A/N: Hi there! Some of you may recognise this story title: I have adopted MayFairy's discontinued story, and will be re-vamping and continuing it in my own style. To all of you, welcome, hope you'll stay for the ride! Wow, that was cheesy...
Anyway...Here is the prologue and Chapter 1: Hope you enjoy, and please, please review!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe, and make no money from this fic, I thank JKR for the original characters, and I thank MayFairy for the original concept, for allowing me to carry on this story of hers, and for sharing her initial ideas with me to help me carry it on.
Prologue
The man knocked on the wooden door, hoping his nervousness wouldn't be obvious in his slight hesitation between knocks.
"Enter," came the voice from inside.
Taking a deep breath, the man braced himself and pushed open the door. He moved briskly to stand before the high-backed chair which was by the fireplace, before sweeping into a low bow, eyes fixed on the floor.
"My Lord," he said, slightly breathlessly.
"Rise, servant," was the raspy reply, and the man obliged, keeping his eyes lowered out of respect- and no small amount of fear- for his master.
"Well?" the cloaked figure from the chair prompted.
"My Lord, I believe I have it." He chanced a look up at his master, who had sat up straighter in his seat.
"You do?"
"Yes, my Lord...it was not without some...difficulty, but I believe it was a success."
"And you were not detected?"
"No my Lord; I have every reason to believe my anonymity is still intact."
The cloaked figure relaxed into his chair with a sigh.
"That is most fortunate. I was not looking forward to killing my most faithful servant."
The man felt an overwhelming sense of relief that he had not failed his master; he had grown rather attached to his life. He reached into the pockets of his robe and kneeling, he presented it to his master, who reached forward hungrily and grabbed it. The orb glowed a bright purple in his hand as he pulled out his wand.
"Morpheus Evesca" he murmured, the glowing tip pressed against the glass. The two men watched in silent anticipation as a wispy figure emerged from the ball and began to speak.
They listened to the voice for a few minutes before the figure dispersed into smoke.
"M-my Lord?" the servant stuttered. "Is this... the r-relevant prophecy? The one you wished for?"
His master stayed silent for a long time before responding, and it was not with an answer.
"What name did this say? When you took it, what name did it have beneath it? On the shelf?"
The servant frowned. "It had your name, My Lord, followed by a question mark..." He took a deep breath, unsure how his next words would be received. "My Lord, forgive me, but...what does it mean?"
"This is the one we were searching for. And as for what it means, well..." he said, glancing at his servant. "That is not clear yet, but I believe you know what you'll be looking out for this year - old blood, and violet."
Chapter 1
Sam walked down the train corridor, looking for a compartment. Almost everywhere was full, but she eventually came across one that appeared to be empty. She slid open the door and sat down on one of the cushioned benches, and watched the door slide shut by itself, before unclipping the door of the animal carrier she had been holding. Reaching in she pulled out a tiny black kitten whom she placed on the seat beside her. "There you go," she said to her familiar. "Make yourself comfortable." The little animal immediately set to work becoming acquainted with the small compartment.
Lying back on the seats watching the cat, Sam was content for about thirty seconds. After that, she needed something else to do, and was drawn to the window, where there was huge amounts of chatter from adults and children alike on the platform. She looked out the window, and saw many families, couples and younger siblings who were too young to come to the school yet, standing on the platform.
A certain couple, standing directly in Sam's line of vision, caught her eye. A man with messy black hair and green eyes and a red-headed woman were holding hands, and their eyes were searching for someone, something.
Sam watched him and the woman who she presumed was his wife for quite a while. They still hadn't seemed to have found who they were looking for, when the compartment door slid open. Sam whipped her head around to find someone standing in the doorway. It was a girl, a first year by the look of it, just as Sam herself was. She had bright green eyes and red hair. Her smart jeans and jacket suggested at least a bit of money in the family, and further highlighted the simplicity and age of Sam's worn jeans and T-shirt. She seemed nervous, but her eyes shone with a slight excited anticipation as she looked back at the boy behind her, about the same age, who had the same colour hair as her, but with light brown eyes.
