Cold, Hard Reality (Open)

So that had, undoubtedly, been the worst summer ever. Right at the start, her favourite person in the entire world had been murdered. And from then on, it didn’t get any better. Her siblings did nothing but drive her crazy and made her fall further and further into this dark, depressing place from which she had no escape. Lyra was strong, yes - she had always been strong. But this was not a situation when being strong would help her in the slightest. And she seemed to have lost the ability to be strong when she lost her brother, when she knelt down next to him and sobbed because he was gone, because he had left her all alone.

No, that wasn’t right. He hadn’t left her. That made it sound like it was his fault. But it wasn’t. It was James Morgenstern’s fault. And her fault. Mainly hers. She had pretty much killed her own brother. She had let him jump in front of her and get shot by a flying curse, instead of building up the courage to shove him out the way and get hit herself, or being intelligent enough to have fought that man with the best weapon, her wand.

Lyra wasn’t looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, no, but perhaps it would be better than home was. At Hogwarts, her parents weren’t fretting and it was incredibly easy to avoid Hunter and Lyn, because of the vast size of the castle. True, there were others who would bother her, but she could just camp out in her dormitory and go to the kitchens to eat meals alone until people got the message and ignored her, just as she planned on ignoring them. People were such incredibly difficult burdens to carry sometimes. And there were so many of them who just needed a slap.

At the train station, she let her mother hug her, but didn’t return it, or show any expression on her face. It was a cold, blank mask. Because nobody would be able to “read” her that way. She didn’t say anything to either of her parents, and quickly dashed for the train to get away from her brother and sister. Lyn could go and sit with her wonderful Hufflepuff friends and Hunter all the girls who adored him. She didn’t care. As long as they didn’t sit with her.

It seemed most of the other students were still weeping as they bid their parents farewell, so she had plenty of choice as to where to sit. She just picked the first compartment, by the entrance she had boarded from. Lyra shoved her trunk in the compartment above her head and sat down, her face still a perfect display of indifference. Then she slammed the door shut. There was no way to keep people from joining her in here but maybe she could scare them with hostility.

With a sigh, she opened a book, a muggle one by John Green which would only be another dose of depressing reality. Oh well, how much worse could her life get? It was only because she would die of boredom if she didn’t do anything for the whole journey. She’d been sleeping all summer, so there was no point trying here, where the bumpy movement of the train and her energy would make it impossible. Her eyes scanned the pages and she started to get through very quickly. Looking for Alaska. It seemed good.

Serafina hurriedly ran through the platform, worried she'd miss the train. Her dad trailing behind her, shouting goodbyes all whilst trying to keep up with her. Finally, she stopped, panting and looked up at the huge red train. The platform was mostly clear now and the train whistle was blowing it's horn, anxious to leave. Hugging her dad, she told him she'd see him at Christmas, before running off to the train, trunk behind her.

Walking through the train, she found only one compartment that wasn't full. There was only a single girl in it, reading a book. The girl was older, pretty, but not very happy or friendly looking. Deciding to take her chances and suck up whatever the girl did or said to her, Serafina entered the compartment, put her trunk next to the other girls, and sat on the opposite bench, curling up in the seat to stare out the window.

Not knowing what to say, she watched the trees and land pass by. She didn't know what to expect about this place. She was pretty anxious, she really only knew about Quidditch and that was because her daddy used to make her play as a child. Daydreaming of her past, she drifted off slowly until abruptly awaking when the large animal attacked her. The reoccurring nightmare she'd had for years still decided to linger, despite her leaving her home. A little shaky from the dream, she pulled her jacket tightly around her and shifted in her seat, expecting the brunette girl to speak.

Lyra rubbed her eyes, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to fall, only making them redder and giving away more of how she was feeling. But her hair fell over them when she returned to her reading, hiding them from the stream of people pushing past in the corridor next to her. She managed to forget about everything, and just focus on the guy in the book, at least for a couple of minutes, and for the first time in weeks felt completely at peace with the world.

