Interludes
The invisible platform of nine and three quarters was astir. The excitement of young witches and wizards and anxiety of their mothers filled the polluted air of the train's exhaust.
The door of the cabin shut open causing Cerci's head to snap up.
"Sorry I don't know why I was so aggressive", Dorcas leaned against the door frame, a wide smile on her face at the sight of the girl seated next to the window with a book in her hand.
Cerci's eyebrows drew in concern when she took a glance at the girl at door. A lump formed in her throat. The emotion vanished, a second later. She offered Dorcas a warm smile in return.
Dorcas made her way into the cabin and dropped her satchel at the end of the seat, seating herself directly opposite Cerci.
"Rough break?", Cerci asked, her finger resting
on the page she stopped at as her other hand closed the book. Dorcas's eyes ran everywhere. Above Cerci's head, Cerci's black hair, the window still. Cerci tried to meet Dorcas's eyes.
"Fell off the stairs", Dorcas smiled at her friend, her black eyes meeting Cerci's ocean pigmented ones. Both the Slytherins knew that wasn't the case. Dorcas knew Cerci would've known by now. They've been sharing a dorm for seven years. She didn't need to be the smartest witch of her age to figure it out. But Cerci never once mentioned it or asked about it.
"Are you okay?", Cerci asked now, and every other time Dorcas returned with a scar, noticeable or not. Dorcas's smile didn't waver the least bit and she answered how she always did,
"Yeah"
"Good."
The two witches sat in amenity silence, glacé smiles on their lips, thankful for the presence of each other after the Christmas they had.
"Anything new with you?", Dorcas asked the Greengrass. Cerci let out a obnoxious laugh. Dorcas raised an eyebrow.
"Awh just wait for your invitation, darling", Cerci's voice laced with her thick pureblood accent.
"I got to get ready for my prefects meeting", she opened her trunk and placed her book inside, taking out a neatly folded set of Slytherin robes.
"-And I am not changing in the restroom." Dorcas stretched her lanky hand and pulled down the tiny blind of the cabin door.
She looped the green and silver striped tie through her neck when there was a knock sounded.
"Expecting someone?", Dorcas asked wearing a confused look.
"Not particularly." Cerci stood up and slid open the door to find Mulciber standing on the other side. She turned back to Dorcas who had a head cocked to the side.
"I'll see you later, Dorcas"
"See you later, Cer", Dorcas answered, preoccupied with finding something in her satchel.
Cerci slid the door behind her close. Greengrass and Mulciber standing in the corridor.
"Well, hello there fiancé", Cerci cut through the weighing silence sharp and clean with her heavy accent.
Mulciber was at a loss for words. His thoughts were lost in narrow of his throat.
"Why are we here?", Cerci asked impatiently.
"Our marriage has been arranged", he started. He himself didn't really know why he was here. He didn't have to do this. Yet here he stood, in the middle of a corridor with a witch his marriage has been arranged with by his parents.
Cerci stood waiting for him to go on. He cleared his throat.
"Listen, I don't want to get married and I'm certain you don't as well."
"You are certain of what I want?" Cerci squinted her eyes at him inquisitively.
"Well, aren't you already perfect at playing husband", she continued.
"And aren't you already being a perfect wife", he shot back.
"I don't even know your first name"
"Morrison"
"Do you know mine?"
"Cerci"
"How do you know?"
"We're in the same potions class and my parents mentioned it. Wait, how did your parents mention me, since you don't know my name?"
"The Mulciber boy"
Mulciber scoffed.
"So?", he asked.
"How do you want to do this?", she asked.
"Stop the marriage?"
"Yeah"
"How do you feel about running away?", she asked.
"Not great."
"I'm running late for my prefects meeting."
"We'll rendezvous soon and come up with something?"
"Yeah"
"See you at Hogwarts, Greengrass."
Cerci replied with a nod and with that, he turned the other way.
"Morrison Mulciber", she said to herself as he walked away.
Dorcas wasn't expecting Cerci to tell her who was at the door and she didn't. Guess she'd wait for the invitation. After strenuous digging into her bag and not being able to find it, she straight out emptied her satchel. Everything was poured out onto the floor of the express and there it was, her Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment in its best state, incomplete.
And thank Merlin for Peter Pettigrew, the boy who sleeps beside her in Defence Against the Dark Arts and the one who provides her with the answers so that she doesn't have to do it herself.
Standing in the Gryffindor section of the Hogwarts express, assignment clutched in one hand, the Slytherin knocked on the door with the other.
"Hello", greeted James Potter.
