"Daaaaaaaaad, Teddy's snogging Victoire!" Lily Luna cried.
"So you interrupted them?" Ginny laughed. "You're worse than your brother, honestly."
"I was helping Lena with her stuff!" The young girl's eyes got wide and she gasped loudly. "So when Teddy and Victoire get married, he's really going to be apart of the family, huh?"
"Yeah, kind of." Harry sighed, ruffling her hair.
"Daaad!" She squealed, smoothing our her bob. "Stop!"
Victoire and Teddy had quickly forgotten their abrupt interruption. Victoire still refused to let go of her boyfriend, knowing they didn't have much time left before the next several months. They couldn't come to talk about it, but both of them were extremely apprehensive about the coming nine months. Victoire needed to prepare to graduate, and though she had been lucky enough to get a decent internship over the summer, there was an increasing pressure to finish off her year with good grades.
"You're going to write to me, right?" Victoire said flirtatiously, her arms wrapped around Teddy's neck.
"Absolutely." Teddy replied. He was squeezing her ribs a bit too hard, his face buried in her shoulder. "Every week. Unless you want me to come visit you at Hogsmeade. I thnk I could still sneak in." He smirked.
Victoire laughed. "I'm okay. But you can write to me as much as you want. Or I'll write to you as much as you need."
"Nah, I think I'll survive." Teddy said. He picked up her hand and looked over her wedding ring. "Maybe you should take this off. Are people going to pick on you for getting engaged over the summer?"
"I'm not taking it off!" Victoire said defensively. "No way. It'll take people a couple months to knock it off, but I don't care what they've got to say about it."
"It's not... weird, is it? That I'm older?"
Victoire kissed his cheek. "I love you. And I'm not taking my ring off until I see you again, okay?"
The other Lupins were running late. Tonks insisted her nausea wasn't that bad, but Elena argued she had no business driving the car when she was so sick. However, neither child had a valid driver's license and Elena had a history of infamously driving the car into her mother's flower beds when she got in too much of a hurry. No one wanted to be fighting, but it felt like they were right back where they started and they were on the verge of yelling at each other before Teddy announced he was driving, license or not.
"Here, love, let me help you." Tonks pleaded, hurrying behind her teenage daughter. Elena was struggling to lift up her heavy trunk up the steps of the Hogwarts Express. Even for a beater, her arms looked floppy as she tried to maneuver it.
"I've got it." The girl snapped back at her, tilting her head back up to look at her, before angrily huffing her hair out of her face. She could tell her mother looking at her with disappointment. "Sorry."
"It's okay." Tonks said softly. She was much too tired to be fighting right now. She felt something in her back move a wrong way when she bent over. "Just let me help you, please."
"You can't, you're pregnant. No heavy lifting. Remember?" Elena said. Once her trunk was up into the crammed hallway, she let it be and returned to the outside, her new broomstick clutched in her hand as a sort of emotional safety mechanism.
Tonks was messing with her daughter's jacket, trying to smooth it out, whether or not she was doing it consciously. "Elena, will you please promise me that you're going to behave?"
She stared up at the ceiling. "I mean, yeah, unless I pitch myself off the Astronomy Tower first."
"Elena." Tonks said firmly. "You have... two more years and you're out of there. That's not really a lot of time." Her daughter wasn't engaged in the conversation. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah." Elena sighed. She fixed her jacket on her own, though it didn't change any. "I've gotta go. Prefect stuff."
Her mother very quickly threw her arms around her. "I love you. I love you so much. And I know this year is going to be a hard year, but please owl me if you need anything-"
"Yeah." Elena nodded. Her knuckles were white against her broom. She swallowed back her thoughts. "Bye."
Her mother lovingly smoothed out her hair. "Bye."
"Hey half-breed, your stupid trunk's in the way!" A second year already on the train shouted from the steps.
In a split second, her wand came out of her pocket and was armed in her free hand. She reacted before her mind even thought about what she was doing.
"Flipendo!"
The boy's body slammed against the window of the hallway. Tonks gasped and threw her hands over her mouth. "What did you do!" She shrieked.
It finally occurred to the girl that she was bearing a weapon out in the open in the middle of the train platform, a young boy with wide eyes staring up at her. People were staring at her, but she didn't know what to do. Her hand was shaking and she refused to lower her wand, even as the boy was pulled to his feet by two of his friends.
"What did you do-" Tonks yanked her hand down, forcing her to let go of the wand. "What the hell is wrong with you, Elena? You had no excuse-"
The train gave a final warning whistle. Elena shot her mother an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry. I have to go, I'm sorry-" she took back her wand and hurried onto the train without looking back. The boy glared at her as she boarded, the door closing behind her.
"Freak." The boy spat. "I'm telling everyone what you did."
"Do it then." Elena said back. She was lingering by a divider so that as the train pulled out her mother couldn't catch a glimpse of her, and so the other way around.
