Chapter 1- An Interesting Journey
A/N: hey all, it has been a LONG time since I've been on here! I bet you all thought I died, huh? :) well, I have come into a lot of free time lately, so I have been working on something new...see the author's note at the end for more details concerning other stories....
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER..... I mean, really, how could I?
I'm more failure,
Than I am savior,
And I hope my past
Won't tell my future's story
Good Night and Good Luck-The Fast Track
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
"Listen here, you ungrateful little wench, you will never be anything more than scum," Mack sneered at me from the door of my room, as I tried to focus on getting an essay done. "D'ya hear me? Nobody will ever want you and you will always be invisible, somebody of no consequence!"
"Are you going to say anything original?" I asked, not looking at him. "Or at least anything that you haven't already told me? Because if you're not, then please leave."
He didn't say anything for a minute, probably trying to work out if I'd actually just talked back to him. It didn't happen often. Then he stormed into my room, grabbed me by the hair, and flung me into the wall. I crumpled into a heap on the floor next to the window, kicking myself mentally for letting him get the better of me. I never could keep my mouth shut.
"You think you can talk to me like that?" he asked venomously. "You would be on the streets if it weren't for me!"
I sat up and tried to stop the room from spinning around me. But I had no sooner begun to focus when the back of Mack's hand caught me across the cheek. The sheer force of the slap caused me to crack my head on the windowsill and I feel could the blood begin to flow from the cut. I braced myself for the next blow, but Mack seized me by the hair again and pulled me up until we were face to face, my feet dangling off the floor.
"I can't wait for you to be finished at that freak school," he whispered menacingly. "Then maybe you can pretend to be normal again."
He let go of my hair and I fell to the floor, landing on my left ankle with a sickeningly crunch. Mack smiled at the gasp of pain that slipped between my lips and slammed the door behind him. I cradled my ankle as I listened to the sounds of my crazy brother as he moved around the house. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down, as I waited for the only sound I wanted to hear. And fifteen minutes later I heard it—the slam of the front door as Mack left for work.
I heaved myself up to my chair and made a makeshift splint out of a magazine, two rulers, and some rubber bands around my ankle. It had already swollen two times its normal size. I stood and tested it. Little needles of white hot pain shot through my body, but I only needed to make it to the fireplace. Mack didn't know, but I had hooked it up to the Floo Network two years ago so I didn't have to walk so far to the village.
I hopped downstairs and took a pinch of floo powder from my pouch. I all but jumped into the emerald green flames and shouted, "Potter residence."
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
As soon as the spinning stopped I fell, rather ungracefully, out of the Potters' fireplace and onto the hearth. In the process, I managed to bang my head on the brick of the fireplace and I landed in heap on my injured ankle.
"Oh for the bloody sake of Merlin," I moaned, closing my eyes in pain, rolling over on my back, and clutching my ankle. "Shite, shite, shite…"
"Er, are you okay?" A voice from somewhere above me asked.
I opened my eyes and twisted my head, only to find eight pairs of eyes watching me. Of course James and his three best mates would be in the living room at the precise moment I decided to drop in. It just wouldn't be humiliating enough unless these four blokes were here to witness my misery. Usually they were out whenever I came to call.
"Yes, I'm fine," I said, somehow managing to sit up and face the group of boys. "Sorry to drop in like this, James, but is your mum around?" I asked the boy on the left.
"Yeah, she's out back," he said, glancing between me and his friends, who seemed quite shocked to see me there.
I struggled to stand up, trying to move my left foot as little as possible. Giving the boys a smile—which, I'm sure, looked more like a grimace—I began to hobble my way towards the kitchen. I didn't want to seem like a complete spaz in front of the most popular boys in school, so I put more pressure on my ankle than I should have. Two steps later and I was in a crumpled heap on the floor once more, cursing my ankle to oblivion.
"Do you want some help?" James asked, standing up.
"No, no, I don't want to interrupt, er, whatever it is you four are doing," I said, waving him off with my hand. I wished they'd just ignore me.
But before I could even make another sorry attempt at standing, I felt two pairs of strong hands slip under my arms and pull me up. Looping an arm around each of their necks, Sirius Black and James Potter then proceeded to scoop my legs out from under me, holding my body between the two of theirs in a fireman's carry.
