Of Earth & Stars
Chapter 18: Harry Potter and the Ghosts that Come With Him
September 1991
"You're sure you wanted to get here early?" Amalia Rosier tried to mask her disappointment at having to drop Suri off on Platform 9 ¾'s so early. Aside from Amalia and Suri, there were few other families around.
Smiling, Suri kissed her grandmother on the cheek. "Yes, Granna, I'm sure. Will you be going back to Vienna today?"
"Not today, but soon. There are some things I need to look into regarding the manor."
"And it'll be good that I'm not there."
"Suri Ariel Rosier-Black you know that's not what I meant." Granna rolled her eyes as if this weren't the first time she'd dealt with particularly dramatic adolescents.
Suri giggled and Amalia Rosier sighed in spite of her wry smile. Leaning forward, smelling like elegant wildflowers, she kissed Suri's forehead.
"Happy birthday, Suri. I love you."
"I love you, too. You know, every year you manage to give me something special that reminds me of my parents or our family. This year you gave me the Maeve Manor. I don't know how many fourteen year olds get to say they have their own house," Suri teased. She was the last person who would ever flaunt the centuries-old inheritances from her two prominent families.
"Your mother would have never allowed you to feel any less special or loved. Especially on your birthday."
"Well, this is it," Suri finally said, looking around to avoid the look in Granna's eyes. More students, both new and old, began arriving at the platform and board the Express. "I'll see you at Christmas."
"I can't wait." Suri and Amalia hugged one more time. Before letting go, Granna held Suri at arm's length. "I have a feeling this will be a big year for you, Suri."
X
"Does anyone have any idea why everyone is louder than usual? It can't be because everyone is excited to go back to school." Mara asked, a sour look on her face. The Express was well underway by the time the loud exclamations of students reached Suri's compartment. She shared a compartment with Mara, Nate, Willem and Carly.
"Not sure," Nate answered, barely looking up from his book to answer Mara's question, his book and arms propped on Suri's legs casually swung over his lap, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I'll find out." Suri turned her attention from the outside world that rolled by and Nate lifted his arms so she could swing her legs off of him. Sliding open the door to their compartment, Suri looked left then right before walking down the narrow corridor of the Express.
"Happy birthday Suri!" A group of second year Slytherins wished as she passed their compartment.
"Thank you!" Suri smiled at the eager young students who hoped to befriend someone older. "Do you have any idea what everyone's so excited about?"
"Oh!" A second year girl with mousy brown hair exclaimed, "Everyone's saying that Harry Potter is on the Express! This will be his first year! Guys, what if he's in Slytherin? Suri, wouldn't that be great?"
"Harry Potter? Harry Potter is on this train?" Absently, she tugged at her crystal vial, her heartbeat suddenly throbbed in her ears. She put a hand on the side of the compartment to steady herself, thankful the young Slytherins were too excited to notice how pale she'd gotten at his name.
"Yes! I wonder if he's cute. I haven't seen him yet…"
Suri blindly made her way past several compartments all the way to the end of the Express where the bathrooms were located. She hurried into a cramped stall and slammed the door shut behind her, sliding the OCCUPIED sign into place. Leaning against the door she took a couple slow, deep breaths and looked at her reflection.
She looked as though she'd seen a ghost. At Harry Potter's name, she might as well have seen a ghost, or rather, several.
"Moons, is Baby Harry with Mummy, Uncle James, and Ally too?"
"No, Suri, he's alive and safe with Ally's family."
"I didn't even get to kiss his forehead goodbye like I always do!"
Suri's eyes shot open, startled by a knocking on the door and a strong Irish accent stating, "hey, anyone in there?! I really need to use the loo!"
"O-one minute," Suri called. She washed her hands with cold water, then pressed the cool backs of her hands to her cheeks in an effort to bring color back to her face.
She barely opened the door and stepped out before she had to press herself against the wall as a boy barreled past her, slamming the door shut.
"Sorry," he exclaimed with his heavy Irish accent, "but don't ever drink a liter of 7Up before you board a train!"
"Duly noted," Suri laughed, feeling her anxiety go down just a little.
Feeling a little less shaky, Suri debated on whether or not she should look for Harry. She was more than halfway up the Express and almost back to her compartment when she heard a bossy voice encant, "occulus reparo."
