Laurel: A Very Long and Very Unusual Second Life
Part Three: Astra Inclinant [The Stars Incline Us]
Chapter One: Transvectiō [Crossing]
1 September 1989. 10:45am
Laurel Potter rushed along the starkly numbered platforms of King's Cross Station, pulling her brother along with one outstretched hand. She beamed in excitement when they suddenly stopped between Platforms Nine and Ten.
"Oh, man." She whispered amazedly to herself, intently studying the seemingly normal barrier which she was to use to get to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Laurel glanced behind her as Remus came to a stop, halting the cart carrying her trunk with an exhausted sigh. The newly named cat Luke was grumbling lightly in his carrier atop the trunk at the sharp movement, but soon quietened once more.
Laurel shared an excited glance with Harry, "Let's go!" She exclaimed, dragging him directly towards the barrier, Remus trying to protest behind them. With a cringe and a grin, Laurel led them both through the barrier and out the other side. She shook off the odd feeling and pulled them to the side just in time for Remus to drive the cart and himself through after them.
"Oof." Harry grunted, sharing a wide-eyed glance with her, both shaking off the weird feeling of walking directly into an outwardly solid wall. Upon looking around, Laurel immediately spotted the giant, cherry-red and black steam engine: the Hogwart's Express. She beamed at the sight of the train and went to step forward but she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"Not so fast." Remus said with an amused smile, parking the cart over near a vacant wall and turning to Laurel. She returned his smile sheepishly and he put his hands on her shoulders. "Final goodbyes, then you can go find the twins." Laurel's smile turned wry and somewhat sad, she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around her godfather's middle.
"I'm gonna miss you…let's keep this short and sweet, so I don't cry." Laurel said firmly, stepping away with her smile remaining steadfast.
"I'll miss you too, Laur." Remus said softly.
"And me, I'll miss you too." Harry interjected, attacking Laurel in another hug. Laurel staggered as she caught him and squeezed him tightly, letting go after a moment that felt too short to her.
"I'll see you two at Christmas. And I'll write!" Laurel managed, looking between her two family members before promptly surging in to wrap them both in a final embrace.
"Almost eleven!" Remus reminded them.
Laurel broke away and turned to her cart, rolling it away swiftly. Laurel sent a quick smile behind her, catching one last look at the two before turning back and scanning her eyes over the crowd. She was looking for a collection of red hair, shouldn't be too difficult.
"Aha!" She exclaimed, drowned out by the chattering noise of the other wizarding families around her. Laurel edged around the people in the direction of the Weasley family, one eye fixed on the tallest: Mr Weasley.
"Laurel!" Twin shouts exclaimed, she could just see Fred and George's heads bob over to her, squashing through the fray.
"Oh! Quick, quick!" Mrs Weasley's worried voice called after the two, Laurel was intercepted by the twins who threw an arm each around her on either side.
"You're late, Laur!" One twin screeched in her ear.
"Oh, terribly late! Surely we'll miss the train!" The other countered, then they both fell into laughter at Laurel's fondly unamused stare. She soon broke into a smile and laughed with her friends.
"Laurel, dear! You're here! Quickly, you three." Mrs Weasley fretted over the three and ushered them towards the train, "Charlie, help Laurel with her trunk!"
Charlie's freckled face swam into view, he greeted Laurel happily and took her trunk from the cart, lugging it onto the train. Laurel quickly snatched Luke's carrier and held him close to her, chuckling at the disgruntled meows that quietly accompanied his move.
"Augh! Charlie, look at this beast!" Fred exclaimed as he peered at Laurel's cat through a gap in the wicker.
"More fearsome than any dragon, I think!" George added, Laurel pushed their heads away and boarded the train after Charlie. The twins followed her after receiving their final, unwelcome kisses and hugs from their mother, both groaning in embarrassment.
Laurel edged along the train's corridor, glancing into each compartment as she passed them to find where Charlie had ended up. As she hurried along, she saw the assortment of students and counted herself lucky to be amongst them.
