I nervously chewed on my bottom lip once my father merged, becoming just another body in the crowd at Kings Cross Station. As the train lurched to a start, our families simultaneously began tearfully waving to their little witches and wizards knowing they were off to get the best education in the country. Probably the entire world.
I found my dad's eyes through the haze of the smoke. He smiled up at me, waving his hand encouragingly. Pressing my nose against the glass, I waved back. I was to far away to see them, but I could imagine the crinkles by his lightly cloudy blue eyes as he grinned back. His scruffy and tired face looked so young when he smiled. Watching him become a small dot as the train chugged away sparked old memories.
I pulled my eyes from the rolling landscape and leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I remembered the days when I was young and I would curl up in my daddy's lap and stroke the stubble on his chin. He would playfully bite at my hand. I would squeal gleefully and yank my hand back, hide it in my jacket until I thought it would be save to steal another brush of my father's cheek. Of course it was never safe to, he would always be ready, but that was the nature of our little game.
The compartment door rolled open and a girl that looked around my age stuck her head around the corner. Her long platinum blonde hair framed her face nicely, I noticed. She had her school robes on already.
"Hello," she twittered in a strongly musical voice. She came in and sat down across from me. I shrunk back in my seat a little, not sure about her company.
"Anybody sitting here?" she asked. 'A little late for that,' I thought to myself.
My wide eyes took in all of her features. She was petite and looked like a fragile doll, but her body and her language clearly stated strongly independent. It was a strange mix, her arm slung across the back of the seat like someone at a football game and the other one cradling a small handbag.
She gave me a confused look, raised her eyebrows.
Oh. I cleared my throat, "Umm, I guess you are."
She blew a fast stream of air through her nose and smirked. Was that supposed to be a laugh?
"You're funny," she said with and air of importance about her. "Syreni Malfoy," she said, sticking her hand out in front of her with a genuine smile painted on her cheeks.
"Renea Lupin." I let the ghost of a smile appear on my face, remembering what my father had said this very morning.
"Don't be afraid to make a few friends," he had said, "They help a lot. I would know." At that point his eyes were distant and he was smiling to himself, most likely thinking about his friends he met when he went to school.
Dad has told me hundreds of stories about the Marauders. My Dad, nicknamed Moony, had been accepted to Hogwarts, like me, despite his disease and the prejudice that came with it. Dumbledore had found a way to get him in.
Once at school, my dad tried steering away from other people, refusing to accept any risk to hurt someone or for someone to find out about his furry little secret. But James and Sirius couldn't be held back simply by being ignored. They had forcefully befriended my dad, and as expected eventually began to wonder where he ran off to every month. They didn't quite believe him when he said he had to visit his mother. A mother can be ill only a certain amount of time.
Then they finally put two and two together. Their friend, Remus Lupin, was a werewolf.
Instead of shunning him and revealing his secret to the whole school like my father had expected, James, Sirius, and Peter became animagi - witches or wizard who can morph into animals at will. Since they couldn't accompany Dad during his time of being a werewolf as people (he might unintentionally devour them), they learned how to transfigure themselves into animals. My dad had finally found himself true friends, and along with them came comfort nothing else could configure.
Of course not everyone is completely open to being friends with a potential monster. We are looked down upon; they believe we have tainted blood.
I sighed and evaluated the girl in front of me. Would she be terrified of me if I told her? Disgusted maybe?
"This is your first year?" she asked with eyes like x-rays.
I nodded. That was all the answer she needed.
"Me too, but my family is pure blooded so i'm sure i'll get used to this place soon enough. You're pure blooded, right?"
I knew about the Malfoys. My dad had warned me about them.
"Yes," I said, only partly right. I was pure strictly speaking, but werewolf blood is considered to be tainted, especially to powerful purebloods like the Malfoys. I'll just conveniently forget to mention it.
She nodded in approval and continued. "I really hope i'm in Slytherin, the rest of my family either is or was. It sorta runs in the family. Where do you want to end up?"
"Gryffindor," I replied confidently. My father, Padfoot (Sirius), Prongs (James), and Wormtail (Peter) were all in the Gryffindor house. Then again, James and Peter were murdered and Sirius was the one who killed them along with 13 other muggles. He's in Azkaban now.
But my dad was in Gryffindor, and that's reason enough for me.
"Really?"
"My dad and Dumbledore himself were in it."
"Well, my father says Dumbledore is a bunch of rubish."
"And what makes him say that?" I was cool on the outside as I spoke, but my very cells ground together. Dumbledore, rubish? Ha! If we want to talk about rubbish Syreni, let's talk about your father Lucius!
"I mean, just look at what he has done to Hogwarts!"
My stomach clenched and my eyebrows wove together. "You haven't even been there yet."
"I guess, but the way my father speaks of it, it's probably worse than I expected." She pursed her lips together and noticed the fury building in my eyes. Her eyebrows rose and a smirk played on her lips. "I didn't mean to anger you Lupin," her eyes glinted with amusement. "Just sharing my opinion.
"Well maybe you should have conclusive evidence to back you your 'Opinion', other than 'my father said so'," I snapped back. I realized how I was getting off on the wrong foot already and I haven't even gotten to school! I unfurled my eyebrows and composed my face. I need to control my temper.
"You've got a bit of a bite Lupin," she chucked, delight dancing in her eyes. "There may be a little Slytherin in you yet!"
Curse my facial expressions.
"Yes, I should hope so... I don't know whether I could stand having a friend in Gryffindor."
Friend?
She must have noticed my quizzical look, she smiled a bit. It reached her eyes.
I had a friend.