"Look, love, you can barely stand, and we're really doing nothing of any importance," Sirius said, as he and James carried me to the kitchen. As if my humiliation wasn't bad enough, here I was being carried like a child by the two most popular boys in all of Hogwarts.
"What the bloody hell happened to you, anyway?" James asked.
"Er, well, you see it's rather quite embarrassing," I said, launching into a story that I had practiced for just such an occasion. "See, as I was on my way to the loo, I tripped over the rug and went tumbling down the stairs. I'm quite clumsy and I think I broke my ankle. Since I can't use magic, well, I figured your mum could help me."
"You tripped and fell down the stairs?" Sirius asked and I looked up at him. He was looking at me, a disbelieving glint in his eyes, as though he knew I was lying.
"Oh, Rian's always tripping over something," James laughed, coming to my rescue without even knowing it. "Why, this one time, summer after third year, she somehow managed to slice her arm open with a knife. Quite the nasty gash, something like eight inches long and two and half inches deep, if I remember correctly. You still have the scar?"
"Yeah," I replied quietly, as they set me down on the counter. What I didn't tell James was that Mack had been drunk and trying to kill me. I'd gotten away with the gash, but just only.
"Hey, mum! Rian's here!" James called out to the back patio.
"Well, thanks for the help," I said to Sirius dejectedly. "I really appreciate it."
"Sure, no problem," he said as James turned back to us. "You really should be more careful," he added, touching the gash on my head softly and giving me a pointed look. I didn't like that look one bit. James and Sirius left just as Mrs. Potter walked in.
"Oh, hello dear!" Mrs. Potter said. "My goodness, what happened to you?" she asked when she saw the state I was in.
"Tripped over the rug and fell down the stairs," I muttered as she went to work fixing me up.
"I see," she sighed. I don't think she ever bought any of my excuses, but she never accused me of being untruthful.
The Potters had been friends of my family for years. My father had been a squib, unable to do magic, but his family had been good friends with Mr. Potter's. My father had married a muggle and they had Mack and me. I knew nothing about magic until I received my letter for Hogwarts, but I had always suspected that there was something funny about James and his family, not to mention the whole village that we lived by. But Dumbledore had come to explain that I was magical and that I had a place waiting for me at Hogwarts. My father was ecstatic because he finally had a link back to the world that he grew up in.
That night, he sat my brother and me down to explain to us about the wizarding world and how magic worked. My mother, too, was happy for me. They could finally start telling us about the strange things we'd experienced as kids.
"But you told me that I was just imaging that!" I'd exclaimed, when my father told me about apparating.
"Well, the rules are very strict, sweet," he had replied laughing. "Your mother and I decided it was best that you and Mack not know about wizards because you two weren't directly affected by them."
"So why do we live so close to a wizard village, then?" Mack asked pointedly. He'd been seventeen at the time.
"Well, while I can't perform magic myself, I love everything about the world I had to leave behind. I guess it's just nice to be close to a part of it, it reminds me of my family," my father told him.
"So, does that mean James and I will go to the same school?" I asked.
"Yes, dear, you two will go Hogwarts together," he turned back to me with a smile that I couldn't help but return. "Won't it be nice to know someone?"
"I suppose, even if he is a strange boy," I said and my mother laughed. "What?" I asked turning to her.
"You only thought he was strange because he can't control his magic yet," she said. "But, if I remember correctly, you too have had some strange things happen to you."
It was true. I had grown up playing with James Potter, that strange boy who lived down the road from us. And both of us had been caught up in strange happenings, although he knew why and I didn't. He told me so once, telling me it was a secret that I couldn't know because I was girl. That had made me so mad and I thought about how funny James would look with no hair. Then a second later, a bald James stood before me.
Now, I watched as Mrs. Potter mended my ankle. I hated to think of my parents. It had been six years since they'd died. The memories served only as a reminder that they were dead and I was stuck with Mack. My brother hated me so much because of what I was. At first I had wished with all my heart that I wasn't a witch anymore, that I was just a plain boring muggle. I thought if I wasn't a witch he might not hate me anymore. But as I grew up I realized that even if I wasn't a witch, Mack would hate me all the same. He blamed me for our parents' death.
