THE GENTLE BREEZE OF SEPTEMBER 1ST passes through one of the windows of the carriage where Vela rests. With her feet tucked up as she keeps her head leaning against one of the seat bolsters located inside the carriage, she lets the vibration of the Hogwarts Express lull her, her breathing matching the purr of the train's engine.

A long road awaits her, aside with a well-deserved nap.

Vela loves the calm that comes with a carriage completely to herself.

"Vee, here you are!"

And as almost always happens, her calm is short-lived.

She opens her eyes to find her two dearly boisterous friends and Marcus Flint, pulling at their trunks as if using a silencing spell inside the train wasn't allow.

"How long have you been here? We have been looking for you since we left the station." Adelaide looks at her almost reproachfully, small drops of sweat collecting on her forehead exhibiting the fact that they almost had to walk through the entire Hogwarts Express to find her.

Vela sighs, standing up to take pity on her friend's clear tiredness and help her finish dragging her trunk into the carriage. "Clearly, I must improve my hiding skills."

Adelaide smacks her arm while Flint lets out a snort of amusement, making her almost wrinkle her nose at the ridiculous sound.

Flint plops down on the seat opposite where Vela sits, while Adelaide settles on the other end. He rubs his bony butt against the seat, making Vela frown.

"You should not do that"

Flint ignores her, stretching and crossing his arms behind his head, he says, "There are a lot of new faces this year."

"That happens every year, Flint."

"What Marcus is trying to say," Émile chimes in, plopping down next to Vela as he begins to remove his boots with a single tap of his foot, "is that there are many this year who have never seen a wand in their lives."

Ah, Vela thinks, Muggleborns.

The truth is that, unlike her father, whose favorite topic of conversation is anything that has to do with highlighting how irrelevant and unnecessary their existence is, her interest in them begins and ends with the simplicity of their name.

But apparently, Flint thinks the same as her father, clicking his tongue. Still, his gaze moves to Vela, a slightly mocking smile that she knows will only cause her discomfort.

"I thought your aunt had taken care of eliminate– what the fuck is that?!"

The smile on Vela's face appears at the same speed that the feminine squeal escapes from Flint's mouth, who has risen so quickly from his seat that he has completely ignored the warning light that flashes above them in signal of a slightly abrupt turn, causing him to fall.

But the soft flickering light moving above them is bright enough for Vela to see that, right where Flint's bony butt was moments ago, Phobos is beginning to stir, waking up from his nap.

"I told you not to do that." Vela sings, as her beloved pet gently and elegantly untangles himself, to the point where his body has formed a delicate circle of whitish scales while his small head rises.

"Get him away from me!" Flint screeches from the floor as he notices how Vela's pet has turned its attention to him, small, curious eyes following all his failed attempts to become one with the carriage.

Not wanting to risk Phobos a possible stomachache by biting Flint, who seems more than ready to smack him, Vela finally calls out to him, "Come here, my darling" Phobos, like the little mama's boy that he is, slides in without hesitation his attention towards her, sliding away from the seat and using Émile's legs as a bridge until he reached her. "Did that ugly ogre scare you, my little one?" she asks softly as Phobos begins to slide onto her shoulders.

Flint lets out a disgusted snort as he stands up, "that thing is the ugly one," he grumbled, sitting back down in the seat opposite Vela, but not before making sure there was no sign of another snake.

Phobos ignores him completely, all his attention now focused on his beloved owner as he moves affectionately through the hair that covers her neck. Vela smiles affectionately towards her neck, which Phobos has not stopped circling affectionately, but at random glance, she notices the way Adelaide seems to be looking at the train aisle with a slight frown.

"What are you looking for, Adelaide?"

"I thought your brother would sit with us." She answers her, without taking her eyes off the hallway as if that way the silver hair of Vela's brother will magically appear.

Vela simply rolls her eyes, remembering the way Draco had let go of her hand before crossing platform 9 3/4. "Apparently, he's too old to spend the entire trip to Hogwarts with his sister."

"He told you the same thing too?" Émile is surprised, the disbelief in his tone of voice making her remember that his younger brother, Blaise, is also on the Hogwarts Express for his first year.

"I'm sure it's not because of you, Malfoy," it seems, Flint has found his voice again, "but because of that horrible thing hanging from your neck."

Phobos pokes his small head between Vela's platinum hair, only to hiss threateningly in the direction of Flint, who – to everyone's surprise – hisses back, making Adelaide laugh.

──── ∗ ⋅. ✵ .⋅ ∗ ────

Even from the station, Hogwarts is a sight that continues to take her breath away in the same way it did when she was eleven years old and it was her first time away from home. With its tall towers bathed in silver whenever the moon rises and its corridors illuminated in warm tones thanks to torches, the school of magic and wizardry is the closest thing in Vela's life to a second home.

She can watch Mr. Hagrid direct the way to the canoes for the freshmen with a headlamp, and among them all, Vela can make out the platinum hair that belongs to her brother.

"Go, hurry up or we'll have to share a carriage with the Gryffindors." Émile warns her, moving his gaze from her to the canoes, surely also looking for his brother. And until Vela was able to watch Draco safely climb into one of the canoes, she begins to move in the direction of where Adelaide and others from their house are waiting.

"Draco will be fine, Vee," Adelaide says with a smile, walking beside her, "you know the ranger has always taken good care of the newies."

"Plus, no freshmen have fallen out of canoes in years."

"Of course, except for Flint, he wanted to meet the giant squid first."

The chorus of laughter almost overrides Flint's "shut up, you idiots," which only increases the laughter. Vela and the rest do not have to wait long to find one or two empty carriages that will take them directly to Hogwarts, most of the students already on their way to the castle, surely so they can start consuming the snacks that the house elves provide them before the start of the selection ceremony for first years.

