All the students left and fought over compartments. I stayed by the window for a few minutes longer. No one bothered killing each other over an empty compartment at the far end of the train. Or so it seemed. It was empty except for a girl buried in a book. I had no choice but to join her. I opened the door to the compartment.
"Do you mind?" I said wearily. The girl looked up at me with her icy blue eyes and shook her head. Her curly dark hair fluttered around her shoulders. She turned her attention back to her book. I slumped into the seat next to the window and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. I couldn't. I don't know how much time passed while I stared unfocusedly at flashes of scenery. A loud thump got my attention. Someone let out a high-pitched scream. My companion and I exchanged shrugs. She carelessly returned to her book and I returned to my moping. Not five seconds later, we heard thundering footsteps. Someone flung open the door to our compartment. A girl with shoulder-length brown hair quickly closed the curtains and slammed the door shut. She seemed unaware that two people were already there. She turned around, still holding the door closed.
"Hi," she said cheerfully. "I'm Morgan. Morgan Payne."
I nodded and gave her my 'you're-a-freak' look. Morgan let go of the door and sat down next to me without invitation.
"What's your name?"
"Sara Fade," I grunted.
"What's your name?" Morgan said to the curly-haired girl.
She mumbled something, not looking up from her book.
"What's your name?" Morgan repeated, her ridiculous smile unfading.
The girl said something like 'sod off'.
"What's your name?" Morgan sounded like a broken tape.
"RACHEL PIERCE!" the girl shouted and stuck her nose back in the book. Morgan was still smiling. I fixed them both with my 'you're-all-sheep' look.
"Nice to meet you," I said resignedly and kept staring out the window.
"But," Rachel said suddenly, actually looking up from her book, "Fade… Why does that sound familiar?"
"Does it?" I said, trying to hide my panic. I hadn't even lasted half an hour!
"Yes," she said. "It's that Death Eater. But she died."
"Must be coincidence," I shrugged carelessly.
"Yeah…" Rachel pondered. She shook her head and kept reading her book. I was desperate to change the subject.
"What was that scream?" I asked Morgan.
"Oh," she giggled. "A boy in the next compartment um… got angry at me."
"Why?" I said. Morgan didn't have to answer. The door burst open again.
"PAYNE!" a boy shrieked at Morgan.
"Cruciatus Curse!" Rachel blurted out. We all stared at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were playing 'Association'," she said sheepishly. The boy kept glaring at Morgan.
"I lost control of my wand!" Morgan said.
"Four times?" the boy bellowed.
"Technically," a smooth voice said, "the average wand can produce up to seven involuntary spells in three seconds."
A girl with long dirty-blonde hair was standing behind the furious boy. Her voice and sheer appearance said everything about her personality. She was already changed into her new Hogwarts robes, which said the most.
The boy spluttered something incoherent.
"What are the odds of that?" he managed to say.
"They still exist," Rachel said coolly, patiently closing her eyes for a second. The boy spluttered some more, turned purple, and swept away.
"Thank you," Morgan said to Rachel and the geeky blonde girl. "What's your name?"
"I'm Patricia Sennett," the girl said.
"Sara Fade," I said. I felt truly uncomfortable saying my name.
"Morgan Payne," Morgan said, grinning.
"Rachel Pierce," Rachel said contemptuously.
"Can I sit here?" Patricia said. She was pointing to the seat next to Rachel since Morgan was sitting next to me. Rachel grunted something and Patricia pompously sat down.
"Do you know what house you'll be in?" Rachel said.
Morgan shrugged.
"As long as I'm not in Gryffindor," she said. I smiled to myself. "Or Hufflepuff."
"I'll be a Ravenclaw, I suppose," Patricia said. "I'm not sure."
Rachel snorted, probably thinking 'There's something you don't know! HA!'.
"Slytherin, probably," Rachel said. "You, Sara?"
"Slytherin, by far," I said.
"Who's the Slytherin Head of House?" Morgan asked curiously.
"Oh, some idiot," I said offhandedly.
"Severus Snape," Patricia said promptly.
