Heamen was standing in the train restroom getting changed into her black school robes. She tied the plain silk tie around her neck to finish off the bland school wardrobe choices which consisted of:
Plain black, floor length robes
White oxford button up shirt
Silk black tie with the Hogwarts crest
Gray knitted v-neck jumper
Plain black shined shoes
When she moved to rinse her hands she caught her own reflection in the mirror making her stop and stare. She scanned her face trying to figure out which features came from her mum and from her dad. Her eyes, they were her dads. Draco has them too. She supposed her mother must've had darker skin which showed in the girls pecan toned complexion, Narcissa's and her Cousin bellatrix' hair was curly from photos she had seen of them in their youth, but theirs was nowhere near as bothersome of voluminous as hers. Maybe her mother had that too, but there was no way to know, she was long gone. Her face was slim for a ten year old, though she still had that faint roundness in her face, she had a somewhat defined jaw, but if you touched it you would still feel a layer of fat.
The way her freckles scattered delicately across her nose. The way her feet naturally turned outwards when relaxed, small flecks of gold and green in her grey iris', the way her lower abdomen curved outwards more than her top, the way the tops of her thighs touched even though she's tried missing out on breakfast a few times. She knew she was too young to be doing those things. To worry about those things. She couldn't help it, it's not like it ever got too bad, though every once in a while she would begin to feel faint after standing for a few minutes.
Her head quickly moved away from the mirror, realizing she had been staring for too long. She hastily washed her hands once more for good measure,then turned out of the room only to be caught off guard by two ebony haired boys speeding past her. She watched them hurriedly walk up to a compartment and slowly slide the door open without knocking.
"Rude" She murmured under her breath, furrowing her eyebrows at the boy with longer hair's actions.
The dark haired boys walked into the compartment closing the door behind then. Heamen decided that she wasn't going to waste her time trying to find Draco and apologize when she really didn't want to, so she decided that her best decision would be to try her luck with the corridor speeders. Not that she was nosy or anything.
Now the hard part wasn't walking up to the door, that was relatively simply, from the fact that she was now standing in front of it, she now just had to lift her hand and knock or should she do what the other boys did and make themselves known with no rehearsal? Merlin, she was bad at speaking, her only friends had practically been thrown at her, Pansy, Theo, Blaise, and Draco, but she knew Slytherin wasn't where she was going so she needed to make some more.
"Do you need something?" Heamen looked to the side to find a frizzy haired girl, hand placed on her hip, with her eyebrows practically shooting off her forehead. Next to her was a small, kind looking boy, he appeared on the verge of topping himself. 'Poor lad, but I have more important things to worry about' Heamen thought to herself
"No, sorry" Heamen said, turning and harsly pulling open the compartment door, not allowing herself any more time to wuss out, but that was not the worst part.
The worst part was finding all the occupants already looking at her. The girl's face flushed a deep shade of crimson 'had they known she was there the whole time?' she thought, 'that's embarrassing'
"The seats open if you need it badly enough to stand out there for eight minutes" The red headed Weasley boy she had seen on the platform spoke to her, mouth stuffed full and covered in pumpkin pasty crumbs.
"Thanks" she grimaced at the mess all over his tattered clothing.
Her feet landed on many sweets wrappers, luckily the seat to the left of the other black haired boy with shorter hair that stuck up on all sides was open, not as if she could possibly sit by the ginger, the space next to him was covered in sweets. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the rat in his lap, her lips curled inwards as an uneasy feeling set in her gut.
The boy began searching around in his trunk feverishly, then aggressively pulled out a battered up wand that had a string of unicorn hair falling out of the bottom.
"Unicorn hairs nearly falling out" Heamen raised her furrowed eyebrows, slowly inclining her head at him, puffing out a laugh at the poor boy. No pun intended.
Just as he was about to cast a spell the girl and boys from the corridor showed up in the doorway instantly.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Nevilles lost one" She said, her tone still just as bossy and stern, the bushy hair around her head was slightly concerning, and that's a lot coming from a girl who has to ask Poppy to cast numerous management and detangling charms simply to pull her hair into the two dutch plaits she had in now, Heamen now had a front row show to the disaster Bushy probably called her two front teeth.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it" said the red headed boy, though from Heamen's eyes the fuzz ball didn't seem to care. Her eyes seemed to be trained on the tattered wand in the boy's hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then"
Weasley looked taken aback.
