Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Don't sue me.
Chapter Two: Journey to Hogwarts
This was the day she had been anxiously awaiting since she had come to St. Mungo's Children's Home-- the day she would go to Hogwarts. It was finally here and it was real. She looked around Platform 9 ¾ eagerly, determined not to miss anything. The pressing crowds of students jostling each other trying to find their friends, the bright red train billowing smoke, and the screeches of hundreds of owls and the protests of just as many unhappy cats filled her senses. Even the fact that Madam Scatcherd had accompanied the students couldn't dampen Susie's high spirits. Madam Scatcherd seemed to hate all the orphans, but had had a particular aversion to Susie since that fateful trip to Diagon Alley where Mr. Ollivander had so thoroughly snubbed the matron in front of Susie. She had done everything possible to make Susie's remaining weeks at the Home miserable, trying to blame anything that went wrong on Susie, and watching her like a hawk, trying to catch her breaking one of the orphanage's many rules.
"Susan Bones!" a high-pitched voice called over the crowd.
"Here!" Susie shouted back, looking around for the owner of the voice. It was Madam Harvey, the other matron accompanying the students, taking role. Knowing she had been accounted for and wouldn't be humiliated by matrons prowling the train looking for her, Susie dragged her trunk from the pile and hauled it towards the train before anyone saw her with the crowd of orphans. She made her way to the luggage car and tried unsuccessfully several times to hoist her trunk into the compartment.
"Here, let me get that." Offered a tall redheaded boy with a shiny prefect's badge. He lifted the trunk easily and tossed it carelessly into the car.
"Thanks." Susie stammered, looking up at him with admiration.
"Not a problem." And the boy turned and left. Susie watched him as he made his way down the platform and disappear into a car towards the front of the train. Susie also began to walk down the platform, looking for a likely car, until a flash of orange caught her eye. She turned to see a family of redheads, a mother, a little girl, and a group of boys of various ages. The mother's bustling, fussing, loving ways reminded her sharply of her grandmother. A heavy ache of sorrow filled her, and she turned away from the happy family and entered the nearest door into the train. She walked blindly down the aisle until she came to an empty compartment. She stumbled in, pulled the door shut, sat down in the corner and stared out the window, which afforded a perfect view of the mother sending her children off with hugs and admonitions. Unbidden, hot, silent tears began to stream down her face.
"Are you okay?" a soft voice asked. Susie looked up. A girl about her own age sat in the corner opposite her. Susie hadn't even seen her.
"I'm fine." Susie said quickly, forcing back her tears with practiced ease. Hastily she wiped her face on the back of her sleeve.
"I'm Hannah," the girl offered her a tentative smile.
Susie twisted her face to smile back and quietly introduced herself
Awkwardness filled the small compartment, and after a moment, both girls turned to stare out the window. Susie was thankful to see that the family was gone.
The train lurched and began a slow, steady acceleration out of the station.
"We're moving," Hannah said uncertainly.
"Yeah," Susie agreed, and they both turned back to the window.
"Are you nervous?" Susie asked quietly a moment later.
"Yeah."
"So'm I" Susie admitted. The girls smiled for real this time, and the awkwardness was gone.
BANG! The compartment door flew open and three first year girls tramped in and threw themselves into the seats, chattering and giggling madly all the while.
"Oh." One of the girls had noticed Susie and Hannah. The other two went quiet. "I'm Parvati, this is Lavender, and this is Mandy," the first girl said, motioning at her friends.
Susie and Hannah introduced themselves.
"Your eyes are red," Mandy promptly pointed out.
"Allergies," Susie lied swiftly. She glanced over at Hannah, and knew Hannah wouldn't give her away.
After a moments pause, the trio continued their chat, ignoring Susie and Hannah completely. Susie watched them from her corner. They were like the birds at the feeder her grandmum had had in the backyard—noisy, flighty, and constantly squabbling. Susie wondered vaguely if the new owners of the house had kept the feeder. Her grandfather had made it especially for her grandmother. It was strange to think of other people living there. She had always had a vague sort of belief that her grandparents were still there, waiting for her, though she knew it wasn't true.
A girl identical to Parvati popped her head into the compartment, shattering Susie's musings. "A third year girl has a pack of tarot cards and she says she'll tell our futures!" the girl announced. The three girls squealed with excitement and followed the visitor to the tarot reader.
