Some Witches are Insane by Lily of the US
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer I don't own Hogwarts or any canon characters. If you don't recognize it, it's mine.
Bloody hell, thought eleven-year-old Ria as she tried to find a seat on the train. And she had good reason to be annoyed. All around her were kids ranging from eleven to seventeen years old, all running and yelling, or at least it seemed that way. They all seemed to know what was going on. However, Ria was lost. A month ago, she had received a letter in the mail from someplace called Hogwarts telling her that she was a witch. Then, as if that weren’t enough, a rather old woman showed up introducing herself as Professor McGonagall and trying to prove that the letter was real. She explained where all of Ria’s school things could be bought and where to catch the train. The train which happened to be on Platform 9 ¾. So Ria had to ask a strange-looking woman with a girl a few years older than her how to get onto the platform. Of course she was very nice and explained everything. And that was how Ria found herself on the Hogwarts Express, lugging an owl, trying to find an empty compartment, and getting ready to head for a boarding school- a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She sighed, pushing a strand of curly brown hair away from her chocolate-colored eyes. Adults were, she had decided, determined to make things more complicated.
Once she had found an empty compartment, she settled down with her owl, Morven. She opened The Hobbit, her favorite book, and began to read. She could have read the whole time if someone hadn’t cleared their throat at the door of her compartment. Looking up, she saw that it was the girl whose mother she had asked about the platform. She had short black hair, bright blue eyes, and a cheeky-looking smile. She was also tall and slim, and quite pretty.
“Yes?” she asked politely.
“Oh, mum just asked me to make sure you were okay. Settling in alright?” Ria nodded.
“Yeah?” she nodded again. “Good.” There was an awkward silence for a moment, and then the girl stuck out her hand and said, “Oh, by the way, I’m Nadina Pallington, but most people just call me Naddie. I’m in the fifth year, Gryffindor.”
“I’m Riannon, but you can call me Ria. I’m in my first year, and what the hell is Gryffindor?”
“Oh, sorry, are you Muggleborn?” asked Naddie. Upon seeing the look on Ria’s face, she added, “you’ve got non-magic parents?”
“Oh, yes,” she replied. “So Muggle is non-magical?”
“Yep, and Gryffindor is one of the four houses you’ll be sorted in.” By now, Naddie had seated herself on the seat across from Ria, and was looking very comfortable. “The others are Ravenclaw, for the smart, Slytherin for the cunning,” “here she stuck out her tongue- “and Hufflepuff for the loyal and kind-hearted. Oh, don’t worry; it all really is easy to remember.” Ria was beginning to look rather panicked.
“So, I’m guessing you’re not” “ her tongue slipped over the strange word- “Muggleborn?”
“That’s right; my parents are a witch and wizard and I’ve been around magic all my life.”
“Is everyone like you?”
“Nope, there’s lots of Muggleborns that don’t know nothing about magic, ‘specially in the first year.”
“Oh, good,” breathed Ria.
“So don’t worry; everything is going to be fine. Mind if I go and catch my friends now?”
“No, that’s fine,” said Ria.
“Ok, well, I’ll see you later, then, and just come find me if you need anything. Good? Ok.” And with that, Naddie was up and gone, leaving Ria alone to ponder the strange girl who had taken her under her wing. She was very kind, but she seemed to be a bit overexcited and in-your-face, but in a nice, friendly sort of way. All in all, Ria decided her to be a good person, and was glad to have her as a friend, even if she was fifteen. And with that decision made, she opened The Hobbit for a second time, and settled in once again, until-
“Excuse me?” she heard a voice at the door say. She looked up. Standing there was a slender girl of medium height with long black hair in a braid that reached all the way down her back and darkish skin. She was holding a black cat with one eye that was brown and one that was green. “Do you mind if I sit here?” She seemed much calmer than Nadina had been, but still friendly.
“No, of course not!” said Ria, breaking into a smile. “I’m Riannon, but you can just call me Ria.
“Oh, nice to meet you; I’m Punita Kaur. This is Jinx,” she added, gesturing to her cat.
