Previously: Freyja Morrigan met with Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and discussed the matter of Sirius Black, but the Minister was less than forthcoming. On her way out of the Ministry, Freyja ran into Headmaster Dumbledore, someone who had yet to prove himself as either ally or foe.
Chapter Four:
Hogwarts Red & Pure-blood Silver
Platform 9¾ swarmed with hundreds of people. Some wore heavy robes and pointed hats, while others had donned their raincoats and umbrellas. Steam billowed over the scene, veiling anyone more than a few metres away. Rushed conversations buzzed in Kali's ears as parents gave their children last words of advice and extracted promises of good behaviour. Owls hooted, cats yowled, toads croaked, and kids laughed. Perfume, cologne, and sweat assaulted her nose, but the rising smoke most of overpowered them
A man in a travelling cloak walked past her. The delicate patterns sewn into the fabric swirled and shimmered like a nebula.
"That's pretty."
Pan perched on her shoulder as a pine marten. He swivelled his head from side to side, counting animals. "It isn't too late to go home, you know?"
"We've been over this." She tried to ignore the tiny pinpricks as he clutched her earlobe with sharp little claws. "We're staying here until we find a way to help Dad."
"But that could take ages," he whined. Kali hoped she never sounded that petulant when she complained.
Either accidentally or because he had sensed her unflattering thoughts, Pan's hold tightened. His claws broke through a layer of skin, and Kali winced. "That eagle owl is looking at me like I'm its next meal."
She tugged Pan's paw from her ear, letting him grab hold of her finger instead. "So change into something bigger."
"And have to leave the safety of your shoulder only to get trampled? No, thank you." Her eyes rolled, and he bit the tip of her finger, adding before she pulled away, "I've found Remus."
Kali pushed her senses toward Pan's. Her eyesight blurred and darkened as her mind shifted, following the electric thread that always played at the edge of her thoughts. With a jolt, the darkness lifted. The world mutated to a new array of colours, reds and blues with subtle shadings that her brain converted to greens and yellows. Pan's eyes pierced the steam and stared at a tall man standing near the front of the train.
Even through the fog, Remus looked tired. Scars cut across his pale skin, and patches covered his robes, yet despite his dismal appearance, Kali grinned and Pan forgot that he didn't want to be here.
Kali changed course, dodging people and trolleys alike. When she walked past the eagle owl, it swiped at Pan, but Pan hissed and dropped into the hood of her jacket as she ducked. She ignored his 'I told you so'.
Remus smiled the moment he saw them. "Have you found a compartment?"
According to Remus, there was an art to finding the perfect compartment, something to do with a gut instinct and a tingling at the back of the neck. Kali had listened as he had explained it over breakfast, his hands trembling and his the words spilling from his mouth like verbal diarrhoea. There had been no instinct or tingling when she had stepped onto the train; she had staked out the first empty compartment she had come across and declared it good enough.
"I still don't see why I can't sit with you."
"Because the minute we get on that train, I become your teacher." He stepped away from the thoroughfare of playing children, leading Kali close enough to the scarlet locomotive that she could touch it if she wanted to.
"You know, I could've sworn you've been my teacher for years now, what with the homework, the lessons, and the lectures."
He sighed and rubbed his forefinger and thumb over his eyes. "You don't have to sit with me, Kali."
She returned the sigh and combined it with an eye-roll. "No, I don't, but I want to."
Neither the sigh nor the eye-roll helped her case. Remus shook his head. "This isn't San Francisco or Ilvermorny. No one knows you here." His gaze ran along the length of the Hogwarts Express, his eyes clouding and his voice softening. "You should try to make friends on the train."
Kali didn't follow his gaze. A swirl of memories played across his face, making her wish that she knew enough Legilimency to get a clearer peek.
When he snapped back to the present, Kali threw on a grin. "You think I'm going to have trouble making friends?" She waved off the concern. "I'm delightful and surrounded by an air of mystery. Who wouldn't want to be my friend?"
Being the new kid came with pros and cons. This time there would probably be more cons than pros, but she didn't want to seem pessimistic in front of Remus, who already had that trait covered. He might have laughed at her assurance, but stress wouldn't let him.
"People know who your father is here." He wore that same pained expression he always did when he talked about her dad. "They may hold it against you."
"Because he's an escaped convict?" Kali asked. "Why would I want to be friends with people who care about that? I have standards, you know?"
He shook his head and bit down on the inside of his cheek, a habit that had probably left a scar. "I still think you should use your mother's surname while you're here."
"No." She scratched Pan's chin, ignoring how much he agreed with Remus.
Remus sighed again, louder, as though that alone might make her change her mind. On any other matter, it would have done. Frustration wore him down as much as the wrinkles and grey hairs did.
