Early Bird Gets the.. Empty Compartment Closed

Lara wasn’t one to be early for things. If she had to be honest with herself, time management was something she struggled with - she usually got to class within sixty seconds of its start, and she frequently ended up having to swim extra laps at swim practice to make up for being late to warm-up. If she’d been on her own, she’d probably have ended up banging on the windows of the Hogwarts Express seconds before it pulled out of the station. And wouldn't that be a way to start the year?

But, of course, Lara’s brothers, and her father, were painfully punctual people, so she was standing at the platform, giving her dad a final hug and kiss goodbye, as soon as boarding began. She followed her siblings - an older sister, startlingly similar in appearance to Lara herself, and two older brothers already in their robes - up onto the train, but shook her head when Madeleine invited her into a compartment.

“I want to make my own friends,” Lara explained, hoping her sister wouldn’t be offended.

But Madeleine just rolled her eyes and said, “Suit yourself,” so Lara figured they were fine. Besides, if her sister’s friends were at all similar to her sister, then Lara wouldn’t get a single minute of peace the whole train ride to Hogwarts.

She walked farther along the train, glancing into other compartments in search of somebody her own age. Somebody who wasn’t already talking to a bunch of people, preferably. It would suck to get stuck in a compartment with a group of kids who already knew each other from home.

It wasn't long before she found a spot she thought would be ideal. It was empty, save a single blue-eyed boy, sitting beside a stack of closed books. She waved at him from the door.

“Hey, d’you mind if I sit in here?” she asked, offering a friendly smile.

No matter how much she begged her father to bring to King's Cross, he wouldn't budge. Another quirk of being placed in the house of bravery and courage, well, this is at least what she had heard from the parents that had raised her very own father. No matter how excited she was to return to Hogwarts, she just couldn't seem to wake herself up completely and it was driving her crazy. She refused to drink coffee after watching to what it did to Muggles after the caffeine had kicked into their systems. It was practically too much to bear.

There was no one to welcome her on to the train, and like always, no one had even come to the platform yet. Last year, she didn't even mind that the train had commenced to chug off as she started to board the train. There were a few parents here and there, but the only ones that matter to her were her very own father.

Emma was happy to get out of those long blue-outlined robes, to try out for the Quidditch team, and even better to meet new friends. With a short wave to her father, she boarded the empty train and stared down it before beginning her steps. 

Here goes another year, it'll just be like your first year, plus the new first years. Everything is going to be fine, don't worry. She looked from compartment to compartment until her eyes stood fixed on to a certain girl, still, she had never seen her face around the school so she was presumably a first year. She walked down to her and looked inside the same compartment.

"Mind if I join too?" She asked before looking at the follow brunette and waving kindly, she didn't want to make any more enemies this year. She questioned him curiously towards the male, she hadn't encountered many men. This was absolutely perfect.

Content to look outside the window for a few moments before reading, Arthur didn’t even need to crack open one of his books before a flurry of motion by the door attracted his attention. A girl who looked around his age was standing in the doorway of the compartment, waving. She had dark curly hair and pale freckles on her face. To be honest, she looked a little younger than him, even, but looks could be deceiving, and of course he knew that no one under the age of eleven would be on the train to Hogwarts.

"Hey, d’you mind if I sit in here?"

Lifting a hand, he waved back and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could answer her, another girl came up behind her.

"Mind if I join too?"

He couldn’t tell by looking whether she was a first year or a second year (or possibly even a third year, although he didn’t think she was any older than that), but they both looked like they might be around his age, or at least not very much older.

"Of course!" he said, as friendly as possible, just happy for the company. "I mean.. I don't mind." he corrected himself, in case that was vague. He picked up the stack of books on the seat beside him and moved it onto the table so it was out of their way, then stood to help put up bags if anyone needed it. Got being a somewhat scrawny eleven year old kid, he was actually already pretty tall.

"I'm Arthur," he introduced himself. "Are either of you first years too?" he asked. Of course, he shouldn’t assume they wanted a conversation. But since they were all about to start a new school year together, he figured it was okay.

