Author note: Meeeh. Not a fan of this chapter. Really think I need to combine it with the next, but this one's well over 5k as it is. Brevity is not my strong suit. Well, anyways, here comes Gajeel and the reason for a T rating on this story. Thanks, Gajeel. Thanks for the reviews so far, guys. :) Really appreciate them.

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CHAPTER THREE

The Redfox on the Train

The remainder of the day was spent in silence. Juvia followed Professor Jose from one store to the next, accumulating a stack of books, clothes and tools for her upcoming term. The supplies, much as was everything she owned, were second-hand. She didn't mind. They were in far better condition than the books or clothes she had been given at the abbey. She might have even been happy with them, but her eyes kept darting up to the sky, wishing desperately for one last glimpse of blue. Each time the dark gray sky greeted her in return, her heart fell a little more, drowning out any joy she might have felt from the day's other activities.

Jose didn't say anything to her while they carried on. He spoke to the shopkeepers, instructing them to bill the school for the supplies taken, but other than that, he spoke not a word. He hardly even looked to her. The only sign that he even acknowledged her presence at all was when Juvia started to struggle carrying the supplies that she had accumulated. He glowered at her and then retrieved his wand from his robes. A second later, the articles had all lifted into the air on their own accord and floated after him. Had she believed him a kinder person, she might have thought the action for her benefit, but she thought it far more likely he was tired of her dragging behind and slowing him down.

Whatever the reason, no longer struggling to balance her books while trying to hold on to her umbrella left her free to look around.

She wished she hadn't.

When she first arrived at Diagon Alley, before they had reached Ollivander's, she felt like she was being watched. Like she could hear the whispers again. Afterwards, though, she was mostly sure it was just in her head. But now...

She heard them. The whispers. She couldn't pick out what they were saying, but she was sure they were real now. She was sure people were staring. Staring at her. With a whimper, she clutched her parasol tight, kept her eyes straight on the ground in front of her and hurried after Professor Jose.

Relief nearly overwhelmed her when they reached the Leaky Cauldron once more. Professor Jose stopped a moment to talk to the barkeep that had he spoken with when they first arrived. The man, in turn, handed over a couple of keys he removed from a set of hooks on the wall behind him. After nodding to the barkeep, Professor Jose headed up a set of creaking stairs to a row of rooms above the pub, the chaos of the pub reduced to a muffled rumble below. He stopped in front of one of the doors and held out a key to her.

"You'll be staying here until the train leaves for Hogwarts," he told her. "You may go upstairs or downstairs as you please, but you will not leave the Leaky Cauldron at any time, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," she said quietly, taking the offered key.

"I will be in the next room. I will meet you for meals. Otherwise, your time is yours. See that you behave."

Juvia gulped, seeing flashes of Sister Paul in Professor Jose's demeanor, and that did not bode well for her. "Yes, sir." She unlocked the door and hurried inside, closing the door behind her once her books and supplies had followed her safely in.

Her books and packages settled on the floor next to the door while she took stock of the room, of the large bed - several times larger than the cot she slept on in the abbey - of the fireplace already lit, of the little chair and table positioned by the window, a pot of tea and cup already set and waiting for her. A room. Just for her. No other girls to share it with. Just her. For the first time since she lost the sky, she broke into a smile. After drawing the curtains to shut out sight of the rain, she took the first of her books from the pile, curled up in front of the fireplace and set to learning about this new world she had just been cast into.

The next few days passed quickly and pleasantly enough for Juvia, particularly once she came across an anti-rain charm in one of her books, a talisman called the teru teru bozu. After inquiring downstairs for some scraps of cloth and a sewing kit, both of which the barkeep kindly saw to obtaining for her, she curled up in her room and proceeded to make a set of the little dolls. The dolls never seemed to make a difference in the rain that carried on outside, but they gave her a semblance of hope. If she studied, if she tried harder, she could make the rain stop. She was sure of it. So when one doll finished and the rain continued on, she consulted her textbook, compared her doll with the one on the page and started again.

