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CinderThe Hogwarts express whistled as it puffed steam into the air and Peony squirmed impatiently as Adri gave her a big hug and smothered her face with kisses.
"Ack! Mom, the train's leaving soon!" Peony mumbled, finally managing to squirm her way out of the hug. Adri cupped both her daughters' cheeks with her hands and smiled at them lovingly. "Now you girls be good, and remember, study hard!"
"Yes mom. Love you! Bye!"
Pearl and Peony gave their mother one last wave as they rushed onto the train. A few minutes later, they stuck their heads out the windows and continued to shout her goodbyes. Cinder waved and gave a small smile especially for Peony. Peony's own grin grew even wider at the sight. "Bye Cinder! Enjoy Artemisia!"
Cinder kept waving at her until the train was well out of sight. At that point, the smile dropped from Adri's face and she looked down at Cinder haughtily. "Your train will arrive in about half an hour. You can wait on a bench for that time. You'd better get good grades Cinder, since good grades means a good job and a good job means more money, money that I will need for when I'm older."
With that, the older witch turned on her heel and strode out of the platform, vanishing from view as she entered the ticket barrier. Cinder rolled her eyes and glared after her retreating back. "Yeah… I'm definitely going to spend my money on you." She growled after her sarcastically before trudging off to find a bench to sit on.
She had decided to try reading through her school books to pass the time, but found her gaze inevitably drifting to the long, thin wooden box that held her wand. Her strange, mysterious, ancient wand that had responded so dramatically to her. Not even her first wand had done that! It had felt warm in her hand when Cinder picked it up for the first time, but not as much as her new one, and it had always been a little more… difficult when it came to casting spells with her old wand. Cinder had put it down to her just not having a talent for magic, but now she couldn't help but wonder if that wand had never been meant for her in the first place, and that it only agreed to be her partner in magic because it pitied her. But this wand… this wand felt different.
Setting her book aside, Cinder reached inside her trunk and pulled out the box. Opening it, she started to reach for the wand inside. Her hand stalled. She hesitated. It had seemed overly eager with that light show from last time and she definitely didn't want to attract attention like that again. So she stared at it, her fist clenching and unclenching just centimetres away from the thin wooden rod.
"Cinder!"
Cinder turned in surprise at the sound of her name being called to see Iko running over to her. She plonked herself down next to Cinder and shot her a wide grin, which Cinder met with a half-smile of her own. "Hey Iko."
Iko glanced down at Cinder's hands and wrinkled her nose distastefully. "Why are you wearing those gloves?" Cinder shrugged as she looked at her plain, brown leather gloves. "To hide my hand?"
"You could at least do it with style!"
"Style is hardly a priority for me Iko."
"Clearly…" Iko's disgusted gaze moved from Cinder's gloves to her entire outfit, which consisted of a white tank top, baggy cargo pants, heavy black combat boots and messy ponytail, all of which were covered in filth of some kind.
Cinder just shrugged again. "My family lives in a muggle apartment block so we're supposed to keep magic usage to a bare minimum to avoid attracting attention. Consequently, we have a lot of muggle tech that needs fixing a lot, and I happen to be good at it so Adri makes me fix it if something goes wrong rather than pay some muggle technicians or mechanics. These clothes are just practical for the job."
Iko huffed and folder her arms, unsatisfied. "Well, you're not living with Adri anymore for the coming months so that excuse won't work!" She jabbed Cinder in the chest with one finger pointedly. "As soon as we get to Artemisia, you'll be receiving some much-needed lessons on fashion!"
"I can hardly wait." Cinder replied sarcastically.
Iko, apparently not picking up on Cinder's sarcasm, nodded with satisfaction, before her eyes suddenly brightened. "Hey! Is that your new wand?" she exclaimed, pointing at the open box. Cinder stared at it, blinking. In all honesty she'd forgotten it was there.
Iko clapped her hands with excitement and bounced up and down in her seat. "Well? Let's see it!" Cinder looked at her, then back at the wand, before sighing. Cautiously, hesitantly, she reached into the box and picked up the wand. She waited, but aside from growing warm in her palm, the wand did nothing.
Cinder breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she turned back to Iko. "My wand made a huge lightshow in the shop." She explained as she held the wand out to Iko.
Iko examined it from every angle, frowning at the fingerprints and burn marks on the wood. "This looks second hand. And the handle is so boring! Did Adri-?"
