Smile

Roxanne Walker had arrived at Platform 9 3/4 as happy as can be. Her sister, Kylie, had practically gouged her eyes out after the brunette had thrown the fact that she would be off at a magical school learning magical things with her magical friends. She was very pleased with the reaction she had gotten.

On top of that, the magnificent Hogwarts Express was breathtakingly surreal; Roxanne swore that her heart nearly stopped when her foot stepped on it for the first time.

However, there was one thing that deterred her mood that morning, well, six somethings: a group of Slytherins who had thought it would be fun to make Roxanne trip.

"Ow," the brunette muttered, her knees throbbing from having hit the train's floor. "Jerks..."

Roxanne picked herself up, shooting the upperclassman a hateful look, but they just laughed it off, most like not intimidated. After all, she was only eleven; it was impossible to look scary when people just wanted to pinch your cheeks.

Sulking in defeat, the young girl walked into the closest empty compartment.

I'm not even at the school yet and I'm already hating people, Roxanne thought, pulling a book out from her trunk to kill some time.

Marlene had gotten ridden of her parents quickly, it hadn't been hard or anything, after about a gazillion years of getting used to seeing their kids off to school, they'd really just stopped trying to hold on to the tearful goodbyes and goodbye hugs. Besides, Marlene didn't really like those and she'd see her siblings at school and owl her parents, what was the big deal anyway? It wasn't like they saw each other a lot at home.

She threaded the train, taking in it's every last bit, it was almost exactly like Matthew had described it. But it was still a new thing, seeing the inside with your own eyes instead of through someone else.

The petite blonde grimaced at all the full compartments, they were all full with older students that would probably scowl if a first year would try to barge into their private time. So instead of finding herself a crowded compartment she kept looking until she found one almost empty.

The compartment was almost empty, except for one girl, that - if Marlene was to be honest - did not look too happy.
Shrugging Marlene opened the door and slid in. "You look about ready to murder someone." she commented sitting down without asking if she was allowed, instead she just grinned. "I'm Marlene, by the way."

Roxanne turned the page of the book she was reading furiously--the protagonist was such a whiny brat!--as a blond girl opened the compartment door and commented on her less than sunny disposition.

"That obvious?" Roxanne asked, her lips twitching slightly in bemusement as she watched the blond sit down without asking.

"Pleasure to meet you, Marlene. I'm Roxanne Walker; I'll be your boss one day," the brunette said with a straight face before a wide grin appeared on her face. "Just kidding! Maybe..."

The brunette sat back in her seat, closing her book and tossing it next to her (honestly, she didn't want to look at that poor excuse for literature; who bought it for her anyway?) as she sat Indian style.

"So, what house do you want to be in?" she asked curiously.

Marlene grinned, placing her tongue between her teeth. "Obvious or not obvious, just a lucky guess, I guess." she replied, shrugging.

Her eyes followed the book as it scattered on the floor with a loud noise, she smiled slightly and then turned to face the girl. "Gryffindor." she replied with ease, grinning once again. "Ravenclaw if that can't happen, not Slytherin and I'm fairly sure I'm not Hufflepuff-enough, of what I've heard, but I dont know, maybe I am kindess painted on a wall. But I doubt it." she said, more to herself than to the girl - Roxanne, she noted. "But yes, Gryffindor. That's what I want. Yourself?" she tilted her head to the side as she watched the girl.

Mark had told her that first impressions meant a lot to people at Hogwarts, but the blonde minded a lot less what kind of impression she was giving herself, she was way too busy studying the girl infront of her. "I like your hair." she stated after a moment.

"I'm glad you don't want to be a Slytherin," Roxanne said, relieved. She thought of her earlier encounter with the Slytherins. "It be horrible to have to mindlessly hate you."

When Marlene asked what house she wanted to be in, the brunette didn't even have to think. "Ravenclaw" was her automatic reply. "Though I'd settle for Hufflepuff," she added as an after thought.

Her mother had told her about the houses when she had received her letter, and, although she was a bit put off by the fact that it accepted anybody, Roxanne had liked Hufflepuff a lot (not as much as Ravenclaw, but still. The last thing she wanted was to get stuck in some ridiculous feud between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

"How do you think we'll get sorted?" Roxanne asked. "My mum wouldn't tell me." She would never acknowledge it, but there was a slight whine in her words.

Marlene nodded as the girl talked. "I guess Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad, but I don't think I'm smart enough for that." she shrugged, crossing her legs.

She did knot how they would be sorted, Mark had told her when he had his first year. "Are you sure you wanna know? It might involve dragons." she grinned, joking but not sure if the girl could tell that she was joking.

Roxanne gave Marlene a look that said 'stop messing around, you're freaking me out'. Dragons? she thought, mortified. Please, oh, please let her be joking!

