The sun had been Lux's jailer for over three hundred years, holding the keys to a cell she was never meant to escape from.
Even as a free woman, she resented it. She resented the rays of light that cascade down her body, that previously would've set her alight like a match to parchment. She resented her peers, the human peers surrounding her, who had never experienced ten lifetimes worth of darkness, of isolation. She even resented Fulk, who was too busy basking in his newfound freedom to hold anger like she did.
But above anger, Lux felt relief.
She was no longer a slave to the light.
Diagon Alley was bustling with people, to the point where it was difficult to push through the crowd of last minute back to school shoppers without bumping into someone. When Lux and Fulk finally slipped into a bookstore, her shoulders were aching from the many times she'd made rough contact with various humans.
With a gentle hand on the small of her back to guide Lux inside, Fulk shut the door behind them, before looking down to meet her eyes. "You brought your supply list? The one Dumbledore gave you?"
Lux nodded, and with the roll of her eyes, she reached into her pocket and yanked out the list. "You reminded me so many times before we left, if I had managed to forget, it would've been some sort of miracle."
Fulk simply shook his head, a small laugh emitting from his lips. "Go, find your books, and I'll find mine. We needn't be here long."
While Lux felt the urge to protest this — after all, it had been so long since she'd last been inside of a bookshop, and she so desperately wanted to savor it, but disobeying or fighting with Fulk was never a good idea. It was always best to take the path of least resistance, which in this case, was to find her books and leave as swiftly as they came, almost as though they'd never been there in the first place.
Leaving Fulk's side to fend for herself, Lux stepped through the rows of bookshelves, examining the titles as she thoroughly scanned them for the books on her list. By the time she reached the back of the expansive bookshop, she had a pile of textbooks resting in her arms, and only needed one more before she could leave — Advanced Potions.
When Dumbledore had told her she'd be attending Hogwarts where she'd left off in 1628, she'd nearly laughed. Had he truly expected her to remember everything that she'd learned three hundred years back? But then, it seemed like the old man had a few screws loose, because he did, indeed, expect her to continue as a sixth year student, and not only that, but blend in with those around her.
How hard would it be, she wondered, to blend in with these students, when she wasn't even of the same species as them? Not anymore, at least. Would they find her out? What would happen if they did? Would Dumbledore stick to his vow to protect her, or would he leave her to fend for herself?
She could do it, she figured. She'd be able to defend herself easily. After all, it was just a bunch of teenagers she'd be surrounded by. No one of any actual power. And she'd have Fulk at her side too, ready to go into battle at the nearest threat to their safety. He'd kill for her, she knew that. He'd done it before, and he'd just as easily do it again. So there was no reason to be nervous.
None at all.
The bile of anxiety building up in her throat slowly receded as she told herself over and over that there was nothing she had to fear, going into Hogwarts. If anything, it was a blessing, being under both Fulk and Dumbledore's protective arms, and far away from where the Coven would be able to find them.
Lux inhaled a deep breath, closing her eyes for a brief moment as she turned the corner. Though, when her eyes returned to their normal open state, she nearly passed out on the spot, as her gaze was met with the fury of hell itself.
Orange, orange and yellow and even a bit of blue mixed together in a horrible, cursed arrangement was plastered in front of her, the colorful limbs stretching up and down as they threatened to ensnare her, grab her by her ankles and drag her into the flames. It was coming for her, the flames, they lusted for her just as they had before—
She immediately retreated backwards, away from the fireplace that rested in the corner of the bookshop, not just a fireplace, but a portal to hell, a portal that called out her name, hissing its desire for her flesh and bones.
"Bloody hell!"
It wasn't her that spoke, but someone behind her, Lux realized as she spun around, stumbling to catch her footing. Behind her — well, in front of her now, stood a boy, wincing as he stared down at her, as though she'd done something to upset him.
Oh.
She'd stepped on his foot, she realized as she followed his gaze down to the floor, where her foot remained rested atop of his.
"Sorry." Lux muttered as she stepped away.
"No matter." The boy shook his head, giving her a gentle, kind smile, though his eyes remained fixed on her with a strange sort of look. "Are you alright? You look as though you've seen a ghost."
"I'm fine." Lux glanced back towards the blazing inferno behind her. To anybody else, it was just a fireplace, a means of keeping warm, but she knew that's what the portal to hell wished for them to think. It wanted to gain people's trust, wanted them to let their guards down and step into the blaze.
She wouldn't be so foolish. She knew what the fire wanted, and its wish wouldn't be granted. Not by her, anyways.
"Are you sure?" The boy pressed. He wasn't much taller than her, Lux noticed, as she observed him closer, though his face was riddled with scars, and his eyes shone with a familiar look. A look she knew all too well — because she saw it every time she looked at Fulk. It was the look of someone older than their body, wise beyond their physical years.
This boy wasn't a vampire, was he?
