Chapter One
Meleta McGonagall was almost dancing with impatience as she followed her mother into King's Cross station. It was clear that Rosa McGonagall was putting all her concentration into steering the trolley laden with trunks and a crate holding a very unhappy and very locquacious silver tabby cat through crowds of Muggles, and consequently had little left over for Meleta's final barrage of questions.
"Why can't we just portkey to Hogwarts?" Meleta demanded as her mother directed a weak smile of apology towards an elderly Muggle lady armed with a vicious looking umbrella.
"I don't know, Meta, I don't know! How many times must I tell you? So sorry, sir."
"You went to Hogwarts yourself," Meta returned, a little sulkily. "Besides, hasn't Minerva been teaching there forever? Doesn't she know?"
Meleta - or Meta, as she preferred to be called - found herself pulled to one side, and she gawped at her mother, who was looking unwontedly serious.
"Now you listen to me, Meleta Gallia McGonagall. You're not to go pestering your sister, you hear? I can tell you, she won't appreciate it, and, more importantly, neither will the others. D' you want to be labeled a teacher's pet almost at once?"
"No. I'm sorry, I just wanted to know." Meleta glanced anxiously up at her mother through dark lashes. "Would Minerva really mind?"
Rosa shook her head. "She might. I don't know, Meta. You forget, I don't know her well, either."
"But she taught you Transfiguration!" Meta said loudly. "You told me so yourself!"
Rosa sighed. "Yes, she did, and to this day I still have to force myself to call her anything other than 'Professor McGonagall.'" She made a face. "Perhaps it's just as well we've seen so little of her since your father died. Can you imagine how awkward that would be? I'm nearly young enough to be her daughter, for Merlin's sake."
Meta's face fell. "Oh. It was just - well, I liked it that someone I knew was gonna be there, you know? I thought I could go to her if it was hard, or I was homesick, or - or - I just wanted you. You don't think I can do that?"
Rosa shook her head hard. "I really wouldn't, Meta. I understand how you feel, but just remember everyone else is in the same boat, and they won't be able to go running to their big sisters. Well, I suppose some of them will, but many won't, and definitely no-one else will have a sister who also happens to be the Transfiguration mistress, the Head of Gryffindor House, and Deputy Headmistress to boot!"
Meta sighed again, but this time it was in resignation. " I s'pose. Well, Minnie," she said, addressing herself to the still-yowling silver tabby, "it looks like it's just gonna be you and me."
Rosa McGonagall's face was somewhere between amusement and horror. "Meleta McGonagall, you didn't tell me you'd named that cat after your sister!"
Meta shrugged as her mother began to push the trolley again. "Didn't realise I had to. She reminded me of Minerva's cat-form, that's all. Minerva is such a pretty cat, and so's Minnie."
Her mother was still shaking her head. "H'mm. Well, come on, or we'll be late. It's already quarter to eleven, and the Hogwarts Express leaves at eleven sharp. We've still a way to go before we get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters." Rosa flashed a grin at her daughter, and Meleta returned it. She knew she was lucky to have such a young, fun mum.
"Are you ready to run the gauntlet of Muggles?" Rosa asked, her clear blue eyes twinkling.
"Muggles and all other comers!" Meta returned grandly. Mother and daughter shared another grin of understanding before together putting all their energies into getting to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where Meta's new life awaited.
"That's everything in now, isn't it?" Rosa demanded as Meta oversaw Minnie's safe placement in a carriage. "I think we'd better say good-bye now, sweetheart, or the driver will be getting awfully impatient."
"Well, he'll just have to wait another moment later," Meta returned stoutly as she hopped off the train again and looked at her mother. "I want a proper good-bye before we go."
Rosa's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Meta, I hope you have a marvellous time. Be good, be careful. If you have any problems, go to Minerva. If she makes a fuss, I'll deal with her." Meta saw her mother swipe at one eye. "Make lots of friends ... and I'll see you at Christmas."
"You be careful too, Mummy," Meta whispered, falling back to the old form of address. "I love you. I'm gonna miss you."
"Oh, sweetheart. Come here." Meta found herself being pulled into a tight embrace, and she returned it in full measure. Now that it was happening, it was real... and she was suddenly scared. A whole new life indeed.