When her fingers ached from the effort, she switched over to reading her other texts, determined to feel somewhat prepared for the coming school year. When she reached her Potions textbook, she felt the weight on her heart lift ever so slightly. She recognized a number of the early potions in the book, tonics that the abbess had her help make, though the abbess had never told her what some of the ingredients were when she added them to the brew. With the exception of these odd ingredients - what the world was a flobberworm? - most of the early chapters were just review of what she already knew, which like the teru teru bozu, filled the girl with hope that she'd find a place after all.

She saw little of Professor Jose during those days, which she imagined suited him just as well as it suited her. Whenever she descended for meals, he was already seated at a table. He wouldn't even look up from his paper while she sat across from him or when she uttered a good morning or evening to him. Left to her own devices, she took to watching the other patrons of the tavern. Occasionally, she'd catch sight of some table looking over at her, but she was always quick to look away, too worried to examine their expressions for long.

For the most part, though, no one seemed to notice her, letting her examine the other patrons at her leisure. Her interest, however, almost always seemed to fall back onto one lone figure in the corner, the same boy she had seen when she'd first entered the Leaky Cauldron. He appeared to be one of the other extended guests of the tavern. She had seen him in the hall a couple of times, though she hadn't managed the courage to utter so much as a hello. Every night, he'd be at one of the tables tucked away from the larger crowds, picking aimlessly at his food.

At first, she'd just study the boy, the way he kept his focus down on his plate and seemed to try to withdraw from the world around him. It reminded her of meals at the abbey, of the way she used to try to shrink down and make herself as invisible as she could. After a couple of days, though, what drew her attention were the people around the boy. She'd catch sight of a group of people staring at him. She heard them whisper, saw them point and stare at the boy in the corner, their faces a mixture of worry and scorn. Just as she remembered. The whispers. The stares.

The Sisters crossed themselves in fear.

Her hands balled into fists, and she heard the roar of her blood in her ears. Or was it just the rain that suddenly hammered the old tavern?

Across from her, Professor Jose brought his hand down on the table hard to bring her attention back. When she looked back to him, he was glaring at her over the top of his paper.

Gulping, she dug her nails into the palms of her hands but steadied her breath all the same, returning her focus back to the plate in front of her. When he seemed satisfied that she wasn't going to cause any further disruptions, Professor Jose returned to his paper.

Juvia kept her focus on her plate, but her thoughts kept going back to the boy in the corner. The wizards truly weren't any different, were they? No matter what the abbess had said. They were just like the islanders. Judging. Fearful. Hateful. Excusing herself, not that Professor Jose noticed or cared, she retreated to her room upstairs. Curling back on the bed, she set to work on another teru teru bozu.

The next day, it was finally time to leave for Hogwarts. Juvia dressed herself in her nicest outfit from St. Brigid's, the dark sapphire dress well faded but still in decent shape. She donned her fur-trimmed shawl and then fastened onto it her latest teru teru bozu doll, both shawl and talisman resting over her amulet. After pulling her on her woolen hat, she packed away the rest of her belongings into a battered, old tin trunk, her own little case far too small to carry with it all the books and supplies she had acquired at Diagon Alley. She proceeded to try to drag the tin trunk out into the hall, only getting as far as the doorway before falling at the feet of the bored looking Professor Jose. He sighed before retrieving his wand from his robe and pointed it at the trunk. The trunk lifted off of the ground and followed Professor Jose as he descended down the stairs, Juvia flattening against the floor as it passed over her. Once it was safely away, she scrambled to her feet and followed after the professor.

A quick lorry ride later, they arrived at King's Cross station, much to Juvia's distress. If she thought London in general was crowded and loud, King's Cross was so much worse. She couldn't move without bumping into or being bumped into someone. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't even hear herself think. After the sixth such collision, Juvia clamped her hands over her ears and shut her eyes, trying to will them all away. Above the station, she heard a loud clap of thunder, calling out for her. The sound was quickly followed by a push from Professor Jose to move onward. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she pushed the trolley forward until they made their way to the platforms 9 and 10. She eyed Professor Jose nervously. He took the lead and led her to a column between the two platforms. Without hesitation, he walked right on through. Taking a deep breath to muster courage, she followed after him.

