Chapter 1 The Return to Hogwarts

The train served as a lullaby as River drowsed in a rare moment of peace. She was feeling the effects of missing almost an entire night of sleep and drifted closer and closer to sleep when the door to her otherwise empty compartment opened. The sudden noise jolted her awake and she stared wide-eyed as she scanned the room for the noise source of the. Her eyes meet the terrified ones of a young boy River did not recognize. He was a scrawny boy with blond almost White short hair and blue eyes. after a moment of being frozen in fear, he almost fell as he ran outside the compartment. She had the urge to scream in frustration. That was the second person this trip to have that reaction. She felt like this was a preview of the coming school year.

The thought of putting on her sunglasses or even her silly eye-patch so that she would be able to enter the castle without being recognised enter her mind again. But no, she did not have the luxury of anonymity and it would feel like she betrayed something if she tried to hide what she was.

She noticed something on the ground where the little boy must have dropped it. Her mood became even darker when she realized what it was. It was the daily profit article about her recent acceptance back to Hogwarts. It had made the front page and now her own face where looking left and right like she was searching for something with her hair in a brown mess. She had a frightened look which enchanted her left eye. The eye was completely light blue except her pupil which was a slit like a snake which made the other normal brown seem a bit boring. Her patches of green scales were thankfully hidden by a scarf around her face and her mess of a hair. She had cut the hair shorter so that it nowhere only to her neck and she was using magic makeup on the scales. She looked with an irritated stare as if she could make the article size to exist just by being annoyed enough which sadly did not seem to be the case. The title read "Girl in the werewolf experiment approved to return to Hogwarts". The anxiety that had held her up all night returned. She knew that people had the impression that the experiment had been conducted to create super werewolf and had the notion that she was stronger than a normal werewolf or that she had some special abilities. The article even made the incursion that she had powers without any proof to back it up. Which were bull, as far as she could remember at least. If you did count not having a sense of taste a superpower she thought bitterly. The silver lining in this mess was that not many people took the profit seriously as it had been the mouthpiece of he who must not be named and before that its attack on harry potter and Dumbledore two years prior.

The door open again and River was ready to face another person that would run away as soon as they saw her or something equally horrible like passing out at the sight of her. But to her relief, it was her older sister. Her sister had changed greatly in two years. She still had the same brown long hair and the same light brown eyes. Her height had not change much but River height had as she was now a bit taller than her two-year older sibling. Which still felt weird even if she had been back for almost two months. What had really changed was that she had gone from being slightly overweight when she had last seen her before the capture to being fit. They had not discussed it but she figured that their late fathers interest in exercise had something to do with the transformation. The badge that marked her as being head girl gleaming in the sunlight. She sat down opposite of her with a heavy sigh.

"you are early, did something happened?" River said using sign language Her sister answered using the same "No there are not many Slytherin on the train, we are not even half of what we usually are and another reason I am early is i" she paused in concentration with a sad look on her face before giving up and saying out loud

"switching I where switching with Tomas our head boy but how did you make the sign for switching again?" River thought for a moment but came out blank as well she sighed and said out loud "I do not remember either" It had been two years since they both had a reason to practice and they both where rusty. As always she felt shame when she did not remember a sign as if her mother looked at her from haven with a frown on her face. To keep her mind of her parents she asked something out loud so that she could hear her sisters voice "so how does it feel now miss head-girl? "her sister looked miserable "it still feels really odd, I have only met a few Slytherin as I said earlier but they seemed to almost be afraid of me " the conservation was interrupted when a third year Slytherin boy which River sort of remembered burst into their compartment and with an alarmed tone informed that there was a fight going on. With a last terrified look from the boy, they were away and River was alone again.