"Excuse me? Do you think we could sit here?" The girl asked.
"Sure. Go ahead." Sam smiled at her, and the two kids came in and sat down. The girl got up and looked out the window, presumably looking for her parents. It seemed she had found them, because she started waving. Sam looked out the window curiously, just wondering who her parents were. She was surprised and amused by the fact that the couple who were waving back to her were the same couple she had been watching earlier. In fact, on a closer inspection, the girl was the perfect combination of her parents, with her mother's crimson hair and delicate bone structure, matched with her father's bright green eyes.
Her mother came over to stand under the window, and the girl opened the window so she could stick her head out and hear what her mum was saying. "Remember what I said, sweetheart; be good, and if your brothers get into trouble- well, if JAMES gets into trouble..." the woman on the platform said to her daughter.
"Mum! I told you, I'm not going to Hogwarts to spy on James!" The girl said with a giggle. "And of course I'll be good! I'll even send Neville your love, because you know James never does!" The woman laughed with her daughter, and called up to the boy.
"You be good too, Hugo!"
The boy smiled. "Of course, Aunt Ginny, you know me. I'll keep an eye on this one too!" he said, ruffling the girl's red hair playfully. She slapped him on the shoulder, but she was laughing all the while.
Sam watched the entire exchange with curious amusement. They all seemed to be related, but the boy and girl weren't brother and sister, as Sam had originally thought. Cousins, it seemed.
"Dad!" The girl shouted suddenly. The man with the dark hair and glasses made his way over to the window as well. He grinned at the two excited children.
"Let us know when you get sorted!" he said. Looking at the boy, he added, "Hugo, I'd try to get into Gryffindor if I were you, your dad might never forgive you otherwise, especially after Rosie ended up in Ravenclaw..." he chuckled. "Your dad wants at least one of his kids to be in his old house."
The boy - Hugo - grinned. "I'll do my best, Uncle. Where are Mum and Dad anyway?" he stuck his head out of the window further and looked up and down the platform. His Aunt and Uncle shrugged.
"Probably saying goodbye to Rose. Have you seen her?" The red-haired woman asked.
"Who, Rose?" Hugo said. "No...not since we arrived here. She's probably with her friends somewhere. Oh well, I'll write to Mum and Dad soon." he smiled. He turned to glance back into the apartment, and suddenly realised Sam was still there. He looked apologetic and embarrased for having forgotten her.
"Oh, sorry, do you need to wave goodbye to anyone?" the red-head boy asked Sam, realising that they had been hogging the window.
Sam shook her head quickly as the girl turned around too to face her. "Oh, Merlin, sorry! How rude of us!"
"Yes, madam, where are your manners?" The woman called up from the window to the girl. She signalled to Sam to come to the window. Hesitantly, Sam got up and approached the woman. "Is it your first time at Hogwarts too?" She asked kindly, and Sam nodded. "Well, you three stick together on the journey, okay? And take care, all of you!" she said warmly, and Sam found herself beginning to like the girl's mother.
The three children nodded, and the train suddenly whistled. On the platform, things suddenly started to become more hectic as people started hurrying on to the train, dragging trunks and lifting cages. The red haired woman and her husband grinned up at the children. "Well, this is it," the man said. "Off to Hogwarts for the first time! Be good! And write to us!"
"Of course we will!" The girl said excitedly. The train began to pull out of the station, and the boy and girl leant further out of the window to wave at their relatives. All down the train, Sam could see arms waving out of the windows. The red-haired woman caught Sam's eye just before the train began to speed up, and gave a small wave. After her initial surprise, Sam managed a small wave and a smile back, before the train pulled clear of the station, round a corner and out of sight. The three children sat down on the seats, Sam picking up her kitten and placing him on her lap.
The girl opposite Sam spoke first.