"You need to go, honey," she heard her mother murmur. "Send me an owl as soon as they let you."
Meta drew back and nodded. "As soon as they let me," she echoed.
Rosa squeezed her hand, and Meta found herself being shepherded onto the train and into the carriage where her now-furiously spitting cat awaited. Before Meta felt totally ready, her mother was hugging her again, and the whistle blew and Rosa had to go... and then there was a burst of steam and the train began rolling away, out of King's Cross and out of London towards the unknown. Meta bit her lip hard and tried not to cry.
She curled into a tight ball in the corner of the seat against the window, and pulled her school robes over her for warmth. She longed to let Minnie out and to cuddle the cat for a while, but was too well acquainted with her cat's feisty temper to risk it. A fine way it would be to start school, running through the corridors like a mad thing after a runaway cat!
She was nearly asleep when she heard a timid voice say, "I say, you don't mind if we sit here, do you? Only - only, there doesn't seem to be anywhere else."
Meta opened her eyes reluctantly and found herself face to face with two boys and girl of her own age. The girl had dark red hair and bright green eyes, and the boy with black eyes and hair was standing very close to her. He was scowling. The other boy, who Meta liked on sight, was smaller than any of them and had brown hair, soft eyes, and a scared expression that roused Meta's protective instincts. Wordlessly, she gestured at the empty seats, and the redhead shot her a beaming smile.
"Well," said the redhead once they were all comfortably settled, "I suppose we should be polite and introduce ourselves."
"I'm Meta," the owner of the name offered before the redhead could go any further. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lily Evans," the redhead responded with another one of those bright smiles. "These are Sev and Remus."
"Sev-er-us," the black eyed boy corrected. "I've said before, Lily, I don't like being called 'Sev'. It's so - so Muggle." His lip curled at the last word.
Lily tossed her head and Meta found herself admiring the way the sun caught in the copper curls, which were so different from her own poker-straight black lengths. "Are you a Muggle?" she asked curiously of Lily. "I don't think I've met one before."
Severus snorted. "'Course she's not a Muggle. If she was, she wouldn't be here, would she? She's Muggle-born, though."
"Severus!" Lily protested, her pale skin flushed. "You promised. You said you wouldn't tell -"
Now it was Severus's turn to flush, and his black eyes dropped. "I know. I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't mean to. I won't do it again, promise."
"Even if we get sorted into different houses?" Lily pressed.
Severus held her eyes with his own, and Meta could see he was being sincere. "Even then, Lily."
"What do you mean, sorted?" the boy called Remus asked.
Meta, Severus and Lily turned identical horrified gazes on him.
"Don't you know - ?" Severus began, sounding scornful.
"Severus!" Lily said sternly at the same time that Meta said, "I bet you don't know everything either!" before turning to the hapless Remus.
"You don't know about the Sorting?"
Remus, who had shrunk against the back of the seat at Severus's response, relaxed. "No. I - I've been ill, you see, and they were more concerned about my health than answering my questions."
"Didn't your parents know?" Meta demanded in the voice of a girl who had many generations of Hogwarts students behind her.
"My parents didn't go to Hogwarts," Remus confessed. "They only know the basics."
"The Sorting is the basics!" Severus proclaimed loudly, his accent harsher than usual.
Meta glared at him before deliberately turning her back to him and concentrating on Remus. "Hogwarts has four houses," she began. "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Your House is the most important about your time at Hoggie's, so before we do anything, we need to be Sorted into our houses."
"But - but, how?"
"The Hat," Severus and Meta said together before exchanging a further glare.
"But how does it work, exactly?" Lily asked.
Remus looked at her. "You don't know either!"
Lily smiled back. "I do know, kind of. Severus has explained, but it sounds so - so strange. I still don't understand it."
"What's to understand? They stick this really old hat on your head, and it reads your mind, and then decides where to put you."
Lily and Remus looked equally appalled.
"It can read my mind?" Remus echoed. Meta noted that he had turned an even whiter shade of pale.
"Got something to hide?" Severus sneered.
Remus hunched up defensively, and Meta threw an arm around him. "You leave him alone! He's allowed secrets if he wants them."