"Yes, he is," Rachel said, glaring at her. "He was once in league with You-Know-Who and many still question Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, for allowing him to teach at the school. He's been working there for a few decades, excluding the several years he took as a kind of vacation. It is unknown what he was doing at that time. Recently, he took a chance to prove that he has reformed by killing the Death Eater, Sara Fade, no connection with our friend here. He was, of course, given permission to do so. He's famous for his Potions skills and his undying hunger for the Dark Arts, and the fact that he favours his own students above all others. Any who do him grief can expect a prompt detention, for which he is notorious for making highly unpleasant. However, those who manage to get on the right side of him find themselves amidst a very efficient teacher and a marvellous wizard to be around, if properly tempted with an interesting conversation."
We stared at her. Patricia's nostrils flared widely.
"I knew that," she muttered under her breath.
"What's he look like?" Morgan said.
"Trust me, he's hard to miss," I said darkly. "You'll know when you see him…"
"You've met?" Patricia said indifferently.
"We've crossed paths," I said evasively. I tried to count the number of times we put the Cruciatus Curse on each other. Or the times I've Crucio'd him…
"And the Gryffindor Head of House -" Patricia began.
"Is Minerva McGonagall," Rachel interrupted. "She's in the Order of the Phoenix, the Death Eaters' enemies -"
"You seem to know an awful lot about Death Eaters," Patricia said coldly.
"No, Patty, I just know an awful lot," Rachel said and went back to her book. I sniggered. Morgan nodded in agreement.
"Never," Patricia hissed, "call me Patty!"
The door opened.
"Anything off the trolley, dears?" a witch pushing a trolley loaded with sweets said.
"Yes, please!" Morgan said. "I'll have a Pumpkin Pastry, a packet of Droobles, a dozen Chocolate Frogs and some Fizzing Whizbees."
"I'll have a packet of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, a Cauldron Cake, and seven Chocolate Frogs," Rachel said.
"A liquorice wand, a Pumpkin Pastry, and four Chocolate Frogs," Patricia said.
"Give Patty here another Chocolate Frog on me," Rachel added. Patty - I mean, Patricia glared brutally at her.
"Just a blood-flavoured lollipop," I said.
The witch gave us our sweets and we gave her little heaps of silver. I moodily licked my lollipop.
"Ew!" Patricia said. I rolled my eyes.
Rachel, Morgan, and Patricia started trading Chocolate Frog cards at once.
"I take it you're all pure-bloods?" Rachel said taking her Yardley Platt out of her stack of cards and replacing it with Morgan's Felix Summerbee.
"Uh-huh," Morgan said, placing Patricia's Artemisia Lufkin in her deck.
"Yes," Patricia replied, frowning at the third beaming Xavier Rastrick in her deck from Morgan.
"All the way," I said. I wasn't exactly sure myself… For all I know, I could be half-blood. My mother was pure-blood and my father was a pure-bred vampire. Some say I'm cleanly cloven in two, and some say I'm pure-blood because the vampiric side of me doesn't count. I prefer to assume I'm pure-blood, although I'm very proud of my vampiric ancestry.
"Me too," Rachel said.
"Does anyone have Montague Knightley?" Patricia said, looking hopefully into Morgan's deck.
"Yeah, I do," Rachel said. "Trade you for Merwyn the Malicious."
"No way! You want Honoria Nutcombe?"
"No," Rachel scoffed. "Knightley for your Lady Carmilla Sanguina."
"Done," Patricia said.
We talked about random nonsense for a while. Rachel spit her last Every-Flavour Bean into the box it came from.
"Yech! Gunpowder!" she said, disgusted.
"Oh, wait you have one more," Patricia pointed out, apparently amused.
"You can have it," Rachel said.
"Thanks," Patricia shrugged and picked up the greyish Bean and put it in her mouth.
"Tastes like…" she said slowly.
"What?" I said.
"Arsenic! Oh my God!" she said and quickly spit it out. She stuck her tongue out. It was a bit singed.
"Are oo tyink to kill ee?" she shouted at Rachel. Rachel shook her head innocently. Morgan gasped and spat her own tongue out at Patricia for being so 'rude'.
"Hold on," I said, half-laughing and took my wand out. "Sanis," I said and her tongue grew back. Patricia made a gurgling sound and glared at Rachel.
"We should get changed," she said.
"Yes, you should change," Patty said.
