Something is Blossoming
I watch the dark-haired boy enter the cabin, only minutes after my mother explained things to me. I watched him sit down and bring rats out from his shirt, and I flinch back, trying to remember what my mother said.
“Draco, dear, you must befriend that dark haired boy over there, the one with the tall woman. I want you to let me know throughout the year how your friendship is progressing.” Earlier, around July, my mother told me to befriend Harry Potter, but that was all thrown out the window when my mother saw the tall woman with the boy. I looked across the compartment and saw the other boy staring at me. I smiled at him, and he looked away rather quickly.
“Hello, my name is Draco, Draco Malfoy. What’s your name?” I asked him.
He looked up at me and stared at me with a blank expression before stating, “I’m Nico Johannessen.”
My eyes widened at the accent this boy had. My mother hadn’t explained who this boy was or where he was from, but I could tell he wasn’t from the UK. I leaned in, closer to his face.
“Where are you from? I’ve never heard that accent before!” I exclaimed before quickly sitting back down, realizing I was right in his face.
As I sat down, I saw red creep up his neck, and he looked down, towards where his rats were nestled together, before he spoke. “It’s Norwegian, my mother and I come from Norway, while my father was British. He went to Hogwarts, while my mother went to Durmstrang.”
I felt a smile creep up on my face even more, finally reaching my eyes, “That’s so cool! I was gonna go to Durmstrang, as my father wanted me too, but mother said no.” I laughed, “What house was your father in?”
His face goes very red, the blood creeping away from his neck and to his cheeks, “I don’t know, he rarely ever talked about his life before meeting my mother. Maybe if I had gotten the chance to ask him before he left, I wouldn’t feel so lost.” He blurted out, then immediately covered his mouth, as though he had said something he shouldn’t have. I watch as he sinks into the seat and feeds his rats some berries and nuts.
“Well, that means maybe we’ll be put into a house together! I’m guaranteed Slytherin, everyone in my family has been in Slytherin, as long as records have been around, they have been able to track.”
He looks up at me when I say that and gives me a quizzical look. “Sli-sliten? Why would they name a house ‘Tired?’”
I shake my head, a small laugh erupting from my throat, “Not sliten, Slytherin. S-L-Y-T-H-E-R-I-N. It’s the house of the snake.”
He nods, “What are the other houses?”
“Well, there’s Hufflepuff, who are goody-two shoes, and known for being kind. Their mascot is a honey badger.” I spit out, words jumbling together slightly, “Then there’s Ravenclaw, who are the nerds, known for being smart. Their mascot is an Eagle.”
“Why is the mascot an Eagle when the name has ‘Raven’ in it?”
I laugh, “I have no clue, these old wizards named all the houses after their last names or something.” He starts to giggle, and it starts to fill up the whole cabin. “Then, lastly, is Gryffindor, the house of the lion. Their elitist snobs. Their known for bravery.” He nods along, and before long the trolley lady is at the door.
“Anything from the trolley dears?”
I was just about to shake my head when I say Nico looking at the cart in amazement, as though he had never seen any of it. “How much does this cost?” I heard him ask the trolley lady.
“About a sickle per type but could be more if it’s the more expensive kinds.”
I see him pull out a small money sack and watch as he gets one of almost every type of sweet that was on the trolley, but some he got more than two of. He especially got loads of chocolates.
“Nico! You’re acting as though you’ve never had sweets before!” I laugh out and see him look down at his hands before pushing every sweet he just bought to the side of the table. “Have you never had sweets before?”
He shakes his head before answering, “My mother never liked it when I ate sweets, told me I would become unhealthy.”
I scoff at that, “If you eat too much in one sitting, yes, but if you eat a little bit, you should be fine!”
His face brightens at that, and he grabs the box of Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, and before I can warn him, he shoves four into his mouth at once, which he spits out almost at once. I laugh at that and watch him scrape as much as he can off his tongue. I hand him one of the chocolate frogs, watching him eye it wearily. I open it up and show him that it’s just chocolate, and he grabs it from me.
