Melissa gripped the handle of her luggage cart tightly so that her knuckles turned pale. She looked again at the brick wall in front of her. It looked so real.
"Remember Melissa," her mother had told her before she Apparated away from the station, "run straight into the barrier between platforms 9 and 10."
Melissa's ticket was crunched in her hand and she jogged toward the barrier. She closed her eyes just as she was about to make contact, but when she opened them again, she was standing in the middle of a bustling crowd of witches and wizards. There was lots of shouting.
Alan stood confused in the bustle of 9 3/4. He had done this for 5 years and yet he still got nervous. Excited, but nervous.
Melissa tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and started forward, only to run into a tall, thin boy with dark hair pulled into a ponytail. "Oh my goodness," she squealed quietly, a whisper, "I'm so sorry!"
Alan screamed. "OH GOODNESS GRACIOUS! I'm SO sorry. I shouldn't have stood in front of the entrance!"
"It's not your fault, really," the girl spoke, but she was sure that he couldn't hear her over the shouts, whistles, and bursts of steam coming from the train.
"Oh, okay." Alan smiled with relief. "I don't think I've seen you around. My name's Alan. What's yours?"
"Melissa," Melissa spoke louder. This boy seemed trustworthy. But then again… that's what she thought about Thomas… She drew herself back into reality. "I'm a first year."
"Oh! Okay! I'm fifth year! Welcome to 9 3/4!" The train gave a whistle. "Do you want to get on board?"
Fionola saw two kids chatting. "Hello!" she said, her blue hair changing colors rapidly.
Alan turned to see Fionola walking towards them. She was okay, just a bit too energetic for him. "Hey. Fionola, right?"
"You would call yourself that if your fool of a mother called you Fionola too."
Melissa's eyes widened. She'd never seen anything like that, and she wasn't used to so many people she didn't really know all that well yet talking to her at once!
"So, hi. Who's this small child?"
"Fionola's a nice name though. You should meet my cousin. Her name's Ima Hogg."
He turned to Melissa. "This is Douglas as you now know. Douglas, this is Melissa."
"I'm jealous that you get a normal name. That's not fair, why can she score a normal name?"
"Life's not fair Doug." Alan muttered.
"Hi," the timid first-year extended her hand towards the multicolor-haired girl.
"Douglas. And might I add, you seem particularly short, Mr. No Growth Spurt."
"Oh, hey." she shook the girl's hand.
Melissa withdrew her hand. She was used to not really being noticed, especially around louder, chatty people.
Helen saw some people standing by the platform and walked over to them. "Hi." Fira, her scops owl was balanced on her shoulder and screeched in her ear. "Gee Fira speak up." She muttered to the small animal and scratched her gently on the head.
Rowan slowly pushed her cart toward through entrance of the platform. She honestly had no idea what she was doing, but there were a few kids standing by the entrance. Rowan walked up to them, and pulled out a piece of paper. on it she wrote, "Hello!"
"Oh, hello!" Douglas said to the new girl. She had an owl on her head.
(@ShadeStar I think Melissa and Rowan would get along really well together, what House is Rowan in/going to be in?)
(Are you calling Alan Mr. No Growth Spurt?)
(Are you calling Alan Mr. No Growth Spurt?)
(Slytherins gonna Slytherin.)
