Disclaimer:I don't own Harry Potter:/
A/N:Sort of my first story. I had another one but I didn't like it so I deleted it and then didn't do anything for a long time. But I've worked pretty hard on this and I'm pretty happy with it. I have a good idea where the plot will go; it's going to be more like a Lux/Remus Lux/Sirius. So enjoy!
Chapter One:
Quidditch Gods and Beginnings
I felt like an impatient five-year-old asking but I couldn't help it. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop the childish impulse.
"Are we there yet?"
I mentally cringed as I heard my brother snicker in the back seat. My mom understood. "Only a little further dear, just be calm. We'll get there." I saw her dimple dip in as she held back the urge to smile. I sighed and slumped back into my seat, resuming my previous occupation of watching the traffic sluggishly tug along.
It was strange to think that most of the world would go about normally today. That nobody had a clue of the great things I was about to learn. Of the whole other world that existed just outside their grasp. Like sand through your hands, they'd never catch it; though they may at some time come close even then they will never know.
The traffic couldn't capture my attention so I leaned my head back, looked at the dull grey ceiling of the car. Nope. I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything but Hogwarts. Nope. I looked over at my mom and caught an expression of suppressed sadness in her furrowed brow. Yup. This would work as a distraction, though it was a depressing one. I hadn't thought about how leaving for school this year would affect my mother, I had been too caught up in the euphoria of finally being of age. Both of her children would be gone this year. She would be all alone in our huge house with nothing but objects left behind to remind her of us. I frowned and reached my hand out, resting it gently on top of hers. She turned her head of long black hair toward me and looked at me with her sad green eyes, a small smile on her lips. Was she trying to fool me with the smile? Like I didn't know her well enough to see the sadness etched around that smile, in the crease in her brows, in the lines around her eyes? I knew her face, it was so similar to mine we could be sisters. Or twins if she was younger.
I shook my head at her and let her sense that I was onto her depression. We had always been very "connected." Telepathic you might call it. I figured it all came with the magic thing when I was younger but now I realize that it's rare. I haven't found another I can connect to like I can with her.
She tried to tell me she was fine, that it's normal for mothers to feel this way when there children go off for schooling. I wondered how long I had been ignoring this sadness issuing from her; it was so glaringly obvious now. It must have been obscured by my own joy. How selfish.
"I'll write you every week," I told her, "Give you every detail of my every day. My boring classes and inevitably boring assignments." That got a quirk of a smile, a light in her eyes.
"I hate it when you guys do that, you know that." My brother, Casimir was saying from the back. I twisted in my seat to look back at him, sulking with his arms crossed around his chest and his eyes narrowed at me, "And I don't like how you get to sit in front. I'm the oldest."
"First of all you know our connection is just second nature to us, we can't help it." I said, shrugging and turning my body to the front again.
"And second of all," mom continued, looking at Casimir in the rear view mirror, "Lux is my favorite child. You must know this by now?"
I burst out laughing and so did mom. Casimir attempted to continue pouting but our laughter was contagious and he finally gave in. After we calmed down Casimir scooted forward until he was right up in between mom and I.
"So have you changed all your robes to silver and green yet?" Casimir was saying, "I saw the Slytherin headmaster has been owling mom twice a week to bribe you into his house." He had resumed his on-going taunt from the beginning of the summer that I was so perfect for Slytherin that they're begging for me. It was getting old.
"Sing a different song Casimir," I said, "Just because you have no friends in Gryffindor doesn't mean I won't." I smirked as he snarled at me.
"With that kind of tongue you could be in Slytherin," mom said as she smiled again. At least she was cheering up a bit. "And all of those owls would be from Aunt Helen, she wants to keep in touch since James and Lux are both starting their first year this year."
"Cousin James starts this year too?" Casimir asked.
"Yes, so you won't have to look after Lux as much as I originally wanted you to. She'll have James; they can learn the ropes together." She said, smiling happily at the thought of me becoming closer with my family. She knew I didn't like James. I glared at her and I knew she sensed my anger but was ignoring it.
"I don't understand why you dislike him so much," Casimir had caught the expression on my face.
"He always has to be the center of attention. And he thinks he's the greatest Quidditch player to ever grace the earth." I rolled my eyes as flashes of James forcing me to watch all the new tricks he'd learned since the last time we'd seen each other flicked through my brain. I cringed; if he got on the team he'd probably make me wear a shirt with his face on it and carry around a banner that said 'James Potter is the Quidditch God.'
This image must have been passed to my mother because she burst out laughing and gave me a sympathetic look. "Yeah, the kid does have quite the ego."
