Chapter 17: Going Home
As Lexie boarded the Hogwart's Express home she felt more nervous than she had boarding it to go to Hogwarts.
When she had boarded the train at the start of the term she remembered feeling nervous and sad about not having a family, but she also recalled her excitement. She remembered instantly clicking with James, Sirius, and Remus and feeling like maybe her life wouldn't be so hopeless. Now, she was a different sort of nervous.
While Dumbledore assured her Almeda Carrow would not pose a threat and she had James' cloak tucked carefully in her robes, she was still scared that her birth mother would somehow find a way to drag her to the estate.
Lexie was also nervous about returning to the orphanage. Luckily orphans often came and went as they were sent to foster homes or adopted, but for once she felt like she wouldn't belong and would no longer have anything in common. Everything about her life felt different.
Lexie wasn't the only one feeling down on the train home. Even James seemed to have lost some of his usual cheer saying he was going to miss having his friends around. Out of all of them, nobody was more down that Sirius. He immediately retreated to a corner and stared out the window.
"Hey, you okay over there Sirius? You're living up to your name a little too much" said Lexie causing the other boys to draw their attention to him.
"Yeah, come on Sirius, home can't be that bad yeah? I mean it's gonna be lonely without all you but we can all write to each other yeah?" added James nudging him.
Sirius scoffed, "Yeah as if my parents are going to let me have free reign over the family owl. They've made it clear that my summer hols are going to be all about 'reconditioning' me and breaking any 'nasty Gryffindor morals' I've adopted. I'll be lucky if I'm even allowed to visit the family members who aren't complete pureblood lunatics."
Lexie frowned, Sirius' words sounded awfully familiar and she realized they echoed the sentiments in the letter she had received from her mother.
"Well is there anything we can do to help? Maybe bail you out?" Lexie asked feeling guilty for having escaped her own birth family successfully.
Sirius sent a small smile towards her "Nah, I'm probably just exaggerating. I'm sure they'll mostly leave me alone. At least I have my younger brother, he's sort of sane still."
James piped up, "Just say the word Sirius and you could come live with me. If it gets bad, you let me know. I'll even give you my address, you don't even have to say anything, just show up okay? My parents won't care I swear."
"Deal" said Sirius holding up his hand to shake James'.
As the train pulled into the station they all went to change out of their robes and Lexie slipped James' invisibility cloak over herself. James had already explained to the boys she was making a quiet escape and so her trunk was waiting for her when she got back to the compartment. They slowly made their way off the train, Lexie looking around for any signs of Almeda. She found her standing with a sallow faced older man and talking to a rather severe looking couple with dark features.
"Oh great, looks like my dear mum and dad have decided to do some networking with the Carrows. Great. Well at least it isn't the Malfoys. See you on the other side in September" Sirius said bitterly while saluting to the group and started to head towards the severe couple who Lexie could now see shared his nose and dark hair.
Before he made it too far, Lexie grabbed his shirt sleeve and whispered "Wait, you know that lady Sirius? The one talking to your parents?"
Sirius snorted and turned in the direction he thought Lexie was standing "Unfortunately. That's her father next to her. A few years ago the rumors are she killed her husband because he had made friends with a muggle. She had to go on trial and everything."
Sirius made the gesture for crazy "Her whole family is certifiably insane. And this is coming from a Black. Be safe Lexie, there are a lot of cuckoo purebloods in this world."
With that he walked away leaving Lexie with a frown on her face. She watched from the safety of the cloak as James embraced his parents with a big hug before he turned around to wave to the group before they disappeared from view. Remus gave his dad a small side hug that was more reserved but followed the Potters and Peter was currently getting his cheeks squished and face kissed by a woman she guessed was his aunt.
She saw Sirius approach his parents with a hunch to his shoulders and saw his parents both look at him with a sneer, but soon they also broke off from the Carrows and disappeared through the platform, Sirius turning one last time to smile at where Lexie was standing.
Lexie stood with her trunk grasping the cloak and trying to stay as small as possible hoping nothing was sticking out to give her away.
Almeda Carrow and who Lexie now knew was her grandfather waited with displeased looks on their faces. After what felt like an hour, but was more like a few minutes Almeda took one look around the empty platform before letting out a sound of rage while her grandfather shook his head and whispered something harshly to her mother before he stormed off through the barricade.
Almeda took one more look around before she too shook her head in rage and left and Lexie let out a sigh of relief. Lexie made her way to the barrier and with a sad look back towards the Hogwarts Express, reentered muggle world.