The world was thrust into blackness as the brunette young woman dashed right through the barrier between platforms nine and ten, then suddenly the darkness was rent away and she was thrown into a world of movement.
Fern Meadows had entered an entirely new train station, with only one railway and one train. It was a long express with many cars behind it, painted deep red and black, polished to shine and wheezing thick steam. At its front, a fancy, golden sign read Hogwarts Express, Eleven O'Clock. The train station was full of people in robes, children with trunks, the hooting of owls and the meowing of cats, all walking through the copious amounts of smoke. She breathed in the familiar scent of grinding metal, kids' candy and the musty smell of people's robes rubbing together, and with it came a sense of familiarity, of comfort. Voices rang out throughout the crowds, calling to each other, but just like in the Muggle train station, an seemingly unbreaking gloom hung over the station.
The Hogwarts Express station was a large space, with dusty brick walls and archways, expanding into the horizon, leaving no room for the outside, like it was a whole separate room within the Muggle train station. But somehow, a thick fog that was more than engine smoke seethed through the crowds, grazing the ceiling, muffling the sounds of feet. No one seemed to be able to keep eye contact, they'd look at their own families or friends, avoiding the gaze or the touch of anyone else. It was still quite loud here, full of talking and movement, yet it was quieter, more eerie than the Fern had remembered from her many previous trips to the Hogwarts train station. The gloom in the air around them had settled into the hearts of the passersby, and with it came anxiety, distrust, fear.
Fern navigated her trolley through the throngs of people, bumping shoulders then immediately flinching away, and the cold air burrowed through her jumper and into her skin, making her hair stand on end. The owl in the cage on her trolley hooted occasionally, its large, bauble-like amber eyes glancing around warily.
She reached the nearest car of the train, and saw a fair-skinned man in thin black robes and a conductor's hat standing at the steps leading up, helping load luggage and waving people inside. When she got to him, he smiled cordially, though there was a strain in his face, an unnaturalness to the way he grinned - like he couldn't quite do it right. He helped her lift her trunk into the compartments on the bottom of the train, then he stepped back to let her walk up the steps and into the hallway, her rucksack now slung over her shoulder and her owl cage in hand. He nodded to her again as she passed, this time without attempting a smile, and then quickly looked away.
The inside of the train was comprised of wood-panelled rooms with windows, through which she could see flat red seats and a table inside each, the hallways between rooms narrow and laid with a crimson carpet floor, and gold-patterned walls. Kids her age and younger shuffled haphazardly through the corridors, raising their bags above their heads so as to not lose them, or hugging them close to their chests, squeezing into tiny rooms and shutting the doors speedily behind them. Fern searched aimlessly through the hallways, passing into different train cars, seeking out familiar faces. When a rather burly passenger, who she suspected to be a sixth-year, nearly slammed her into a door as he barrelled past, through the glass of the door her face was pressed against she spotted who she was looking for.
A gorgeous young woman leaned against the outer train window from inside the room, fiddling with her back robes absentmindedly. Her auburn hair fell in waves around her rosy-cheeks and large, blue eyes, and her skin was ivory and smattered very lightly with freckles. In her other hand she held a crumpled and stained photograph of a smiling blonde girl, that she contemplated with unwavering eyes and a type of hidden fire.
Erecting her face from the glass, Fern swung open the door and slid her bag across the room table, placing the cage down while the owl inside hooted in protest. She clearly did not want to sit down.
The auburn-haired girl looked up, startled, immediately squashed the photo into a ball, then sunk back down in relief.
'Hey, Fern,' she said as she folded the photo into a pocket of her dress.
'Hey Katie,' Fern smiled back at her, 'how long have you been waiting?'
'Ava wanted to get on the train early, to meet up with her friend or something, so I had to come along.'
'That's what I was wondering,' Fern sat down, 'why isn't Ava with you? Are you sure your parents just let her go off on her own?'
'I mean, this is the Hogwarts train. It's not like she's wandering off in the dark alone.'
'But you don't know who to trust anymore. And I know there's Death Eater's kids on this train. Malfoy, for instance.'
'Malfoy won't bother her, you know. Ava won't take crap from anyone. Malfoy's never gotten to her.' Katie rolled her eyes, 'I guess I can applaud my little sister for that.'
'You never know, Katie…' Fern said nervously, 'now that all the Death Eater's are out in the open, maybe Malfoy feels he has a lot more power than he has before. Plus, he's in Ava's house, he has more access to her. And he hates you, her sister.'
Katie scoffed, 'if Malfoy touches Ava, no matter how much I hate that girl, I'm gonna curse him straight back to his Malfoy Manor, and he knows it.'
Fern pulled her rucksack towards her on the table, and tugged it open. As she went rooting inside, she said, 'you really think he's that scared of you?'
'Well, I'd like to think he is, but I think he's most scared of what my Mum can do to his family. Lucious Malfoy might have his claws in every orifice of the Ministry, but my Mother got the position Madam Bones had before she was killed, and no matter what Malfoy brags about, my Mum has more power in the Ministry.'
Fern dislodged a metal case, like an earring box, and cracked it open on the table. 'I don't know if that's true anymore, Katie. Haven't you noticed how the Ministry's changed in the last couple weeks? It's…scary.'
'The Ministry may have changed, but my Mum's still a high court judge.'
'But what if that's less important now? Being a high court judge?'
'There might be Death Eaters working at the Ministry, but that doesn't mean–'
'That means a lot, actually!' Fern argued, 'Corban Yaxley, new Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? He's definitely a Death Eater. My Dad's an Auror, right, and he knows Death Eaters. Well, did you hear about the destruction in West Are?'