"No." Cinder cut her off before she could complete the question, "That's just the way the wandmaker gave it to me." Iko frowned, obviously not satisfied with said wandmaker's merchandise.
"Hey," Cinder reassured her quirky friend, placing a hand on her shoulder, "if it makes you feel better, Adri had to pay five galleons for it, and anyway it seems to work even better than my old one. And who needs a stylised handle anyway?"
"If you say so…" Iko trailed off, handing the wand back to Cinder.
"Excuse me." Cinder looked up as a voice she didn't recognise spoke. The voice turned out to belong to a boy, handsome and brown haired with a well-built figure and a shining black badge emblazoned with a "P" pinned to his chest. And a permanent scowl.
"I haven't seen you before. What school do you attend?" The boy's tone was blank and formal. "Artemisia." Cinder replied simply. The boy's scowl deepened. "Artemisia?"
Iko threw back her head and groaned. "Cinder, this is Liam Kinney. He goes to Artemisia too and he's in our year. He's also a complete jerk." Liam Kinney glared at the blue haired girl briefly before turning back to Cinder. "Please call me Kinney. I hope you enjoy your time at our school. Fair warning, Iko's an absolute gossip so don't go telling her any important secrets. They'll be common knowledge to everyone in the school by the end of the week."
Iko shot up from the bench, her eyes glowing fiery red like when she found out about how Adri treated Cinder. "I'm not that much of a gossip!" Kinney rolled his eyes. "Sure you aren't. Who was it that told everyone about Thorne's crush on Kate Fallow again?"
Iko's face contorted with rage and her fists clenched by her sides. Cinder's gaze flicked back and forth between the pair nervously, sure that she was about to witness a brawl, when a high-pitched whistle drew the attention of all three of them.
Cinder gasped. The Artemisia express was… well, for one thing, it was blinding. The train was made of some kind of shimmery opaque material that Cinder didn't recognise, and it reflected the light into her eyes so brightly, it felt like she was looking at the sun. It wasn't a steam-engine, like the Hogwarts express. It's sleek shape actually bore a closer resemblance to the bullet trains muggles used and that Cinder occasionally rode on.
Kinney squinted briefly against the brightness of the train before nodding curtly to Iko and Cinder and marching aboard. Iko glared at his retreating back. "Ugh, that insufferable, rude, arrogant…" she trailed off, taking a deep breath to calm herself, before puffing out her cheeks and letting it all out again.
She grinned at Cinder and tugged on her arm. "Come on, let's board before all the good seats are taken!" Iko gave Cinder just enough time to grab her wand and trunk before pulling her aboard.
The booths inside the Artemisia express were just as flashy as the train's exterior, with plush seats draped over with silk and even small tables that fold out from the armrests.
Iko dragged Cinder into the first empty booth she saw and quickly stuck her bulging trunk into the overhead storage before plopping onto one of the chairs. Cinder opted for the seat opposite her and yelped with surprise as she all but sank into the cushions.
Iko chuckled at her reaction. "Yeah, the seats are really soft, but hey! They're comfy!"
"And life-threatening." Cinder grumbled, trying to pull herself free.
"So." Iko began, sounding unusually formal, "What do you want to be when you graduate?" Cinder blinked at the unexpected query. "Well… I'd like to be a metal-charmer, or work in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office at the Ministry of Magic. I've always been good at making and fixing things, muggle and magic."
Iko tapped her chin thoughtfully. "A metal-charmer… what do they do?"
"They're the ones who imbue magic into certain devices, you know, like snitches."
Iko grinned at Cinder. "Cool! Maybe you can fix my sneakoscope for me sometime! It keeps going off for no reason."
Cinder nodded. "Okay, you're turn: what do you want to be?" Iko flicked her blue braids flippantly behind her shoulder. "Actress, no contest." Cinder frowned, a little unsure of Iko's career choice. "Are you sure? Metamorphagi usually have pretty good shots at becoming aurors…"
"They also have a pretty good shot at becoming actresses! Being able to change your face is really handy for making film adaptations of books and stuff."
A polite knocking at their door interrupted their conversation.
The boy who had knocked looked Asian, with black hair that hung just over his soft copper eyes. He had a badge like Kinney's pinned to his chest, except his was gold. He smiled at them through the window and Cinder recognised him just before Iko jumped up with excitement to open the door.