"There you go dear, all better," Mrs. Potter said a little while later. "Would you like some lunch? You look like you haven't eaten in days."
"Lunch would be great, Mrs. P," I said, hopping off the counter and sitting on one of the bar stools.
"How are things at home? Mack still holding down that job?" she asked, as she bustled about the kitchen.
"Yes, he got promoted to assistant manager," I told her. Mack worked at the local grocery store in the muggle village that was about five miles away from home. "He seems to like it well enough."
"Well, that's good," she said, setting a sandwich in front of me and summoning the jug of pumpkin juice from the fridge. "How's your summer been? I haven't seen you much."
"I've just been busy, is all," I replied. "I started working at that bar in the village and I've been trying to get my homework done so I can stop worrying about it."
"Does Mack know you're working?" she asked, eyeing me carefully.
"No, I work nights when he's sleeping or out with friends." I took another bite of my sandwich and wished I could just tell her what Mack was really like. But for whatever reason I just couldn't bring myself to expose my brother for the monster he was.
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
"Mack?" I knocked tentatively on his door, hoping he wasn't in one of his moods.
I heard some rustling around and then the door was flung open. "What?"
"I'm leaving, for school," I said and he just blinked at me. "So, I won't be back until next summer."
"Well, good riddance," he snapped. "Don't bother writing, cause I won't write back. Besides, I hate those bloody owls."
And with those last words of love he slammed the door in my face. I shook my head and went downstairs where my trunk was waiting. Mr. and Mrs. Potter had offered to give me a ride, which I had gratefully accepted. I was so happy to be leaving for another year. Mack had been more and more abusive this past summer and nothing I did seemed to placate him. I thanked Merlin that it had been a fairly cool August because it meant I could wear long sleeves and jeans without garnering too many strange looks. But how was I supposed to explain the constant bruises, welts, and cuts? I couldn't keep blaming my natural clumsiness; soon someone was going to start to notice that something was off. But if I could keep my colorful skin hidden, then I didn't have to worry about it.
As I lugged my trunk down the front steps, I heard someone walking towards me. I looked up and tried to suppress my groan of dislike. It was Gary, my brother's perverted best friend, who happened to have some strange obsession with me.
"Hey, there Rian, looking bloody great as usual," he drawled. I set my trunk down and looked up at him.
"Mack's inside," I told him, hoping he'd get the message.
"He's not going anywhere." Gary looked at me in a way that can only be described as wolfish. It was creepy. "So how have you been? I haven't seen you around much this summer."
"Fine." I found it best to keep my answers to one word when around Gary.
"Any boys that I should know about?" he asked, winking. I just looked at him. "You know, if you ever need help or anything, you can always give me a call." He stepped towards me, closing the space between us, too close for comfort.
"Hey, Rian, are you ready to go?" I turned and saw Sirius Black, of all people, standing there. Thank Merlin!
"Yes," I said, a little too eagerly because Sirius' eyebrows rose. I sidestepped Gary and grabbed my trunk, dragging it behind me. Gary threw Sirius a dirty look and Sirius just frowned at him. "Bye, Gary."
Gary turned around and went inside to find Mack. Sirius walked towards me and grabbed one of the handles of my trunk, helping me carrying it. "Who was that prick?" he asked.
"Just some creeper friend of my brother's," I said.
"Really? Because he's seems very interested in you, my friend," he said and I shot him a look. "I'm just saying, is all."
"Yes, well, thank you for coming when you did because he's just about the last person in the world I wanted to be stuck talking to," I said. "Why are you here?" I asked a second later. The last time I'd checked, Sirius didn't live in the village.
"I, er, decided to catch a ride with James to King's Cross," he said. "My family had other, more pressing engagements to attend to."
"O-kay," I said. He was acting very strange.
We walked the rest of the way in silence. I felt sufficiently awkward because I was not a social person by nature and Sirius was. In all honesty, I felt awkward most of the time because I never knew how to handle social situations. I didn't like being around lots of people or being the center of attention. In the five years I'd been at Hogwarts I'd managed to keep to myself, having no close friends and that really was the way I preferred it. If I just kept my head down and made it through school, then nobody would ask me questions I didn't want to answer. I wouldn't have to make up excuses so that people wouldn't think any less of me because of my brother. Sometimes it really sucked to be alone, but it was better than having somebody who would just confirm what my brother had been telling for years—that I was worthless.
