"Goodbye, darling." Tina Scamander told her granddaughter, hugging her close and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "We'll see you at Christmas. Be good."
"Of course, Gran." Honey Scamander replied, sighing and casting a longing glance at the train.
"We don't have to worry about her, Tina. It's her brother I'm worried about." Newt joked, slinging an arm around his grandson.
"Look, it was one time-"
"That's what they all say." The ex auror said with a smile as she gave her grandson a hug as well. "I expect no letters home from professors this year. Now, on the train, both of you."
Thank Merlin, Honey thought. Not that she didn't love her grandparents, she just wanted to get on the damn train.
"Goodbye! I'll write! Love you both!" The seventh year said as she picked up her bags.
"Goodbye you two! We'll miss you!" Tina yelled after them as they raced to the Hogwarts Express.
"Ha! I win!" Ezra yelled triumphantly as he pushed his way onto the train ahead of his sister.
"Only because you cheated. You can't push, Ezra."
"Of course I can. There's no rule book for racing."
Honey rolled her eyes and pushed him back with her shoulder, heading towards an empty cabin. She had a few books she still needed to finish before she got to Hogwarts.
She pulled her wand out and flicked her wrist, levitating her trunk up to the storage rack as she sat down against the window. She started with the book she was closest to finishing, an autobiography on the man who created the draught of living death.
Or she would have, if those bumbling 'marauders' hadn't gone traipsing by, creating a ruckus. Honey gritted her teeth and glared at them through the glass, until they pushed each other on, leaving her once again in blessed silence.
Which, unfortunately- if you asked Honey Scamander, anyways- didn't carry over into the dinning hall as they watched all the first years line up and wait for their turn to be sorted. Just because they were mostly silent, out of fear most likely, didn't mean any of the other years were going to be quiet.
Honey sat in the same spot at the Ravenclaw table that she had sat in the last six years, waiting for dinner to come. Don't get her wrong, the sorting is a beautiful thing; she'll never forget the moment she was sorted into her house. But couldn't they at least serve dinner at the same time? If they were smart, they would be practical and timely. Was it really that hard?
At least she brought her book.
Halfway across the room James was staring at Lily, as he usually did, and Sirius was chatting up some random muggle born girl, as he usually did.
And Remus was also nose deep in a book.
"Mate, why don't you get your head out of the clouds, and find a girl to run around with, hm?" Sirius said to Remus, ignoring the girl who was now playing with his tie. "It's our last year at Hogwarts, and you haven't even gone on a single date."
Remus flashed him a look over his book but didn't respond.
"Leave the poor bloke alone, Padfoot." James said before also turning to look at Remus. "He's not wrong, though."
Remus sighed and shook his head. "You know he is, and you know why I can't."
James shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, turning back to Lily with a grin.
Remus quickly glanced across the hall before going back to his book.
Honey brushed her teeth with one hand, wand in the other working on her hair. She watched as the magic worked through the thick, curly tresses and smoothed them out into dark waves. Putting her wand on the counter, she spit out the toothpaste and finished brushing her teeth before grabbing two dark blue hair clips. It was almost second nature to twist the sides back from her face and pin the curls there on either side of her head. With that done, she grabbed her wand once more and excited the bathroom.
"I'll never understand how you can do that so fast." One of the girls, Lidia, said as she passed, closing the bathroom door behind her.
Ignoring the noises of agreement from the other girls, she grabbed up her bag and stuffed a few textbooks in before leaving the dormitory. She made her way down the stairs carefully, waving a good morning to a few people she knew.
The halls were still fairly empty, seeing as breakfast wouldn't start for another five minutes yet. But it took ten minutes to get from the Ravenclaw dormitory to the dinning hall, so really she'd be right on time. She picked up snippets of conversations between the paintings hanging on the walls as she made her way briskly through the castle. Her shoes barely made any sound- she had cast a muffliato on them a few years back. There were few things she found more annoying than clacky shoes.
Exactly ten minutes later Honey pushed open the large doors, the smell of breakfast hitting her.
