Candescent

I sat in a train carriage watching the English countryside pass me by. Two hours ago, I had been both nervous and excited as we ran through the barrier of platform 9 ¾. I had searched for an empty carriage for ten minutes before I had come to where I now sat.

“Is this seat taken?” a voice called from the doorway. “It seems everywhere else is full.”

“Sure,” I replied, smiling. The girl looked about eleven – my age – and was looking around excitedly, not a trace of apprehension in her.

“I’m Hermione Granger,” she said as she hoisted her trunk onto the rack.

“Alyssa Tyler,” I replied, returning to my gazing out the window, but studying her through my hair that covered the left side of my face. She was pretty, in a way. She didn’t have any scars on her face – I was glad I’d argued against getting my hair cut. Muggle-born by the looks of her. Wait…what?

What was a muggle? Why did it matter so much? And why on earth was I getting these strange feelings of contempt?

“When did you find out?” she asked me, breaking the silence.

“When did I find out what?” I responded, trying to block out the voices in my head.

“That you were a witch,” she replied incredulously.

“A month ago,” I replied. “I’m adopted, so my parents kind of knew, but didn’t exactly know the extent of what this whole thing was. What about you?”

“My whole family are muggles. I was amazed when I got my letter.”

There was that word again.

“What’s a muggle?” I finally asked.

“A non-magic person.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish. Luckily a distraction arrived in the form of a round-faced boy. He opened the carriage door and looked around before realising there were people in here.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But have you seen a toad? Trevor. I lost him when I boarded and I haven’t seen him since.”

“I’ll help you look for him,” Hermione said, standing up.

I looked outside quickly at the increasingly boring scenery before I agreed to go too.

“I’m Neville,” the boy said, as we travelled in single file down the train, looking into each people-filled compartment as we went.

“Hermione Granger,” Hermione said. “And this is Alyssa.”

As we reached the end of the section, Neville and Hermione stopped.

“I’m going to go back the other way,” Neville said quickly before heading back the way we came.

“What’s with him?” I asked, confused.

“Term hasn’t even started,” she said looking through the glass window to the other side. “But I think he’s already been bullied by some people.”

“Right,” I said. “You probably better follow him, so he doesn’t get into any more trouble.”

“Alright.” She followed in Neville’s tracks back down the hallway as I moved into the next area.

The people here all looked right at home. I mean, you’d expect that from the older years, but even those my age looked as though this was something that happened everyday. For some reason – and I have no idea why – I felt calmer and even though no one had spoken to me, I felt welcome. As I peeked into each cabin, hostile glances met me, but it didn’t concern me one bit. I kept looking, and after a while, I forgot my search and just began to observe these people.

Near the end, a compartment door stood open. A voice carried down the hall and as I looked in, I saw three people chatting. They all looked about the same age as me. Two boys and one girl. Two pure-blood, one half-blood. What the- WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS INTUITION COMING FROM!!!

“Sorry,” I murmured, noticing they were looking at me because I was staring at them.

“Wait.” One of the boys, a dark one stood up and slid open the door. “Did you need something?”

“No,” I replied, entirely forgetting Trevor, Neville’s toad.

“Do you want to sit with us?”

“Sure,” I said without hesitation, following him inside.

I soon learnt that his name was Blaise, and the pale boy was Draco. The half-blood – the girl – was Pansy Parkinson who honestly seemed like a downright unpleasant person with a terrible personality. But I dealt with it until a Slytherin prefect came strutting down the hall yelling out, “Oi, you slackers! Get changed already!” and I figured I should probably get back to my friends and my suitcase.

“See you later guys,” I said, walking out and away.

I hadn’t noticed it before but it was almost dark. There were already a considerable amount of stars in the sky by the time I got back to where Hermione and Neville were waiting.

“Where have you been?!” Hermione exclaimed as soon as I walked in.

“Well,” I said, anger flashing through me. Why should I have to tell anyone where I was every moment of the day. “At first I was looking for the stupid toad. And then I decided it wasn’t going to be found, so I sat down and chatted with some people. Happy?”

“I…guess,” Hermione answered astonished by my tone.

Immediately I sat down, weary. “I’m sorry Hermione. I have no idea what just went through my head.” Never mind what’s been going through it for the last six hours.

“Neville,” I said. “We have to get changed. Can you get out for a few minutes.”

“We don’t have to get completely changed,” Hermione said as Neville closed the door behind him. “We’re only putting our robes on.”

“Yeah, I just feel uncomfortable, that’s all.”

With three people in the compartment, one of them was more likely to see the scar on my check when I took my jumper off. With only Hermione and me, hopefully she wouldn't. Thankfully when I took off my jumper and put on my robes, Hermione didn’t notice. And I made sure my hair was covering my scar when I was done.

“Alright Neville,” I called. “You can come back in now.”

“We’re almost there,” he said as he pulled his trunk down from the rack. Hermione and I did likewise, and by the time we had, the train stopped.

“We’re here,” we all said in unison, the excitement radiating from all three of us.

We walked off the train onto a platform. I noted the train station was Hogsmeade.

“We have to cross the river,” Hermione whispered to me as we put our luggage to the side.

“What do you mean we have to cross the river!?”

She giggled when she saw my expression. I wasn’t…I couldn’t swim.

“Don’t worry,” Draco Malfoy muttered, walking past. “I’ll pull you back in if you fall.”

I smiled my gratitude. Noting inside that before the end of this year, I should probably learn how to swim.