Underwater Calls

The train ride to Hogwarts was always interesting for Laura.
She knew that she only had sacred time for peace and quiet before she was surrounded by noise and chatter from her two best friends – who, she realised with triumph, still hadn’t found her.
The moment she left her family, she found herself an empty compartment, and drowned away all the noise and chatter of everyone and the steady beat of the train by loosing herself in her music. In the year 2011, technology was immensely developed, and as she was starting her final year in Hogwarts, she was thinking about the options that were to be laid out in front of her in a matter of few weeks.
She didn’t know what she wanted to do, she didn’t know which job she wanted to qualify and train for, and she didn’t know if she even wanted to do anything that was related to magic. She could just imagine her parents faces if she was to tell them she wanted to stop practising magic. Utter shock, utter disappointment, and utter horror. They were purebloods, and though her parents weren’t Death Eaters – surprise, surprise – they were expecting very high achievements from her. She sighed; rubbing a hand over her pale complexion as Boyce Avenue slowly consumed her being from the words that Alejandro Manzano was soulfully singing. They always managed to soothe the storms that took place in her; they had a way, a connection with music that pin-pointed exactly where needed to be. She closed her eyes and let her head rest against the side of the glass, watching the city fly away before her eyes and the trees and green land take over.
Siobhan and Rosabella had looked into nearly every compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Siobhan peered into the one that was on her right, and she nudged Rosabella.
“Thank God, finally we found her. I was in doubt if she really was on the train for a second,” Siobhan said, not bothering to whisper; she knew her best friend, and she knew that at the moment, Laura was engulfed into the maddeningly loud music that was playing.
They pulled open the compartment door, and didn’t bother to let Laura acknowledge them. Siobhan, just as crazy and as bright as her ice white hair, leapt on Laura, screaming. Laura, shell shocked, only managed to curse and jump out of her seat, trying to stand up, but Siobhan, instinctively clinging on, took Laura down with her, causing the both of them to crash onto the floor. Rosabella, not for the first time, realised why she was classified as the sensible and truce-calling one in the group. Taking a seat next to the compartment door on the opposite side of where the girls were now seated, tangled together on the floor, she decided it was time her beloved Transfiguration textbook appeared.
Laura pulled off her rose red HeartBeat headphones and stared at her two best friends. Then she stared down at Siobhan by her side, face red, groaning as she realised she couldn’t exactly feel her backside.
“Siobby, what the fuck?” she exclaimed, and Siobhan started to get up, rubbing her bottom. She smiled sheepishly at Laura, shrugging.
“I don't know – it was a moment’s thing, you know?” she said, shrugging again and grimacing. Laura shook her head, getting up slowly, reassuring herself that every part of her body was in perfect working order and she wasn’t stiff. She didn’t dare look for bruises, because she knew that even though she was fine, she would definitely have bruises from the impact with the cold metal floor.
Rosabella was already seated, Laura realised, and wearing her school robes. She smiled as she watched her best friends settle into the compartment and do those little things that made them who they were; Rosabella with her Transfiguration textbook, already halfway through it, muttering to herself softly as she pushed her prescription RayBans back in place; Siobhan looking for her makeup bag, her gaze flickering over to Laura.
Laura knew that they were dying to ask her about her summer. The air of calm and normality was not out of the norm, but she could feel the undertones of impatience. She didn’t know if she really wanted to talk about it, but she never kept secrets from her best friends – she never lied to people that she cared about.
“Rosabella, are you planning to join us on Earth today?” Siobhan asked, checking her manicure to see if there was any chipping in her nails or if the polish had peeled off.
“I was merely waiting for you two to compose yourselves – after all, it was a nasty tumble you both took,” she said dismissively, and Laura rolled her eyes. She couldn’t take Rosabella seriously unless Rosabella was teaching her how to perfect antidotes or how to perform a non-verbal spell or curse. However smart her friend was, Laura knew that underneath that polished, perfect, straight outstanding student was a girl who liked to shop in vintage boutiques down Camden Market and listen to the rock classics.
“Oh, please! Your compassion for us truly moves me!” Siobhan exclaimed exaggeratedly, lifting her hand up and placing the back of her hand against her forehead. Rosabella scoffed and set the book upside down, so she wouldn’t lose the page she was studying.
