Jacen
Things were different on Platform 9 and 3/4. There were Aurors everywhere, checking through luggage, checking over people, padding down and that sort of thing. Mum wasn't all that pleased.
"Merlin, I told them not to be that aggressive," she growled at the last checkpoint before our luggage got taken to the train. Uncle Remus (as we'd learned to call him) floated up to us.
"Don't worry, Alice, I'll make sure I watch your children," he promised.
Mum cradled Bello a bit closer, and nodded. "I just hope that they haven't disregarded all of my rules. If they have, I swear..."
Daddy then kissed her on the lips, and she went quiet with a sort of dazed smile. I'd begun to have dreams of doing that sort of thing to the girls at the Ravenclaw table from the End-of-Year Banquet, although more often, a certain redhead haunted my sleep in her absence when I was awake. It scared me a little bit, especially when said redhead approached me at the platform.
With only a shabby trunk, Mara-Jade approached, her curls in a ponytail, spiraling down her back in a way that put every nerve on its highest setting, and those amber eyes made me feel alive.
I felt a smile creep onto my face. "Hey, Mars."
"Ace," she replied smugly, almost as if she knew about what I was thinking and dreaming of just then.
"How was summer?" I asked conversationally.
She shrugged. "As good as it gets for foster kids."
"What does that entail?" I asked.
"We only had two runners, and both of them were me," she answered brightly. "Also, the government check increased, so we got more food!"
My eyes widened. "That sounds horrible, or at least has. . . implications."
"It's the hard-knock life," she replied with a shrug, and she turned around, whipping her crimson ringlets in the air, and I could smell watermelon shampoo coming off from it, a scent that gave me that butterfly sensation in my stomach.
You've got it bad.
Shut up. You got a whole chapter to prove how bad you had it.
Touché.
Daddy caught my expression, and pulled me aside.
"Heroes always go for the redheads, son, and that's how I know that you're one," he said, patting my shoulder with a knowing smile. "Well, that, and your antics, but you're definitely a hero if you want a redhead."
"But Mum was a hero," I protested.
He ruffled my hair. "Only applies to the male ones. Look at your Uncle Harry, with his ginger wife."
"Oh.." I realized, and he chuckled.
"May the odds ever be in your favor, Jace." He brought me back over to Mum and Ella and baby Bello.
"Be good this year, and remember a few defensive spells," she told me and Ella. "Try to keep heroics to a minimum, understand me?"
"You were our age when you fought in Riddle War II," Ella argued, eyebrow dramatically arched.
"Correction, I was fourteen," Mum said, her voice as hard and cold as steel. "Not thirteen."
"We're almost fourteen," I added, when Daddy gave me a glare to stay out of it.
"Still, we were children. We weren't having some happy adventures, fighting dragons and having the time of our lives. We were fighting a war, we were child soldiers, for Merlin's sake. I don't want you to have the same nightmares I still do," she said, and shuddered.
"Nightmares?" I asked.
"I see them every night," she said, closing her emerald eyes. "The Carrows, the first people I ever killed. The people who died during the maintaining of the barricades. The ones that I killed."
I looked at her with a new interest. Despite all I knew, it didn't really wrap around my head, my mother killing people, especially other child soldiers. I guess it was easier to accept it with Daddy, since it had practically been hammered into us since birth.
"That's why I don't want you in this war," she finished, opening her eyes again. "I know what war does to people, and you aren't ready for that yet. No child should have to kill."
I didn't know quite how to respond to that.
Daddy coughed uncomfortably. "Perhaps it's time that you two got on the train." We hugged him one last time, and promised to write.
As soon as we got in the compartment where we sat yet again, Ella and Rowan started sharing his sleek non-magical device and talking animatedly about non-magical music artists. Tip and Gavin began nudging each other and laughing hysterically. Peter was working on his Arithmancy textbook, and Kieran was scribbling something down in a flower-covered notebook. I played BS and then began to learn poker from Mara-Jade.