"There you guys go again. I feel so left out." Casimir says and I try to throw the mental image his way. It takes awhile, as it always does when I try it on Casimir, but I eventually get it through to him.
"How clear was it?" I ask.
"Just a little fuzzy," he says chuckling slightly.
"I'm getting better," I say, smiling at my achievement, "Maybe James will let me try on him some too, make him useful for something." Casimir rolls his eyes and my mom just shakes her head, smiling faintly. "I feel like we've been driving for an eternity, we have to be just about there." I say and feel slightly more dignified in my asking than before.
"Actually, we are here." Mom says, and her gloomy aura fogs her over again. I frown at her as we pull into the parking lot.
"There's a good spot there!" Casimir nearly shouts as he jumps forward, hitting his head on the ceiling, pointing to a spot we were already headed for.
"Yeah, I think she saw it." I say as she parks and I unbuckle myself. Casimir immediately flings himself from the car and goes to search for a trolley, mostly to hide his embarrassment. I shake my head and laugh as I watch his retreating figure and go to open the back end of the car. Mom comes around the other side and helps me tug out my trunk. By the time we've got it all the way out Casimir is back with a trolley and he helps us unload from the car and then reload onto the trolley.
"Casimir don't forget Ursula, and Lux, Calla is still in the back too," mom says, heaving a deep sigh and I frown at her for a second before I open the back door to get out the owl my mom bought me for school. She was a beautiful creamy white, the tips of her wings contrasting with a deep black. I named her Calla; it means beauty which fits her perfectly. I smiled lovingly at her as I carefully lifted her cage out of the back seat and sat it on the trolley. I stick my fingers through the metal bars and stroke her beak as she hoots softly in contentment. "So sorry you had to sit in the back with my git of a brother," I whisper to her and she hoots again.
"What a beautiful owl!" I hear the all too familiar voice of James Potter from behind me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before turning to face him.
"Is it new?" He asks, taking a great step forward and reaching through the cage to touch her soft feathers.
"Yes, mum bought it for me so we could keep in touch," I answer.
"Well if it isn't little Cousin James!" Casimir comes up from behind James and claps him on the back.
"Hey Casimir, how's it going?" James smiles up at him, though I notice he doesn't have to look up too far anymore. Casimir was tall to me. He was only a year older and almost a foot taller, but now I see them side by side, James is only a few inches shorter than Casimir.
"I'm great, you excited?" Casimir asks.
"You bet I am! Gryffindor here I come!" James pounds his fist into the air triumphantly and gets this goofy, cocky grin. I roll my eyes and look to mom. I can tell she wants to get going so I start pushing our trolley through the crowds of people and everyone else follows my lead.
"Where are you parents James?" mom asks, looking around expectantly for Helen and Al, as if her mentioning them will cause them to materialize.
"Oh, well they were called into the Ministry early this morning so they just dropped me off here real quick," he says, trying to pull off nonchalance, "They told me to find you, said you'd be happy to help me board the train and stuff. Not like it's all that difficult anyway." He rolls his eyes at the last part.
I didn't have to look at my mother to know how she felt about this. I could feel her mixture of anger and pity rolling off her and soaking into me.
Anger because she couldn't understand how a parent couldn't see their child off to their first year of school. Or any year for that matter; they wouldn't be seeing each other for several months.
Pity because she likes James, despite his ego and other faults, and this wasn't the first time his parents have been too busy for him.
I could feel her internal struggle at wanting to say something to him but she held it in. I shook my head; despite my dislike for James I felt the same as mom on this one, his parents should have been here.
We were at the concealed entrance now, saving any of us from commenting on James' parents as we each take our turn disappearing behind it and entering the magical world beyond. We must be running late; hardly anyone is still on the platform.
"We'd better hurry," I say, frowning, "We probably won't be able to find a compartment all together."
"What makes you think I'm going to sit with you little sis?" Casimir says but, after catching the look on our mothers face says, "Of course I'm sitting with you, you wonderful picture of perfection," in a sickly sweet voice.
I pretend to gag and James and mom laugh. Mom then hugs us all in turn and kisses James on the head, then the cheek. I hug her once more as Casimir steps onto the train and she yells after him, "Don't you dare leave your sister behind!" I laugh and hurry after him, dragging my trunk, with some difficulty, behind me.
I follow James and Casimir down the narrow corridor until they pause, looking into the window of a compartment. They turn to look at each other, shrug and slide the compartment door open. I struggle in behind them and see that there is a girl already in there. She's very pretty with long dark red hair that reaches her waist, and when she turns to look at us her eyes are the first things I notice about her face. They're a dazzlingly bright green and perfectly almond shaped.
"Do you mind?" Casimir asks her as we all crowd in the doorway.
