Chapter 10
Crystal couldn’t believe the changes in her aunt and uncle. It had been a few weeks since she confronted them with the Goblins’ help. There had been a few bumps along the way, but she had expected that.
One such bump occurred right after the Goblins seemed to have left. Her uncle didn’t wait another second before lunging at her, attempting to strangle her. Unfortunately for him, her Goblin friends hadn’t actually left. They canceled their disillusionment charms, which made Vernon freeze and go pale.
Grinlast had warned that anytime he tried to attack Crystal, an extra one thousand pounds would be added to their debt.
After that incident, Crystal was moved into Dudley’s second bedroom and was given the amount of food a growing child needed. Sure, her aunt and uncle glared at her, and she was almost certain that her uncle was planning something to get ahold of her money, but things were better.
Crystal had even gone out and bought a bunch of normal clothes. Sure, she had a few thanks to Sam, but she had always wanted to buy her very own clothes. She bought several dresses, shirts, pants, skirts, shorts, socks, underwear, a few bras, and some shoes.
Now it was time for her to head off to Hogwarts, and she was excited. She had read every book she could get her hands on. She sent owl orders with her new owl, Hedwig, to the bookstore to buy more books.
Speaking of animals, she was currently sitting in the last compartment on the train. She had arrived early, thanks to the Goblins telling her where the platform was. Her cat, named Spooky, was sitting on her lap, and she gently ran her hand through his fur. She had named him Spooky—a bit unoriginal, she knew, but she couldn’t think of a better name for a black cat that belonged to a half-ghost. She had sent Hedwig ahead to school; she didn’t want to keep the poor owl in a small cage for the entire train ride.
Crystal was reading a book on ancient runes that could be used to power spells and wards. She wouldn’t be able to take the class until her third year, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t study the subject in her spare time. She wondered if she could find a way to make magic work with electricity. If she could manage that, she planned to create some gear for fighting both ghosts and humans when she went out crime fighting.
Too soon for her liking, the train began to fill up and left the station. About half an hour later, someone opened the door to her compartment.
He was tall, thin, and gangly, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. He had bright red hair and blue eyes. His clothes looked old, and his robe was a bit too small for him, not reaching his feet and therefore showing off his tattered shoes.
He took one look at her and the scar on her forehead and smiled. "Mind if I sit here? Every other compartment is full." Without waiting for an answer, he barged in and sat on the bench across from her.
Crystal tried not to let it get to her. She knew that most boys, including her cousin, could be rude. "I guess not, since you've already invited yourself in." She couldn’t help but mumble under her breath, feeling embarrassed when the boy’s face and ears turned red to match his hair.
"Well, I’m Ron, Ron Weasley. What’s your name?" Ron asked.
Crystal couldn’t believe it. This was one of the people who had been stealing from her—indeed, the boy she used to have that illegal marriage contract with. She was thankful she had found out about this before today. Who knows if she would have become friends with the thief?
Still, it wouldn’t do to be rude. "I’m Crystal Potter. It’s a pleasure to meet you."
She had to grit her teeth when Ron gasped. "Do you really have the scar?"
Crystal couldn’t believe this boy. How rude could he get? Still, she pushed her bangs up slightly, knowing that these kinds of boys wouldn’t stop pushing, and she did not want to deal with that the entire ride.
"So that’s where You-Know-Who—?"
"Yes," Crystal said through gritted teeth, "but I can’t remember it."
"Nothing?" Ron asked eagerly.
Okay, enough was enough. Crystal slammed her book closed and leveled a glare at the rude boy. "Are you seriously eager to hear if I remember the night my parents were murdered? How dare you!"
Ron paled as if just realizing what he was doing and mumbled a soft apology. Crystal took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn’t afford to lose her cool so soon. She went back to her book, trying to ignore him, but a few minutes later, he started talking again.
"I heard you went to live with Muggles," Ron said. "What are they like?"
Crystal glanced up with a raised eyebrow. "Fine, I suppose. My cousin and I are pretty close. Why?"
Ron shrugged. "Just curious. My entire family is magical."
She raised an eyebrow, thinking small talk couldn’t hurt. "Your entire family?"
Ron shifted uncomfortably before speaking. "Er—yes, I think so," he said. "I think Mum’s got a second cousin who’s an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"Why not? Did he do something bad?"