Her eyes flickered towards his hands, searching for a ring like hers, though he wore none, nor a necklace, when she examined his chest. But if he wasn't a creature of the night, how had he acquired so many scars? Was he simply aggressive? Or maybe he was abused in his home. Perhaps he got into one too many fights with people in his neighborhood. None of the options she could conceive made her feel any better about his array of markings, though, and she took another step back. Away from the scarred boy and towards the inferno.
"I'm fine." She repeated again, tightening the grip she held on the stack of books in her arms.
The boy opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was "What—" before someone called out a strange phrase, causing both of their heads to turn.
"Moony!"
A black haired boy appearing to be the same age as the pair stepped out from between the shelves, clutching a thick textbook in one hand, and used his other to wave at the scarred boy. "There you are! Bloody hell, I've been looking everywhere for you. Prongs and Wormy have gone off to get some ice cream, but I told them I'd wait for you to finish up."
Lux frowned at the strange names the boy was spewing. Moony? Prongs? Wormy? Were these some sort of nicknames? Surely no one had actually cursed their child to be named Wormy. Perhaps he was referring to a pet?
"Thanks, Pads." The scarred boy nodded, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
Pads?! What was wrong with these boys?
A snapping, crackling sort of sound from the fireplace redirected her thoughts away from the strange boys and their strange names, and instead towards the real problem at hand; there was a fire, only a few yards away from her, alive and ready to consume her.
Lux moved to turn away, to grab Fulk and leave before the flames could erupt and ensnare her in their trap, but before she could, the boy called Pads cocked his head towards the side, eyeing her up and down. "Oi, Moony, have you made a friend?"
"Oh…er…" Moony scratched the back of his neck, brown eyes awkwardly shifting between Lux and his friend. "No. We just bumped into each other."
"Are you going to Hogwarts?" Pads asked her.
Lux nodded, trying to push away the sound of the burning fire away from the front of her mind.
"Why haven't I seen you around, then?" Pads pressed. "You look about our age. Surely you're not a first year."
"I'm not a first year." She confirmed, nearly laughing at the idea. Nearly. "I'm new, this year. I was homeschooled."
"Homeschooled?" It was Moony's turn to speak, eyebrows raised in curiosity. "I didn't know wizarding families did homeschooling."
"Of course they do." Pads rolled his eyes. "Plenty of pureblood families homeschool. Why'd yours change their minds?"
Lux shrugged, unable to think of a good enough lie while her mind remained occupied on that blasted fire, and how close it was to her skin…
"What's your name?" Pads continued when she didn't say a word.
"Lux." She gulped, hoping the tremble in her voice wasn't obvious to the two boys. In any other case, she'd mentally berate herself for being pathetic enough to show fear in public, but not this time, not when there was very much something to fear. "And you?"
Please, tell me his real name isn't Pads. She begged to the Lord — which Lord, she wasn't quite sure, and to her luck, her prayers were answered by whatever God lingered above them.
"Sirius. Sirius Black. And this is my best mate, Remus." Pads/Sirius nudged towards the scarred boy, who gave her a curt nod as a form of greeting.
Lux opened her mouth to say hello to him, but before she could, she felt the sensation of a palm on her shoulder, soft yet firm, stable and commanding in one all too familiar touch.
"Fulk." She turned around, a rare, unusual smile tugging at her lips.
"Lux, I see you're making friends." His blue eyes slid towards the two boys.
"Is this—" Sirius began.
"My father." Lux cut him off with the gentle raise of her chin. It wasn't a lie, not really. In the twenty years of living in solitude, just the two of them, Fulk had essentially become her father. Even before, even when they still resided with the Coven, he'd taken on a parental role with her, staring back when they'd first met, in 1628. Father wasn't perhaps the right word to describe Fulk, but there wasn't anything better that she could think of, and that was the lie that they were to tell at Hogwarts anyways, so it was best it get out now.
"We must get going, Lux." He continued, eyeing the two boys with suspicion and not bothering to conceal his apprehensive expression. "Dinner won't cook itself, after all."
"Of course." She shifted her weight from foot to foot, balancing the books she held so they didn't topple over at her movement. With just a nod to Remus and Sirius, she followed Fulk to the register, and only when they'd returned back to their trailer and feasted on a pack of roaming rabbits, did Lux realize she'd forgotten all about the Advanced Potions textbook she'd been looking for.
Remus rarely found his mind preoccupied on the subject of girls. Usually, he was too busy worrying about the various other topics that plagued him — family, school, and of course, the tiny inconvenience that was being a werewolf.
But as he boarded the Hogwarts Express, with Sirius, James and Peter all at his side, his mind remained fixed on the girl from the bookstore he'd met two days prior, and not out of his own free will, but because every other sentence that came out of Sirius Black's mouth was about the oh so intriguing Lux.
Yeah, she was pretty, Remus figured, if not a bit pale, but Sirius was absolutely enamored with the girl, going on and on about her as they stepped aboard the train. Remus had spent the summer at the Potter's with James, Sirius, and Peter, and the past two days since meeting Lux had been entirely filled with his best mate rambling on about the girl.
