The Hogwarts Express

Violet was sitting alone in her compartment when Kai knocked on the outside and pushed the door open.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked. “There aren't any other empty cars.”

Violet shrugged. He took that as an assent, and sat down across from her. She didn't look up from the book she was reading: Magic in the Days of Merlin.

“My name's Kai,” he said.

“Violet,” she replied, not taking her eyes off her book.

He blinked, from behind his owlish glasses, and then shrugged and shed his bookbag and other packages, then took off his jacket, and undid the tie that Cho had made him wear. He threw that on the floor with a look of disdain. Since Violet seemed uninterested in talking, he stood by the window for a bit, watching London recede behind them.

The door opened again, and a blond youngster leaned in, with another boy standing behind him.

“Err, hi,” he said. “Is there room in here for two more?”

“Sure,” said Kai, pulling some of his belongings onto the floor to make space on the seat. Violet let out a barely perceptible sigh, but continued reading as the other two boys entered.

“Hi, I'm Teddy Lupin,” said the second boy, reaching over to shake Kai's hand.

“Kai Chang,” Kai replied.

“I met Teddy in the corridor, since I was looking for a compartment too,” said the first boy to enter. “Most of 'em are taken up by kids who're already sitting with their friends.” He didn't add that he had seen several filled with Hufflepuff students he knew, but he just didn't feel like sitting with Hufflepuffs before the Sorting Hat had actually confirmed that Hufflepuff was where he belonged. He didn't know why; somehow, the idea of enjoying that camaraderie based on assuming, as if his future at Hogwarts were already predetermined, made him uncomfortable. “My name's Dewey, Dewey Diggory,” he added, shaking hands with Kai.

Kai paused, gripping his hand. “Are... are you related to Cedric Diggory?”

Dewey tried not to grimace. It wasn't as if he weren't asked that question all the time. “Yes,” he said simply. “He was my brother. Never met him, though.”

Kai nodded slowly. He started to say that he thought his sister had once dated Dewey's brother, but then he closed his mouth. Why did it matter? It had all happened before either of them was born.

“This is Violet,” Kai said, as he realized the lone girl in the compartment was ignoring them all.

She nodded, not giving any other acknowledgment.

“Friendly, isn't she?” said Dewey, looking the small, plain-faced girl up and down, and Teddy broke into nervous laughter.

“She doesn't talk much,” Kai agreed.

“She can hear you,” said Violet.

“Well, that's good,” said Dewey, sitting next to her, while Teddy sat across from him, next to Kai. The three boys were now making a great deal of noise as they got more comfortable, shedding jackets and stowing their belongings in the compartment's storage space. Violet sighed a little more audibly.

“Nice shoes,” Teddy commented, looking at Violet's pumps.

“Connoisseur of ladies' shoes, are you?” she asked slowly, still not looking up.

Teddy blushed. “No,” he said. “I just meant, they look nice. Expensive.” He felt tongue-tied for some reason.

“Yes,” she murmured, turning a page in her book. “My father is very rich.” She didn't say it as if she were boasting, merely stating a fact. The boys looked at each other, raising their eyebrows, and then shrugged.

Violet continued reading, and doing her best to ignore the boys, or pretending to, as they talked about Hogwarts and what friends and family had told them about the school. Kai and Teddy seemed the best informed; Dewey's parents had attended Hogwarts many years earlier and didn't know any of the staff at the school now, except for the infamous Professor Binns, ghostly professor of history.

“So,” Dewey said at last, looking around at the other boys, “what house do you reckon you'll be in?” Conversations among children heading to Hogwarts for the first time always came around to the all-import Sorting. Surprisingly, all three of them looked less than certain.

“My sister was in Ravenclaw,” said Kai, “and she says that's where I belong as well. I suppose that will be all right. I've never thought of myself as being particularly brave, and Hufflepuff seems nice enough but it just doesn't sound like I'd fit in there, and, well, definitely not Slytherin...” The other two boys nodded at this. “So I guess I'll be in Ravenclaw – if the Hat decides I'm smart enough,” he added, with a small laugh.

“My father was in Gryffindor, my mother was in Hufflepuff,” said Teddy. “My godfather –” he caught himself, deciding he didn't want to name-drop just now. “He and all his friends and family, they're in Gryffindor too. So everyone is pretty much expecting me to be in Gryffindor. But Hufflepuff would be all right, I suppose. I'm definitely not studious, so I doubt I'll be in Ravenclaw.” He grinned abashedly. “And I really hope I don't wind up in Slytherin,” he added, feeling a little guilty as he thought of his grandmother.

“Well, you all probably know my brother was a Hufflepuff,” sighed Dewey. “And so were my parents. And everyone says I'm a Hufflepuff, so I suppose I'll be a Hufflepuff. Not that I'd mind being a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw,” he added, looking at Teddy and Kai. “Just so long as I'm not a Slytherin.”