"Wow. Thanks!"
Something about the girl's efficient bossiness reminded Suri of Nate and his confidence to get whatever he wanted. When she looked into the compartment she found a boy with red hair and a girl with bushy brown hair, staring at the newly repaired glasses of a boy who looked far too familiar.
"Uncle James," Suri whispered, almost inaudibly.
"I beg your pardon," the bushy haired girl said. The redheaded boy looked up from his snack, and the skinny, dark-haired boy with emerald green eyes also looked at her. No, this wasn't Uncle James. Uncle James had brown or hazel eyes, Ally-Aunt Lily-had green eyes. So did their son.
"Er, nothing," said Suri, regaining her poise. Folding her arms over her chest she leaned against the doorframe, looking directly at Harry. "You're the reason this train is more excited than usual."
"Er, I am?" The skinny boy with newly fixed glassed asked. He glanced at his friends as if looking for help. And there, just beneath his the ends of his hair, Suri saw the tip of a famous lightning bolt shaped scar on the boy's forehead.
"Don't you know who you are?" Suri chuckled lightly, not unkindly. She touched her own forehead, calling out the scar he tried to hide. "You're Harry Potter-the one who stopped the Dark Lord and ended his reign of terror. You're the boy who lived."
"Ah…" said Harry, and he shrugged his shoulders self-consciously.
"He was raised by muggles," supplied the redheaded boy. When Suri looked at him, the boy quickly looked away, the tips of his ears turning pink.
"R-raised by muggles," Suri's perfectly arched eyebrows shot up into her dark hairline. "That explains the clothes…and modesty."
"Excuse me," the girl with the bossy voice asked, "Who are you?"
"Where are my manners!" In the midst of her anxiety at seeing Harry for the first time, she had forgotten her own name. Fixing her grey-blue eyes on the boy, she gently pushed into his mind with a little legilimency. "My name is Suri Rosier-Black."
It was surprisingly easy to pick through the labyrinth of Harry's unguarded mind. Her smile slowly faded into a simmering anger when she saw glimpses of his memories and felt his unbearable loneliness and extreme sense of hunger chill her bones and turn her stomach.
"You're Suri!" The redheaded boy exclaimed snapping Suri from Harry's mind. The boy's face now turned a couple shades lighter than his ginger hair. "Bloody hell."
The girl with the bushy hair narrowed her brown eyes then, as if she knew something. She looked like she wanted to make a comment, but struggled to hold them in. Had she not been distracted by Harry's friend or her own quiet anger, Suri would have looked into the girl's mind, too.
"I mean, some days I feel like my name could be something other than Suri, but that's just me," Suri smiled when the three first years giggled at her ease in changing subjects. "We all know who Harry is, but who are you two?"
"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione greeted confidently.
"Pleasure," Suri inclined her head gracefully.
"Ron Weasley." The redhead introduced.
"Ah, another Weasel," Suri laughed, and Ron looked down at his ragged shoes. She frowned, realizing she had hurt his feelings. "Sorry, Ron, that wasn't meant to be an insult. I know your older brothers Fred and George. They are absolute thorns in my side, especially on the quidditch field. I'm surprised to know that they talk about me."
"Yeah, they said you're-" Ron's face went red.
Suri laughed behind her hand. "Nate said he thought George fancied me, and now it's confirmed!"
"Oh, don't tell him I told you!"
"I hardly talk to him, so your secret is safe with me."
Ron breathed a sigh of relief. Through the whole exchange, Suri had kept Harry in the corner of her vision. She hated the hollow feeling that churned in her stomach when she realized Harry had no idea who she was. How could he, she chided herself, he was a baby when everything happened.
"Anyway," Suri continued, "I'd best be off. I'll see you at the Sorting Ceremony."
"Wait!" Hermione stood and called after Suri as she sauntered away.
A moment later, Suri returned and peeked her head into the compartment. "Hm?"
"What house are you in?" Hermione asked, her brown eyes steadily fixed on Suri.
"Ah...Slytherin." for the first time, Suri wanted to lie about her house. She'd never been embarrassed by her house, aside from when she heard of a tale of a fellow Slytherin engaging in awful activities. She bit her tongue to keep from laughing at the expression the three first years wore.