"Er-alright" He cleared his throat, and performed the most embarrassing spell she had ever heard. She winced as the words left his mouth: .
Sunshines daisies, Butter mellow,
turn this stupid fat rat yellow"
He aggressively tapped the air surrounding the dead-looking rat. Nothing happened, the two boys next to Heamen were fighting to contain their laughs, making their faces go huge.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl "Well it's not very good, is it? I've only tried a few myself just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise for me when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, It's the best school of witchcraft and wizardry there is, I've heard- I've learned allour course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough- I'm Hermione Granger by the way, who are you?"
She spoke so quickly Heamen was going to have a headache, and she read all the books, why would she do that?
The red head's friend looked over to him with a worried look on his face, but seened immensely relieved when he saw the stunned look on the carrot tops face, most likely the school book thing.
Heamen had already read them of course, her governess would always take her and Dray out to the river my an old muggle apartment building, put out a blanket and they would have a pic-nic as they studied, she always let them run around the freshfield of flowers and trees, sometimes they even got to bring their brooms as long as she put up a shielding charm so nobody would go over to them if they didn't know of magic. From the looks of the mane before her she could tell that this girl was no Pure-blood, most likely muggle-born. 'The hair could be a bird's nest, if Hermione was kind enough to offer it' Heamen thought rudely with a slight grimace.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Carrot top muttered.
"James Moon" the boy next to me stated proudly, chin held high. 'Cocky twat' Heamen thought.
"Orion Briar", Gray eyed boy stated with a seated bow and a flourish of his hand.
"Heamen Black" she said casually bending forward with her elbows on her knees, looking up at Hermione and double finger saluting with a smirk. 'She really wanted a closer look at that hair'
weirdly, she could feel the two people to her right look to her
"Harry Potter" the last kid sounded almost uncomfortable with the natural self confidence emitting from the three black haired kids. 'Holy hell!'
"Are you really?"Hermione said with intrigue"I know all about you of course…" Heamen took the girls talk time to turn towards James "Are you okay?""
He slowly looked over from Harry to her, making eye contact, he had a dazed look in his eye "A bit knackered is all"
Reluctantly she turned her, though she can still feel his eyes on the side of her head, then feel them slowly move away. Hermione's voice turned back in.
"Do any of you know what houses you'll be in? I've asked around, and I hope I get Gryffindor, it sounds the best for me; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, though I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Any-way, we'd better go look for Neville's toad. You two should change, I expect we'll be arriving soon" With that she pivoted around and left with the toadless boy. For many years to come Heamen will remember this moment as the first time she ever genuinely felt intimidated by someone her age.
"Whatever house I'm in I hope she's not in it" said Ron. He tossed his morally saddening wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell-George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud"
"What houses are your brothers in?" asked James.
"Gryffindor," said Ron. Dread seemed to be seeping into him again "Mum, Dad, Bill, Percy, and even Charlie was in it, too. I don't know what they'll do if i'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."
"That's the house Vol-You-Know-Who was in, right?"
"Yeah" said Heamen, smiling as Ron flopped back into his seat looking upset.
"You know I think the ends of scabbers' whiskers might be a bit lighter" Harry lied, trying to take Rons mind off house, Heamen made a sound of agreement.
"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they're gone, anyway?" Heamen added, also wanting to be done with the topics of houses, besides Harry looked interested in the question she asked.
"Charlies in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts" answered Ron.
"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you'd get that with the muggles-someone tried to break into a high security vault" Heamen inquired.
Harry, Orion, and James turned to stare at her.
"Really? What happened to them?" Everyone's heads snap towards Orion.
"Ah! He does speak!" Heamen rejoiced, feigning shock with a hand over her heart.
