Never Too Late
By: CNJ
PG-13
1: Prologue:
Zar:
At first, my father wanted
me to go to Durmstrang Wizard/Witch School, which according to him was
far better than Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But Mum
didn't want me too far away. My parents argued back and forth
on that for a while. Father, who had gone to Hogwarts in his youth,
said that the teachers were not very good and on top of that, he always
told me he'd been screwed over one too many times by nosy, two-timing students,
especially those from one of Hogwart's houses, Gryffindor. Over time,
as I approached the age of eleven, when students begin secondary school
here in England, I realized that my father's biggest grudge was against
someone named Potter.
"That Potter bastard ruined
my seventh year there," Father complained many times to my mother and me,
who listened quietly, my mum nodding in agreement. "He always had
to be the center of attention and was the teachers' pet. He'd
break all kinds of rules along with his little cronies in his little clique
and the most he'd get is a slight slap on the wrist."
"What kind of rules did
he break?" I asked, wondering more about this Potter person that my father
hated so much.
"All kinds," my father said
with an impatient wave of his hand. "I'll never forget in our first
year, he and his yes-men sneaked off the ground to visit this giant oaf
of an excuse of a gamekeeper at that school to have some kind of tea party
late at night. I knew it wasn't right, so I alerted the then Deputy
Headmistress, McGonagall. That was a mistake on my part, because
McGonagall was incompetent and biased toward that Potter bastard.
She lumped me in detention with them and to make that weekend worse for
me, all four of us had to spend it with that huge oaf in that GreatForest.
And Potter was laughing the whole time that McGonagall nabbed me.
He just loved to see me get into trouble."
"Yes, I remember how he
always gave himself such self-important airs," My mother nodded in agreement.
She'd gone to school with Father and they're the same age. In fact,
they'd started dating around their third year there. She then
kind of gave a sideways smile at my father as she took a platter of croissants
from our house-elf Simmy. "But let's not forget how you brought
him down a notch that fall of our seventh year...remember that precious
photo album his parents left him that got destroyed?"
"Yes, how well I remember,"
Father smiled knowingly.
"What happened?" I asked.
"He carelessly left it out,
so someone got hold of it and accidentally dropped it into the flame of
one of the Great Hall's torches," my father coolly explained. "His
armored little pride cracked and he broke down crying in front of everyone
at dinner. He ran out of there so fast you'd think a mountain troll
was after him, but everyone saw his tears." I didn't say anything
to that one, but it seemed like no one deserved that fate, even "that Potter
bastard."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Durmstrang closed down the
year I turned ten, so that ended the debate between my parents about what
school I'd end up at. So to Hogwarts I went the fall I was eleven.
"Work hard and stay out
of trouble, son," Father admonished as he and mum dropped me off at Platform
Nine And Three-Quarters at Kings Cross train station where Hogwarts students
were to catch the Hogwarts Express to school that September morning I was
to start at Hogwarts. "And watch what kind of friends you make..."
he added. "There are still many of the wrong sorts at Hogwarts that
you don't want to be making friends with."
"Especially muggle-bloods,"
my mother added ominously.
"And the Gryffindor lot,"
my father warned. "They excel at trouble."
"Yes, Father...Mother,"
I nodded, although I really didn't understand why my parents were so against
muggle-borns and the Gryffindors. We shook hands goodbye and I climbed
onto the train, lugging my trunk along. I found an empty compartment
and watched other parents kiss and hug their kids goodbye.
I thought about my own parents
and really had no memory of either one of them really hugging me.
I watched a particularly affectionate-looking set of parents hugging their
daughter goodbye. I could see that even though they were wearing
wizard/witch floppy hats, the parents had jet-black hair, the kind I sometimes
wished I had instead of my own light-brown hair. The man wore thick
round glasses and the woman had a black braid down her back. There
were two girls with them who I assumed were their daughters and apparently
one of them was taking off for Hogwarts. The other daughter appeared to
be around ten, so I knew she still had a year or so to go before it was
her turn for Hogwarts. The older girl hugged them all one last time,
then climbed aboard, lugging her trunk with her. That's when I noticed
there were several other parents with them, another couple, and a mum with
thick rather bushy dark hair kissing her two kids goodbye before they boarded.
Platform Nine and Three
Quarters slowly emptied out and with a slight jolt, the Hogwarts train
took off. I sat back, enjoying the plush blue seats and the roomy
compartment.
"Mind if we join you?" someone
asked from the door and I looked up to see a tall boy with deep auburn
hair and a large nose. With him were two girls.
"Sure..." I nodded, moving
over to make room for them.
"Thanks..." They said and
sat. One of the girls was the one I'd seen with the dark-haired couple
and the other one had straight brown hair and brown eyes and I realized
that she was the one who'd been with the bushy-haired woman.
"I'm Andrew Weasley," the
boy said with a smile.
"And I'm Eva Potts," the
girl with the dark-haired parents smiled as well. She had medium-brown
hair and a rather round face with large blue eyes.
"And I'm Geneveve Granison,"
the second girl added, smiling also. "Pleasure meeting you. Call me Veve."
They seemed so warm and friendly that I grinned back and introduced myself.
"I'm Salazar Malfoy," I
said and we shook hands. On an inspiration and maybe eager to start
secondary school on a fresh note, I impulsively added, "Call me Zar."
