Disclaimer: All content of the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K. Rowlings.
- Notorious Acquaintances -
They say they can see
What I'm supposed to be
But what is right for them
Don't mean is right for me
"In The Rain", The Coral
Kim pressed her forehead against the cool glass and observed how her breath left a white trace on the window pane. She watched as the trace slowly faded before the window once more clouded over. The raindrops made their way down the glass and every time a drop reached the bottom there was a new one coming from the top. The weather was the only thing that shared her mood.
Behind the door of the compartment you could hear the muffled sound of people talking and laughing. Everyone was happy to see their friends after the long summer holidays and they were all excited to be back at Hogwarts - everyone except the lonely girl in the compartment.
Kim brushed a stubborn strand of her dark brown curls out of her face and continued to stare absent-mindedly at the raindrops on the window pane. She was wearing a black robe with a single emblem on the chest; a silver S in the shape of a snake on a green background. The girl's pale skin shimmered like porcelain – it appeared nearly transparent. The worry lines on her forehead which were clearly visible in the dim light of the candles floating under the ceiling of the compartment, didn't impair her beauty. The seat next to her was scattered with various items; a wand, a copy of Libatius Borage's Advanced Potion-Making, a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a few empty boxes that once contained Chocolate Frogs covered most of the front page of The Daily Prophet. Only a part of the headline was visible – "Ministry of Magic concerned about security" – the rest was hidden by a chocolate frog collecting card that showed Morgana, who was just walking out of the picture.
She took her Potions book and angrily turned over the pages without taking in anything she was reading. Why couldn't her parents be like everyone else's? She could be out in the hallway of the train laughing and joking with the other students instead of sitting here alone in her compartment. Her life would be easy. She wouldn't have to worry about good and bad – or right and wrong. But she couldn't help that her parents were what they were – Death Eaters. And that fact, shocking as it may be, wasn't even the worst part of it; her parents also planned for her to become one of the servants of the Dark Lord. As soon as she had taken her N.E.W.T.s the Dark Mark would be burned into her forearm whether she wanted it or not. Her parents wished their only daughter to be their successor as a follower of the Dark Lord. If Kim confessed to her true attitude towards the whole palava about pure blood heritage her parents would consider it as a great treachery to the Dark Lord and, more importantly, it would break their hearts. And, as much as Kim hated their loyalty towards the Dark Lord, she didn't want to be a disappointment to them. She loved her parents – regardless of their opinions.
Lost in thoughts, she didn't notice when the door of the compartment was pulled back but lifted her head as four laughing boys entered, dragging their trunks behind them. Kim could tell right away who those four boys were. There was probably not a single student on this train who didn't know them. They called themselves the Marauders and were possibly the most famous boys in Hogwarts. Their infamous mischief cost the teachers lots of nerves but for the students it was rather amusing – unless of course you were a victim of their pranks. It was only against Slytherins, more precisely Bellatrix Black and her followers, that their jokes turned nasty. These two groups truly lived out the rivalry that had dominated the relationship between the houses Slytherin and Gryffindor for hundreds of years. Little arguments escalated into duels on a daily basis and it wasn't unusual for someone to end up in the hospital wing.
Entering the compartment first were Sirius Black and James Potter, the leaders of the Marauders and two true ladies' men. Unfortunately the two Marauders were fully aware of the effect they had on the opposite sex and they frequently took advantage of it. Sirius' jet black hair fell into his face in an elegant way which James' untidy black hair failed to accomplish. They were laughing and playfully trying to push one another into the doorframe. After them Remus Lupin lugged his trunk into the compartment, watching his friends fooling around with a smile on his face. Even though his handsomeness was in no way inferior to that of his friends he has never been seen with a girl. His light brown hair and the amused smile on his face as he watched his friends made him incredibly likeable. Entering last was Peter Pettigrew, probably the least popular of the Marauders. He wasn't ugly but his short brown hair and rather plump figure seemed out of place amongst the others nor did his dull expression contribute to his beauty.
James stopped abruptly when he saw that someone was already occuping the compartment and Sirius crashed into him. The latter cursed under his breath and rubbed his nose but James didn't pay attention to him. Instead he held out his hand to the girl. "I'm James Potter. And those three blokes," with his other hand he gestured nonchalantly towards his friends ", are my friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Kim hesitantly took his hand and nodded to the others whereupon Sirius winked at her, Remus flashed her a warm smile and Peter returned her nod.
"And who do we have the pleasure to meet?" Sirius asked with a charming smile. "You must be new at Hogwarts – I never would have overlooked someone like you." It wasn't in the slightest bit surprising that he tried to flirt with her but his flattery failed to impress Kim. She was just about to answer him but Remus beat her to it. "Don't talk nonsense, Sirius! She's not new at Hogwarts." He turned to Kim. "You're in my Arithmancy class, Kim, right?" She was caught off guard that Remus knew her name and could barely contain her joy, flashing him a bright smile. He returned her smile as well and she revelled happily at the joyful sparkle in his eyes.
But the moment didn't last long because James interrupted with his questions. "You're in the N.E.W.T.-level Potion class, aren't you? You're a Slytherin?" It was more of a statement than a question. As he came to this conclusion his expression changed slightly and he eyeballed Kim with a sceptical look which, however, instantly turned into an impish grin. "Have I ever hexed you?"
Kim gave a short laugh at that question but quickly answered him: "Yes, I'm in N.E.W.T.-level Potions and I'm a Slytherin. However, I don't recall you ever hexing me because as far as I know you only hex Bella and all those that are stupid enough to get in your way."