The car got quiet. Violet felt the three boys' eyes on her. She lowered her book and gave them a baleful look, from beneath her bangs. “What?”

“Oh, come on!” said Kai.

“Are you going to be one of those loners who never talks to anyone?” asked Teddy.

“Maybe,” said Violet.

“Okay, if she won't tell us, let's guess,” said Kai.

“Easy.” Teddy nodded at the book in which she had had her nose buried the entire trip. “Ravenclaw.”

“I don't know,” Kai mused. “Maybe she's brave, just not very friendly.”

“Definitely not Hufflepuff, then,” commented Dewey.

Violet slapped her book shut.

“All right,” she said. “My mother was in Slytherin. Her parents were in Slytherin. My father was in Slytherin, and his parents, and if you go up my family tree in either direction almost all you'll find is Slytherins. So I think I have a pretty good idea what house I'll be sorted into. Satisfied? And if you don't want to sit with me anymore, you'll have to move because I was here first.”

The three boys looked at each other.

“Who said we don't want to sit with you?” said Teddy.

“Yes, you've been such pleasant company!” said Kai. The other two boys grinned, while Violet scowled at him.

“Fine,” she said, and opened her book again.

“You don't really seem... happy about being a Slytherin,” Dewey observed, hesitantly.

Violet frowned at him. “Technically I'm not a Slytherin yet, but why wouldn't I be happy about it?” she asked.

“You don't have to be in the same house your parents were in, you know,” said Dewey.

“Why yes, I do know that.” Her dry, sarcastic tone made Dewey clear his throat and study his hands, while Kai and Teddy rolled their eyes.

“What are the odds?” Kai asked, looking around. “Four random first-years, and we're all, well, probably, going to be in different houses.”

They sat in silence for a moment, and then a witch pushing a dessert trolley came by. “Anything to eat, dears?” she asked. “Pumpkin juice?”

All three boys dug into their pockets, and brought out change with which to purchase handfuls of snacks. Soon Chocolate Frog cards and Wizard Wheeze wrappers were littering the compartment.

“Your rich father didn't give you spending money?” Teddy asked Violet.

“I'm not hungry,” Violet said, which wasn't really true. In fact, she'd wanted to buy something off the trolley, but it annoyed her that all the boys were doing so, and so she'd remained aloof and indifferent as they scooped up snacks. She realized in retrospect that that was pretty stupid, especially when her stomach rumbled.

“Here,” said Dewey, offering her some candy. “I've got plenty.” And when she sat there, not taking it but not explicitly rejecting it, he said, “What, is there some rule that Slytherins can't be friendly with anyone else?”

“No,” she said, and took the chocolate bar he offered. “Thank you.”

Dewey smiled, and Teddy offered her a Pumpkin Pasty, which she also accepted.

“Guess you're hungry after all!” Kai remarked. Violet frowned at him.

“Even Slytherins like chocolate, I reckon,” said Dewey.

“If you're going to make fun of me...” muttered Violet, stopping in the process of unwrapping the chocolate bar.

“Sensitive, too,” Kai said.

“Aww, we're just teasing,” said Teddy, as Violet looked about to put down her chocolate bar and Pumpkin Pasty. “Don't take offense.”

“It's not because you're a Slytherin, honest,” said Dewey.

“Right, it's because you're a girl,” Kai said, with a wink. The other two boys cocked their heads and stared at him for a moment. Kai merely looked amused.

Violet broke off a piece of the chocolate bar Dewey had given her, and put it in her mouth. “Noted,” she said. “Don't worry, when we get to Hogwarts, you can forget you ever talked to me.”

“Why would we do that?” asked Teddy.

“Awfully insecure, aren't you?” Kai said. Teddy and Dewey both glared at him.

“Be realistic,” Violet said, unfazed. “We'll get to Hogwarts, I'll be sorted into Slytherin, you'll be sorted into other houses, and you'll get on with having nothing to do with Slytherins.”

Even Kai looked a little abashed, though Violet continued eating the chocolate bar unperturbed.

“Well, you're not so bad, for a Slytherin,” Dewey offered.

“Oh, thank you.” Her sarcasm cut him again.

“I don't see why we couldn't still talk to you!” Teddy said abruptly. He stammered a moment, then continued, his face turning a little red. “I don't think Slytherins are all bad. I was raised by my grandmother, and she's a Slytherin!”

“I know,” Violet said calmly.

Now they all stared at her. Teddy looked confused. “What do you mean, you know?”

She rolled her eyes. “You're Teddy Lupin!” she said. “Every time your godfather takes you out for an ice cream, you wind up on the society pages of the Daily Prophet, or in Rita Skeeter's gossip column. And your parents are memorialized every year on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. Honestly, everyone knows who you are!”

