Marigold was not looking forward to attending Hogwarts. Though her family had done all they could to make the morning a good one, preparing cheese blintzes, fruit salad, and honey-sweetened chai masala for breakfast, let her watch her favorite show, and even taught her a charm that created a short but dazzling display of lights, Marigold remained in a sour mood from the time she woke up. Attending Hogwarts meant that she wouldn't be able to see her family first thing when she woke up, joining them for her daily prayers and sharing her dreams with them. It meant no more goodnight kisses and stories from her grandma and papa each day, no more weekly Shabbat feasts, no more hugs from her family and friends. And most importantly, it meant she was one step closer to the world that actively hated people like her papa, and even people like herself.
"I promise it won't be so bad," her papa had told her whenever she expressed her doubts about attending the school. "In fact, I made my closest friends at Hogwarts."
At this, part of Marigold felt the urge to ask, "But where are they now?" But she never dared to ask such a cruel question, even though there was a great truth to its implications. Her papa had suffered enough to last him many lifetimes, and she would not allow herself to willing add to his suffering. He had been right, after all – if her papa hadn't been best friends with her parents, then he never would have been able to raise her in the first place. And besides, the main reason she was even willing to go to Hogwarts for her papa.
Marigold's mood only improved once she was reunited with her best friend, Neville Longbottom, on Platform 9 ¾. Since they went school shopping together on her birthday, as they had celebrated both of their birthdays the day before, she had only gotten to see him a couple of times, as both of their families were too busy prepping them for school. While she was joined by her papa, grandpa, grandma, and Aunt Eliza, Neville was joined by his grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom were much more excited to send Neville off than Neville was to be leaving. As for her blond friend, he was shaking so much that she was afraid he would faint.
When the Longbottoms spotted Marigold and her family, their excitement only grew more. Even Neville managed to calm down considerably from her presence alone, though once she was close enough, he rushed over and wrapped her in a hug. From behind them, Marigold could hear her aunt and some of Neville's family members cooing.
"I'm so happy to see you, Mari! I was worried you were gonna change your mind," Neville said, as a bit of pink tinged his usually cream-colored face. In return, Marigold offered him a soft smile as she pointed at the bracelet hanging around his left wrist. The red, orange, yellow and pink colored bracelet was identical to one she wore on her right wrist, with the exception of a flower charm on his. On her own was a charm of a smiling toad's head.
"I would never abandon you, Nev. Don't these mean anything to you?" she asked, winking before her friend could become even more flustered. From behind her, she thought she heard one of Neville's uncles commenting on what a good friend Neville had in "the Girl-Who-Lived." Marigold did her best not to flinch at the name, but it was hard not to whenever someone started fawning over her for something that had such drastic outcomes for both her and her papa. Instead, knowing that people would come flocking over to her upon discovering that the Girl-Who-Lived was amongst their midst, she let out a sigh. "We should probably try to find a spot soon. Papa said the train can get crowded pretty quickly."
After Neville nodded his consent, the pair turned around to exchange final goodbyes with their respective families. Turning toward her family, Marigold toward her grandpa first, who immediately stooped down to give her a hug. "I expect that you'll be better behaved than Remus was, ey Bubbeleh?"
"Of course, Zayde!" Marigold said, chuckling as she pulled away. Moving toward her grandmother, who stood out in her white sari, Marigold quickly bowed down, touched her grandmother's foot with her right hand, and raised her hand to her eyes. After standing upright, her grandmother cupped her face with her hands. Through blurry eyes, she could see that her grandmother was also starting to cry.
"Apna khayal rakhna, Ashi. Please remember to eat while you're gone," her grandmother said, kissing her on the temple before she gave her a quick hug. For a moment, Marigold was unable to speak, as her voice had tightened up too much. Only after taking a deep breath was she able to respond to her grandmother.
"Yes, Dadiji. I'll miss you," Marigold said, wiping the tears forming in her eyes.
"Don't get into too much trouble, kiddo. Got that?" her aunt asked, with a hint of a smile forming on her otherwise stern face. Unlike the rest of her family, Aunt Eliza preferred not to show too much emotion – with her short hair, many piercings, and leather jackets, she always presented herself as being cool under any circumstance. Marigold grinned in response, causing her aunt to shake her head.
