Cahpter 1: On the Train
Paige heard the large scarlet steam engine before she actually saw it. The loud whirring of the engine and the sound of hundreds of people filled her senses as a large cloud of steam escaped from the train. She had been envisioning the Hogwarts Express for months now and it was exactly how she had pictured it. Paige was hardly aware of the dozens of other people on Platform 9 ¾ or of her father behind her trying to keep a hold on her hand in the crush as she raced to get a closer look at the train that would take her to the very place she had wanted to go since she had first turned her grey tabby cat, Artemis, purple.
She remembered that day so vividly. She had run around the house showing her mother, father and Aunt Willa what a beautiful purple color Artemis now was, although the hissing and spitting cat didn't like it at all. Paige smiled at the memory of her mother laughing with joy at the sight of them. Those were one of the clearest memories of her mother she had.
It had been such a long time since her mother had passed and so much had changed, including her dad. He was devastated when mom died and had never really recovered. He barely even used magic anymore because he blamed magic, and in fact to some degree the whole wizarding world, on moms death. But Paige had no such aversion, she couldn't wait to get started in Hogwarts. She had been reading the textbooks required for this school year for weeks now and was ready to test out her abilities.
She sped her trolley holding her suitcase, spell books, favorite comforter and of course a grouchy Artemis towards the loading dock and was counting down the minutes till the train left the station. She looked around for her dad and rolled her eyes when she noticed him standing slightly aside from all the other parents and children, taking pictures on a muggle camera of his "little girl" as she left for school.
"Dad…. Dad! Come on. You have got to stop taking pictures of me already" Paige said exasperatedly "its not like this will be the last time you see me, I'll be back by Christmas." Paige took the camera out of his hands so she could get a better look at him.
Her father, a tall broad shouldered man, still showed signs of how handsome he used to be in his youth. His hair, longer now then it had ever been in the past, fell down past the nape of his neck in the same black wavy mess that Paiges was, although his hair had a generous sprinkling of gray, which by the looks of many of the mothers on the platform, did not take away to his looks but added to them. He had dark blue eyes which once upon a time were full of joy and amusement, seemed tired and haunted by many sleepless nights. He looked thinner to and she felt a pang of sadness that she could not help her father.
"Ah Paige you're being to hard on me. Its not every day that my little girl goes off to Hogwarts… and I haven't taken that many pictures. I'd say I only took about forty or fifty at the most" he said with a grin. "Anyways" he continued " I was wondering… are you sure you want to go to Hogwarts… Kent Preparatory has a wonderful facility and I hear there food is amazing… you can always change your mind you know…"
Paige stifled a groan as her father continued the speech he had already recited for about the tenth time since she had received her acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Kent Preparatory was a good clean magic-free learning facility that sounded absolutely dreadful in comparison to Hogwarts. Her dad had never said he didn't want her to go to Hogwarts… but he did make it perfectly clear that he would have liked for her to take a look at the other non-magical school brochures that he had brought home.
Dads aversion to magic was one of the hardest things to deal with after mom had died. Paige was only seven when she died and she didn't fully understand at the time that her mom was never going to come back. She would never see her moms smiling face or listen to her slightly off key voice as she sang along to the Wizard Wireless to the latest song as she washed the dishes the muggle way. She had not understood at the time that her mom was never going to come back, but she did understand the heart breaking grief that her father had went through. She remembered the hours he would spend looking at old photographs of them, and the months of silent depression that plagued him after reality had set in. It took him three years to actually start using magic again after her passing, but still to this day he preferred the muggle way. He believed that trying to erase any connection to the magical world would stop some of the pain, but it never did.
He had known that my Hogwarts letter would arrive and took the news cheerfully at first, or so it seemed. But the very next day, he had come home with a stack of brochures of different boarding schools throughout the country that he said could "offer a different, more stable, curriculum then Hogwarts could." She hadn't looked at any of them.
" Dad… really now, people are starting to stare." Paige said as he snapped another picture.
A few families were looking over to them but they didn't seem to be interested in how many pictures they were taking. A few of the parents that were seeing off there kids seemed to know her father because they were talking not so quietly that "theres Aberdeen and his kid… wow she looks just like her huh?"
"Oh alright…sorry if your ol' Dad embarrassed you now my little bumblebee, but you know that's a fathers job." He said using the nickname he had given her since she was five and tousling her hair till it was more unruly then it usually was.
"Yeah I know and your doing it perfectly well" she said with a teasing smile. She looked over at the large golden clock on the station wall and saw they only had ten minutes left to board. She knew they should have used magic to get to Kings Cross, but her dad said they'd be at the station with plenty of time just by using muggle transportation.
