Chapter 1: Arrivals
Disclaimer: Characters and all that sort of stuff don't belong to me
Nights in the little town of St. Frederic usually were silent, but tonight the rain was smashing against the newly paved road. This noise was accompanied by the occasional crack of the thunders and to make the night even more stranger one of these cracks did not bring a bolt of lightning with it, but the figure of a woman who materialised in the middle of the street carrying a bundle in her hand and begun to climb the steps to the village orphanage.
She frantically began to bang the door making even more noise than there already was. Luckily for her a maid was on her way to the basement for medicines to tend to a sick child and she heard the knocks. The maid ran to the door to save whoever it was from the rain and opened a door to find a girl drenched in rain and covered with specks of mud throw herself inside and shut the door.
"Madam, are you all right? Let me fetch you a towel and hot drink..." The maid begun
"No, there is no time! This is a place where you take care of children, true?" The girl said agitatedly
"Yes, yes it is orphanage"
"Please take care of my son; he is only a week old"
"I need to call the Headmistress I can't simply…"
"Please! Only until I return." She begged "Or If I die, I need him to be safe, they will come to collect him when he is older, he will be my avenger, he will be my little Alastor"
Two cracks hit the night and the girl looked up.
"I must go" she whispered
She thrust the baby into the maid's hands and waved her hand at her quickly. She then ran away leaving the maid paralysed completely as if by Magic. She couldn't Move a bone.
If anyone had bothered leaving the comfort of their beds at that time they would have seen a woman leaving the orphanage and running towards the woods and two men spotting her as she entered the wood and chasing after her.
Two minutes later the maid felt that she could move again.
Alastor Moody lay on his bed till late as he was exempt from duties due to his Birthday, or rather his guessed birthday as the ladies of the orphanage weren't sure when exactly he had been born.
His name also was made up. At St Frederic's Orphanage, nameless children were named and surnamed after the day they had arrived, the weather, their appearance their behaviour or their character. Alastor had been a very dark, moody, ill-humoured never laughing baby so the maids surnamed him Moody. His name had been chosen by his mother, or at least that's what the Maid who took him in understood out of her speech.
The short-haired boy got out of his bed and walked to the window to see the garden where his comrades were working. He called them comrades because they were in the same gang as him, and they fought against the other gangs inside the orphanage.
Alastor had quickly made friends and had been accepted into one of the gangs and helped it become the all time winner. They called themselves the Lions of Rage. The Head was Michael Winter, born in the orphanage; he was seventeen and would leave the orphanage next year. Then there was Samuel Little, named after his tiny size as a baby which he still kept as a child, and Robert Williams who carried his true name as he arrived at the age of seven after his parents had been killed in a riot. Samuel and Robert were roughly the same age as Alastor. Other than them were many other members of less importance who mainly served to keep their numbers up and fight in big battles.
Last night there had been a big battle and the Lions had beaten the Egyptian Warriors after a discussion resultant from the outcome of a ballgame. It was a close loss for Alastor who was being followed by three Warriors and still couldn't believe how fast he had run, He had surprised himself a few times already with incredible jumps onto rooftops, quickly curing bruises and finding things just as he thought about them.
That is why the Lions always won; Alastor was a very strange boy.
"Alastor! Alastor! Somebody call Alastor!" Came the booming voice of the Headmistress from the floor below
This can't be good. She seems angry. Alastor climbed down the vines outside his window and crossed the gate into the garden where his comrades were working.
"Al you better hide!" Sam called at him "The Head is looking for you and there's a strange woman with her"
"It must have been that idiot whose nose I punched yesterday"
"Then well get him tonight for blabbing" Michael Winter said "Ill do him in personally"
"Al needs to hide" Sam suggested as the Heads voice came their way.
Michael pointed the shed where the garden tools were kept and Alastor ran into it and curled in a corner.
It was dark and spiders were lurking the corners. Alastor hid beneath a shelf and listened.
"…I don't know what makes you think he will be in the shed " said the Heads voice
"I am pretty sure he is" said an unknown female voice
"Boys have you seen Alastor round here?" Said the Head
"Nope" Sam's voice said
"He ought to be in his bed, it's his Birthday and he can sleep in late" Michael said
"Very true" agreed the Head and scraped the floor as she turned.
Alastor let out a breath and relaxed
"We should look in the shed, I think" The other woman said
Alastor's heart tensed again
"Very well, very well" The harassed Head said
She opened the door and Alastor held himself tighter. The Heads eyes swiped the room until they lay on Alastor.
Alastor was caught. He made an effort to stand up when…
"Not here!" proclaimed the Head
"What?" Alastor thought, she had looked right into his eyes. He remained there half up half sat when the other woman came in and spotted him.
"Come Alastor" she ordered
"Stupid idiot" Alastor thought he should have taken his hiding place back when the Headmistress had looked.
Nonetheless, he followed the two old ladies into the Heads office. Once they had arrived the head spoke.
"Alastor, Miss Rigby has come here to meet you, says she has news from a school you were entered in when you were born. Ill Leave you alone." She said and shut the door behind her.
Alastor was suddenly excited; this lady was connected to his real family, all the fantasies about being the descendant of a noble lord with lords who had fought for the old kings and slain dragon flew back into his mind as he asked
"Are you my family?"
"No, I'm not "
Alastor sank into a chair
"I have come to offer you a position at my school"
"You're school? Why?"
"Well Alastor, it is because you are a wizard."
"Hey call that again and I don't care how old you are, Ill punch you right in the nose!"
"You misunderstand me Alastor" Rigby said, taken aback
"You sure misunderstand who you are talking to!"
