Cherry Lips // s. black

-SEPTEMBER. 3.-

Carmilla gazed around at the smoky platform. Light filtered through the large windows on the platform. It made everything hazy.

It was quite pretty, and had a wistful effect, but she was bumped out of her longing thoughts as someone knocked into her. An apology was yelled back at her when the boy continued running, tripping into more disgruntled people along the way, and leapt aboard the big red train.

She was confused as to the rush, there was still ten minutes until the train left, but the messy haired boy might have been looking for his friends. Friends. She would have to get onto that.

No one else from the girl's home had been visited by the old man in funny clothes, so she was alone on the other side of the brick wall.

He had shown up months ago and informed her that she was a witch. After a mild miscommunication, she was informed the word wasn't an insult where he was from. Which was Hogwarts, of course.

He also had a few ways to get on top of her little 'problem' and had informed her that there was another student in a 'situation' similar to her own. Apart from all the things she would have to hide, she was also worried about the fact that she wasn't starting as a first year. Apparently, the headmaster had found out about her later than usual, and she was to be in third year, at fourteen years old. People would already have friend groups. Nobody would want the pale new girl with odd eyes and scruffy clothes, despite the fact that Carmilla liked people, and found them rather enjoyable.

Carmilla liked her eyes too, but some of the other girls teased her for having one dark blue eye and one dark brown eye. And being pale. She couldn't help it, she didn't have blood. She also didn't breathe.

Technically, she was dead.

This all sounded rather alarming, but all it really meant was that she couldn't blush, and she didn't have a lot of natural body heat.

A loud whistle blew across the station, and the people around her picked up the pace, so she pulled her trunk along behind her, and boarded the big train. This was the first time she had been on a train, actually. They didn't travel around at the girls home, except for the easter picnic in the fields out of town, but they walked there. Because of this, once Carmilla got to the hall between the sliding doors, she didn't really know what to do.

She peeked into one compartment and saw a boy wearing colourful glasses. It made him look rather like an owl. The next one had a girl with rad looking black and white hair, but cold eyes, so she kept moving.

The second whistle blew, and Carmilla knew she was going to have to find a compartment soon, and she decided on an empty one after walking past a greasy looking boy who sneered at her, to which she glared back just as forcefully. She couldn't be picky, so she ignored the large burn mark on one seat, set her trunk on the floor, put her legs up on it, and peered out the window.

She saw families having tearful goodbyes, and looked away. No one would be waving to her. Mistress Theeny left her at the station. Muggles weren't allowed in, apparently. At least she assumed so. Mistress Theeny had bumped into the brick wall and then bustled around dabbing tissues and praying for Carmilla's soul. None of her friends from the girl's home were allowed to see her off.

When the nice man called 'Hagrid' showed her around Diagon Alley, she had seen lots of people catching up and laughing over tall ice creams that defied gravity. Shopping for school supplies also brought up the problem that Carmilla did not have any wizarding money. Hagrid had reassured her that normal money could be traded in for things called knuts, sickles, and galleons.