New Faces and Exciting Places [ALL]

If there was one thing Nicole Connolly Greyback had been looking forward to that summer, it was boarding the train and allowing it to carry her across the countryside and into Scotland for her first year at Hogwarts. The impatience wrapped her like an extra cloak over the fabric one she already wore, and although her trunk was half her own size, the blonde felt herself bouncing up onto her toes over and over. Her mother, Tracy, had been all too glad to know that Nicole was coming into school after her cousin Oliver was long gone. Perhaps it was fear of her daughter running off to France to be part of the Connolly family proper instead of Tracy's little unit, or maybe it was that she felt she had reason to think badly of the new Leader of the Order.

Of course, Nicole didn't know of her cousin's successes, or of any of her family members' high points.

But she was helped onto the train, giving one of the few goodbyes that, at least among the first years, did not include any tears. Nicole loved her mother, obviously, but she was absolutely ready to have some freedom. She wanted to be allowed to make real friends and spend her time as she wished to, rather than on what her mum expected of her. So once the trunk was set behind her and she was able to tug it along, Nicole felt her shoulders relax and her wide eyes swing back and forth through between the compartments.

As friendly as she wanted to be, she was not particularly forward. So, rather than knocking on a door of a pair of seats that already had occupants, she found an empty one near the front of one of the train's cars and went inside, leaving the door open behind her.

Calixta obediently kissed both her parents goodbye and boarded the Hogwarts Express with plenty of time before the train left the station to find a seat and get comfortable.

Just where to sit was the problem. Calixta was no shrinking violet, but it didn't seem good manners to simply barge in on a compartment full of people who already knew one-another. Manners were the politeness of princes, her mother always said. And by extension, of princesses, like Calixta practically was.

Up ahead, a compartment door was open. That was unique. Either something interesting was going on in there, or the occupant desperately needed Calixta's help in learning how to conduct oneself on the Hogwarts Express. She could think of no downside to either scenario.

Standing in the doorway, Calixta silently observed a girl around her own age settling herself. Yes, it was merely someone who didn't know how to do anything right. Well, she supposed not everyone could have the fortune of an upbringing as blessed as her own.

"Hello," Calixta stepped into the compartment, pulling the door closed behind her. It didn't occur to her to ask for permission. She was a Montague.

"My name's Calixta. Is this your first time on the Express?" she asked the question sympathetically, as though the other girl was much younger than herself, instead of the same age or possibly even older.

Nicole was in the middle of figuring what to do with her trunk when she heard someone come up behind her and close the door to the compartment. She didn't mind it so much, really, except it seemed an odd thing to do when the area wasn't full. After all, they were just sliding doors, weren't they? So it wasn't in anyone's way. But she supposed it might have been habit from other trains with similar cabins, so she didn't comment on it.

Instead, she turned and left her trunk alone, figuring it could sit by the window until she figured out how to get it up top, and focused on the words directed at her. What an odd name. It was rather nice, though, Nicole decided.

"I'm Nicole," she offered in return. She very nearly stuck her hand out to suggest a sort of proper greeting, but as Calixta hadn't, she refrained. "Yes, I'm off for the first time. It's sort of wonderful, though trains aren't really my favorite. Have you been to the platform before? I haven't got any older siblings so it was just as crazy as I guessed it might be from my mother's stories."

Not a muggleborn then.

"My brother's going into fourth year," she said. "But I've never been to the station before. It's just not the done thing, don't you find?"

She knew this girl, sorry, Nicole, didn't think that way at all. She'd practically just suggested that Calixta ought to have been to some pointless muggle railway every time Dareios left for school. Not that Calix had anything against muggles, but something like that would still have been painfully dull.

"Are you halfblood then?" she asked rather forwardly.

Calixta knew it was impolite to ask questions of blood purity of complete strangers, but there were only the two of them here and besides, she had a feeling Nicole wouldn't know how rude she was being.

"It's okay if you are," she continued, "I'm not like those other purebloods. I don't think it's your fault if you're part muggle. But you did say only your mother had been to the platform before."

[ooc: I'm really glad you mentioned that; I'd forgotten to change her sidebar! Thanks.]

"Well, I don't know really," Nicole shrugged, not wanting to be too argumentative with the first person she met on her way to school. Who knew? She might end up needing them. "I haven't a whole lot of friends with older siblings so I couldn't say. I just guessed."

Technically, even the answer she did give was a bit of a lie. She didn't have friends with older siblings? More like she didn't have friends to ask. But that, Nicole thought sadly, was because her mother was so protective after what had happened with her aunt and uncle.

"Um." Nicole didn't know how to answer that. But she also didn't want to advertise the fact that every full moon felt a little funny because her father was a werewolf. Not until she had to, anyway. How did one just throw that out there to someone who came out and said they were pureblooded?

Instead, she went with the other option. "I'm not entirely sure what to say I am. My father isn't around. But I think my cousins are halfblooded, so it's possible, I suppose. My family just isn't very close, in general."

Another lie, technically. The rest of the family was quite close. But living with a woman like Tracy Connolly definitely created a few issues here and there.

"Oh you poor dear thing!" Calixta snatched up the other girl's hand in a sudden display of empathy. Or at least sympathy.

"You're a child of a broken marriage as well? That must be simply awful for you."

