🖇·˚ ༘ ┊͙[ chapter eighteen ] ! ˊˎ

╰─▸ trains, school, and a new me

     WITHOUT HARDLY ENOUGH WARNING, it was the new year. Nineteen-ninety-four came with a flourish of snow that came and went, several flutes of champagne and a bursting of fireworks. I must have blinked and the winter break was over because before I knew it, Will and I were dropped off at Kings Cross and we were only one ride away from being back at Hogwarts.

     I'm yet to decide whether the time flew by so fast because that's what happens when you're having fun, but since everything else seems to be happening faster than I can keep up, I'm blaming it on time is relative.

     The week between Christmas day and New Year's Eve was just as weird as it is every year. Seven days of confusion and not really living, where someone asks what day is it? every few hours because no one can keep up.

     Nothing particularly exciting happened unless you count the few letters Cedric and I exchanged until we decided telling each other everything we wanted to would be better in person.

     Which has led to this point in time, feeling lost for the first time since my first year at Hogwarts, where Platform nine-and-three-quarters is just as daunting to me now as it was to my eleven-year-old self.

     After around ten minutes of looking for what now seemed to be my only friend ─ one out of the only two people I can deal with for a train journey as long as this one ─ I decided to board the train anyway, hoping that Ava was just later than usual and would find me at some point in the next eleven hours.

     I slumped into the window seat of an empty compartment and let my eyes fade out, the busy platform behind the glass blurring before me. I bored myself by watching the light speckles of rain trickle down the window pane, the droplets racing against each other until it briefly stopped raining and they become stagnant against the surface.

     Before I know it, the train jolted and squeaked against the tracks. Soon enough, the platform was behind us, the raindrops were sliding to the side, the train was now in motion.

     A whizz of green was all I could focus on and I don't know how long I was gazing out into the vast English landscape when a knock on the compartment door pulled me out of my reverie.

     "Someone's lonely."

     Cedric was leaning against the door frame when I looked up and found two grey eyes boring into mine. A smirk slowly slid onto his face when he knew he had got my attention.

     "Tragic, isn't it?" I said, trying my best to repress my growing smile. He didn't deserve to know that his unexpected arrival had piqued my interest.

     "Mind if I sit?" He asked, his head gently nodding to the empty bench opposite me. His hair drooped to the side, covering the tops of his eyes.

     "That depends," I replied, sitting up straighter.

     "On?" His curiousity had set in a glint in his eyes.

     "Whether you'll be missed too much by your friends."

     "They won't mind," Cedric assured me. "Speaking of friends, lost yours?"

     "Apparently so," I joked. He chuckled lightly, his head bowing as if to conceal how amused he truly was. "Spencer stayed at school and I dread to think what Ava has got up to that it has caused her to forget to meet me on the platform."

     "That is tragic," Cedric laughed and the sound filled the carriage so much, I forgot what it was like to be sitting alone. "Nice break?"

     The question threw me off just a little seeing as we had been corresponding about our respective Christmas breaks over the course of the last two weeks. I supposed he was just making conversation, which flattered me nonetheless.

     "Great, thank you," I said, and immediately punched myself for not thinking of a more interesting response. I swallowed and stuttered out a quick, "Yours?"

     "Decent," he nodded.

     A brief silence followed and I could feel my throat closing up ever so slightly. The nerves pooling in my stomach threw me off and I wracked my mind for something witty to say in response to fill the quiet ─ something I usually don't struggle at all with.

     "I don't think you came here intending to spend eleven hours with me, did you, Cedric?" I asked, smirking.

     Cedric didn't smirk but the eye contact that followed was intense and made my heart hammer in my chest. "Who says I didn't?"

     "I bet you have plenty of other people you'd rather journey with." I heard myself saying without recalling my brain to instruct my mouth to verbalise it.

     The ghost of an amused grin flickered across his face just then and I'm grateful that I successfully diffused the awkward tension that had fallen between us. "I wouldn't put money on that, y/l/n."

     I cocked an eyebrow and hoped to come across as a lot more confident than I actually felt. "Oh really?"

     "Tell you what," Cedric said, a mischievous grin slowly sliding onto his face as his eyes swept across me. "If you're so certain I would rather sit elsewhere, why don't we both go sit with those friends of mine that are so desperately missing me right now?"

     I tried to conceal my shock as best I could. I wasn't prepared for him to suggest such a thing and I didn't have the words to respond immediately. Without revealing that sitting with his friends would be awfully awkward for me, I ignored the sway of his head directed at the door with a grimace, "I think they'd rather I stay far away from them. Thank you for the offer, but I'll be fine on my own."

     Cedric's grin strangely didn't falter. And I didn't realise why until he got up from his seat, pulled my bag from the overhead shelf before latching onto my wrist and pulling me from the compartment.

     I felt winded and before I knew it, I was following Cedric down the aisle of the train. "Woah," I scoffed, but he barely even looked back and continued walking. "What do you think you're doing? You need my consent for that."

     He stopped in his tracks and turned to face me. His tall build towered over me and the spark in his eyes danced where the winter sun streamed in from the nearest window. He only seemed amused by my protests, but his grip didn't loosen in the slightest. "Have some fun, would you?"

     I rolled my eyes but still found myself giving into his antics, following him out of the compartment and down the aisle until he had found his friends. This is when the nerves kicked in. It was a strange feeling, something I wasn't used to, but I couldn't help it. These were people I wasn't exactly friends with; or had ever really had any kind of interaction with at all. And it wasn't them who had even invited me in the first place.