"Of course, Vibhi Bua," Marigold said. As she chuckled, her aunt chuckled as well, muttering something about Marigold's birth father. Rushing forward, the girl wrapped her aunt in a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you."
"Me too, Ashi," her aunt said, her voice softer than before. She quickly pat Marigold on the back before releasing her.
Though it was difficult for Marigold to exchange her goodbyes with the rest of her family, it was with her papa that she had the most difficulty. Unable to say anything at first, she simply ran into him, her arms squeezing tightly around him. She quickly discovered how hard it was for him to say goodbye as well, when he hugged her back just as tightly. When they finally let go, Marigold was nowhere near ready to say goodbye. For a moment, all she could do was stare into his eyes as she fought back her tears.
"You'll be okay, lamb. We'll always be there for you if you need us, even if we can't be with you in person. And I promise that I'll write to you every day, even when I'm ill," he said.
"You promise, Papa?" Marigold asked, her emerald eyes sparkling. Her papa smiled, causing her to smile as well.
"Of course, lamb. Now let's get you on that train before it leaves you behind. Besides, you'll see us real soon for Rosh Hashanah." Marigold nodded, and she and her papa began pushing her cart toward the Hogwarts Express. Once they had managed to get the cart of the train, her papa bent down to give her one last hug. "I love you, Marigold."
"I love you too, Papa."
As Neville came up to join her, Marigold waved to her family before turning around to begin her search for a compartment. The first several rooms were either already full or contained quite a few of the older students, so Marigold and Neville pushed toward the back of the train; neither child was up for much socializing, especially with students much bigger than them. After checking a few more compartments, they finally came across one with just one person inside whom they both knew – a fair-skinned girl with auburn plaited hair named Susan Bones. When she greeted the pair with a smile, they took that as their cue to join them.
"It's been a while since I've seen either of you – how are you two?" she asked as she gently stroked the black cat on her lap. Marigold eyed the cat carefully as she took her seat across from Susan.
"I'm really nervous. What if they decide that I'm not good enough and send me back?"
"I'm sure they won't do that," Susan said offering him a comforting smile. From beside her, Marigold could feel Neville shaking. When she suddenly felt a tingling sensation as well, she moved closer to him, wrapping her right arm around his shoulders and resting her head against his. The tingling sensation started to die down, and Marigold let out a sigh.
"Susan's right, Nev, they wouldn't kick you out. But if they did, then I'd leave with you and we'd get Papa to teach us magic," Marigold said. Once Neville had calmed down, the trio resumed their conversation. Marigold caught Susan up with what her family had been doing, and Susan talked about the different families her aunt had been introducing to her in the hopes of her gaining a few new acquaintances before school started.
"They're mostly kids related to ministry workers, like the Weasleys and Cedric Diggory, who's actually pretty nice. I'm not sure how I feel about Draco Malfoy, though. He's pretty arrogant, but I think it has more to do with how he was raised than anything else. Still, there's something about him that says we should be careful around him," Susan explained.
"Noted," Marigold and Neville said in unison.
Moments later, a girl with dark brown skin and frizzy brown hair opened the door to their compartment. "Do you mind if I sit here? The other compartments so far were full and I don't want to keep dragging my stuff around."
"You're more than welcome to join us," Susan said, standing up to help the girl with her supplies. Marigold and Neville also got up and began placing the girl's belongings in the overhead bins. After they had finished, Susan stuck out her hand and smiled at the girl. "My name's Susan Bones, by the way. What's yours?"
"Hermione Granger," the girl replied, carefully shaking Susan's hand before turning to Neville and Marigold. "And you two are?"
"Neville Longbottom."
"Marigold," Marigold said, omitting her last name. Almost immediately, Hermione's eyes shifted to her temple, and Marigold had been very glad that her papa had cast a glamour charm to hide her scar.
"Is Marigold a common name in the wizarding community? I didn't think there would be someone else with the name of the Girl-Who-Lived in our year," Hermione said.
"Actually, Marigold is-" Susan started, but Marigold cut her off before she could finish.
"The Girl-Who-Lived doesn't have a monopoly on the name Marigold," Marigold said carefully, trying not to let her anger bubble out to the surface. She knew how big of the deal she was to other mages, but she never thought that she would be overshadowed by her own self so easily.