Susie and Hannah grinned in relief and began to talk. Susie found out that Hannah was Muggle born, and that she hadn't any clue she was magical until she had gotten her letter. Hannah's parents were still uncertain about the whole venture, but had agreed to let her go after a witch had come and explained everything to them. Susie told Hannah that her dad was a wizard but her mum was a Muggle, but that they had died when she was just a baby and that her Muggle grandparents had raised her. Susie didn't reveal that she had lived at the Children's Home for the past two years. The older students had told her this could be something of a stigma at Hogwarts, and Susie had decided to conceal this for as long as possible.
Hannah knew little about the different Houses and magic in general, and Susie told her she didn't know much either, which was sort of true. If she had to pretend she was Muggle born to keep her secret, so be it. Susie didn't really care which House she was in, she was just glad to get to go to Hogwarts. It occurred to her that she didn't know which House her father had been in. Her grandparents had never told her anything about her father, saying that they hadn't really known him, if Susie chanced to ask about him.
When the witch with the food cart came, they had shared Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, laughing and daring each other to try the odd coloured ones. They ate Chocolate Frogs and had decided that if they were in the same House they would share a card collection. All too soon the train slowed down and pulled into the Hogsmeade station. After the chattering trio had left, the girls had been uninterrupted except for a girl looking for someone else's toad, and Susie and Hannah had become fast friends and were hoping fervently they would be in the same House. They got off the train and their nervousness returned.
"Firs' years!" a booming voice called out over the noise of the crowd. "Firs' years this way!" Susie and Hannah followed the voice to where a cluster of scared looking first years had gathered around a massive man with wild hair and a huge bushy beard.
"Ever'one here?" he called. "Right then! Follow me!"
He led them down a narrow path to the edge of a lake where a group of small boats. "No more'n four to a boat!" he told them. Susie and Hannah clambered into a boat followed by two boys they didn't know. "Forward!" the giant said, and the boats began to glide noiselessly across the black lake to Hogwarts.
A stern looking witch met them at the castle and led them into the Great Hall to be sorted.
The witch who had met them at the castle led them in a straight line through the Great Hall. This by far worse than when she had first come to St. Mungo's Children's Home. Susie focused on Hannah's fat blonde plaits bobbing back and forth in front of her as she walked what seemed like miles to the front of the Hall where a filthy, patched up hat sat on a stool. Susie wondered vaguely if someone had left it there by accident. Then the most extraordinary thing happened—the hat began to sing! It sang a song about the four Houses who belonged where. Susie stared at it in amazement. When it had finished it's song, the witch made a short speech that could have been in a foreign language for all Susie understood of it, then called the first name.
"Abbott, Hannah." Susie watched her friend stumble out of line and up to the stool. The hat slipped down over Hannah's eyes and soon it called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Hannah went over and sat down at the table on the right. Suddenly Susie felt very alone.
"Bones, Susan" That was her name! She walked slowly over to the stool, keeping her head high and trying desperately not to show her sudden fear. She hoisted herself up onto the stool. The Great Hall and thousands of eyes all focused on her disappeared as the witch dropped the Hat over her eyes.
'Susan Bones, eh? I remember your grandmother…' a small, soft voice whispered in her mind. 'Well, well, let's see…you'd be a credit to any House. Loyalty, I see, and her talent, oh yes, ambition too, lots of that, going to prove yourself are you?'
'I will!' Susie insisted franticly. 'I'll show them! I'll be the best witch they ever saw! I'll be important! More important than…' and she reigned in her agitated thoughts.
'More important than Harry Potter' the Sorting Hat finished for her in its soft voice. 'Life's never fair, is it? But you could be, you know.' Susie hardly dared to breathe. 'You'll have to work hard for that, though, won't you? Oh yes, very hard indeed. And the House for that is—
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat screamed aloud.
Someone lifted the hat over her eyes, and she stepped down from the stool with trembling legs. Somehow, she made it over to the table on the right, where people were applauding politely, and sat down next to Hannah. Suddenly everything fell into perspective again. She had done it. She had been sorted, and sorted into the same House as Hannah. It was all over. Over before she had even had time to work up a proper panic. She thanked her father again for a last name that began with 'B'. It had been an advantage in the alphabetically organized world of the orphanage, and had proved helpful here too. What exactly had the Hat said to her? She thought vaguely that it might have been important, and tried briefly to remember, but pushed it from her mind. Watching her fellow first years being Sorted was much more interesting, especially since she was at her House table and they were up there in front of everyone, still waiting for their turn to come.
"Potter, Harry" the witch's voice called out, and whispers filled the Hall.
"That's Harry Potter. The real Harry Potter," Hannah informed her in an awed voice.
