Section I: Year I
Chapter 1
I remember the exact moment my letter from Hogwarts came in the mail. It was the seventh of April and my family, as is customary on one's birthday, surrounded me as I looked down at the cake under my nose. It was about the size of a muggle basket ball and was in the shape of a half moon with eleven flaming candles arbitrarily scattered about it. I looked at all of their smiling faces and out of habit I smiled back but inwardly I felt that my face should have been screwed up in discomfort.
The moment I blew out those candles I wouldn't be the same boy anymore. I would officially be a student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and I had to wonder if I was ready for that. I spent many nights roaming the grounds surrounding my house desperately willing myself to be excited. It was finally my turn to experience the world's premiere school of magic. Thousands of kids before me took hold of this birth right and thousands after me sat waiting in urgency for their eleventh birthdays and there I was on the cusp of a brand new life with my tail between my legs. I couldn't help but feel as if I would be the disappointment of the family—the one bad seed. I had fears of becoming an outcast from the other students or even worse the target of their taunting. At a Sunday family dinner just a week earlier I voiced these fears to my best friends and cousin's Hugo and Lily.
"I don't see where you get this idea that you won't have any friends—I mean what are we to you then?" Lily said as she ran her fingers through my blonde hair.
"You know what I mean Lily, what if all the other kids are mean?" I said quickly raising myself from her lap.
"So what if they are mean? We don't need the lot of them anyway. We'll be just find by ourselves!" Her fist was clenched around a handful of grass and her face turned a deep shade of red.
"But—"
"Turnip's right you know," Hugo interrupted not noticing the glare Lily shot his way, "Regardless of what may transpire between you and the rest of Hogwarts you can always take solace in the fact that we will always be by your side."
"Yeah…what he said"
I looked at my two friends and began to beam as they looked back with the same loving expression I knew so well. "You guys are right." Almost as if we read each other's minds we all put our hands in the middle of a circle we made and concentrated till a series of yellow and purple sparks began to appear. It was in a nutshell our secret handshake and it always gave me comfort knowing that they were right there with me.
That comfort however all too quickly disappeared as I sat at my dining room table staring down at seemingly harmless cake. Oh how I wished they could have been there by my side but as luck may have it there were at home with all of their families, also celebrating their birthdays. By the hand of Merlin all of our mother's went into labor on the exact same day and were each born not more than thirty minutes apart. However I was positive they weren't having the same jitters as I was.
I looked down at the cake with its candles still flickering at me almost cajoling me to take inhale and blow. After one more second I closed my eyes, reared my head back, took a deep breath, and released all of the air in my lungs on that cake. I kept my eyes tightly shut a few seconds longer than I probably should have for fear I would find myself on the Hogwarts Express should I open them. When I opened my eyes everything was exactly has it had been before except for the cheering and excitement that filled the room. My mother came over and hugged me tightly around the neck and my father sat at the other end of the table smiling at me with his scared face.
"And what do we have here?" My sister Victoire said going over to the window. A grey owl was perched on the sill pecking at the class and tied around its leg I noticed an envelope that was obviously for me. She took the letter from the owl and dropped a few gold coins in a pouch around its neck before sitting the letter down in front of me. I stared at it for a moment or two before giving in to Dominique's, my other sister, nudging.
Enclosed was a small piece of parchment embroidered with golden swirls and the words seems to glow like amber. To this day I pull that letter out from safe keeping to give it a once over and let all the memories that school had left me with come to the forefront of my mind. Again I hesitated before reading it and Dominique snatched it away in a fit of impatience.
"Dominique! Give the letter back to your brother!" My mother said in her thick French accent.
"But mother I want to know what it says and Louis is taking too long!"
"You already know what it says dear, you got the exact same letter when you turned eleven and you didn't see Victoire snatching it out of your hands."
"Well of course not because I knew how to read!" Dominique said talking out of her arse.
"I do know how to read!" I said in my defense.
"Then why don't you read it then?"She said holding the paper in front of my nose. I could fell a warm sensation in my cheeks as I glared at her. It wasn't that I had trouble reading it, it was just that I figured if I didn't read it then it wouldn't be real and maybe I wouldn't have to go. I just sat there looking at the beautiful parchment dangling from her finger tips as a smirk traced her lips, "See I told you! He can't read it!"
"Dominique!" My mother squawked.
There was water in my eyes at that point and I knew she could see it. She always took pleasure in making me cry because it was so easy to do. Ever since the day I could talk she made sure that she lived up to the negative stigma that is attached to the title older sibling. And for the longest time I did nothing because I'm not one to incite a fight with people or retaliate. I'm a crier. Through my watery eyes I could see that my mother was no chastising her for her actions but it was too late, the tears were already rolling down my cheeks.
"Oh look he's going to cry now! Just like a fairy!" At her last words my father stood up from his chair in a fury and my mother swiftly slapped her across the face, "It's true he's always crying like one and you know…" before she could finish another slap across the face. There was a long moment of silence in the room—my sobs breaking through every so often.
"Apologize, now." My father said curtly. My father didn't speak up much when it came to squabbles between us kids but whenever he did it was always in my defense. If ever in my life I needed an example of what true anger was I only had to imagine the look in his eyes when someone threatened me.
Dominique walked over to me with the parchment in her hands and mutter the words I'm sorry under her breathe with the most intense look of loathing in her eyes. I knew she wasn't sorry so I didn't take the letter from her hands. I simply waited till she set in on the table in front of me. She turned back to Bill and Fleur with the same look in her eyes that she gave me.