     I hovered awkwardly behind Cedric before he walked inside the compartment, and took a seat, exposing me where I stood in the entryway.

     "Guys, you know y/n," Cedric smiled to his friends, but I could sense the warning tone he produced ─ he was going to have to force his friends to like me.

     "Yeah, we know her," Anthony Rickett scoffed and by the scowl Cedric spared his friend, this wasn't the welcome he wanted his friends to give me.

     "Be nice," Cedric practically seethed, while still maintaining somewhat of a charming smile for my sake.

     "We'll be nice if she is," Malcolm Preece responded, nodding in my direction but not lifting his eyes to meet mine.

     "I don't think she knows how to be nice," Maxine O'Flaherty smiled sickly-sweetly in my direction and I must have misjudged Hufflepuffs' ability to be welcoming. Then again, you get what you give out and I can't say my track record with the Hufflepuff Quidditch team has been all that friendly over the years.

     Somehow, I gained enough confidence to speak. Still standing in the aisle of the train I shrugged and said, "Try me."

     Anthony, Malcolm, and Maxine all exchanged glances as if having a silent conversation to decide whether or not to invite me inside. The train seemed to go deathly silent and I found myself longing for some kind of reassurance from Cedric.

     Finally, after what seemed like hours, Anthony tilted his head back in a nod and I cautiously took the empty spot next to Cedric having been granted permission to sit.

     "So," Cedric sighed, seemingly grateful for his friends' decision not to pick a fight with me even when it was clear they still didn't want me sitting with them. "Did everyone have a nice Christmas?"

     The group then descended into conversation about their respective breaks and, not wanting to overstep my boundaries, I stayed quiet, nodding occasionally to let them all know I was paying some attention at least.

     But I couldn't stay quiet for long, because once the group seemed finished with their summaries of their winter breaks, Anthony surprised me by turning to me and asking: "Get anything nice for Christmas?"

     He wasn't smiling but his tone didn't suggest any rudeness.

     Shaking myself awake a little bit, and straightening up where I sat, now with four sets of eyes all transfixed on me, I put on my best face of confidence as I answered. "Oh, um, yeah, I got a new broom." I wasn't proud of the awkward smile that followed.

     "Oh, yeah what model?" Malcolm asked, lifting his chin a little. He sounded smug, as if whatever I said next, he could do better, but his eyes narrowed in on me slightly, and I sensed a hint of curiousity too.

     I hesitated for a moment. Swallowed. Mirrored his stance and proudly stated: "A Firebolt."

     I watched their jaws drop open a little one by one.

     "W-what?" Cedric stammered, his head whipping to the side to look down on me.

     "You heard me," I shrugged. I felt my confidence slowly start to stand its ground.

     Maxine scoffed from over by the window, chuckling to herself in disbelief as if I was just lying for their reactions. "But that's the—"

     "Latest model, I know," I cut in, smiling sweetly, but all of them could see the satisfaction radiate off me. "You know what that means ─ you lot don't stand a chance." I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling comfortable enough to lean back in my seat, when I then muttered, "As if you did before" with wide eyes and raised brows.

     "Nah," Malcolm let out a long breath of air, "that just means our win will be that much more satisfying."

     I turned to Cedric then to see his wide eyes, and soft stare blinking down at me in admiration. I couldn't tell whether he was staring in awe at the thought of my shiny new broom that could fly laps around them all, or whether he was staring in awe at me.

     Feeling my cheeks heat up, I then took turns smirking at each of them. Crossing my arms, I said boldly, "Stay delusional, guys. Works for me."

' ੈ˚ ❃

     I DIDN'T SEE AVA AND SPENCER UNTIL I walked into the Great Hall behind Cedric and his friends before the start of the welcome feast. Malcolm and I were mid-conversation about the tragic season so far for Puddlemere United when Ava came sprinting down the aisle towards us, where she then threw her arms around my neck and embraced me rather tightly.

     "Quite the hello from someone who left me all alone on the train," I said teasingly, pulling away.

     Ava scoffed then before surveying the group surrounding me. Her face morphed slowly into a smirk as she quirked an eyebrow in my direction. "It seemed you managed with my absence okay, though huh y/n?"

     "Nah," I dismissed her with a wave of my hand, "just some annoying Hufflepuffs who wouldn't leave me alone." This got me a playful nudge from Cedric, even though he couldn't help but grin down at me.

     "Not how I recall it, y/n," Anthony called out jokily, as the four of them started heading off to the Hufflepuff table on the far side of the Great Hall, but not before Cedric could send me a quick wave goodbye.

     "Oh my," Ava giggled as we relocated Spencer and began heading over to the Slytherin table, "are you on a first-name basis with Anthony Rickett?" She was practically gasping.

     As we took our seats, Spencer must have caught that last part. "Sorry? Did I hear that right?" She asked, jaw agape.

     I shrugged innocently; I didn't totally understand where I stood with any of them myself. "I don't know," I chuckled. "Maybe?"

     "Who are you and what have you done with y/n?" Ava asked, sending us into a peal of laughter.

     It was a fair point to make. Last year, you wouldn't have caught me dead voluntarily ─ even if Cedric did technically drag me there ─ talking to a group of Hufflepuffs, let alone members of a rival Quidditch team. And yet, I did just that. And I even laughed about the things we had in common at one point. I had spent a whole eleven hours with Cedric and his friends and I didn't even mind.

     It was only a matter of time until my own teammates interrogated me about Cedric and my new Hufflepuff friends but as of right now, it didn't seem to matter to me at all.

     It seemed Ava and Spencer weren't the only two people at Hogwarts I wouldn't mind spending a long train journey with.