Sirius had thrown Kim a doubtful look at first but her depreciatory comment about his hated cousin seemed to placate him. James chuckled "You two aren't best friends, I take it then. I thought you Slytherin all set such a high value on friendship?" He emphasized the word friendship in the same depreciatory manner that Kim had reacted in. "That's not what I call friendship! It's just that everyone is too scared of Bella to answer her back. Everyone believes that they do better being on her side bullying others than to be hexed themselves. That's not friendship, that's dictatorship!"
Not only were the Marauders taken aback by the fiery speech coming from the little girl but also Kim herself was surprised by the untypical outburst. She was usually a rather quiet person but the Marauders were the perfect company to enable her to vent her anger at Bella and her so called friends.
Remus was the first one to recover his speech and his calm voice lowered the tension that had built up in the compartment "Then why are you a Slytherin? I thought the Sorting Hat only sends students there that are truly mean, or potential Death Eaters."
At that Kim slipped deeper into her seat and her answer was only a weak murmur. "I don't know..."
Sirius had already opened his mouth to ask another question when Remus prevented him from doing so by holding up his hand. Kim flashed him a grateful glance and as a warm smile spread over his face she felt a warm and fuzzy feeling floating through her body that banished all bad thoughts into the back of her mind.
The Marauders began a conversation about Quidditch and Kim listened to them attentively. Peter and Sirius were fighting over whether the Falmouth Falcons or the Wimbourne Wasps were the better Quidditch team. "Even the club motto of the Falmouth Falcons is rubbish. 'Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads.' They're just too bad a team to win without using violence," Sirius argued.
"At least they don't look as silly on their broomsticks as the Wimbourne Wasps do with their yellow and black striped robes," Peter countered.
Kim didn't agree with either of them and barged into the argument "You cannot deny that the Chudley Cannons will always be the greatest team there is. Sure, they're a bit out of shape –"
"Out of shape?" James asked in disbelief, looking up from his battered-looking copy of Quidditch Trough the Ages that he'd been reading. "Their performance in the last years, no decades, has been simply disastrous. There's a good reason why they changed their club motto into 'Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.' – ridiculous."
"There will be better times, you'll see." But James was right; the Chudley Cannons truly were in a lousy shape, there was no such thing as better times in sight.
It was nearly nightfall when the Marauders changed into their Hogwarts uniforms. Surprisingly, two badges sparkled on James' chest. It had been expected that he would be appointed Quidditch captain given that he had played in his House Quidditch team since his second year, but the Head Boy badge was a rather big surprise seeing as James was part of the Marauders, the most infamous pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen. The Hogwarts Express came to a stop at Hogsmeade Station and as Kim struggled with her trunk, Remus helped her to hoist it off the train.
The rain was still falling heavily when they got into one of the carriages that seemed to pull themselves up the bumpy road to the castle. Water dripped off the robes of the students that stepped into the Entrance Hall and they left muddy footprints on their way to the Great Hall. Kim was walking silently two steps behind the Marauders; she didn't want to risk getting caught hanging out with the Marauders by Bella or any other Slytherin. She hesitantly smiled at the four boys as she turned to take her place at the end of the Slytherin table. They smiled and made their way to the Gryffindor house table on the far end of the Great Hall. Kim blanked out the voices and the sounds of laughter and concentrated on the texture of the wood the table was made of. Her friendship – if it could even be called that – with the Marauders was doomed to failure before it had even begun.
As Dumbledore rose from his throne-like chair in the centre of the staff table there fell a deep silence. Kim lifted her head and turned to her Headmaster. The deep worry lines on his forehead made him look old and the amused twinkle that was normally to be seen in his eyes was gone.
The Headmaster cleared his throat and began to talk in his firm and calm voice.
"Welcome, students, welcome to another year of Hogwarts. Before we allow the satisfaction of a delicious meal to cloud our minds I want to make some sadly necessary announcements." Dumbledore let his eyes wander over the crowd of students sitting in front of him, listening attentively.
"Dark times dominate our country. The wizarding community is in a state of open warfare. In Hogwarts we may be more secure than in any other magical place there is, still the Ministry of Magic has arranged further security measures for our school. Students will not be allowed in the grounds after nightfall. Aurors will be guarding the Entrance Gates against Death Eater attacks and last but not least now, more than ever, the Forbidden Forest remains forbidden for all students." For a moment, his gaze rested on the Gryffindor table where the Marauders sat, James and Sirius smiling innocently at Dumbledore.
"But even in these troubled times, we shall not forget to celebrate the start of a new year of Hogwarts. Let the feast begin!" He clapped his hands and hundreds of plates with delicious-looking food on them appeared out of nowhere and it seemed as if the tables would break under the enormous weight.
When they all had had enough, the tired students followed the prefects to their common rooms. Kim had heard the password to the Slytherin common room from one of the prefects of Slytherin that was sitting near her and instead of following the other Slytherins down the corridor that leads to the dungeons, where the entrance to the Slytherin common room is situated, Kim hid behind one of the suits of armour and waited until the last students had climbed the marble staircase on the far end of the entrance hall. Then she came out of her hiding place and ran fleet-footed up the stairs as well.
She silently made her way to the North Tower, where she stepped out onto a small balcony from where the grounds of Hogwarts could be seen. The dark surface of the Hogwarts Lake glistened in the moonlight and the Giant Squid played with it's tentacles. A few unknown creatures were flying above the Forbidden Forest and the sound of an owl was the only thing that disrupted the silence. Absorbed in her thoughts, Kim didn't notice that someone stepped onto the balcony.
To Viola – the reason I started writing in the first place.
Thank you very much for reading!