"Kai, hey! What are you doing here?" Iko chirped. He gestured past her into the booth. "I was wondering if I could join you? Everywhere else is full and the other prefects are usually kind of stoic on the first train ride."
Iko stepped aside to let him in and he carefully put his trunk and his owl cage in the overhead storage before taking a seat next to Cinder. He glanced at her and his eyes widened briefly. She squirmed a little under the force of his scrutiny. She could almost hear Peony's delighted squeal in her ears.
"I don't think I've seen you around before." He began, tilting his head, "Are you new?"
Before Cinder could reply, Iko piped up. "She is! Kai, this is Cinder Linh. Cinder, this is Kaito Royal."
"I know."
The words were out before she could stop them and she immediately felt heat rush to her cheeks. "I-I mean my younger sister has a gigantic crush on you and you're kinda the most famous person in the Commonwealth so… yeah, I know who you are."
Her face positively burning now, Cinder ducked her head and wondered if she might be able to get her wand (which she'd placed in its box beside her) and cast a shrinking spell on herself.
Kai laughed casually and Cinder felt some of the tension in her shoulders ease.
"So… you're new? Are you transferring?" Cinder nodded. "My stepmother transferred me from Hogwarts."
At the mention of Adri, Iko started to scowl and her eyes turned red. Sensing a tirade about to happen, Cinder kicked Iko sharply in the knee. Iko yelped and glowered at Cinder for a bit, but sat back and said nothing, though her eyes remained red.
Kai watched this exchange with a bewildered look in his eyes but shook it off when he noticed Cinder looking at him again.
"Well, you'll be pleased to know you're not the only one transferring." He reassured her with a smile, "I saw several other older kids back there who I'm pretty sure haven't been around before so, rest assured, you won't be the only new kid who isn't an eleven-year-old."
Cinder breathed a sigh of relief. She had actually been worried about that. She'd imagined herself to be shuffling along with a crowd of first years, feeling the stares of a thousand other students burning the back of her neck. It actually made her feel a lot better to know that she wouldn't be the only one.
Iko suddenly started gesturing wildly to Cinder's wand box. "Cinder, show Kai your wand! He's interested in ancient stuff like it."
"It's not ancient." Cinder muttered under her breath, but complied, opening the wand box and pulling it out.
Kai's eyebrows rose as he took in the blemishes on the wood. "Wow, this one's seen a rough life." Cinder snorted. "Believe it or not, it's brand new. I got it last week."
Kai's jaw dropped and Cinder smirked with amusement at his obvious shock. Catching her expression, he grinned and chuckled at himself.
"What's it made of?" He asked. Cinder glanced quickly at the box. "Cherry, with a dragon heartstring core."
"Cherry? Wow, I was hoping to get a cherry wand! They're said to possess some kind of mysterious power!" Kai looked at Cinder's wand with newfound awe before grinning. "Of course, I wouldn't give up my own wand for anything."
Cinder studied her wand in a new light. Mysterious power?
"Would you like to see mine?" Cinder's head snapped up at Kai's query. She nodded, and he tugged it out of his pocket. Cinder's eyes widened with amazement upon noticing that it had a carved wooden phoenix for a handle.
"It's reed, and the core is white river monster spine." Kai grinned at Cinder, looking almost bashful. "The wandmaker insisted on styling the handle. Believe me, I would have been fine with a regular handle like yours."
Iko snorted at this. "That makes two of you then. A wand's handle is the only part of it that doesn't do any magicky stuff so, in my view, it should be as personalized as possible! Just look at mine!"
Iko stood to reach her trunk and opened it, rifling through it briefly before tugging out her wand and holding it up proudly.
Cinder could only stare. The handle was swirling silver with a cut sapphire in the shape of a flower at the end. It was about half as intricate as Kai's, and twice as gaudy.
Iko gave her wand a quick flick, sending tiny kaleidoscopic sparks fluttering out of the tip. "While we're on the subject of wands, mine's made of pine wood. As for the core, it's a thunderbird tail feather." She frowned at the wand for a bit, looking almost accusatory. "The wand maker had said that it would be good for transfiguration, but I'm not seeing it."
Cinder sniggered at this, but quickly stopped when she caught Kai looking at her.