Everyone in the compartment erupted into a fit of laughter, to Heamen's horror a pig-like snort spurts from Heamen's mouth making the girl's face blush red. Everyone becomes ghostly silent, the five kids look between each other in the awkward silence for a moment before Ron coughs out a laugh, making everyone burst back into a giggling frenzy.
"Nice one, Napoleon" James joked, Orion and Harry both laughed at whatever he said, Heamen and Ron just looked at each other with furrowed eyebrows.
"I'm sorry?" asked Heamen.
James' laughter died out as he looked over to her with wide eyes "You haven't read Animal Farm?"
"No... what kind of idiotic name is Animal Farm" Heamen answered.
James looked like he was about to say something but decided against it, though he did have a slightly sorrowful look on his face "But really, what did happen to the people at Gringotts?" he asked instead.
"Nothing actually, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says you have to be a very powerful dark wizard to be able to get through Gringotts security, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."
Harry had this hazed sort of look in his eyes as Ron said this.
Heamen felt her neck begin to get stiff from sitting still for to long so she bent her head to her shoulder, applying pressure to the bone behind her ear with her hand letting the cracking noises go along with the tense pain in the right side of her neck, after doing the same to the other side she arched her back off the cushioned wall and slightly to the left feeling the uncomfortable ache leave allowing more flexibility in her spine.
"Are you okay?" James' voice asked.
After relaxing back into the cushion comfortably, she looked over to the dark haired boy, "Yeah, why?"
"Uhhh," he scratches out the sound looking around at the other boys, who just looked as though they were in pain, "nothing." he finished towards her fully.
She squinted her eyes at everyone in their compartment, scrutinizingly.
"Anyway Harry who's your team, in Quidditch" Heamen says, trying to deflect judgement.
"Er-I don't know any," he confessed.
"What!" James and Orion yelled in unison, their expressions made them look as though you just snapped their new broom stick in half. Heamen could even see a little confusion in the dark haired boy's eyes.
"Oh, it's the best sport in the whole world-" James went on describing each aspect of the game, from the Bludgers, The Quaffle, The Golden Snitch, to Beaters, Chasers, Skeekers, and Keepers. He tried to make it overtly clear that seeker was the best position but Heamen and Orion disagreed using Chaser as an argument. Ron joined the conversation and talked about all the different games he had been to with his brothers and the broom sticks he wished he could afford. Orion had just begun talking when the door slid open once again, making all five of the children turn their heads.
Much to Heamen's displeasure it was Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Not that she didn't love her cousin, because she did. He simply was not wanted at the moment. Harry looked like he recognized Draco from Madam Malkins, who wouldn't recognize that striking hair, though Harry didn't seem distinctly pleased with seeing the blonde again. Her cousin was staring at Harry with so much intensity she was positive he hadn't even seen her.
"Is it true?" he said, "They're saying across the train that Harry Potter was in this compartment. So it's you isn't it?"
"Yes," Harry answered. He then looked over to Vincent and Gregory, who just sneered at the boy. Heamen despised the two oaf shaped boys ever since they were younger. Now looking at them standing behind Draco as though it was all they were good for, she realized why. It was because they never had a single thought that they made themselves unless it was on how to stuff their faces with more food. They didn't stand up for themselves when Draco would put them down, even though they could clearly take him in a fight from the fact that they didn't know any spells, or even had wands. Now here they were standing stiff as a board behind a boy the same age as them and acting like they were lower than him in some way.
Draco must've seen where Harry's eyes were going "This is Crabbe and Goyle, and i'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy"
Heamen mentally cursed Ron for the cough-like laugh that came from his lips, as Draco looked at him.
"Think my name is funny do you? No need to ask who you are. Red hair and a hand me down robe, my father always did say that the Weasley family had red hair, freckles, and more children then they could afford."
Heamen was ready to hex her cousin for that, if she knew any, but when she went to reach for her wand, Draco turned her way.
"Heamen?" He sounded confused and surprised to see her as though she hadn't been sitting there for the entire time. "What are you doing sitting here? With them" he spat.
"You go on ahead, I'll see you at school, Draco." She stated cooly, not leaving any room for disagreement.
"You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort" Draco said to Harry without taking his eyes off Heamen.
