Chapter Three – Trepidation

Six Months Later

With a hoot and an emphatic chug from the engines to signal its departure, the train set off from Platfrom 9 ¾ and began the journey that would take it to the station at Hogsmeade. Inside, students milled around, seeking out friends not seen since before the summer and trying to find a place to sit. In one of the compartments, a lone figure sat with her arms wrapped around herself and trying to keep as far from the window as possible. She was wearing a thick black cloak with the hood pulled over her head, and beneath it her pale skin was covered in a sticky sheen resulting from the application of gallons of sun cream. Karlijn felt ridiculous. She was on her own for now, but somebody else was bound to walk in sooner or later and they'd no doubt think it was completely weird that she was sat here wearing a heavy-duty outdoor cloak. She wished she didn't have to wear it. The Sangwort potion let her go out in moderate daylight, but anything above the intensity of a cloudy spring day and her skin burned very quickly. From what she'd heard about the weather in England she'd been expecting it to be much duller and wetter than this, but her expectations had been dashed when she and her uncle had arrived in London yesterday to find it was perfectly sunny. The first thing Laurens had done was buy six bottles of sun lotion and insist she wore that and her cloak for the duration of the trip to Hogwarts, but being sat here with the hood pulled over her head made Karlijn feel like an idiot. Was it really necessary? The light intensity inside the compartment really wasn't that bad; she'd probably be alright if she took it off for a while.

Unclasping the fastenings, Karlijn let out a sigh as she shrugged the cloak off her shoulders, feeling the weight of the heavy material lifting but not sensing any relief from the weight pressing down on her mind. As if it wasn't bad enough having to leave her old friends behind, even more daunting was the prospect of making new ones. She'd never really struggled to make friends before now, but that was before she'd gotten all…vampire-y. Now that was a major issue she had to deal with, and she really didn't feel like it was a secret she was ready to share yet. How could she make friends if she didn't feel like she could be honest with them? And how would she explain all her weird quirks like not being able to eat certain foods or wearing her hood up all the time outdoors? Not to mention the explaining would be made even more difficult by the fact her English was somewhat rusty. French and Flemish she spoke fluently, German passably, but English? Not so much. Technically, she thought she had a good grasp on the language, but she'd only ever visited England once and the thought of actually having to actually speak it to people was nerve made this whole experience even more daunting.

Karlijn found herself thinking back to what Headmistress McGonagall had said to her four months ago when they'd met to discuss if Karlijn would be able to attend Hogwarts. "Hogwarts is a school of tolerance," the kind but intimidating elderly witch had told her and Laurens, "We do not discriminate against students based on blood status, background or any other circumstances that have arisen from events beyond the student's control. I am proud to say that Hogwarts can count werewolves and half-giants among our alumni, and I have every intention of upholding the principles that our school values so highly. Provided certain precautionary measures are taken, I would be happy to offer Miss Moreau a place here."

Tolerance. That was what she had said, but Karlijn knew that McGonagall could only speak for herself and the teachers on that matter. She had no control over the students. Karlijn doubted they'd be likely to accept a foreigner – and an oddball one at that. Even if they didn't know she was a vampire they'd surely notice just how unusual she was, what with the things she had to do to manage her condition which weren't always easy to keep discreet. She'd tried to be optimistic – Uncle Laurens had told her that Hogwarts had a reputation for being very accepting – but even so, that hadn't stopped her natural inclination to worry. It was made even worse by the fact that Hogwarts was so far away from home for her. Geographically, she supposed it wasn't actually much further from Antwerp than Beauxbatons had been, but it was overseas. She almost wished that Wievens had accepted her, despite not having the high reputation that Hogwarts did, but it was at least relatively close by just south of Maastricht. However, they'd turned her down for the same reasons Beauxbatons had. Hogwarts seemed to be the only magic school in Western Europe willing to accept a vampire.

Perhaps that was something to be grateful for at least – that there was still a school ready to let her complete her education, but she wondered what good that would be if she wasn't going to age to the level of becoming an adult for the next thirty or so years. Vampires technically weren't supposed to age at all, it was only the Sangwort draught that allowed her to do so, but she still didn't much like the idea of only being physically fourteen by the time she graduated. That probably didn't do much to help her prospects of getting a job.

She sighed again, wondering if she'd chosen the right subjects for her OWLs after all. She'd picked the same ones as she'd originally put down for her BATs – Baccalauréat À Telchines – at Beauxbatons: Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Defense Against The Dark Arts, Potions and Charms. She'd been hoping to become a Cursebreaker after completing school, but given that vampires were supposedly cursed themselves she wasn't sure if that option would be open to her now. Just contemplating that put her in a dark mood, but before she had chance to get caught up brooding on it she was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of the compartment door sliding open. Taken by surprise, Karlijn's head spun round just in time to see someone peering inside.

A/N: A couple of things I wanted to elaborate on:

[1] Baccalauréat À Telchines = Beauxbatons equivalent of OWLs. The Telchines are wizards from Greek mythology, so this could be thought of as a qualification awarded for achieving a certain standard in the study of magic, following in the tradition of ancient wizards.

[2] Wievens = magic school in the Netherlands named after the Witte Wieven (Weird Sisters) who are white witches from Dutch mythology.