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
The trouble started on the train. I had found a nice, empty compartment at the end and had just settled in for the long journey. I was in the middle of a book and I knew if nobody disturbed me I could probably get it finished by the time the train reached Hogsmeade. I'd had peace for about two hours when the door to my compartment burst open and a red haired boy dashed in. I looked up at him, slightly surprised. A second later a second boy, identical to the first, rushed in as well, closing the door behind him.
"Whew! That was close! Thank Merlin this compartment was empty," the first boy said. But the second boy had caught sight of me and pointed. "Oh! Well, bugger, I guess it wasn't empty."
"Er, can I help you?" I asked them. They looked vaguely familiar and I knew they were Gryffindors, a year above me.
"Why, I just think you might be able to, love," the second boy said, a smile spreading across his face. He whispered in his brother's ear and the first boy nodded. "If anybody happens to come along could you just say that we've been in here, with you, the entire train ride?"
"Why would I—" I started, but just then the door burst open again.
"Fabian and Gideon Prewett I am going to murder you in your sleep!" a shrill voice, at a frequency that only dogs could hear, shouted.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Dorcas, we've been in here the whole train ride," the first boy said, brow furrowing as he looked up at the girl in the doorway. "Why do you always insist on blaming us for everything that happens to you?"
"Because you two prats always have something to do with it!" she all but screamed at the two boys. Then she turned to me. "Are these two idiots bothering you?" she asked aggressively.
All I could do was stare for a moment. I had never, in my life, been a part of an outburst like this. Finally, I said, "Um, no, they've been in here the whole time. With me."
"Oh really?" she said, narrowing her eyes. "What's your friend's name, then? You all seem to be such good chums and all."
"Well, er—" the first boy said.
"You see, we call her—" the second boy tried to cover up for his brother.
"Precisely my point!" the girl, Dorcas, exclaimed waspishly. "Next time, maybe you should dive into the compartment of somebody that you know!"
And with that she stalked out of the compartment, slamming the door behind her. There was silence in the compartment for a minute and then—
"Sweet Merlin, did you she her face?" the first boy crowed, positively rolling on the floor in hysterics.
"And did you hear her voice?" the second one gasped, in as much of a fit as his brother. "I swear, I thought her head was about to explode!"
I just looked at the two before me. I'd never have known that they were seventeen by the way they were acting. They giggled madly at each other for at least another five minutes as I sat there helplessly watching them. I wondered what they had done to that girl to make her so angry.
"Forgive us, love, you must think us extremely rude," the first boy said when he could finally control himself. He stood up and stuck his hand out to me. "Fabian's the name."
"I'm Rian," I replied, taking his hand cautiously.
"And I'm Gideon!" the second boy said, shoving his brother out of the way to shake my hand. "Do you parents know you're a girl?" he asked.
"Come again?" I asked, confused by the question.
"Your mum and dad, were they aware that you are, in fact, a girl?" he repeated. I looked at him and then at his brother, who just shrugged.
"I'm pretty sure, yes," I said, wondering what he talking about. "Why? Do I not look like a girl?"
"Oh no! Nothing like that, it's just, well, Ryan is a boy's name," he said, as though it should have been obvious. Fabian hit his brother upside the head.
"You git! You're not supposed to actually say things like that! I mean, you've probably offended her now!" he said.
"Well, she has a peculiar name, I was just wondering!" Gideon retorted, rubbing his head. "You're not offended, are you?"
"I don't think so," I said slowly. I was unsure of how to feel.
"There, see, she's not offended!" he told his brother. He sat down on the seat opposite me and pulled out a sugar quill. Fabian sat next to his brother a second later and silence elapsed in the compartment once again.
I felt slightly scared for my life, being with these two boys, but I was curious nonetheless. So after a minute, I asked, "What did you to that girl? Dorcas? She seemed awfully angry at you."
"Oh, well, that's a funny story," Fabian said, grinning at me. "You see, good ol' Dorcas is our lovely cousin and she has no sense of humor, which is why she was sorted into Ravenclaw. Anyway, we were just playing a harmless wee joke on her."