"I'm so excited to finally be going! It was torture having to watch my brothers go before me but not be able to get on the train myself. Oh, I'm Lily, by the way." she said excitedly. She turned to her companion expectantly, who appeared to be staring into space. After a quick nudge from Lily he jumped slightly, but joined the conversation easily.
"I'm Hugo. Lily's cousin," he said with a warm smile. "What's your name?"
"Sam." Sam said, smiling but not elaborating on the subject.
"Is that short for something?" Lily asked curiously.
"I don't know." Sam said guardedly. Lily looked curious, but seemed to sense Sam's unwillingness to continue with the subject, as did Hugo, though Sam didn't miss the puzzled glance that passed between them.
"Do you know what house you going to be in?" Hugo asked. "Both Lily and my parents were in Gryffindor. So hopefully we are too, although Lily's dad thinks I might be in Ravenclaw..."
"That wouldn't be so bad, Hugo. Rosie's in Ravenclaw, isn't she?" Lily turned to Sam. "Rose is Hugo's sister. I don't mind what house I'm in, as long as it's not Slytherin...I think my Uncle Ron - Hugo's dad - would personally kill me! Even Hufflepuff would be better..." She continued with a giggle, and Hugo smiled softly, rolling his eyes.
"You won't be in Slytherin, Lils...not with your dad!" he said, grinning at Sam, and wondering why she hadn't joined in with the conversation. Sam was looking at the two of them blankly.
"Sam? What's wrong?" Lily asked. "What house do you think you'll be in?"
"Um... sorry, but I really don't know anything about all of this. Apart from the fact that I'm going to a school for witches and wizards, and magic is real, I don't know all the details of Hogwarts, or the wizarding world. You are going to have to either explain it to me, or we could talk about something I do know about." Sam said, rather bluntly. She had been infamous at the children's home for not being afraid to tell the other foster kids, and the people who ran the place for that matter, what she thought of them. It had caused her a lot of trouble, and the bigger guys had beaten her up whenever she said something they didn't like, which had been often. Sam didn't see it as maliciousness, just honesty, which some people seemed to have a problem with.
"You don't know about anything? Are you Muggle-born?" Lily asked, surprised. If she was offended by Sam's matter-of-fact tone, she didn't show it, although Hugo looked a little taken aback for a few seconds.
Muggle-born was one of the few terms Sam did understand. It was a phrase used to describe a person whose parents had no magical background.
"I have no idea." Sam shrugged. By Lily's expression, Sam guessed that this conversation was a little different than she had expected.
"What do you mean? Surely either you are or you aren't. Were your parents wizards?" Hugo interjected, in a manner which suggested that he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Sam shrugged again. "I never knew my parents' names, what they looked like, or anything about them. I have never met them, and no one else has any idea who my parents are either. So I don't know." she told them. She hadn't anticipated sharing that information so soon, but she decided that as it was going to get out sometime, why not let it be known early on? Hugo and Lily had not been expecting such a frank answer; Hugo became deep in thought, while Lily simply opened her mouth in a large 'O'. She was about to speak, when sliding door of the compartment opened. The two boys standing there were both older than the first-years, and both had jet-black hair. The older one (who looked about fifteen, possibly sixteen) had the exact same colour eyes as Lily, while the other one had warm chocolate brown eyes. Sam realised that these must be more relations of Lily; older brothers, perhaps? They closely resembled Lily's parents. The older one spoke first.
"Hey little sis, welcome aboard the Hogwarts Express!" he said, confirming Sam's suspicions. "We're here to steal Hugo from you. He needs to come and meet the boys, not hang out with girls. Oh, and Al wanted to say hi." He had the air of someone who was popular and knew it.
"Hey Lily. Who's your friend?" The younger boy asked. He looked about thirteen, and looked a little less arrogant than his brother.
