A/N: So...this is my Harry Potter OC story. It's about six 14-year-olds who get accepted to Hogwarts late (original, right? Wait, it should get better). Anyways, they're in the same year as Potter and his friends. I hope you enjoy my story (nothing magicky happens for a couple chapters, but bear with me here!)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or its characters. Any of the characters you don't recognize, I made up. Harry Potter and its people, places and things belong to J.K. Rowling. Thanks much!
Nathan Adder's entire family was composed of Pureblooded witches and wizards. His father, Joseph Adder, was extremely skilled in healing spells and potions (he worked at St. Mungo's) while his mother Carmina Adder could do practically anything with her wand. His older sister Gabriella had just graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with high scores on her N.E.W.T.s and praise from many of her teachers as a brilliant and level headed young witch. Nathan's grandparents on both sides were well-known Purebloods in the wizarding community, and Nathan's Uncle Stephan worked at the Ministry of Magic. As for Nathan... well. When Nathan was born, he blinked twice and a potted plant in the hospital waiting room exploded into brightly coloured fireworks. After that, Nathan had showed no sign of magical ability. On his 11th birthday, the time when his Hogwarts letter was to come, nothing happened.
His parents tried not to look too disappointed but, as his sister explained in a sympathetic tone before she left for her fifth year at Hogwarts, he was the first in his family for generations to be born a Squib.
Squib. That was a particular word that left a bitter taste in Nathan's mouth every time he heard it.
He might as well have been born to Muggles - to many Purebloods in the wizarding community, the word 'Squib' was synonymous to 'Muggle'.
Nathan was thus raised with both wizarding and Muggle values, customs and rules. He took the tube to his Muggle public school, went shopping at Muggle malls, took the Floo Powder network to visit relatives and collected Quidditch posters (which he plastered all over his walls next to his favourite Muggle bands).
Nathan was now fourteen. He had his father's light brown hair and his mother's cappuccino skin. He lived on Randolph Road in Little Venice in a comfortable two-story, four-bedroom house with his parents and his sister. He took art classes at the Cascade Floating Art Gallery and often took the train to various malls and events with his friends. Most of his friends were Muggles, since he never had the chance to be in places wizarding kids frequented.
On June 31st, 1994 at exactly 11:39pm Nathan's life changed drastically. Seven hours and thirty-nine minutes earlier, Nathan was on a train heading for Paddington Station along with his two Muggle friends.
To Nathan's left was his Muggle friend Laura Taylor. Laura was a tall girl with an oval, serious-looking face. Her caramel coloured hair was French-braided in a plait down her neck and her blue-green eyes were focused on the pile of change in her hand. She was counting the coins under her breath, something that had become a habit especially during tough Math tests. "I think the cashier at that restaurant ripped me off!" she complained to Nathan's other Muggle friend Misako Asanuma. Misako was nursing a cup of coffee in one hand and holding her brand new red handbag in the other. She was a startlingly pretty Asian girl with slightly wavy black hair. Her long bangs were streaked golden-blonde and swept over the left side of her face.
"You dropped a 5-pence coin under your seat," she informed Laura. Laura looked bemused. "Did I?" she asked, lifting her sneakers off the floor for a better look. Misako nodded.
"Yup."
Laura bent over at the waist and groped quite fearlessly along the dirty floor of the public train. Beside her, Misako wrinkled her nose delicately.
Laura finally straightened up, triumphant, a shiny coin tucked between two of her knuckles. Nathan rolled his eyes and grinned as a cool female voice announced, "Paddington Station" over the PA system and the train started to slow.
Seconds later Nathan, Laura, and Misako stepped onto the platform at Paddington Station. The high, curved glass ceiling let in the late afternoon light and the station was filled with people coming to and from various places.
Paddington Station vaguely reminded Nathan of King's Cross Station, which brought back bitter memories of standing on Platform 9 ¾ every fall since he was eight, waving goodbye to his sister as she boarded the scarlet train to Hogwarts.
Nathan remembered himself at the age of ten, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waved enthusiastically at the great scarlet train pulling away from the platform.
He tugged urgently on his mother's skirt hem and reminded her, "Just one more year Mummy, and I'll get my letter too, right?"
His mother's smile was slightly strained, even to his ten-year-old eyes, as she looked down at him and placed a hand on his head. "Yes sweetie," she told him, "One more year."
Nathan also remembered a particular time when he was twelve, watching his mother and sister exchange hugs, when he was tapped on the shoulder by a boy about his age. Everything about the boy had been cool and slick – his white-blonde hair was slicked back against his skull, his robes were sleek and spotless, and his luggage was all glistening black leather and shiny silver buckles.
"Where's your luggage?" the boy asked him. "You're going to be late boarding the train."
His voice was as slick as his hair. Nathan shook his head, embarrassed. "I don't have any."
The boy arched one perfectly groomed eyebrow. "By that you mean it's already on the train?"
Nathan gave a nervous laugh. "No, I mean, I don't have any."