We pulled our robes on. I could swear a slight sniggering could be heard from underneath Rachel's new robes before her head popped out. The lanterns were lit soon and we felt the train slowing down. We popped the last bubbles from Morgan's gum and stuck the remnants to the underside of the seats. We waited by the doors of the train along with many other students. Finally, the train came to a halt and the doors opened. The now claustrophobic students, myself included, flooded out. The first thing we heard once we disembarked was 'Firs'-years! Over 'ere! C'mon now, don' be shy!"
'Don't be shy'? I just wanted to get away! I wanted to see Fenrir! I didn't even know when I'd see him again.
The older students detached themselves from the small crowd of first-years. Gleaming white eyes were seen between them. Thestrals stood tethered to a fleet of carriages. I looked away quickly. I had a Thestral of my own. A faithful companion I named Thestius.
"No more firs'-years?"
A lantern hovered near us, lighting up the smiling, hairy face of Rubeus Hagrid. I glared up at it. The lantern bobbed away to another path in the darkness. The weather seemed to be reflecting my mood. It was cloudy and stormy and droplets of rain started pelting us at once. A clap of thunder was heard, followed by several girlie screams.
"Wow!" several people gasped as we went around a bend. Hogwarts, with its many towers and turrets and such, lay ahead. In the darkness, it looked very ominous. I was forcefully reminded of Azkaban. I was reminded more of that hellhole as we climbed uncomfortably into the little boats and drifted across the lake. Alright, there weren't any tsunamic waves beating us against the rocky, lifeless base of the fortress, but it still left the foul taste of foreboding in the pit of my stomach. And this time Snape would be here too. Gah!
Me + Snape + Hogwarts - Fenrir Hara-kiri. Capiche?
Hagrid blundered out of his own boat. The first-years followed. They were all shivering and soaked to the skin. We went up the stairs from the boathouse and reached the gigantic, oak doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The only reassuring thing I could find was vegetation. Yes, vegetation! Because nowhere in or around Azkaban would you find any plant life. But then again, on the bright side, in Potions, I'd be working with plants pretty much all the time. Snape was bound to make me suffer…
A figure with a tall, pointed hat was waiting at the castle doors. Minerva McGonagall was looking, almost glaring at the small horde of eleven-year-olds, and in my case, two-hundred-and-fourteen-year-olds. Hagrid said something to her and walked towards one of the doors behind her. The first-years watched him. McGonagall cleared her throat curtly and our necks cricked back in her direction again. Without a word, she strode in the direction Hagrid went, but lead us into a small antechamber instead.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you join the rest of the school in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts."
"I have something like a family of my own, thank you very much!" I thought, though nothing showed on my face.
"You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house is unique and has produced witches and wizards eminent in all various fields of magic. Whilst you are at Hogwarts, your accomplishments will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I shall return when we are ready for you."
She left, leaving everyone very wrong-footed. I was confident I'd 'become' a Slytherin again. McGonagall was true to her word and came for us a few minutes later. We obediently formed an undulating line. I was confident, but I couldn't go out into the Hall like that. I kept thinking about Fenrir, which succeeded in making me look like I was hanging somewhere between life and death. Rachel actually asked me if I was OK. I mumbled something even I couldn't hear which she took for a yes. McGonagall lead us into the Great Hall. It was packed with students of all shapes and sizes. A few of the students waved hesitantly or smiled at their older siblings. I scanned the Slytherin table. I could only afford to glance at a few students. Most of them looked ravenous. Nearly every student in the Hall was eyeing the first-years with various smirks. I glared brutally at some very cheeky Ravenclaws before turning my attention back to my home table. A blonde girl was smirking and looking at us. A boy with four-inch-long black hair and piercing turquoise eyes was doing the same. I recognised Walden Macnair in this boy. This was Josh Macnair, his son. Walden was evidently very proud of him. He looked like the perfect image of evil. I wouldn't blame him. Another older boy's dark grey eyes were boring into various things.
I lost interest in the students very soon and looked at the staff table instead. Snape was trying not to laugh at the eleven-year-old me. I looked away from him quickly. I looked at McGonagall as she placed a very old, very tattered, and very dirty wizard's hat on a stool. The line of first-years stopped as a rip near the brim opened:
"About a thousand years ago,
The four founders made a declaration,
That they'd form a school,
For magical education.
To Sort young students,
They also decided,
That they may rest in peace,
While the Sorting Hat presided.