"Not at all." She answers, gesturing to the empty seats around her. After carelessly stowing our luggage in the overhead compartment we all take our seats. Casimir sits next to the girl and I take the window seat just opposite her. James sits beside me after complaining that he wanted the window seat.
We all sit in silence for a few moments until I break it. "How rude of us," I say to the girl and she looks confused until I continue, "We haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Lux, and these two," I point toward the two boys, "Are James and Casimir and I'm sad to say that I am related to them both."
She laughs and James and Casimir pretend to be offended. After her giggles subside she says, "I'm Lily."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Lily," I say and she says the same back. I'm willing to bet that she is in my year, especially since she was sitting alone and this fact makes me happy; maybe I'll make friends with this girl and be able to ditch James.
"So Lux? That's a pretty unique name, huh? And Casimir, never heard of that either." Lily says after a few minutes.
"Well our mother likes odd names I suppose," I say, "Lux means light in Latin and I think Casimir means strength or chaos."
"Oh, so James was the least favorite? Just an ordinary run-of-the-mill name for him?" Lily asks, smiling as James blushes slightly.
"James isn't our brother," Casimir says, trying to keep from laughing at James' red face, "He's our cousin."
"Oh," she says, comprehension showing on her face. After James forces Casimir into a conversation to make up for his strange moment of embarrassment Lily leans toward me and whispers, "Does he always embarrass that easy? For future reference, I don't want to, like, insult his name or something and embarrass him in front of a bunch of people."
It's really hard to contain my laughter because Lily is so sincere about it. If only she knew how funny this circumstance was, if only she knew James. In all the years I had known James, technically all my life, I had never seen him get that embarrassed before. Ever. Though I did have a theory to why this girl was able to crack that thick skull of his. Maybe it was that natural "intuition" that girls come with or maybe it was my gift to connect with people on such a high emotional level, either way I just knew that James had a crush on this girl. Just like that. It was weird but not unheard of, a kind of "love at first sight" scenario.
I tell Lily not to worry about it, that he's probably just on edge about getting to school. Probably having doubts about his actual potential to get into Gryffindor. I smirk inwardly at that because I know James has absolutely no doubt in his entire construction of thought that he'll get into the house of his family. Gryffindor is simply in his blood.
After I have Lily completely reassured we lean back and talk in normal voices again and I ask, "So what house do you think you'll get into?"
"Well," she says, looking a little uncomfortable, "I don't really know much about it."
"You mean like both your parents were in different houses and you're not sure which one, if either, you'll be put in?" Asks Casimir, joining in our conversation.
She hesitates, almost like she wants to say yes, but then heaves a great sigh and says, "No, I mean my parents were never in a "house." Never in this school actually."
I think I get it now but before I can say anything James interjects with, "Like they were home schooled?"
Lily's looking real desperate now, like she just wants us to understand and get it over with so I say tentatively, "No, I think that Lily means her parents aren't magical."
James and Casimir draw a collective "Ooh" and identical looks of understanding cross their features.
"It's no problem," James says, "Just stick with us, we'll help you out."
"Yeah," Casimir nods in agreement and says, "Want to hear about the different houses?"
"Yeah I do!" Lily says and her already bright eyes seem to glow in her excitement.
"Okay, first of all there's Slytherin, they're the worst," James says, making a disgusted face.
I roll my eyes and say, "Slytherin is for people that are really cunning and will do anything to save their own skins and, well, it's a big stereotype that the majority of dark wizards come from Slytherin house."
"It's not just a stereotype Lux!" James says indignantly.
"Well, whatever. Then there's Ravenclaw, which is for those that are very intelligent, Hufflepuff for people that don't belong anyplace else really and-"
James interrupts with a triumphant shout of, "Gryffindor! For those bravest and most courageous!"
"Which house sounds like it'd fit you best," I ask Lily, ignoring James' outburst of pride for a house he isn't even officially a part of yet.
She thinks for a few seconds and then says, "Well, Ravenclaw would be nice obviously," and then, as she thinks on it more she adds, "But I'm sure I'm not smart enough, I mean I didn't know anything about magic until a few months ago!"
"I'm sure you'll be brilliant!" James blurts out and we all turn to stare at him red in the face again.
"Well I do agree with James," Casimir says, mercifully drawing the attention away from him, "It has nothing to do with your blood status like that new Death Eater group is trying to tell everyone."
"Blood status?" asks Lily, looking confused.
