Similarities
Alicia pulled her heavy, dark brown trunk out of the car and slammed the door shut. She could hear people yelling and cars honking, the noise was giving her a headache. Kings Cross was getting more crowded with every year, but somehow this was the first time it had bothered her. The feeling of her sweatshirt moving against her chest, the laces on her left shoe getting looser and looser with every step she took towards platform 9 3/4, strangers brushing past her shoulders- it made her feel sick to her stomach. With shaking hands and legs that felt like they were about to give in, Alicia pushed her cart through the barriers and stepped out into the group of wizards and witches and their kids. Unlike the last two Septembers she had arrived a lot earlier than usual. It was 10:15 am and the train wouldn’t leave the station for another 45 minutes. Still, the teenager was glad that Uncle Vernon had dropped her off early. That way she could not only secure a compartment all to herself, but also continue reading her potions book. Despite her utter failure in muggle chemistry lessons Alicia managed to perform quite well during her potions classes. To her it was less of a “which magical plant reacts in what way with this dried insect” thing, but more like classical baking. One step at a time, one ingredient after another. Simple, straightforward and something that came to her rather naturally. These similarities to baking made it easy for her to grasp potion making, quickly turning her into one of Snape’s favoured students. He would never admit to it but Alicia knew that she was the only Gryffindor the professor could stand even remotely. That, and her love for fake-baking as a subject was why she had continued researching anything even closely related to potion making. And so she found herself sitting in a compartment at the back of the Hogwarts Express reading her secondhand copy of Advanced Potion-Making.
It hadn’t taken long for the first wave of students to appear. Most of them had already been standing on the platform when Alicia arrived at the station, though they had waited until their friends arrived to board the train. Trunks were being heaved up the stairs, windows were being pulled down and kids had started yelling to each other whenever they found an empty compartment. Occasionally an older member of Slytherin house, and sometimes even a few Gryffindors, shot Alicia an angry glare. They were mad at her for occupying a whole compartment while their huge friend groups had to squeeze in somewhere else, but the third year didn’t care. If they so desperately wanted to share a compartment with their friends, her upper classmates would have to show up to the train station earlier. Besides, anything above four people in one compartment was unreasonable. So, the brown haired girl tried to avert her gaze back onto her pages, hoping for the storm outside the door to settle. However that didn’t work out as well as she had hoped. Soon her attention was brought back to her surroundings by a door being slammed shut, apparently someone had forgotten to close it. It was 10:58am and the trains door had been closed for 8 minutes now. Then her compartment door slid open and in front of her stood a scrawny looking man who sounded like he had just run a marathon. “Sorry- the driver- there’s no space left at the front-“ the man was heaving, his breath was coming out in short whistles in between each word. It took him what seemed like an eternity to finally calm down before he managed to ask: “May I sit here?”
Alicia stopped for a moment, put her book aside, then eyed the man standing in the doorway and replied: “Sure.” The scrawny guy looked relieved. Shooting a quick “thank you” into the girls direction he stored his shabby looking trunk onto the storage shelf above the seats and sitting down across from the Gryffindor. He was still breathing heavily, though it seemed less horrifying than when he first stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. His pants were a washed out shade of brown, slowly falling apart near the ankle. His tweed jacket was in a similar condition, with the only difference that multicoloured patches could be found all over it. His hairline was slowly receding; strands of grey hair covering the usual brown. The scars on his face, his bony fingers and the bags under his eyes made him look as miserable as Alicia was feeling. She knew him - she had seen his face before. His name was Remus Lupin and he had been in her dream. The one that seemed so real. The one that made her fear this start of term. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and slowly raised her voice. “You’re Remus Lupin right?” He seemed taken aback. No one ever knew who he was, not since Lily and- No. This could not be happening. She knew him. And he knew her. Though the two of them had never met before, at least not since the downfall of Voldemort. Remus couldn’t decipher the look on the teenagers face. One brow was arched, her head was slightly tilted to the side and her mouth was pulled into a thin line. He shook his head in disbelieve before stuttering: “Uhm- yeah, I am.” Alicia chuckled. She couldn’t believe what was happening right in front of her eyes. When a confused frown appeared on her opposites face she pinched the skin of her hand, shortly closed her eyes and then elaborated: “Well either this is still all a dream or I’m slowly turning into Sybill Trelawney“ Now it was Lupins turn to chuckle. “Ah, I see. I might not know what your dream was about but I can assure you that it’s rather unlikely for you to turn into Sybill Trelawney. Unless of course you were brewing Polyjuice Potion with her hair as an ingredient.” At the mention of Polyjuice Potion Alicia’s heart skipped a beat. Her last encounter with the potion had not been too long ago and she was still rather disgusted by it. “How-“ Remus gave her a kind smile. “Your book. You seem to like potions.” Oh. She nodded, trying to end the conversation before the stranger, who, in the end, wasn’t really a stranger, would question her even more and eventually uncover her secret brewing experiments. It wouldn’t end well, especially considering it would mean Snape getting informed through one person or another. Alicia knew he couldn’t stand unsafe brewing and trying potions inside an abandoned bathroom seemed like the worst form of it.
Glad that the conversation had ended, the Gryffindor reached out toward her book when Lupin caught her attention again. “Were the prefects informed on the new professors beforehand and told you about it or how come you know who I am?” She didn’t want him to think he kept her from going back to reading so Alicia pretended to put her book away into her bag. “No they were not informed beforehand. And even if they were, there are better ways to find out about those matters than trying to bribe the prefects for information. You were a friend of my parents. Hagrid gave me a photo book and beneath one of the group pictures from the wedding your name was written. Any other questions.” Remus couldn’t believe his ears. Mini Reid knew about him. All those years he had spent trying to reason with himself to forget about her, to finally accept he couldn’t be a part of her life because she didn’t remember him- he had been wrong. Alicia Reid knew about him. A smile had crept up on his face, slightly hiding the dark bags beneath his brown eyes. “You really are like Lily, knowing everything and everyone.” The teenager shot him an irritated glance. No one seemed to understand that she was further away from being like her parents that she was from actually turning into Trelawney. “Yeah. Anyways, I still have to write quite a few pages for my homework so if you don’t mind…” That confused Remus. He had expected to be questioned to death by the girl, but somehow she didn’t seem to want to know anything about her parents at all. The man didn’t understand. Maybe he was too excited to be able to share his favourite memories with his best friends child that he had missed something crucial. Anyways he would find out.