"Oh," Hermione breathed, as if confirming a belief. Suri leveled her ocean eyes on the girl, ruffled by her judgement. There was something about the bushy-haired girl that Suri decided she'd keep tabs on.
"If you'll take some advice from someone who's been around for a little while: don't believe everything you hear."
Sauntering away from the trio, Suri reached for her familiar necklace and worried it between her fingers, her mind loud and racing with questions. Her anger toward Harry's upbringing met the deep, untouched sadness of her loss as she thought of the relationship they could have had. It touched on the unhealing wound that she'd tried to repress. It was dangerous, she'd learned, dangerous and painful to dwell in the place of what if. What if, as much as she loved Granna, she'd been raised by free-spirited and tender Tessa Rosier and her father-the loud and energetic Sirius Black? What if Harry's parents were still there, too?
It took every bit of her strength to not walk back to that compartment and ask Harry to tell her every little detail of the past ten years she'd missed.
Her thoughts raced so loudly she hardly noticed what was right before her until she collided with someone in the middle of the Express's corridor.
"Watch it!" A pair of hands grabbed her upper arms to keep her from falling over.
"Oliver!" Suri's widened and Oliver offered her a kind smile before releasing her, giving her shoulder a quick pat.
"Alright there?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together. "You look you might be sick."
"I'm fine. I should have been looking at where I was going." Suri answered quickly, managing not to blush. Studying Oliver, she noticed he'd grown over the summer. He was definitely taller and broader than she remembered. His reddish-brown hair also seemed to have lightened, as if he had spent many hours in the sun.
"Nah, you're good," Oliver searched Suri's face after he waved off her apology. Something about the concern in his eyes made her feel at once safe and too exposed.
"No, I'm alright," she insisted. "I did just meet Harry Potter, so maybe I'm starstruck. Everyone on the train is talking about him, and I'd figure I'd say hello for myself."
"Definitely starstruck." Behind Oliver, a third year boy with red hair popped his head around the corner of a compartment door and was quickly followed by an identical head peering around him. Suri refrained from rolling her eyes.
"I also met your younger brother too."
"He's an awkward thing isn't he?" George Weasley grimaced.
"He's a first year, Weasel!" Suri defended. "Everyone was awkward."
"Ah, I did miss that name over the summer, Rosie," Fred Weasley sighed dreamily.
"Almost died without it," George added, getting Oliver and the rest of the compartment of Gryffindor boys to laugh.
"Anyway," said George, "you met the famous Harry Potter. What do you think? Does he look like Gryffindor material?"
"I think not. He might be in Slytherin." She earned a round of "boo's" from the boys.
"Interesting," Fred stroked his chin and looked at Suri with narrowed eyes. "Care to make a wager on that, Rosie?"
"If you're asking me if I want to fund one of your latest pranks at my housemates' expense, the answer is no."
"Come on, Suri, it'll be fun," George goaded. "The odds are only win or lose, there's really nothing to it."
Suri frowned, and Fred's smile widened. "The thing about you, Rosie, is that you're easy to figure out."
Suri put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. She glanced at Oliver who shrugged and took a seat. "How so?"
"You like a challenge, Rosie, and that's why we respect you. It's one of your top three best traits."
"I have a top three?"
"Don't get off subject, Rosie," George wagged a finger at her. Suri wanted to charm that finger into a worm.
"Fine, we're betting on whether Harry ends up in Gryffindor or Slytherin."
"Exactly," the twins said in unison.
"Let's broaden it to any house besides Gryffindor," Suri suggested after a momentary pause. For all she knew, Harry could have grown up to be incredibly clever or incredibly fair. Ally was fair.
"Fine, any house but Gryffindor is your bet," George agreed.
"What's the wager?"
"If we win…" Fred trailed off and looked at George. The two leaned into each other and whispered quickly before they sat up and smiled at Suri. "If we win, you come to a game of choice dressed in every Gryffindor item possible."
"Scarf," George said.
"Hat," Fred added.
"Robes with the Gryffindor cloak."
"Face painted-"
"Alright, I get the point." Suri held up a hand, stopping the twins. "And if I win?"
"Any game you want, we'll come out and support you with painted faces and your name spelled out across our chests," Fred said.
"No matter the weather," George confirmed. "Your name has four letters, so it'll be me, Fred, Oliver, and Lee Jordan over here."