“How was everyone’s summer then?” Rosabella stated; the small talk already dismissed. She wanted to hear every detail about Laura’s summer, but she didn’t want to be too blunt. She pointedly looked at Siobhan, so she could ramble on for a while before Rosabella directly asked Laura.
“I went to New York this summer,” Siobhan exclaimed, smirking. She flipped her long, waist length hair behind one shoulder and leaned forward, “And I met this totally gorgeous boy! He had so much Element!”
Laura laughed, rolling her eyes at Siobhan. The term ‘Element’ was what the three of them had become accustomed to using while describe something perfect in their eyes, such as boys and clothes and shoes.
“Oh, I just bet he did!” Rosabella stated, laughing. Siobhan winked, biting her lip.
“He was totally wonderful! We went on a few dates, hung around Times Square, watched a Yankee’s game, because as you guys know, seeing New York isn’t the same without visiting the Yankee’s, and he was totally smouldering in bed!” she stated, fanning herself as if the thought was making her hot. Laura scoffed, and pushed her friend, shaking her head. Siobhan had never made the fact that she wasn’t a virgin a secret; she was comfortable with it, and never regretted it, and didn’t see the point of hiding it away from her best friends. She didn’t spread her legs at every chance she got, like some people in the Wizarding School, but chose who her lovers were to be and when.
“But other than that little detour, it was all great,” Siobhan said, sobering up, “Mom and Dad were so excited to just travel every where they had always dreamed of, and I loved every moment of it, because they were so happy. And there weren’t any worries like Voldy to think of, or deaths of known Wizards – or any threats to us. We all got the chance to relax and unwind, which was something I was hoping for.”
Rosabella and Laura looked at each other before nodding with understanding to their best friend. Ever since Siobhan’s older brother had disowned his family and decided that the perfect rebellion act would to become a Death Eather, Siobhan’s family had been a wreck and stressed, living through every day with the worry that their son might die in the hands of Voldemort or the Ministry, or something would happen to Siobhan or those that were close to them. Siobhan’s parents, just like Laura’s, were pureblood, but not Death Eathers. They had been asked to recruit as Voldemort’s followers, and they had refused. They had been demanded, and yet they had still refused. And both girls knew that, soon, they were to be forced to recruit. Both girls hoped that their parents would make it out without be recruited – or worse, killed.
“Well, what about your summer Laura? How was the Malfoy Manor?” Rosabella asked the corner of her lip twitching as she saw her friend visibly tense up.
Laura knew that this was what both her friends were dying to hear. They knew very well how much she hated – scratch that, loathed – Draco Malfoy, and this summer, when her parents found out that her Father’s mother had passed away, went to Australia for three weeks, she had to endure and grit her teeth and live in the same house as that stuck-up, idiotic fool.
“It was bloody marvellous. Frigging splendid, I may say. Absolutely charming,” she hissed out, twisting her beloved HeartBeat earphones between her fingers. Rosabella, finding her friends discomfort quite entertaining, laughed, her head thrown back.
“Ah, how I do love your pain, Laura. It was horrendous, like your -”
“Worst nightmare,” Siobhan cut off, winking at Laura. She sneered, shaking her head.
“Oh, you guys really do think you frigging hilarious, don't you?” she spit out, crossing her hands over her chest and sulking. What they were saying was true, of course. It had been horrifying, trying to put up with Malfoy on a daily basis in such close quarters. Narcissa had always been nice to her and was one of her mother’s childhood friends, but Laura couldn’t help but hate her son. He made her blood boil, her blood pressure spike up. She equally annoyed him and rubbed him the wrong way. They tried not to let their long-term hatred boil over to alert his parents, but whenever they were alone or out of eavesdropping distance, they spat and sneered at each other and made rude remarks.
But they didn’t know a small detail that Laura had missed out from her letters. Of course, they had been very brief as she had to attend many events with the Malfoy’s and because she had been away camping with summer school and also with her parents, but she had managed to always complain about some kind of minor or major event that had happened in those parchments. Yet she hadn’t told them about –
“Draco Malfoy kissed me.”