Minutes later when she once again had started to fall asleep the door opened again and it was not her sister that but a tall Gryffindor boy, With short black hair and green eyes. He smiled and she was expecting that his simile would falter as he recognizes her, but it didn't. is it okay if I sit here? He asked River nodded in response being weary and he sat down and introduced himself. His presented himself as Aden Hill and he was running the Hogwarts school paper. When he saw Rivers confusion he added "it is something that was started last year and no I am not talking to you to make a scope. I came here to talk to you about some stuff and if I get an opportunity I who like to talk to your sister Viviana. River nodded not completely trusting him but did not think of anything to say except. I only have one sister and call her Vivi she is not found of her full name" "Yes I have been witness to what happens to people that try to tease her about it which is a shame because it a beautiful name" River shrugged agreeing that her sister was being silly but not wanting to talk about it to a stranger. They talked a bit about how the paper had started as something that the death eaters tried to use as a propaganda tool but the creators had been smart enough to use ink that transformed so they could write more meaningfully segments. He was kind enough to go into detail how exactly they had made the enchanted ink when he saw her interest. Finally, he seemed to get serious and with a grim expression he said" I have been talking to the various group about you and unfortunate my suspicions seem to be correct. He took a deep breath before continuing "most of the older students are a bit scared but they have fond memories of lupin and a need to prove that they are not afraid. The problem is that the younger students are terrified and I would not expect them to lose that fear easily." River did not know how to respond and only nodded as she remembered her two incidents.

Both where silent until the door opened again to her sister and she stopped for a second when she saw that they were not alone then she gave him a smile. "So are you two doing an interview ?". Aden smiled back "no just passing on some information to your sister about how the different groups will probably react to her" she nodded and sat down. Aden continued with a grim expression" I also wanted to have the opportunity to talk to you too. This year will be volatile Vivi. Slytherins were ruling the school last year with an iron fist and none of the other houses had forgotten that. If that were enough Voldemort "river shuddered but the other two seemed to be unaffected" declared Slytherins his house and if that were not enough it was the house where most of the Death Eater originated from. So there will be a lot of pent up feelings and it will be turned towards your house and I am sorry to say that you will be the one that will have to handle a lot of it." Vivi nodded with a tired look on her face "one thing before I go. I wanted to ask you if you were the one to wipe away the mess I made in the potion room." She nodded with a not so little bit of smugness. He smiled "that it two times you have saved me and there is also that time you saved my sister." Her smugness vanished "how is she?" she said with concern Aden's good mood seemed gone as well" better" was all he said. Then with another quick smile, he headed out of their compartment.

The rest of the trip went by mostly uneventful there were a couple of times people seemed to go to there compartment on a dare and knocked before dashing off. As they closed into Hogwarts River felt more and more nervous as she was had felt the first time she had gotten there. As if her sister could feel her discomfort she said "do you want to make a bet?" the sudden question jerked River from her dark thoughts "about what?" with a sad smile she said "if Slytherin get half of the new student that they usually do I will buy you a new owl" "you think it will be that bad huh?" "yeh, the old houses that always ended up in Slytherin have collectedly decided to have their kids in Durmstrang and as Aden said you know who did declare Slytherin his house and you know the origin of most death eaters and all that. I am probably the most popular Slytherin and I am probably only going to be tolerated. "but you fought at the battle of Hogwarts" River exploded. Her sister only smiled a tired smile. "Yes there why I am tolerated but to them I am still a Slytherin and they think I was in a position where I never had to fear of being tortured or harmed by the death eaters. "but that is bullshit you where spying for McGonagall the entire time. If they had found out you would not be here " her expression did not change" I did very few things that had a high likely hood of being discovered and even if I had been found out the fact that they had killed my entire family would probably give me some forgives even in their eyes" River did not have a respond to that and felt like the atmosphere had become too dark so it was time to lighten the mood a bit "well if there are any problems you could always threaten to utilize your super werewolf sister with laser eyes and super strength " she gave a genuine smile then turned serious." If you encounter any problem be sure to tell me. "River nodded but though for herself that considering what year awaited her sister she would keep as much as she could for herself.

They arrived at station 30 minutes later. Hagrid was there with his half-giant build and huge black hair and beard with his usual "firs'-years firs'-years here. She headed towards the coaches that would take her to the castle. She recoiled at the sight of the skeleton horse that was dragging the carriages. She had been warned by her sister that the invisible carriage was actually pulled by skeletons horses with some draconic features to their head which could only be viewed by the people that had seen death but it was something that was hard to prepare oneself for. She went and got a cart for herself and her sister. No one seemed to be eager to share with them she saw Aden talking to a couple of younger Gryffindors one being the boy that had run out of her compartment and an older more athletic version of the boy she imagined was his brother. They seemed to in a heated discussion with the word werewolf being the only word she hear until hear sister shut the door and the carts were off to the school.

