Hogwarts Express
Carmine and I walked through the busy King's Cross Station, eyes peeled for the platform numbers '9' and '10'. Soon enough there they were, and there we were standing in the huge room surrounded by muggles discussing how to run through a brick wall discreetly.
"I'll go first if you're nervous."
"No!" I said hurriedly, "I mean...I think I should go alone. I am eleven, y'know."
"I'm not an idiot, Lucy."
I blushed and played with the curls in my hair - Vivian had done them especially. Suddenly, I found myself interested in the ticket officer standing menacingly nearby, and asked Carmine if we needed to by worried.
"Of course not!" He scoffed, "just go through without me if you want, see if I care!"
I laughed, "It's not like I wanted you here anyway."
He frowned and advanced on me, I was shocked. Carmine had never hit me before, although maybe Squib's have more anger issues as a side effect of no powers. Then he pulled me in for a close hug.
"Good luck."
I pulled myself from his grip and grabbed my suitcases from his hands, "Thanks." I said, almost inaudibly, before running through the brick wall.
It was true, I wanted my parents to be there instead of my brother, but it fell through. I know they both wanted to, but things just came up that made it impossible for them to show up.
"Are you going to take me to King's Cross tomorrow?" I had asked my mum on the final night of August.
"Why don't you go on your own, dear?"
"I want you to take me."
"I don't think you want that, surely I'd just embarrass you."
I had to stop myself from bursting into laughter - how could she embarrass me? She's Isabella Zabini! If anything I'd embarrass her!
"I want you there." I'd smiled, clutching her chair rim eagerly.
But, she pursed her lips and merely continued removing her makeup, as if to say: end of conversation. It had been like this ever since it turned midnight on August 1st. Anytime I tried to ask my parents to join me, they would try and say that I am old enough, they're too busy, I'd prefer to just have Vivian there.
One time, my dad even came into my room to discuss it. He walked in and said "Lucia", even sitting down on my bed. My parents are always out of the house, working and being very important, but they do love me. Really.
I emerged from the the wall to a beautiful sight. The train was a large steam engine painted a gorgeous red and black and being boarded by what looked like hundreds of students piling onto the train. I had never seen that many people my age, let alone in one room. And the idea that they were all magic!
Looking through the students, I could see Jasmine's sickly pale face poking through the crowds, her arms around two equally scrawny boys her age. I quickly ducked out of sight so to avoid her, and began pushing my way through. There was many a place I thought I would be crushed by the elder students, or just pooped on by one of the owls swooping around our heads like choosing which one to snatch up and eat.
A few of the older girls saw me and 'awwed' like I was a zoo animal; I glared at them but they just laughed and whispered out of earshot.
On the train was no calmer as the large cases simply filled up the entire corridors and students were trying to squeeze through with their friends. I walked through, observing each compartment occupant, but found nobody I was interested in, until I eventually found myself standing outside one with a girl who looked my age.
"Can I sit in there?" I asked with an air of confidence; the girl stared at me blankly and nodded.
We sat there in silence, and she tapped her foot rather ignorantly for several minutes before I finally decided to save us both from eternal boredom.
"What's your name?"
"Rebecca."
"I'm Lucia."
"Oh."
"Lucia Zabini."
She looked at me blankly, her dark eyes boring right into my soul, "Is that important?"
"Yes. It's a pure-blood family, for one."
She everted her eyes immediately and gave a small smile, "I'm not familiar."
"Are you a pure blood?"
Rebecca nodded, then shrugged, then gave a small smile again, "I think the title's silly. Who cares what relatives I have?"
"Do you have well-known relatives?"
She shrugged again.
"Do you have any siblings?" She shook her head, "You?" she said bitterly, "Any famous siblings with wonderful pure, clean, beautiful blood pouring through their veins?" "No." I said, before I really knew what I was saying. Then I was continuing, "I like being an only child, I get time to myself." She laughed, a high, almost fake-sounding laugh, and her glassy eyes stared at me unblinkingly. It was like she already knew everything about me before I had even opened my mouth, for a second I even wondered if she might be an Occlumens, but quickly dismissed it when she ignored any of the strange things I proceeded to imagine in my mind.
Luckily, I was saved from having to continue this by the opening of the door and in entering a dark-haired girl desperately balancing three bags on one arm, "Is this full?" She asked breathlessly, plopping herself down next to me. For a few seconds, I was taken aback by her London accent and the fact she was already dressed in her Hogwarts robes.
"I'm Lucia Zabini." I beamed, shaking her hand.
"Hannah Liu."
"Becky Fawley." Rebecca chimed in.
Hannah beamed excitedly and began chattering about what she thought Hogwarts was like. It reminded me of Bethan Harper-Brown, although without the incessant optimism. Hannah was far less severe then Becky, whose every word seemed to be filled with an undertone of despair. After half-an-hour she shut up and took to pulling her thick brown hair into plump braids.
"What house are you going to be in?" Hannah asked me eventually.
"Slytherin."
"Same!" She laughed, "We could share a dorm!"
Rebecca rolled her eyes at this, and I just couldn't stay quiet any longer: "What?"
"It's just not surprising that a pure blood wants to be in Slytherin. You're all the same."
"Aren't you a pure blood?"
"Yes, but I'm going to be in Ravenclaw."
Both Hannah and I fought to contain our laughter, and Becky pouted defiantly, babbling about Ravenclaw's positives over Slytherin's seemingly endless negatives. Hannah and I had to humour her, of course.
"Well I'm not a pure blood," Hannah said when Becky finally paused for breath, "both of my parents are half-bloods."
"What house were they both in?"
"...Slytherin. But my Dad didn't go to Hogwarts!"
Becky stared out of the window intensely, as if looking at us would kill her instantly, "Honestly, people like us are doomed to be in Slytherin, what with all that blood supremacy shit whats-his-name Slytherin was spouting all those years ago."
"I'm sure you'll get into Ravenclaw!" Hannah smiled.
We all sat their in silence before Becky finally said, "Lucia and I should get changed. I think we're almost at school."
Then she got up and left, and never came back.