As soon as she received confirmation from the boy that she could sit with him, she stepped quickly into the cabin, dragging her small trunk along behind her. The trunk, a shiny black thing with a Ravenclaw emblem on the front flap, wasn’t especially heavy, and Lara was pretty strong for such a small girl. But she’d already lugged it all the way though the parking lot, then the train station, and finally through the train itself, and her arms had begun to ache from the effort.

“Could you give me a hand?” she asked the boy, gesturing form her trunk to the overhead rack. Could she manage it herself? Probably. If he didn’t want to help her, she’d be okay, but it would be a lot less awkward to get it up there with two of them.

After getting her trunk situated, she stepped aside to make more room for the other girl - a second year, if Lara had to guess. That might be good. Maybe she had some advice or something that would help Lara out when they finally arrived at the school. Of course, Lara’s older siblings had told her plenty about Hogwarts - but it would be nice to talk to somebody outside of the bias of her own family about it, too.

She gave a few moments for things to settle, and then held out her hand to the boy. She’d always been taught that when you met somebody new, you had to shake their hand; if you didn’t, they’d think you rude and probably hate you forever. She wanted to make a good impression.

“My name’s Lara,” she said, and then reached over to offer her hand to the girl, too, smiling at both of them. “Lara Youngblood. And, yeah, I'm a first year too!”

Packing had been somewhat easy for Emma, all she had to do was merely was lay out her clothing and vocalize the incantation, which was pretty much the word 'Pack'. It was much easier than her former year, but still, nothing could compete that it was by far, her favorite year. She dragged her brown trunk, both her hands clutched the trunk with so much determination, her fingertips began to turn beaming white color. 

It was much harder to lift the truck rather than to actually get it ready. For goodness sake, why couldn't she just learn the locomotion charm already? She was dying to learn more spells she could use to duel against others, in an orderly fashion way of course. Well, maybe not every time she ended up using her wand she'd use it against a stranger.

Perhaps it was an enemy.

Emma watched as the younger girl, presumably a first year, shift to, kindy, move out of her way. It was silent, but she returned her deed with a kind smile, not grin or even smirk. A simple smile. Since it was pretty much her only option, she sat down with the students and greeted herself.

"Emma, well Emmaline, but its unimportant," she paused to wave at both of the students who had indeed been a year younger than herself though it didn't seem like it. She was quite fine with having younger friends and older, but she preferred younger. "Hill, and I'm a second year. Do you guys have any siblings that went to Hogwarts?" 

"Sure!" he said, helping Lara to hoist the heavy bag up onto the rack above, turning to do the same for the other girl if she wanted it. Of course, he'd always been taught it was simply the done thing to do, to help someone with their bags when they entered your compartment. As he lifted the bag, he spotted the emblem of an eagle on a blue background decorating the end of her trunk. "Are you a Ravenclaw?" he asked curiously, before she said that she was first year, so clearly not.

He was caught off guard a bit when she reached out her hand to shake, which seemed a little formal under the circumstances, but smiling, he shook it back and added, "Nice to meet you Lara." He waved back at Emma as she introduced herself as well. "You too Emma," he said.

Sitting down, he pointed to the Ravenclaw-emblazoned trunk, in part to explain why he had asked such a random question before. "Sibling's?" he guessed, turning to Lara. He was glad to meet someone who would be in his year, since there was a good chance they would be taking classes together at some point, but it would be nice to hear a second year's perspective as well. He was curious if they were raised in the magic world or muggle world, like him, but wasn't quite sure how to ask it yet.

He shook his head to Emma's question. "I have half siblings, but they all go to school in Durmstrang," he explained.

Lara glanced fondly up at her trunk, eyes on the Ravenclaw sigil. Her grandfather had given it to her a few days ago. All the cousins in her family got one, right before they went off to Hogwarts, to remind them what they were. What they were meant to be. He’d be so proud of her when she told him the good news tomorrow, even though it would hardly be a surprise.

“I’m not a Ravenclaw yet, but I’m going to be one,” she told Arthur, as if this was nothing but a pure and simple fact. Indisputable, really. Grass was green. Lara Youngblood was a Ravenclaw. “And you? What house do you think you’ll be in?” She looked over at Emma. “What about you? Ravenclaw, too?”