On the other side, she was greeted by another platform and a bright red train, along with a number of students and families gathered along the platform. She took only a moment to stare at wonder at the steam engine before following after Professor Jose. "Luggage there," he said simply, pointing one of his long, thin fingers at a section on the platform. "I'll leave you here. See to it that you get on the train." With that, he started to stalk off.

"Thank you, Professor Jose," she called out after him as he left.

He did not respond and was quickly gone from sight.

She left her luggage with the rest and then wandered along the platform for a bit, watching the students saying goodbye to their families. A pang of jealously hit her as she watched them. She never really thought of her family, the family she might have had. None of the abbey girls had families of her own, so she never thought of what she was missing out on while growing up. But watching the others now, she couldn't help but wonder how it might have been had her own parents been around, to have someone to hug and cry over you when you left and wait for you when you returned. It must have felt nice.

"Oi, Juvia!"

She raised her head and blinked, mind processing the fact that someone actually called for her by her first name. Typically, it was "Miss Lockser", followed by some veiled threat of kitchen duty.

She turned to the source of the voice and smiled. "Gray!" she called back, waving.

Gray maneuvered through the various groups congregating on the platform as he made his way to her. "You made it! Ready?"

She nodded, her blue locks bouncing around her. "Nervous, but ready. How about you? Wand hasn't exploded yet?"

"Not yet," he groaned, making a face. "I'm holding out for the first Charms class, though. If I make it through that, then I'll feel better. My dad was actually disappointed I only got to 13. He's threatening to have another kid just to spite Ollivander."

Juvia giggled. "Did you just arrive?"

"Nah. Been here a bit. Waiting on some friends. They're horribly slow, though. Where'd your escort go?"

"Professor Jose dropped Juvia off at the platform and left. She thinks he was very relieved to go."

"I imagine that's probably mutual."

"He was alright. He may not have been kind, exactly, but he wasn't mean to Juvia."

The boy grimaced. "That really should be the bar." She just shrugged in response. "You should stick around and meet my friends. It'll be good for you to get to know your new classmates."

Her lips twitched into a smile, but she wasn't given a chance to respond before a voice called out from behind Gray.

"Gray! Where'd you go?"

Juvia froze, blood draining from her face. She knew that voice. She heard it cry out in pain when her rain boiled.

She clutched the teru teru bozu doll as fear gripped her.

What if it happened again? What if she couldn't control the rain? Professor Jose was gone now. Who would stop her?

When Gray turned towards the voice, calling back to it, Juvia took her chance and darted into the nearest carriage.

"Over here, Lucy!" Gray called out to the approaching blond. Natsu was close on her heels.

"You ran off quickly. What's wrong?" Lucy asked, panting slightly from running after the boy.

"Nothing. Just wanted to grab Juvia before she got on the train," he replied.

"Who?" Natsu asked with a frown.

"Juvia. Juvia, this is -," he turned to introduce her but found her gone. "The hell?"

"Aren't you a little old for imaginary friends?" Natsu asked with a grin.

"Shut up, ash-for-brains," Gray snapped back. "Your ugly face must have scared her off."

"Who you calling ugly, droopy eyes?"

"You want to go, dumbass?"

"You two aren't fighting, are you?" came a stern and familiar voice from behind them.

"No, ma'am!" The boys cried out in unison, turning quickly to face the newly christened Erza Scarlet. There weren't many who didn't know the girl by her original name, but her guardian had deemed that it would be better for the girl to not carry the weight of her mother's name as she started her life at Hogwarts. Not that Erza Scarlet wasn't equally as terrifying as she had been as Erza Belserion.

"Good," she said, her arms folded over her chest. "What are you three waiting out here for? You should be on the train."

"Gray wanted to introduce us to his imaginary friend," Natsu replied.

"She's not imaginary, dammit. She just ran off," Gray growled.

"Who is she?" Lucy asked, trying to break in before Natsu prodded Gray into another fight that Erza would rather enthusiastically break up. She wanted to at least see Hogwarts before the four of them managed to get expelled.