"Yeah, you see, there's always been a prejudice among wizards, dating back to Salazar Slytherin, who was one of the four founders of Hogwarts," I say, deciding to get into the whole description so Lily has a little background history, "There was Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. Our four houses are, obviously, named after the four original founders and we're sorted according to what each of them found most important in a witch or wizard. They were all friends and everything went really great for a while; with their combined teaching skills and knowledge they made Hogwarts, one of the most desired schools for young witches and wizards. Until Salazar decided he wanted the school to be more exclusive. He only wanted what we call "purebloods", or people with an all magical ancestry, to be allowed into the school. He thought that muggleborns, people born to two non-magical parents, weren't worthy of their education and since he couldn't persuade the others to see things his way he left. Sadly the prejudice still exists to this day and people have even come up with the term 'mudblood' or 'dirty blood' to insult people with non-magical heritage and Slytherin house very rarely accepts them." Casimir and James have disgusted looks on their face, though they've heard the story several times before; being in the presence of a muggleborn probably gave the story more of an impact.
Lily just looked worried. "I probably will be horrible…" she says, looking at her hands clasped in her lap, apparently enveloped in her own thoughts, "I know nothing about magic. I just learned there was this whole other world a few months ago. I had no one to sit on this train with; my parents just helped me board the train, barely paying attention they were so wrapped up in the extraordinary things they were seeing. Things they would have never been meant to see if it wasn't for me. My sister's right, I'm nothing but a freak!" She lifts her voice as she lifts her head to look at us all and I see her eyes are filled with unshed tears. She looks like she wants to shrink until she disappears into nothing.
Casimir, James and I looked at each other for a heart beat and Casimir, being the closest to Lily, put his arm around her and patted her shoulder awkwardly. I would have laughed under different circumstances, instead I say, "Lily, don't think on it for a minute. Everybody starts off knowing nothing. Even purebloods! All we know is some simple history of magic, nothing more. We're too young to do any real magic and we'll all grow to learn that together, no matter what our blood status. There have been so many famous muggleborn witches and wizards that it's just pure ignorance to think that magical ability has anything to do with the kind of blood that runs through you." I'm getting worked up now, as anyone who opposes the pureblood superiority would.
Lily nods slowly and hesitantly at me as she lets what I say sink in until she finally gives me a watery smile and says, "You guys probably think I'm completely off my rocker now, right?" And gives a small chuckle.
"Not at all!" James bursts out, "I completely understand! I sure hope you're in Gryffindor; I can help you learn the ropes real easy. I can teach you how to play Quidditch also; I'm very good for my age." He puffs out his chest arrogantly and obviously doesn't consider the fact that Lily has no idea what Quidditch is.
"Here we go." I mouth to Lily and smile sympathetically at her as James trades spots with Casimir and begins to give her an in-depth full-detailed history of Quidditch once he realizes she knows nothing of the sport, though he doesn't mind, he'll take any chance he gets to talk about Quidditch.
Within a few minutes she's looking like she's only a moment away from either falling asleep from boredom or slapping James for his naked arrogance. I knew it was only a matter of time before she saw his true arrogant nature as soon as he plummeted into his "I am God of Quidditch" babble. I catch her eye and mouth 'Just fake sleep.' She holds back a giggle and nods her head. Lily yawns widely and stretches and begins blinking sleepily as James continues, unnoticing. She slowly makes her progression and starts closing her eyes longer and longer each blink. Finally she leans her swaying head against the window and closes her eyes. It takes James a full three minutes and twenty seconds; yes I counted, to finally notice that his audience has fallen asleep on him.
He turns to us and says, "All that talk about purebloods must have really worn her out."
I hold back a smirk and nod my head, trying to look serious. I can see Casimir rolling his eyes out of my peripheral vision. James just takes another glance at Lily, shrugs his shoulders, and leans back in his seat, stretching out his legs and placing his hands behind his head.
"So you're starting your second year, right Casimir?" James asks.
"Sure am, and I'm going to try out for the Quidditch team this year." His voice sounds a little smug. I know that he's excited about the prospect of getting on the team because my window faces our backyard and I saw him sneak out frequently in the middle of the night to practice. I feign surprise.
"Really? I didn't even know you were that into Quidditch. What position do you want?" I ask him.
"Well I think I'm going to go out for Beater, it's my strongest position." He can't keep the smile off his face and neither can I. I'm proud of him, though I'll probably never admit it to anybody. He's shown a real dedication for this, unlike his school work, but at least this shows he has ambition, even if it's not for academics.
"When I try out it will definitely be for Seeker," says James, with a reminiscent look on his face, probably remembering all of his personal greatest moments.
The compartment door slides open then, bringing James back to reality and we all turn to see who's coming in, I even see Lily taking a peek.