Sensing what she had done, Hermione frowned apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sure you get a lot of unwarranted comparisons to her. I'm actually rather new to all of this, being a muggle-born and all."
"It's okay," Marigold said, "But let's talk about something else."
"Of course. What house do you think you'll be sorted in? From what I've read, Gryffindor seems the superior choice," Hermione said. Almost immediately, the other three children frowned at her. "Is that wrong too?"
"My aunt said that there is no superior house. Each house has its pros and con; while Gryffindor might turn out a lot of heroes, it's also turned out some of the worst villains in wizard history in the form of Morgan le Fay and…" Susan looked carefully over at Marigold, who knew exactly which wizard she was fixing to mention, "Sirius Black."
Hermione gasped as Neville put his own arm around Marigold. The people close to Marigold were always careful not to mention Sirius Black, knowing how much pain he had caused her family. For a moment, everyone in the compartment was silent, but after Marigold nodded her head to an apprehensive-looking Susan, her friend continued.
"Plus, each house has been pretty heavily stereotyped. Slytherin always gets a bad rep because of some of its most notorious members, but people often forget that the great wizard Merlin was also in Slytherin. Ravenclaw isn't full of people who only value wisdom; when it comes to accepting muggle-born mages in wizarding society, they've made even more ground than Hufflepuffs due to having a more active role in politics. And people always mention how Hufflepuff is made up of a bunch of duffers, but Newt Scamander, one of the most well-known wizards of this century, was in Hufflepuff," Susan said. At the mention of Newt Scamander, Marigold groaned – the creation of the Werewolf Registry had only made life harder for her papa.
"I hadn't thought about all of that," Hermione said with a look of awe etched on her face. For the rest of the ride, four kids talked about what they were most looking forward to at Hogwarts. To Hermione's disappointment, Marigold had mentioned flying a broom, but that was only because Marigold hadn't wanted to admit that she wasn't really looking forward to attending Hogwarts at all. They all exchanged the different things that they had heard, or Hermione's case, read about, compiling their knowledge to get a more accurate idea of what their time would be like. None of them were quite sure how the sorting process would work, though Marigold quickly dispelled the notion that they would have to know magic for it.
A couple of hours into the trip, Marigold and Neville decided to bring out their own pets, as Marigold had heard her snake, Selene, hissing about how lonely she was, and Neville had wanted to check on Neville. At the sight of Marigold's white ball python, Hermione jumped in her seat. "I thought we were only allowed to bring a cat, owl, or toad!"
"The letter said that we could only bring one of those animals; it never said we couldn't bring something else," Marigold pointed out, as Selene began climbing up her arms. "Besides, Selene does a lot less damage than a cat or an owl, and she's my familiar."
"Your hair smells nice, Flower-girl" Selene hissed in Marigold's ear. Marigold smiled at her familiar's nickname for her, "You're very warm today. It feels nice."
"Can you understand her?" Hermione asked, looking skeptically at Marigold. Neville and Susan looked worryingly at her as well, fully aware of the fact that she was a Parselmouth.
"I know how she feels," Marigold said, partially admitting the truth, "just like any other mage knows how their familiar feels."
"So you two know how your familiars feel too?" Hermione asked Susan and Neville, who each nodded in turn. With one more look at Marigold, Hermione finally relaxed a bit. When Marigold offered to let Hermione hold Selene, the muggle-born witch hesitantly accepted, but soon found that she rather enjoyed how Selene felt against her skin. But while Selene and Susan's cat, Nyx, seemed to be enjoying themselves, Marigold and Neville were both aware of how frantic Trevor was going.
"He doesn't like being so cooped up," Marigold sighed as she watched the toad from within his tank. "Maybe you should take him out."
"But what if I lose him?" Neville asked, his eyebrows notching up.
"Then we'll find him. It'll be okay," Marigold said. With a nod, Neville took Trevor out, who immediately began hoping around the compartment. Unfortunately for them, a boy with platinum blond hair and pale skin and two rather large first years decide to come into their compartment moments later, allowing Trevor with a quick an easy escape. Marigold and Neville stood up, but the large boys blocked the door, trapping them inside. With a frown, Marigold and Neville sat back down.
"Hello, Bones. I'd hope we'd see each other again," the boy said, his voice rather flat. With a nod to each boy, he said, "This is Crabbe and Goyle. I'm sure you've heard of them."