"I know," Susie hissed back, and she lifted herself out of her chair a few inches to see over the heads of the other first years who had joined her House. There he was leaving the now much smaller crowd of frightened students. Susie sat back down in her chair with a small thud. He was ordinary. There was no other way to describe him. He was small and skinny, almost as small as she was, and he had wild black hair and glasses-- glasses of all things! Susie was so disappointed and indignant she thought she might cry. He wasn't supposed to be like this! He defeated You Know Who when he was only a baby. He was supposed to be tall and strong and handsome, like the heroes in the fairy tales her grandmother had told her so many times. He probably didn't even have the scar on his forehead like everyone said. He wasn't special. He wasn't special at all. It was just chance that he had killed You-Know-Who. You-Know-Who was going to die anyhow. That's what one of the matrons had told her about her grandparents. If it's your time to die, it's your time to die and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Harry had just been there when it was You-Know-Who's time to die. It could have been her. It should have been her.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat called, breaking the anxious silence that had fallen over the hall. The table on the far left exploded with cheers. They obviously thought he was special. 'Some people will believe anything.' Susie thought loftily. She knew better. She ignored the disappointed talk around her, she could scarcely believe that people were actually sorry he wasn't in their House. She stared resolutely the table, deliberately ignoring Hannah, who was trying to tell her something about the great Harry Potter. Fortunately, there was only a handful of students left. Soon they too were Sorted and food covered the table. The sheer quantity and the variety of the food shocked Susie out of her sulk. It seemed like there was every food she had ever heard of and more that were totally unfamiliar. The food at the orphanage had been good and plentiful, but it couldn't begin to compare to this. She wondered if it would be like this every night.
"Here." Susie said contritely, since Hannah seemed rather sore about being ignored. "Try this, it looks very nice" and she handed Hannah a dish of some sort of potatoes. Hannah took it from her silently and scooped some onto her plate.
"Will we keep our card collection with your stuff or mine, do you think?" Susie tried again. Hannah brightened at this.
"What cards do we have again?" Hannah asked. Susie pulled them out of her pocket to show her. Some of the other first years produced cards too, and they began comparing and trading. When the others found out the girls just started their collection, they began giving them cards they had doubles of, with promises of more when they unpacked their real collections. The older students looked on tolerantly. When dinner had ended and they had sung the school song, the prefects led them away to the common room. All of a sudden, Susie felt exhausted. She dragged her feet up and down countless flights of stairs and through miles of corridors to a warm, cozy room filled with chairs and couches with fat, soft cushions and bright fluffy rugs. The prefect directed the girls to one dorm and the boys to another. Susie quickly found her trunk and changed into her nightdress. She sunk into the nearest bed and fell asleep immediately.
Pale morning sunshine stretched across Susie's face and woke her up. Sitting up sleepily, she looked around, disoriented. A moment later, she remembered everything— she was at Hogwarts, in Hufflepuff, and today was the first day of classes. She looked over at the beds on either side of her. Hannah was still asleep in the bed to her right, her face peaceful and her plaits coming undone. In the other bed lay Megan, or was it Ainsley? Susie couldn't remember. She had met lots of people at the feast last night and had quickly lost track of who was who. Susie glanced at the clock on the wall, where the hand still pointed to 'Sleep.' Susie rose and pulled her cloak out of her trunk and wrapped it around her. Even though it was still summer, there was a hint of autumn coolness in the air. She looked around the room more closely. She had been too tired last night to notice anything about it. It was curiously long and narrow, like it might have been a hall of some sort at one time and wasn't now. The four four-poster beds draped in cheery yellow cloth were against one long wall. On the other wall were their trunks and some desks and chairs. On both walls tall stained glass windows colored the early morning light red and blue and gold.
"'Morning," a sleepy voice called to her. Susie turned around. It was Hannah. "Our first morning at Hogwarts," Hannah pointed out. The girls dressed quickly in the chilly air and went down to the Common Room to arrange all the new Chocolate Frog cards in their collection 'til breakfast time came.
Susie was as impressed with breakfast as she was with dinner last night. No more gloppy oatmeal and burnt toast for her. She helped herself to scrambled eggs and bacon as a prefect passed out schedules to everyone. She studied hers carefully then compared hers to Hannah's to make sure they were the same. They both said the same thing—Potions, then Herbology, and finally Defense against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. A handsome older boy looked at their schedules then announced, "I'll show you to Potions today, you won't want to be late for Snape's class, he hates us Hufflepuffs. C'mon then, let's go, I've got class, too."
