A song to listen while reading

“James Duillon, it’s time to wake up! Chop chop young man!” was the first words James heard in the morning. It was his mom, trying to wake him up to get to the Station so he could take the Hogwarts Express to school. “A few minutes, mum. I’ll wake up, I prom…” he fell asleep right at that moment. “Well, you asked for it!” he could hear his mom’s speech, however, couldn’t really understand what was really happening until he felt the cold water all over his body. As his body reacted to it fast, he was now sitting on his bed; he also hit his head to the bucket that was standing in the air. He held his head because it hurt, “Ouch”. He narrowed his eyes, as he turned his blue hues to his mother, “Really mum?” She shrugged and signed him to hurry up.

James was at the table, sitting with his parents; he was still yawning. His dad looked at him, “Son, it’s your first day at Hogwarts, I assume your mother prepared everything for you. It’s going to be great.” He took a sip off of his coffee as he was looking at James, “Do you want me to tell you how I felt the first time I was on that train?” James shook his head quite fast. “Thank you, dad! I don’t really want to hear any story.” He chuckled, quickly finished his breakfast. The thought of having his new wand – a working one- with him could make him happy, and awake. He ran upstairs to get his trunk. He placed his wand to his back pocket and ran downstairs. “I’m ready!”

They were at the Station where James would take the train to Hogwarts. He was quite excited. He followed his dad’s lead until the entrance of platform nine three quarters. That was it! He was about to get into the magical world. He closed his eyes, held the carriage tight, listened to his dad’s directions, closed his eyes, and ran through the wall between nine and ten. There he was. He could see the Hogwarts Express standing there with its magnificent look. He could see lots of wizards and witches all around, talking and playing with each other. He always thought of having his own friends at the school so they could be like the others. He sighed as he kept walking among other students.

“Alright, time to get on, buddy!” His dad patted James’ shoulder. “They’ll pick your trunk and load them to the train. Just find yourself a compartment, make new friends.” James nodded his dad, hugged him tight. He could feel the kiss on his head, planted by his dad. With a smiling face, he hopped on the train, and started looking for an empty compartment. When he found one, he got inside and sit next to the huge window. So, he could see his dad, and say his bye one last time until Christmas.

As the train started moving, James was getting nervous bit by bit, however, he knew that he had to be strong. He sat tight, and kept watching outside from the window, he was dreaming his future at Hogwarts until someone was at the compartment door. James was about to say something, but the person just vanished. He sighed at the thought of being alone the whole ride. He shook his head in sadness. Nevertheless, he had a great idea on his mind. He could study magic.

After the trolling lady passed, James looked at all the yummy stuff. He even caught a chocolate frog for the first time. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to forget that moment because he was about to break the window to be able to catch that frog which caused him some pain in the stomach. James took out his wand and looked at the empty pocket of the frog card. “Well, let’s start!” He cleared his throat, aimed his wand at the card, “Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this fat card yellow.”

Anastasia was an excellent multitasker. For example, she could fly on a broomstick while reading, or practice wand movements for a spell while she was eating breakfast. Even at the moment, she was both avioding her loathsome older cousin and looking for a semi-empty train compartment. She had ducked past several that were full of older students and a few that had room but seemed less than ideal. She noticed a boy in the compartment she was passing. He had his wand out and appeared to be practicing magic. 

She was fairly curious, and even more so as she heard the spell he attempted to cast a spell that sounded like utter and complete nonsense. Never one to resist an opportunity to show off her knowledge, she entered the compartment, her sharp eyes analyzing the boy as she did so. 

"Oh, are you practicing magic?" she said, sounding fairly unimpressed. She couldn't imagine what he was hoping to do with a spell like that. She also wondered where on earth he had gotten it from. If he was a muggle-born, he wouldn't have been able to find a spell like that in his spell books. On the other hand, if he had grown up in the Wizarding World, he would have likely known that wasn't a real spell, right? Her guess was somebody, maybe a sibling or something was playing a stupid joke on this boy. "Where did you get that spell?"

James’ blue hues were at the door now. There was a girl standing there, looking at him, even speaking to him. James gulped as his cheeks went red. “Ah… well…” He looked at his wand, then at the card he was practicing magic on, and looked at her again, “Ahem… I… kind of… heard it while I was at the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. A red-haired guy told me that it was an advanced magic. However, it didn’t sound that advanced to me.” He looked down blushing, and looked at her again, “I just… wanted to try what I could do with the wand.” He tried to smile which was hard for him to do since he was almost petrified with the beauty of the girl at the entrance of the compartment.

He could remember his practices with his dad, and there were never spells or charms like that. He knew he was being silly at that moment, but it was the truth. The practices he did with his dad were quite intense and all the time he was getting beaten by his dad which was frustrating. At least, he learned to get back up again and again until he has fully achieved how to duel and how to practice. Becoming an Auror was his dream, there was nothing that could stop him. He wanted to become one of the best. That’s why even in the train he was practicing, even though he got embarrassed because of the so-called spell that didn’t work even an inch.

He looked at the girl, “Would you like to demonstrate me a magic play?” He asked with a blushing face, “I know a few spells myself as well, however, I would love to see what you are capable of.” He could smile now; he didn’t know how but it was good. “Oh, forgive my rudeness, by the way.” He stood up in front of her, and looked at her in the eyes, “I’m James. James Duillon.” He held his hand to shake. He didn’t know if he could stand the feeling, yet he had to try. He didn’t know there were perfect creatures on the Wizarding World. He thought himself ‘What a beautiful world!’

Anastasia listened and arched a somewhat unimpressed eyebrow at the boy's words. Anyone who knew anything about magic could likely tell that the spell he'd attempted was a bunch of nonsense. Still, she wouldn't judge him based on that, or she'd at least try not to since she knew older cousins or siblings could be cruel and if he hadn't had any formal magic training before now, it wasn't completely unbelievable that he would fall for something like that. After all, Anastasia reminded herself, not everyone was as naturally and constantly on edge as she was. 

The boy offered to demonstrate a magic play and Anastasia arched an eyebrow, this time though, her expression was warmer and more amused than the earlier critical expression. He was smiling now, after a rather interesting, almost painful earlier attempt. She wondered if that had anything to do with her presence or if that was just how the boy was. She sincerely hoped it was the former as opposed to the later. She was apparently somewhat intimidating, what with her abnormal beauty and colder demeanor, and she'd certainly had that effect on people before. She could work with him being somewhat intimidated or panicked at meeting her. She could absolutely not deal with him being an utter buffoon. She was fairly certain he wasn't though-  after all, he was trying to practice magic on the train, so he presumably had some kind of goals.

"Oh, I know a few spells, my parents taught me some and I picked up a few more advanced techniques and spells from watching them," she said, not mentioning the fact that the "more advanced" spells she spoke of were, in fact, nasty hexes and she was a whiz at them, especially when she used them on her cousins. She knew people tended to underestimate a pretty face, so she had begun playing to that so that when she did eventually show her talent, it would catch people even more off guard. 

James was a respectable name. Her father's cousin was named James and she could think of a few others with that name, so that was a starting point. "My name is Anastasia Beckett, of the London Becketts, " she said, her tone and posture far more proper than one would expect from an eleven-year-old. She took his outstretched hand and shook it firmly. Technically, she was Anastasia Beckett the fourth, but given her five middle names and the fact that one of the previous Anastasia had been disowned or kidnapped (she wasn't clear on which it was), she left off that bit.