บท 3: The Hogwarts Express
In the blink of an eye, the rest of the month had flown by, and they were on the way to King's Cross station in a ministry car.
In the past month, Oleandra's self-practice had led her to master the almighty wand-lighting spell, Lumos. She had no idea whether this was fast or slow for a student her age, but she had the distinct feeling that it was the latter. Nonetheless, this achievement filled her with pride, and she took great pleasure in lighting the tip of her wand whenever she could, exasperating her twin sister to no ends.
"Will you quit it," hissed Daphne. "It's just the wand-lighting spell, it's nothing to be proud of, you stupid firefly! And you don't even know the wand-extinguishing charm!"
Upon saying these words, Daphne made her wand flash on and off in her sister's face, "Lumos! Nox! Lumos! Nox!"
"This is no way for the scions of the noble house of Greengrass to act!" their mother said furiously. "Noblesse oblige, do you understand? We must lead the half-blood and muggle-born by example, because we are their betters! If everyone acted like you, society would collapse! Now sit still and behave!"
And behave they did… For the rest of the car ride. They knew better than to bicker in public, as a house divided cannot stand. But in private, all bets were off!
They arrived at King's Cross station at 9 o'clock sharp. The train only left at 11, but it was better to be safe than to be sorry! Incidentally, Harry Potter, the boy who lived, would arrive an hour and a half later, so they missed him completely.
Daphne and Oleandra passed through the barrier between platforms nine and ten uneventfully, and before their eyes appeared platform nine and three-quarters, and a beautiful, gleaming scarlet locomotive. The pair boarded the first carriage and settled their things in the compartments.
Daphne leaned over to Oleandra and said under her breath, "Mother already instructed you on what to say to the other noble families, so don't embarrass us in front of my friends!"
" … Croak," said Trevor.
The two girls whirled around.
"Um, Hello," said a plump boy with rosy cheeks. "This is my compartment. I just stepped out to go to the bathroom. I mean, you're welcome to sit with me, but…"
"Aha!" said Daphne. "Oleandra, allow me to introduce you to Neville, of the noble and most ancient house of Longbottom."
And then she added with a sarcastic tone, "I'm sure the two of you will get along just fine…"
She was, of course, referring to the fact that Longbottom had also long been thought to be a Squib. This, naturally flew right above Longbottom's head, whose face reddened visibly.
Trevor took advantage of this moment of distraction, and chose this moment to make good on his escape, hopping out of the open window and into the crowd below.
"Trevor!" yelled Longbottom, his eyes widening. He ran out of the compartment, dropping a glass ball filled with white smoke.
Oleandra picked it up, and its smoke suddenly turned red.
"Why, dear sister, it seems I've forgotten something critical!" she exclaimed.
"What is it now?" Daphne answered, frowning her eyebrows, recognizing the ball to be a Remembrall, which glowed scarlet in the event that its holder had forgotten something.
"This! Lumos!" Oleandra grinned.
If looks could kill, Oleandra would have been skewered to the wall at that moment!
And it's at this instant that Daphne's friends chose to arrive. Pansy Parkinson gave her the impression that she was the leader among her sister's friends. She had a certain air that she had seen from the heads of the various cliques at muggle school. Millicent Bulstrode was a rather heavyset girl. She stood a step behind Pansy, a vacuous look on her face. And finally, Tracey Davis. She looked … rather plain and forgettable. To Oleandra, it seemed as if Miss Davis would melt into the background if she stopped looking at her for a single second.
As she was thinking these rude thoughts, Longbottom's Remembrall flashed red once again. She had forgotten that her wand was still glowing!
Pansy frowned and said, "A metamorphmagus? I've heard there was one graduating this year, that blood traitor's daughter…"
"No, no, this is my twin sister, Oleandra!" refuted Daphne.
"Yes, that's right. I was sick for a very long time and my family weren't sure I'd make it, but I'm all better now," Oleandra explained further. "You know a blood malediction runs in our family…"
Pansy's looks immediately softened. "I'm so sorry, that must have been so hard on you," she said.
"Why's your wand all lit up?" Tracey blurted out.
A few tedious explanations later, the girls were all settled in, the still glowing wand was shoved into a pocket and forgotten, and Longbottom's stuff had been thrown into a pile in the corridor outside their compartment.
The girls started chatting about their expectations about Hogwarts, and soon the Hogwarts Express was off!
A while into the train ride, a little middle-aged lady with greying hair pushed upon the door to their compartment and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"
Oleandra picked a chocolate frog, Daphne and Pansy both bought a sensible and healthy Pumpkin Pasty, while Millicent had one of everything.
Oleandra quickly gulped down her chocolate frog before it escaped from its wrapping, turned over the card and read its contents:
Nicolas Flamel—Grandmaster Alchemist
Considered to be the greatest alchemist of all time, due to his creation of the philosopher's stone. Thanks to its elixir, which grants life everlasting and turns all metals to gold, he is both the richest man in France and the oldest wizard alive. These days, he spends his eternity in retirement with his wife Perenelle.
"If I really had a blood malediction, I'd wager one of those would come in handy," she thought to herself, stuffing the card into her luggage.
A voice suddenly interrupted her musings. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. The voice belonged to a young witch her age, armed with rather impressive looking incisors and head full of bushy brown hair.
"No," said Daphne rather unhelpfully, "But your other things are right outside the door."
"Oh, and here's your Remembrall," added Oleandra. "Nifty little thing, isn't it?
She stood up and handed Longbottom the ball, which was still bright red.
Hermione Granger (who else could it have been?) immediately noticed Oleandra's glowing pocket and gushed excitedly, "Oh, are you practising magic? Can you show me?"
"Sure," said Oleandra, as she pulled out her wand. "Watch this! Lumos!"
As one might have expected, this didn't provoke any discernable changes to the already glowing wand. Daphne slapped her palm against her face with a discouraged air. Granger's smile froze on her face.
"That's the wand-lighting charm, isn't it? I've read all about it in the course books. I've learned them all by heart, I wouldn't want to fall behind, after all, my parents aren't magic," she rattled off very fast, in an attempt to draw attention away from Oleandra's embarrassment.
This, of course, was the worst thing she could have said in front three pure-blooded and two half-blooded witches. Sensing disaster, Oleandra quickly pushed Granger and Longbottom out of the compartment and offered to help with the search. To be honest, the Greengrass family didn't have anything in particular against the muggle-born, and in Oleandra's opinion, being a muggle-born was a far sight better than being a squib.
She quickly directed Granger to the prefects' carriage and dumped the problem on them, upon which she returned to her compartment, having just missed Malfoy and his two goons. The rest of the voyage went on uneventfully, apart from the fact that she had to endure an hour of Pansy gushing about the greatness of Draco Malfoy.
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