They hurried to the train with her heavy laden trolley squeaking in protest from the speed she was wheeling it, until finally she reached the loading dock where parents where helping students put their luggage. She was excited, but not overly surprised to see that although there seemed to be dozens of overfilled trunks, there was still plenty of room left. The suitcases seemed to shrink slightly and neaten themselves up to make room for more trunks.
She noticed a boy around her age with messy black hair that stuck up all over the place and brown eyes hidden by glasses, next to her was fiddling with a suitcase. He righted himself an then continued helping other students with their trunks and she noticed he seemed to have a mysteriously mischievous smile on his face as he was graciously helping the other students with there trunks.
"Hey" the boy said turning to her " you need help with your trunk?" he seemed perfectly polite but there seemed to be a spark in his eyes as he said it.
"No… I can manage, thanks" she said to the boy looking up at him. He was not overly tall but since she was shorter then most girls her age he was many inches taller then her. Paige and her father began lifting the trunk. The boy kept looking at her with a bemused expression and then turned around with a shrug "Suit yourself."
She took the knapsack that she was going to be taking on the train from her fathers hands and went to put the very last of her belongings on the trains cargo station before taking Artemis, who was now contentedly sleeping in his cage, with her to the entrance of the train.
"Dad, make sure you take care of yourself okay? And don't forget to heat up the food I made… I left it on the kitchen table. Oh and don't forget Aunt Willa is coming over tomorrow night so you should prepare…" Paige said before her dad cut her off with a laugh.
"Wow Paige, I thought I was the father and had to give the pep talk" her father said " don't worry about me. I'll be just fine, you just worry about yourself… don't let any of those boys try to mess with you. Especially those Gryffindor boys, I know all about how their minds work and I don't want to see you getting hurt, bee".
Paige laughed before she said "Well dad weren't you in Gryffindor… now how exactly did your mind work hmmm?" she said impishly. " and anyways boys aren't exactly interested in a tiny bookworm like me, so you don't have to worry you know"
" I do know… and that's exactly why I'm worried. You wait and see, Hogwarts will be the most exciting years of your life. I know it was for me and your mother, so just promise me you'll be careful while enjoying yourself okay?"
"You got it Dad" Paige said going up on her tiptoes and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. She took one last look at her dad before she boarded the train, her heart beating fast with excitement.
She stepped into the entrance of the train and her heart was hammering with excitement. All around her people were playing Exploding Snaps with their eyebrows fringed and blackened, or were reading Quidditch magazines talking excitedly about the latest win by the Chudley Canons, or just socializing with their friends talking about their summer visiting relatives or meeting new people.
She was in a daze and very much uncomfortable. Although she grew up in a wizarding home, she never really met witches or wizards her own age. Actually, now that she thought about it, she never seemed to have any real friends at all. But this year would be different, she decided. This year she was going to start Hogwarts and she'd be around a lot of people her own age, so she figured she'd probably get to know a few of them.
With that in mind she began the arduous and very embarrassing task of looking for a compartment to sit in. The first few compartments she came into where filled with a bunch of students much older then her. She figured they were in their sixth year and by their school robes belonged to Huffelpuff.
She decided to move on to look for other places. She knew she should have come to the platform earlier she thought as she felt the Hogwarts Express begin to pull out of the station. All the compartments where full by now and she still hadn't found a place to sit. She looked through another compartment and heard a voice that sounded familiar. She opened the compartment door and saw the same boy from the loading dock sitting with a few other boys.
"… I don't know why anyone would want to be next to that greasy git" the boy said "Snivellus… that name suits him don't you think? Don't see why that little redheaded girl would be with him, we would budge up and make room for her wouldn't we fellas?
"Maybe she was overwhelmed by your charms there James" another boy said " probably frightened her away." this boy said it smoothly, without the hint of sarcasm to his voice but Paige knew he was teasing the other boy. He was pretty handsome and her heart seemed to skip a little faster as she looked at him. He was lounging on the seat in the compartment and seemed to be rather bored with everything. He appeared haughty yet friendly in his own sort of way. His long black hair fell into his gray eyes and he brushed it back smoothly.
"Yeah probably got scared of my manly ways" said the voice of the boy she saw, she figured he was James. "happens a lot round me." James said with a laugh.
"We got company" said another boy. She hadn't noticed him before. He seemed to be very quiet, while the other boys had been chatting he had taken out a book to read instead.