"Kali—"
"They're going to find out one way or another," she said. "At least this way it doesn't look like it's something I'm trying to hide."
His eyebrows low and his eyes downturned, he looked like a puppy being told 'no'. Kali's stomach squirmed, but she kept her jaw clamped shut. The whistle blew just as Remus opened his mouth. Kali had never been so thrilled to hear such a shrill sound going off near her ears.
Parents finished saying goodbye to their children, and Remus pulled Kali into a quick hug. "I'll see you later, okay?" Then he was gone, his long strides carrying him away until he disappeared into the crowd.
Kali exhaled.
"On a scale of one to ten, how stressed are you?" Pan asked.
"It's just a new school," she said, stepping onto the train and into her empty compartment. "It's not like I'm not used to it."
Her trunk rested in the rack above her head, firmly wedged between the wall and a metal bar. It had taken some heaving and pushing to get it to fit, and she wasn't looking forward to forcing it out.
Pan headbutted her neck. "You didn't answer the question."
She settled onto the cushioned bench and thumbed the worn fabric. Her insides rammed and roiled like a sea storm trapped inside a bottle, but she turned off the tap to keep it from spreading to Pan.
He jumped from her shoulder, landing with a puff of dust on the cushion next to hers. His fur rippled, lengthening and shifting from brown to grey. His skin melted as his bones and muscles rearranged until a chubby cat sat beside her. He stretched, spine popping and muscles rolling. He would have rolled his eyes too if he could.
"Fine. Don't tell me," he said.
The train shuddered and lurched. Kali's grip tightened on the seat and Pan's claws dug into the upholstery. The pistons shrieked and huffed, deafening even within the carriage. Kali threw Pan a look. He flicked his tail. Neither moved until grey light bathed the compartment. Outside King's Cross, the rain poured, pelting the train with a metallic drumbeat.
Kali loosened her grip and brushed her hands over her trousers. "It's supposed to do that."
Pan snorted. "This is so dumb. Why can't people just Apparate their children to school?"
"Tradition."
"A dumb tradition."
Pan rolled onto his side, his forehead wrinkled in a human expression that no Daemon in the wild would ever wear. "Is it the friend thing? Is that why you didn't eat this morning?"
Kali folded her arms over her chest. "I'm not worried about making friends."
"Uh-huh."
She tensed, turning her defensive posture into a self-administered hug. She dropped her hands to her lap. "You're my friend. Even if everyone at Hogwarts hates me, I'll still have you."
"I think Remus is hoping that you'll make friends that are of the same species as you." He uncoiled and rolled to his feet, jumping so that his front paws rested on her thigh.
"Overrated," she said and scratched between his ears, short nails digging through soft fur.
"I agree,but he sounded adamant." He settled on her lap. "I want you to be happy."
Kali nodded. She tracked a raindrop as it raced down the window. "You sound like Remus."
"If only you listened to me as often as you listen to him." Catching her hand between his paws, he nipped at her fingers. She laughed and shoved him, but he sprang back, balancing on her knees.
"I do listen to you. Whether I do as you tell me to is another matter."
He flopped onto her lap. "Just imagine how much less trouble you'd get into if you did do as I say."
"Just imagine how much less fun we'd have," she said, poking his belly.
"You say that now." He glanced at the wall and cocked his head. "Incoming."
Footsteps thudded toward the compartment preceded by a loud conversation. "Father, of course, was very pleased," a familiar voice drawled. "He got me a new owl to congratulate me. Not that my success was a surprise."
"Wow, Draco," someone else said. "That's amazing."
The compartment door opened, and there stood Kali's cousin—second cousin, technically. He'd changed in the eight years since she had last seen him. His white-blond hair hung over a bloodless complexion that sharpened his features. The haughty good looks and smug countenance that ran in the family deepened when his frosty eyes fell on Kali.
"There you are." He smiled and slid into the compartment and onto the seat opposite hers. "Father told me that you'd be attending Hogwarts this year, but I couldn't believe it."
She forced a smile, keeping one eye on Draco and the other on his friends who filed in and filled the compartment to bursting. "Hello, Draco."
"If he pulls my tail again, I'll bite him," said Pan, glaring at the blond.
"He was five-years-old. I'm sure he knows better now," Kali said, but Pan tucked in his tail just in case.
"Do you think it would be rude if we slipped out? The big one over there smells like mould."
There were three 'big ones', two boys and a girl. The girl towered over everyone even when seated. Her wide face swallowed her small features, giving her the squinty-eyed look of the permanently suspicious or the frequently short-sighted. Of the two boys, one was overweight, with a thick neck, a flat nose, and an unfortunate pudding bowl haircut. The other had a bull's build. His small eyes were dull, and his short, bristly hair grew low on his forehead; the smell of mould came from him.
