The Beginning of the End

September 1st 1971, King’s Cross

NADIA

Nadia Rosier had a hard time that day. A hard time navigating through the crowded train station all alone. A hard time trying to ignore all the chatter and noise the busy day created. But the hardest of them all was trying to pretend everything was perfectly normal. Except, nothing had been normal for a very long time. She was not even completely sure if she knew what normal was supposed to feel like.

Resilient to continue, to finally find a place quiet enough for her to sort her thoughts, she kept going with a mask of serenity. Now that was something easy enough to do. After all, Nadia had had a lot of practice in that area. The young witch had mastered the art of apathy at a very young age. 

She tried to find her way past platform 7 at the King’s Cross Station; only a few more to go. Suddenly something pushed her and made her lose her balance. Nadia had to bite her lip not to curse from the pain as she lifted the heavy trunk she had dropped on her foot. Persefone, her long-eared owl, expressed her discontent with a low hoot. The poor owl was at the edge of panic as her cage had slipped to the ground rolling on its side. Nadia turned 180 degrees to find out what or who was stupid enough to disturb her. Did people have no manners nowadays, thought the 11-year-old. She found herself facing two, identical young men. For a moment she thought the feared had happened and she had finally lost her mind. 

Then one of the boys moved to pick the owl cage from the ground. “Bloody hell, my bad, little one.” he grinned as he handed the cage back to Nadia. “What do we have here? A teeny tiny first-grader, eh Gid?”, the first boy said over his shoulder to his brother, twin brother, Nadia realised. 

“Oh Fab, me lad, I think that is correct”, the second brother chimed in with an alarmingly big grin on his face. “Shall I be a gentleman and help this innocent child take her first steps into the marvellous school life?”

“Oi! We both know I am the chivalrous one.” his twin protested. The boys started arguing in a joking manner. This granted Nadia some time to give a proper look at the pair. They were both fairly tall and had ridiculously coloured hair. It was a shade of red so bright it seemed to be handpicked just to help spot someone from a crowd. The twins were in the middle of lively conversation smirking and grinning more than many others did their whole lifetime.

Realising she was just a punchline in a running joke between the brothers, Nadia decided to make an exit, preferably unnoticed. Nadia gathered her things and was just about to head to her original destination, just a few platforms away when the bickering twins noticed her absence. 

“Oh, and where are you headed to, little one?” one of the boys raised his eyebrow. “A tad rude to decline the company of Fabian and Gideon Prewet, innit? Now I know Gideon here is a bit of a pain in the arse but I am perfectly adorable”.

“Oi, shut your mouth, will ya!” the other twin, presumably Gideon exclaimed. “And you, young lady, what are you planning to do in that direction?”, he nodded towards the platforms with increasing numbers, including 9. 

Nadia had never considered herself an extremely lucky person. However, she felt like her luck had plummeted to new levels of low today. Only she would get herself into trouble within five minutes of her first school day. And with Prewetts . 

Considering that avoiding confrontation had gotten her nowhere so far, Nadia decided to finally open her mouth. “Well, I am not aware if the two of you can count but to my knowledge platform 9 ¾ is in that direction”, she pointed. 

“Oh, look at that Fab, we’ve got a one with a sense of humour!”

“Marvelous! Oh, but we should warn her, right?”

Nadia thought to herself that the only thing she needed a warning of was the unnecessary encounter with the Prewett twins. But it was too late for that. She sighed and decided humouring the boys was the easiest way out of the situation.

“Indeed, Gid”, Fabian Prewett continued now with a serious face. “Haven’t you heard, little one? They changed the platform. Unlike other years, this year the Hogwarts Express leaves from the platform 7 ⅝.”

“Platform 7 ⅝”, Nadia repeated, irritation was raising in her veins threatening to make the girl lose her patience. 

“Oh, yes”, Gideon Prewett lowered his voice as if to reveal a big secret. “According to our sources, the platform 9 ¾ is out of use.You know, due to the beginning of the year party the headmaster hosted for the staff on the train last night. The place is absolutely trashed!”

Nadia was not stupid enough to believe this. However, she could see that a boy, a few feet left to them, stopped right in his tracks to eavesdrop on their conversation. She was a bit amused seeing his horrified expression as the boy kept looking back and forth between the train ticket in his hand and the twins. 

She turned back to the twins. They didn’t look so bad anymore. “So, if that is true, I better go warn the rest of them at the 9 ¾.”, she wondered aloud. 

Surprised by the turn of events, the boys raised their eyebrows. “Yes, yes you definitely should”, Fabian said while trying to look around to find the catch. Gideon was squinting his eyes at Nadia. 