"This is Sam. Sam, these are my brothers. The cocky one on the right is James, and the quieter on the left trying to get around James' arm, is Albus. James is in 5th year, and Al's in 3rd." Lily teased, sticking out her tongue at her siblings. They both looked at Sam, eyes sweeping over her old jeans and favourite t-shirt (a bright green one that one that said in electric blue letters, 'the great thing about this t-shirt is that by the time you have finished reading it you realise it says nothing at all.' The mocking humor amused Sam), her tattered sneakers, her blonde pixie-cut, and finally, her violet eyes. Upon seeing the rare colour, Albus whistled, and James swore appreciatively. Sam laughed, although it came out more shy than she had intended.
"James! That filthy mouth of yours is why you didn't get made prefect!" Lily admonished, and her brother grinned.
"Hi Sam," James said, once he got over his awe. "Look after my sister, yeah? You girls have fun! C'mon, Hu; There's a couple of decent first-year guys you might like - there's Daisy Finnigan's little brother, some guy called Cauldwell, and a really chatty one called Creevey..." James grabbed Hugo and pulled him away and out of the compartment, and Albus turned to follow.
"Hi Sam! Bye Sam! Bye Lily!" He said, smiling at the girls before running after James. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Boys, eh? I think purple eyes are cool. You're so lucky." she said earnestly. Then she said, "Just because I'm curious, why is your hair so short? I love my hair being long. Don't get me wrong, it really suits you, but..." she hurried to assure her new friend.
Sam didn't take offence, merely reached up to touch her messy spikes.
"Quicker to wash, quicker to dry. Where I come from, the sooner you get out of the shower, the less chance the older kids will beat you up for taking too long. They're not the most patient of people." she said, laughing at the memory of one of the older and meaner bullies at the group home. She started to tell the story to Lily.
"He had been chasing me for one reason or another, and we had been running down one of those sets of stairs that go around in a loop, and if you look down the middle, you can see all the way to the bottom. Anyway, being the skinny weed I am, I squeezed through the gap, and climbed down through the middle. I only realised later just how dangerous it had been, but at the time it was a stroke of genius. But the thing was I was getting away. So he tried to follow me. He got stuck, and it took them hours to get him out. It was hilarious, 'cause he was the laughing stock of the home for quite a while. Naturally, he's hated me since." After the story was finished, Sam laughed harder than she had in a long time. Lily laughed as well, but then she stopped and looked at Sam in a funny way.
"You live in a home? Like a foster home?" She asked, concerned.
"More like a children's home where all the kids get put until we get a foster home, or after we have screwed up ones we have already had." Sam explained, snorting at Lily's horrified expression. "It's pretty rough. The older ones like to pick on the younger ones, and you gotta learn how to fight, or you're gang bashed into a bloody pulp." Sam flexed her arm, showing off her muscles.
"Whoa. It's so strange to think that people go through all that, and the rest of us just get on with our lives and barely realise." Lily said.
"Don't worry about it. It's what happens every day. It's like wizards; so many people go through life without ever knowing they exist!" Lily nodded thoughtfully, and seemed to accept that. Sam tried to steer the conversation into safer waters. "Let's talk about something else. You could try and tell me stuff I'm gonna need to know so I don't look like a complete retard when we get to Hogwarts." Lily perked up a bit, happy to be of some help.
"Okay, well there is Quidditch. That's our sport that everyone follows. Mum played for a national team once, The Holyhead Harpies, before she got pregnant. She was a Chaser...That's my favourite position to play when we play at home. And the Sorting Hat sorts us into houses, like we said earlier, and there's Hogsmeade Village, and the stairs move..." She told Sam lots of things that were useful to know, and the blonde girl stored away as much information as she could.
Partway through the trip, a lady came through with the food trolley.
Sam only had the money from the Hogwarts fund, and after briefly looking at the obscure items on the trolley, she bought a chocolate frog and left it at that. Lily had quite a bit of money, and bought 'Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans', two pumpkin pasties, and a handful of Chocolate Frogs. Lily left the pile of snacks on the seat next to her, and picked up a Chocolate Frog.