Ron shook his head. "No, he just doesn’t have any magic, you see? He’s a Squib!" He said, expecting Crystal to understand what that meant in the magical world.
Crystal really didn’t, so she asked, confused, "An explosive?"
Now it was Ron’s turn to look confused. "A what?"
"In the non-magical world, a Squib is an explosive bomb. What does it mean here?"
Ron looked surprised. "Huh, I’ll have to let my dad know about that. Anyway, a Squib here is someone without magic."
"So, why don’t you talk about the accountant? Is it because he has no magic?" Crystal asked, shocked that the magical world would do that, but she didn’t know why. It was the same thing the Dursleys did to her, after all.
Ron looked baffled and then thoughtful before shrugging. "I don’t know."
Crystal decided to research this later. As she was about to go back to her book, Ron spoke up again, sounding a bit gloomy.
"I’m the sixth in my family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I’ve got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left—Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was Captain of Quidditch. Now Percy’s a Prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks, and everyone thinks they’re really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it’s no big deal because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I’ve got Bill’s old robes, Charlie’s old wand, and Percy’s old rat."
Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat that was asleep.
"His name’s Scabbers, and he’s useless. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a Prefect, but they couldn’t afford one for me, so I got Scabbers instead."
Ron's ears went pink, and he turned to stare out the window while Crystal stared at him incredulously. Did this boy really just spill all of that to a total stranger? Then she realized something.
He said all of that to gain her sympathy, to make her pity him so she would become his friend. She wouldn’t be his friend, but until he was rude to her, she wouldn’t be rude to him—even if he was stealing from her.
Instead of jumping to comfort him, as she assumed he wanted, she just looked at the rat and said, "That’s nice," before returning to her book, leaving Ron sitting in surprised silence as the Headmaster’s plan didn’t turn out the way he expected.
Around half past twelve, there was a great chattering outside in the corridor, and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Ron’s ears went pink again, and he muttered that he’d brought sandwiches while Crystal looked up. She got up from her seat and glanced over the sweets on the cart, trying to find some Mars bars or even a simple Hershey’s bar, but saw they didn’t have any.
The sweet cart did have Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and several other strange things that Crystal was sure she had never seen before, even in the ghost zone.
Crystal stared at the strange sweets before buying three packs of Droobles, five Chocolate Frogs, two Licorice Wands, and something called Butterbeer.
She put most of the sweets away in her trunk, keeping out only one of the Licorice Wands and the Butterbeer. She noticed that Ron was staring at her with envy and jealousy, as if he believed that Crystal would spend a lot of her money on sweets for both of them.
Crystal ignored him and chewed on her Licorice Wand while sipping her Butterbeer. The Licorice Wand tasted like normal licorice from the Muggle world, and she was right. The Butterbeer, however, was a delightful treat. It tasted of caramel with a hint of cinnamon and went down smoothly. Crystal was pretty sure she had just found her new favorite drink.
Ten more minutes passed, and now the countryside flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had disappeared, replaced by woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.
Crystal spent some time watching the world pass by before there was a knock on the compartment door. A round-faced boy with a look of worry opened the door.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
Crystal shook her head while Ron ignored him.
"I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!" The round-faced boy wailed, looking tearfully around the compartment.
Crystal felt bad. "I'm sure he'll turn up. Maybe ask one of the older years to summon him for you?"
The round-faced boy perked up. "I can do that, thanks!" He then rushed off toward the back of the train.
Ron chose that moment to speak up, his voice sounding mean. "Don’t know why the big lump is so bothered. If I had brought a toad, I would have lost it as quickly as I could." He paused before glaring down at the rat still snoozing on his lap.
"Then again, I brought this thing, so I can't talk."
"He might have died, and you wouldn't know the difference," Ron said in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. 'I'll show you, look—'"
He started rummaging around in his trunk, ignoring Crystal when she said that she didn't want to see it, and brought out his wand. It was an old, battered-looking thing. It was chipped in places and had a piece of something white glittering at the tip.
Crystal was positive that the wand wasn't safe for use.
"Unicorn hair's nearly pointing out. Anyway—"
Crystal’s eyes nearly popped out. Did he just say that the core of his wand was nearly poking out? She nearly screeched at him to put that thing away before the door opened again.
This time it was a girl, already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
Ron groaned and turned to the girl, his wand still pointing at the rat while Crystal sat in the corner farthest away from it, eyeing it warily.