"I mean, it's not as if anybody got a good look at her knickers!" Gideon added and I looked at him appalled. "We may have sent a charm to lift her skirt up as she passed a compartment full of boys from her house, but really, it was all in good fun."
"I wouldn't blame her to make good on her promise to murder you two in your sleep," I said, laughing in spite of myself.
"Nah, she just says stuff like that. She really loves us too much to hurt us too bad," Fabian said, shaking his head. "She just wants us to think that she's tough and scary."
"Besides, she doesn't have the password to get into our tower," Gideon added.
I honestly didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing. I just shook my head the two boys. I went back to my book, figuring that the conversation was over. But after about ten minutes I got the strangest feeling that someone was watching me. And sure enough, when I looked up both of them were staring at me.
"What?" I asked, taken aback.
"Nothing," they said in unison.
But they kept staring at me. I tried my best to ignore them and succeeded for another twenty minutes, but then I became increasingly self-conscious. I could feel them looking at me and it was maddening to not know why.
"Really, what is it?" I asked exasperatedly.
"Nothing," they repeated in unison.
"Well, then, stop staring at me. I don't like it," I said, returning to my book.
Five minutes later I looked up and found that they were still at it. They were staring at me as though I were some sort of fascinating animal on display at the zoo. So I stared back. I figured if I couldn't beat them, I'd just join them. And so we sat there like that, just staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. I was so caught up in this weird game we were playing that I barely heard the door open.
"Well, what the bloody hell is going on in here," a familiar voice asked. Neither the boys nor I moved or answered him. "He-llooooo," he said waving his hand in the space between us.
"Maybe somebody used that Petrificus Totalus charm on them?" another voice suggested.
I wanted to look and see who it was, but I didn't want to lose. And it was at that moment that I realized just how absurd I was being. Here I was, playing some weird silent staring game with two boys I hardly knew. And even though I knew it was ridiculous and I wanted to turn away, I just couldn't.
Finally, one of the boys gave Fabian a hard shove pushing him into Gideon and they fell off the seat and onto the floor. The other boys laughed and I looked up to see the Marauders standing there. "What the in Merlin's name was that all about?"
"C'mon, Potter! Couldn't you see that we almost had her?" Fabian asked huffily, waving a hand at me.
"Yeah, I mean, she was just about to crack!" Gideon said, pouting.
"Er, what are you on about?" James asked, cocking his head to the side and looking at me. I just raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
"She was just about to have an outburst! You know, like how Evans is always screeching at you?" Fabian said and this statement was so ridiculous that I couldn't help but give a snort of laughter.
"So that's what you were trying to do?" I asked and they all turned to look at me. "I thought you were just playing some sort of staring game."
James and his friends burst out laughing as Fabian and Gideon sputtered like fish out of water. I wasn't sure exactly what was quite so funny, but all the same I found myself smiling at the looks on the twins' faces as they tried to comprehend what was going on.
"You mean, you weren't about to yell at us to get the bloody hell out?" Fabian finally asked.
"Why would I do that?" I asked.
"Well, because—" he stopped and scratched his head. "You know, I really have no idea."
pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq
A/N IMPORTANT: so, here I am, with a new story and new fresh ideas. If there are readers who were reading Sunshine and its sequel Bloody Brilliant, I don't blame you for wanting to kill me...but in all honesty, Bloody Brilliant was turning into complete crap and I lost all interest in it. So I disappeared for a while (like 2 years, but who's counting?) I can't make any promises about Bloody Brilliant, but let me say this: I have been looking over it and making revisions to the plot and chapters I have. I don't know if I'll re-post it or finish it, but just know that there is a glimmer of a chance--which is more than there was two years ago. In the meantime, enjoy this new story. I have quite enjoyed writing it thus far. Rian is a fun character to write, and it's different than the other stories I've written, so hopefully you guys are enjoying it thus far too!! :) anyways, that's my long winded excuse for why I was gone for sooo long.
Now, do you see the button at the bottom of the page that says review? It would just so lovely for you tell me what you think so far-- I love to hear what the readers have to say!!
oh and ps-- I was reading through some old reviews on my other stories and there is nothing better to boost your confidence that to read the comments of people who like what you do. I'm not trying to sound, conceited, I promise, I just thought I'd throw that out there and thank everyone in advance who reviews, I really really do appreciate--all authors do!! :)