Platform 9 ¾

"... Oh." She looked away, flushing a bit.

"Well, before Jennifer throws a fit, I'll think I'll be heading home. It was great getting to know you!"

Just five minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, a young lady and her daughters burst through the barrier. The lady, looking not a day older than twenty-five, had her arms around a younger girl's shoulders. This girl looked her age, 11, give or take a year depending on one's perspective. Besides them both having black hair and the same lip shape, they looked absolutely nothing alike. Millicent Blake took after her father, whom she really didn't know, and went by the name of Blake; this was because, in primary school, there was another Millicent in her class and Blake opted to go by her middle name to avoid confusion. It ended up sticking, even to her mother, Holly.

"Mum, I don't see why we couldn't have gotten here earlier..." Blake was saying, running her fingers through her thick, silky hair. "I've been ready for a while."

"God, Blake, do you have to whine about everything?" murmured the older girl, who looked like the spitting image of her mom, excluding her gold-hazel eyes. She had dark, wavy locks and looked quite a bit younger than Blake.

"Stop whining about me stating that I didn't see how--"

"That's enough," Holly said, talking over Blake. "Honey, you should get on the train, it's about to leave."

"Alright. Bye, mom," Blake said, giving her mom and Dara both tight hugs. "I love you both. See you at Christmas, I guess."

As Blake started walking off, Holly called out, "Be nice to your cousins, will you? Matilda and Leah are going to Hogwarts this year!"

Holly got a wave in return as Blake fled to get on the train. Oh, no, she wouldn't be nice to her cousins. Not until they were nice to her, that is. But until that day, Blake was sure to give them hell.

Libby wormed her way through the crowd until she got to Holly, and the two exchanged greetings and "oh you look so nice!"s. Libby gave Dara a big hug, and commented on "how grown-up" she looked. Dara turned bright red and hid behind Holly's leg. Like true moms, Holly and Libby exchanged looks of knowing, chatted for a bit, and then left after the train had left the station--Libby to work and Holly to take Dara to school.

Leah sighed. She looked around the platform. She gazed over to Cameron, who was dragging each footstep towards the train, looking determined- for what, she wasn't too sure, but he had a map in his hands or something and was reading it. In fact, it was up to his nose almost. She cast a side note of telling him to get glasses. Then, she spotted Derek, who was chatting up a storm with some girls in his year- who were blushing slightly, yet flirting back just as much. One then flipped her hair over her shoulder, and Leah had to look away because that sick image was just making her queasy. She then began to think of pickles.

Emily leaned out the window from her compartment, and flipped her perky little braid off her shoulder, and smiled down at Leah with an annoyingly superior look.

"You better get on the train now, Leanne!" she called. "You don't want to be left behind!"

Leah turned to Emily, and felt a sting of annoyance. What was with this girl? "I'm not stupid, and the train's leaving in ten minutes. And once again, my name's Leah..."

"I was just making sure..." she said coolly, with sharp eyes. "You can be an airhead sometimes, and I don't want you to be left behind." Like everyone else in your family.

Leah lifted her chin up, and raised an eyebrow. She looked unimpressed. "Well, that's quite a bit of bullshit, right there. You see, I'm very aware of my surroundings right now. Besides, you shouldn't start smothering everyone like that because you won't get many friends, now will you?"

Emily seemed to be completely unaware that Leah had insulted her. "You just cussed." she said in a serious manner, without any sort of teasing in her voice. "If my mum heard me say bullshit, she would probably hit me, and then ground me."

"Well neither of our mothers are around, are they? Loosen up, you're acting like you have a pole stuck up your ass. Oh sorry! I mean bottom!" she said with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh!" Emily simply glared at her, and slammed the compartment window shut. She decided right then there that she would aspire to be popular, and prove that stupid Leah Brown wrong.

"The only way you'll make friends is if you actually try not to bitch at everyone," Leah then said, and stomped off with her nose in the air. She won that battle for sure, but Emily had won many others.