But then reality returned when a small girl, most likely a demonic first-year, invited herself to sit down and didn’t even acknowledge her. With an annoyed, pointed sigh, she returned to the book. Right now she couldn’t build up the effort to come up with a sarcastic remark, and the girl was already in her own little world, so she didn’t know if she would even listen to anything she said. Within minutes, the kid was curled up asleep, and she grew tired of her heavy breathing quickly. Trying to ignore it, she returned to her reading, without much success in concentrating.

Then the child woke up and moved around a bit. “Did you know it’s polite to ask before you invite yourself to sit down with someone?” Lyra remarked sharply, her reaction a bit delayed but still effective.

It wasn’t hard to notice that the girl was distressed from the way she had pulled the jacket around her and her facial expression. But the older girl had absolutely no sympathy. Little nightmare? Homesickness? That was nothing compared to what she and her siblings were going through. The kid didn’t know anything about pain or sadness or loneliness or brokenness, and she probably never would, at least until she was much older. So Lyra had no time for her.

"I don't feel the need to ask, when it's the only compartment that's not full." Serafina replied. The scenery changed and everything became flat and green and BORING. Serafina subconsciously traced the large scar through her pants. She could already see, she wouldn't like this place, especially if they were in the same house.

That scar was the whole reason she only wore pants. It was the reason she constantly dreamed of that large animal every time she slept. The girl was rude, she was mean and Serafina didn't like it. She didn't care her reason, she should be more kinder to others, especially since she was older and the younger students would look up to her.

What a sassy, disgusting little thing. “I bet there’s space in loads compartments with first-years in,” Lyra muttered. Why couldn’t the girl go and sit with them? People her own age? What was the point trying to make friends with fourth-years who were in shite moods and not in the mood to act happy and friendly? This was a big train and there was plenty of room in the compartments, so sitting here was not a necessity.

She looked back at the book. Aw, poor Miles. But then she was breathing. And it was annoying. If it weren’t for the mere presence of the girl, she could be much more… not happy, but comfortable. Obviously little demon child couldn’t get the message that she wasn’t wanted here, nor did she know anything about what had happened to the Gryffindor. Maybe she hadn’t read that horrible, disgusting article in The Daily Prophet about Jack which was complete bullshit and no help to anyone at all.

“I’m Lyra,” she introduced, no friendlier than before. “I don’t like you and I think you should leave and find someone else to annoy the hell out of.”

Foul. For someone so pretty she was quite ugly on the inside. Serafina rolled her eyes, She didn't give a damn if she was annoying, especially since she'd barely spoken to the girl. Lyra. Such a sweet name for a brat.

"I'm Serafina." she returned the girls obnoxious attitude, "I really don't give a damn if you like me or not, but I'm staying here so suck it up." She kicked her legs up on her seat just as a trolley past them. Stopping the lady, she bought several boxes of chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's and licorice ropes.

Pulling her book out of her bag, she leaned against the window, blanket on her lap and began reading. She knew she was going to miss her muggle books. She began reading a book called The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. She had a feeling, however, that she wouldn't get far in it before another outburst from the girl.

That was a stupid name. One of those sickly sweet sort of things which made Lyra want to roll her eyes and groan. Yeah, names did that to her. Suck it up? She rolled her eyes in return at that. "You really don't get it, do you?" she muttered, maybe too quietly for her to hear, but it didn't matter. Even if she did hear, she was too headstrong to listen and it was unlikely that she would suddenly realise she was arguing with someone who had a really shit life.

"Fine." There was no point kicking up a fuss only to make herself look like the annoying immature one rather than Serafina. At the moment, she felt like ignoring and being ignored would be the best thing.

Without another word, she put her book back in her back and leant back to close her eyes. Lyra always found it very difficult to sleep in cars and on planes and trains, but she could at least pretend to have fallen asleep to avoid the conversation. There was no hope - she wasn't tired at all. Instead she stared out of the window at the fields they passed. It was green and bright and reminded her of home. It made her feel sick with sorrow and guilt.