"Wotcher, Laurel!" She saw Nymphadora Tonks' beaming face pop out of a compartment three doors along, one hand waving madly at her. Laurel beamed right back and dragged the two dawdling twins behind her forward and into the compartment.
Charlie, with massive help from Tonks, was shoving Laurel's trunk into the overhead storage, along with Fred's and George's. Laurel collapsed onto the seat with a sigh and placed Luke's carrier beside her.
"Thanks, you two." She called emphatically after Charlie and Tonks, who had left for their own compartments, Charlie going to the very front to be with his fellow prefects. Fred and George both landed on the opposite seat to Laurel, quickly emptying their pockets of what Filch would likely call contraband.
"What's all this?" Laurel asked confusedly, both their heads snapped up and they shot her identically mischievous smiles.
"Mum wouldn't let us bring the vast majority of our belongings—"
"Most prized belongings—"
"Yes! Most prized, our beloved dungbombs—"
"—murderous tea-cups—"
"—deadly sweets—"
"—fire-catching quills—"
"—spewing Frisbees—"
"—a rather offensive xylophone—"
"—cannibalistic shoes—"
"—wait, do the shoes eat toes or other shoes?" Fred wondered suddenly, George paused and looked thoughtful.
"I don't really know..." George trailed off, "Either way, quite funny!" He cried, Fred nodded decisively in agreement.
"Evasive keys—"
"—explode-y—"
"Okay!" Laurel suddenly interjected their joint recollection of pranking products, "I get it! Pranks, your Mum doesn't like them, didn't want to enable you." She smiled happily at their dynamic.
"Yes! But, we being the incredible—"
"—brilliant—"
"—and, may I say, devilishly handsome—"
"—you may!" Fred exclaimed, George collapsed into hysterics, then quickly caught his breath once again.
"Pranksters that we are..." George continued.
"We thought of a brilliant scheme to keep our pranks!" Fred finished with a beaming smile, Laurel furrowed her brow at the two.
"Hiding them in your pockets?" She wondered.
"Exactly!" They exclaimed together.
"So simple, yet so genius." George said with false modesty, collapsing into giggles once more, which made Fred and Laurel start to giggle as well.
They were interrupted when the train stuttered to a start and began to roll out of the station.
"Uh, oh." The twins lamented simultaneously, turning to each other with wide, panicked eyes. They scrambled off the seat and to the window, plastering their faces against the glass and waving once they caught sight of their fuming mother and amused father. Laurel leaned over and peeked out, just managing to catch a glimpse of the couple, she did not envy the twins for how their mother was ranting to Mr Weasley, by their reactions it was about them.
"What's that about?" She asked.
"We forgot to say bye to Mum..." Fred admitted, they both slumped back into their seats. Laurel snorted at the two of them and shook her head with incredulity.
"Forgot the time..." George added.
"You two are hopeless." Laurel muttered fondly, turning around to fiddle with the clasp on Luke's carrier.
"Since when do you have a cat?" Fred asked, Laurel looked at him obviously as she opened the hatch and Luke jumped out.
"Since now..." She laughed, "Since yesterday, actually. Going away present."
"Ugh, we didn't get anything!" Fred lamented, eyeing the prowling cat with both envy and trepidation at his intermittent grumbling.
"He's supposed to be my company." Laurel said, "You have each other for that!" She smiled expectantly, and she was not disappointed.
"Agh! Company!"
"Oh, we have each other, do we?" Both twins groaned, twisting their faces in mock disgust.
"Don't be idiots." Laurel scolded them half-heartedly with a laugh bubbling up in her throat.
"These two, not be idiots? Impossible." A voice intoned from the open door of their compartment. Laurel looked over to see Percy standing straight with his customarily patronizing expression overtaking his features.
"Ha, ha, Perce." Fred said in a monotone, before scrunching up his face and ushering Percy to move on.