"What are you wearing?" asked one of the remaining three of Draco's entourage. She would have been pretty if not for the scowl.
"They don't wear robes in America," said Draco with a wave of his hand. He stuck his nose high in the air and a smirk played on his lips. "Unless it's a special occasion, of course."
"You're American?" the third girl asked. This one was pretty despite the calculating look she threw Kali's way. "I thought you were British."
"I lived in the US for the last couple of years," said Kali.
Pan gave a short purr that sounded like a dog's growl. "I don't like any of these people."
"What happened to wanting me to make friends?"
"There are requirements regarding quality that none of these humans possesses." His tail flicked, and he glared at each newcomer in turn. "None of them has said how cute I am yet."
She couldn't roll her eyes in front of witnesses who couldn't hear the conversation, so she poked Pan's side instead.
"I always wondered why my father hated America," said the girl who'd questioned Kali's choice of clothing, looking down her squashed, upturned nose. "It must be because of their horrid sense of style."
"Rude," Pan spat. "Want me to give her a fright?"
A smile curled Kali's lips, but she declined. Pan turning into a Komodo dragon on the Hogwarts Express was the kind of incident that would get back to Remus.
"I wouldn't say it's horrid," she said, and her gaze glided over the snotty girl's green robes with its garish silver patterns. "It's no worse than certain wizards and witches in the UK."
The girl's face turned bright red, clashing with her outfit.
"Well," said the dark-skinned boy who sat in the corner opposite from Kali. He looked arrogantly amused by the whole conversation. "Now that Pansy has attempted to insult her, are you going to introduce us, Draco?"
"Of course," said Draco. "Kali, this is Blaise Zabini." He gestured to the dark-skinned boy. "Pansy Parkinson." Pig-nosed girl. "Tracey Davis." Pretty girl. "Millicent Bulstrode." Big girl. "Vincent Crabbe." Bowl-cut boy. "And Gregory Goyle." Mould boy. Draco made a sweeping gesture and pointed at Kali. "And this is Kali Black."
Pan snorted. "He didn't even introduce me."
"So it's true?" said Millicent, her voice loud despite her small mouth. "You're Sirius Black's daughter?"
Pan's fight or flight response crashed through Kali like a tidal wave. Her skin tingled, her heart thrummed, and her limbs twitched. The air left her lungs and came back in short bursts. The compartment narrowed, the walls moving in and the door stretching further and further away. She slammed her connection to Pan closed. It remained in a corner of her mind, a leak instead of a flood. Millicent stared, and Kali nodded.
Tracey leaned her elbows on her knees and peered into Kali's face. "You look like him."
"He should get a medal for what he did—killing all those Muggles," said Millicent.
Kali's mind stuttered. She could have convinced herself that she'd misheard, but a cruel gleam lit Millicent's eyes, her lips twisting into something that was half smile, half snarl.
"Quite right," said Draco. "Frankly, I think what he did was penance for being a blood traitor. Finally renouncing the Gryffindor ways and showing that he's a descendant of the Black line after all. It's a pity he got caught."
Vincent, Gregory, and Pansy added their agreements to Draco's. Tracey nodded hers, and Blaise sat quietly, staring at Kali.
"They can't be serious."
Pan's voice wavered. "They look pretty serious."
The first and last time Kali had witnessed the anti-Muggle rhetoric was in India six years ago. The protesters had swarmed the Jaadoo Ka Mantraalay to stop the repeal of a Muggle baiting law inherited from British colonialism. They started fires, one of which spread to the school in the south wing. The building burned to ash in two hours. No one got hurt, but Kali's mother decided to homeschool her after that.
Kali turned to Draco. "I like Muggles."
The compartment went quiet, and Pan groaned. "We're outnumbered by pro-pure-blood elitists. Do you really think now is the time to be picking a fight about this?"
She gave a mental shrug. "What better time is there?"
"How about when we're not surrounded?" he muttered, shifting to face the strangers.
"Excuse me?" said Draco.
"I like Muggles," she repeated. "I find them fascinating."
Draco blinked. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again. "You're a … you—"
"I'm a what?" asked Kali with a smile that did not reach her eyes.
"A blood traitor." Pansy sneered, and triumph lit her features.
Kali pursed her lips. "That term confuses me." Pansy sniggered, but Kali ignored her. "Shouldn't a blood traitor be someone who damages the magical potency of their bloodline?"
"That's precisely what a blood traitor is," said Blaise. He was the only person still sitting back in his seat, at ease despite the tension that was making Pan's fur stand on end.
"In that case, shouldn't it apply to pure-bloods?" said Kali. "Isn't it pure-bloods who have produced the largest number of Squibs and stillborns over the years?"