"He won't keep them for long, then," Severus retorted smartly. "Don't you know that Dumbledore is a Legilimens?"
"Sweets trolley," a voice called out. "Anyone want anything?"
Severus flushed and subsided, Meta noticed as she fished out her own purse and ordered a generous portion of Fuzzing Whizzbees and Chocolate Frogs. Lily, who had been half-way through trying to explain what a Mars Bar was, stopped and squeaked in surprise when one of the Frogs began to hop around the compartment.
"Do you want anything or not, missy?" the sweets-lady asked as Lily continued to watch the frogs.
"I - I'll have a dozen of them," she ordered. "And a packet - a packet of Every-Flavour Beans," she added. Meta saw her glance at Severus, and was not surprised when the other girl handed the Beans to the dark boy without comment. Meta herself did the same, offering her Fuzzing Whizzbees to Remus, who demurred but eventually succumbed to the lure of sugar.
Finally, they returned to the subject of the Sorting, but by then the infusion of sweetness had calmed their tempers, and even Severus was able to discuss this most important of ceremonies without being insulting. By the time that Remus and Lily had finished asking their questions, evening was falling and it was getting darker. One by one, they each drifted off to sleep, with Severus and Lily curling up together on one side whilst Meta and Remus did the same on the other.
"I hope we're all in the same house," Remus murmured after a while, when the soft sounds from the other two proclaimed their sleeping state. "Even Severus."
Meta chuckled quietly. "I know. It's nice to know people, isn't it?"
They exchanged a final smile before exhaustion and excitement claimed them.
The sound of whistles blowing and wheels screeching roused the four with a start.
"We must have arrived!" Lily exclaimed as she pressed her face to the window in an effort to see.
The others were too busy scrabbling their stuff together to heed her, and so Lily was the only one not ready when a tall blond boy with silvery-grey eyes appeared at the compartment and scowled.
"Aren't you brats ready yet?"
"We're coming now," Severus responded, returning the older boy's scowl with interest. "Aren't we, Lily?"
"Yes!" the redheaded girl gasped and stood up.
"Well, don't just stand there," the blonde one drawled. "I want my dinner, if you don't, and I won't be at all ... forgiving ... to anyone who makes me wait longer than necessary."
Meta and Lily looked at each other, and followed the boys out of the carriage and onto the platform without another word.
"He was horrible!" Lily gasped to Meta under the cover of noise and confusion. "I hope all of the older students aren't like that."
"Firs' years!" a voice bellowed over the crowd of milling, exclaiming students. "Firs' years, this way!"
Without a word, the two girls immediately began to make their way towards the source of the voice, but they clung tightly to each other's fingers all the while.
"What about our luggage?" Lily asked uneasily as they approached a hairy giant of a man, who was clearly the bellower.
"I think they'll bring it up to the castle for us," Meta whispered.
Lily nodded, and the two girls shuffled through the other first years until they were standing in front of the giant man, and next to Severus and a decidedly grey looking Remus.
The giantlike man beamed down at them. "Welcome to Hogwarts! I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys here at Hogwarts. I'll be bringin' yeh all up ter the school. The others, as yeh can see, go up ter the castle in them carriages, but for the firs' years, we al'ays have sommat special. Come with me an' see."
Wordlessly, the new first years followed him... and then gave a concerted gasp. In front of them lay a lake that shimmered and gleamed in the moonlight, whilst beyond it could be seen a many turreted castle whose lights winked and blinked in greeting. Energised by the sight of their destination, the new students surged forward into the waiting boats, and they crossed the lake in silent contemplation of the castle, with only the odd exclamation or nervous giggle breaking the hush. Finally, the reached the other side in a slop of wood meeting land, and Hagrid led them up to the great front doors of the ancient castle.
Meta held her breath in wonder, excitement and fear. She knew what came next.
Sure enough, the massive double doors were flung back, and a tall, slim figure was silhouetted in the brightness of the hall behind her. Meta ran up the steps towards the figure, staying close to Hagrid all the while. When the big man stopped, he did so with such suddenness that only Lily's quick movement behind her prevented her from stumbling ... but then she was distracted by Hagrid's words:
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."