"You're too mean to him." Laurel lamented, she bent down and cuddled Luke to her chest, ruffling the fluffy curls on his belly. The twins stared at her in shock.
"What? Us be mean to him? He's the one who called us idiots..." George exclaimed, grumbling to his brother. Laurel just laughed and nodded her head lightly in reluctant agreement.
"What's his name, then?" Fred interjected suddenly, nodding towards her cat.
"Luke." She said simply, they both looked confused.
"Luke? Just Luke?" Fred clarified, Laurel nodded.
"But, that's a people name? Why not name him 'Whiskers' or 'Fluffy'? You could even name him after a famous wizard, like 'Dumbledore!'" George was equally confused.
"I am not naming my cat Dumbledore." She said flatly before continuing, "And I'll have you know, Luke is named for a very powerful wizard!" Laurel protested in amusement.
"Oh yeah, well I've never heard of some wizard named 'Luke.'"
"Oh, you've never heard of Luke Skywalker?" Laurel asked sarcastically, already knowing the answer.
"No!"
"Never!" George agreed with his brother.
Laurel fell into laughter, disturbing Luke who then returned to the floor of the compartment and continued to pace. Honestly, even her father James had been a fan. After Lily had introduced him to Star Wars, he named their first cat Han. Laurel was disappointed in her friends.
"I'll have to show you sometime, you'll like him!" She assured them, they still seemed dubious.
And so, after four games of Exploding Snap, two games of regular Snap, a brief interlude of a visit from Tonks and a particularly rousing recount of the entire original trilogy, the sky was beginning to turn a dusky pink and orange, and the Hogwarts Express neared Hogwarts. Laurel had gone to the bathroom and changed into her uniform; it was insane how excited she was by just wearing that famous uniform. She had just returned to their compartment when the train had creaked to a stop.
"Finally!" Fred moaned, standing up and stretching his arms above his head with a groan. Laurel put Luke back in his cage, leaving him on the seat to be brought up with the rest of the luggage.
"Oh, no! Half a day of gorging yourself on sweets and playing card games!" Laurel mocked him with a smile, and shooed the giggling twins out of the compartment and into the crowd of students exiting the train along the corridor.
"Firs' years this way!" She could hear a booming voice shout over the chatter of the crowd, recognising it immediately as Hagrid's.
Laurel quickly snatched Fred's hand before he was lost in the crowd, and he in turn snatched George's wrist. She shook her head exasperatedly at their complaining of having to hold onto each other, and pulled them both with a sharp tug in the direction of Hagrid's voice, and the glowing yellow light from his lantern.
"Hullo there, Laurel!" She beamed up at Hagrid and gave a quick wave, "And these must be the Weasley twins." Hagrid grinned back at them all, before quickly returning to rounding up all the straggling first years.
"This way, firs' years!" Hagrid's booming voice sounded even louder as he began to walk along the platform of Hogsmeade Station. The excited chatter of new students followed him, Laurel, Fred and George along with them.
They trudged off the station and up a winding pathway through a towering group of trees, their way lit only by Hagrid's shining lantern and the dimly shining stars that intermittently poked through when the trees became sparse. After a short while walking through the disparagingly muddy path, the trees suddenly stopped and gave way to a pebbled bank, dozens of tiny wooden boats dotted the shore of the Black Lake.
Laurel's eyes brightened at the sight of them, before her attention was sought by the towering castle across the lake. Hogwarts castle stood tall over a valley in the distance, mountains loomed behind; it was an organised and haphazard conglomeration of towers which rose high into the sky, short and long halls, dipping and rising tiled roofs. Countless tiny windows were lit with soft, warm light and Laurel's heart warmed with her amazement that she felt for the castle alone.
It gave anyone who looked upon it the very clear understanding that there was magic there; the castle itself, in its walls, turrets and towers, exuded magic. She suddenly understood what had been said about the castle many times before, it felt like she was coming home.