This woman had given him hopes of uniting him with his family but had ended up insulting him.
"Alastor, have you ever done anything strange? Unnatural?"
"What… well…what do you care?" articulated Alastor.
"Ill take that as a yes" smiled the woman.
The features on her face seemed to be aging every minute. Her smile brought up a thousand wrinkles around her eyes and face right below her short black hair.
"I am teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" she stated after a silence. "If you come you can learn to control you powers and make them grow"
"Grow? How?" Alastor asked
Rigby drew a stick from her pocket at pointed it at the bookshelf that suddenly turned into a bear.
Alastor shrieked and jumped and Rigby turned it back.
"I can do that?" Alastor asked timidly emerging from behind the chair
"You can learn at Hogwarts"
"Then I will come"
"In that case you must address me and other teachers as professor"
"Yes Professor Rigby" said Alastor
Professor Rigby's hand drifted into her pocket again and handed him a letter which Alastor read carefully and silently until he said
"Professor, I have no money for this, and I don't know where to buy it either"
Professor Rigby smiled again and said" Hogwarts has a special fund for such cases. And if you accompany me I will take you and help you with your purchases"
Alastor stood up and said "after you" and half bowed.
That night he arrived carrying a heavy trunk which he left by his bed seeing all his comrades asleep, he got into bed.
"So where've you been?" Robert asked from the bed above him
"I thought you were asleep" Alastor said
"Not a chance" Came Sam's voice "we wanted to know what adventures you're up to"
Michael was not there as the room were organised in age groups.
"Some kids say you've been adopted" said another Lion
"Sort of" Alastor said "I'm going to a school" remembering he had been told not to tell anyone about his magic
"Fabulous" said Sam
"What?" asked Robert
"Well I mean, we will miss you and all that but that means I take the leadership of the Lions when Michael leaves.
"Don't be so sure" teased Robert
"You know it will be me donkey-head"
"Repeat that when there's light!"
"Id rather not, as your aim is better in the light"
"SILENCE" Boomed the voice of the angry Headmistress. Alastor chuckled at how scared he had been this morning, but now it was different, now he was a wizard which meant his parents had been wizards, which was a clue to finding more about them. After all how many Wizards could there be in Britain?
"Thousands" Alastor thought " Millions" as he saw the hustling of children and parents running around the Platform as soon as he entered it through the magical gate as Professor Rigby had instructed.
Alastor lost no time and climbed onto the great red train and sat in an empty compartment deeply doubting it would remain empty after seeing the number of people out there.
As to answer his thoughts a boy literally flew in, and fell on the floor.
"Be careful with what you do" a bigger boy said to him as he entered kicking the other child fiercely. Alastor leapt to his feet as the bully drew his wand and bit him on the hand making him drop it.
"This is between me and him" the bully said
"You are attacking him from the back, you coward. That makes it my business"
"Let me guess" The bully smirked "Daddy is an Auror eh?"
"What did you call me you scumbag?"
"Oh la la!" the bully smirked further "you don't know what an Auror is; we have a Muggle-born here!"
This time Alastor was sure he was being insulted and he automatically drew his wand out. The Bully cooled down as he realized he wasn't armed and Alastor was.
"Get out!" Alastor ordered
The Bully started to move but decided against it as realisation struck his face.
"Hex me!" he said and waited. Alastor was lost; his enemy had found his weak spot
"Just as I thought" continued the bully "the Mudblood doesn't know any spells"
"But I do: Petrificus Totalus!"
Alastor looked around and saw the other boy holding his wandtip at his Bully who had frozen.
"Help me" he said and both of them lifted the bully and moved him into an empty compartment and left his wand beside him.
"Why did you put his wand there?" asked the boy while they walked back
"He would have come back for it, Id rather he didn't and also, I left it right before his eyes so he can see it but not reach it"
The boy laughed.
"What's your name?" he asked
"Alastor Moody. You?"
"Arthur Hitchens"
They shaked hands.
"I think we should change compartments before they find him. He still doesn't know our names." recommended Alastor
"Actually, he does know mine; he is my cousin Cygnus you see."
"Then why did he attack you? You stole his books or something?"
"No. No this is the second time I see him in truth, It's because I am a Half-blood"
"A What?"
"Witch mother, Muggle Father"
They arrived at their compartment and sat down.
"By your lack of knowledge I deduce you are both Muggle Parents"
"I'm an orphan, so I don't really know"
"I'm sorry"
"Don't be, coming to Hogwarts will allow me to find them"
"That's true! I've heard the Library is great! With a lot of books!"
"Are there genealogy books?"
"I don't know. It's my fist year."
"Like me" said Alastor excitedly
"What house would you like to be in?"
"What's that?"
"Oh! I keep forgetting you know nothing, every student at Hogwarts is sorted into one of Four Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. My mother was in Slytherin, but that is because all members of the Black family go into Slytherin. I hope I don't!"
"Whys that? "
"Then I would have to be in the same room as Cygnus who I am sure will be sorted into Slytherin like his siblings. I would like Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. The last headmaster was a Ravenclaw but he retired last year. I've heard his wife is a famous seer and told him that the new century will bring disaster to Hogwarts so he decided to retire last year before the arrival of 1900…"
Alastor listened as Arthur went on and on about Hogwarts and the houses and something called Quidditch which Alastor found quite appealing.
At night they arrived at Hogsmeade station.
"First years come this way!" called a tough voice in between coughs "you take the scenic route" he called "First year this way!"
Alastor and Arthur followed into a boat along the icy lake and they saw Hogwarts in the distance, oblivious at the wild adventures they would live in this new home.