Her only 'friend' Ashlanne Greengrass waved her over to a spot next to her.
"Good morning." Honey said as she sat down.
"'Morning, Honey." Ashlanne said with a smile.
The brunette gave her a warning look as she took her bag off her shoulder and set it on the bench next to her.
"Has Flitwick passed out class schedules yet?" Honey asked, filling a bowl with porridge and berries.
"Not yet. He'll probably wait until more people show up." Casting a look down the empty table, Honey hummed in agreement.
"How was your summer?"
Ashlanne shrugged. "We went to America for a few weeks, but it really isn't all that great."
"No? My gran hardly ever stops talking about it. I think she's planning on taking us all as part of my graduation present this summer."
"Well she'll probably know the interesting places to go."
"Hm. Anyways, did you finish that book on transfiguration theory yet?" Honey asked, taking a bite of her food.
Ashlanne nodded. "It was a relatively easy read. I finished before we left on our trip."
"Indeed. I tried to lend my copy to Lidia, but she said she wouldn't have time for it. You'll have to tell her it's a short read. She doesn't often believe me about things like this."
"Yes, well, coming from the witch who once read 'The Things That Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe, and Everything' in two days." Ashlanne snorted and added more butter to her toast. "No wonder she doesn't trust your judgement."
Honey quirked her mouth in a half smile. "Fair enough."
The doors burst open, laughter echoing up to the ceiling charmed to look like the daybreak sky. Honey and Ashlanne sent identical scowls towards the boys entering, their conversation easy to hear from their spots.
"Seems like Peter had a better summer than the rest of us!" Sirius Black was saying as he slapped said boy on the back.
"I can't say I've been chased by an emu in Australia before, what about you, Moony?" James Potter said.
"Of course not." He replied.
Sirius stepped between Remus and James, throwing his arms around their shoulders as they reached their spots at the Gryffindor table. "No, but I bet you could chase one and get away with it, eh?"
James and Peter roared with laughter as Remus shot his friend a look and sat down, the other three following suit.
"Hey, Evans!" James shouted.
"Goodness, won't he ever learn?" Ashlanne said with a roll of her eyes. Honey looked away from the ridiculous boys and back to her friend. "Evans's obviously not interested in him. It's like beating a dead hippogriff."
Honey shuddered. "Indeed."
Flitwick chose that moment to pass around class schedules and the girls patiently waited for their own slips.
"I have charms first. You?"
Honey nodded. "Yes, and then a double segment of advanced potions before lunch."
Ashlanne scrunched up her nose. "Bloody hell. I could barely stand a single segment of potions. Whatever flies your broom, I guess."
"And I don't understand how you can still take care of magical creatures. I heard a third year nearly got her arm bitten off by a Thestral last year."
Ashlanne laughed. "Honey, most people can't even see them, how could-"
"Exactly! It only makes them more dangerous. You can't even tell if you're walking right into one. It's impractical to have them around young children."
The blonde Ravenclaw shook her head. "I'll never begin to fathom your deep dislike for magical creatures, Scamander. How ironic."
"Yes, yes. My grandfather likes to remind me often. But nothing will change my mind- most, if not all, magical creatures serve no purpose other than to maintain population control. I bet the Ministry is in charge of their production, in fact."
"Are you serious?" Ashlanne spluttered. "You can't truly believe that."
"Of course, I don't have nearly enough proof on the matter yet. So don't tell anyone. I would like for the Ministry to stay in the dark of the fact that I'm onto them." Quickly finishing her food, Honey stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head to charms. Hopefully it'll be quieter there, and I'll be able to get back to my book."
"I'll come with!" Ashlanne hurriedly grabbed up her own bag and ran after Honey. "What are you reading now?"
"'The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements.'"
Ashlanne laughed gleefully. "Trying to understand love, now, are we?"
"Of course not. You know love can never be explained in a book. That would be simply implausible. It merely captured my attention, and I thought I'd give it a try."
