Dee smiled, pleased with herself and the situation for managing to make Ileen smile, laugh, and joke. She didn't know why Ileen had looked so serious when Dee had burst into her compartment, or why she sounded so resentful when talking about her parents, but she was glad that she had succeeded in cheering her up, even a little.
"I'll be the best grandma ever," she replied, her eyes sparkling. "But I think you might make a pretty cool grandma yourself, so don't write yourself off just yet."

Ileen's reaction just got Dealla more worked up as well. "Yes!!" she agreed wholeheartedly. "Right? Why would you be proud of something that's pure chance? They didn't do anything, and it doesn't make them better, either! Muggle-borns aren't worse at magic, or at anything else!"
Dee was kneeling on her seat at that point, leaning forward, breathing hard, and her eyes were flashing. There was a strange moment of silence where both of them looked at each other, and Dee knew that they shared this same central conviction. If there had been anything missing for her to know that Ileen would be a good friend, it had been this.
She held out a hand towards her new friend. "It's a deal," she promised. "We're going to make both our grandparents admit how wrong they were."

Dealla frowned, more than slightly upset for her new friend. "What about the Muggles? Didn't you have Muggle friends?" she asked. "I didn't know any wizards or witches either because there are almost no Wizarding families in Whitehaven, but I still had a lot of friends! I think I'll miss them a lot."
She chewed her lower lip in thought, then let go of it with a pop. "It's weird that your parents apparently did something so terrible that everyone has heard of it, even in New Zealand, isn't it? And yet no one told you? Don't you want to find out?"
She knew she would do anything in her power to find out what was going on. This was also the reason Dealla knew so precisely why her family had moved to Whitehaven - she had pelted her parents with questions until her curiosity had been satisfied, which had taken quite a while and a lot of patience from her parents.

The mood had gotten a little heavy at that point, the excitement of their first trip to Hogwarts almost vanished, and there was still a lot of time left to their trip, so Dealla decided a change of topic was in order, one that would maybe carry them all the way to their magical destination. "So you lived in New Zealand for nine years? What was it like there? Do you miss it?"

Permisson given by Dee to slightly god mode the end of the thread

It felt solemn in its own way as they sat together in the train compartment and promised to prove that their grandparents had been wrong. This time there was no room for jokes. Ileen raised her hand seriously, clenched it into a fist and only split off her little finger. "It's a deal. Pinky swear?"
She eyed the brunette girl who seemed just as excited and honest about this situation as her. They had a shared mission. They would prove their worth.
At this very moment, Ileen was sure she had made a friend here - even though they didn’t know each other very well and only met an hour or so ago, she was just sure they would be wonderful friends. She had not expected this and it was a wonderful feeling. Now she knew she wasn’t alone in this. Not alone with her messed up grandparents, not alone in the Hogwarts Express - not alone on her whole wizard journey.

This feeling got even stronger when Ileen told Dee about her childhood, struggling being marked as ‘evil’ because of whatever her family had done. The other girl didn't even seem to consider that Ileen could be bad or evil. On the contrary, she seemed more upset about the other wizards’ behavior. A burden she hadn't even known that had been there fell off her shoulders when she saw Dee’s reaction.
Thinking back to her time in New Zealand, the young girl frowned. “I had almost no friends to be honest. I got along with the Muggles there, but they also noticed that some children were avoiding me. Even if they didn’t know the reason, they played along…” Her tone was more factual and thoughtful than sad, but then she smiled. “I had a few friends, though. I haven’t seen them inr three years now, but still, I miss them a little, yeah.”
She looked at Dee with a soft smile on her lips. She could well imagine that this girl had plenty of friends. Being around her was funny and uncomplicated. Immediately, she felt sorry for the other girl. “Maybe you can write them letters? I’m sure they will be very happy to meet you again during vacations.” She sighed wistfully. “Whitehaven sounds like the place to go for me. I’m sure it's nice there.” Without rumors or wizards around.

She gave Dee another smile, a rare one that painted dimples in her cheeks. She really was lucky that this girl had chosen to sit with her.
“Of course I want to find out what my parents did. I have to.” She really had to. How should she ever understand what she had been punished for if she didn’t know what had happened? And how would she prevent making the same mistakes? But she wasn’t ready to put that into words. “I will prove that I’m not evil.” To mitigate the gravity of the situation, she quickly grinned. “I mean - I want to be the funny grandma. Not the evil one.”

Her mood brightened considerably when Dee asked her about New Zealand. Even though it made her a bit sad, she was excited enough for Hogwarts to come, so she wasn’t all that sad talking about her home, the place she’d had to let go.
So she told Dee about the two horses and the three cats they had had, about their wonderful house and grounds and the astonishing nature. In return, she learned a lot about Dee’s childhood in Whitehaven. And just like that, time passed without the two girls noticing, completely absorbed in their conversation.

Thread finished - the two girls will leave the train