Speaking Terms (Ari)

Normally, Derek didn't get the train to school. Living in Hogsmeade, all he needed to do was hop on the carriages at the station which was just up the road from his family's flat, or even just walk. It didn't matter; he always made sure he was in time for dinner. But this year, he'd been in London with his family, visiting a cousin of his father's, and buying school supplies. Since they'd been there, his parents decided it would make sense for him to get the train like all the other students. He didn't mind - he was happy to get the train with his friends. Hopefully Ari. He imagined she'd get it, unless there was a secret different form of transport for those students who were from Ireland. No. He was like, Ari's favourite person - other than her Aunt Evelyn - so he was sure she would have mentioned this. He'd written to the girl about a week ago, but he hadn't got a reply. It would be awful if something had happened to her.

His mum dropped him off at the station in plenty of time, so the platform wasn't too busy yet as he boarded the train. A lot of the compartments were still empty, he saw as he walked along the corridor. But he wanted to go and check in case there was already someone he could sit with on the train. Derek was a social butterfly, he didn't like being alone. Dragging his heavy bag containing several books to read on the journey along behind him, he looked into every compartment as he walked past. Mainly older students, younger students and students he didn't really want to talk to.

But eventually, finally, he came to a compartment with the familiar fiery red hair marking it as Ari's. And luckily, Matthew wasn't there yet! He would have at least a little time with Ari before that moron came and fucked it all up. "Ari! Hey!" he beamed. He sat down opposite her and dropped his bag on the floor next to him. "What's up? How was your summer? Did you do anything exciting?" He could have babbled on for hours had he not been too interested in what the redhead had to say. He'd decided over summer that he was actually obsessed with her. And although he of all people should know that true love wasn't immediate, or certain, he really liked Ari. And he definitely, definitely planned to ask her out at some point this year. As soon as he was sure she liked him back, so he didn't face rejection, like he'd seen in the shop so many times.

Ari had a shitty summer. She had a stupid nanny, stupid parents, an d a stupid aunt. Her eyes teared up as she insulted her aunt. Never in a million years did Ari picture herself insulting her aunt like she had just done. Her parents had decided that since she wasn't talking, she didn't need anything from them. So she was mainly in the care of the nanny. She saw her parents when they where home from their business trips, but they barley said two words to each other. Well, they did most of the talking, Ari still said nothing.

Aunt EVELYN had tried to contact her, by sending her post cards, but Ari just ripped them to shreds. Was ARI being childish? That's what her mother told her. She also said something along the lines of "I'm surprised she didn't leave you sooner". Which put Ari into a deeper depression state than she already was. When they went to the train station, Ari didn't even say goodbye to her parents, and just walked straight onto the platform, and onto the train. She wouldn't even look her parents in the eye. She almost wished the nanny was there. At least she would give her some kind of affection, but sadly the nanny was a muggle. How thoughtful of her parents to hire somebody who was the exact opposite of the amazing person Ari was.

Because she was going to school, Ari thought that maybe it was ok now to ditch the white board and actually speak to the people she knows loves her the most. But she had gone this far. She wasn't going to give up until her parents realized the point she was trying to prove. So no matter how much she knew it would hurt Matthew and DEREK to not hear her amazing voice, it had to be done. She couldn't speak. Not even to Matthew. Her best friend. She slowly boarded the train, and found an empty compartment.

It was still early, so there was a lot of empty ones she sat there and decided to draw butterflies on her marker board. Butterflies where the only thing that kept her going all summer. They reminded her that at some points in life, yes one felt trapped. But if one gave it time, they could be set free and sent out into the amazing world they live  in. Ari was currently in the trapped stage. She was the caterpillar forming her cocoon preparing herself to be set free.

She was almost done with her drawing, when the compartment door swung open.  She looked up, and expected to see Matthew. But was disappointed.it was DEREK. Not that DEREK wasn't great, she just needed Matthew at that moment. She erased her work of art, and wrote "hi" on the board. Not talking to him was so hard, but she hoped he understood. She wrote, " a lot happened. But nothing exciting." On the board to answer his question.she was just waiting for the moment to where she could spread her wings and fly far away from her parents. Maybe if aunt EVELYN saw the beautiful butterfly hs would become, maybe she would come back for her. Ari could only hope.

Ari was definitely as beautiful as he remembered, if not more so. Could you suddenly get way more beautiful over a few weeks? Derek had definitely grown a few inches, but his face was still exactly the same. He didn't much like his face, it was just like a baby's. Hopefully Ari didn't think so though, because she was probably the sort of person who wouldn't want to be seen with someone ugly. Being so attractive herself. He was so weird. Even he could see it. But he seemed to be pretty good at pointing out his own flaws, nowadays. He was like some sort of teenage girl. He glanced out of the window, watching as students filed onto the train. This train thing was new to him - and a bit strange. It was a long journey and he'd rather just walk up to school from Hogsmeade. But like he'd thought, at least Ari was here.

Having not heard her reply, Derek turned his head to see that she was holding up a whiteboard. He raised a skeptic eyebrow. "What the hell's with your whiteboard?" he asked. The oddest thing was that in the past thirty seconds or so, the redhead hadn't spoken a single word. This was very unlike Ari, and with that and the whiteboard, he was a little concerned. He looked to her face, but he'd be kidding himself if he thought he was good at reading people, so the expression she wore on her face meant absolutely nothing to him. She could be happy or sad or wanting to murder him for all he knew. He'd just have to try and get her to explain everything with the weird whiteboard she had.

Then "hi" was erased and she wrote something else. "Clearly a lot happened," he added, nodding towards the whiteboard. "I'm not even sure you're Ari. I mean, the old Ari would have spoken several times by now." He lifted his feet up onto the seat beside him and leaned against the window, making himself comfortable, before taking one of the many books out of his bag. He'd got very good at multi-tasking while he read, so he was sure he'd manage a bit of conversation as he read about the adventures of a giant called Jim. If it counted as conversation when one person wasn't talking and only communicating through brief writing on a whiteboard. He hoped it wasn't too one-sided, though. He'd missed Ari's self-centered ramblings over summer, and he didn't want to be the only one talking. Well, perhaps that would be inevitable. The only one communicating, then.

The train still hadn't gone. It hadn't been that long, he guessed, but it felt like hours, probably because he may as well be sitting here alone with all the communicating Ari was doing. He didn't like trains, he decided. Who cared if he'd been on this one for about a minute and it hadn't started moving yet? First impressions were first impressions. Hey, wasn't there a trolley with sweets on this train? He was sure he'd heard some first-years say something about it last year. As soon as he'd discovered what was going on with Ari, he was going to go and search for it. See if they had anything worth wasting his very little money on.