"They'll take your prefect badge away. I don't see why they don't have to check your stuff. Who knows what the werewolf is trying to smuggle in the school?"
The train lurched to a roaring start. "I said do it, now fuck off." Her voice cracked, exhausted.
"Hey," a soft girl's voice said, cutting in to the conversation. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Elena nodded.
"She wasn't talking to you!" The boy spat.
"Are you okay?" Dominique asked him bluntly.
"Yeah." He wavered.
"Good." Dominique rolled her eyes. Her hand wrapped around the girl's arm. "Come on, Lena. Just leave him alone."
"You're not even going to apologize?" The boy demanded.
"Sorry." Elena mumbled, dragging her stuff down the corridor.
Dominique took her broom out of her hand. "Have you heard the news? Victoire won't shut up about it. She heard from Angela, one of the girls in her dorm, who's dating a boy in the Slug Club and heard it from there and-"
"What news are you even talking about?"
"You're tied with McGregor for quidditch captain. Slughorn's judging tryouts to see who gets the spot."
"Or I could just tell her to take it."
"What?" Dominique sounded like she was about to laugh. "Are you kidding?"
"I don't want it."
"What? Why?"
"I just... don't." Elena said. "I don't want to be captain."
"Yes you do." Dominique said firmly. She opened the door to a compartment where Victoire and a couple others were sitting. "You've been working for this since you were twelve and you're giving it up now? For what?"
"I don't want to be captain. I don't think I can do it."
"Guess what, you're gonna kick ass, Lena. I'm not letting you back out now." Dominique gestured her into a compartment where Victoire was already sitting.
"Well, I'm probably going to be expelled now anyways!"
"I heard the commotion, what happened?" Victoire sat up. Her owl chirped and flapped its wings uneasily.
"Forget it." Elena dropped herself down beside the window and looked out into the platform. Her mother was still there, standing beside her brother. It was still jarring to see her pregnant, and almost just as upsetting to see the expression on her face. Harry was beside her and she shifted her weight to put her back to the window. He was watching the train cautiously and Tonks was saying something to his. His expression grew equally concerned, his eyebrows knitting together. Harry's eyes scanned over the window, briefly meeting with his goddaughter's, his hand covering his mouth thoughtfully. Elena looked down at the floor again. She didn't need anyone else being disappointed in her. Which reminded her, he had insisted on giving her a gift before she left for school that year, but it was tucked safely inside her trunk, still wrapped in its paper. It was likely a new book anyways and she didn't quite care about that so much right now. She was actually surprised he even remembered she existed, given that he was probably too preoccupied with Albus to even think of her.
xxxxx
"Miss Lupin," McGonagall said solemnly. "I believe you know why I called you to my office tonight."
"Yeah."
"May I offer you some tea?"
"I'm good."
She was already pouring her tea anyways. "You lashed out on a fellow student today on the train. A fellow Slytherin, nonetheless."
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"He called me a name."
"I see." She replied. "Now tell me, does this really have anything to do with his confrontation?" Elena stared down at her tea. "You likely have a lot on your mind at the moment, do you not?"
"I don't know." She replied, picking up the cup, and gently blowing air on it.
McGonagall chuckled. "You mean you don't know if anything is wrong?"
She shrugged. "If you want my prefect badge, I don't care, I don't want it. You can have it."
"I would rather know why you reacted so quickly. I would rather hear why you should keep your badge. Besides, I cannot take your badge. You're in Professor Slughorns' jurisdiction."
"Please just take my badge. I'm sorry if I hurt him, but I don't want to talk about this right now." Elena's eyes were drawn down to the floor. The older woman was staring at her over her glasses. "You could honestly suspend me or give me detention 'til the end of the year. I don't care. I didn't really want to come back anyways."
"Then why did you come?"
"I figured it would make my mum happy."
"I'm going to assign you to detention for now. However, I am concerned about what this means for you. You've never shown a significant history of violence or aggression, save for that incident with your brother on the quidditch pitch." McGonagall nodded. "Maybe it would be more productive if we ought to talk about your anger and how to manage it. What are you going to do to prevent this from happening again?"
"I guess I just... won't do that again?" Elena shrugged. "I don't know. I don't hurt people, usually. I usually just ball it all up and leave it inside of me. I wouldn't hurt anyone if I could help it."
"Perhaps the next time you feel this way, you should seek out you head of house. Or perhaps your friends, the Weasley girls. Or your mother."
"I will."
Professor McGonagall took a sip of her tea. "What do you like to do, Miss Lupin?"
"I dunno. Quidditch?"
"Anything less disruptive?"
"Um... Potions?"
The professor nodded approvingly. "I'm certain Professor Slughorn would happily mentor the daughter of his friend, were you to promise to stay out of trouble. Perhaps this would be a more healthy outlet for you to pursue."
Elena nodded. "I'll talk to him. Thank you for being patient with me."
Professor McGonagall returned to her desk, her neat cursive writing out a hall pass. "And Miss Lupin?"