"Hey, I'm here for Peter", Dorcas peeked into the cabin and instead of meeting Peter, her eyes struck Remus Lupin. Remus's eyes were glued to Dorcas. Specifically, the large slash across her face. Dorcas shifted her eyes all over the cabin to Sirius Black to Remus's fore arm, which displayed a similar scar.
"Er Meadows?", the voice of James Potter brought her back to the bespectacled boy in front of her.
"Yeah sorry", she shook her head,
"Peter?", she asked.
"He is in the next cabin copying off Mckinnon. He forgot to do his Defence work", he provided.
"Thank you" Dorcas replied swiftly, trying to avoid Lupin's gaze on her. James Potter offered her one last smile before closing the cabin door.
Turning around she met face to face with the next cabin. This time she didn't bother knocking and slid it open herself. She found herself in the company of a dirty blonde Gryffindor that was not Peter Pettigrew.
"Hello", Dorcas greeted the girl who sat in the compartment, back faced to the door.
"Hello", The girl turned around. The moment her eyes landed on the Slytherin, the tip of her lips quirked up.
"I've got incomplete Defence assignment", Dorcas gestured with the parchment clutched in hands.
"That seems like your problem", the girl replied with a smile still playing on her lips.
Dorcas crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe,
"Where's Peter?"
"Pettigrew?"
"The one and only"
"I don't know"
"Potter said he was here"
"Yeah and then he left"
"Merlin Mckinnon, you're exhausting"
"People tell me so"
"God...", Dorcas let out. She walked into the cabin and threw herself on the seat. Mckinnon knew what she wanted. She looked up at the Slytherin from where she was seated on the floor.
"Why would I let a complete stranger copy my assignment"
"You honestly couldn't care less"
"I couldn't", she smiled, handing the Slytherin her parchment.
Dorcas whipped out her quill from her pocket and began scribbling the words, word for word and maybe changing the sentences here and there. This wasn't her first rodeo at copying work.
"Where is Peter?", Dorcas asked again, curious.
"I honestly don't know. He just left after finishing his work"
"Well he isn't in his cabin", she muttered under her breathe.
"How do you know James?", Mckinnon asked. Her eyes were trailing after each movement of Dorcas's quill.
"I don't."
"But you mentioned that he told you that Peter was here-"
"Well, aren't you curious"
"I am"
"I don't know Potter personally. I just know him through asking for Peter everytime I don't complete my assignment"
"Typical Slytherin"
"What's that supposed to mean?", Dorcas finished writing her last sentence and looked up to face the Gryffindor.
"You don't do your work"
"You don't know why"
"Why then?"
"Because I don't want to"
Mckinnon laughed and it did something to Dorcas.
"It's not like you do your work yourself"
Mckinnon raised a confused eyebrow.
"Lily Evans"
"She refuses to do my assignments"
"That's a shame then"
Dorcas and Mckinnon sat in silence. Dorcas strewn out on the seat with Mckinnon on the floor. Dorcas was admiring the green hills of Scotland. The wind blowing loudly against the window as the train swished through the wind.
"Do you want a cigarette?", Mckinnon asked.
"Aren't you a pureblood?", Dorcas asked.
"What about it?"
"How do you know what a cigarette is?", Dorcas asked, amused.
"Mary", Mckinnon answered. She got up from the floor and dusted herself before going through a bag slumped on the seat next the window.
"Macdonald?", Dorcas asked, knowing the answer.
"Best girl", Mckinnon replied, a muggle cigarette box now in her hands, her eyes glistening with a mischievous smirk playing on her lips.
The two witches walked down the narrow corridor of the express shoulder to shoulder to the end of the train. Towards the end Mckinnon walked foward to push open the door. Dorcas's lips curved up and a red hue crept up her cheeks.
"What's your name?", she asked, after realising she didn't know Mckinnon's first name.
The Gryffindor let out a sound that made Dorcas's lips spread even more.
"You don't know my name?"
"we're strangers after all", Dorcas leaned her head to side, gazing at the other girl's black eyes. Marlene placed the cigarette in her mouth, holding it in place with her teeth as she stretched out her hand,
"Marlene Mckinnon"
Dorcas took the Gryffindor's hand,
"Dorcas Meadows"
Dorcas leaned against the rails throwing her head back at the wind. She wanted to freeze time and stay on the express. She always loved the Hogwarts Express, since the first time she was on it. It was where she first enjoyed the company of Cerci Greengrass. She had no worries in the crimson train. It felt like a void where nothing was going on, just blank. She never processed anything happening on the express. She still hasn't processed how she ended up smoking muggle cigarettes with Marlene Mckinnon.