She had to admit, sitting next to him made her a bit uncomfortable. This boy was the son of one of the most powerful wizards in the world, both politically and magically. And judging from the Prefect's badge on his chest (and Peony's fangirling), he was clever and an overachiever as well. And she was just Cinder, the muggle-born adopted girl who had two fake limbs that thus far only two people haven't been disgusted by and below average grades in all her classes that involve spell-casting. She should've gone the entire school year without Kai even knowing she existed, yet here she was, chatting with him about wands.
Kai cleared his throat and Cinder glanced up at him. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you wearing gloves?"
Cinder could feel her lungs contract as panic surged through her veins. The gloves. Her only way of keeping her hand a secret from the judging eyes of the outside world. And he was asking about them.
Cinder's brain immediately started whirling with possible explanations, none of them very plausible, when Iko suddenly jumped to her feet again and pointed to the door.
"Hey look, it's Thorne!" She exclaimed and opened the door to their booth, gesturing for the boy who'd just been passing them by to come in. He did, with a wink at Iko. "Sweet Circe Iko, if you want me so much you can just tell me." Iko grinned at him. "I'll keep it in mind Captain, but really I just wanted you to meet Cinder. She's transferring from Hogwarts this year."
Thorne's eyes came to rest on Cinder and he grinned charmingly with perfect teeth. She rolled her eyes at him.
He pushed his trunk and owl up into the overhead and rested his cat cage on his lap, though the blueish, lynx-like creature inside was decidedly not a cat.
He held out his hand for Cinder to shake. "Captain Carswell Thorne, at your service. Most folks call me Thorne. Or Captain." He introduced himself with a wink of his blue eyes. Cinder rolled her eyes again but shook his hand anyway.
Beside her, Kai folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at the other boy. "You do realise that Jacin is Quidditch Captain this year, right?" Thorne waved the comment aside. "Yeah, but Captain Thorne sounds way cooler than Student Thorne. Or Captain Clay for that matter. Wouldn't you agree Cinder?"
Cinder regarded him with disinterest. "I agree that your head's way too big for your shoulders." Thorne barked with laughter at this, shaking the cage on his lap slightly and causing the creature inside to growl softly with annoyance.
Cinder frowned at the creature for a bit before pointing at it. "What is that?"
Thorne looked down at the cage fondly and gave it a pat. "This is my pet kneazle, Boots. My parents got him for me to keep me in line. His scolding does get a bit annoying at times but he's still a good pal." Boots purred and rubbed his head against the roof of his cage as he tried to get to Thorne's hand.
"So your kneazle's name is Boots…" Cinder murmured, committing the name to memory, "What's your owl's name?"
"Rampion." Thorne said simply, gesturing up at the great horned owl above him.
"My owl's name is Nainsi." Cinder jumped at the sound of Kai's voice before glancing up to look at the great grey in its cage.
"Nainsi huh?" She offered Kai a small smile. "It suits her." Kai beamed at the compliment.
"So." Thorne rested his hands behind his head and leaned back into his seat. "What were you guys talking about before I arrived and made all your days?"
"We were talking about our wands." Iko replied while Cinder pretended to gag. "And can you please tell these two that a wand's handle is meant to look unique?"
"You two, a wand's handle is meant to look unique." Thorne obediently told them. Kai rolled his eyes.
"Which is exactly why I hate mine so much." Thorne continued, wrinkling his nose with distaste as he reached into his pocket and produced his own wand. Its handle was carved to look like a thorny branch, though the space where Thorne's hand would grip it was bare of the pointed decorations.
"Nearly everyone in my family has a handle like this." He explained, still scowling at the decoration. But his grin returned as he added. "On the plus side though, this is made of dogwood, which is not very respectable or noble at all. Just the way I like it!"
Cinder smirked at this before asking, "What's the core?"
"Snallygaster heartstring I think. Not sure what that means, but I don't really care all that much so it's all good!"
Just then, a middle-aged woman knocked on the door of their booth. Kai opened it and stuck his head out.
"Would any of you kids like some snacks?" the woman asked, gesturing to the candy bars and boxes heaped onto her trolley.
Kai turned and smiled at Cinder, Iko and Thorne before pulling a bulging money bag out of his pocket. "We'll have some of everything."
Cinder bit off the head of her chocolate frog, tossing away the card since she didn't much care for them. Iko stuffed a pumpkin pasty into her face and Thorne bit into a liquorice wand and Kai sampled a bright green every flavour bean. He only just started to chew before viciously gagging, and his expression was strained as he finally swallowed the candy. "I thought it was sour apple." he gasped, "In reality I think it was caterpillar."