“My owl’s name is Morven.” She pointed to the cage.
“Oh,” said Punita. Another awkward silence (they seemed to be becoming quite common) followed, broken only when two more girls stopped at the door. They were both short, however one was slender and one was rather chubby. The thin one had thin brown hair and blue eyes and she seemed to be in charge. She was carrying an owl cage. The chubby one had short brown hair and brown eyes, and was timidly staying behind her friend.
The thinner one spoke first, as Ria had expected. “Do you mind if we sit here?” she asked.
“Not at all,” said Punita, and Ria agreed.
As the two girls sat down, they introduced themselves, or, rather, the skinny one introduced both of them. “I’m Sophie,” she said, “and this is Anna.” The shy-looking one smiled, and it transformed her whole face. Her smile was so real, so genuine, that it made Ria want to smile back.
“Are you in your first year, then?” asked Ria.
“Yes, both of us are. We don’t know anything about magic at all. We’re Muggle-born and we’ve grown up together. Actually, it’s because we’re magic that we know each other. We went to the same primary school and once we saw this kid getting bullied. We banded together to stop the bully and somehow he ended up on the other side of the playground fence. We started hanging out after that. Weird, huh?’ Sophie appeared not to need to pause for breath as much as normal people.
Throughout this speech, a girl with long, light brown hair and blue eyes stood waiting patiently at the compartment door, holding a cat. She was rather thin and of medium height, and when she spoke, it was quietly, as if she didn’t want to disturb them too much. “Sorry, I know it’s a bit cramped, but can I sit here? Everywhere else is completely full or they’re all boys.”
“Of course!” exclaimed Ria. “By the way, what time is it?”
“It’s almost eleven!” the girl exclaimed. “I nearly missed the train! My family hardly gets anywhere on time, because there’s six of us and I’m the only one at Hogwarts yet. My brothers and sisters are all younger.”
“What’s your name?” asked Sophie.
“Mary. Only I don’t like it. I go by Veronica.”
“How do you start with Mary and end up with Veronica?” Anna wondered aloud, the first time Ria had heard her speak.
“Oh,” laughed Mary/Veronica, “It’s my middle name!”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the train gave a lurch. Not expecting it, Ria fell out of her seat, Morven’s cage landed on top of her, Punita landed on top of them, Anna and Sophie both fell out of their seats, and Jinx gave a loud yowl. Veronica kept laughing, as she was holding on to the compartment door and didn’t fall. When Sophie and Anna regained their composure (for Veronica’s laugh was very contagious) they hurried to the window to give a last wave to their parents. Ria stuck her head out the window to try and see Veronica’s five brothers and sisters, as her own mother hadn’t come on to the platform.
“Veronica, is that them?” she asked, seeing a family of five small children and a woman with dark curly hair.
“Yeah, that’s them,” she said, giving a small smile.
“They look like you,” said Ria. This was very true. While the other children had hair in shades of dark brown, light blond, and even red, their eyes and faces were all the same.
“Everybody says that,” Veronica replied. “Where’s your mum?”
“Oh, I’m Muggleborn, and she was scared to go through the wall, so she stayed outside the platform.”
“So you didn’t get to tell her goodbye?”
“The truth is, we’re not that close to each other. She’s always liked dresses and parties and she can’t understand how she ended up with a grumpy, shy, ugly daughter like me.”
“She said that to you?” said Veronica, shocked.
“Well, not directly, but I’ve heard her talking at parties and stuff,” Ria explained.
By now the other girls were listening too as the train left Kings Cross far behind them. “But what did your dad say?” wondered Anna.
“They split a long time ago. I haven’t seen him since I was five,” she said. She was trying to look like it didn’t bother her, because she didn’t want the train ride to become a pity party.
“I haven’t seen my dad in a while either,” said Punita. “He…left when I was six.” Ria was quite sure that she was the only one who heard her murmur, “and he took my brother.” She absently fingered her gold necklace- a small, elegant ‘P.’