"You always take his side." She said mirroring my father's tone before going to her room on the first floor through the living room.
Mechanically I took the letter off the table and said that it was okay to her retreating frame before excusing myself from the table. She had won again and on my birthday.
I cannot recall how long I had been crying but before my eyes had time to dry my sister Victoire found her way into my room. Ever since I was little she had always been there to be my shoulder to cry on when things with Dominique got out of hand. She silently came over to the bed and began to spoon me. She sat there holding me for awhile as my body quaked with each sob. After a while the crying stopped and we were left with only the sound of crickets chirping in the distance.
"Thank you." I uttered with a sigh.
"You really shouldn't let her get to you that. You know she doesn't mean it." She replied wrapping her arms tighter around my waist.
"But…" I choked on my words.
"But what?"
"Nothing…it's nothing." there was a dense silence after that lasted the rest of the night and before I knew it the sun light of morning began to beat against my eye lids and graze my skin with its heat.
As soon as I sat up in my bed the morning haze quickly lifted from my mind and the events from the night before came back to me. Along with them my anxiety about my upcoming attendance to Hogwarts and questionable sexuality reared their ugly heads. Those two topics seemed to coil themselves around my life squeezing every ounce of enjoyment out of it. From the time it took me to get ready to me eating breakfast at a silent table those two pythons followed me hissing at any attempt to think of something else. I looked across the table at Dominique who busy making work of her French toast. The more I thought about it the more I wasn't sure if she really knew of my sexuality. How could she when I wasn't even sure? I couldn't even recall where she would have heard the word seeing as homosexuality was not something discussed in the Weasley family. Among many things the Weasley's were traditionalist, or as traditional one could be with a werewolf, shape shifter, and Veela in the family.
By process of elimination it had to have been something that she picked up at Hogwarts. This new information did nothing to calm my anxiety about going there. It was as if my biggest feared had manifested itself at my kitchen table. She was a representative of what that school had to offer socially and to say she left a bad taste in my mouth would be an understatement.
"Hurry up with your breakfast dear, Harry will be here any minute." My mother said planting a kiss on the top of my head, taking me out of my train of thought. I had forgotten that Uncle Harry was taking the lot of us shopping. The parents all did shifts each year seeing as they all had work to do with the ministry or whatever they had going on. This year it was Harry's turn and I did not have any objections to that. I just desperately wanted to get out of the house and be in the company of Lily and Hugo. I wolfed down the rest of my oatmeal before rushing upstairs to get ready. I faintly heard behind me the sound of my mother scolding Dominique for something she had said involving me and Hugo. To this day I have no idea what exactly she said.
Diagon Alley was exactly as I remembered it. The streets were bustling with eager wizards and witches and their parents scrambling for sales on robes, cauldrons, and other school supplies. I looked down at the list of necessities in my hand and I couldn't have imagined I would need so much for my first year. The more I looked at the list the more I became nervous. Hugo kept assuring me that the amount of stuff on the list was not a reflection on how difficult classes would be…but in the same breath he would tell me not to think it was going to be a walk in the park. Lily was busy figuring out ways she could murder Dominique without being reprimanded. She had been at it ever since I told her what had happened the night before. Every time Dominique would say something Lily would shoot her a deathly glare only Medusa could match (whose head, according to Hugo and Hogwarts a History: Revised Series Volume XXIII, was somewhere in the school).
"I just don't see where she gets off." Lily whispered punching her fist into her other hand, "If I had been there—"
"You would have done absolutely nothing save a few shouted curse words." Hugo interjected.
"Well it's better than nothing! She always gets away with this and it's time someone did something about it!" Hugo shot her a look and then she looked over at me, "Sorry Louis. I didn't mean that you weren't doing anything I…"
"It's fine. You're right though I should have done something."
"There was nothing you could have done." Hugo said empathetically.
"What kind of attitude is that?" Lily whispered harshly, "Are you saying he should just take her constant shit for the rest of his life?"
"I am not and watch your mouth Turnip!" Hugo replied glaring in her direction.
"You're not my father! And stop calling me Turnip. Ass!"
"You should be grateful I'm not!" Hugo glared daggers into Lily for a long moment before she let out a huff of air in submission and crossed her arms, "Despite what she may think I am not saying she should get away with it."
"Well then what—"
"We'll discuss it later" he interrupted, "It will give us something to talk about on the train ride." Hugo said with a smile draping one arm over my shoulder.
"Hugo what are you—"
"Drop it Lily." He said quickly. I didn't have the heart to tell him the rude gestures she was making behind his back at that point, Lily was always taking it from him. She deserved to have her fun and they were kind of funny.
We spent that entire day shopping. From new robes, to text books, to cauldrons and potions ingredients it all had my head was swimming. Before long it was getting close to sunset and I could hear my distant bed calling me from back at the cottage. It was at this time the older kids began to pipe up and complain, my sister Dominique leading the packed. Uncle Harry gave them the okay so Lily, Hugo, and myself began to follow the packed before he placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Where do you three think you're going?" he asked in a mock aggressive tone.
"Well we thought we were leaving early Dad." Lily piped up with a huff of air. Uncle Harry smiled at her before guiding the three of us in the opposite direction of the older kids.
"Not just yet. You three still have some business to take care of."
"And what would that be?" I asked slightly annoyed.
"Wands!" he replied with a dazzling grin.
