The Train: Nervous Excitement -- 1 September 1982

I had just bade goodbye to all my brothers and little sister.  Of course Ginny was so young, she would never remember going through the portal to the Hogwart's Express to send her oldest brother off to school for the first time ever.  Even Ron would probably be too young, too, even though he could walk and talk now.  I mean I was eleven; Charlie was nine; Percy was six; the twins were four; Ron was two; Ginny was one.  Of course everyone had come to say goodbye to me.  There was a lot of staring at our large family -- especially since it was only a year since the war ended with You-Know-Who.  

Sitting on the train, I was with a couple of other obvious first years.  We were all kind of awkward.  the one kid looked terrible -- I mean, he was dressed better than me or the other kid, but he just looked exhausted and thin and pale.  He had his eyes closed, but I was not sure if he was asleep.  I looked at the other kid with dark hair.  "Er, hi.  I'm Bill, Bill Weasley," I said to him, offering him my hand.  Dad said to make mates was to make a good impression.  I may as well start with my name.  But this kid looked kind of familiar.  "Have we met before?"

I opened my eyes when the one kid -- Bill -- introduced himself.  I did not need to ride the train to get to school; I could have gone with McGonagall, but she wanted me to have a normal Hogwarts experience the most I could with her being my guardian.  It was just hard; I had been in the werewolf colony only a year or so ago.  I still felt as though I was having a hard time adjusting to normal life.  I had a great home, though, and all the food I waned.  I was so used to having to fight for my food or scavenge for it if I did not want to fight the other werewolves.  

The thought of what I was and going to school... it worried me.  But after hearing the stories from Lupin and McGonagall, it was not going to be a problem.  "Hello, Bill," I said, startling him slightly.  He had not expected me to answer straight away, I was guessing at least.  "I'm Liam."

I jumped slightly when the kid beside me seemingly woke up.  I smiled at him and then back at Bill Weasley.  "My name's Gabe Ollivander," I said.  "I am at my granddad's shoppe all the time, so you may have seen me when you bought your wand...?"

I grinned and nodded.  "That has to be why you look so familiar," I said, glad that I was not mental or anything.  "I'm the eldest in my family to go to Hogwarts out of my siblings... what about you lot?"  I was always an outgoing person, so it was easy for me to try to have a conversation with the two of them.

I chuckled and nodded.  "I understand that," I said, getting a bit comfortable in the seat again.  "I have a younger sister and so this is the first time I haven't been around for an extended period of time.  Do you think it'll be odd?"

I just stayed quiet while Bill and Gabe spoke.  They did not seem to need me in the conversation quite yet.  When Gabe asked the open-ended question, I sighed.  "I don't know," I said softly.  "I'm an only child.."  Just saying that made my heart hurt; I pushed thoughts of my twin brother out of my mind.  I could not think of him right now.  I was trying to be normal.

"What's that like?" I asked Liam.  "I have six siblings... so even just having one sister would be weird for me, I think."  I laughed and looked at the two of them, wondering if I would get an interesting response or not.

I chuckled at Bill.  "Ah, well, my little sister is nothing like me... and I'm perfectly okay with that," I said.  "She's four years younger than me."

I was not entirely sure if I wanted to speak up, but they both seemed to be alright.  "Tell me more about your siblings since I don't have any," I said, ignoring the gut wrenching pain I had when I said that.  I loved my brother; I just could not look at myself with what I did to him.

I stared in awe at Liam.  "You dont' have any siblings?  Must be nice.  I mean, at least I'm the oldest, so I don't get handmedowns... but my siblings do.  Must be hard on them," I said, laughing.  "My brother, the one who's only a couple years younger than me, shares my bedroom with me.  He's pretty cool.  He's really adventurous like I am, too."

I shook my head. "How do you all get along? It has to be hectic," I said, realising that I had to be a little normal in this conversation. I took a deep breath and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. I was a bit nervous. Minerva had told me different things and had tried to help me out as much as possible... but I barely had manners if I was being honest. At least riding on the train and talking was keeping me from seeing my reflexion in the glass of the windows.