“I better hurry! If the platform changed, maybe the time of departure changed, too”, after saying this she rushed away from the twins. As she passed the panicky, young boy, she noticed him scurry away in the opposite direction. Nadia might have felt bad if she wasn’t too busy putting distance between herself and the place she called home. 

~*~

REMUS

Remus had made himself a list for the day. He always made lists for days like this. First days . The tricky part was that he had lost the piece of parchment before he even left the house. Now he felt a bit lost without a clear structure for the day. 

Luckily he didn’t have time to feel anxious. Her mother handled that for him. Ever since the family had arrived at the platform 9 ¾, Hope Lupin had been either captivated by every little detail only a non-magical person would care to notice (“Oh Remus, isn’t it fascinating how one can just walk through a brick wall!”) or worried about her only child leaving home for the first time (“Is homeschooling really not on the table, Lyall?”).  This kept both Remus and his father, Lyall, rather busy the whole morning. 

The parting was dreadful for both Remus and his parents, but for very different reasons. Lyall Lupin was not a man of emotion and preferred to stay that way. After patting his son awkwardly on the shoulder, he stepped back to let the boy’s mother say a proper goodbye. Hope thought this must be the hardest day of her life. How could she let her precious boy go all alone to a strange place no matter how amazing the boy’s father claimed it to be? For Remus, all this was horrifying for a whole nother reason. Despite loving his parents very much, no 11-year-old wants to be seen hugging his mother in public for too long. Remus Lupin was not an exclusion. After a few dreadful minutes, he freed himself from Hope’s embrace. “Bye Mum, bye Dad”, he managed to say suddenly feeling a lump in his throat. Remus promised himself not to look back as he stepped on the train. 

“Peter, is that you?” a boy stuck his head out of one of the compartments as soon as Remus entered the carriage. “Oh, sorry mate, thought you were someone else”, he continued after realising Remus was indeed not Peter , whoever that was.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as the boys just shyly stared at each other. Remus was suddenly very aware of his worn-out clothes standing next to this new boy who was dressed like there was a posh party to attend. The boy ran his hands through his dark hair. Remus was not sure if it made his hair look a bit tidier or made things even worse. Just as their shared moment was turning into a bit excruciating, someone else entered the carriage. This startled both of the  boys and they turned their attention to the stranger. 

The newest addition to the carriage looked at the other boys with a bit of amusement in his eyes. He somehow seemed to be aware of the awkward atmosphere but that didn’t seem to bother him. He took his time to get his luggage sorted before turning to the boys with a sly smile, “Alright, lads?”

Remus nodded. The other boy came out of his compartment, “Yes, hello, we were just getting acquainted. I am James Potter. And this is...”, he turned to Remus and blushed suddenly realising mid-sentence that he had no idea who Remus was. 

“Remus Lupin”, Remus offered. 

“Pleased to meet you both. My name is Sirius. Sirius Black”

Remus noticed the boy’s natural confidence was taken down a notch by the mention of his own last name. The name caused a reaction in James that Remus didn’t fully comprehend. The boy's eyes widened but he didn’t say anything. 

“Both first-graders, too?” Sirius asked, now leaning to the wall his arms crossed. Was it possible to seem cool while looking bored?

Both Remus and James nodded. 

“So, shall we sit down, or do you lads tend to take all your train rides standing?” Sirius smirked. 

James seemed to be snapped out of a trance. “Oh, of course, you can join me and my friend Peter here”, he said as he opened the compartment door to them.

Remus and Sirius gathered their trunks and bags. Sirius had a beautiful, boreal owl in a golden cage. They followed James into his compartment. It was empty. It occurred to Remus, that James might have an imaginary friend named Peter. 

“So, mate”, Sirius looked around, “does your friend own an invisibility cloak, or what?”

James smiled mischievously. “No, Peter just stepped out before you two showed up. Said he left something at the platforms”, he explained. 

This was good enough for Remus and Sirius. They sat down opposite each other. James was still standing at the door, hesitant. “Make yourselves comfortable, I’ll go check on Peter”, he smiled politely before heading back out. 

“Ten galleons Potter just wanted to get away from us”, Sirius winked. 

Painfully aware of the fact that he did not have ten galleons, Remus just smiled at him. This didn’t seem to upset Sirius. They fell into a comfortable silence and for the first time that day, Remus had time to think. He had tried to run away from the voices in his head telling him going to a school with other wizards and witches was a bad idea. Now that he was sitting in silence, the voices seemed to have caught up with him. Maybe this was a mistake. It was hard to believe it was anything but a mistake. Although, a part of Remus had been excited to go. To finally feel normal like his peers. And his father really wanted him to go. He might not have said that to Remus, but he knew. So here he was. If there was even a slight chance to make his father proud of him after everything that had happened, Remus would make sure not to fail. 