The compartment filled with an uproar of "That isn't right" and "What utter rubbish". Kali's heart rate exploded and a rockfall crashed into her stomach. Red-faced scowls pinned her to the bench. Hands rose and fell with eager threats or dark promises. They sat at the edges of their seats, surrounding her and blocking the door.
"I told you not to," said Pan, his gaze flicking from one person to the next.
Millicent's voice sounded above the rest. "You can't prove that."
Kali latched onto those words. "A lot of research has gone into it, actually. The way pure-bloods intermarry and inbreed increases the risk of their children developing harmful physical and mental traits that can affect their ability to survive and reproduce."
The compartment went quiet once more.
Gregory and Vincent's mouths hung open mid-protest, their eyes dull and confused. Millicent glared, and Kali half expected her to start cracking her knuckles. Blaise raised his eyebrows, but the amused twinkle remained in his gaze like a permanent feature. Tracey glanced at Pansy.
Pansy looked to Draco, but he sat frozen, so she huffed and tilted her head back, looking down her nose at Kali. "It's because you're not a pure-blood. You'd understand otherwise."
"I'd understand the systematic discrimination of the majority of magical citizens based solely on their parentage?" Kali tilted her head to the side and cocked her brows. "You must have me confused with someone more bigoted."
Millicent lunged. Kali jumped from her seat and Pan leapt from her lap. Her shin bashed against the bench, and she stumbled when her knee buckled, but she stayed upright and swung around Millicent, swiping the bigger girl's legs from under her with a kick. Millicent fell with a grunt and a thud that rattled the walls. She cursed as she struggled to her knees, but Kali grabbed her wrists and twisted them behind her back.
Vincent and Gregory scrambled to their feet but only to look from Kali and Millicent to Draco.
"First bloody day, and you're already getting into fights. We haven't even got to school yet," Pan scolded. He had misjudged his leap and landed badly on his paw. Ghost pains shot through Kali's left arm, but it didn't sting enough to be a break or sprain.
Kali's muscles burned as she struggled to keep Millicent from wrenching her arms free. "She attacked me, remember?"
"I told you that we should have left, but you didn't listen," he said, wincing when he licked his paw.
Millicent twisted her arms.
"If you keep struggling, you're going to dislocate your shoulder," Kali told her.
"You bitch!" Millicent screeched, still fighting Kali's hold.
Kali tightened her grip and hitched Millicent's arms farther up her back. "I don't like being attacked and insulted, Millicent. I'd suggest you not do it again," she said, using the icy tone she'd mastered from her grandmother.
When Millicent's breathing hitched, Kali released her. Millicent sprawled onto the compartment floor, her face flushed and her eyes glistening.
Kali's gut wrenched. "I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologising?" Pan hissed. "She started it."
"Remember what Leilani used to say about excessive use of force?"
Pan scoffed and tried putting weight onto his injured paw. It only hurt a little. "She's two times your size."
"It wasn't a fair fight."
He scoffed again. "She's a bully."
"If I lower myself to her level, I'm no better."
Pan grumbled about Kali's morality, but she ignored him. It was easier on everyone to let him rant in peace.
"How did you do that?" asked Draco, wide eyes darting from Kali to Millicent. He'd shifted in his seat, plastering himself against the window. "Did you use a spell?"
"No." She kept an eye on Millicent, Vincent, and Gregory. "I've been taking self-defence classes since I was five." It had been a necessary precaution given the people Gran tended to work both for and against.
Pansy's lips twisted. "Muggle fighting?"
"Yes."
"You're more Muggle than you are witch," Pansy said, her face scrunching.
"I'm plenty of both." Kali flicked her gaze toward her trunk, where her wand rested among her socks. If she jumped over Gregory and Pan distracted the others, she might get to it in time. "I can show off my spellwork if you'd like?"
Pansy recoiled and reached inside her robes, but she didn't draw her wand.
"Perhaps you should leave," suggested Draco. He didn't look at Kali as he said it.
"I was here first," she said, dropping into her seat. "If I'm making you uncomfortable, by all means, get out."
Draco deigned to glance up at her, his eyes angry but uncertain, wearing the same expression he had after the house-elf incident. She stared back at him as she had then, with the cold indifference one gave to a lost cause.
Pansy rose to her feet, her nose high in the air. "Let's find Theo," she said. "Hopefully, he's found better company."
Her robes swirled as she flounced from the compartment. Her friends followed, Tracey at a scurry, Vincent and Gregory with a glare, and Millicent with her eyes stuck to the floor.
Draco stopped short at the door. "You want to be careful of whom you make enemies here, Kali. You may regret making the wrong ones."
