"Lily come on!"
"James be quiet you heartless man!"
Hannah forced her eyes open to see Lily Potter crouched in front of her with James standing just behind with Harry. She leapt up, turned her head to the side and braced herself for the worst.
"Hey hey hey Hannah it's OK, no one's going to hurt you," Lily reassured softly, "Come on, you need to get the train." Hannah looked round and saw James standing with his hand on Harry's shoulder and Lily smiling softly at Hannah. Hannah thrust her robe hastily into her bag, picked out her wand from Ollivanders and shoved it in her pocket. "Excuse me" Hannah muttered as she walked past them and fell into step behind a large family of redheads. Weasley's Hannah guessed, just what I need, more wizards. Hannah heard footsteps behind her, focused for a minute on the people behind her, before picking up on their sense; unfortunately, the Potter's were walking behind her. James muttered something to Harry and both burst out laughing. Gritting her teeth, Hannah carried on walking and ignored the laughing. "Hey Arthur! Molly!" James shouted, the two people at the front of the redheaded group stopped and turned around, followed by five children looking, all looked at Hannah like she was some kind of monster, exactly what James wanted. Hannah, getting fed up, pushed past them and continued walking towards platform 9 and 10. Once she had reached the column which held two signs to show platforms 9 and 10, it dawned upon her that she had no idea where platform 9 ¾ was, and how to get there. She looked around wildly for a minute, and noticed the Weasley's and Potter's were getting closer, talking and laughing. There was no way Hannah was going to have to follow what they did, so she calmed herself, sent out her sense, and realised there was people past the column she was standing by. Hannah realised what she had to do, walk through the wall. She knew the wizarding world was slightly mad, but this was just ridiculous, hitching her bag up on her shoulder, she made a mental note to get something bigger, stepped up to the column and walked through it.
Hannah stood there, dazed by the amount of people station, all rushing around, too busy to notice a lost child. As she walked down the platform, she saw the Malfoy's, hurriedly, she turned around, heart thumping, trying not to focus on the memories that came flooding back to her. Too focused on blocking out her memories, she didn't look where she was going and walked straight into Mr Weasley, Hannah almost jumped out of her skin with fright. "I-I-I'm s-so s-s-sorry sir!" Hannah stuttered, and she stepped back a few steps, almost stepping back into none other than Lucious Malfoy.
"Well, well, well. Having a little family reunion are we?" The corners of his mouth curved upwards as he tried not to grin. "Nothing of the sort Malfoy," Mr Weasley spat back, "A simple misunderstanding that is all."
"Well, watch her, got a slight bit of a temper this one" Malfoy replied slyly, "Come now Draco," Placing his hand on his son's shoulder and steered him away. Mr Weasley shook his head in disbelief, Mrs Weasley forgot about any fear or anger she held towards Hannah Black and it was completely replaced with sympathy. "Hannah dear, come meet everyone else," Mrs Weasley prompted kindly, Hannah, still being shaken up, shook her head and stepped backwards until she came to the back wall, where she sat down, staring at the ground, desperately trying not to let the memories come into her mind.
After what felt like hours to Hannah, she noticed everybody was starting to board the train, so she unwillingly pulled herself up, and walked down the train until she came to an empty compartment, she entered, sat next to the window and pulled her knees up to her chest, her body shaking violently, if she had been anybody else she would have cried, but Black's never cried, ever.
Her trance was disturbed by the door opening; she quickly looked around to see Harry and a boy from the group of red head's walk in. "Oh sorry, can we sit down? It's just every over compartment is full, but we can leave if you want to be alone" Harry was partly afraid that she was going to pull her wand out and curse him. Hannah looked at them for a moment, before briskly nodding her head and turning back to stare out the window. Harry and the red head sat down opposite her, they glanced at each other before Harry tried to make conversation, "This is Ron, Ron Weasley," Hannah turned and looked at Ron, then at Harry, her eyes where tired, tired beyond anything Ron or Harry had ever known. "Look," Hannah swung her legs down onto the floor, and spoke harshly "I don't know what you two have been told about me or my family, but I really don't need you two or anyone else in school acting the same way everyone in Diagon Alley or The Leaky Cauldron did, so whatever you've been told about me is most probably wrong." Everything was silent for a couple of minutes, not sure what to say, until Harry got enough courage to try and get her to open up, "Hannah, the way your mum was in the pub, was that normal?"
"Ha!" A small one sided grin appeared on her face for a split second, "Potter, that was her on a happy day, she has them once in a blue moon." Harry didn't want to see what she was like on a bad day, or a normal day at that.
