1st September, 1972

To pretend to love someone when you don't is hard, but to pretend not to love someone when you do, is unbearable.

"Now be good children" a slender looking woman said lovingly to her two youngsters. Looking proud as she eyed them both, seeing to that everything was in order.

"And Behave" The children's father added, his voice grave.

The boy, which had recently turned thirteen, was preoccupied with looking around for his friends which he thought must be somewhere on the station. The friends he had spent two previous school years with, and which he now felt eager to see. Some of them he had actually met during the summer, since their families knew each other and shared the same belief of each having a pure family tree. He had seen Wilkes and Rutilus, also Avery, who was one he had been sharing rooms with during his first two years at Hogwarts, they had become good friends. But one he had not seen all summer was Mulciber.

Mr. Adela snapped his fingers In front of his son's face, the boy quickly turned his head to his father which was staring at him with a most severe look.

"That goes especially for you Eithan… Behave." He said, knowing of his son's former mischiefs.

The boy nodded perceptively. Then he heard a slight giggle coming from his little sisters mouth.

"Oh shut up!" he said and gave her an angry look.

The sister was silenced by those words and she looked away, slightly hurt. Their mother gasped at her son's words and looked around, afraid that someone might have heard.

"Watch the language young man!" said the father sternly.

"Brant, we can't let him speak that way" said the mother quietly with worry in her voice. Melanie Adela, the children's mother, was a very proud woman, just like their father, and she was also very keen on making their family look the very best to everyone else. She was a perfectionist and the slightest embarrassment went straight to her heart, and hurt just as any curse would. In fact, if she were to face a boggart it would be of her little family shattered and embarrassed in front of all of the other pure-blood families, and the shame would presumably kill her. In spite of all this, she was a very caring woman, and looked after everyone in her family. She treated her children with motherly love, and never shunned them. She disliked punishing them, therefore she left that duty to her husband.

Eithan looked down, and then when his father was not looking he shot his sister an most accusing look - blaming her for being lectured.

Melanie looked at her daughter and then she bent down to hug her. The girl wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and hugged her tight. It would be quite scary to leave her parents for several months, she thought, they would not see each other until Christmas.

"Oh! Eleana, take care now… and make us proud." Said Mrs. Adela as a few tears streamed down her cheeks. She hugged her daughter Eleana tightly before letting her go, then she moved on to her son and hugged him just as tightly. He did not look too pleased with this, just annoyed.

Eleana looked up at her father, he was quite a tall man, and she was short for her age which made him seem even taller to her than he actually was. He looked fondly at her with his blue eyes, and hers resembled his a lot actually, only the look in her eyes was far more innocent and not as experienced or hardened by life as his was.

Mr. Adela touched one of her two light braids and smiled when she smiled.

"Good luck… and remember that spell I taught you?"

She nodded.

"Good, now use it if somebody's being too mean." He said seriously, but with a smile.

"But don't get yourself in trouble." Her mother reminded her when she heard her husband's advice.

"Yes, mother" she said. Then she turned to her father again and hugged him tight, laying her cheek against his chest. He put one of his arms around her and held her close.

Their mother was snivelling and took out a napkin in gray silk from her pocket, it was soon stained with tears.

Soon, the conductor shouted that all should take their place for the train was leaving in less than 10 minutes.

Mr. Adela let go of his daughter and when she looked up at him he lovingly touched her cheek.

"Now you must go, so you won't miss the train." He said.

Eleana was then once again hugged by her mother.

Mr. Adela laid his hand briefly on his son's shoulder and said:

"Take care of your sister."

"I will." Eithan mumbled, and then turned and walked to the train followed by his sister. Amongst mist from the train, she looked back one more time and waived at her parents before stepping onto the train.

Once on the train, they had to go through a small corridor, and a lot of people still had not taken their place and were all searching for their friends or just an empty compartment to sit in. Then her brother almost bumped into another boy, they both gave each other a very stern unpleasant look, like they resented one another.

Eleana looked at the dark haired boy. He was a little shorter than her brother and had black hair that went down to his neck, and a posture unlike her brothers. Her brother was a little stiff, and walked upright because he was proud. This other boy showed the opposite, that he simply did not care and was proud because of that. They were equally proud but in different ways.