His eyes could have frozen water, but a wet splodge covered his arm from the window's condensation. All Kali could see was him cowering. He stormed out, and the door slid shut behind him.
Pan sniggered. "Now there's a dire prediction."
"Draco likes his theatrics," mused Blaise, still sitting in his corner.
Kali brushed off the wariness that crept over her spine. "This is nothing compared to what he was like when we were younger."
"Oh, I can imagine." He stretched his legs and watched her, dark eyes alight but not warm.
The longer the silence stretched, the wider his wry smile became until Kali couldn't help the sharp edge in her voice. "You may have noticed that your friends have left."
"They're more acquaintances than friends," he said. "You'll find that Hogwarts doesn't offer a lot of choice in the way of good company. They're what I'm stuck with, but you seem more interesting."
It sounded like he was talking about a zoo exhibit, but Kali didn't snap at him for it. He hadn't insulted Muggles when his acquaintances had, and his posture had relaxed the moment they'd left the compartment.
"Flattering as that may be, if you want to stay, you're going to have to stop staring. It's off-putting."
Blaise raised his eyebrows and cracked a smile, lifting his hands in a show of concession as the compartment door slid open. A girl with fine, strawberry blonde hair and a pale, blemished face popped her head in. She retreated when her eyes caught on Kali and Blaise
"Can we help you with something, Daphne?" asked Blaise.
Daphne shook her head, her gaze on the floor, and said almost too quietly to hear, "We were looking for somewhere to sit."
Kali scooted to make room. "There's plenty of space here."
Daphne's eyes flicked up and down the long corridor, her teeth worrying the side of her lip. After a moment, she nodded and slipped into the seat closest to the door. Another girl came in after her, a couple of years younger, with hair that was that peculiar shade of light brown that turned blond in the sun and got darker during the wintertime.
"Kali, this is Daphne Greengrass," said Blaise with a wave of his hand toward the older girl. "A Slytherin third-year like myself."
"Hi." Kali extended her hand. "I'm Kali Black."
Daphne's eyes darted to Kali's and flitted over her face as if drawing a comparison with the wanted posters. Kali kept her smile on even though it wanted to fall. A blush darkened Daphne's skin, drowning out her blemishes. She took Kali's hand, her grip as delicate as a bird and nodded toward the younger girl. "That's my sister, Astoria."
"Hello," said Astoria, her grin lighting up her dark eyes and sun-kissed skin. She shook Kali's hand with the enthusiasm of one who doesn't know their strength. Her eyes dropped to Pan, who had curled up in Kali's lap again, and her grin grew. "He's lovely."
Pan purred and unfurled himself, jumping from Kali's lap to join Astoria on the opposite bench. "Oh, I like her. She can stay."
"You're so easily bought," said Kali. "He's a Daemon."
"What's that?" asked Blaise, paying close attention to Pan now, as though only just noticing him.
"Well, he's supposed to be a spirit guide, but he's bloody useless at it."
Pan hissed at her.
Astoria's eyes went wide. "He can understand us?"
Kali smiled and nodded. "That's not even his most impressive trick."
"What am I? A performing monkey?" Pan huffed, but at the same time, he shimmered like hot air over asphalt and transformed into a golden retriever.
Astoria gave a delighted shriek, Daphne sat straighter, and Blaise dropped his mask of mild amusement. Pan basked in the attention.
"You don't see that every day," said Blaise, swallowing and trying to regain his composure.
"Do you think Mother and Father will get me one for Christmas?" Astoria asked her sister.
"That's not quite how it works," said Kali. "Daemons are rare, and unless they're bonded, they don't live near people."
"Then how come you have one?" asked Blaise.
Kali shifted on the bench, bringing her feet up and crossing her legs. "It was a fluke. I was wandering where I was not meant to wander, and he'd got himself caught in a hunter's trap. I got him out, and he decided to stick with me after that."
"My hero," he grumbled, lying on his back and getting a tummy rub from Astoria. "I would have got out of that trap eventually."
"Before or after the hawks, eagles, and owls got to you?"
Pan scoffed and turned his head away from her, but his wiggling body and thumping tail stole the effect.
Kali had lost track of the hiking trail during a trip with Mum and Leilani. Eyesight blurred by tears, she had almost passed a metre by Pan without noticing him, but the vine cage had snapped at her, whipping her feet and emitting a sickly sweet smell that had tingled against her skin and weighed down her eyelids. Disengaging the trap had torn a chunk from the pinky finger of her right hand, leaving behind a pitted scar that ached at the memory.
Pan, having never seen a human before, had run the moment he was free only to smash head-first into a tree and knock himself out.
Bleeding, scared, and with no clue how to get home, Kali had stayed with the presumed fawn to make sure it didn't get eaten. By the time Pan woke, his pack had moved on, fleeing from the poachers who had infested their territory overnight.