Katie nodded hesitantly.
'Yaxley heads my Dad's department, and Dad heard Yaxley talking to one of his advisors about West Are. Said it was the doing of some other Death Eaters, named Rowle and Dolohov and Muliciber or something, on what he called the 'Dark Lord's' orders. You-Know-Who. That's why my parents didn't come to see my off on the train today, you know,' Fern sighed, 'Dad and some other Aurors were sent out to find the culprits of the West Are thing, because anyone with a wand can figure out that West Are was the cause of wizards. And the Ministry doesn't want the public to panic, or to think they side with the Death Eaters, even though everyone who works there has figured out that the Ministry's been invaded by at least a few, some who are supposed to be in Azkaban. So they sent people to catch the West Are criminals as a front, even though the Head of Magical Law Enforcement already knows who did it, and doesn't care. They're just Muggles to him, afterall.'
Katie gazed out the window solemnly. The train station outside was slowly starting to shift, and the sound of machinery was rising as the train began to move. 'What about your mum, Fern? Why didn't she come?'
Fern bit her lower lip. Memories of Mudblood articles and depressed faces and anger swelled behind her eyes. 'She's just a bit stressed right now, that's all. What with what's going on…she doesn't really think it's a good idea to be out of the house right now.' Fern added uneasily.
'The Prophet said–'
'I know,' Fern hurried, 'I read it. She's on the list. I get it.'
Katie assessed her silently. 'Does that mean she goes to…I dunno, Azkaban? If they catch her. Because she didn't register for the Muggle-born Registration–'
'Oh my God, I almost forgot! I got that Chocolate Frog card you were looking for.'
Fern lifted up the metal case lid in front of her, revealing inside a pile of blue hexagonal cards with golden designs, and in the middle of each was a picture of a man or woman, with their title written underneath. From the top, Fern grabbed a card with a picture of a lean, white-haired man with a beard past his torso, a drawn face, wearing a dark blue robe and half-moon spectacles over his electric blue eyes. The words beneath read; Albus Percivial Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Fern flipped the card over, Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore is considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times. Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling.
The word "currently" had been magically altered, though admittedly not well, to say in unfitting, rigid golden handwriting; Once, and finest,. Fern's eyes halted on the card for a moment too long, enough for Katie to begin to speak, until Fern slapped the card face-down on the table and grabbed the next card on the stack. Painful understanding flashed in Katie's face, but Fern ignored it.
'Here,' Fern said, and handed Katie a card of a rosy-cheeked, brunette woman in a bespectacled yellow robe and a patched hat. She was on the overweight side, but she also had an extremely homey, welcoming face. She smiled up through the picture, and waved at Katie when passed to her. Then she nodded happily and wandered out of the photo. Her title proclaimed; Helga Hufflepuff.
Katie, taking Fern's cue to pass over their brief awkwardness, said her thanks and put the card in her pocket. 'Now I've got all the Headmasters. I'd still like Agrippa, though. Have her yet?'
'No, but I got her brother a few days ago.'
'Amen the Alite? I already have him.'
They kept chatting, though occasionally Fern would see Katie glance at her with concern, and look away when Fern noticed.
It was true, Fern had been disconnected and off all summer.
At the end of their last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the place this train was taking them to right now, their beloved Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had been killed by their potions teacher, Professor Snape. Or at least that's what the rumours said. Harry Potter, apparently, was the only Hogwartian to have seen it happen, but ever since the popular wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet had started advertising that he was Undesirable No.1, and suspected in the death of Albus Dumbledore, he'd seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth.
The wizarding world had taken a startling turn since their last year at Hogwarts. Not only had the Ministry of Magic, the wizarding government, let a bunch of Death Eaters take charge, as Fern and Katie knew considering their parents worked there, but disappearances were becoming rampant, rumours were flying, the Daily Prophet was clearly covering up a mass breakout of the wizarding prison Azkaban (or so Fern's Dad had told her some days earlier), the supposed-killer of Dumbledore, Snape, had now taken Dumbledore's old position as Headmaster, and two siblings that everyone suspected to be Death Eaters themselves, Amycus and Alecto Carrow, had taken the positions of Defence Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies teacher. Most importantly to Fern, the Ministry had enacted the Muggle-born Registration Committee, which forced Muggle-borns, wizards/witches without magical heritage, to register themselves to prove they did have magical heritage, because the Ministry apparently now believed you could not be a wizard if you didn't have wizards in your family. If you couldn't prove this, you were deemed to have "stolen" magic - Fern didn't understand how the Ministry came to this conclusion - and would be either taken to Azkaban or thrown out on the streets. Fern's mother, a Muggle-born, had avoided registration because she knew she had no magical relatives, but just recently the Prophet had released a list of Muggle-borns who didn't register and were now considered criminals, and Fern's mother was on that list.
So, suffice to say, Fern had had a rather depressing summer holiday. The Headmaster who she'd idolised was killed by the potions teacher she despised, only for that Headmaster to be replaced by the potions teacher; the Ministry was collapsing and being taken over; her mother was a Mudblood criminal avoiding prosecution; her Dad was sent on a fake, potentially dangerous mission to make the Ministry look good; and Fern, her 6-year-long best friend Katie, were facing long year at Hogwarts possibly run by Death Eaters.
She smiled uneasily as Katie was ruffling through a stack of Chocolate Frog cards, comparing them to Ferns'. The train had already thundered out of the station, and was now zooming past pale fields of green, dotted with cattle and farmsteads, spreading into the horizon. The sky was melting into grey, as the clouds were overtaking the first of the sun they'd had all summer. Fern began to wonder if it was the last.