On the way, she realized she had not asked her sister about the fight. "So how many people did you knock about?" she snorted" no one but a prefect from Ravenclaw came really close. I need to have a talk with Flitwick, so he makes sure that this does not happen again." They arrived at the great hall and She felt a similar nervous tingle as she had the first time she had entered this hall the first time. She still was amazed at how big it was. She noticed that she was the talk of the room as all people seemed to take turn in pointing her out and whispering to their friends. She sat in one of the corners of the Hufflepuff table and as she had feared no one dared to sit next to her, not even her old friends as they tried very hard not to see her she returned the favour. Which hurt more then she thought it would. The reaction seemed to be as Aden had predicted the younger the people was the more frightened they were. With the youngest steering at her in pure terror and some of the older only looking at her with a curious look. Then everything went quiet as the sorting ceremony began. McGonagall was holding the event which was a bit strange as she was now headmistress, but she had done it for a long while and there was something calming in seeing her there. She placed the sorting hat on its stool and the sorting hat came to life and started to sing

"Hogwarts returned from darkness grasps, not without scars not without sacrifice. It is time to once again to be a beacon of learning. To instead of surviving and fight we will once again be a safe haven for young minds to grow and to find themselves….."

River felt like the word safe should have been in quotation marks. She then tuned out a portion of the song as she saw a tall boy with broad shoulders and a blue cap on his head with a perfect mark on his chest from the Ravenclaw table. The reason she noticed him was that he was pointing at her and with a sneer and eyes full of hatred they had stared at each other for a moment. He then turned around and talked to his friends. River guessed with a unpleasant feeling that this was the prefect Vivi had mentioned. One of the people he spoke to was the head boy of Ravenclaw which name she never could remember it was Ne something. There was clearly an argument between them which River though was probably about him fighting Slytherins. Her mind returned to the sorting hat song

Time will lessen the scars even if they never will completely heal. Now is time for new blood to enter this hall. They have four paths before them. For those with bravery in their heart, there is Gryffindor, the clever have Ravenclaw. The ambitious have the house of Slytherin and finely the loyal have Hufflepuff.

There were a brief silence then McGonagall started to read up the name of the first years which seemed to be a lot fewer than normal as Vivi had suspected. The first was Emely Sermons and as the nervous girl put the sorting hat on herself it immediately erupted in Gryffindor and the Gryffindor table exploded in cheers. Then there was a very small little boy and it took a while for the hat to decide this time but it finally said Hufflepuff and she and her entire table erupted in cheers. She reminisced in how her sorting had gone. She remembered fearing that as both her parents where squibs and therefore had no magic, therefore, it had been some terrible mistake and she was to be sent home. It had mattered little that her sister had been accepted in Slytherin she was terrified and almost cried in relief as the sorting hat had started talking on where to put her. She still remembers the words clearly. "well you have intelligence, but I cannot see that you value it highly and I can see cunning from you, but you lack ambition and bravely is not your forte. But most of all I can see that you value loyalty above all else so I think it will be Hufflepuff " she wondered what would happen if she put on the hat again would it still put her in Hufflepuff or had the last two years change her so much that the hat did not recognize her as Hufflepuff anymore.

She was still deep in thought when after another cheering which she was doing on automatic at that point a first-year boy sat close to her but as she locked up and their eyes meet he turned white and quickly made his way away from her. she felt sad and looked toward the Slytherin table and it did not take long finding her sister as she was alone as well. There seemed to be a dampened mood over the table and she realized that there had been no shout of Slytherin from the hat. She looked at the line of students that was almost empty. The cheering dolled as more and more people realized what was going on. The atmosphere charged as the last three students lined up and went through the sorting ceremony. The first one went quickly it did not even finish putting it on before it yelled "Ravenclaw "there were cheers but not as loud as usual as the whole school realized that they were witnessing a historical event as there had never been a house that had zero or even as few as two students in a year. The second student was a short girl and she went with determined steps and after a short while the hat burst out with a "Gryffindor". There were cheering but most people were completely engrossed now as the last student closed in towards the sorting hat. She felt sorry for the poor boy as the entire room was fixated on him. The moment he put on the hat there was complete silence in the room as the people stared intensely and almost as to prank the whole school the sorting hat took a long time to decide and the room was quieter then River had ever seen it with half as many students. Then after what felt like forever it shouted "Gryffindor" and the Gryffindor started to cheer but they were not as vigorously as usual and the poor boy ran to his table.