"Yes, I have Malfoy. It's a pleasure to see you again, and a pleasure to meet you…" Susan paused, prompting the boys to fully introduce themselves.
"Gregory Goyle, Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Goyle," the taller of the two said.
"Vincent Crabbe, Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Crabbe," the shorter boy said. At their introductions, Hermione's brown eyes had widened in shock, Neville had pressed in closer to Marigold, and Marigold rolled her eyes. Only Susan maintained a positive expression on her face.
"I think it goes without saying that I'm Draco Malfoy, Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy, though I can't expect that everyone would know that, I suppose." Carefully scanning the room, Draco gave a curt nod to Neville while looking critically at Marigold and Hermione. "Longbottom, we've met before, but I don't think I've seen either of you before…"
"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said, carefully offering her hand. Draco stared at her, and then her hand. From the way his head tilted, Marigold could tell that he had no desire to shake Hermione's hand, but after a moment, he took her hand.
"Granger… I definitely haven't heard of you before," Draco said. The tone of his voice indicated that he was less than thrilled to be making her acquaintance. If Marigold hadn't been raised against it, she probably would have shouted at Draco. But before she could say anything, he was standing in front of her, carefully studying her eyes. Despite her discomfort, Marigold kept her eyes on his as well. "And you are?"
"Marigold," she replied, carefully omitting her last name. But it didn't seem to make a difference, as his eyes immediately went to her forehead. Within seconds, his wand was out. In a mixture of anger and shock, Marigold's eyes widened as she asked, "What are you doing?"
"Revelio!" Draco shouted. Despite her attempt to cover her forehead, the spell had worked, removing the glamour that her papa had cast. The lightning bolt scar that had been carefully concealed now stood out as thin white lines dancing across her otherwise brown face. The other girls in the compartment were both shocked and appalled by Draco's use of the spell, while Neville glaring at Draco. Marigold, on the other hand, was purely stunned, unable to breathe for a moment. "I suspected as much. So you're Marigold Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived."
Upon hearing her name, Marigold managed to snap out of her stupor. "Actually, it's Potter-Lupin, and you had no right to do that."
"So what? I was doing you a favor by removing that spell - if I were you, I would want everyone to know who I was immediately. Anyone would be eager to get on your good side, and you could easily make a lot of powerful allies."
"Powerful allies… like you? Well, Malfoy, I honestly don't know what to say to such an offer…" Marigold said, maintaining eye contact with the blond despite Neville's frantic head shaking. As much as she wanted to tell him to get lost, she knew better than to pick a fight before she even knew her enemy. Besides, why should she fight him when she could get something out of him instead? "I'll tell you what – I'll consider your offer… if you help me find Neville's toad!"
For a moment, Draco stared incredulously at her, but Marigold's expression remained solid. With a sigh, he nodded, and the pair began searching the train for Trevor. Marigold knew she didn't really need his help, as she had grown familiar with Trevor's energy, and she knew that it was unlikely that many other students had toads. But having Draco scour the train for the toad he inadvertently set loose was a least a minor form of payback that she would allow herself to have. And, as it turned out, he was rather good at getting people to respond to him, even though his mannerisms were quite terrible. Marigold considered Susan's description of him, and wondered if he might improve during his time at Hogwarts.
After searching through all the compartments Trevor had been through, the pair finally found him in a compartment full of students who were a couple of years older than them. To her surprise, the toad was not hoping around frantically, but seemed to be transfixed by bubbles shaped like different animals.
"Trevor!" Marigold shouted as she unceremoniously dove over the lap of the boy sitting closest to the toad. As she crashed through the bubbles, a cacophony of roars, caws, hisses, and grunts erupted in the room. Quickly scooping Trevor up with both hands, she looked apologetically at the boy whose lap she fell into once she was standing again. With a quick bow of her head, she said, "I'm so sorry for behaving so disgracefully."
"Oh, don't trouble yourself with that, we've done plenty of…" Before the redhead could finish, he was suddenly staring at her. "Well, look who we have here. If it isn't Marigold Potter in the flesh."
Marigold frowned. Even though she knew that was how most people knew her, it still made her uncomfortable each time someone omitted her papa's last name from her own. "It's actually Potter-Lupin."
"Potter-Lupin? Well, Miss Potter-Lupin, it's a been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Fred Weasley, and this here is my lesser half, George," the boy said, pointing to himself and his identical twin.