"You don't understand, Wormtail, her skin. It was like…milk." Sirius raved, a dreamy look in his eye, as though he were picturing the literal embodiment of an angel.
"Ah yes, milk, the most attractive thing a human can resemble." Peter mused, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Pads, she can't have been that special."
"Back me up here, Moony!" Sirius turned to Remus, who sighed, shaking his head.
"She was pretty, I suppose." Remus shrugged, thinking it over. She had been pretty, with delicate, round features, and Sirius was right about her skin resembling milk, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. The poor girl needed some bloody sun. But something was off about that Lux character, a primal instinct in him that told him he needed to attack. When it came to fight or flight, Remus was all fight, and he'd never felt so aggressive while entirely unprovoked until that day. "Nothing to go calling to the Ministry about."
"Honestly, Sirius, if I didn't know better, I'd say this Lux girl put some sort of love potion in your tea." James said. "This is obsessive. You don't even know the girl."
"Says you!" Sirius snapped, though his lips were curved up with amusement. "Writing Mr. Lily Evans all over your Charms textbook. Bloody lovesick bastard."
"Bugger off!" James moved to shove Sirius, but in the middle of a tight, cramped hallway, it had little affect, with Sirius already pressed up against the wall, and thus having little room to be pushed into.
"C'mon, you lot. Let's find a compartment." Peter urged, likely hoping to stop an inevitable fight from breaking out.
"Do you reckon she's on the train?" Sirius asked hopefully, glancing around as he searched for Lux in every compartment they passed by. Remus opened his mouth, to say that of course she was on the train, if she was going to Hogwarts this year, but before he could, Sirius's head shot up. "Shit, there she is!"
Remus followed Sirius's pointed finger, where, sure enough, Lux was seated in a compartment, speaking to a dark haired man whose back was turned to them. Other than those two, the compartment was empty, and Remus let out a sigh when he realized that Sirius would demand they sit with her.
"Come on!" Sirius reached over, grabbing onto James's upper arm, and yanking his friend down the hall. Remus reluctantly followed, with Peter behind him, showing just about the same amount of disinterest and hesitancy. Though, no one verbally protested Sirius's demands as he opened the compartment door, and sat down without asking.
"Hello, Lux." Sirius greeted, sitting down next to the man. It was Fulk, Remus noticed as he got a closer look at him — her father, the one who gave him the same off-putting vibe, that told him he needed to strike, to attack. "Fancy seeing you again."
Lux simply raised her eyebrows, not saying a word as she eyed him up and down through those icy blue eyes, so similar to her father's.
"Is it okay if we sit here?" Remus asked, since it was obvious Sirius wasn't going to.
"Go ahead." Fulk said for her, and the three of them did, Remus and Peter next to Lux, and James on Sirius's side.
Lux shifted the moment Remus sat down next to her, moving so her side was pressed firmly against the wall of the train, and as far away from touching Remus's skin as she physically could. Was she afraid of him?
Maybe she understood the sensation he was feeling, the need to attack. Maybe she'd caught onto it, his irrational thirst for blood, the wolf inside of him that craved violence. But there was something different about her. Usually, his lust for flesh was easy to control, mild at best, but with her…
Maybe it was best she stay away from him. Best she fear him.
"This is James and Peter." Sirius motioned towards the two boys that hadn't been in the bookshop that day, Peter giving her a gentle wave, and James nodding. "You two, meet Lux and Fulk. Her father, right?"
Lux nodded. "Yes."
"I suppose you'd know me better as Professor Ingelger. Your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Fulk said with a smirk, a smirk that Remus felt the urge to rip off his too pale face—
He shook his head, banishing the thoughts from his mind. The pair were a bit odd, sure, but nothing to be violent towards. They posed him no threat, and he ought to not make himself a threat to them.
"Right, of course." James gave him a kind smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor."
"Aren't you a polite thing." Fulk raised his eyebrows.
"I was raised well." He shrugged, looking over at the other Marauders with a sly grin. "I can't say the same for the other three, though."
"Bugger off." Sirius swatted him on the shoulder, and Lux let out a gentle snort. The closest thing Remus had seen to her laughing, he realized as he observed her closer, the ever so slight curve of her lips. The girl hadn't so much as smiled once since he'd met her, only weird sort of smirks, much like the one Fulk wore now.
"So you're new this year, yeah?" Peter asked Lux, tilting his head to the side.
"Yes. Fulk homeschooled me until this year, when he was offered the position as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"I see." He said. "Did you like it? Being homeschooled, I mean."
Lux nodded, not saying anything else on the subject.
She sure was quiet, Remus noted. Not shy, though. Just quiet. He'd learned there was a difference long ago, between being shy and being quiet.
He liked shy people. He didn't like quiet people. And he certainly didn't like Lux.