She remembered this boy, he was of the family Black, the family her family were acquaintance with. Even so, Sirius and Eleana did not know each other, since Sirius did not seem to get along with the others. She had only seen him once, when her family was visiting the Blacks. Although, he seemed to spend most of his time in his room, therefore she had only seen him briefly that one time.

Eithan looked at his sister standing behind him, and took her by the arm. Sirius merely glanced at her before he walked away. As soon as he looked at her she looked away and let her brother lead her in the opposite direction.

Her brother took her to the last cart of the train, and there she saw a few people she recognised. Some were distant relatives, and some were just acquaintances of her family.

"Shut the door behind you." Her brother said, and she slid the door shut.

"Adela, we were beginning to think that you'd miss the train." Avery said. He was the same age as Eithan, and quite tall for his age, with dark blonde hair on his head.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Eithan said with a playful smile. His friends all grinned, Mulciber, Wilkes, Avery, and another boy she did not know the name of.

"Well, well... little sister joining the club." Mulciber then said and eyed the little blonde girl. He had broad shoulders, and dark brown hair, the same as the colour of his eyes. There was no need for introductions, Mulciber and the other two knew who she was, they had visited her brother at home several times.

Eleana smiled politely and sat down in between Wilkes and her brother, Eithan had already placed himself near the window. She glanced at the boy sitting across from her brother, also by the window. He was the only one she had never met before.

"Hi" he said when he made eye contact with her, while showing a smile he reached out a hand. She took it and shook it politely, giving him a little smile in return.

"I'm Acacius Rutilus." He added.

"Eleana." She said.

Apparently Rutilus was in his second year, just like Wilkes and Mulciber was.

"I bumped into Sirius Black..." Eithan began.

Avery looked at him like he had slapped him by simply mentioning the name, the others also showed quite similar faces.

"He's as charming as ever." He continued to say in a resentful tone.

"That Black is unworthy of his name... He's a traitor, and doesn't appreciate his blood status one bit. I'd say, a blood traitor is almost worse than a mudblood." Wilkes voice was full of disgust.

"Someone should put an end to 'im then." Said Mulciber who was sitting next to Avery, leaning against the wall in the corner.

"Oh, I'd like to" Avery said with a devilish smile on his lips.

Mulciber just laughed and Eithan simply smiled. None of them actually thought he was serious, they were just kids talking, trying to be like their parents. They had all been taught to dislike people who had 'impure blood' and they had learned that they were superior to everyone else just because they were from wealthy and pure blood families, that was the prime combination, they thought.

Eleana heard a lot of similar conversations from now on, degrading talks of other people who were not like them, 'pure'. She had always been surrounded by people with these beliefs. Affected by those thoughts she could not help but believing them. Although, she had always found it a little strange why other people could not be just as good as them because they were not pure or rich, or fitted their description of good. She wondered what exactly it was that made them so bad.

Soon she was sorted into Slytherin, as expected, and during her first months at the school she discovered that other students from other houses were not so bad. Many of them seemed to be very kind, and clever. A muggleborn from Ravenclaw actually did a spell perfectly on the very first try in their transfiguration class. Eleana was quite shocked, since she had heard that they all were less intelligent, unworthy of magic, etc. Apparently all that was not true, according to her own eyes.

The first year at Hogwarts was great, she thought. In the beginning of the year she made some other friends, apart from those she did not know from before, Camilla Dolohov, daughter to Antonin Dolohov, and Caren Rosier, brother to Evan Rosier. Caren and Camilla were both Slytherins in their first year at Hogwarts, just as she. They were quite similar to her brother Eithan and his friends, except they were girls. They shared the same beliefs, and Camilla and Caren both enjoyed spilling gossip and looking down at people whom they thought were less worthy of their attention, in particular those with impure pure blood.

Apart from all of that they were good friends and she felt she could depend on them, in the same way she could depend on her family. Eleana could spend time with them, as she ought to do, but she found herself wanting more and more to be alone, rather than with them. Not just them, but also her brother and his friends. This feeling was building up during forthcoming years, and as she grew she was getting closer to realising who she really was, and what she truly believed in.