CHAPTER THREE
steam trains on rusty tracks

𖦹 ⋆｡˚⋆ฺ ⋆｡˚⋆ฺ˚⋆˚ 𖦹

  COVE IS ONE OF THE FEW EXCEPTIONS where the Hogwarts Express has to make a stop to let her on.

  Since she's much closer to Hogwarts than she is to London, they made an arrangement to pause for a good ten minutes in order to let herself and a handful of other students from the surrounding cities on, meaning that they're still on schedule to arrive at the school just after nightfall. Aaron is always complaining about how far it is to apparate from Stornoway to Arisaig Station, but she always reasons that travelling to London would be an even further journey to make. On the bright side, the station is deserted on the best of days because of how infrequent the trains are, so they don't have to worry about being spotted by muggles. It works out well, in Cove's opinion.

  Though, it is always slightly embarrassing to have most of the train ogling at you from behind their dust stricken windows, looking around at the station as if they've never been to one before. It isn't extremely impressive, with pairs of rickety benches on both platforms and an old station building that is habitually empty. Wild heather grows freely around the picket fences, and all the scrawny trees that look over onto the tracks dressed in ivy. It's just typical that there's a breakthrough of blue skies the day that she has to return to school, the grinning sunshine mocking her from its throne above her head.

  When Cove had arrived an hour before and spotted Marlene, she discreetly sat on the opposite side of the platform and shoved her nose in a magazine to avoid eye contact at all costs. She would need a long while to recover from the conversation that occurred the week before.

  Her bulky trunk rests at her feet, bursting at the seams with all the luggage she crammed into it the night before and her sealskin concealed in a tote bag that's glued firmly to her side, one of her arms resting over it protectively. There's a birdcage on the bench next to her with a particularly chirpy puffin preening herself inside. Cove feels guilty about keeping Goldie locked up in a cage, but she's already promised to get her fly free and stretch her wings when they get into Hogwarts, perhaps even let her catch a few fish in the Black Lake. She puts a finger through the bars and Goldie nudges at it softly with her stripy beak in reassurance.

  A train whistle calls in the distance, earning a disgruntled squawk from her puffin and soon everyone's sprung to their feet, craning their necks to try and spot the Hogwarts Express as it glides in their direction. Cove swipes at all her luggage, poised like a snake in tall grass to leap aboard the second she has the opportunity. She's missed her friends dearly, and she doesn't want to waste another second twiddling her thumbs in a suffocatingly small train station.

  The doors slide open in front of her. In a flash, she's racing down the mahogany hallways, peering into all the compartments that she whisks past in search of her friends. She dodges all the pupils in her path, nearly taking out a poor first year on the way. The gaudy red carpet underfoot is beginning to give her a sore head. After nearly whacking her skull against almost a dozen low hanging lights, her eyes finally catch onto two familiar faces.

Mary MacDonald is tall and lean, with a smooth complexion of amber and flawless ringlets that curl around her shoulders. A scarlet Gryffindor tie is tangled up in her myriad of gold necklaces, her shirt pressed to perfection. She's dabbing vaseline on her lips as Cove walks into the room, listening to whatever melodrama Fallon has to dish out. Fallon herself is much unchanged, sporting a slightly shorter haircut and eyeshadow sparklier than ever. Their heads snap to the door almost comically fast as she walks in.

Fallon's doe eyes widen, her grin sparkling. "Cove!"

  They take turns to hug her, inviting her to sit down and share any of the sweets they got from the trolley. Fallon even swiped up a box of Ice Mice for Cove since they're her favourite. ( They're incredibly refreshing, and she thinks it's funny that they make her squeak like a mouse for a minute or two. The brain freeze is just a nasty side effect that goes hand in hand with them, but she'll live. )

  "How was your summer, babe?" Mary asks sweetly, nudging shoulders with her.

  "Awful," she groans, leaning against her friend. "It rained for the entire holiday. If only we lived in Spain." A dreamy look glazed over her eyes.

Mary laughs. "Well, it's good that you're here now," she says. "Fallon won't stop going on about all the imaginary people she shagged on holiday."

Fallon gapes. "They're not imaginary! What can I say? European lads are just drawn to me."

"And what were their names, again?"

"Well, Mary, we weren't doing much talking."

Cove scrunches up her face. "Ew. Can we please talk about something else?"

"Alright," Fallon sighs. She thinks to herself for a minute. "Oh, yeah! Did you see who they've made Head Boy this year?"

  "No?" Mary furrows her eyebrows.

  "You'll never guess."

  "I dunno," Cove says. "Lindsay Buckingham?"

  Fallon rolls her eyes. "I wish. No, James Potter."

  "You're joking. After all the rubbish he's done the past six years?"