He sharply turned towards Harry holding out a hand "I can help you there"
Gladly, Harry didn't accept the handshake "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself thanks"
Draco didn't blush but Heamen found great triumph in the faint pink that tinged his cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you'll end up just like your parents, they didn't know what was good for them hang around riff-raff like the weasleys and they oaf Hagrid, you'll end up just like that mudblood mother and blood-traitor father of yours"
Ron and Orion were standing immediately.
"Say that again" Ron bit, his eyes darkening to an abyss like blue.
"Gonna fight us are you?" Draco sneered at having to look slightly up at the Weasley.
"Unless you get out. Right now," said Ron.
"But we don't want to leave do we boys? We've eaten all our food and it looks like you seem to have some more."
Goyle went for a chocolate frog that was next to Ron, the boy leapt forward, but before he could even get a chance to touch Goyle, the rat jumped out of Ron's pocket and latched himself onto Goyle' finger.
Goyle let out a horrible scream, much to Heamen's pleasure. The rodent was hanging off Goyle's finger by his teeth, he sunk them into the fleshy skin of the limb making crimson blood drip down the meaty finger. Crabbe and Draco slowly backstepped away from the compartment as Goyle attempted to swing Ron's pet off of him, when the rat finally flew off it went straight to the glass window making Heamen wince. She watched as the three boys ran away like cowards probably thinking there were more rodents in hiding somewhere.
Though once again they were interrupted this time by Hermione Granger.
"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets wrappers on the floor, everyone watched as Ron picked Scabbers up by his tail, Heamen frowned slightly, feeling bad for the poor thing, it looked dead.
Heamen took her seat next to James after seeing no point in staying standing. Many years later she will hate herself for not knowing why James and Orion were so upset by what Draco said.
"How do you know Malfoy?" asked James.
Harry told them all about what happened at Madam Malkin's, Draco asking about his parents' magical status, not even caring that they were dead. She knew he could be slightly cold hearted at times, but at the end of the day Malfoy men were gifted in not caring for anyone one other than their own so Heamen wasn't exactly surprised or even relatively shocked by this.
"And you?" James asked again, this time to Heamen.
"He's my cousin, y'know the Black family added the Malfoy's family into the trees when Dray's mom and dad got married."
"Oh" said Orion.
"I've heard about that family" Ron said gloomy "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who was defeated, said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesnt believe it. He says the Malfoy family doesn't need an excuse to go over to the dark side" Heamen's gaze stayed turned towards the ground, she was biting her cheek so hard she was sure she would break the flesh with any more pressure, the rims of her sight began to blur while a sense of pressure could be felt behind her eye. "Can I help you with something?" He said, to Granger, most likely.
"You'd better hurry up and get your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, she says we're almost there. You haven't been fighting have you, you'll get in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers was the one who was fighting, not us," Ron snarled at her. Heamen could practically see the glare on his face. "Would you mind leaving now?"
"All right- I only came over here because people outside are behaving like children, running up and down the corridors" She said in a snotty tone "You've got dirt on your nose, did you know?" Her footsteps roughly trailed her away.
Heamen kept thinking about what Ron said about the Malfoy family, and yeah even she knew they were lying about being bewitched, but did he mean that she was like them. She wasn't a malfoy, but she was raised by two of them. She lived in their house, slept in their beds, ate their food, but did that make her one? She didn't want to be, as Narcissa had told her and Draco many times "les devoirs ne prévalent pas sur le besoin de votre cœur" ("duties do not prevail the wants of the heart")
She looked up to see Harry and Ron taking off their jackets and hurriedly putting their school robes on. Ron's looked a bit small on him, you could still see his sneakers fully. Harry's looked brand new, just like hers, Orion, and James'.
'We'll be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, they will be taken separately!' rang the conductor throughout the express.
"Hey mate, let's go," Heamen said quietly to James, who still hadn't gotten up yet.
"Oh, yeah" He replied looking up at her, huffing out a small laugh.
They stood up, straightened out their robes and black ties. They tried their best to not step on wrappers as they exited the compartment to join the other student in the corridor.