She petted Nicole's hand in what she imagined was a comforting fashion.

"Never mind. Just make sure you stick by me when we get to Hogwarts and everything will be fine."

"Now, we ought to speak of Houses. I shall be sorted into Slytherin. You ought to aim for there as well. Apart from it being by far the best house in the school it will be most convenient for our friendship if we can room together. And, of course, nobody crosses a Slytherin."

Nicole didn't mean to look shocked when Calixta reached out, but for a moment she did, her eyes wide and lips parting for just a breath. She gathered herself quickly, though, used to having to do so when her mother talked about their family, and tried to properly take in what was being said.

"I suppose you could call it that," she shrugged one shoulder as she spoke. "Mum doesn't talk about him much." Now that - that was not a lie. She hadn't talked about Fenrir in ages. So although she wasn't sure what the right phrasing would be for what she was, as the girl had never heard the word tainted before, she did know that his curse had affected her in a few slight-yet-annoying ways. "It isn't all bad, except mum's siblings are terrible to her so it's just me and her."

Nicole wasn't sure if Calixta's next comment was meant to be an offer of friendship or something more like engrained superiority, but it couldn't hurt, she decided, to have someone more or less there for her during her first year at Hogwarts. Nicole wasn't really sure about the Slytherin thing, as her mother's family had all been Hufflepuffs. And Nicole, as far as she understood, felt she fit there. But maybe the hat would know more than she did, and Calixta would be pleased that she predicted the future.

"The only house I know anything about is Hufflepuff," she admitted. "But perhaps you're right and I will end up there as well. If not, surely we will be in class together at some point?"

"Oh," Calixta replied, with more than a little disappointment in her voice. 

She was quite aware that people often got sorted into the same house as their relatives.  It was why she was so confident of getting into Slytherin, after all.

"Hufflepuff isn't so bad, I suppose," she agreed.  "I mean, loyalty and hard work.  That's nothing to be ashamed of.  I almost think if I wasn't going to be a Slytherin I wouldn't mind being a Hufflepuff."

Total lie.  If Calixta wasn't a Slytherin, she would be a Ravenclaw.  While she could see the value of hard work, she had no desire to engage in it herself, thank you very much.  Besides, didn't someone say one ought to work smart, not hard?  That person had their head screwed on straight.

"But, well, I just think Slytherin is where it's at," she went on, trying to persuade Nicole.  They did say the Sorting Hat paid some attention to what you wanted, after all.

"When you think about it, it's really the best of all houses, rolled into one.  I mean, what's cunning if not another word for cleverness?  And it's all very well to work hard but that won't get you anywhere without some ambition. And as for bravery..."

She scoffed at the very thought.

"What's more brave than joining the most notorious house Hogwarts has?  Not that I believe that rot about Slytherins being evil for a moment.  I mean, if that were the case, don't you think they'd just send everyone who was sorted there straight to Azkaban?  It would certainly save the Aurors a lot of trouble."

Nicole had promised herself before leaving to not let anyone walk over her. She hated to say it, even to herself, but sometimes that is what it felt like while living at home. She wanted to be polite to this new friend of hers, but Calixta seemed set on convincing Nicole that her way was the right one. And, really, perhaps it might have been. but Nicole didn't have any problem with being sorted into the same house as her family. She didn't know a whole lot about them, except their house, so wasn't that a good place to start finding out about them? Sure, she had an active imagination - or had been told as much - but that didn't mean she could understand them on her own.

Even if, really, it was probably a bad idea to dig into it. Her mother would be furious, she knew, but that was half enough reason for her to go ahead and do it, wasn't it?

"But," she put in after Calixta finished, "cunning definitely has a negative sound to it, doesn't it? 'Clever' always sounds good, while cunning isn't always something a person ought to have. In books anyway," she conceded, leaning back in her seat. "I mean, I see why they're similar. I just also understand why people have two different ways to say it."

As for Azkaban, Nicole really had to agree. "I don't think everyone in Slytherin is bad. I've heard of people who were sorted there because they wanted very badly to go on and do big things. I honestly have no idea what I want to do, though. I do like animals, though, so perhaps something with Magical Creatures would do." Shrugging, she turned the conversation around to Calixta again. "Have you thought about what you want to do, yet?"

Who was this girl? Metaphorically speaking, that is. Calixta thought cunning sounded much better than clever. Anybody could be clever, you didn't even need to be smart! Cunning implied possession of wiles.

She smiled sympathetically at Nicole when she was asked what she wanted to do with her life. It must be so hard being ordinary.

"Darling, I'm an heiress," she replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"My parents will meet with the parents of some appropriate, pureblood boy when we're both around fourteen. Then, if they can come to a mutually agreeable arrangement, they will set it up for me and that boy to meet and decide whether we like one-another. If we do, we become betrothed. If not, both sets of parents go off to find somebody else.

Then, once I am betrothed there are a lot of balls and social events where we spend time together and get to know one-another. And if things are still going fine when by the time we're seventeen, he will propose to me officially in seventh year. That's just how it's done in pureblood circles," she explained.

"So, yes, I suppose I do know what I want. I'm going to become a wife. And mistress of my own household. That's very important. I would never agree to marry someone who wasn't going to inherit."