"Let's see, Vela, give me your hand." Adrian Pucey says from atop one of the carriages, extending his hand in her direction. Vela takes it, but before she can push herself up to get into the carriage with the rest of her friends, an arm slides to either side of her shoulders, causing her to tense almost immediately.

"But just look at what we have here, Georgie."

"Do you dissect your own now too, Malfoy?"

Vela releases herself from the Weasley twins' grip just before one of those two idiots puts his finger towards Phobos, who - upon noticing his beloved mistress in tension - has begun to hiss under his breath, coming out slightly from his hiding place between her hair.

"Don't you have better things to do? Like, I don't know, go to hell?"

Both redheads pretend to gasp in surprise. "I never thought a little lady like you would know those words."

"Do you kiss your mom with that mouth?"

"Weasley, Malfoy, get into your carriages before I decide to take points off all three of you." Professor Flitwick screeches walking towards them, waving his finger in their direction accusatoryly.

Vela takes advantage of that moment to get into the carriage and get away from both redheads, who only give her a sly smile before continuing on their way to a carriage located two in front of hers.

"Those idiots," Adelaide mumbled, "I can't believe no one tells them anything."

"And from this year everything will be worse," Adrian says, drawing everyone's attention. "What? Don't you know who's starting this year at Hogwarts?"

"Shit, this year is Harry Potter's first year?"

Oh. That makes sense.

The truth is, Vela is painfully aware of who Harry Potter is thanks to her brother, who makes his house elf repeat over and over and over and over again the great story of the Boy Who Lived; she knows that story so well that she could recite it while she was asleep and vomiting slugs.

"If Potter goes to Gryffindor, we're dead."

"If he goes? Obviously he will be in Gryffindor! He defeated the Dark Lord."

"He didn't defeat him, you fools." Vela finally intervenes, rolling her eyes. "His mother was the one who defeated the Dark Lord, Harry Potter was just a baby."

And with that, the little conversation about the famous savior of the wizarding world comes to an end.

──── ∗ ⋅. ✵ .⋅ ∗ ────

The Great Hall welcomes them with the imitation of a starry sky and its typical floating candles. Vela, Émile and Adelaide sit at the end closest to the teachers' table, where the Sorting Hat rests on a small stool on which all the students must pass upon entering Hogwarts.

"Are you nervous about your brother, Vela?" Adrian asks, grabbing a plate and reaching out to start grabbing small snacks.

She shakes her head, "no, I know he'll be in Slytherin." Father wouldn't approve if it were any other way, she thinks immediately, remembering how her little addiction to biting her nails started right there, behind the doors of the Great Hall as she begged Merlin to make her be in Slytherin.

From one moment to the next, the doors open revealing the hundreds of little faces that see everything with amazement, to the point where even Vela can see saliva sliding down one of the corners of a chubby child; the Sorting Hat greets them with its typical song, the signal that Professor McGonagall always waits for before starting to read the list with the names of the new students.

From Abbott, Hannah to Granger, Hermione, all the tables applaud and welcome their own, many of her classmates feeling a slight tension as they see how the lion house grows larger than theirs. But Vela doesn't give it much importance, not when she keeps her eyes focused on the little boy with platinum hair who advances at a sure pace with his chin raised towards the stool.

It was no surprise to Vela that with just a touch of one of his hairs, the Sorting Hat sent Draco towards the house to which his entire family had always belonged. Vela stands up and whistles next to Émile, Adelaide and Adrian, making Draco's pale skin turn candy red.

Even though she knows that the only public displays of affection Draco accepts at his young age are from his mother, she can't help but kiss his cheeks when – surprisingly – he decides to sit next to her, relief flowing through her veins with the presence of her brother at her side, knowing that the tradition that has kept them together generation after generation remains intact.

She hears Harry Potter's name being called and the endless murmurs that follow as the black-haired, lightning-scarred little boy moves toward the stool. Vela turns back to Draco, a small smile dancing on her lips as she says, "It seems that your little new friend is about to discover his house."

Draco clenches his hands, his face forming a frown. "He is not my friend."

Vela blinks repeatedly, quickly crossing her gaze with Émile's who had overheard the small conversation and, the truth is, she is more surprised by Draco's open display of annoyance than by the fact that the little boy who lived has refused to be his friend.

Still, she can't help but feel a little bit of annoyance at Harry Potter's refusal to be her brother's friend, and feel sad for him, after all, her brother had been sneaking around rehearsing in his room a million times the way he would ask the brave boy to be his friend. Of course, Vela knows that they're both just kids on their first day at Hogwarts, but she was also eleven years old, and she knows that if there's anyone who can hold a bigger grudge than an adult, it's a child with an unfulfilled wish.

Like the roar of a lion, the Gryffindor table erupts in shouts of victory and repeated "we have Potter, we have Potter" from the Weasley twins, and looking towards Professor McGonagall she seems more radiant than ever at the new acquisition of her house. But later, her house takes the joy of welcoming the last student, Zabini, Blaise, Émile's brother, to be one of them.

While Professor McGonagall rolls up the parchment, Albus Dumbledore stands up.

"Welcome!" He says "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I want to say a few words to you. And here they are, Gaper! Cryers! Trinkets! Pinch!... Thank you very much!

He sits back down while Adelaide sighs tiredly, "do you think he'll ever say something coherent?"

"This is our third year here and I see it as something impossible." Émile says over the hubbub, making Vela laugh this time.

She doesn't really mind Albus Dumbledore's welcoming words, after all, they always signal one thing– a new, quiet, slightly carefree year at Hogwarts.