"Say hello to Dad for me," Hannah Longbottom said, giving her daughter a peck on the forehead. Melissa rolled her eyes at her Mum. "Okay, Mum," she replied, giving her a small smile, before picking up her suitcase and her kitten, Pika, by the stomach, and boarding the train.
She was filled with a strange sense of nostalgia, like she was every year she boarded the train, at the strange kids that surrounded her, and the owls that often whizzed past her head. She took a seat in an empty carriage and waited for her siblings to board the train after her. Melissa let Pika down before putting her Nimbus 3000 in the overhanging storage compartment before opening her suitcase and taking out her purse, for refreshments, wand and an old magazine labelled The Quibbler, which usually contained rubbish, but sometimes she found an interesting article or two in it. After flipping through it quickly, she placed it back in her suitcase and took out a book to read.
Though she looked very antisocial, crouched over her book, she actually did love having conversations. Most people naturally assumed that Melissa preferred to be alone, when really she was just terrible at starting conversations, as well as feeling like an unwanted burden whenever she started them. The only people who really knew that she actually enjoyed company was her family, which was why she was hoping that one of them would sit in the compartment with her. They usually did, as well as several of their friends, but they did sometimes ditch her, and Melissa couldn't blame them.
Whether they chose to or not, Melissa would be fine. She could just read her book. Her new school year resolution this year had been to socialize and interact more, which was suggested by her mother (her new school year resolution last year was to get better potions grades, and she failed miserably) so she was sort of hoping someone would sit with her. At the same time, if no one did, at least she could finish her book and she couldn't be blamed for not socializing, right?
The last witches and wizards boarded the train as it blew the whistle, signifying that the Hogwarts Express was about to leave. Melissa put down her book to wave goodbye to her mother, who frantically waved back at her children. The train began to set off to Hogwarts as everyone began to file into compartments, and Melissa went back to ready her book.