Cinder couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing at Kai's misfortune before picking out a bean for herself, popping it into her mouth and suppressing a sigh of relief when it turned out to be marshmallow.
She jutted her chin at Thorne and Iko. "You guys try one."
Thorne winked at her. "I never could say no to a pretty lady."
Before Cinder could even roll her eyes, he reached into the candy box and pulled out a golden bean. He tossed it into his mouth and chewed for a bit before grinning and proclaiming it to be honey.
Iko picked out a black one. "Hopefully this is treacle or liquorice or something." She muttered, frowning at the bean distrustfully. She chewed it and pulled a face. "It's not treacle. I'm pretty sure it's spider."
Everyone laughed at that.
Thorne suddenly clapped his hands, catching everyone's attention. "Now that Iko and Kai have both been unlucky enough to get the bad flavours, let's move on to more serious matters."
"You can be serious?" Cinder asked with a smirk. Thorne pretended to look offended. "Of course I can be serious! Honestly Cinder, you'd think you didn't know me at all!"
"Well, we did only meet twenty minutes ago."
"Wow, that long already? Anyway, since you're new and know literally nothing about Artemisia, I'm going to give you the crash course on the teachers. Sound good?" Cinder shrugged. "Sure, whatever."
Thorne grinned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Great! Now, the herbology teacher, Professor Benoit, is mostly okay but has some serious anger issues and is a bit loco." Thorne twirled a finger around his temple as he said this.
"I'll do you a favour and not tell Scarlet you said that." Kai deadpanned. Thorne breathed a sigh of relief and patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks man. I'd rather not get beaten up by her this early in the year. Anyway, the DADA teacher, Professor Clay, is pretty cool and gives the least detentions out of all of the teachers. He's gives a lot of homework though so watch out for that. The astronomy teacher is Professor Park. I warn you, he is one sick dude! Nothing seems to make him happier than other people's suffering. I swear, he once threw a student of the school roof! Charms is taught by Professor Torin. Kai's his favourite student, just a heads up, and he's a real stickler for rules as well and has no sense of humour."
"You're just saying that because he gave you a detention for casting a bat bogey hex in class!" Kai cried out in defence for the charms teacher. Thorne ignored him.
"Flying is also taught my Professor Benoit, but she never flies with us because she's getting too old for it. History of Magic is taught by Professor Gertman Warning: he's as boring as my dad's business suit. Transfiguration is taught by Professor Mira-"
"Who's a dementor in disguise." Kai interrupted.
"Can't argue with that, but she's also the deputy headmistress and has a fair bit of influence. As for potions, we're getting a new teacher for that this year so I can tell you literally nothing about him. And that's the crash course!"
Kai held up a finger. "You forgot about the worst of all of them: Levana."
"What does she teach?" Cinder asked, hoping that this supposedly awful teacher wouldn't be teaching her one of her electives.
"Nothing, she's the principal and I'm pretty sure she practices dark magic in her spare time. She always wears a veil when she appears in public, but when she's talking to certain people she takes it off. Not that that makes any difference."
Cinder cocked her head. "Why's that?"
Kai didn't answer at first, instead he scowled at the doors, as if imagining Levana standing right there. When he finally replied, all he said was: "She's lunar."
Lunars were a race of wizards, human in every respect except they possessed a mysterious power, a power that let them control the thoughts and emotions of other people without needing a wand. They could make you stab yourself. They could make you want to poison your own mother. They could make you love them with every ounce of your being. But more than that, they can trick you into seeing them differently. They can make themselves look young and beautiful when in fact they are over ninety and covered in warts. They can make themselves look like a harmless old lady when they are actually a punk covered in tattoos ready to steal your belongings. They were an evil, lying, deceitful race. And one of them was Cinder's headmistress?
Dr Erland's warning echoed through her mind: "Be careful at Artemisia. Be careful of your teachers, be careful of the students, but most of all, be careful of the headmistress."
Now that she knew the headmistress was an evil lunar, Cinder could understand the warning.
A/N: Chapter 2 is up and we've met Thorne and Kai! Plus some feathered and furry friends ;). Cinder has been warned about what to expect from Artemisia, but will it be enough to prepare her for her first real challenge: the sorting? Please review!