"Juvia Lockser. I met her at Ollivander's. I wanted to introduce her to the rest of you. She's a Muggle-born and a little worried about Hogwarts. I was hoping meeting you all would help."

"Awwww, picked up a girlfriend already?" Gray groaned as Cana appeared behind him, draping an arm around his shoulder and pinching his cheek with her other hand. "Good job, Fullbuster. I'm so proud of you. You've come such a long way from that boy who used to run around the snow in his underwear at St. Rowena's."

"Shut up. And it's not like that," Gray snapped. "Don't you have someone else you could bother? Go find Loke. He's got to be around here somewhere."

The brunette smirked, still clinging onto Gray. "Please, Loke's probably already found a compartment filled with girls to flirt with. Besides! I have news! Well, Levy has news. Lev?"

The group turned as one to the small blunette behind them as she blushed at the sudden focus on her. "Erm... Well, you know how my dad works for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes? He told my mum that there's a girl in our class who's summoning rain. Apparently, it never stops. She's from some island in Ireland where it hasn't stopped raining since she arrived there. The entire department had to work to get her from Ireland to London without anyone knowing."

Gray, who had previously been trying with little success to shove Cana off of him, froze.

The sky.

He remembered her voice when she said it. Surprise, disbelief, fear, joy. All rolled together in that one phrase.

The sky.

"You mean all this," Lucy pointed up to the rain falling cold and fast, "is because of a girl?"

Levy nodded. "According to my dad, anyways."

"That is an impressive witch," Erza said, impressed, as she eyed the sky above.

"I've never heard of a wizard able to control weather like that," Lucy muttered.

"I think control is a bit of a stretch," said Cana.

"Wait, does that mean it's going to rain everyday at Hogwarts? This sucks!" Natsu groaned.

"Shut up, Natsu," Gray snapped, finally managing to untangle himself from Cana. He remembered her crying as she looked up at the sky.

It's beautiful.

"I'm just saying - imagine every Quidditch match in the rain for seven years," the pink-haired boy complained. "Why couldn't she have gone somewhere else?"

"Shut up, Natsu!" Gray's voice rose, drawing stares from others outside their group. His eyes turned to the carriage, looking for her face in one of the windows and failing.

"It's hardly the girl's fault, Natsu," Erza reprimanded, glaring at the pink-haired boy and causing him to shift behind Lucy who looked less than pleased at being reduced to human shield. "She's had nothing but rain for eleven years. If she can live through that, you can deal with a few rainy Quidditch matches. Besides, she's going to Hogwarts to learn control. I'm sure the Headmaster will be able to help her."

It's beautiful.

Gray only hoped Erza was right.

Juvia made her way through the carriage, searching for a compartment. She had gone to the last carriage on the train, hoping to put as much distance between her and the girl as was physically possible.

She was overreacting. She knew that. The girl was probably perfectly nice and probably wouldn't have had said a thing about the rain, but it didn't really matter. Juvia couldn't risk it. She hoped to find an empty compartment in the back, but she seemed out of luck. Not that she ever had any luck to begin with. However, as she approached the end of the carriage, she did manage to find a compartment with just one occupant, someone very familiar, though they'd never been introduced.

She opened the compartment door, and the boy's red eyes focused on her.

"If you're one of my father's fangirls, piss off," he snapped.

Juvia blinked a moment before finding her tongue again. "Juvia doesn't know what that's supposed to mean."

"Then just piss off anyways."

"Juvia needs a place to sit."

"Find somewhere else."

"Why? There's an empty seat right here."

"Don't ya know who I am?"

"Other than ill-tempered, no."

His red eyes narrowed. "What are ya? An idiot? I'm a Redfox. Run away before I eat yer heart or something."

Juvia frowned. "Not a word of that made sense to Juvia."

He scowled. "Idiot. All the Redfoxes were Death Eaters. My parents were part of Zeref's personal guard."

"Still nothing. Muggle-born," she said pointing to herself.

He scowled, cradling his forehead in his palm. "They were dark wizards. They killed people. Lots of people. Understand?"

"Okay," she said simply as she sat down.