"So, friends?" Harry held out his hand, Hannah thought about it for a moment, before the one sided grin appeared back on her face, but for longer this time as she shook Harry's hand. She didn't hold it for long and resumed staring out the window; she stayed like that for most of the journey, until the carriage door opened again, and in walked a bushy haired witch, most probably in the same year as them, "Have you seen a toad? A boy called Neville has lost his," the three sitting in the compartment looked at each other for a minute, before Hannah had the strange look on her face that she was thinking deeply, but quickly, "Neville who?" she inquired
"Longbottom, why?"
"Curious, that's all" Hannah took her position staring out of the window all the way to Hogwarts, completely oblivious to Harry's, Ron's and the bushy haired witch's conversation.
As the train pulled into Hogwarts Station, they looked round at Hannah, and noticed she was in school uniform, but she hadn't left the compartment or even moved since their short conversation. Harry and Ron noticed her uniform wasn't quite the same as the bushy haired witch sitting in the same compartment as them, Hannah was wearing untied black army boots, with white, red and orange socks pushed down to the top of the boots. She was wearing a short black skirt with a split to the right hand side and an oversized white school shirt with the top few buttons undone. As she stood up to pick up her bag, the boys noticed that the outfit complimented her body, showing off all the positive aspects, and they noticed she had the body of someone two years older, her legs where perfectly toned, her body curved in exactly the right places, her washboard stomach just made her look even sexier. Her hair which was previously clotted with blood, now fell perfectly down her back, dead straight. Her eyes where the deepest brown, but seemed hardened by the pain of her past, they were lined in black and her lashes where bold and as black as night. Harry and Ron had never seen anyone so beautiful.
As they all piled off the train, shouts went about for older years meeting up with their friends, calling to each other and happily chatting away as they climb into the carriages. Hannah looked round at Harry, Ron and Hermione (the witch from the train) they shrugged, having no idea where to go, until a great voice boomed out, turning many heads. "Harry! You all right?" Next thing any of them knew, a massively tall man was beaming down at them. Harry beamed back; Ron and Hermione seemed quite shocked by the large man, Hannah, on the other hand seemed quite bored. "Hey Hagrid," Harry said cheerfully, "This is Ron Weasley," Harry pointed to Ron who mumbled a hello, "Hermione Granger," Harry continued pointing to Hermione, who smiled at Hagrid, "And this is Hannah Black" Harry pointed to Hannah, and Hagrid's smile faltered when Harry said her last name. "Watch yourself Harry," Hagrid growled, only meaning for Harry to hear, but Hannah heard, because she had been expecting it. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Hagrid turned round and shouted.
It didn't take long for all the nervous, excited first years to group together. Once they were, Hagrid walked off, "Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" They all walked down a narrow, slippery path. Everyone was slipping a bit, not much could be seen, darkness surrounded them, and Hannah walked along holding her wand firmly in her hand. They walked in silence, no one being brave enough to talk, until Hagrid broke the silence with his cheery voice, "Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." He led them round and the view took everyone's breath away.
There was a lake, with boats, it was clear to Hannah that they were supposed to use the boats to get across there. Everyone stood waiting for Hagrid to tell them what to do, except Hannah. Bored of waiting around like everyone else, she walked forward, and everyone thought she was going to get in a boat, but she stopped just before the water's edge, growing up in the Black house she soon learnt you don't touch, pick up or do whatever with anything magical, it may just be the last thing you do. She lifted up the wand in her hand, muttered something, and a bright light shone out over the lake, deeming it was safe; she climbed into the nearest boat and looked back at the others grinning. "Well go on then, get'n the boats! No more'n four to a boat though," Hagrid called from the back. Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed into the same boat as Hannah. Once everyone was in a boat, Hagrid shouted "FORWARD!" As the little boats glided over the water, Harry, Ron and Hermione started a conversation about which House they were going to be in, all of them wanted to be in Gryffindor. "Hey Black," Harry's voice broke Hannah from her stare in the water, "What house you gunna be in?"
"Anything but Slytherin, no way am I going into that house with the rest of my deranged family."
"Maybe Hufflepuff, they're quite adequate wizards," Harry was teasing with her now.
"Maybe, as long as you're not in the same house as me, no way could I spend seven years with big-headed half-blood like you"
"Brilliant, 'coz I couldn't spend seven years with psychotic Death Eater like you"
"Don't try me Potter, I'll show you Death Eater," Hannah's voice had a slight serious note, but was smiling anyways. Harry held up his hands in defeat. This light mood hung over the four of them until they reached the castle.
Once inside the castle, everyone stacked their trunks in one corner, and Hannah lazily slung her bag on top of Harry's trunk. All the first years gathered in the Entrance Hall, waiting to see what would happen next. Hannah pushed her way to the front to stand with Harry, Ron and Hermione, oblivious to all the chatter around her; that is until she was disturbed from her thoughts.
"I see Dumbledore has let you in Black, slightly risky choice considering your family."
