Chapter Text
‘Tis was the beginning of her fifth year and, as the heavy machinery that allowed the Hogwarts Express to race the fields of northern England and Scotland rumbled to life, and the metal wagons left the station, Clara looked around for Jenny. She had been standing beside her only a few seconds ago, but now she was gone. Probably off to find Strax. Clara sighted, considering whether to look for them or not. Then a thought occurred to her that trashed that option. She was allowed into the Prefects’ car now.
Thrilled, she made her way almost skipping towards the front of the train. The Prefects’ car was probably just like any other car she'd already been into but, for some unknown reason, everybody wanted to go in it including her. And now she could.
She headed to the front and, as she did so, she passed multiple compartments filled with enthusiastic kids of all ages, the excitement was palpable as if a cloud of adrenaline had settled over them; she waved hello to some, although not many; mostly those on her same year and who shared classes with her. The hallway was carpeted with its usual bright red fur and lit with its usual golden lights and, through the windows, she could see the bluest sky of them all, the fields of green and the forests filled with life outside, passing like a blur of unknown excitement.
She was about two cars away from the Prefects’ when a group of First Years stopped her in her tracks. They were trying to get their luggage onto the overhead compartment but, failing, had most their trunks on the hallway, blocking the traffic and making quite a mess as a lot of students were trying to pass over or beside them.
“Need a hand there?” she asked, popping her head into the compartment where she caught sight of the kids.
“Yes please, Miss.” Pleaded a boy with curly dark hair and who was about a foot shorter than Clara, as soon as he saw her.
She chuckled as she turned her attention to the trunk. “Don’t call me Miss, I’m just a Prefect, my name’s Clara.”
“Artie.”
She tried picking the trunk up and, pulling at it, she noticed how truly heavy it was. As soon as it was almost a foot over the ground, Clara had to settle it back on the floor.
“And what have got in here? Rocks?” she asked with a smile. The boy looked mortified for a moment before realizing Clara’s words were just a joke. He smiled a little shyly.
“He just likes reading a lot, so he brought a lot of extra books.” said the girl standing off near the window. She looked a lot like the boy, same caramel skin and dark curly hair, just a bit taller, with that attitude most girls her age carry around younger kids. She was probably a Second Year.
“Sorry.” said the boy looking down. He looked terribly nervous, stealing small glances towards the door from where a few grunts and complains could be heard.
“Oh, don’t apologize kid, I love reading, too.” she quickly said and then added “you’ll love the library in Hogwarts, it’s ginormous, with huge columns of ancient books about everything.”
“Really?” he asked, incredulously curious.
“Yeah.” said Clara, walking over to the other side of the compartment to see if from that side she could pick the trunk up easier. She breathed in and reached down with decision. She tried heaving the it into the compartment again, this time with a strong and fast initial pull, so that she could get it over her head, which was the tough part.
She was struggling quite a lot but managing to lift it up when, all of a sudden, the trunk became considerably lighter. Clearly someone else had come in and helped her, thankfully. Together, she and the stranger managed to deposit it in the compartment.
Then she turned to thank whoever helped.
Oh God no, she thought, it was him.
He was smiling at her, his weird, rectangular face beaming with cheerfulness, his mop of auburn hair floating over it with extreme puffiness. And he already wore his take on the Hogwarts uniform, meaning the Hogwarts uniform that was in use near the 1820s.
Instead of the usual grey pants, black shoes, white button-up shirt and the tie and robe of your house he wore a red-and-gold bow tie, a Gryffindor obviously, a tight grey vest covered his white shirt and he wore weathered brown leather boots under his slightly too short grey wool dress pants. He looked like he had just popped out of an old photograph. And, obviously because of his weird sense of fashion, although not exclusively because of that, everybody at school knew him. Raleigh Murdock.
Hogwarts’ number one Troublemaker after the Weasley twins left.
“Thanks.” said Clara, dryly. Her smile immediately fell from her face and the urge to run away took centre stage in her brain. It’s not that she had a problem with Murdock himself, but she just didn’t really like the messes he and his friends got into. He was exactly everything she’d tried to avoid during her short four years at Hogwarts.
For instance, in second year there was that thing with Rose Tyler. Nobody knew what exactly happened, but she had to transfer to Beauxbatons after a short visit to Saint Mungo. Then there was that big duel with Orion “Master” Matterson. The Divination room had to be rebuilt after they were finished. And so on, the flooding of the Great Hall, the theft of the Ravenclaw’s broomsticks, the time the Slytherin common room was filled with pancakes, for some reason, and a billion other pranks and troubles.
“N’problem Puff.” He said shrugging. Puff. Clara hated that word, ever since she knew the meaning of it in her first year. And so, for that, he was cancelled, she decided then and there. Any kind of redemption he might have had with her vanished.
Puff. That’s what students called the boys and girls from Hufflepuff whose name they didn’t know. Of course, this doesn’t happen with other houses, thought Clara, ‘cause everybody knows the people from the other houses, but not Hufflepuff. They are just the nice little Puffs who help you every time you need them and ask for nothing in return. It really made Clara boil in anger.
“Thank you both.” said the boy taking Clara out of her thoughts. He was standing awkwardly beside her and switching between looking at her and looking at Murdock.