He paused, an eyebrow raised, Juvia noticing a single piercing at the edge of each eyebrow for the first time. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"Did you not hear me? My parents are murderers."

"Juvia heard. She just fails to see how that relates to you."

"Because I'm a Redfox!" the boy snapped, exasperated. "Redfoxes are murderers!"

"Have you murdered anyone?"

"I'm considering it," he muttered as he leaned back in his seat.

"If you haven't murdered anyone, then Redfoxes aren't murderers. Your parents were, but you are not them, so Juvia doesn't see why she shouldn't sit here."

He looked at her. "Yer an idiot," he said at last before sulking back in his seat, though he made no other attempt to chase her out.

"Juvia Lockser, by the way."

He glared at her before turning his gaze out the window. "Gajeel."

She smiled. "Nice to meet you, Gajeel."

The train trip up to Hogwarts went peacefully enough. Juvia talked through most of it, though she managed an occasional - if short - conversation with Gajeel. She was enjoying the exchange until Gajeel frowned, looking out the window. "Been raining the entire way so far. S'odd."

Juvia flinched. Part of her thought to stay silent, but she wasn't likely to be able to keep it quiet much longer. Besides, it wasn't as if she was the only one in the compartment judged for something beyond her control.

"It's Juvia's fault," she said quietly.

Gajeel frowned as he turned to her. "Whaddya mean?"

"Juvia makes it rain. She doesn't mean to. It just happens."

The boy's pierced brow furrowed. He looked out the window and then back at her. "Bollocks!" he said eventually.

Juvia flushed, not expecting that to be the response from the first person she ever told. "It is!"

"Yer going to tell me that ya can make it rain without trying. Yer an idiot."

Juvia pouted. "It's true!" Outside the rain pelted the train harder as she slunk back in her seat, her arms folded over her chest.

Gajeel's gaze shifted to the window and then back to her, red eyes narrowed. She frowned as he studied her but then yelped when he kicked her in the shin. Hard.

"What'd you do that for?" She cried, rubbing her leg, tears pricking at her eyes.

"Wanted to get you angry," he replied simply, turning his focus back to the window while the rain launched a full scale assault at the train, accompanied by the steady roll of thunder and clashes of lightning that split the sky one right after the other. "It's really storming now."

"Couldn't you have just said something mean instead?" she snapped.

"I like being direct. Ya really do make it rain." Juvia flinched, bracing for what was next. She wasn't sure what she expected, but she certainly didn't expect Gajeel to laugh a moment later. "This is great! This is some Zeref-level power, and it's in a Muggle-born! My folks would be livid if they knew! I wonder if I can write to them in Azkaban..." His smile stretched from ear to ear, sincere and strangely predatory all at the same time. "Yer something else, Raindrop. Giihii."

Anger and annoyance fled from Juvia in a flash, and she smiled back at Gajeel. The sky went silent as the rain returned to its gentle pattering against the panes. "You won't think so when you haven't seen the sky for three months," she said, her smile faltering.

Gajeel shrugged. "Eh, you'll get it under control, Raindrop. Ya strike me as someone who doesn't quit, even when she really should."

"Are you going to keep calling Juvia 'Raindrop'?"

"Does it bother ya?"

"A little," she admitted.

"Then yes." He grinned. "Giihii."

She pouted but felt pleased to have a nickname, even if it was Raindrop. She was finally making friends. "Gajeel?"

"Yea?"

"Were you at St. Rowena's too?"

Gajeel laughed. "Yeah, right. That would have been a great idea. Great way to be made a hostage, not that my folks would have given much of a damn."

"So, you haven't met anyone else starting at Hogwarts this year?"

"I met a handful of the other Death Eater children a few times. Some of them are already at Hogwarts. A few are starting with us, though. Not that I liked any of them much. Never ran across the St. Rowena kids even after the war ended. Well, met one, but that's because my uncle thought it'd do me good. Stupid pink-haired git," he muttered the last sentence under his breath.

Juvia fell silent for a little while, feeling like she was on the outside, looking in at a story that she had only had bits of pieces of. They'd all know each other. They'd all have history with each other, and she knew none of it. With hesitation, she asked, "Who's Zeref?"