"He means his superior half; he always gets those words mixed up," George said, waving at Marigold.
"Ignore them," a boy with dreadlocks said casually. "They're always like that. I'm Lee Jordan, by the way."
"Oh don't act like you aren't involved with most of their antics, Lee," a girl with fair skin and blonde hair said, shaking her head playfully before turning toward Marigold. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you! I'm Beatrice Haywood and these two are Heidi Macavoy and Cedric Diggory."
While the tan-skinned, curly-haired girl offered her a dazzling smile, the boy with chestnut-colored hair scanned her carefully. Unlike with most people, however, his gaze was not appraising, and she quickly discovered why he had been looking at her when he casted a quiet, "Tergeo!"
As the liquid from the bubbles left her shirt, Marigold smiled at him. "Thank you!"
"It was nothing. We should probably let you two get back to your own compartment – we're almost there, and everyone's expected to change before the train stops."
Marigold nodded as Draco, who had been oddly silent during the exchange, took that as his cue to drag her away. She frowned at the unwanted skin contact, but didn't protest as they moved to where their group had been waiting for them. The scene was not one of peace, however, as the duo quickly discovered. While Gregory was carefully holding onto Nyx, who was desperately trying to claw her way out of his arms, Neville was hunched over Selene's tank, where she had twisted herself into a ball. The claw marks on the seat suggested that there had been more difficultly trying to calm down Nyx than the trouble she was giving Gregory.
Moments after she was in the room, however, Nyx began to calm down, and Gregory finally released the cat. Susan looked up at her, astonished, while Neville merely muttered, "Of course!" Hermione, Vincent, Gregory, and Draco, however, all looked at Marigold with confused expressions. Ignoring their looks, Marigold stepped in front of Neville holding out her hand to him. "Look at who I found!"
"Trevor!" he cried, carefully holding his hands up. The toad immediately hoped onto his owner's hands, and Marigold carefully grabbed Selene's tank from Neville's lap. She was still in her ball, but she stuck her head out a little to hiss at Marigold.
"Please don't leave me alone with that demon again. She would have killed me if not for that boy." Afraid to respond back, Marigold merely nodded her head before turning to Gregory.
"I don't know what happened, but I suspect that if it wasn't for you, my snake would be dead. So, thank you, Goyle" Marigold said, smiling at the boy for the first time.
"It was nothing," he replied, waving his arm as if to brush off the incident. It was then that she noticed the gashes on his arm.
"No, it wasn't – you got hurt. I might be able to help you, though." Marigold closed her eyes, trying to remember the simple healing spell. Her papa hadn't taught her a lot of spells before she had left out of fear of getting her in trouble, but he had insisted that she learned some of the more practical spells. Once she had remembered the spell, her eyes flew open as she took out her wand and said, "Episkey!"
It wasn't a perfect job, as it had only managed to form scabs, but at the very least she had managed to close the wounds. After he grunted out a quick thanks, she turned to face Malfoy.
"And I should thank you as well, Malfoy. You were actually quite a bit of help with Trevor," Marigold said. Though she had only just met him, she was unsurprised when he smirked in response.
"Of course I was. So, does this mean that you'll take me up on my offer?" he asked, much to the annoyance of Neville and Hermione. Marigold didn't respond immediately, but simply smiled at him.
"Oh Malfoy, I only said I would think about it. Don't you think we should become better acquainted with each other before declaring anything? I'd hate to make a rash decision." Holding out her hand, she had to suppress the smirk that was starting to form on her own face. With a single statement, she had managed to stun everyone surrounding her. As the silence continued, however, she briefly worried that Draco would retaliate for her response – while she hadn't technically tricked him, as she did exactly what she said she would, she also knew that she had been rather misleading. But instead of getting angry, Draco merely shook her hand. It wasn't much, but better than the alternatives.
"Of course. Well, I'll see you around… Potter-Lupin." With a nod, to the other two boys, the trio was gone, leaving Marigold, Neville, Susan and Hermione to themselves at last.
"I'm surprised you didn't just tell him off after that stunt he pulled," Susan said after the door had closed. Hermione and Neville nodded their agreement.
"He was such a git!" Hermione added.