Starting to feel sick, Roxanne hugged her legs to her chest, resting her forehead on her knees. "I'm good, thank you," she muttered, wishing she had never asked the question. Why would her mother let her go to Hogwarts without at least a warning of the dragons?

Marlene sniggered, the girl seemed to believe what she had said about the dragons. "I'm kidding Roxanne." she said, after a moment, rolling her eyes. "There are no dragons, not that I know of anyway. Are you sure you want to know? It's nothing fatal." she said, in a reassuring tone even though she was enjoying this a little bit too much.

She looked out the train window and sighed. "Have you played Quidditch?"

Roxanne's head whipped up so fast there was an audible 'crack'. She had been joking? The brunette couldn't decided whether to be relieved, or seriously ticked off; she settled for annoyed.

"That's not funny," Roxanne muttered, stomping her foot on the ground and crossing her arms over her chest. "And, as long as you don't 'joke' again, I guess I don't see the harm in letting you tell me." Ever the priss.

Roxanne was confused. Quidditch? she thought. What the heck is that?

"Er, what's kwidij?" she asked, the word sounding weird on her lips.

"It's a hat." Marlene said simply, shrugging slightly and her eyes didn't leave the window, a slight smile formed on her lips, Roxanne had been way too easy to fool. "Didn't mean to scare you." she added.

Raising her eyebrows, Marlene looked back again at the girl. "You are muggleborn." it was more of a statement than a question. "Interesting! Believe it or not I dont remember meeting any muggleborns ever, obviously I've met muggles, but muggleborns? I'm not sure, maybe at some party. But that's so cool, so you really dont know what Quidditch is?"

"A...hat? That's it? You nearly give me a panic attack and it's just a hat?" Roxanne asked angrily.

Great, another word I don't know, she mentally groaned. Why can't the wizarding world just...just...blegh?

"I have no idea what a muggle or a muggleborn is," Roxanne deadpanned. "And, yes, I don't know what quidditch is."

Why couldn't mum have taught me all these terms? she thought helplessly. I probably sound like such a dunce right now.

"A sorting hat." Marlene said, frowning. "You place it on your head, it talks to you or something, didn't really understand that part, then it decides what house you should be in." she shrugged again; she'd heard the story so often before, it had become a pretty basic thing to her.

"Muggleborn." Marlene repeated. "Being a muggleborn means that you were born by muggles, that your parents are that; muggles. And muggles are non-magical people. People that can't do magic. 'Normal' folks." she explained, nodding her head as she did. "So your parents are muggles then?"

"It...talks to me? But it's a hat," Roxanne said, not seeing how that's possible. "Wait," she suddenly realized, "it's a magic hat, isn't it?"

Muggles equal non magic people and muggleborns equal magic people with muggle parents, Roxanne thought. Got it.

"Well, my mum isn't a muggle," the brunette said. "She's a witch, but, since she married my dad, who is a muggle, I never knew about magic until I got my letter. My older sister, Kylie, was so mad."

The memory of her sister's face contorted in anger brought a smirk to Roxanne's lips.

"You never answered my question: what's quidditch?"

Marlene rolled her eyes, snickering at her silly-ness, but then again the girl seemed a bit un-knowing when it came to the whole 'magic' thing. "Yes, Roxanne, it's magic."

Marlene nodded. "Well damn, I was hoping that you were a muggleborn, I need to find one of those." she decided to herself. "I would've been pretty pissed too, had I not gotten the letter, doomed to be a squib for the rest of my life." she grimaced.

"Quidditch." Marlene repeated, sighing at the thought. "Is the best thing ever. It's a sport. Our sport, and you fly, using brooms. It's bloody amazing, my brother - Matt - is great at it, Mark's not so good, Marietta is so afraid of height its not even funny - it's kind of funny though - but seriously, it's the best thing ever. Do you like flying? I mean like, being in the air? Or just like, standing on a cliff and looking down?"

"I feel so loved," Roxanne said dryly. "Wait, what's a squib?"

More words...

Brown eyes widening in fright, Roxanne started shaking her head quickly." Nope! Quidditch is definetly not the sport for me!" she squeaked, hugging her legs to her chest again. Just the thought of heights made her freak out.

"Wizards wouldn't happen to have any other sports, would they? You know, ones on the ground?"

Sighing, Marlene rested her head in her hands. "A squib," she silently cursed herself for bringing up yet another word, she felt like a professor. " - is a person, born into a magical family, with wizard parents that is not a wizard, hence they cannot do spell nor practice magic and are basically muggles." she said, speaking quickly.

She then pouted. "D'aww, Quidditch is amazing. So I take it you are scared of heights? You know you'll have to get on a broom in flying lessons, we have those, I hope they are amazing, but I think we only have those in first year, that's what Mark said anyway." the blonde nodded to herself.

