It's funny how the simplest things stand out in your memory. Like how every time you smell orchids you see your sister in her wedding gown. How the sound of the ocean brings up images of picnics on the beach with your family. Or the very first time you saw Severus Snape.
Platform Nine and Three Quarters September the First, Nineteen-Hundred and Seventy-Two
It wasn't quite like she expected it to be. One part of her expected everyone to be running around and shouting to one another as friends saw each other for the first time in months. Another part of her could see ordered chaos as frazzled parents rushed to get their children on the train with all of their belongings. Instead what she saw were sober parents whispering to solemn faced children as they quietly loaded their trunks onto the train. Next to this the decorum of the Beauxbaton Academy seemed like chaos.
"Alectrona Eos Astraea Xenos! " a skinny, overly done Greek woman yelled out over the quiet crowd. Euryale Xenos didn't know the meaning of tact let alone when to use it.
"Yes mother." a rather small olive-skinned blonde replied in a dry bored tone. Alectrona, Alec to her brothers and sisters, hated her step-mother more than anything else in her life. Who wouldn't hate an obnoxious gold-digging whore after their fathers money. Oh well, she would learn just as the previous three wives had, Alastor Xenos never let go of anything he wanted until he had something better in sight, and he always destroyed his previous plaything so no one else could ever play with it.
"Why must you always wander off from the rest of your family, you ungrateful child." Euryale snapped out as she grabbed Alec's arm and dragged her back to the rest of her 'family'. While other families clung together trying to convey their love to each other the Xenos children tried to distance themselves from their father and step-mother as best they could. Alexiares and Anicetus her twin brothers from their fathers first marriage looked like the Greek gods of old that they had been named after. Tall, dark, and brooding Alex and Anic had spent their first four years at Durmstrang. Their oldest sister had already boarded the train much to their father and step-mothers displeasure, Amphitrite lived to cause the two of them unending frustration and anger, at least as much any Pureblood child would. Adephagia, her closest and only full-blood sister just sat on her trunk staring off into space.
"If I'm so ungrateful why do you insist I stand with you pretending to feel anything other than hate and annoyance. Maybe I wouldn't be such a disgrace if the twin wonders hadn't gotten all of us expelled. Now if you'll excuse me I am taking my trunk and getting on this train. Avtio until June." and with that Alec walked off leaving her parents behind closely followed by her brothers and sister.
"Goodbye Mother" Severus Snape said as he stopped in front of the train.
"Goodbye Severus. Will you be coming home for Christmas?" Eileen Snape asked quietly.
"No mother, I think it would be best if I stayed at school this year." he replied rather tersely. Christmas last year had been quite horrible and it wasn't something he wished to relive. Listening to your parents fight night after night did not an enjoyable holiday make no matter how many times you may have heard it in the past.
"Be careful, many things are changing in our world." Eileen Snape withdrew a small package from her old and patched robes and handed it to her son. "I thought you might like this. It seemed like it might be useful to you."
"Thank you mother, I will open it on the train." Severus said as he boarded the train. Conversations with his mother were always stressful and best kept to a minimum. Severus opened the the door to the second compartment on the right and walked in to store his trunk overhead as usual. It wasn't long before the door the to the compartment opened a second time.
"Are you the only one in here?" the blonde asked looking at Severus.
"Obviously."
"Good, then you won't mind me sitting on the other bench."
"Don't you have friends to sit with?" he sneered as he opened his potions text intending to ignore the interloper.
"No, I had to transfer in this year, any other questions?" she asked as she tried to stow her trunk overhead.
"No."
"Can you help me put my trunk away?" the girl asked after two failed attempts at lifting her trunk up on to the storage shelf.
"Very well." Severus put his text down on the bench and stood to stow the annoying girls trunk. Why did she have to pick his compartment. He liked this compartment because it was so far up front that no one ever wanted to walk all the way to the front of the train let alone sit here. "Have you no family on board to annoy."
"Yes, unfortunately they decided that four to a compartment was more than enough and as the youngest I had to find somewhere else to sit. I thought you didn't have any other questions." she said sitting on her bench and swinging her legs up on the seat so that her back was to the window.
"That was before you required physical labour of me. Now is possible for you to sit still and be quiet?" he asked sitting back down and opening his text. At this rate he wouldn't even finish half of it before they arrived at Hogwarts.
To this day every time I smell the musky scent of leather book bindings I can see his stringy hair and hear his raspy voice, even after thirty years.
"Alec! Get up and change into your school robes." a severe yet beautiful raven haired girl said sharply as she entered the compartment. "You may come back to our compartment to change if you wish."
"I'll be fine Amphitrite." the small blonde said uncurling herself from the corner of the bench where she had been reading.
"Very well, meet us at the back of the train when we arrive. Father arranged for a teacher to escort us to the school to be 'sorted' before the first years. Do not make us late Alectrona." and as quickly as she had arrived the older girl left.
"Do you mind turning toward the window while I change." the girl, Alectrona, asked as she removed her uniform from her book bag.
"I assure you that I have absolutely no desire to see you with any less clothing than you are already wearing." Severus said as he continued to read about the cures to various shrinking potions. Seeing a flat-chested scrawny girl in the semi-nude held no appeal to him.
