Fragmented

Theadora the NEW STUDENT

After months of waiting, we were finally here, Platform 9 & 3/4. All around were tearful parents saying goodbye, waving, hugging. 

Beside me, my brother Adrian had a sneer on his face. "Cheer up, buttercup!" I say while swinging my arm round his shoulder. "What could you possibly have to be sad about?" 

Looking at me, he frowned. "I was just thinking about how we would never get that." He pointed to two parents waving off their young daughter. "Or that." A husband was waving goodbye to his son whilst his wife sobbed into his shoulder. "Or that." Draco Malfoy was being sent away by his house elf. "Okay, maybe not that. It looks really embarrassing!" And suddenly, Adrian was in a good mood again.

"C'mon then. Let's get on before all the seats are taken!" I pushed through the crowd trunk first, poking people out of my way to get to a carriage door.

Once on board, I turned to check if my brothers had followed. Sure enough, Bertie, then Eli, then Adrian all trailed behind me.

As we moved down the carriage, I looked into each compartment to see if it was free. Finally, near the end, there was an empty one. Opening the door, I stepped inside, taking a seat by the window and storing my bag, and the family owl, above.

Bertie sat down next to me. "So, are you excited?" I asked while wiggling my eyebrows. 

"It's cool." He replied. "I just hope that everyone there is nice to me." There was a small smile on his lips.

Sometimes I forgot that my brother was no longer a baby, he had seen the horrors of the world that most adults had never faced. But from now on, I would shield him as best as I could, he's had enough pain for a lifetime. We all have. 

I sat back into my seat. "How long is the journey?" I asked no one in particular.

"It will take around 6 hours to get to Scotland." Eli replied. I love all my brothers, but I could never quite figure Eli out. 

He rarely speaks, but when he does, it's always factual and to-the-point, he almost never shows emotion. It's distanced him from us and society, and yet he was our father's favourite, maybe because they were so similar after Mum died. 

"Ahhh. Perfect amount of time to get a nap in before months of school." Adrian said the word with such displeasure. He was lucky, this was his last year! 

Sitting across from me, I watched Adrian huff and puff, sighing every now and again, shifting his body until finally he found a comfortable position, where he napped for the next 5 and a half hours. 

Something that was made clear to me from an early age was that Adrian would never be able to head our family. His personality was too eccentric, too foolish, too immature, my father used any negative adjective to describe Adrian. But, never being given any responsibility meant he never changed his ways. Ironically, it was the part about him that I loved the most. He was so carefree. I would love to feel like that. 

Opening the top of my trunk, I pulled out a deck of cards. For the next few hours, Eli, Bertie and I played a range of different games. Eli won most rounds, being the smartest of us, easily tricking me and Bertie, as we scrambled to understand what was going on. 

A knock at the door startled us from a high-staked game. "Anything off the trolley dears?" Bertie stood up to open the door, amazed to find on the other side a trolley full of any sweets you could possibly imagine.

"Wow!" I gasped, standing up. "Would you guys like anything?"

"Yeah, the lot!" Joked Bertie.

"I'll take two chocolate frogs, one cauldron cake and a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans please!" The lady busied herself handing over my items while my brothers decided. 

Finally, Bertie spoke, "Please could I have some Drooble's and some Fizzing Whizbees?" 

Eli said nothing, returning to his seat silently. I suppose that meant he didn't want anything. 

"That will be 3 galleons and 2 sickles please, dear." I fished the money out of my pocket, handing it over. A few people walked past, having to squeeze between the wall and the trolley, a somewhat difficult task.

I shut the door once the lady had moved on, returning to my seat. I curled into a ball, gazing out the window as I opened one of my chocolate frogs. I caught it quickly, continuing to look out over the sprawling hills. The sun was shining, it had been a hot August this year. Appreciating the tranquility of it, I leaned back, watching the world go by. 

After some time, the sound of whispers brought me back to reality. I snapped my gaze to the door of our compartment, seeing multiple girls out there, whispering back and forth. Something Professor McGonagall had warned us of when we were accepted to the school was that Hogwarts nearly never had transfer students. 

Not wanting to be anyone's topic of conversation, I got up, carefully stepping over Bertie who had fallen asleep on the floor, crossing the room to the door. The girls quickly hurried off, worried I was going to confront them. In reality, I reached for the blind, pulling it down. I did the same for the other two, before silently returning to my seat and my gazing. 

The next time I was pulled out of my stupor was at the slowing of the train. Coming to my senses, I shook my brothers awake, "We've arrived. C'mon lazy bones, we need to get up!" I hurried to gather strewn items, placing them back into our bags. 

I grabbed my trunk and Barney the owl, aptly named by Bertie (it was a barn owl), and moved towards the door. Sliding it open, I was met by people bustling both ways, eager to get out. Joining them, I turned left towards the closest exit. 

Moving through the carriage and onto the platform, I could feel people's eyes on me and my brothers. I caught the end of some of the whispers,

"... no, they must be special, Dumbledore has never let people in past first year!"

"I wonder why Professor McGonagall is on the platform! She never meets us here..."

"God that tall one is totally fuckable, I'd let him do me any day of the week!"

I cringed at the last one, I never wanted to think of Adrian that way. Bleugh! But sure enough, once we stepped off the train, we were specially met by Professor McGonagall to escort us to the school. 

While walking, she filled us in on what would happen this evening. We were to be segregated from the rest of the student body until all the first years had been sorted into their houses. Then, before the meal or speeches we would go up and be sorted by the hat too. 

Professor McGonagall also explained how school life would go. Lessons started tomorrow, but we didn't have any on the weekend. She checked we had our Hogsmeade forms filled, and that we were happy with our choices of classes. By then, we had reached the castle.

Standing in front of it, I couldn't even begin to describe its beauty. It was grand and loomed above you, the stone almost shimmering in the dusk-lighting. Stepping through the door felt like nothing I had ever felt before. It was safe.

"If you would follow me through here." We reached a staircase full of trunks and cages. Adding ours to the bottom of the pile, Professor McGonagall diminished our worries, "The house elves will take them to the appropriate dorms during the dinner." She explained. 

We continued to follow her, until we were in front of a giant set of doors. To the side there was a much smaller door. "You may change into your robes here, I will come to get you when it is time." With that, she swept out the room, letting the door bang closed.

Looking around, the large room was completely empty, save from a couple of brooms in the corner. Not wasting any time, I brought out my wand, muttering the words, "Accio robes!" A few seconds later my robes came through the now open door. After I looked at my brothers expectantly, they followed my example.

Taking off my shirt and unbuttoning my trousers, I thought to myself: let the night begin.