"Sorry for getting so much food. I didn't have much of a breakfast, and I didn't bring lunch." She apologised.
"It's fine." Sam mumbled, deciding not to bother mentioning that she had not eaten all day herself, and had not brought food with her. At the childrens' home, it wasn't unusual for the older kids to steal food from the others. One just had to sit there with their piece of toast, or tiny bowl of cereal, and hope the bullies took someone else's breakfast. Unfortunately, Sam's had been stolen this morning before she left for King's Cross.
Sam looked at her frog.
"So, what are these?" she asked, looking the packet over.
"Well, let me show you." Lily opened hers, and a brown frog hopped out. She grabbed it before it could go anywhere. "It's just a charm." She bit into its head.
Curious, Sam opened her own, and found it had a lot of energy; she had to lunge across the seat stop it from disappearing onto the luggage rack, and she dislodged the kitten on her lap, who woke with a start, and unimpressed, curled up in a corner instead. Finally having caught it, Sam sucked on the foot, thinking about how bizarre the situation was.
"What card did you get?" Lily asked, reaching for Sam's wrapper, and pulling out a purple hexagonal card. "Oh, you got Bertie Bott. He's the guy who invented these..."
Lily opened her Every Flavour Beans. She ate one of her beans and then made a face. "What is it?" Sam asked, concerned.
"They mean 'Every Flavour', I tell you. I just got blood flavour. Yuck. When my Dad came to Hogwarts, apparently his headmaster got an earwax flavoured one...Want to try one?" She asked. Sam raised her eyebrows, thinking it sounded like an interesting concept. She put her hand in, pulled out a pale green bean, and popped it into her mouth. "What did you get?" Lily was eager to know. Sam chewed for a few seconds before replying.
"Cabbage, I think." Sam answered, distinctly unimpressed. Lily laughed and offered her three more; the red one was chilli, the white one turned out to be vanilla ice-cream and the curiously speckled yellow and brown one was mustard.
As Lily was gagging on a blue bean which had turned out to be cod liver oil, the compartment door slid open again and a tall mixed-race girl with dark hair stood in the doorway. She was dressed in black school robes and a red and gold badge glinted on her chest. Her hazel eyes flicked in concern to Lily, who looked like she wanted to vomit.
"Lily? Are you alright?" the girl asked worriedly. She looked at Sam. "What happened to her?"
Sam held up the box of beans, and the older girl laughed. "Ah, Lily, what one did you get?"
Lily groaned. "Fish oil..."
The girl in the robes grimaced. "Ew, not nice." she said sympathetically. "Anyway, it's good to see you finally aboard the train! I'm just letting everyone know that we'll be arriving at Hogwarts in about half an hour, so you will need to change into your uniform, okay?" The two first-years nodded, and the girl left, the compartment door clicking shut behind her.
"Who was that?" Sam asked her companion. "How did she know your name?"
"That's another of my cousins, Roxanne Weasley. Her dad is my mum's brother, George. She's a prefect."
Sam said "Oh," before she asked her next question. "Do you have a lot of cousins then?"
Lily giggled. "Do I ever! Yes, I have ten first cousins just from my mother's siblings, and my dad's cousin has a daughter too...but he was an only child so I don't have many relatives on his side..."
Sam whistled. "Wow, you have a big family."
Nodding, Lily replied, "Yeah, the Weasley family is huge. My mum was the youngest of seven."
Sam could only imagine what having such a huge family was like, having never known her family. She looked out of the window, momentarily sidetracked by a sudden feeling of loss, which she had never felt before. She was interrupted by Lily.
"Sam? We need to get changed. We're nearly there, nearly at Hogwarts!"
So, I hope you enjoyed! If you've read MayFairy's version of the story, I hope you like what I did with it, and you'll stick around to read the next installment!
As always, review, it will make my day!
See you next update!
~toavoidconversation xx