"Well of course you're going to be afraid, silly
"Well of course you're going to be afraid, silly. Everyone is afraid on their first day!"
"Thanks, Hunter," I mumbled. My brother was trying to be comforting, but it really wasn't his thing. He was much better at bullying me.
"Anyway," he said while stretching out even more in the car, "its not like you'll be late because you forgot anything. Everyone knows to pick on the Firsty who forgets something and his mom has to run after him trying to hand it to him through a window." He grinned at me and put his huge feet on one of my trunks. Closing his eyes he began to retell the story of Jimmy Phoenix from Harrow. Not like he'd been retelling it for four years now.
My brother Hunter was going to be a Sixth year at Hogwarts. He was in Slytherin and didn't seem too bothered by it. Our American father, however, was not pleased. He was from the South and full of "tough love". He said he didn't want to see Hunter "do something stupid like fall in witha bunch of racist crack heads like the Death Rats". Yeah, that's Dad. Our mother wasn't big on the idea of Hunter being in Slytherin, but she knew that Hunter wasn't as rotten as the rest, he just had insecurity problems. It wasn't really self-esteem, more like he wanted to be left alone when he wanted to be left alone. So he turned to bullying, at a rather young age I might add. It probably started when I came around.
I was going into my first year at Hogwarts. Being a half blood I was really nervous to be getting thrown in with a bunch of other young wizards and witches, times as they were. I had really only seen Hunter and his other aggressive friends and they did not make a very good impression on me.
"Is this scrawny little thing your sister? She looks more like a mouse!"
Hunter chuckled. "Yeah, this is Sherry. She's like seven or something." He shoved my head away from the book I was reading and jumped up the stairs towards the game room. When he pushed my head, though, my head hit the wall with a loud thud. My eyes stung with tears as the three other boys laughed and ran up the stairs after my brother. I glared after them, perturbed that they had interrupted my reading. One boy, Willie Beason, happened to look down at me over his shoulder.
"Holly shit! Her eyes are red!"
The other boys stopped and whirled around to look, but I had already changed them back to a plain, cool blue. Being a Metamorphus was nice.
"You fag, their blue." Reed Mouser was an Irish boy who looked like he wouldn't win a fight against a fly, but he was quick. Hunter said he was deadly fast, but I doubt that Reed ever did any real killing.
"They were red a second ago! Honest!" Willie's face turned a slight pink. I think he was a little confused.
"Liar, how could they be red?" Sean Gilllman was a round boy with a head of beautiful bond curls. It was a shame he was such a pig head.
"They just were, ok?" Now I knew that Willie was confused. Boy, Slytherins sure are smart.
"Tit!"
"Git!"
And that's when they started fighting. They punched and kicked and head butted. I was glad they didn't do anything stupid like try to use magic. They ended up rolling down the stairs in a ball of legs and arms. I jumped up and scooted over to the couch just in time to see Hunter come back out of the game room.
"What the hell is going on?!" Uh-oh, Daddy's home.
The three boys tried to stand up, but couldn't manage. Hunter groaned as they fell over again. This drew Dad's attention up to him.
"Get. Them. Out," he snarled.
Incidents like that had been happening since Hunter came back from Hogwarts that first summer. I didn't like any of his friends, not a single one. But now I was going to a school full of them. Hunter had brought home so many, I didn't see how there could be a single person there who wasn't as pigheaded as the boys I had seen.
I heaved a heavy sigh and stared out my window. My mother turned around in her seat and patted my knee. "Just smile, sweetie. Just smile and it will be alright."
My mother though smiling solved everything. The funny thing was, it had worked so far. She had gone to Hogwarts, too. She was a Hufflepuff and very proud of the fact. Dad had gone to some school in West Texas and had meet Mom at an international meeting of wizarding powers. Both were very involved in politics and horse races and hit it off right away. A year later they were married and the next year Hunter showed up, then came me. They both still love horse races, but are less involved in politics, times being what they are.
I turned back to look at her and smiled while making my face and eyes a slight pink. Mom laughed a little and turned back to the front. There was something about pink eyes that just made her laugh.