“You’re welcome.” She smiled her brightest smile down at him and then added “And it was really nice chatting but I gotta go…”
She turned to the door and, passing by Murdock without even looking at him, she exited the compartment with a wave.
“It was nice meeting you, Miss Clara!” called the boy as he, too, exited to pick up the second trunk and get it into the compartment.
Clara looked back with a smile and answered with a “T’was nice meeting you, too!” before turning away and, with a steading breath, she headed once more up to the front of the train. It took her only seven seconds to noticed Murdock had followed.
“I’m Doc, by the way. Well, Raleigh Murdock, but everybody just calls me Doc.”
He tried offering her a smile, but Clara didn’t see it since they were walking through a narrow hallway and her back was turned to him and, of course, she was obviously ignoring him on purpose.
“I’m Julie.” Clara lied, without even noticing. It wasn’t that she was used to lying in general, but she had grown so accustomed to lying about her name since so many people repeatedly had to ask her that she had grown bored of people forgetting. So now, she told them different names just to confuse them. It was only a little bit of fun with no real downside.
“Well, it was a real pleasure to have met you, Julie.” he said, his hands behind his back and his head lowered so that it was around the same height as Clara’s. He was walking really close to her, she noticed, as she turned to glance at him for the first time, finding his face only millimetres from hers. No sense of personal space, great.
Clara made a mental note, or rather, a list of the thing she knew for sure about him.
- Troublemaker.
- No Sense of Personal Space.
“Thanks, you too.” She muttered curtly through clenched teeth before looking away. Thankfully, he didn’t add anything more.
She thought that would have been the end of it but he followed her in silence, passing every compartment until they had reached the Prefects’ car. Creep. She had to add that to her list.
“Well, it was a nice chat.” She said turning around, her ponytail swirling behind her. She couldn’t ignore what was going on any longer; he hadn’t gotten the cue, so she had to be blunt. “Goodbye.”
“Hey! Hold it, I’m a Prefect too!” He said, one finger tapping the all-new badge that Clara had just noticed was hung over his vest.
Great, just great.
“Oh, good.” she muttered sarcastically under her breath.
She went through the door and Murdock followed.
“Now, we part ways, Dear Julie.” said Murdock, smiling flirtatiously at her and offering her his hand as his large mop of hair fell over his eyes.
“Bye.” said Clara turning to where she saw Danny sitting and chatting with another girl, not even looking back at Murdock. Or his offered hand.
//
Murdock knew Julie was lying. He always knew when someone was lying and he somehow loved it. It was way more fun to talk to someone and try to figure out their lies than to talk to someone who tells you everything at once. And it was such a strange thing to lie about too, your name. It itched his brain to no end. And her attitude. She clearly had a problem with him and, even if it did hurt him a little, his curiosity won over. He wasn’t giving up. He was figuring her out.
He knew her name wasn’t Julie; it just didn’t fit her right. She didn’t look like a Julie just as much as he didn’t look like a Peter or a Thomas.
But he couldn’t place her. Where had he seen her before? Never in his whole Hogwarts career had he seen this girl, and he knew almost everybody. At least everybody from his same year, and she probably was on his same year. So why hadn’t he noticed her before?
“Hey Rory, you know who she is?” he said, still following Julie’s figure down the train car to where she’d had gone to sit, a couple of seats behind him, on the opposite lane to where he was.
“Who?” asked Rory who’d been too busy devouring a pumpkin pie to notice him looking over at Julie.
“That girl over there, the short Prefect from Hufflepuff with the bangs.” said Murdock.
“Oh, I think it was… Nina, I think.” he said then stuffed his mouth with the rest of his pie.
“No, her name’s definitely Tori, she told me so last year.” Amy voice made them both turn as she appeared out of nowhere and sat beside Rory in the seat in front of Murdock. A paper was in her hand and she had a triumphant smile plastered in her face. Rory looked at her with a concerned furrowed brow.
“She just told me it was Julie.” muttered Murdock, his spirits lifting. She had lied, that meant she had something to hide. Oh, how Murdock loved a good mystery.
“Where were you?” asked Rory having forgotten all about his pie and, instead, looking at the letter Amy had in her hand, trying to spy what it said.
“Oh, just talking to some bloke, why?” asked Amy, looking around.
“Oh, nothin’, nothin’. Just wondering.” responded Rory abruptly, a dim blush crawling up to his cheeks.
“Wondering about what?” asked Amy, turning to face Rory, her eyebrows shooting up and a defiant look in her face, although a smile danced around her sharp lips.
“Uhm…” started Rory but couldn’t finish. Murdock chuckled under his breath.
The tension between the two of them, or at least on Rory’s end, was palpable ever since the trio’s first year. Rory obviously had a crush on Amy, and Amy was as oblivious and slow as a cow when she wanted to and had been dating several other boys ever since she discovered how fun it was to kiss someone; but she loved Rory, Murdock was sure of it. Of course, none of them addressed it and so, Murdock was stuck in the middle.
He tried to help Rory when the boy needed to talk to someone, and he dropped small hints to Amy whenever he could. He didn’t mean to act as a matchmaker, but he really thought they would make the greatest couple yet. If only they weren’t as dense.
He listened as the two argued about something or other while stealing small, curious looks down the car to where Julie was, until he started feeling tired and the sun started dropping. He napped a bit and, soon enough, the engine of the Hogwarts Express started deaccelerating and they finally reached the station.