"Fine." she said as she started unbuttoning her shirt.
Severus swung his body around so that he faced the window as he read his text, hadn't she heard him say that he had no desire to see her undressing. Girls did not behave like they were supposed to. If he had openly stared at her as she undressed he would have been hexed. When he ignored her she began to blatantly strip down to her under garments directly in front of him. The female species was unpredictable, never having a true characteristic displayed by all, and this annoyed him greatly. How was a male of the species supposed to learn how to act correctly when the response to verbal or physical stimuli was never consistent.
"I'm dressed, you can turn back around now. Could you please help me get my trunk down, I'll just end up destroying something if I try to get it myself."
"Very well"
"Hello, I am Professor Slughorn. Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to bring you directly to his office so that you may be sorted before the first years." the professor said as he stepped down from the carriage that had separated itself from the rest. "Are any of you first years?" he asked looking them all up and down.
"No professor, we are all second year or higher." Amphitrite answered quickly before turning toward the carriage Slughorn had arrived in. "Will we be taking a carriage to the castle?"
"No, we will be traveling by the floo here at the station up to the castle. Dumbledore thought that it might be easier if you were already sorted and seated at your respective houses before the feast begins. Now follow me please."
"Yes professor." they all replied as they gathered their luggage to take with them.
"Oh, no. Just leave your luggage here, the elves will send it to your dormitory's after you're sorted. Now if you will step in one by one and say Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"We have all traveled by floo before professor, where exactly is the floo powder kept?" Amphitrite said as she tried to control her outrage at this prosaic professor treating them like ignorant muggles.
"Its kept in the box on the right side of the mantle piece."
"Thank you. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." and with that Amphitrite disappeared from sight followed closely by her brothers and sisters to stumble out of the headmasters floo onto the rug.
"Ah, Miss Xenos I'm so glad you could join us this year and I see you brought your brothers and sisters with you, how delightful." a tall, skinny, hairy gray thing said as it moved to stand in front of Amphitrite. "Now which one of you would like to be sorted first?"
"We will go in birth order." Amphitrite said as she stood along with her siblings and brushed the ashes from her clothes. Hogwarts had none of the genteel qualities that Beauxbatons possessed.
"Ah good, a witch with a plan is always appreciated. Now if you will just sit her on the stool, yes now for the hat, just this once I believe we can skip your song in the interest of time." Dumbledore said as he walked behind Amphitrite and placed the hat on her head.
"Very well." the sorting hat replied after a slight pause. "Intensely proud of her heritage, no patience for fools, a sharp intellect, her mind is her greatest tool. Aware of all that is around her, her mind will open many a closed door, and while solving problems comes easily, her greatest desire to achieve all that is expected of her and more. Ravenclaw house will suit you like none other."
"Wonderful! Now who's next?" Dumbledore said smiling as he lifted the hat off of Amphitrites head.
"That would be Anicetus."
"Good, good, have a seat dear boy so that we may begin."
"He is devious and persuasive, full of vigor and self-importance, completely sure of himself no matter what the situation, pride of self he keeps in abundance . Slytherin house will supply all that you need and more."
"Interesting, interesting, now for your brother."
"A quick mind and a wit that is keen, two more alike than these I have never seen, to separate the two would be cause for more trouble than ever it would solve, though a word of warning I do issue, the troubles that brought you here quickly must be solved, and so to the Slytherin dungeon I send you."
"Hmm, I do believe I shall have to watch out for you more than I might like. Which sister is next?" Dumbledore said with a slight frown.
"I believe that would be me professor." Adephagia said as she walked to the stool and sat down.
"A witch who has little time for that which does not prove to be useful, she is a lover of books and learning, refuses to quit until she has the correct answer, to achieve great wisdom is her one true yearning. Without a doubt she will be a benifit to Ravenclaw house."
"Congratulations, perhaps you will be the one to recreate Rowena's legendary diadem. Now for the youngest."
"You have a thirst for knowledge but it is not all consuming, courage you possess but boldness is lacking, you sympathize with others though purposeful weakness sets you fuming, you agree that power is a great tool if used correctly and you take pride in your family though you extend them very little charity. Slytherin I think, will suit you best better that any of the rest."
"Very curious you are child, very curious. Now you must all go down to the Great Hall if you wish to be seated before the sorting begins. Take the stairs down and head straight ahead through the large double doors, the Ravenclaw table is hung in blue and bronze and the Slytherin table in green and silver."
"Yes professor."
The mind can play tricks on you, making you see things that aren't really there or hear voices that no longer exist. You wake in the middle of the night and reach out to touch an empty pillow or you speak out loud to an empty room.
No, I don't need therapy. What I need is time, time and the guidance of a friend, neither of which are currently available to me.
A/N: Avtio farewell in greek, I think. I tried to use babelfish and all I got was a bunch of greek letters that eventually got turned into Avtio. If thats wrong please let me know. This is my first fanfic, let me know if you like it, hate it, or if I screwed something up horribly and you think it needs to be fixed. I learned a long time ago that all opinions contain at least a small kernel of truth. Thanks.