Teddy flushed, and looked down at his feet, deeply uncomfortable. He really hadn't realized that anyone would take an interest in him or his family. From the looks Dewey and Kai exchanged, they weren't regular readers of the society pages either.

“Okay,” said Kai. “So who's your family, then?”

“What?” Violet raised an eyebrow.

“So you're from an old, wealthy, Slytherin family. You haven't even told us your last name yet. You trying to keep it secret? You know we'll find out when we get to school anyway.”

“Leave her alone, Kai,” Teddy mumbled.

“Fine,” Violet sighed. “Parkinson. My last name is Parkinson.”

Dewey frowned. “Parkinson?”

“I haven't heard of 'em,” said Kai.

Violet shrugged, and took another bite of chocolate. But Teddy was deep in thought. He didn't read the newspaper or pay much attention to notable wizarding families, but he had grown up hearing tales of Hogwarts. Harry and the Weasleys were always talking about their friends and nemeses from school, and he thought he remembered...

“Pansy Parkinson!” he exclaimed.

Violet gave him a withering look.

“That's your mother, isn't it?” he asked.

“Bravo,” she said sarcastically.

“But she...” He frowned. “Does that mean your father is–”

“Yes.” Her voice was suddenly flat.

“Okay, spill it, mate,” said Dewey.

“Yeah, who are these people?” asked Kai.

Teddy finally noticed Violet's stony expression.

“Doesn't matter,” he muttered. “Look, I'm sorry.”

“Why?” she asked. “I'm not.”

“What are you two going on about?” Kai demanded.

Teddy was frowning again. Despite trying to get the other two to drop it, there was something else nagging at him, and then it came to him, and once again his face lit up with realization.

“But,” he said, “doesn't that mean my grandmother and yours are –”

“Sisters,” said Violet.

Teddy paused again, thinking.

“You can almost hear the wheels turning,” Violet remarked, as if to nobody in particular. “Slowly.”

Kai and Dewey were now silent, their eyes going back and forth between Violet and Teddy, listening with interest, despite their total confusion.

“So,” Teddy said, ignoring Violet's last comment, “that would make us...”

“It makes us second cousins,” she sighed.

He stared at her accusingly. “You knew who I was as soon as I came in!” he exclaimed.

“'Hi, I'm Teddy Lupin' was a bit of a clue.”

“Well then why didn't you say anything?” he demanded.

“Because,” Violet said, as she carefully folded up the chocolate bar wrapper and tossed it in the little waste basket wedged against the door. “I hardly ever see my father's side of the family. And your grandmother isn't on good terms with them either. So, we may be related, but there's a reason we've never met until now. It isn't as if our families are eager for a big reunion.”

Teddy chewed his lip, while Kai and Dewey both resumed eating their snacks, fascinated and yet uncomfortable at the serious turn the conversation had taken.

“You know,” said Dewey, “I get sick of people always bringing up everything that happened years ago. Not that it's not important, but we weren't there, you know?”

To Dewey's surprise, Kai nodded emphatically. “Yeah,” he said. “It's like we're supposed to want to have the same friends our parents and older sibs did, and do everything the way they did it 'cause they have all these fond memories of how things used to be!”

“Not always so fond,” muttered Teddy. Dewey nodded at that.

“Let's make a pact,” Dewey said, with sudden resolution.

The other three children stared at him. “A what?” Kai asked.

Dewey looked at Kai and Teddy and Violet, each in turn. “Let's agree,” he said, “that we'll be friends, no matter what houses we get sorted into.”

Kai and Teddy looked surprised, then considered a moment, and then nodded agreeably, but Violet looked skeptical.

“You too, Violet,” Dewey insisted.

“Unless you don't want any friends,” Kai smirked.

“Or you only want Slytherin friends,” Teddy said, frowning at Kai.

“The joke will be on you if one of you gets sorted into Slytherin,” said Violet.

They glanced at each other uneasily, and then Dewey shrugged. “So? Deal still holds. No matter where any of us winds up.” And he held out his hand, and looked at the others.

Teddy held his hand out and placed it over Dewey's. After a moment, Kai did the same, placing his hand on Teddy's. They all looked at Violet.

She was silent, looking at the three boys' hands, one atop the other.

“Even though I'm a girl?” she said at last, making a little face at Kai.

“Well, if you weren't wearing a skirt you could hardly – ow!” Kai yelped as Teddy jabbed him with his free elbow. “Yeah, even though you're a girl,” he finished.

Violet looked thoughtful, and then, slowly, put her tiny hand on top of Kai's.

“Friends,” said Dewey.

“Friends,” agreed Teddy.

“Friends,” Kai grinned.

“Friends,” Violet said slowly.