Then the entire room exploded in chatter as they all began to digest what just happened. The Slytherin looked devastated and several of the people she could see where smirking at them. She looked at the perfect and he had a smile that made River shiver, the head boy expression, on the other hand, was blank. She looked at Eden and he seemed to be deep in thought. River took a lock at the teacher table and no one there was looking happy. McGonagall's face was unreadable. The one that looked the most down was an overweight man she recognized as Slughorn from her sister's description. But everyone soon went quite a Headmistress McGonagall stood up and with no hint that anything extraordinary had happened, she began her speech. "for our new student we extend a welcome and for a returning student welcome back. As always, the forbidden forest is as the name suggest forbidden and we have some students that will require time to adjust back into the student life and I feel like I shouldn't have to tell you that you should treat them with respect." Several eyes looked at her as she felt herself blush. McGonagall continued without pause as you might have noticed we have renamed the subject of defence against the dark art to magic defence this is the temporary name and are subject to change. With that have the pleasure of introducing professor Mcknight and Ramos. Mcknight a tall lean man that reminded of minister Kinsley and Ramos was a short woman in her sixties with a grey hair in a bun. "They will take over defence and transfiguration respectively let eat" the food emerged and all the excitement drained out of River as the food looked and smelled delicious. There where pies, bred, pumpkin juice and several other things River missed. it smelled delicious and it made her feel down as she knew that it whole taste like nothing. She took only the healthy as when the sense of taste was gone what was the point in eating unhealthy. There was a bunch of conservations, but she was isolated from all of them. She could guess what they were talking about there could not be any other topic except the historical event that had just taken place. There were some that looked at her but they quickly looked the away when she turned towards them. She ate in solitude and when the first people left the great hall she followed them. She felt like a stalker but fortunately, there destination was not far from the great hall. She held a respectful distance but they still looked back with fear. They arrived at an old armour with a shield that had a flower pattern and if you looked closely you could see a small Hufflepuff symbol in the hilt of the sword and with a light tap, it came to life. "Password," it asked in the familiar mix of female and male voices. She heard the person in front say Trenrela and she repeated it for herself until she was sure that she would remember it. The wall swung opened and with keeping the distance she entered the Hufflepuff common room.

The Hufflepuff common room was as she remembered it a big rectangular room with two fireplaces in the opposite corners of the room. The doors that led to the bedrooms and bathrooms were opposite side of the door to the rest of the castle. There was a large metal door a bit away from the other doors that looked like it could take a grandee and not even flinch or in this case hold a werewolf. She could guess who was going to live there. The door was probably more for show than anything as the same results could be made with spells. This was not made for her she thought bitterly it was so the others would feel safe. She felt shame for how angry she felt that the other was afraid of her. Had she not been exactly as bad when she had found out that professor Lubin had been a werewolf. Still to her defence she was only a little child and did not know any better. But to the defence of a lot of her fellow students so where they. That thought that failed to improve her mood. She opened the door and there where a staircase leading down. She descended the stairs feeling both down that she was separated from the other as well as relieved that she could avoid the awkward of sleeping with the others. The stairs descended about twenty meters before ending in another door this one a bit less sturdy. Behind the door was another common room with a fireplace , two armchairs and with a table between the armchairs. On the opposite wall of the door she could see the bathroom door. It was small compared to the Hufflepuffs common room, but it still had a homey feel. There were two doors that had nameplates on them. She went to the door that had her name on it she open it. She had expected it to lock like her old cage with maybe a softer bed. But instead what met her was a brightly lit room with a big bed, a wardrobe, desk, chair, and a mirror. She saw that all the furniture could be retracted into the wall which meant that even if she were to go wolf here, she could protect the furniture by retracting them into the wall. Her stuff was in her trunk by the bed and the room felt warm and welcoming. It was perfect, the door even had a lock on the inside so she could look herself in on the full moon but she knew that they already had other arrangements for that. She sat down warily in her armchair, She felt like going back to Hogwarts had been a bad idea. She knew that she most likely bullied and that she would likely never be excepted. She was just lucky that Lupin had been there before her as he had been on the school for seven years without anything happening. Even if he had been a werewolf incognito. He was still a hero that died when he helped the defenders beat him who must not be named. But she was not and even if her mind had expected bad treatment, She realised that she been under the delusion that lupin somehow would have cured people of their fear of werewolf and that her old friends would easily overcome that fear and still be her friend. She chastise herself as if they had done that they would had written a letter at least doing the last two months. She had almost fallen asleep in the chair when there where a knock on the door which took her out of her half-asleep state yet again.