"You mean you'll support Slytherin."
"No," George said. "You. Your team is full of mountain trolls and gargoyles."
"Don't insult the gargoyles, Georgie," Fred admonished, "they can't defend themselves."
Suri mulled over the wager, looking for loopholes, with the Weasley twins, one always had to be careful.
"How do I know this isn't a trick and you're really still upset with Nate for…" Suri trailed off and looked at Oliver who watched the conversation. He had no idea about the Confundus charm Nate had done when Gryffindor played Hufflepuff. The Twins had suspected some foul play from Slytherin, which had happened, but it hadn't been confirmed.
The twins followed her gaze and Fred grinned. "Oh, you mean last year when you slaughtered us for the House Cup? We had a good cry, but we're okay now." Oliver twitched irritably at the memory of his great loss. It seemed he wasn't okay.
Satisfied with their answer, and doing a bit of probing into their thoughts, she finally nodded. "Alright, I'll do it," Suri said and held her hand out for the twins to shake on it.
George rose from his seat and pulled down a Gryffindor scarf tucked away in the overhead storage.
"Hey, that's mine!" Oliver exclaimed.
George threw the scarf over Suri's head, looping it loosely around her neck. He even adjusted her long, wild waves around the scarf, too. "Red and gold never looked better," he teased.
Suri looked down at the scarf and made a face of exaggerated disgust. The boys all laughed when she yanked the material off and threw it back into the compartment. Oliver caught his scarf with a laugh.
"I look forward to seeing you all in green and silver," Suri fired back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm on my way back to my friends."
"You know you care about us, Rosie," Fred called out. Curious students watched the interaction from their compartments. Feeling the curious gazes of her peers, Suri lifted her chin and smiled at the Twins, Lee Jordan and Oliver as if they were the only ones in the world, as if everyone else didn't matter.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Weasels." She would be lying if she said she couldn't feel their gaze on her back when she walked away.
"Suri!" Oliver called out to her. When she turned, she found he'd draped his Gryffindor scarf around his neck and his smile was kind. "Happy birthday, by the way."
"You still remember?" This time, heat crept up her neck against her wishes.
"How can I not? The first time I met you, you brought Quidditch Quest onto the Express and it was the best ride back to Hogwarts I've ever had!"
"It was the last time I let you beat me at quidditch."
Oliver's expression immediately darkened at the memory. He was so easy to tease when it came to quidditch. "Thanks for the reminder. I've trained all summer so I never have to repeat that game from last year."
"Then may the best player win." Her heart fluttered with Oliver's competitive nature broke long enough to give her a grin.
"I look forward to it."
X
"You were gone for a while," Nate said when Suri returned and sat beside him.
"Did you meet Harry Potter?" Carly asked.
"I did. He seems like he'd be a good fit for Slytherin." She glanced and Nate and wondered if she should tell him who Harry was to her.
"This came for you while you were gone," Mara said, handing Suri a brown bag.
The blush she'd tamed before she got back to her friends came back again. Of course Oliver remembered her birthday, after her first year he made sure she got the same thing every year. Opening the bag, she pulled out a cauldron cake bought from the trolley witch. This year, there was a simple red bow taped onto the cellophane wrapping.
"A cauldron cake?" Mara raised an eyebrow, clearly disappointed.
"Yum," Suri said as she unwrapped the treat and bit into it. Every year, she worried about her weight and appearance; it was something drilled into her by her Granna. This year, she worried more than ever, especially since puberty hit her like a flying car over the summer. She had left Hogwarts at the end of her third year the heaviest she had ever been. This summer, her body's roundness had taken more shape in the form of ample breasts and hips that curved out from a dipped waist. The Weasels and even Nate confirmed her new shape by staring a little too long.
Shaking her head, Suri did her best to clear her mind of everything beyond ogling boys, her appearance, and the heaviness that came from her bittersweet meeting with Harry Potter. All of these worries became annoying background noise as she focused on the sweetness of the chocolate melting on her tongue, a gift from a friend with a Scottish brogue who, when not thinking about quidditch, managed to enjoy the little things in the present. Just for a few minutes, Suri wanted to be just like him.
Author's Note: So uh, this story still exists! :) To all my old readers, welcome back, and thank you for your patience!
To my new readers, welcome! I'm so glad you're here!