A tall and very slender boy with black, greasy hair reaching his shoulders stands in the doorway. His pitch black eyes dart around the compartment, coming to rest on each of us individually as if he was sizing us up. He had a proud air about him which was a deep contrast to the way he dressed. Second-hand robes that were much too big and slipping off your shoulders are not what a proud, self-respectable wizard wears. I wonder what his deal is.
After what feels like several minutes James finally speaks up. "Can we help you?" He asks him, looking a little perplexed but still trying to sound polite.
"Yes. May I sit with you? It seems all the other compartments I've come to are full and I've been walking around the train for nearly half and hour."
"Of course you can sit with us." I say and scoot over so he can take the window seat. His long robes sweep across the compartment as he gracefully sits himself beside me.
Everyone is awkwardly quiet for a few moments until I can't stand it any longer. I turn to the pale boy sitting next to me, looking slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation he was in and say, "What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't." He replies shortly and I recoil slightly from his tone, "But it's Severus. Severus Snape."
"Oh, well I'm Lux Carwin," I say, though he doesn't ask, "And that's Casimir," I point across the room at him and he nods in recognition, "He's my brother, he's starting his second year. This is James," I jerk my thumb behind me in James' direction, "He's my cousin and that's Lily, we just met her. The three of us are all starting our first year, are you too?" I ask politely, trying to make conversation so he wouldn't feel so awkward.
"Yes, I am." I feel like he's searching for more to say but can't think of anything, neither can I. "What's wrong with that girl? It looks like she's been crying." He finally says, sounding just a little rude as he points at Lily who is still in deep fake sleep.
"Lily? Oh well she's just a little upset. You see, she didn't really know anything about magic before this summer and she's afraid she won't be any good." I tell him, grasping to the subject, just for something to talk about. I hope Lily doesn't mind that I'm telling him this, but she doesn't break from her sleeping routine.
"What do you mean she didn't know about magic?" He asks, somewhat suspiciously.
"Well…" I say, hesitating a little, "She was muggleborn-"
Before I could say anything else Severus leaps to his feet and says, "You mean she's a mudblood!?" And looks down at her with contempt.
"How dare you!?" Shouts James, also jumping up. He looks rather frightening, his blue eyes bright with anger and his hair seeming to stand on end with electricity. I had never seen him like this before. I didn't know he had such a temper.
"How dare I? How dare you! How could you stand being around her? She's nothing but filth trying to corrupt the world's pure magical blood!" His pale face was flushed a bit and his black eyes seemed to turn to liquid. He was definitely as equally as frightening as James, something I couldn't have imagined from the small boy, with his too-big robes and un-washed hair. I'm thoroughly intimidated by them both until I notice something I almost laugh at; they had both drawn their wands. I have to cover my mouth with my hands. What were they going to do, send a few sparks at each other? I doubted either of them knew enough magic to do any harm with a wand. Maybe they could have a good poking duel.
"I think you need to leave." James says, distracting me from my thoughts.
"Fine," Severus spits out and after he's extracted his luggage from up above he trudges across the room and, just before he leaves, he turns to look at James and says, "I'd rather pitch a tent on top of the train than sit with a mudblood." Then he sweeps out the door faster than James can come up with a response.
James is still standing and muttering to himself, starring at the doorway, "Stupid git… thinks he's so much better… I'll get him back…"
"James? Helloooo?" I wave my hand in front of my face and when he doesn't respond I pull him forcefully back down to his seat.
"Ouch!" He looks around at me and says, "Oh, sorry about that. Did I zone out?"
"Just a bit." pipes up Lily and we all turn to look at her. Apparently she decided to use all the commotion as an excuse to wake up.
"Oh, you're awake then?" Asks Casimir, then, "You didn't hear any of that, did you?"
She puts on a confused face and says, "Any of what?"
Casimir looks at James who shakes his head slightly. Lily pretends to not see the silent exchange and Casimir says, "Oh nothing, we were just hoping we didn't have to catch you up on the conversation."
She laughs lightly and after a bit we all break into separate conversations. Lily and I talk about classes; what they'll be about and what they teachers will be like. Casimir and James start talking about their future ambitions in Quidditch. We carry on like this for a long while and nobody brings up with happened with Severus and I wonder if I should talk to Lily about it later. She knows that I know she wasn't really asleep. I wonder if she'll even want to talk about it. I decide to let her bring it up- if she wants to talk then she'll talk.
After a while I look out the window and notice the sun has begun to set already. "We must be almost there; we should probably get our robes on." I say and everyone nods in agreement and extracts their robes from their luggage. We dress in silence and then fall back into our separate conversations again until we feel the train start to slow and eventually come to a stop. We're finally at Hogwarts.
Tell me what ya think?