"You're so lucky," said Astoria, and Kali blinked back to the present. "What else can he turn into?"
Kali rubbed the lumps and hollows of her pinky and answered, "Any non-magical creature you can think of."
He'd tried to mimic a magical animal once, but his transformation into a Kneazle had stopped halfway through, trapping him between a liquid and solid state. For a week, his nerves had burned, an internal immolation that had purged the affliction from his body and returned him to normal. He was never trying that experiment again.
While Pan entertained Astoria, Blaise turned to Kali. "Draco said you'd be in our year group. What electives are you taking?"
She hadn't had to spare much thought for that choice. "Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Study of Ancient Runes."
"No Muggle Studies?" He smirked. "I thought you were a fan of Muggles."
She shrugged, but before she could answer, Daphne turned to her, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised. "You're interested in Muggles?"
Kali nodded. "They've learnt to survive without magic. They're fascinating."
"But they're Muggles."
"So?"
Daphne held Kali's gaze for less than three seconds. As she bowed her head and shrugged, unease crept up Kali's spine. She shook it off before Pan noticed it, but it lingered in the back of her mind. "What about you two?" she asked. "What subjects are you taking?"
"Divination is supposedly an easy class, and if you're there, perhaps Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy won't be as dull as they sound," Blaise drawled.
Kali rolled her eyes, which only made his smirk grow. She turned to Daphne, who was tugging the sleeves of her robes over her hands. "Daphne?"
Daphne startled, and her skin turned pink. "Study of Ancient Runes and Divination."
Putting her back to the window, Kali asked, "What are the core subjects like?"
Blaise spent the rest of the morning filling her in on the inner workings of a Hogwarts education, with Daphne adding a few details. The stream of information poured from them until mid-afternoon, when Blaise said, "Tell us about yourself."
Kali swallowed her mouthful of Pumpkin Pasty. "What do you want to know?"
"Draco said that you moved around a lot. Why is that?"
"My guardian is a researcher who studies dangerous creatures. He does a lot of conferences and sometimes takes on teaching positions. We go where his job takes him."
Daphne straightened. "He's the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?"
Kali nodded, and Blaise said, "I hope he lasts longer than the others. Quirrell was useless, and Lockhart was a joke. We haven't learnt how to defend ourselves against a Puffskein, let alone anything dangerous enough to hurt us."
"He's a brilliant teacher," said Kali. "One of the best, and I've had loads to compare him to."
She told stories of the creatures Remus had taught her about, the ones he'd bought to class, and the ones he'd shown her in their natural habitat. The rain thickened as the train sped north. The heavy cloud cover blocked the sun, and lanterns flickered to life along the corridors and over the luggage racks. Then the train started to slow.
"Finally," said Pan, stretching on Astoria's lap. "I'm starving."
Daphne checked her watch and frowned. "We can't be there yet."
Kali twisted to see the clock hands. It was only 6 pm, yet the noise of the pistons and the rattling of the train fell away, the hammering of the rain and the roaring of the wind growing louder. The train came to a sudden stop with a violent jolt. Distant thuds and bangs sounded up and down the carriage from falling luggage, and then the lamps went out.
Kali tensed as the age-old fear of the dark snapped at her mind.
"What's going on?" asked Astoria, her voice shaking.
Kali took a deep breath and let her eyes adjust to the obscurity. It wasn't easy with so little light, but Pan was good for a lot more than parlour tricks and nagging. Yet even with his much better senses, she could only make out shapes.
"Can I borrow your wand?" she asked, directing the question at everyone in the compartment.
Blaise whipped around, a dark shape against a darker background. "What?" He sounded more concerned about parting with his wand than about the weighty darkness.
"Please."
Daphne's warm hand pressed a cold length of wood into Kali's, and relief lightened the pressure on Kali's chest. With a word of thanks, she flexed her wrist and cast a spell she had seen Remus cast a hundred times since her mother died, for the nights when the dark wouldn't let her sleep.
Golden lights floated from Daphne's wand, dancing like fireflies and filling the compartment with a soft light that chased some of the tension from the air.
"Perhaps we've broken down," said Blaise. He sounded calm, but his heart rate thundered.
Astoria peered outside. "There are people out there."
Before Kali could turn to look out the window, the compartment door slid open. Kali stood, and the fireflies flickered as her concentration wavered. Daphne and Blaise scampered along the bench to huddle by the window with Astoria and Pan. The muscles in Kali's legs screamed. Every instinct she had told her to back away. Run. Hide. But the window was already to her back, the only exit was blocked, and there was nowhere to hide.
A figure towered to the ceiling, a hood hiding its face and a dark cloak concealing the rest of its body.