"I did think about telling him off, but I didn't think it would be fair to judge him based off of a single encounter," Marigold said. "And he might be a git, but even gits have their uses."
The crowd of first years surrounding Marigold were so anxious that Marigold was starting to feel uncomfortable herself. As the students started speculating on how the sorting would work, Marigold had a hard time making out what Professor McGonagall was saying. Only when the ghosts had appeared had the students managed to stop their frantic chattering.
As the first-years entered the Grand Hall, Marigold could hear Hermione describing how the ceiling had been enchanted to another student. She had been one of the few students who seemed relatively unfazed by their situation. While Marigold herself wasn't too concerned with the sorting, feeling the gazes of her peers did nothing to make her feel comfortable in the crowd. It was only when the hat in front of them began to sing that she knew that no one was looking at her any longer. So that was how they were sorted.
The first few sortings were fairly quick – while Marigold didn't know Hannah Abbot, from what she knew of Hufflepuff, she wasn't surprised that Susan had been sorted into that house. The first time the hat took more than a few seconds to shout out the names of the houses was with Hermione Granger. After about two minutes, Marigold heard someone muttering about a hat stall. A few more minutes had passed before the hat finally shouted out, "Ravenclaw!"
When it was Neville's turn to be sorted, Marigold quickly squeezed his hand before he went up. Like Hermione before him, his sorting also took longer than most. The longer the sorting went on, the more he began to frown. Marigold wasn't quite sure what was going through her best friend's mind, but she caught him looking toward her more than once while the hat was talking to him. As Neville took off the hat after it called out, "Gryffindor!" he looked noticeably paler.
As the sorting process continued, Marigold noted that the students seemed to be pretty evenly divided. It was so divided, in fact, that when the Patil twins had been sorted before her were placed in different houses, one of the kids behind her commented on how unexpected that was. Once a girl named Sally-Anne Perks had been sorted into Slytherin, the crowd grew quiet again when McGonagall called out, "Potter-Lupin, Marigold."
More than she had at any other point, Marigold could feel people staring as she walked up to the stool with the sorting hat. She was all too happy to place the hat on her head, if only because it obscured her vision of the crowd that was before her.
"Another interesting case, I see. Oh yes. You've got quite the clever mind I see, and rather big goals. Perhaps Slytherin would be the best place for you," a voice said in her mind. Within seconds, Marigold's face began scrunching up.
"Do I have to be sorted? I don't really like how the sorting works," she thought back. For a moment, she was left alone with her own thoughts, but then she felt something that she could describing as being a mental laugh. The feeling left Marigold's head aching for a few minutes after that.
"It's been a while since someone's asked me that question, and every time it's been asked, that mage got quite a reputation for themselves. So, I'll ask you the same question I asked them- why don't you like how the sorting works?"
"Well, it's not really fair, is it? Separating kids before they even get a chance to know one another, and then being forced to compete against each other doesn't really give a way for people to make friends with each other if they aren't in the same house." Even while her conversation with the hat was occurring, she could still hear some of the students talking. If they weren't talking about how the Girl-Who-Lived was sitting right in front of them, they were speculating which house she would get.
"Well put. Looking deeper into your mind, I can tell that Slytherin would be a rather poor fit in the end. No, your values are much more aligned with a different founder. I think she would have rather liked to have you in her house. The other founders would think you enough, but it's clear that you'll be best in HUFFLEPUFF!"
Knowing that the last word had been shouted for all to hear, Marigold carefully took the hat off before stepping down to join one of the tables in the middle. For a moment, everyone in the hall was quiet, but quickly, several students clad in yellow and black robes began clapping and cheering as she joined their midst. Susan ran up to her and hugged her, while everyone welcomed her to their house. Still feeling uncomfortable with the attention, she could only smile and nod at everyone, though she relaxed slightly when she saw Beatrice and Cedric smiling at her. Still, she felt much better when the girl after her, Leanne Qian, had been sorted into Hufflepuff, and everyone began welcoming her into the house as well.
After the final student, Blaise Zabini, had been sorted into Slytherin, the headmaster, Dumbledore, quickly quieted the hall before giving the most bizarre speech that Marigold had ever heard. Looking over at Cedric, she arched an eyebrow to ask if he could explain what had just happened, but the older boy merely smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
Moments later, when food magically appeared in front of her, the speech was far from Marigold's mind. Before her was so much food that even her grandmother would be impressed. While most of it was more traditional British food, she didn't fail to notice the samosas, bhatura, and bowl of chana masala sitting near her. Happy to see some food that reminded her of home, she happily dug in, even though she knew that the food could never compare to her grandma's cooking.