While he eats it, he looks at the window next to the door. I look at what he sees and see a head of bushy hair walking to our door and opening it up.
“Have either of you seen a toad?”
I shake my head, and watch as Nico swallows his chocolate down, answering her. “No, we haven’t, our door has been shut this entire time.”
She shuts the door and walks away, and I turn back to him. He starts giggling, his face turning bright red from the laughter. He’s barely been laughing before the girl opens our door again.
“You should probably get your robes on; we only have about half an hour before we get to Hogwarts.”
We both nod our heads and when the door shuts for the final time, we both start laughing, no reason behind it, just enjoying ourselves. When we finally stop laughing, he and I both reach up to grab our robes from our bags.
“Why are your robes plain black?” he asks me.
I looked at him, “They’re supposed to be plain, why?”
He holds up his robes and I see a slightly lighter black in a pattern on the entirety of the outside, while the inside is plain silk. I gape at his robes, before a smile sneaking up on his face makes me start laughing again. We’re both on the ground before we finish laughing again, and when we get up to put on our robes, we feel the train brakes start slowing us down. We both grab our bags from the rack, and I watch as he opens a pocket on his robe where he puts his three rats, and when he buttons his robe up, I couldn’t even tell he had them if it wasn’t for me watching him put them in the pocket.
As the train comes to a complete stop, and we get out of the train, as we do, I realize how smart Nico was, choosing a compartment right next to an exit. We walk out and hear a loud booming voice. “Firs’ years, firs’ years this way!”
I roll my eyes “What a buffoon, Dumbledore is mad for hiring that half-breed.”
He shakes his head and starts laughing again. We both walk towards the groundskeeper, me walking and half-carrying the giggling Nico. As we get to the groundskeeper, I see Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle walking towards me, but I shoot them a glare, knowing my mother would be sending their parents an owl to leave me alone, breaking the deal they made. They stop and walk towards other people our age. I look back at Nico, hoping to Merlin he didn’t notice.
He didn’t, but he did notice Harry Potter, the one and only. “Is that who I think it is?”
I look towards the boy, who was hugging the groundskeeper, “Probably, I mean, he is our age so we all knew he would most likely be here.”
“I didn’t! I was gonna go to Durmstrang, remember?”
“Oh yeah. Well, that is most likely who you think it is, but I heard he’s a prick, spoiled rotten by his relatives.” I didn’t really know this, but I didn’t want to lose the one person I knew enjoyed my company and wasn’t forced to be my friend out of a deal.
His face falls, “Oh.”
We both walk towards the half-breed that’s yelling for the first years. When we get there, I see Blaise Zabini and lead Nico towards him. I watch as his eyes widen when he sees the boats on the lake right behind Blaise, and I see him swallow hard.
“A-are we going to go across the lake?” he stuttered out, his eyes still wide.
“Yeah, first years row across the lake every year, it’s a tradition,” Blaise started explaining, “You only do it once in your entire school life.”
“Is there a possibility that I could skip, I-"
Nico was interrupted by the half-breed pushing everyone to the boats, and I see Nico’s breathes start getting shallower, his chest barely rising when he breathed in. He was pushing away from the water, but he couldn’t overpower the large number of students going to the boats.
I reached over and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the boat Blaise and I were going in. I see Blaise side-eye me, and I give him a dirty look back.
“Nico, we have to get into the boat, c’mon.”
I step into the boat and slowly let Nico get in behind me, and I still hear his breaths being shallow, it sounded like he was barely breathing.
“No, I can’t do this, I can’t get in the boat, no!” He starts almost screaming.
I look around and no one seems to even be noticing or caring. I look towards Blaise, and finally notice Nott sitting in the boat behind him.
“If I were to hold him in here, would you guys be able to row to the castle?”
Nott nods, and Blaise scoffs, “We could do it, but what would we get out of it?”
“Getting to Hogwarts, that’s what.”
Blaise sighs but nods. I grab Nico and hold him against me, even while his breathing gets even more shallow and I hold it his head against my chest, and I feel my chest start getting wet while he tries to push me away. I don’t let him while Blaise and Nott row us to the castle.