My new companions nodded and we got to talking about what we'd expect at
Hogwarts. I also found out that their parents had been friends since
their Hogwarts days. In fact, they'd met on the Hogwarts Express
just like we did. I also found out that Andrew had an older
brother, Charles and a younger sister, Anne. Eva's sister, Margo
was a year younger than her and both of them were adopted. Veve had
an older brother Evan and her mum was widowed.
At one point, a plump witch
stopped by, asking us if we wanted any treats. The treats were scrumptious-looking,
so we bought a chunk of them, then feasted. The most
interesting of all the treats were the chocolate frogs with cards in them
picturing either prominent witches and wizards or famous events.
"Hey, here's the one on
the final defeat of Tom Riddle!" Andrew declared. I'd heard about
that story vaguely and had always wanted to know more about it, but neither
Father or Mother would ever discuss it with me. All they would say
was that Tom Riddle had noble intentions, but others thwarted him and a
group of Gryffindors had quashed him for good one November night.
"I have three of those,"
Eva put in. "Hey, there're my dad and your mum, Veve!"
"Hey, let me see...?" I
asked. Sure enough, the picture was a dark, chilly-looking wooded
area with bare blowing trees. In a clearing among the trees
was a group of robed young people surrounding an ominous-looking robed
wizard, silently chanting spells until he dissolved into ashes. Among
the young people, who were different ages, was a boy with glasses, a snubby
nose, and shaggy black hair, who I knew was Eva's dad, a girl with bushy
brown hair who appeared to be Veve's mum, and a tall boy with red hair.
All three of them appeared to be about seventeen.
"That's my dad," Andrew
pointed to the red-haired boy. "And that's my Aunt Ginny and Uncle
Neville." he pointed to two others next to my dad." We watched Tom
Riddle dissolve, then the flashes of the celebrations that happened afterward.
Then the Gryffindor house icon flashed up with the words Gryffindor
champions restore goodness and freedom to the magical world and end the
dark times forever. Under the icon appeared a group of students.
"That was all the Gryffindor
students that year," Veve added. I wanted to know more about this,
so they told me. Andrew and Eva's dads, Veve's mum and Andrew's aunt
had been in Gryffindor together and had been friends, a foursome.
It was in Andrew, Eva and Veve's parents seventh and final year at
Hogwarts (Ginny was a year younger than the others) when they'd been on
a Gryffindor retreat and had heard Tom Riddle, who used to call himself
Voldemort lurking about in the woods surrounding the cabin they were staying
in. So with the help of two teachers, they'd gone out and had confronted
Tom Riddle, surrounded him and chanted spells to drive out the evil.
It had turned out that Tom's good part of him had died years ago, leaving
really nothing but an evil spirit that was housed in another's dead body,
so he'd dissolved into ashes that night.
"Wow..." I said in amazement.
"You all are lucky to have such brave parents."
"You haven't heard it before?"
Eva asked, her brows slanting a bit.
"Some of it, but not a very
objective version of it," I confessed. "My parents are not among
the most open-minded people on the planet." I also thought about
how they think of the Gryffindors as troublemakers. But now from
what I was hearing, the Gryffindors had been doing a lot of good for this
world, esp. their courage in defeating Tom Riddle, who had killed innocent
people.
The train was almost at
Hogwarts, so we changed into our robes and gathered our trunks together.
Hogwarts turned out to be a beautiful castle. My new friends and
I grabbed a boat together and gaped in wonder as the school came into view.
Once we made it to the great
front door, we were ushered in by a tall thin man who introduced himself
as Deputy Headmaster George Norleck. We entered the huge hall minutes
later. There were four tables and a row of teachers seated at a front
table.
"Headmistress McGonagall..."
someone whispered behind me. "My mum remembers the first McGonagall,
I think her name was Minerva...that's her great-niece Mintra, who took
over last year after Professor Long retired. Sure enough, a
tall plump woman stood and introduced herself as the Headmistress, Professor
Mintra McGonagall.
"When I call out each of
your names, you will come forward, I will place the hat on your head, and
the hat will determine which house you'll be in." On a high stool
was a very old-looking hat that looked like it had been through ten wars.
But to our amusement, it broke out into a little rhyming song about the
houses. I remembered my parents had told me about being in Slytherin
and I knew Father was hoping I'd be in it too. But I looked over
at their table and wasn't so sure. To me, they seemed cliquish and
kind of self-important. I wasn't sure I wanted to be part of them.
Professor McGonagall began with out names. Veve was sorted into Gryffindor.
Once my name was called, I jumped a little, then went up on shaky legs.
I sat shakily and the last thing I saw were some students whispering as
the hat covered my face. Well, well, what have we here? I have
a very good idea of where you should go...tradition and some parents
might dictate Slytherin...
No, I mouthed in
a silent pleading.
Buuut, something tells
me that you're not the Slytherin kind, soooo, it'll be...
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finished
out loud with a shout and cheers went up. I grinned shakily and headed
to the Gryffindor table. Father is not going to be pleased
about this one, I thought with a slight twinge of fear. But maybe
he'd see that I didn't purposely choose this house. Strangely, I
felt happy to be in Gryffindor. The students there greeted me warmly
and I sensed a real open-mindedness and camaraderie among them. To
Veve's and my relief, Eva and Andrew also were sorted into Gryffindor.
No matter what Father said, I had the feeling these would be good years
after all. And the more I listened to my fellow Gryffindors talk,
laugh, compare schedules and eat, the more I knew that my parents are not
always as right as they liked to pretend to be.
More later!