Kali's stomach dropped.
Beneath the cloth, the thing's skin would look like it belonged to something dead that had decayed in water—glistening, greyish, and scabbed. The Dementor drew a rattling breath.
A cold wind swept over the compartment, and Kali's breath caught in her chest. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move. Images flashed through her mind, and distant voices screamed in her ears. The cold went deeper than her skin. It was inside her, eating her—
"He isn't here." She forced the words past the ball in her throat, but they sounded distant and weak. The rumbling in her ears deafened her. "Sirius Black isn't here."
The Dementor didn't move. She clenched her fists
Pan growled. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Making it leave." She held on to her anger; that the Dementor couldn't touch. "It's corporeal. That means I can hit it."
"Don't you dare punch it in the face."
She wasn't keen on the plan herself, but neither was she seeing any other options. "Got a better idea?"
He grumbled, but before she could do more than work up her nerve, he leapt in front of her, transforming mid-air into a Siberian tiger. He wasn't yet fully grown, but those claws and teeth would still hurt.
The air stilled, the wind died, and even the rain quieted. The stillness lasted a moment, and then the Dementor turned and glided away.
The pressure on Kali's lungs eased. She gulped breaths, the trembling in her limbs worsening and the fireflies wavering, dying and flaring with every gasp.
"What was that thing?" Kali asked in a whisper.
Kali curled her toes, her fingers, her arms, willing the trembling to stop. "A Dementor."
The lights turned on. Kali jumped, and the fireflies went out in puffs of smoke. The train started moving again as though nothing had happened.
"I'll be right back," said Kali. She didn't look back as she stepped from the compartment and slid the door shut behind her. Panicked students crowded the corridor. It looked like the Dementors had visited every carriage on the train in their search for Sirius Black.
She didn't have to wait long for Remus to find her. He strode up to her, and, not caring that students surrounded them, hugged her tight enough to hurt. She returned it.
"I saw Mum and Leilani," she said. The memories stabbed her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to cry, not on her first day, not in front of so many people.
Remus stroked her hair, whispering reassurances, but his heart drummed against his chest and the strain made his voice crack.
"They shouldn't have been allowed on board," she said, pulling away from him. He looked terrible. The full moon was getting closer by the hour.
"I don't think they were," he said. "Dumbledore would never have allowed it. That's why they stopped the train. I'm going to see the driver now, but it shouldn't be long before we get to Hogsmeade. Remember that you're taking the boats with the first-years?"
"I remember." She wasn't looking forward to it in this weather.
"Good." He kissed her forehead and handed her a bar of chocolate. "Here, it'll help you feel better."
He nudged her back into her compartment. Daphne, Blaise, and Astoria all sat quietly, still huddled together and staring into space. Kali sat and broke off parts of the chocolate bar, sharing it between the four of them.
"Of course Remus had chocolate on him," said Pan as he curled up next to her.
"He knew Hogwarts was playing host to a bunch of Dementors." She took a bite, and warmth spread to the tips of her fingers and toes.
They sat in silence for the rest of the journey until a voice echoed through the train. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken to the school separately."
They barely had time to pull off their jackets or travelling cloaks and slip on their school robes before the train stopped. There was a great scramble to get outside; owls screeched, cats meowed, and Pan turned into a field mouse and scurried into Kali's pocket.
The rain pelted the small wooden platform in icy sheets. Kali turned up the collar of her robes, but the wind drove it down and whipped her hair around her face.
"Firs'-years this way!" called a booming voice, clear even over the sounds of the storm. Kali turned. On the other side of the platform stood a giant figure, at least eleven feet tall and three times as wide as a regular person.
Astoria clutched Kali's hand, and together they pushed through the mass of people that tried to shunt them in the opposite direction. They were out of breath and soaked to the bone by the time they made it to the man and the crowd of first-years that surrounded him. His mane of shaggy black hair and his great wiry beard gave him a wild look, but he beamed at the new students.
"C'mon, follow me—any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling, they followed the man down a steep path. The rain had turned the ground to mud, and Kali nearly fell face-first into the dirt when a little boy skidded into her. She caught herself on a tree and grabbed the boy's arm to keep him upright.
"Ye'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the man called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."
The narrow trail turned, and Kali and the first-years gasped.
A lake stretched before them, a fleet of small boats perched atop its inky surface. The warm, orange light of the boats' lanterns rocked in the wind but couldn't distract from Hogwarts. Atop a tall hill, the night sky outlined the castle. Hundreds of turrets and towers blurred by the rain speared the darkness, and hazy lights twinkled from windows like stars.
"No more'n four to a boat!" the man said, and the students obeyed, their feverish excitement thick in the night air. Kali and Astoria slipped into a boat with two other girls, one of whom looked slightly green.