Honey walked towards the classroom with Ashlanne chatting to no one in particular the whole way. She reminded her of her grandfather sometimes, the way she could prattle on and on about things, and her unnatural liking towards magical creatures. Honey rolled her caramel eyes. What was it with people? Even if they weren't deadly, which they were, what was the point of them?
If there was one thing Honey Scamander disliked more than anything else, it was things that served no purpose.
Honey listened intently as Professor Flitwick instructed them on their project they would turn in at the end of semester. They were to be assigned a spell from their charms textbooks to perfect and then present on before everyone left for Christmas break. While on paper the assignment seemed easy enough, she figured it couldn't really be that simple. They were seventh years after all. They had to be ready for their N.E.W.T.S by the end of the year.
The bell rang and everyone started shoving textbooks into their bags before hurrying to their next class.
Honey dodged rowdy fifth years and lost first years- stopping to help a few of them as she went- on her way to the dungeons for her potions class. True to the Scamander name, she was filled with a burning passion for one specific subject which happened to take up most of her time. While it wasn't magical beasts like her grandfather had hoped, he did say that potions was an honorary field of study. Which, of course, led to her room back home being filled with jars of ingredients and cauldrons, most with holes worn through them from her more… corrosive experiments.
She walked into Professor Slughorn's classroom feeling immensely smug, knowing the little scoreboard from last year would still be up on the chalkboard, as Slughorn had insisted. Within the first few months of their sixth year advanced potions class, a Hufflepuff boy had had the idea to keep a tally of points between Honey and Severus Snape, the only other student in Hogwarts who was matched to the Scamander girl in the subject. They had finished the end of the year with Honey in the lead by fourteen points, and she doubted that Snape had been able to beat her in one measly class-
"What?!" She exclaimed as she stopped dead inside the doorway. "325? What the bloody hell is this rubbish? Have you all gone daft? Clearly this is a mistake, there is no possible way that Snape was able to- where is that absolute git? When I-"
She was interrupted by someone snickering and whipped around to see Potter and Black giggling like two little school girls behind their hands.
"I don't know why you're laughing. I don't even know how you two got into this class. It's a bunch of bullocks, if you ask me."
"Now, now, Scamander. No need to get you knickers in a knot. We know you're only upset that you can't have potions with us, seeing how insanely-"
"Bigoted and foolish you are? No thank you." Honey said, cutting Sirius off with a sharp look down her nose. She may have been, dear Merlin, a half-foot shorter than him, but that by no means chilled the glare she was imposing on him at that moment. "Now, if you'll get out of my way, I have a score to beat."
Maneuvering around the three boys, as Lupin was there are well (unsurprisingly, Peter was not), Honey stormed to her desk in the middle, two rows back from the front and sat down, pulling out her necessary materials.
"325 points my arse. We'll see who's the real expert, just you wait."
James and Sirius looked at each other with matching grins as they left, an idea brewing better than their potion had not even twenty minutes ago.
"Say, I think we should ask Scamander to join us in our campaign against Snape." James said excitedly, throwing an arm around Sirius.
Sirius, in turn, threw his arm around James as well. "I dare say that is a genius idea, Prongs. Think of the new pranks we could throw at him with help from the potions master herself."
Remus shook his head. "I don't think that's a… Good idea."
"Oh come on, Moons." James groaned. "Why not? Must you always crush our hopes and dreams?" Sirius and James put their hands to their foreheads before dramatically slumping to the floor.
"She clearly hates you both. I doubt she'd be willing."
"Perhaps he's right." Sirius said sadly.
"Shame. We would have been unstoppable. Think of the power- the tales they'd tell of us!"
"The Marauders and the Potioneer!" Sirius and James sighed wistfully before pulling each other up and heading off to their next class.
"I think we should ask her anyways." James whispered during their transfiguration class. "She already hates us, so it's not like we could make it any worse. There's no harm in it."
"Allegedly." Sirius said, flipping his hand over and back. "But yes, I think you're quite right, Prongs. She could be detrimental in this war we've concocted with that slimy git."
James nodded resolutely, the two with their minds firmly set.
Remus, who had overheard, frowned.