I stared at Ginny and Neville, absolutely refusing to believe what they had told me. They stared back, absolutely refusing to believe how I had responded.
"Witchcraft and... Witchcraft and What?" I said weakly, sitting down. "Are you trying to trick me?"
"What are you... Don't you know what...? Oh my goodness." Ginny stared at Neville in disbelief and mouthed, "She's a Muggle."
"I'm a what? What are you trying to do? Are you fooling me? I don't even know you! I'm supposed to be going to Wheeling County!" Confused and hurt, I felt tears coming to my eyes.
"What are we supposed to do?" asked Neville. "Are there any teachers on board? Or any adults?"
Ginny shook her head. "Not that I--"
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" A plump old lady with a large cart of candy opened the door slightly.
I stared at the cart and heard my stomach rumble. This is not the time to be hungry, I scolded it, and I looked down at my hands.
"Miss, could I talk to you for a minute?" asked Ginny timidly.
"Of course, dear," said the woman with a smile.
I stared worriedly as she whispered to the woman with a worried expression on her face. I couldn't believe that I was in so much trouble for getting onto the train.
"Oh, don't worry dearie," she said. "No true Muggles can get through the gate. It's impossible, from what Professor Dumbledore has told me. I wouldn't worry. But I'll make a stop by the professor onboard and make sure he knows, all right?"
Ginny gulped and nodded, and stared at me warily. I didn't like it. It was a shame that I found myself disliking her a bit at the moment; she seemed like a very nice girl. But I couldn't help but feel confused and victimized.
Just as the woman was about to push the cart away, Neville called out, "Excuse me, could I buy something?"
She smiled.
"Could I have eight chocolate frogs and two bags of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans?"
"That'll be three sickles, please,"
Three whats?
Neville fished through his pocket and removed three small silver coins. I stared at them in delight as they were passed from the boy to the woman and put in a small jar on the side of the cart.
As she rolled away, Neville inhaled deeply. "Um, so, Taylor... Is it Taylor?"
"Yes."
"You've... you've never seen any magic?"
"Well, I went to a magician show once..."
"A what?"
"But that's just fancy tricks, no real magic. No, I've never seen real live magic before."
I was worried, but intrigued. What was I about to see? A small part of me thought that this whole thing was just a joke, but the rest of me was enthralled.
"Look at this."
He took a small box, a chocolate frog, he said, and, carefully, opened the lid. I stared carefully, wondering what I would see. For a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly, a brown frog-shaped blob sprung from the box and landed in my skirt.
I screamed. What was this? This was no trick. A chocolate was springing around! It leapt from my skirt onto the ground, then Ginny scooped it up and handed it to Neville.
"I didn't want it to get dirty," she explained.
And then something happened that horrified me more than anything. Neville opened mouth and the frog jumped in, and in one slam of a jaw, it was gone.
"You ate it! You just ate a frog!" I shrieked.
"A chocolate frog," Luna corrected, looking up from her book once again.
"But... but..."
"It isn't alive," Neville assured me through sticky teeth. Still, it was a long time before they could convince me to eat one. And when I did, I hated the feeling of it still flailing around in my mouth until I bit down and it stilled.
Ginny's thoughts, the whole time, were on what I was supposed to do when I got to Hogwarts. She asked me if my parents had any idea, or if someone was expecting me in "Wheeling"... endless questions. I told her the story, and she was uncertain.
"The woman said it was all right for you to be here. She said you must be a witch."
"A what?"
"A magical person."
And suddenly a thought struck me. What if I was magical?
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