"We already told him we didn’t see it," Ron said, annoyance in his voice, but the girl wasn’t listening. Her eyes were on his wand.
"Oh, are you about to do some magic? Let’s see it!" She sat down next to Ron, who looked taken aback before he sat up straighter.
"Well, alright if you insist." He then pointed his wand back at the rat and focused as he said the incantation that Crystal was 99% sure was made up.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep. Crystal relaxed when the wand didn’t explode like she was half expecting it to.
"Are you sure that’s a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice, and they’ve all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all. It was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course. I mean, it’s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I’ve heard—I’ve learned all our course books by heart, of course. I just hope it will be enough—I’m Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?"
She said all this very fast.
Hermione Granger, another person who was stealing from her. Crystal was confused; why would this girl steal from her? Why was she getting paid from Crystal's own vaults? It didn’t make any sense to her.
"Are you aware that using magic outside of school is against the law?" Crystal couldn’t help but ask. She was wondering how this girl managed to practice magic outside of school without getting in trouble.
She was pleased to see that the girl looked nervous before standing up in a huff. "You never answered, who are you two?"
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said.
Crystal held back a sigh as she spoke, "I’m Crystal Potter." She could barely finish before Hermione went on another rant.
"Are you really? I’ve read all about you, of course—" Crystal quickly cut her off.
"Okay, firstly rude. Secondly, those books are nothing but lies. The only ones who know for sure what really happened that night are those who were there, and out of all of them, I’m the only one alive."
Crystal continued, "My parents are dead, Voldemort is dead. I am the only one who survived that night, and I have never given an interview in my life. I don’t even remember what happened. I have no clue what spells were used that night."
Hermione stared at her, trying to talk, but her voice wasn’t working until she let out another huff and crossed her arms. "I should go help Neville find his toad—"
Crystal knew it was rude, but she cut the girl off. "Actually, I told him to ask an older classmate to summon the frog for him, a prefect most likely."
Hermione just glared at her before storming out, slamming the compartment door and making the wall shake.
"Whatever house I’m in, I hope she’s not in it," said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell—George gave it to me, I bet he knew it was a dud."
Crystal raised an eyebrow. "George?"
Ron nodded. "He’s one of my brothers. He and Fred are twins."
"What house are they in?" Crystal was curious; she hadn’t seen any mention of these twins stealing from her. Now that she thought of it, the only Weasleys who were taking her money were Ronald, his little sister, and their mother.
This time, it took half an hour before someone barged into the compartment again, making Crystal wonder if anyone had ever heard of knocking here. The boy who opened the door was pale with blond hair, and he was being followed by two larger boys who looked like bodyguards. The two boys looked slow in the mental area but very mean.
Crystal knew better than to judge someone on their appearance, though—case in point, her cousin. He used to be just like these boys, but after he got some proper help in school and lost some weight, he got so much better.
Maybe these two would be the same.
Standing on either side of the smaller blond boy, they looked like bodyguards, which confused her. Why would he need bodyguards that were the same age as him?
"Is it true?" he said. "They’re saying all down the train that Crystal Potter’s in this compartment. So it’s you, is it?" He was staring right at Crystal, not at her face, but at her forehead. She found that very rude.
"Yes, it’s me." She replied, trying not to show her disdain for him. She was still watching the two boys behind him curiously.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Crystal was looking. "And my name’s Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.
"Think my name’s funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
He turned back to Crystal. "You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
Crystal raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for the advice, but at this moment in time, I do not wish to be friends with you. You remind me of the bully my cousin used to be before he changed." After saying that, she softened her face and voice. "But I believe you’re acting like this to try and impress me. If you are serious about being friends, then maybe once you’ve stopped picking on others to impress people, we can be friends. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask me."
Draco Malfoy didn’t go red, but a pink tinge appeared on his cheeks.
He didn’t say another word before leaving, looking embarrassed.
Soon enough, Crystal kicked Ron out so she could change, though she made sure to lock the door and close the blinds before changing. After finishing changing into her uniform, she stepped out of the carriage so he could take his turn to change.
Crystal glanced out the window and saw that they were pulling up to a dark station. It didn’t have many lights on. She could see some carriages being pulled by what looked like winged skeleton horses with tight, black, leathery skin stretched over their bones and wondered what on Earth those creatures were.
She could just about make out the outline of a castle in the dark distance. She steeled herself as she stepped off of the train and prepared herself for a new adventure.