She hurried to sit up straight as McGonagall strode in with a girl from Ravenclaw. Which surprised River even more than the headmistress coming to visit. She looked at the girl that she guessed was in her third or the fourth year. she had long black hair with blond highlights. She was looking down and River had a hard time seeing her eyes. She felt a strange nervousness which she could not place where it came from as well as a feeling of discomfort. McGonagall said in her usual firm tone "I was going to grab you after the feast but you ended it earlier than expected" there were no accusation in her tone but she still felt an urge to explain herself but McGonagall did do not give her the opportunity " so we will just do the introductions here. Meat Rosie Myers she will be living across the hall from you so you to will be sort of roommates. And miss Myers this is River Blackwell" River nodded and she looked up with emerald green eyes and to her surprise, she did not see as much fear as the fellow students. She seemed more curious than anything else. "You a probably wondering why I brought a Ravenclaw to the Hufflepuff common room". River nodded "Miss Myers has undergone a different experiment to yours that involved in making people able to read and affect minds. It was somewhat successful in her case. She can feel others emotions and some of their thoughts and she also has the unfortunate side effect of projecting her emotion to others if she is not very careful. The effect which you are experiencing now. She felt a wave of embarrassment that got worse as Rosie realized that she had sent it out.

McGonagall continued seemingly unaffected" the reason she is here is that when she can normally keep the mind probing to a minimum when she is asleep she loses control. This is the only place where she can be isolated as the chambers here are apart from the castle in some manner." The nervousness had started to dim McGonagall continued with a tired look "We have tried to make it as good as possible for you both here but I afraid that you still will get hardship from both the other students as well as parents. But let me assure you that you both belong here whatever anybody else tries to tell you" River almost chokes up "thank you headmistress" she managed to get out. McGonagall gave them a tired smile" Do not thank me yet. I have not been able to quell people fears that much yet and I will need both of you to make sacrifices to calm them down somewhat." "One more thing Myers is mute so there will be some difficulties in communication" River felt a rush of excitement as she used sign language to say, "hi how are you feeling?". Rose eyes widen in surprise and she almost trembling replied with "hi I feel good you?" River felt her relief stronger than any emotion so far. She was going to respond with good but change her mind "awful I feel rely nervous at starting the year" the girl smiled "I lied I also feel awful" McGonagall looked at both of them a genuine smile on her lips" Well I think that will be all for today we will talk later when your visits to St Mungo are going to happen and I will speak to Blackwell tomorrow how we will handle the full moon" They both nodded. She turned and walked out leaving them alone.

It was a strange situation as both were relieved to have someone to talk to that did not look at them with horror but both were tired and had things they did not want to talk about. They did not compare experiment stories or talk about how it was to be a werewolf or what Rosie was. Not that River was not curious about her roommate's past but as she was not ready to give answers to the little of her past she could remember. She could not ask it of Rosie to answer that kind of questions. Their talk lasted only a short while. They spoke of how River knew sign language and she only said that her mother had been deaf and mute so they learned it to be able to communicate with her. River learned that her new friend was muggle born which might explain her lack of fear as they had not heard stories of the werewolf as they grew up. Her being muggle born also explain why she was experimented on. River got the pleasant news that Rosie was taking the third year over as she missed the entire last year so they were in the same year. With a much lighter heart, they said goodnight and went to bed. She checked the time to make sure that she would not need another dose of dreamless potion before she went to sleep and decided that it would be fine. It did not take long for sleep to arrive for her at last.