She gave Roxanne's question a thought for a moment before she hesitatingly shook her head. "On the ground? No, I dont think so, not that I know of, but I can never be too sure. Besides, what's the fun about playing on the ground? When you could be floating along with the clouds?"

"So being a squib must be a big disappointment, huh?" Roxanne mused, her eyebrows furrowing as she frowned. She wondered how it would feel if she had known her mother was a witch and didn't turn out to have magic; Roxanne didn't like that feeling.

"Flying lesson?!" the brunette shrieked. She started to hyperventilate slightly, shaking her head back and forth. This cannot be happening, she mentally groaned.

"The 'fun'," Roxanne said, glaring at Marlene; "is that I don't have to worry about going splat! if I fall."

Marlene nodded. "No one wants to be a squib - or so I think anyway, imagine being born into a magical family, being raised with magic and then boom, you'll never get to use it yourself. That sounds like the most sucky thing in the world, if that would've happened to me, I'd left the Giant Squid eat me."

The young girl then pushed her bangs out of her face. "Yes flying lessons," she frowned. "You seem really scared, but I'm sure you'll do fine, and not fall all 'splat' like." she joked. "Besides, magic can fix you up!"

"The Giant Squid? What Giant Squid?" Roxy asked; she really hated not knowing things. Not knowing things was like lifting up cinder blocks without any muscles.

For some reason, Marlene's words didn't make her feel any better about flying. "That's not comforting at all," Roxanne muttered. "What if I fall a large distance and my rib cage collapses? What if one of my bones pierces my heart and I die? What if I die and nobody tells my parents? What if my parents think I hate them because nobody told them I was dead and they thought that I just didn't want to go home?"

Mentally slapping herself, Marlene turned around in her seat and lowered herself down, so she was laying on the bench, she placed her legs up and on the window. "The Giant Squid is a giant squid." she responded simply, after a moment she added "It lives in the lake, it's harmless I think, never heard about it eating anyone. I kinda wanna see it, dont you?"

Tapping with her feet on the glass of the window, Marlene rolled her eyes at the brunette. "You are rather dramatic, you know." she said, crossing her arms and looking up at the ceiling. "If you die your parents will be informed, not that I think you'll die, just hold onto the broom will you? Then you don't go 'splat' on the ground and form a Roxanne - did you ever tell me your last name? - bloody puddle."

A squid lives in the lake? "As long as it's harmless," Roxanne answered, shrugging her shoulders. "I;d rather get hit by a train than get eaten by a squid."

A indignant scoff escape the brunette's lips. "I am not dramatic!" she huffed, crossing her arms and pouting. "And yes, I did tell you my last name. It's Walker. What about you? What's your last name?"

Marlene raised her eyebrows, she turned her head to the girl, still keeping her legs on the window and tapping absent minded with one feet on it. "Really? You'd rather be hit by a train? That sounds really painful, to be honest."

"You kinda are." she then disagreed. "Dramatic, I mean. And I'm a McKinnon." she replied. "You'll probably find a lot of us are running around here, I've got like a dozen siblings, but not really. Do you have anymore than the sister?"

"So does getting eaten, swallowed, digested, and regurgitated only for the whole process to repeat," Roxanne said, cringing at how much pain she imagined that scenario to cause.

I'm not dramatic! the brunette thought exasperatedly.

"I only have the one," Roxanne answered. "But, I don't know. My mum and dad had been talking about having another baby, but then the whole 'witch' stuff happened. So yeah..."

She shifted uncomfortably. It was a sort of weak point for her to talk about her family's future. Now that her mother's secret was out, nobody knew what would happen. He father had accepted it easily enough, but you never know.

"So I guess life gets pretty hectic with so many siblings, huh?" Roxanne asked, shifting the light back to the blond.

Marlene watched the girl carefully, her mood seemed to change a bit when Marlene had asked about her family, shrugging it off the blonde laughed at the question.

"Yeah," she replied, "it's pretty crazy actually. My older brothers are a lot out though, Mark anyway, he has a girlfriend you see. Mel, my sister is pretty annoying when she's always coming into my room, without knocking and then the little ones are pretty much just screaming and shouting every chance they get. Our house is huge, it's four floors."

Sighing, the girl propped herself up on her elbows and tried to see out the window. "Do you think there's a lot, lot, left?"

"Four floors?" Roxanne asked. "That's like, four times the size of my house," she laughed. "I guess wizards can have as big of houses as they want, huh? With magic on their side and all?"

I wonder what it's like to have been raised around magic.

Looking outside the window, Roxanne saw that the sun was still very high up in the sky. "I say about a few hours. Mum told me that we don't get to the castle until dark," she shrugged. "She also told me there'd be a trolly..."

The brunette pressed her face against the compartment door window, trying to spot the sweets cart but had no luck. Sitting back in her seat with a pout, she sulked silently. Roxanne needed her chocolate.