Chapter 1: Close Encounters of the Humiliating Kind
“Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full.”
Those were the first words that Ron Weasley ever said to Harry Potter. That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted for, well, ever. Little did Harry or Ron know, however, that history, as it so often does, was about to repeat itself.
And not in the way you might suspect.
“Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full.”
The speaker of these fateful words was a young girl, about eleven years old. She had extremely dark brown hair, which was so thick it obscured her vision when not tucked behind her ears. Her eyes were brown, and they looked out from behind her curtain of hair as she asked her question.
“No, or at least, I don’t think so,” came the reply came from another girl, also about eleven. She had long, dark red hair and bright green eyes that always seemed to be smiling.
“Thanks.”
The girl sat down in the seat opposite the train window and stared for a while at the scenery flashing past. Then she spoke again. “I’m Olivia Abdiknot, by the way. Who are you?”
“I’m Cora. Cora Potter.”
Olivia looked at Cora the way you would look at someone who you thought you knew, but couldn’t quite remember.
“Cora Potter? I know I’ve heard your name before. Where was it? Oh, maybe it was in that book I got at Flourish and Blotts. Let me look …”
And without further ado, Olivia pulled a large book entitled Great Wizarding Events of the Twenty-first Century out of her shoulder bag and began flipping pages excitedly.
Cora watched this amusedly. It wasn’t every day that people didn’t recognize her immediately. ‘Olivia must be Muggle-born,’ she thought, ‘Otherwise she would have known exactly who I am, and would ask me a million questions like that Rita Skeeter woman Aunt Hermione hates.’
A cry of recognition jolted Cora out of her thoughts. Apparently, Olivia had found whatever it was she had been looking for.
“I knew I’d heard your name before. Here, listen to this.” She began to read aloud from the book excitedly.
“Perhaps the greatest triumph of this century to date is the defeat of The Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Sole responsibility for this act goes to a Mr Harry Potter. Mr Potter is also the only known survivor of the Killing Curse, which was executed on him by You-Know-Who at the age of one. It has also recently come to light that Mr Potter was destined to destroy You-Know-Who, due to a prophecy that was made shortly before his birth. Mr. Potter currently resides in London with his wife, Ginevra, and their children, Matthew and Cora.”
Olivia looked up from her book. “That’s all it says. I don’t understand most of it, but at least I was right about hearing your name.”
“Basically, what it means is that there was an evil wizard called Voldemort, and my dad destroyed him,” said Cora, shrugging her shoulders off handedly.
“Voldemort? Was that his name?” asked Olivia.
“Yeah. And don’t call him You-Know-Who. Dad always says ‘fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself’,” remarked Cora firmly.
A young boy walked along the corridor. He had dirty-blonde hair and blue eyes and, at the moment, he was infuriated with himself.
“Andrew MacDounagh,” he told himself quietly, “You are the only person on Earth who could get lost inside a train. It’s a stationary object, for crying out loud.”
This was true. He was hopelessly lost. He had gotten up to buy some lunch from the witch with the food trolley, and was now unable to find his way back to his compartment.
A girl walked by. Drew ran to catch up with her.
“Excuse me, but I seem to have lost my way. Do you think you could help me?” he asked her desperately.
The girl, however, ignored him, and kept walking. She reached a compartment, went inside, and pulled the sliding door shut behind her.
Drew forgot to notice this detail, and walked straight into the glass door. Next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground, and could hear loud laughter issuing out from behind the door, which was still closed.
“Great job, Drew. You haven’t even made it off the school train and already you’re making a fool of yourself,” he muttered quietly to himself.
He got up and walked to the end of the hall. Suddenly, the hem of his robes caught on a door bracket. He kept walking, however, and the robes ripped. The force of this sent him rolling head-over-heels into another compartment, whose door was, mercifully, open.
“So, let me get this straight.” Olivia was trying to comprehend the amazing story that Cora had just told her. “Your dad is responsible for the downfall of the most evil wizard who ever lived?”
Cora nodded. Olivia let out a low whistle. “I bet he’s proud of that.”
“Actually, he’s not. He thinks-”
But Olivia never found out what Cora’s dad thought. Because at that moment, something came rolling into their compartment.
Drew got up and shook his hair out of his eyes. Two girls were staring at him with mixed expressions of disgust and amusement on their faces, the former being Olivia, the latter Cora who found it extremely funny.
“Hi. I’m Drew.” It was a lousy comeback, but it was the best he could do.
“And you’re Cora Potter,” he said, not without a hint of awe in his voice. “But I don’t know who you are,” he said, looking at Olivia who stared back at him.
Cora sighed. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘Easy come, easy go.’
Olivia brushed her hair out of her eyes and said, a bit too loudly, “I’m Olivia”.
Cora said “Are you all right, Drew? You kind of, well, came in here without the usual method of transport.”
Drew laughed. “Yeah, that happens to me a lot. By the way, do either of you know where compartment 15B is? I got lost.”
“This is 27B” said Olivia snidely; the embarrassment of Drew not knowing exactly who she was had put her nose out of joint.
“Really? That’s odd. Do either of you know what house you’ll be in? I’m a bit curious, myself.”
“I’m bound to be in Gryffindor, Mum and Dad were, and Mum’s whole family has been for about six generations. What about you, Olivia?” Cora inquired of her new friend.
“I really don’t know. My mother has never even heard of Hogwarts, and, well, I’ve never met my father. I guess he was a wizard; otherwise I wouldn’t be a witch, right? But I have no idea who he is and-”
Olivia broke off and suddenly became very interested in the darkening landscape outside the window.
“Erm, what house do you think you’ll be in, Drew?” Cora hadn’t known Olivia very long, but she could tell that the topic of her father was best left alone.
“Well, Mum was in Ravenclaw, and Dad’s a Muggle, but I hope I’m in Gryffindor. I’m brave and smart and all those things. I just have the added bonus of being clumsy.”
Cora laughed, but Olivia’s gaze remained steadfast on what was now a lot of marshland out the window.
Drew decided that this was probably a good time to leave.
“Um, I have to go. I just remembered Mum told me to find Geena Weasley if I got lost, which I obviously did, although I think this is a bit earlier than she expected. She’s a fourth-year, and apparently her father knew the school like the back of his hand.”
“Geena Weasley? She’s my cousin. Tell her I say hi.” Cora said.
“Alright. I guess I’ll see you guys later.” Drew took his cue and left.
Olivia sighed. “What ever house I’m in, I hope he’s not sharing it with me.”
Cora nodded. “That was certainly humiliating.”
A/N: Please read and review! This is my first fanfic, and I really want to know what other people think of it. The old adage “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” is completely wrong here, I don’t care if you shout insults at me! Just please tell me what you think.
Also thanks to the wonderful Lurid, beta-d for me, (if you haven’t read Malicious Intentions yet, go do it now) and my friend Joe,who (a) let me base Drew on him, and (b) let me pester him at lunch every day with random questions such as “Do you like cheese?” and things like that.