The boy's face took on a look of confusion and then he stiffened, coming to the final realization. Nathan could practically see the word reflected in his eyes: Squib. His stare seemed to be a mixture of disgust and reluctant sympathy. Squib.
"Hey, there's Damia!" Misako called, pointing across the crowd and bringing Nathan out of his memories. Nathan waved at his other Muggle friend, Damia Archer as she fought her way through the bodies to join them. Damia was a beanpole of a girl, with frizzy auburn hair and hazel eyes in a round, ruddy face. She was carrying a black shoulder bag that no doubt held her work uniform and had a cheese bun held between her teeth. She removed it as she ran up to them, grinning widely.
"Hey Dames." Laura greeted. "Are you heading home?"
Damia had a job in Westbourne Grove at a very fashionable boutique. Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoon she took the underground tube from Holland Park (near where she lived) to Notting Hill Gate.
Damia started chewing on the nail of her left thumb, a nervous habit from when she was very little. "Yeah… I kinda…got lost and ended up…here."
Laura stared at her. "Damia, how the heck can you get lost? Aren't Paddington Station and Notting Hill Gate on two completely different lines?"
Damia sniffed, her face flushing. "Well…yeah." She gave her friend a beseeching look. "How do I get home from here?"
"Let's see…" Laura squinted at the air, thinking. "You could take the Circle Line, 'cause it coincides with the East London Line near Holland Park."
Damia winced. "Man, this is gonna cost me an awful lot of train tickets…my mum's going to kill me."
Nathan smiled as he watched the two go back and forth. This was nothing new. Damia was a bright enough kid, but she couldn't find her way out of a paper bag. She usually went places with her friends so she wouldn't get lost.
Damia heaved a sigh as Laura kindly pointed her in the way of the gates to the Circle Line ("and remember to get on the Circle line heading towards Bayswater Damia, that's very important, not towards Edgware Road, that's in the opposite direction of your apartment." "Oh God," whined a befuddled Damia. "I'm gonna forget!")
"Poor Damia," Laura laughed as Damia bid each of them a harried farewell (pulling Nathan into a one-armed hug that choked him round the neck) and then made a sprint towards the Underground entrance.
Nathan chuckled along with her, and then checked his watch. "I have to get home, my mum was expecting me ages ago."
"Oh, okay." Laura nodded. "Misako's going to my house for dinner. We'll catch up with you later?"
"Definitely." They exited the station, exchanged hugs and set off their separate ways, Laura and Misako towards Sheldon Square and Nathan towards Randolph Road.
Fifteen minutes later, Nathan was opening the wrought-iron garden gate and taking the front steps of his house two at a time. The sun was starting to set as Nathan pulled a key from his jeans pocket started to fit it in to his front door. He paused. Looking up and down Randolph Road furtively, he turned back to the door, pointed his right index finger at the lock and whispered, "Alohamora."
A pigeon cooed from a nearby gutter. A car started up somewhere down the street and Nathan nearly jumped out of his skin. He tried the door. It was still locked.
Nathan didn't know why he felt so disappointed that pointing at a lock had no effect whatsoever. It was four years after the fact he was supposed to receive his Hogwarts letter…and he was going to have to accept the fact that he was a Squib. But for some reason, standing in the golden glow of near twilight, he had felt a rush of excitement, a feeling that something was going to happen.
Nathan slid his key into the lock, opened his door and stepped into his house.
Across the street his neighbour, Florence Gresham, was vacuuming the entryway carpet when her front door swung open by itself. She stared at it, surprised.
"Must've forgotten to lock it," she murmured to herself.
Nathan made a detour into the kitchen to give his mum a kiss on the cheek and apologize for his lateness. Carmina Adder, a stout woman with coarse, dark hair, gave him a smile. "Don't worry about it Nathan. Drop your stuff off in your room and we'll have dinner in a minute, okay?"
Nathan nodded and tromped up the stairs to his room. His door was painted a dark red and was shut and locked. Undoing the latch, Nathan stepped into his room and got a pillow in the face.
Someone broke out into giggles as Nathan spluttered and ripped the pillow from his vision. His older sister, Gabriella, was sitting on his bed, shuffling through his variety of CDs that were crammed awkwardly into the hanging CD rack above his stereo.
"MUM!" Nathan shouted down the stairwell. "Gabby Apparated into my room without permission again!"
"Gabby!" his mother's voice floated up to the siblings. "Get out of your brother's room! Come down here and help me set the table.
Sticking out her tongue at her younger brother, Gabriella heaved herself off his bed, flicking her straight dark brown hair over her shoulder. "Thanks for squealing." She told him snidely before Disapparating with a pop.
Feeling frustrated and non-magical, he slammed his bedroom door shut for emphasis.
The word 'Squib', Nathan decided as he pulled out a random CD and stuck it into his stereo, was a word that sounded like something very unpleasant that you find squished on your shoe.
That was what this whole magic business made him feel like.
A/N: That's my first chapter! Nothing's really happened, but...it'll get better! (winning smile) Promise!