The first years all looked at each other anxiously, then shoved the remainder of their breakfasts aside and followed the boy out of the Great Hall. The boy led them through the corridors and down several flights of stairs. As they went along, he pointed out painting and statues that would help guide them to the dungeons again. He told them to be quiet and respectful and not argue with Snape about anything, not matter how unfair it seemed. They soon reached the dungeons, where the boy pointed out the door to the classroom. Just then, a girl passed by, saying as she went, "Better hurry, Cedric, McGonagall will be furious if you're late." Cedric wished them a quick "Good Luck!" and raced off to follow the girl.
The Hufflepuffs stood in a cluster where Cedric had left them, staring anxiously at the door as if they expected something horrible to come out of it. After a moment, Susie sighed with impatience and led the way through the door. However bad this Snape was, he couldn't possibly be worse than Madam Scatcherd. The rest of the students followed her in reluctantly. She looked around the dark dungeon. He wasn't even here. She threw herself in the nearest seat and motioned for Hannah to sit next to her. The Ravenclaws came in groups of two's and three's soon after, and were forced to sit at the front desks, the safer desks in the back of the room having been quickly claimed by the more timid Hufflepuffs. Not long after the last of the Ravenclaws had sat down in the very front desks, Professor Snape strode into the room in a flurry of black robes. He immediately began a 'beginning of the semester' speech which Susie ignored entirely, knowing she would hear it from every professor in every class. She looked around the dungeon at all the peculiar herbs hanging from the ceiling and the strange skeletons and the nastinesses floating in large glass jars. She looked back at the professor, noticing how well his long black hair reflected the torchlight and wondering if he used the slimy stuff in the jars to make it shine like that. She imagined a hair potion like she had seen the older girls at the orphanage using and stifled a giggle. Snape spun around so quickly, she knew he had heard her. She swiftly schooled her features into the proper combination of innocence and confusion, sure to fool any teacher. He barely glanced at her, turning instead to stare at Hannah with animosity in his eyes. Hannah's normally pink face turned so red it was nearly purple, and she looked down at her feet and squirmed.
"Ten points from Hufflepuff for disrupting class!" he barked at her.
Susie stole a glance at Hannah, who seemed to be paralyzed with fear, and guilt swept over her. Hannah shouldn't have to take this! It wasn't her fault and that horrible man just assumed it was!
"It was me!" The words flew from Susie's mouth before she had time to stop them or even consider what she was saying. Snape stared at her, clearly as startled by her words as everyone else was.
"What did you say?" he asked coldly, enunciating every word carefully. Susie considered for a split second, then decided she couldn't back down now. She couldn't let him win.
"It was me. I lau—I disrupted class," she said with quiet determination, forcing herself to look into his cold black eyes.
"Twenty points from Hufflepuff for your insolence, and be grateful it isn't more," he snarled at her.
Susie summoned all her courage. "Aren't you going to give Hannah's points back?" she asked indignantly. All her efforts would be in vain if he didn't give the points back to Hannah.
It had been a mistake to ask him. "Twenty more points and a detention, for daring to question me." Fifty points lost! And a detention, too! She hated him, oh, how she hated him! How could she ever have compared him to Madam Scatcherd! He made the matron look like a saint! He watched her for a moment with satisfaction, then turned away and began to explain the potion they would be making today. Hannah reached under the table and squeezed her hand in gratitude and sympathy. Suddenly the points and the detention didn't matter. She had a friend, a real friend. She wouldn't let him take any more points off her or Hannah today. She forced herself to listen closely to his instructions on how to make a potion to cure boils. When he was done explaining, she pulled out Hannah's cauldron and ingredients. There was no way she would let him see her own dented cauldron or let him know she didn't have half the ingredients needed for the potion.
"Here" she whispered, and shoved shrivelfig roots over at Hannah. "Cut these into one centimeter cubes. Carefully." Hannah, still in shock, began slowly cutting the wrinkly brown roots. Too slowly. They would never finish at this pace. "Why don't you stir?" and she pulled the roots away from Hannah and handed her the spoon. She measured and minced and diced with more care and precision than she had ever used before, stopping periodically to adjust Hannah's stirring. At the end of class, Snape headed straight for their cauldron, as Susie had been certain he would. Fortunately, it looked perfect, according to their textbook at least. Susie stared up at him defiantly as he tested their potion, trying to fake a courage she didn't feel. When he was finished, he sneered at her, but swept away without saying a word, dismissing the class with a wave of his hand. Susie felt weak with relief. She and Hannah cleaned up their mess as swiftly and quietly as possible and left the classroom and headed outdoors. It was a relief to leave the dungeons and go outside to the greenhouses, where the bright September sunshine chased away the horrors of her first Potions class.
A/N: Many thanks to Aristyar, without whom this fic would have never gotten beyond this chapter.
Chapter Three will be up in a few days, no promises on Chapter Four