Double Double Toil and Trouble // One //

Chapter Five

I never imagined a train ride could be so long. After at least three hours, Fred and George said we were only halfway there. At some point, I decided I needed to stretch my legs, so I set off to find the loo. It was around 3:00 p.m., so not many people were up and about in the corridor. But it was my first time on The Hogwarts Express so I got a little lost.

After doing my business, I started making my way back to the compartment ten minutes later. Though there were few people in the hall, I kept my head down so I wouldn't get recognized. I assumed I was getting close to our compartment when I heard voices in the compartment to my right. The screen was pulled down, covering the windows, but the door was slightly ajar. I was about to walk away and leave those people be when I heard three sounds: a cry of pain, a thud on the floor, and a certain word that made me lose my cool. "You shouldn't even be going to this school you mudblood!" Mudblood was a foul name Harry and I were taught never to use. It was what pure-blooded tossers called muggle-borns. To them, it meant people with non-magic parents had dirty blood. My mother grew up that way, and every time someone called anyone by that name, I just lost it.

I opened the compartment door to see four students inside, all wearing first-year robes. There were three boys standing over a girl, one of them aiming his wand at her. "Oi! Knock it off!" I shouted at them. They truly looked like a gang. The one with the wand was standing in front while his goons were behind him. The front one lowered his wand and looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes. "You can't seriously be defending this mudblood!" That's when I lost control. In a flash, I drew my arm back and connected my fist with his nose, satisfied with the crack I heard. He held his face in pain, trying to stop the bleeding. He ran out of the compartment without another glance at me, his goons following him.

I turned to the girl. She had a look of complete shock on her face. "Alright there?" I asked, holding out my hand. She nodded, taking it and allowing me to pull her to her feet. "Where did you learn to punch like that?" She asked. "I grew up with many boys in my life, so I pretty much taught myself." "Well, thanks for that. Really."

I felt a crunch under my foot. I looked down to see a now-broken pair of glasses on the floor. "These aren't yours, are they?" I asked nervously as I bent down and picked them up. She sighed and nodded. I looked at her apologetically. "I'm so sorry." "It's fine. It happens all the time." She took out her wand and aimed it at the crumbled spectacles. "Reparo." In an instant, the frame was mended and the cracks in the lenses sealed themselves. I gave her an impressed grin, handing them to her. "Nice charm. It took me a while to learn that one." "Thanks." She slid them onto her face.

"I'm Natalia, by the way. Natalia Cummings." She introduced herself politely, holding her hand out for me to shake. I accepted. "I'm Lex, Lex Potter." I expected her to react like people usually did when I revealed who I was: go into shock, shake my hand rapidly as if they were trying to rip it off and ask how I defeated you-know-who (how would I know? I was a bloody one-year-old). But Natalia didn't. She tilted her head to the side and said, "Huh. I thought you looked familiar." That's when I remembered she was muggle-born, so she probably hadn't known much about the defeat of the Dark Lord.

I studied Natalia for a minute, but not to the point where it was creepy. She was rather thin for a first year, but still around my height. If anything, she was a bit taller. She had thick, dark brown hair that came down to just above her shoulders, and bright blue eyes.

Natalia and I started telling each other about ourselves. She also had a brother, Drason, but he was only nine, so he wouldn't be coming to Hogwarts until we were in our third year, if he even got a Hogwarts letter. She and her parents had yet to know if he had magic blood. I told her different stories of what it was like growing up with Harry and the Weasleys. It felt kind of nice to talk to someone who didn't already know every detail of my life.