The train slowed to a stop as they stood bunched up like a crowd in the isle. People pushed their way to the door and out onto the tiny, dark platform. The chilly air nipped at the girl's exposed throat making small bumps appear on her smooth skin, a loud voice rang through the dark making Heamen's head snap to the left.
She stared unashamedly at the large, hairy man that stood with a lantern in his hand. She looked around at the other students feeling slightly at peace that they all looked shocked as well. Well everyone except for Harry Potter.
"Firs' years! Firs years over here, Alright there Harry?" of course.
The Large, hairy man's face beamed through his beard. Heamen elbow bumped Orion and smiled excitedly at him, hoping to lift his spirits, doing the same to James.
"C'mon follow me-anymore firs' years. Mind your step! Follow me!"
Attempting to walk straight on the slippery surface; the new student followed Hagrid down what seemed like a dark, narrow path. This is how I die, Merlin. Why is it so dark? It was so dimly lit, Heamen just knew her head would hurt when she saw light again, though in the dark she could still see faint outlines of thick trees to her right , a luminous sapphire shown through the rifts in the branches. Probably connects to the forbidden forest. It was rather silent, waiting for Hagrids next orders. All that could be heard were the light slushes of small shoes on the wet wooden surface and a few sniffles coming from the toadless boy.
"Yeh'll get your first sight of Hogwarts soon" called Hagrid, Heamen began chewing her cheek "jus' round this bend here."
Sounds of excitement could be heard from the students around their group of four.
The cramped path had grown slightly onto a vast lake, if she looked past the lake she could see an extravagant stone brick castle sitting atop a mountain peak. Behind the fog that was slightly fizzing up the ends of Heamen's hair
"No more than four to a boat" Heagrid yelled, Heamen was coming to the conclusion that the big man was talking in his normal voice. Imagine if he yelled, she shivered at the thought.
Heamen felt someone grab her elbow and turn her around, she was ready to swing her fist at the culprit's face, though she quickly put her hand down when she saw that it was no other than the smiling face of her best friends.
"C'mon Ace, you promised you'd sit with us" Theo said, wearing that irreplaceable Theodore Nott grin, the one that creased his face up, and wrinkled his eyes when his cheekbones raised. It's the one he used when trying to get what he wanted.
"Yeah mate, you promised" Blaise said to Theo's right, he had his persuasive grin on as well, dimples pressed deep into the dark skin of his cheeks, the white of his teeth contrasting with the pink of his bottom lip and the brown of his top.
Heamen looked behind her and watched as the four boys she met on the train all got into a boat together. Sighing lightly she turned back around to the two boys, and smiled. "Alright let's go Mutt" she said to Theo "you too, speed" that one was for Blaise. She beamed at her childhood friends. Their smiles fell from their faces so that they could squint their matching dark eyes at her, clearly upset by the nicknames that the girl never lets down. She just laughed and put an arm around each of their necks and walked towards her cousin who stood out with his platinum hair.
"I don't see why you are so persistent in calling me Mutt. It really slackens my social image" Theo pouted from underneath her left arm.
Heamen just laughs at his childishness, "Oh Mutt, it's not like i'm insulting you, I adore dogs, meaning" she bumps him a little with her head, catching his eye "I adore you"
Theo's eyes become doe-like as his cheeks flush so deep, Heamen can't do anything but admire how much smaller it makes him look. She uses the hand near his neck to poke his burning cheek, making the boy look down at his shoes.
He mumbles something under his breath, but it was too quiet Heamen didn't catch a word of it.
"Sorry I didn't catch that. What did you say?" she joked.
"I SAID I LIKE THE NICKNAME NOW!" yelled Theo, probably much louder than he intended. Heamen felt her left ear ache slightly.
'Don't laugh, don't laugh. Don't. Laugh. I swear to Merlin if you laugh I'll make you hate yourself for the next three weeks. So Don't you dare laugh at the poor boy!" warned her gut, and she wasn't laughing. She really wasn't. He just had to do it, Blaise just had to go and laugh at Theo, and obviously she only laughed with him so it didn't get awkward. No other reason. No other at all.