  "Apparently he's turning a new leaf," she says incredulously.

  "It's typical," Mary replies, folding her arms defensively. "Teachers love to play favourites when it comes to the obnoxious boys that make life hell. I can tell that Lily fancies him secretly, but I don't understand what she sees in him."

  "Well, maybe he is trying to be better," Cove wonders aloud. "People can change."

  "You're too forgiving."

"Maybe you're not forgiving enough," she counters.

  Fallon hums, steering the conversation in a different direction. "To be fair, his mates aren't all bad. Sirius is fit but he's just as bad as James. Peter's cute in his own way but he's not really my type and from what I know, Remus is very up your street, Cove. You're practically made for each other."

  "Which one's that again?" She can't seem to put the name to a face. It could also be the brain freeze getting to her.

  "He's that lanky one," she says unhelpfully. "With the, um, with the brown hair."

  "Very descriptive," Mary says dryly. "And you shouldn't talk about him like that. He's a real person with feelings and he's my friend. But, Fallon has a point — you two would get on really well." She grins. "Maybe I should introduce you two."

  Cove gnaws on her lip, unable to think of anything to say back. She's never been in a relationship before because of how distorted her views on love are. All she knows is a warped relationship built on taxidermy promises, the ghost of infatuation sealed in an eternal jail cell. Cove wouldn't exactly put trust and love in the same box, so to speak. Mairi has cemented in her mind that she's to keep her guard up at all times, especially around a human man lest the same fate happen to her. She can't be anything but cautious when she's witnessed every selkie's worst fear in action.

All Cove can muster is a laugh in response before she changes the subject. Love is a joke to her, and it always will be.

°•.•°•.•°•.•°

DISASTER STRIKES WHEN COVE'S TRYING to get off the train.

Her muscles are straining under the combined weight of all her luggage and her tie is limp on her shoulders yet to be properly tied. She's halfway into the hallway when Fallon exclaims something, so she's peering over her shoulder to see if she's alright when someone collides with her, sending her tote bag flying. Panicking, she snatches it back into her arms before anyone can spot her sealskin lying exposed on the carpet. She can tell that her eyes are slightly crazed.

The boy she battered into has an apologetic look on his face, Cove remarking that his dark freckles are streaked by healed over scars. His hair is chestnut brown, an eyebrow piercing clipped over his lovely brown eyes. He's already changed into his robes, a shiny prefect badge adorning his chest. Cove really hopes he's not about to give her a demerit or something. That could really ruin her first night back. Although, all he says is:

"Sorry! Sorry. I didn't see you th— Er, is that a puffin?"

  Cove looks down at Goldie. "Yes?"

  "Oh," he says, his accent distinctly Welsh. "Alright. Well, I'm really sorry about that."

  "No! No, don't worry about it," she reassures, laughing awkwardly. "I should probably look where I'm going."

Mary pops up at her shoulder. "Cove, what's wron—" She cuts herself off, raising an eyebrow and looking between the two of them in a way that insinuates something. Cove doesn't quite understand it. "Hello, Remus."

Remus. The name fits him like a puzzle piece, settling into the grooves of his scars and weaving into the delicate curvature of the smile on his face. Suddenly, she becomes extremely aware that they were all just gossiping about him only minutes before and finds it very difficult to look him in the eye.

"Hi, Mary," he replies. "Um, I should probably get going." He points to his prefect badge. "Duty calls, y'know?"

"Alright," she says sceptically. "Bye then."

Cove smiles nervously. "Bye," she echoes.

  Mary tugs at her sleeve, urging her to start walking. She leans in to whisper to her. "D'you see what I mean?"

  "Not really," she coughs.

Even after saying that, she spends the entire feast with her chin cusped in her hands, darting her eyes over to the Gryffindor table every other second. Even if it just meant that she could catch a glimpse of the back of his head. In all fairness, he does have really lovely hair. Cove sits up abruptly, shaking off her daydream and stilling her hands, which have become excessively jittery.

She just doesn't know why she's acting so bizarre all of a sudden.

author's note!

this chapter is so bland

how are we feeling abt the tiny remus cameo 😍 clueless cove will be dragging this slow burn out for as long as i can be bothered x

i've always thought it was so dumb that all the scottish hp characters have to go all the way down to london just to go straight back up through scotland. like, their houses are probably way closer to the actual school so why can they not just hop on at the local station?? or make there own way ig but that's less interesting. i mean unless the train canonically stops and i'm ranting abt this for nothing lol

cove is from the isle of lewis and arisaig is on the mainland so it's extremely far but the actual train that they used for the hogwarts express goes through arisaig station!! i went last summer but never actually got on it because it's like £80 per person to get on for an hour train journey which is ridiculousss