Ria decided that now was as good a time as any to change the subject. (also, she was curious to learn about the magical world.) “So, Punita and Veronica, do you have magic parents?”
“I’m a pure-blood,” said Punita. She didn’t seem to be bragging, just stating a fact.
“I’m half and half,” added Veronica. “My dad’s a wizard and my mum’s a Muggle.”
“But your mum brought you here?” asked Sophie.
“Yeah, my dad’s a healer at St. Mungo’s, so he couldn’t come. He told my mum exactly what to do, and she did.”
“What’s St. Mungo’s?” asked Anna. Ria had wanted to ask the same question.
“Magical hospital, hidden in London,” explained Veronica, stroking her cat.
“Your house must be pretty crammed, then, with six kids, two parents and a cat?”
“Oh, no, we’ve got four cats and four guinea pigs. And a dog.”
“Sounds like this compartment,” muttered Ria. It was getting very crowded. With five girls, two cats, and two owls, there was barely any room to move.
Yet another awkward silence followed, broken, thankfully, by, “Anything from the trolley?” outside their compartment. The five girls all got up at once, and bumped into each other. Ria found herself thinking, If the classrooms are this crowded, I’m packing up and coming home, as she stood in line to buy sweets.
When she got there, however, she found that there were no Mars Bars, no Snickers, nothing she recognized. Instead, there were Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Cauldron Cakes, and many other strange things she had never heard of. She considered for a moment, then bought a few of everything.
Now there was little talking in the compartment, as the girls (especially Ria, Anna, and Sophie) were preoccupied with their sweets. The first person to speak was Punita.
“Careful with those!” she exclaimed, seeing Sophie about to open a pack of Every Flavor Beans. “They really are every flavor.”
Sophie carefully laid her beans aside as Ria opened a chocolate frog.
“Look out for that,” warned Veronica, and Ria quickly clamped her hands around a frog that had tried to jump away.
“Are they… real?” she asked.
“No, it’s a spell. But what card have you got?”
“Card?” said Ria, puzzled.
“Yeah, card,” repeated Veronica. “Punita, help her.”
Punita showed Ria the card, which bore a picture of a young man with messy black hair, bright green eyes, and glasses. He also had a jagged scar in the middle of his forehead. “She’s got Harry Potter!”
“No way!” screamed Veronica. She jumped up to see for herself. The man off the card waved at the girls. Ria jumped.
“Who’s Harry Potter?” asked Anna, halfway through a cauldron cake.
The compartment went silent. Punita and Veronica stared at her. “Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord,” said Punita. She was met with blank stares. “He-who-must-not-be-named?” There were more stares. “Voldemort?” Nobody said anything. Sighing, Punita tossed her braid, which she had been fiddling with, over her shoulder and behind her back. “Voldemort was the darkest wizard of all time. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort sent a Killing Curse at him. Harry was the only person to ever survive that curse. Then, when he was seventeen (after many battles in between) he defeated him for good. That”- she pointed at the card ““Is a very special one. You’ll want to keep it,” she finished in a dark, dramatic voice- and was met with even more stares.
Punita sighed. “Basically, Voldemort killed a bunch of people, and Harry eventually ended up killing him.”
“Ooooohh,” everybody said, finally understanding.
Over the course of the train ride, the girls talked about themselves, Hogwarts, and lots of random things and ate a lot of candy. Before long, they were talking like they had known each other their whole lives. It seemed like they had barely sat down when an older boy came to the door.
“We’re almost there; you’ll need to get your robes on now.” He spoke with the bored air of a person giving a memorized speech. As soon as he was gone, the girls collapsed into giggles and began to get their robes on.
It was only when the train stopped that Ria began to feel worried. What if I can’t do any magic? What if I lose all my things? What if-?
“Ria!” Punita called from outside the compartment.
“Yes, coming!” she replied, and hurried along. She stopped at the door to take one last look at Morven and the other animals, which they had been instructed to leave on the train.
“Wish me luck!” she whispered to her owl.
He didn’t answer.