Suited for Gryffindor,
Are those who are brave,
With nerve so strong,
That they'll seldom cave.
Surely for Hufflepuff,
Are the just and loyal folk.
For Helga Hufflepuff, the true,
Villains were a joke.
But Slytherin thought otherwise,
Great cunning valued he.
Those with ambition,
In Slytherin house shall be.
And those of much wisdom,
Whose bright minds never fail,
Without further ado,
In Ravenclaw shall hail.
And now it's time for me,
To break you all apart,
So put me on your head,
And let the Sorting start!
Everyone applauded. I grudgingly brought my hands together a few times.
"When I call your name," McGonagall said over the dying applause, "you will come forward, put the Sorting Hat on your head, and sit down on the stool to be Sorted. Aldridge, Phillip!"
A sandy-haired boy went to the stool and jammed the Sorting Hat on his head. The Hat took its time as it sat suspended above Phillip's eyes on his bouncy hair.
"SLYTHERIN!" it shouted some time later.
The Slytherin table clapped and cheered loudly that the first first-year was made a Slytherin. Phillip smirked at the unSorted students and ran, grinning, to the Slytherin table.
"Aplinn, Ryan!"
A boy with spiky brown hair and chocolate-coloured eyes sat down on the stool with the Hat.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Ryan sat down with the Gryffindors with cheers from the Gryffindors and hisses and boos from the Slytherin table.
"Bailey, Tanya!"
A girl with a thin nose and big eyes came forward.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
It was the Hufflepuffs' turn to applaud. 'Briggs, Amy' was made a Ravenclaw. 'Burns, David' became the second Slytherin, followed by another Hufflepuff, 'Cohen, Alex'. 'Eadric, Hugh' scuttled to the Gryffindor table.
"Fade, Sara!" McGonagall read.
Many students muttered to each other.
"Sara Fade?"
"Didn't she die?"
I tried to take no notice and took the Hat.
"SLYTHERIN!" it shouted at the top of its voice before I properly lowered it on my head. I joined the rest of the Slytherins, who, by the way, were all on their feet and were clapping their hands sore. I glanced at the staff table and saw Snape clapping with a wry expression of his face, being patted on the elbow by Professor Flitwick. He obviously expected the Sorting Hat to reject me or put me in Scryffincluff house, anything but Slytherin. I couldn't restrain a smirk in spite of how miserable I was.
"Grafton, Despina!"
A girl with reddish-brown hair went to the stool. She carefully flattened her hair as though afraid the Hat might mess it up. I instinctively chose to hate this girl. And it turned out I had legitimate reasons.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
'Graham, Angela' was also made a Gryffindor. The list of students was slowly running out. 'Olsen, Duncan' became a Ravenclaw.
"Payne, Morgan!"
Morgan put the Hat on. It swallowed up the upper half of her head. The Sorting Hat took a long time.
"SLYTHERIN!" it said. Morgan punched the air and joined me.
"Pierce, Rachel!"
Rachel copied the other students and placed the Hat on the head. This was the Sorting Hat's longest silence. After a while, Rachel got annoyed and mouthed something.
"SLYTHERIN!" the Hat roared at once. Rachel grinned and sat next to me.
"Sennett, Patricia!"
Patricia walked to the stool and placed the Sorting Hat on her head. The Hat hesitated.
"SLYTHERIN!" it said finally. Patricia looked horrified.
"NOOOO!" Rachel shrieked hoarsely. Patricia came to the Slytherin table, looking longingly at the Ravenclaws as she did so.
"Steele, Sean!" McGonagall called.
A boy with golden-blond hair came forward. He had unnaturally blue eyes that always seemed to be glaring, although Sean was smiling. I immediately sorted him myself.
"SLYTHERIN!" the Hat hollered. Sean sat between David and Phillip.
The Sorting ended when a boy, 'Wallace, Calvin', was Sorted into Gryffindor. I hissed at the skinny boy as he stumbled on his way to his table. McGonagall disappeared with the stool and the Hat and Dumbledore stood up to give his speech.
"Welcome and welcome back," the old wizard began. "May you all be filled with food rather than information for now."
The Hall laughed and started stuffing their faces with food. Dumbledore sat down and asked Professor Flitwick to pass him the salt. Snape was timidly slicing off miniscule pieces of chicken.
