anywhere you like."

The boy had introduced himself as Kim Sato and had chosen to sit across from her, giving the girl a good view of the newcomer. He was unique in appearance, with pale hair and a somewhat unapproachable air about him. He was curt and seemingly unaffected by the spread of confectionery before them, and then promptly brandished a book as if to ward off conversation.

Ah, well, not everyone liked to make small talk, Sage supposed.

The trolley witch waited patiently for the children to settle, smiling kindly at them as she brought out her goodies one after another, each one looking more bizarre than the next.

Sage did not know what to look at first: there were neon-bright Acid Pops, translucent Sugar Quills tinted with ink at the nib, gilded pentagon boxes of Chocolate Frogs, Liquorice Wands and many others. She felt her mouth water at the display of confections, but held back from appearing too eager - she mustn’t forget her manners for a bunch of bonbons.

“I haven’t had these in ages,” said Sage, gingerly inspecting a box of Peppermint Toads. She had the occasional chocolate fudge at dinner, but Honeydukes’ treats were pricey and weren’t meant for everyday consumption. As far as she knew, people bought them for the playful effects it had on people or rather, the literal ‘magic-in-your-mouth’ experience.

“What do you feel like trying, Soph?” Sage had unwittingly shortened her friend’s name, and began to pile sweets on her lap. She glanced at Kim briefly but he appeared not to be paying them any attention.

“C’mon. It’s my treat.” Sage truly meant what she said, but it would seem that her coin pouch would beg to differ.

Soph. She perked up. Sage had called her Soph, and Sophia was honestly quite happy with this development. Even her muggle friends had never truly given her a nickname. There was a brief period when they had tried out ‘Fia,’ but she wasn’t a big fan of misspelling her name, even for a nickname, and ‘Phia’ looked funny to her.

“Soph,” she whispered happily.

She tried to think of a nickname for Sage, but her mind came up blank. How could she possibly shorten that name? ‘Say’ or ‘Age’ perhaps?

No. Those are awful, she thought ruefully. Then she realized that Say, er, Sage had asked her a question and made quite the generous offer.

Fortunately for the generous girl, Sophia didn’t have much of a sweet-tooth. Even if she did, she was much too nervous to eat anything anyway. They were on their way to Hogwarts, and she feared that if she had anything in her stomach, it would wind up on the floor as soon as they arrived.

No. Sophia’s weakness wasn’t hunger, but curiosity. She didn’t necessarily want to devour any of the strangely designed snacks upon the trolley, she just wanted to understand them.

“I don’t even know what most of these are, to be honest,” she said with a tilt of her head,” but they definitely look awesome.”

If there was one thing she understood about magic, it was that she understood nothing about magic.

She glanced to her companions and saw that they were preoccupied. Sage seemed to be distracted by the growing collection of treats in her lap and Kim seemed focused on a book that looked vaguely familiar. Was it on their reading list?

No matter. She had a mission.

She turned to Sage and as the girl added another fine addition to her collection, she pointed to it.

“What’s that?” she asked curiously, fighting the urge to tack on her own pathetic excuse for a nickname for Sage.

--- The Slytherin who became a Gryffindor ---

As Sage introduced herself too, Kim nodded before seating himself down onto the soft cushions. The trolley witch remained at their compartment as Sage looked over the delicious treats available. Her words about not having had any of these treats in ages made Kim realize she was probably a half-blood, as she was familiar with them but hadn't eaten them in awhile. Unlike many purebloods, Kim didn't care if someone was from a Muggle family or was a half.

Let them be whatever they were.

It wasn't their blood that mattered, it was their actions that defined them.

However, if he had to pick from all the treats on the trolley cart, he'd have picked out a box of chocolate frogs. They kept well and nearly everyone tended to like them. And of course, there were the trading cards in each pack. Kim continued to read his book as Sage started to talk to her friend again. But kept one ear out in case he was addressed by either of them. What a nice girl. I wonder what she's trying to do. He thought to himself with an inward scoff.

He didn't buy for a second that she was just being nice for the sake of being nice. People weren't really like that deep inside. Everyone had an agenda. Those who said they didn't were lying to themselves. What was Sage's reason for 'treating' someone she'd probably only met on the train a few minutes ago? Was she trying to make a connection? Or did she need to use her for something? Perhaps she wanted to take advantage of her for doing homework at school.

There were various reasons.

But it seemed as if either the other girl had picked up on what the first girl had been trying to do, or she just didn't know how to respond and decided to simply reject the offer.

Whatever the reason was, Sophia declined the other girl's offer to buy her something off the cart and revealed with her next words that she was also not a pureblood. Going from her words, it seemed as if she was a muggle. A full one at that. Kim wondered just how many muggles and half-bloods were heading to Hogwarts for the first time. But he didn't say these thoughts aloud. He continued to read through the first few pages of the book as Sophia spoke.

Kim looked up to see Sophia was pointing at one of the treats on Sage's lap. A faint smirk came to his lips but again he didn't say anything, waiting to see what would happen.

English || Mandarin || Parseltongue || Japanese || Korean

As the train chugged ever onwards, the heap of saccharine delights wobbled precariously on Sage's lap.

The girl handed a couple of sickles for the lot, wincing inwardly as she counted her change - her allowance would be stretched thin for the month, but she was optimistic about her parents’ generosity.

“Thank you, dearie. Now, if that’ll be all...” said the trolley witch, a jovial smile on her face, backing her trolley out of the compartment.

Sage had bought a couple of favorites and some classic bestsellers. She arranged them on the seat in haphazard stacks.

Upon hearing Sophia’s query, the girl held up the bag she was currently inspecting; a shiny navy–blue packet with an odd-looking house-elf in front.

“Pepper Imps.” Upon opening the packet, Sage showed its contents to her companion; there were shiny reddish-black hard sweets that smelled strongly of peppermint.

"If you eat these, you'll breathe fire and smoke for a short time. It's relatively harmless but all in good fun, I s'pose."

Sage thoughtfully put the Pepper Imps within Sophia's reach should she want to try it. She had almost forgotten about the other passenger, being as quiet as he was. Moving on, her fingers found her next purchase.

"Chocolate Frogs." A gilded pentagon box was offered to Sophia. She had bought two for a reason.

"A Honeydukes classic. There are collectible cards inside - famous witches and wizards, y'know - some people trade them with each other. Oh, and eat it right away once you open it…"

Being made of croakoa, the frogs would animate like the real one, hopping away as soon as the box was opened. Sage fondly remembered her first encounter. Her dad had gifted it to her one Christmas, and being a clumsy 5 year-old, she’d let it loose almost immediately.

Sage opened her own box, caught the wriggling fella between two fingers and popped it into her mouth. The sweetness of the chocolate was just right, suffusing warmth and comfort throughout her entire being. Prying the card out, Sage recognised the Hogwarts founder bedecked in red and gold, giving her a friendly salute - Godric Gryffindor.

What luck!