There were some things in life that even magic couldn't heal and for Zakari Ollivander, being deaf was not something that he wanted to be "healed" of anyways. Never considering himself disabled, Zakari considered himself just to be slightly differen...
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Once he set foot on the Hogwarts Express, Zakari felt his excitement immediately start to deplete, mainly as he came to face all sorts of new people. All of them running about, trying to find compartments, some of them trying to find their friends, and all the movement was quite overwhelming, even if he couldn't hear it. Seeing other children laughing, whether they were around his age or older, Zakari felt quite intimidated because his social skills were quite lacking. He figured they were all talking about what they had done over the summer or talking about all sorts of things that he wished he could take part in.
Yet, as soon as Zakari came through with Duncan and Franklin, the other children paused their conversations to look over in his direction. For a moment, it seemed to be a stand-off of staring, even though it wasn't Zakari's intention to actually stare at any of them. He was just curious as to who he would end up befriending out of the student population if he made any friends at all. However, none of them really seemed interested in Zakari, they were more interested in the corgi at his feet. Duncan took the centre stage of attention, but he paid no mind to any of the other children, his entire focus was on Zakari, waiting for any signal. He was at work currently and nothing could distract him.
Yet, the other students seemed to neglect the vest that Duncan wore, claiming that he was at work and not to be disturbed. Instead, they squealed and many of them went to lower themselves to pet him as they had never seen a dog aboard the train. Before any of that could happen though, Franklin put a quick stop to it as he informed all of them that Duncan was not there to be pet, he was currently working.
Zakari didn't know what was exactly said to the others, but it definitely resulted in him getting weird looks before the other children left. He really wished he wasn't so used to those looks, but they were all too familiar. He had been seeing those kinds of looks for the majority of his life and right then, he didn't have his mother there to go after them. Officially, Zakari was on his own, he needed to defend himself, he just wasn't sure how as of yet.
With a frown on his face, Zakari followed Franklin into an empty compartment and plopped down. Duncan attempted to sit next to him, taking a mighty leap only to fall short and fail miserably. He hit the floor before Zakari reached forward and picked him up into his arms. Stroking Duncan between the ears, Zakari took to looking out the window, taking in the scenery as the train was pulling away from the station. It wasn't his intention to ignore Franklin, the adult certainly felt like he was being given the cold shoulder.
Eventually, Zakari looked over at him, only to see Franklin sign, questioning if he was upset with him. Quickly shaking his head, Zakari reassured him that he wasn't angry with Franklin at all. The other children had to learn that Duncan was a service dog and that didn't mean the service he provided was to be at their convenience to pet. None of them had even asked to pet Duncan before they tried to greet him, which was a bad idea in general. However, Zakari was worried, he was truly worried that denying them to pet Duncan at the time had ruined his chances of making friends straight away.