She was glad she’d met Arthur, of course, because her whole goal for this train ride had been to make friends her own age and he seemed to be pretty friendly. As long as he didn’t turn out to be secretly terrible – like if he hated Muggles, or chocolate-chip croissants – she figured she could get on well with him. And Emma? Even if Emma didn’t want to stay friends with a measly first-year when they got to Hogwarts, this would still be good. Emma seemed smart. She had to be, if she was a Ravenclaw. Plus, she would know how Hogwarts worked, and they’d be sharing a common room after Lara was sorted. Meeting new people could never be a bad thing.

She nodded eagerly in response to Emma’s and Arthur’s question about siblings. She’d never really be able to get away from hers, and most of the time, she was happy with that. Lara loved her brothers, even though they could be overprotective sometimes, and she adored her sister, even though she’d been sorted into the wrong house.

“I’ve got five older siblings, but the trunk’s not a hand-me-down,” she explained. “Two of my brothers are in Ravenclaw and my sister’s a Gryffindor, and the other two graduated already.” She tilted her head curiously at Arthur. “Durmstrang? That’s up north, right?”

Emma felt tempted to pull out her wand and let it do all the work of lifting the trunk up, but she wasn't the kind to show off. Manually, she hoisted up her trunk on to the railing. She hadn't packed a lot this year, in fact, the heaviest thing was the trunk itself. A few books, a change of shoes, a few accessories, and some Muggle snacks just in case the time came.

Without her school robes, she wore a red t-shirt (because it was her favorite color), your average denim jeans, and a pair of red chucks. Undoubtedly she has happy to get out those robes for a few months, but it wasn't long enough. It would never be long enough.

She nodded her head at Lara's question. "Ravenclaw, mhm, so I guess that makes me the oddball."  She didn't feel bad about it, actually, it kind of made her happy to associate with younger students. All types of adventures awaited them, the good, the bad, and the heartwrenching inside of Hogwarts whether they approved it or not. 

So far, there was only one positive she could think of to going back to Hogwarts, well two. There was no Sorting Ceremony and there were always new spells to learn. No mind reading hat to question her everything thought out which house she belonged inside of. This year she had the opportunity of just sitting back and relaxing.

As for herself, she was an only child, why? She had no idea maybe it was just because of her parents, or the rest of her older family. "I have cousins that go there also, but they're the only part of my family that are my age."

He nodded at Lara's reply, listening interestedly. Though he'd been wrong in his guess, he was glad that he asked about it, since it was cool to hear about her family. "Were your parents in Ravenclaw at well?" he asked her. It sounded like Lara's family was pretty pro-Ravenclaw. He wondered what that was like for the older sister, or anyone who ended up in a different house, for that matter. He supposed he was kind of lucky to be starting from a blank slate. With no close friends or relatives in a certain house, and no strong expectations from anyone in his family, he wouldn't be disappointed no matter where he ended up, though he thought Slytherin might be a little hard since he was raised by a muggle. But then again, maybe they weren't as bad as everyone seemed to think.

"And you? What house do you think you’ll be in?"

"Hopefully Ravenclaw too!" he said brightly. "I mean, I don't really mind which, but it seems like the best fit." The older student, Emma, was a Ravenclaw as well. So with any luck they were a compartment full of Ravenclaws. That said, he really had no idea how this sorting thing worked. Except that it was done by a magic hat. Was there going to be a test? "How does it decide anyway?" he asked Emma. "Um, the sorting hat, I mean." He'd read about it, but there was only so much information they put it books. He was interested to hear from someone who'd experienced it in person. He lifted his shoulders at her oddball comment. He had a lot of older friends in the past. In fact, in primary school, he was often the 'oddball' third or fourth year in a group of fifth or sixth years.

He smiled at Lara's description of her brothers and sisters. Growing up alone, he'd always been jealous of people with lots of siblings, only to find out last year that he had a half dozen of them himself. "I have a brother and two sisters that have graduated and a sister and two brothers who are still in school. They're all a lot older than me though." The closest in age were his brothers who were fifth years now. Of course, a lot of them didn't seem to like him very much...

"Durmstrang? That’s up north, right?"

"I think so..?" he answered, though none of his siblings would tell him where exactly the school was located. He got the sense that they were cagey about revealing its location. "My siblings are from Germany."