I took my wand out of my pocket from under the table. (No, I wasn't going to hex anyone!) Anyone worthy of saying they knew me would know that I don't eat. All I can consume is blood, potions, other drinks, and strangely, pure ammonia. I took a reasonable amount of food and cut it up into pieces and pretended to wait for them to cool. I developed a charm for this sole purpose while I was waiting in Woodsmanor. The Eating Charm. It gave the impression that I was eating while it actually Vanished mouthfuls of food. I was too intent upon Eating to talk to anyone, which was probably the reason no one noticed I was there. Until…
"Are you really Sara Fade?" someone called.
"Can I see your Dark Mark?"
"Can we see the fangs?"
"What the?" I said.
"C'mon!"
"What? I just share her name! She's dead!" I said. This came as a major disappointment to the other students. I thought that if I was going to be here, I could at least be popular.
"But I do have pointed teeth," I said. Everyone looked at me again. I gave my famous 'hey, look at me, I have fangs' grin.
"Obviously she's not the Sara Fade," Patricia said. "Look at it objectively. Professor Snape killed Fade. You'd think that if she came back from the dead, she'd kill him at once!"
"Patty, would you please climb out of my butt?" I said. Rachel grinned at me.
"Do you know anything about the Dark Arts?" Josh asked. He was enjoying this private joke.
"A bit," I smirked back.
"Unforgivables?" the blonde girl said.
"No," I lied. "Grotesque curses that are still legal," I said innocently.
"Like what?" Morgan asked excitedly.
I started talking about wizarding counterparts of medieval torture devices in Muggle Spain. (It's a miracle they haven't been outlawed yet.)
"And then the Pear spreads and leaves your victim permanently mutated. The wizarding version involves a lifelong curse."
"And we're done with the potatoes," Patricia said disgustedly. I smiled at her.
"But I just read about these things. I don't know how to perform them."
Patricia tentatively stabbed her boiled potato.
"Yet," I added.
Her fork slipped.
"I don't really need to know this," she said.
"Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard, be evil," Rachel recited. We exchanged huge grins again.
"Hear, hear!" everyone said. The last morsels faded away and were replaced by desserts. I Ate my way through a slice of chocolate gateau.
"Caramelized pears, Patty?" Rachel joked, offering her a particularly large pear. Patricia choked on her mouthful of treacle tart. That disappeared too and Dumbledore stood up again. He gave his speech, saying that lessons will start tomorrow morning, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden, magic in between classes is not allowed, something about Quidditch, and some other stuff. The house tables vanished with a deafening noise as the students got up and made their way to the doors. Fred Anness and Adelaide Kerry, the Slytherin prefects, shepherded us down the stairs into the dungeons.
"Attention, Slytherins" Adelaide shouted. "The password is 'Pear of Anguish'!"
All of the people I talked to except Patricia burst out laughing as she held her hands over her ears in horror. Fred and Adelaide exchanged shrugs and walked inside the common room.
"Boys, this way," Fred said.
"Girls, come with me," Adelaide said. The four first-year girls found a door saying 'first-years' in brass letters. We went inside to see our four-posters had already been picked for us. I was at the far end of the room. Rachel and Patty had the honour of being next to each other, sandwiched between me and Morgan. Speaking of whom…
Morgan was jumping on her bed, yelling 'WHEEEE!'
"Not bouncy enough," she scowled. "I hate this place!" she crossed her arms.
"Goodnight," I said wearily. I drew the velvet curtains around my bed.
"You're going to sleep already?" Morgan's voice said. I thought quickly.
"Well, classes start in the morning. I want to get some rest."
"Good point," Rachel said quickly.
"I agree," Patricia said. I heard the springs creak within seconds.
"Goodnight," Patricia said.
"Goodnight, Patty, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite," Rachel said slyly. It reminded me of how Bella used to tell me 'sleep uptight, don't let Fenrir bite' when I first started dating him. I felt very restless at the thought.
"Only 1260 days to go," I thought gloomily. I waited for about half an hour before I quietly drew back the curtains. I stealthily opened my trunk and found a bottle. I couldn't go about killing people here, so before I came, I got a generous amount of blood. I'd send the empty bottle back to Woodsmanor with Horus, my falcon, to get it refilled every few days. Some vampire, huh?