After everyone had finished eating, two Hufflepuff prefects stood in up, asking everyone to follow them. The students all fell in line easily enough, and soon they made their way over to the kitchens before stopping in front of a pile of barrels situated right beside the kitchen. After instructing all of the new students on which barrel to tap and how many times to tap, they were all brought inside to the Hufflepuff Common room.
Waiting to greet them as they came inside was the Head of House, Professor Sprout, a plump woman with dark brown skin, curly gray hair, and the most welcoming smile. Marigold immediately felt at ease in her presence, and carefully listened as she explained what her expectations were for her students. After Professor Sprout had expressed how excited she was to get to know each one of her students personally, she left so that the prefects could show the new students to their rooms.
Including Marigold, there were five girls total in her room – Susan, Hannah, Leanne, and a girl with olive skin and freckles named Megan Jones. While the other four girls talked excitedly amongst themselves, Marigold began writing out a letter to her family that told of her adventure on the Hogwarts Express and which house she had been sorted into. Once she had finished her letter, Susan had tried to get her to join them, but Marigold shook her head. Instead, she took Selene out of her tank and went to go sit in the common room since Selene was still nervous to be around Nyx. While she was somewhat relieved to be sharing a room with someone else that she knew, she saw no reason for why she suddenly be social with all of her new roommates. For a long time, Neville and Susan had been her only friends, and she didn't see how that could change overnight.
"This place is cozy," Selene hissed as she moved along the room. Marigold was happy that her snake felt more comfortable, even though she felt worse with each passing moment. With a sigh, Marigold sat on one of the window ledges, looking up at the night sky. The moon was a quarter moon that evening, so it stood out amongst the stars.
"It is nice, but I still miss home," Marigold responded back, not checking to see if someone else had entered the common room. She was usually pretty good about sensing when another person was nearby, anyway, and she hadn't heard anybody else moving in the room. She had neglected to thoroughly check if the room had been cleared, however.
"Flower-girl, please be careful. A human boy is in here," Selene hissed in warning.
"What?" Marigold asked in confusion before turning around. Standing in front of her was Cedric Diggory. From the way his mouth was hanging open, she could tell he had heard speaking Parseltongue. Immediately, Marigold started pulling herself into a neat little ball as she felt chills go down her back. Outside of her family, only Neville and Susan were aware of the fact that she was a Parselmouth due to the trait being condemned by the wizarding community. And now, in a careless moment, her secret had been discovered on the first day of living at Hogwarts. If word got out, she was going to have an even harder time fitting in than she already would because of her fame.
As Marigold tried to think of some explanation, knowing that lies weren't going to help her, Cedric cleared his throat. In a quiet voice, he said, "I won't say anything if you don't want me to."
Relief washed over her immediately. Slowly unfurling, she finally looked up at the older Hufflepuff. "I would really appreciate that. I promise I'm not evil or anything, but that's not how most people would see it."
At that, Cedric nodded his head. "Misunderstandings happen pretty easily around here, unfortunately. People have a tendency to jump to the wrong conclusions."
"But you didn't," Marigold pointed out. Moments later, she felt Selene slithering up her leg and into her lap. When she saw that Selene was sitting in a defensive position, she quietly hissed, "It's okay. He's on our side."
"Well, I might not have been able to understand what you were saying, but you sounded sad." Cedric looked warily between Marigold and Selene as Selene slowly crouched down. "She's not going to attack me, right?"
"No, she's just really defensive; she had a pretty rough day."
"And you? People don't usually come in here on the first night, especially by themselves. Is everything okay?" At his question, Marigold stared at him. She was amazed at how observant and considerate he was. But his question also made her wonder why he was in the common room as well.
"Well, to be honest, I really miss my family right now, and I'm a bit uncomfortable being around people I don't know that well. I'm sure that my roommates are all really nice – I know Susan is – but I just needed some time by myself."
"Is that what you were talking about a minute ago? Missing home?" Cedric asked. Marigold nodded and Cedric placed a hand on her shoulder. "I used to be really homesick my first year as well; I actually came out here so I could write a letter to my parents. But don't worry - as you start making friends, you'll feel better."