The boy winced. "Why do ya want to know?"

"You said that your parents were part of his guard. It seems like he's important."

"Really don't want to be the person explaining that," the boy replied. "Can't ya wait for History of Magic? There'll probably be six weeks worth of lectures about him."

"Juvia thinks she should know. It seems like everyone at Hogwarts was impacted by whatever happened a few years ago. She thinks she should know before she makes a fool of herself or worse."

The boy seemed to think on it a moment and then heaved a sigh. "He was a wizard over 400 years ago."

"Wizards live to be that old?"

"Hardly. Least, not that I've ever heard. The first Zeref was just some ass who thought the world would be much better off if it were free of Muggles. War breaks out, lots of people die on both sides, war ends. Decades later, another ass calling himself Zeref comes around and tries the same nonsense. Coulda been the same Zeref, I guess, but doesn't really matter. Over the last four hundred years, every so often, some idiot names himself the new Zeref and off every damn idiot dark wizard goes to throw their lives and families away to serve some deluded madman."

"And this most recent Zeref?"

"Started up ten years ago, I guess. My folks were practically first to sign up. My da swore that he was the real thing. The real Zeref. But he's fucking daft, so I don't put much stock in it. Six years later, the prick's gone, my folks are in jail with the rest of the Death Eaters that didn't get killed along the way and I get to be raised by my ass of an uncle. Five years after that, I get to go to Hogwarts with the orphans that my fucking parents made, while everyone wonders whether I'm training to join the next Zeref's army. Good times," he muttered, staring out the window.

Juvia frowned, not sure what she could say now. "Thank you for telling Juvia," she said simply, deciding that she was well out of her depth and wouldn't be much of a comfort even if she could find the right words to say. He grunted in response.

The compartment went silent for a bit, the rain against the train the only sound as Juvia watched the gray landscape hurtle by.

"Feel free to tell me to piss off, Raindrop." Juvia turned to the boy, but he was still staring out the window. "But, what's with the third person?"

Juvia flushed and looked down at her hands folded in her lap.

"The words you're looking for are 'Piss off, tin head.'"

When she raised her gaze to find him looking at her, she gave him a small smile. "It's alright." She didn't want to talk about it, but he had talked to her about Zeref even though he hadn't wanted to either. It seemed only fair. After talking a deep breath, she said, "Juvia's an orphan. She's lived her entire life at an abbey, but because of the rain, no one liked her. No one wanted her around. No one even spoke to her. Not really, anyways. They talked about her, even when she was right in front of them, but they never spoke to her if they could help it. And even when they talked about her, it was always 'that child' or 'that creature'. The Reverend Mother would speak with Juvia when she had the time, but she was always busy running the abbey. She couldn't have Juvia underfoot every day. Even when she did talk to Juvia, it was always 'Miss Lockser'. Never Juvia. Juvia just wanted to hear her name, so she started saying it to herself, and it just sort of stuck." She pulled up her knees to her chest and set her head on them. "Everyone's going to think she's weird."

"If they do, fuck them. What do they matter?"

"Do you think Juvia is weird?"

Gajeel snorted. "Raindrop, I lived most of my life with people who willingly followed someone claiming to be over 400 years old without stopping to think that maybe, just maybe, the guy was out of his mind. Ya'd need more than rain and a liking to yer own name to be weird to me."

She gave him a small smile and let the conversation fall back into a lull again, and he didn't seem in any more hurry to restart it than she was. Movement out of the corner of eye caught her attention, and she turned to the corridor window where a couple of students were peering in to their compartment. When she noticed them, they hurried on, but they weren't the only ones. Juvia watched as every so often a new set of students peered in. Every time, they'd look inside and then hurry off once they realized she had spotted them. Juvia winced. "Juvia thinks they know about her."

Gajeel turned his attention to the compartment door as well, glowering at the students that appeared. Those that noticed his glare seemed in a far more hurry to run off. "Don't worry about it. It's probably me. No one likes a Redfox." He turned back to the window.

Juvia frowned but tore her gaze away all the same, hoping to be at Hogwarts soon.