At the Welcoming Feast, you could see the changes. Yes, there were the magical decorations and everything. There weren't Aurors everywhere, but Darklight was. That scared me a little, remembering my encounter from two years previously with the guy.
He surveyed all of us like a hawk as we sat down at our respective tables, except for the first-years. Professor Potter brought out the Sorting Hat, and escorted in the flood of first-years.
"There seems to be more and more of them," I heard Peter whisper.
"A-All of them seem muggleborn," Kieran noted.
"Where are all of them coming from?" Ella asked.
"Good question," Gavin replied.
"Good question indeed," Tip finished, and the two boys smirked at each other.
"Ah-hem!" Professor Potter gave a cough and the rumors died.
"My dears, you see,
We have fallen to war.
Twenty-three years ago
We werere.
Child soldiers were the
Only ones daring
Enough to
Fight for sharing
Their knowledge with those
Who have no magic in their blood.
I fear for you all,
Hold onto your love
For it may be the only
Thing to save you
In the end.
Band together in lieu
Of being a house divided
Against itself
And put the old
On the shelf.
Some of you may understand
In due time why night falls
Be careful, Hogwarts
Down will come your walls."
There were uneasy whispers around the room.
"That doesn't sound good," Ella hissed to Gavin.
"No kidding, it sounds like it's trying to warn us," he replied.
"But of what?" Tip asked.
The three of them shrugged in unison.
"I-I-It sounds like it's t-talking about someone going 'dark'," Kieran said. "Wh-Who would that refer to?"
"Prophecy is never a clear thing," Peter said, resting his chin in his hands. "Besides, we have free will. None of that will happen unless we want it to."
"Well, the Knights of Walpurgis and the Cultists of LeFay want it to," I muttered as Darklight shot sparks into the air to shut us all up. The first name got called up, and the room was ultimately silent. Name after name came, and everything was silent and tedious. Honestly, I was about to die of boredom, since I couldn't drift off into the space of my own mind, not with the way Darklight was eying me, Ella, and our friends. It was like he had a grudge against us or something, unnatural interest at least.
No kidding. It was creepy, how he was staring us down. I honestly wondered if talking bothered this guy that much, since you were the only one who talked to him, Jay.
Finally, the last name had been sorted, and Darklight took to the owl-shaped podium, and scanned over us like we were his soldiers. The comparison and Mum's statement from earlier scared me.
No kidding. It was starting to become a bit more real to me right then and there.
I think it was for all of us. I just remember how unnerved I was, how on edge I was in anticipation to hear what he had to say to us.
"Students of Hogwarts," he began. "You probably do not know who I am. I am Griffin Darklight, a senior Auror and I head the operations concerning a certain dark arts group you may know as the Death Eaters, or perhaps the Knights of Walpurgis."
That sure got everyone's attention.
No kidding. Everyone sat up straighter, which I didn't think was possible for those of us he'd been staring down.
"Therefore, it is my job to see that you students remain safe this year. However, I need cooperation from you in order for that to happen. If you see suspicious activities, please report them to me or your Head of House immediately. Unless your Head of House is Slytherin."
I frowned. Sure, like my own father, my godfather had made mistakes, but he hadn't even made as bad mistakes, but had made it up mostly, more than Daddy ever could. Why would they act like this now when it had been twenty years since the war ended?
"Anyways, I have another offer. If any of you wishes to help the war effort, you may come to my office, if you are of age. You will be paid a sum for assisting the Aurors, and will have basically a job in the Auror office," he finished. "If you can do that, we can win this war."
War. The word echoed in my head. We were in a war. Basically an extension of the Riddle Wars. What was this, Riddle War III? Or was it a new war entirely? Did I even care- scratch that, I obviously did.
The dishes then appeared on the table, and none of us ate much, I think. We were all too on-edge. Honestly, I was grateful when we were told to go to our common room. Maybe I'd be able to think there.