After I got on the train, I looked for a compartment. I walked past many other first-year students. All of them seemed to know people already. I passed several compartments when I finally found an empty one. I quickly went in and closed the door. Then I sighed and fell into a chair. Why did I have to become the outsider as usual? I stroked Emerald and she snuggled into my lap. Now I regretted not going to parties with my mother's friends. I would have made friends for sure. So lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice the carriage door opening slightly and only saw the tall boy when he stood in front of me. I cried out slightly. "Why do you have to scare me like that?" I hissed at the boy. He laughed and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. I eyed him. He was tall, but he looked like a first grader. Blond hair, angular face with high cheekbones and slightly flushed cheeks. He clearly spent a lot of time outside, which was evident from his lightly tanned skin. He had stopped laughing. This time it was me who blushed, because I was sure I had just stared at him quite a bit. "Umm, I'm y/n," I said, holding out my hand to him. He smiled and shook it. "Hi, I'm Jacob." He sat down across from me and tilted his head as he stared at me. I bet I was bright red, so I took a book out of my bag and pretended to read while I feverishly thought about how I was going to get out of this situation. "You know you've got the book upside down, don't you?" he snorted. I jumped up in embarrassment and went towards the door. "I have to go to the toilet," I said quickly and ran out of the compartment.

I continued to run forward, towards the beginning of the train. Suddenly I stopped. I had landed in a much smaller, more elegant carriage. I thought quickly and looked around. A small sign said "Confidential student". I gasped. Shit, first graders weren't allowed here. I heard laughter from the compartments. My curiosity won out and I walked a little further and looked around. It was much cosier here. There was even a small storage room for the luggage. Suddenly I heard whistling, which came closer and closer. Hectically, I looked around. I couldn't get into trouble already.

I felt a hand on my mouth and I was pulled into the storage room. It was cramped and stuffy because of all the suitcases and the hand was still on my mouth. I shook it off and turned to face the person. In the darkness I couldn't make out who it was, but he was hiding too, so he had to be a first grader. "Are you crazy?", I asked. The person quickly put his hand back over my mouth. "Shh, be quiet for a minute or we'll get caught. " It was a boy. I rolled my eyes but said nothing more for fear of being discovered. We were standing quite close and I could feel his fast heartbeat. I tried to make him out in the darkness but before I could, he opened the door a crack and looked out. "Okay, no one else here. We can go out." He opened the door more and light fell on him and I could finally make him out. I gasped for breath.

It was the boy from my dream. He turned with a winning smile, but when he saw me it fell apart. His face twisted. "You! What are you doing here? "Umm, I'm going to Hogwarts for school?!", I replied. He rolled his eyes and looked me up and down again. Wow, he was arrogant. Neither of us said anything else.  I wanted to go back, but he went in the opposite direction. "Where are you going?" "None of your business." Ugh, he was driving me crazy. I had hoped that if he existed, he would be nice. I had never met anyone who was also a parsel mouth.

I stared after him for a moment and then ran back towards the first carriage. When I finally stood in front of the door of the compartment, I tried to pull myself together. Come on, you can do it! I opened the door. Inside was the boy. What was his name? Oh, Jacob.  His eyes were closed and he was asleep. Emerald was sitting on his lap. Oh my God, Emerald! I had completely forgotten about him. The sound of the compartment door woke Emerald up and he stretched. He hopped down from his lap and stroked my legs. I smiled at him and sat down in my seat. Suddenly Jacob cleared his throat. I opened. "I'm sorry I just took off like that. I don't make friends that easily...", I said nervously. He smiled and said, "It's OK! You have to put on your uniform soon though, we'll be there in about an hour."

After changing, I went back to the compartment. Jacob was playing with Emerald. I had to laugh. Jacob looked up and smiled at me. "Here, you want a chocolate frog too?" he asked. "Yes, gladly, thank you!" Neither of us said anything and it was getting embarrassing. "Umm, and are you excited to got to Hogwarts?", I asked so we didn't say nothing the whole time. "Yes totally! I've been waiting my whole life. At first I didn't think I couldn't do magic, but then I went to the zoo, lit a zebra on fire and yeah. That's how we knew I was going to Hogwarts." We laughed and talked for quite a while until the train stopped. We looked at each other excitedly.