The two other boys in the compartment turned toward the doorway where she had been standing. "Umm hi.." Paige mumbled "Uh... My name is Paige Aberdeen… I was wondering if I could sit here with you… if that's okay…" Paige hated being watched and she felt on display as the three boys looked at her with mild amusement on her face.
" You're the girl from the loading dock right?" James said "Good of you not to take my help… there's a sort of surprise in store for those people who did" he said with a smirk.
The other boy cast James an appraising look before turning to Paige again, then he turned back to James and raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Well… there's not really a lot of room left in this compartment with you and that thing I'm guessing is a cat" the haughty boy said.
"Ah that's alright Sirius… I have room for her right here on my lap" James said before taking hold of Paige's hand and pulling her straight onto his lap. "Eeep" was all Paige could muster as she blushed furiously and stood straight back up as if she was burned. The boy named Sirius laughed at her scarlet face but the other boy who had been quietly reading until she had introduced herself said " Its alright… there's room on this side. You can sit here… everywhere else is full anyway." he stood up and helped her place Artemis safely by her feet " My name is Remus Lupin, that" he said pointing to James " is James Potter, and he" he said now indicating to the snooty boy " is Sirius Black."
She said hi to all of them and figured she could probably blend into the background and start reading, but the boys were talking loudly and excitedly about the houses they were going to be placed in.
"… yeah Gryffindor should be the best, by far better then Hufflepuff and those snakes from Slytherin…" James said loudly "I'm a shoe in for Gryffindor…" he said thrusting out his chest "half my family is in Gryffindor and well the half that's not… well we don't really talk about them much anyway."
"What house would you want to be in, do you know?" Remus asked her. She considered it for a moment before answering.
"Well.. I guess I would have to be in Ravenclaw" Paige answered "everyone from my mothers side were in Ravenclaw… its been like that for centuries "although my dad, hes a muggle born, he was in Gryffindor so of course there could be a chance that I'd go there. But from the sound of it I'd much better prefer Ravenclaw… everyone there is really smart and hardworking and students from Ravenclaw usually become Head Boy and Girl so it seems like a good choice…" Paige finished
"*cough cough* bookworm *cough cough*" James teased. Paige blushed again while Sirius rolled his eyes. Remus seemed to think about what she said "Yeah Ravenclaw does seem like a good choice… so you said your dads a muggleborn, so that means you're half-blood right?" Remus asked curiously.
Paige shifted uncomfortably. Talk of blood status was always a huge issue in the wizarding world… especially with You-Know-Who still on the large. "Yeah," Paige said shifting in her seat "is that a problem?"
"No, no" Remus said quickly also blushing " that's cool, so you get the best of both worlds huh? I'm also a half-blood so I know how it feels." Remus explained.
"Both of you huh? Well I'm pure-blood" James said "both my parents are from wizarding families. But you don't have to worry about that with me… I'm not like those Slytherin prats… I don't care 'bout blood status" James said with an air of superiority. "How bout you Sirius? You mentioned that all your family was in Slytherin right? Unfortunate really, but don't worry I can change your ways you can come to Gryffindor with me and Remus and maybe we'll sneak in Paige there too… if she's brave enough" James said with a grin.
Sirius smiled brightly and said "Yeah my parents would love that, I'll definitely try to get in if I can. That would shock the bloomers right off my dear ol' mum." he said with a smile. He looked even better when he smiled and her fathers words of caution about boys rang in her mind.
"Good, sounds like a plan then…" James said " Off to GRYFFINDOR!" James said with a roar brandishing an invisible sword.
The rest of the train ride was passed with talk of the oncoming workload in school and how they would actually be sorted into each of the houses and if they could actually get away with all getting into Gryffindor. Paige wasn't to sure about the whole Gryffindor plan having just met the three boys she didn't want to make a hasty decision.
Remus was exceptionally kind but very quite, he didn't seem to say much about himself or his home life, preferring instead to listen to the others. James seemed to be nice enough, although he did like to tease and joke quite a bit. He was also cute and sweet at times when he tried to help Paige catch Artemis halfway through the train ride when the cat awoke in a bad mood and flew out of her cage onto Sirius lap. The cat seemed quite content to ride the rest of the train ride as Sirius as a pillow but he didn't seem to mind at all. Sirius himself was an enigma, sometimes he would say the funniest stories and jokes and the other half of the time he seemed to be brooding in silence. It was very strange, just like Remus Sirius also didn't seem to like talking about his home life and what little he said was marred with contempt.
She was curious about Remus and Sirius, they seemed to be different then people she met before reserved about their home life. She saw a lot of her self in them… she didn't like to talk about her home life either because it would eventually lead to talking about her mothers passing and the fact that her mother had killed herself…