"Everyone in?" shouted the man. He had a boat to himself. "Right then—FORWARDS!"
The boats jolted, and Kali grabbed hold of the gunwale. Lake water sprayed her face, colder than the rain as the small fleet glided toward the castle, rocking with the waves, guided by unseen magic. When the boats reached the cliff upon which the castle stood, the man yelled, "Heads down!"
Kali had to duck further than the other students. Slimy fingers brushed the back of her head as the boat carried her through a curtain of ivy, which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. The faint moonlight disappeared, and the waves calmed. The water echoed in the tunnel, and the orange light of the lanterns shone off its dark walls.
When the boats reached a cave, the magic guiding them moored them onto the stony shore. Kali clambered onto the damp pebbles and helped Astoria out. From there, they scrabbled up a passageway carved into the stone wall, slipping on loose rocks and coming out, at last, onto smooth, sodden grass in the castle's shadow.
They stopped in front of the large front doors, and the man knocked three times, each reverberating thud like a small earthquake in Kali's chest. The doors swung open and standing in the sudden pool of light was a tiny wizard with a shock of white hair.
"The firs'-years, Professor Flitwick," said the giant.
"Thank you, Hagrid," said the professor in a squeaky voice. The top of his head barely reached Hagrid's knees. "I'll take them from here."
He led them into the castle and past a marble staircase that twisted and turned, climbing too high to make out. He spoke, but Kali didn't listen. Her stomach twisted into knots, and a part of her wanted nothing more than to run back to her grandmother's. The professor stopped in front of another large door. The drone of hundreds of voices sounded on the other side of it.
"Ready?" he asked with a wide smile and a clap of his hands.
Kali exhaled, and Professor Flitwick flicked his wand, throwing the door open. Noise and warmth flooded from the Great Hall. Several first-years gasped.
Four long tables stretched before them, packed with students and gleaming tableware. Candles floated above their heads and above that was the night sky, black and star-dusted above the cloud cover. At the front of the room, on a raised platform, sat the professors, and at their centre, in a bright golden chair, sat Headmaster Dumbledore.
His beard glimmered in the candlelight, sparkling brighter than his star-dotted indigo robes. He watched the new students file in between the House tables, hands steepled, and smiling like a man with a secret. His gaze found Kali's and stopped there. Even from a hundred metres away, the blueness of his eyes stood out like gems. His smile softened, and he nodded. Kali looked away.
Professor Flitwick made the new students stand in a line facing the House tables and floated a three-legged stool in front of them. On the stool sat a pointed wizard's hat.
"Would it kill them to clean that thing?" asked Pan. Tucked away in Kali's pocket, he used her eyes to see and grimaced at the dirt and patches, which covered the hat. It twitched, and a rip near the brim opened wide as it began to sing.
Kali tried to listen, but before she knew it, it was over. The sorting had begun.
"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put on the Sorting Hat," Professor Flitwick squeaked into the silence that followed the Sorting Hat's song, "but before we start on the first-years, we welcome this year a transfer student from the San Francisco Institute of Magic."
Excited whisperings filled the hall.
"Miss Kali Black will be joining our third-years."
The murmurs stopped, and Astoria's hand tightened around Kali's. Professor Flitwick levitated the hat off the stool, and Kali pulled away from Astoria's hold as whispers broke out like little hissing fires.
"'Black', did he say?"
"Not like Sirius Black?"
"That must be his daughter."
"He has a daughter?"
With a deep breath, Kali walked to the stool, ignoring the already fast-spreading rumours. Remus smiled at her from the teacher's table, and she tried to return it. The moment she sat, the hat landed on her head. It slid down her forehead but didn't hide the hall of people craning to get a better look at her. She waited.
"Hmm …" said a small voice in her ear. "Let's see … Plenty of courage … yes, there's a lot of that. A strong moral centre, an admirable strength of will … Loyalty … a lot of loyalty. Resourceful, yes … and clever. Such an odd assortment of knowledge … but there's ambition too … ambition as far as the eye can see. You have things to prove … But where to put you? Hmm … Gryffindor perhaps, or Slytherin?"
A memory of her paternal grandmother flashed through her mind. Half a reality, half a dream, Walburga Black stood in a room of Gryffindor red, surrounded by prancing golden lions. A serpent of green and silver wound around her neck and brought her to her knees.
The hat hummed. "Interesting, very interesting … yes …" And then it shouted for the entire hall to hear, "SLYTHERIN!"
A/N: I felt like this chapter dragged a little. I can't tell if it's because it follows events from the books too closely, or if it's because I've read through it so many times trying to fix it that it's become predicable. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on how to fix it!