"Yes, Ma'am?"
The note flitted into the air in front of the girl's face. "Please help yourself to a biscuit on your way out." Elena caught the note and got the her feet. She tried to be as obvious as possible in taking a biscuit from the glass jar on the table beside the door. "Take two, if you'd like."
They proved to be valuable, trading it to a seventh year Gryffindor prefect for the ability to slip out of the Great Hall to go to the dungeons.
"Hey prefect, what's the password?" There was a girl leaning against the portrait, blocking her way in to the commons. She looked to be about Teddy's age. Her hair was bright platinum, and she had a narrow nose and sleek cheekbones. Her hair was such an unnatural blonde, much different from Fleur or the other Weasley girls that it couldn't have been her own. Elena quickly recognized her as a particular seventh year. The girl didn't have a lot of friends and many of the people in her house promptly ignored her. There was something about her that was just... weird. She didn't talk to people and she had gained a bit of a reputation for herself of causing trouble. Not the good kind either. She was that name in the yearbook that everyone recognized, but couldn't tell you what it was if you asked. Elena thought she had been in Teddy's class, but she thought it may have been rude to ask if she had been held back a year.
"I can't do that. You have to go back to dinner." Elena told her, straightening up.
The girl smirked. "I see you're going to do this the hard way, yeah? You're supposed to come with me."
Elena winced. "Look, I know I'm not supposed to be out of the Great Hall. I just want to go to bed. Please just go back to dinner."
The girl ignored her. "You're the Lupin girl, aren't you? You've got that cute brother that graduated last year. He was a metamorphmagus."
"The one and only."
The strange girl seemed amused. "I'm surprised they let him get away with his hair the way he did. He looked nice with his blue hair."
"He's got a fiancee anyways."
"Bummer." The corners of the other girl's mouth upturned. "I've always wondered what I would look like with hair like that. I think people might be angry at me though. But I don't think people like me anyways." Elena ignored her comment and crossed her arms, defiantly leaning back against the portrait. "You're quidditch captain right?"
"I'm... in the competition for it."
"Oh yeah! You're up against the McGregor girl. Well, I'd vote for you." She rolled her eyes. "There's a bet going around that you're going to hook up before the season's over."
"Aren't you hilarious." Elena said dryly. "Seriously. I can't let you pass. Not happening."
"It's not like everyone doesn't already knows that you're gay."
This made Elena extremely defensive. "No one knows I'm gay, because I'm... not?" Her heart was frantically pounding in her chest. "I'm not gay."
"Mhm," The weird girl purred, her eyes scanning up and down Elena. "Is that what you tell everyone?"
"I don't care if you think this is funny, I'm still not letting you in the dorm." Elena quipped, trying to muster up her courage to plant her feet. "So stop trying to blackmail me."
"Are you going to tattle on me for being out, are you prefect?" She made a face. "You don't even know my name, do you?"
"Slipped my mind, I suppose." Elena said dryly. "You have to go now."
"I'll fight you for it. Are you good at dueling? I heard you tried to throw a second year out a window."
"Look, I was just almost expelled for that, can you please just go eat dinner!"
"Wouldn't that have been funny?" The girl laughed. "He did call you a slur, for the record. I think you should've hit him a lot harder."
"No! It really wouldn't have been funny, and that's not exactly a good excuse!" Elena paused, picturing the boy falling out of the window, how the people would have reacted, how upset her mother would have been.
"But I made you think about it." The girl smirked. She was shorter than Elena and now all Elena could imagine was how easy it would be to go after her now. She tried to listen to the headmistress's warning, that her anger would surely be her downfall. It was becoming obscured by her want to punch the smugness out of that girl's face. "You're quite angry."
"You're being quite annoying." Elena persisted. "I'll write you up."
"Won't be the first time, you know. And you don't even know who I am." The girl cocked her head. "Why are you so angry? Maybe it wasn't the best course of action, sure, but I don't see why a harmless jinx got you in such big trouble. I'm sure much worse is used in the classrooms anyways. And if he didn't want to be hit, perhaps he should learn not to call people names. I think he had it coming for him. I mean, really, a second year knows how to block a spell." She laughed.
For a moment, there was a wave of relief. Not everyone had judged her for what happened at the station. She was likely to get a howler from Tonks at breakfast. Her guilt and shame receded for a moment and it felt good to have someone empathize with her for once and not immediately start yelling.
"Maybe... but he's probably worse off now than before. I probably lived out all his worst ideas about werewolves." Elena mumbled. "My dad would've wanted me to take the high road."
"When did the high road ever teach anyone a lesson?" The girl winked and held out her hand. "You aren't so bad. You're kind of cute when you're timid. What's your name, anyways, prefect? You know, since we apparently aren't going anywhere any time soon."
Elena hesitantly reached out to shake her hand. "Lena."
"Oh come on now, I'm just teasing." The blonde girl nodded in approval. "Delphi."