Remus was deep in his thoughts when he suddenly realised Sirius was staring at him questioningly. 

“So, Remus Lupin, do you want to go have a look at the rest of the train with me? Or is your own head enough company for you?” Sirius asked, smiling.

Shrugging Remus got up and followed Sirius out of the compartment. He was happy to occupy his mind before it decided to circle back to a certain problem, looming only a few days away. 

~*~

NADIA

Things were finally ideal, Nadia thought. She had gotten rid of the Prewett twins. She had found herself an empty compartment. She was just about to start the first chapter of M agical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger when the compartment door opened.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the notorious Miss Rosier”, the voice said. Nadia recognised that voice, how could she not. No other person had a voice so full of pure sarcasm and amused sneer. She had learned to avoid the voice and it’s obnoxious owner. She mentally slapped herself for letting her guard down. 

“Black”, she answered without raising her eyes from the book. She made the point of articulating the name clear and slow.

“What no proper greeting?” the boy teased. Apparently, he had invited himself to sit down opposite Nadia.

“Did you give a proper kiss goodbye to your mother dearest?” Nadia mimicked the boy’s innocent voice. She finally faced the boy who was already staring at her. His grin faded into a polite smile. The piercing grey eyes would have made Nadia uncomfortable if she was not so skilled at staying unimpressed. 

“I didn’t see your parents at the platform. Maybe I should go back to say hello to Mr and Mrs Rosier?”, Sirius raised his eyebrow. 

Nadia hadn’t seen Sirius Black for a long time. The Rosier family had drifted apart from the other pureblood families long ago. When they were younger, Sirius was a recurring nightmare at the gatherings of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The boy would constantly get on her nerves. Somehow Sirius Black seemed to be the only person outside of her family who knew exactly how to get under Nadia’s skin. The years did not seem to have changed him either. Although, Nadia could not help but notice the obvious differences between the 7-year-old and the 11-year-old Black heir. It seemed like a cheeky joke of fortune that somehow even puberty was in Sirius Black’s favour. He was now, even sitting, a bit taller than Nadia. His face was more defined, downright touting the newly found jawline to the world. But inside was the same old Sirius who had spent all his time at the gatherings planning a practical joke of sorts to the disdain of the adults. And Nadia. 

Someone coughed at the door. Both Nadia and Sirius looked up. A boy was standing there looking lost. Judging by his posture he looked like he wished he could disappear into thin air. Nadia looked between the boy and Sirius for an explanation. The latter seemed to have just now remembered his friend. 

“Oh, Nadia, this is Remus Lupin. Remus, this is Nadia Rosier, a family friend”

Nadia almost huffed at the word friend but kept her focus on the new boy. He seemed harmless enough in his noticeably old clothes and a bit orphan-like manner. Nadia would have guessed that the boy, Remus, was not a pureblood. That made her ease up a little and she forced herself to be kind, well kinder than usual anyway. 

“To what do I owe this pleasure, gentlemen?”, she had to remind herself not to roll her eyes.

“Remus and I decided to pay visits to our fellow students, that’s all”, Sirius explained. Remus did not comment on this. It didn’t seem to bother Sirius to do the talking, though. Actually, nothing ever seemed to bother Sirius Black.

“Well, I believe there are more students for you to cover and you’re on a limited time”, Nadia reminded, to get rid of her uninvited guests. To highlight her words the train let out a whistle and began to slowly move. It was 11 o’clock.

Remus looked relieved for an excuse to leave. Sirius got up rather resistantly but for once did not protest. Before stepping out, the Black boy turned back once more. “See you around, Rosier”, he said with his signature smirk.

Nadia Rosier was finally left alone. She looked out of the window. The sunny day seemed like a bad omen, though she might be the only one who thought so. The platform was still filled with families who were not ready to let their children out of their sight just yet. Nadia wondered what that might feel like. She watched the sea of weeping parents, overly excited siblings and last-minute embraces through the train window. She let herself relax only when the platform could no longer be seen. The city of London slowly changed into endless fields on the horizon. It was only then when she left out a breath she had no idea she was holding. It was like finally bursting out of a bubble that had been suffocating her. Nadia Rosier could now breathe freely for the first time in her life as she closed her eyes from the world of busy platforms and cold houses.