"What if I'm not good at making friends?" Marigold asked. Even though she had friends in Neville and Susan, it had been a while since she had became friends with them. Having been so long out of the process of making friends, she began to worry that she was no longer able to make any new friends. If Cedric could sense her new worries, however, he didn't let on, as he began to chuckle.
"Well, you're already off to a pretty good start, since you started making at least one new friend today. You might be able to get started on making a couple more friends if you interact with your roommates. You might end up not getting along with them, but you'll never know either way if you don't try. And if it turns out that it's too much, then I won't judge you if you end up coming back in here; my own roommates are usually a bit too loud after break, anyway." Cedric carefully dropped his arm from her shoulder as he moved out of the way. As Marigold scooped up Selene before walking back to her room, she smiled up at Cedric.
"Thank you, Cedric."
When she first got back in her room, she was still somewhat uncomfortable. But she quickly found that she wasn't the only one out of her element, and that all of the girls were making an effort to get to know each other. Of course it was going to take more than a single night to really feel comfortable with each other, but Marigold soon found that she hadn't helped matters by leaving the room when the spotlight was put on her.
As the conversation came to a lull, an idea suddenly struck her. Pulling out the enchanted record player her papa had gotten her for eleventh birthday and her Abbey Road record. Before placing the record on the player, she flipped the disc over so that the second side would play. The dorm room was a far cry from home, but as the first notes of "Here Comes the Sun" began playing, Marigold felt a little less homesick.
A/N:Thank you so much for making it to the end of that rather long first chapter. Before I get into specific notes for this chapter, I want to start with some general notes for this story.
First, I want to apologize for any and all mistakes I might have made or might make in the future. I'm handle the representation of different cultures in a respectful manner, but the truth is, I'll probably mess up a few times. If something comes off as being offensive or insensitive to you, please let me know, because I want to make sure that I'm being as respectful as possible (and I promise I won't mind no matter how small something might seem; if it matters to you, it's not insignificant). Please note, however, that the focus of this story is not on Marigold's heritage, but rather on her journey through the wizarding world with her family and friends. I will be integrating parts of her cultural identity into the story, but this is more to give the story a sense of realism as well as an attempt to better represent racial and religious diversity in (fan)fiction. Because, personally, as a POC, I'm quite tired of "diversity" (which is a rather loaded term) merely being attributed to different skin colors, and that's it.
Second, as you can see from this rather long chapter, this isn't going to be a one-to-one fanfic with each chapter representing a different chapter from the books. Why?
A.) That's been done dozens, if not hundreds, of times
B.) If I did that, I'd probably never update
C.) This is going to end up being quite different from the series, so it really wouldn't make sense.
Some chapters will be combined, while others might just be skipped altogether, depending on how well they fit into the changes I'm making for this story. I don't want this to be a carbon-copy of the series, but with more POC featured. For the most part, I plan to steer clear of direct quotes, and even similar sequences of events. I'm not going to be placing Neville in canon-Ron's shoes, nor will I be placing Susan or Padma in canon-Hermione's shoes. All of these characters are distinct from one another, and so the impact that they have will also be different.
Finally, if you are expecting shipping, you're going to have to wait a while. For the most part, I'll be focus on the platonic friendships between the characters, even once they are old enough to start getting into relationships. I just thought I should give y'all that warning.
Now for the chapter notes: the title comes from "Here Comes the Sun," by the Beatles. In this story, Euphemia Potter is alive, but her husband died because of dragon pox like in canon. Eliza (or Vibhi, as she will often be referred to as) is James' older sister, and currently has the title of Lady Potter. The Potter family is all of Indian descent, with Marigold being the first in this particular line to have any English blood within her (Lily was Ashkenazi and British, like the Lupin family is in this).
"Apna khayal rakhna" is supposed to mean take care of yourself - I didn't use Google Translate, but I did Google search, so I'm not sure how accurate this is.
Ashi and Vibhi are both nicknames - Ashi is supposed to mean always smiling, while Vibhi should mean fearless.
If you're curious, Rosh Hashanan started on the evening of September 8th in 1991, so that's why Remus brings it up in this chapter.
I think that covers everything I wanted to say... If you have questions or anything you'd like to say, please let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!