Lost In Paradise
Chapter One: In Which Everyone Says Hello to Each Other
"Life is heavier
than the weight of all things."
-Rainer Rilke
XXX
He thinks her name is absurd.
She thinks it's silly to be named after dead people.
He doesn't read. Thinks it's boring.
She lives in the library, rarely venturing out of her own fantasies.
He has a famous family.
Her family is a disgrace.
He's a Gryffindor.
She's a Slytherin.
He loves her.
She might just love him back.
XXX
Hadley Nott made her way quickly and quietly onto the Hogwarts Express, slipping unnoticed through hordes classmates and first-years. Her trunk was light behind her, Mrs. Nott having put a featherweight charm on it before dropping her off that morning and her owl, Charon, had flown ahead to Hogwarts.
Hadley went grossly unnoticed as she dodged running children and stepped over trunks quickly and nimbly. She made her way onto the train and chose a compartment in the last car, on the right. She put her trunk up onto the rack and pulled a very small book out of her pocket. Using her want, she enlarged it. The title was Muggle, something her father would greatly disapprove of.
All was quiet as she began reading the book. It was wondrous—containing tales of talking rabbits in waistcoats and Mad Hatters and a little girl who'd truly found Wonderland. Hadley was engrossed in the book when the door to her compartment was thrown open and three large figures burst through.
Hadley was startled but showed none of this on her face, having learned from a young age that to hide all emotion was a distinct advantage in most (all) social situations.
The large figures revealed themselves to be three rather disheveled boys from her year. The tallest one was Colby Jordan (otherwise known to the general female population of Hogwarts as Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome). He was the son of Lee Jordan and Alicia Jordan Nee Spinnett. Colby was the Quidditch Commentator and somewhat of a prodigy when it came to Care of Magical Creatures. Hadley had overheard her father say that it was because he had been raised by wolves. In her experience, however, she'd found him to be quite nice, not that they had ever spoken.
Next was one of the many Weasleys, a family her father had expressly forbidden her from associating with. Troublemakers, he called them. Fred was an odd sort. He looked very very much like his father, but was just a bit tanner and had dark brown eyes like his mother, Angelina Weasley Nee Johnson. He was charming and clever, always coming up with the next elaborate lie to get the three of them out of trouble.
Last but, if he had anything to say about it, not least, was James Potter, son of the Chosen One. He was of the sort Hadley really couldn't stand. Colby and Fred were tolerable, and sometimes enjoyable to watch, but James Potter made her want to tear her hair out. He was a bit shorter than Colby, but taller than Fred was, and had shaggy black hair that had red highlights if it caught the sun just right. Long story short, James was an ass. He thought he was better than everyone and their mother and Hadley found that detestable. James was funny, charming, smart and all those typical things. Hadley thought he was distinctly unoriginal.
Did she mention that she'd never actually spoken to any of them?
Quickly, Colby shut the door and leaned against, still breathing heavily. Simultaneously, Fred and James flopped rather unceremoniously onto the bench across from her. Hadley looked at them all expectedly, but none of them spared her a second glance. Quietly, she cleared her throat. Still, none of them acknowledged her existence.
Instead, she asked, quite loudly, "Can I help you?"
Each boy jumped and Fred startled so much that he slipped off the bench into a heap on the ground.
"Oh, er, yeah," Colby started, but James simply stared at her. "Uh, we're kind of in a bind…do you mind if we sit in here?" He threw on his most charming smile. Hadley sighed and nodded, resigning herself to the inevitability that she wouldn't be able to finish her book.
James was still staring at her and Fred was climbing back up onto his seat.
"Yeah, we kind of pissed off my cousin and she started after us," Fred explained. "We figured she wouldn't look for us all the way back here."
Hadley nodded and opened her book, hoping the boys would be respectful of the silence she had previously maintained.
It was a short-lived hope.
"Do I know you?" James blurted out. Hadley looked up at him but remained silent. "No, seriously. I know I've seen you around. What year are you in?"
"Yours," she answered shortly. She knew that she was veritably invisible at Hogwarts, and she happily maintained that status, but these boys acted as if they had never seen her before. She'd had almost every class with them for the past six years.
James's faced scrunched up and then a look of comprehension (at least she thought that's what it was) dawned upon his face. "You're in Slytherin, right? Hannah or Harriet or something, yeah? I knew I recognized you."
Almost immediately, she felt herself fill with an unfamiliar rage. Rarely did she ever feel an overabundance of anger anymore. A long time ago, she had stopped feeling most anything.
"My name," she said through gritted teeth. "is Hadley."
Again his face scrunched up, but it was different this time. "That's…that's a pretty weird name, isn't it?" He started laughing. "That's not even a real word!"
She could feel her face turning red and quickly Colby introduced himself. He stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Colby Jordan, and these jackasses are James Potter and Fred Weasley."
Hadley shook his hand hesitantly, remembering that he was the most tolerable of the trio. "Erm, pleasure." She said.
It was then that she noticed that Colby was wearing a very expensive-looking, rather well-tailored suit. Hadley wondered if her were going to a party or something.
Before she could stop him, James had grabbed the book off her lap.
"Well, what's this?" He turned the book over in his hands a few times, examining it as if it were a foreign object.
"Well, it's obviously a book, mate." Fred pointed out, smiling.
"Thanks for pointing that out, dipwad." James said.
"Give me back my book, please." Hadley said as kindly as she could muster.
James simply smirked and read the title. "Alice in Wonderland?" he read. "Why're you reading this rubbish?"
Hadley could take him not knowing her name. He could take him insulting her name. But insulting her books? Not a snowball's chance in hell.
Quietly, murderously, she glared at him. "Get. Out."