Waiting for a new embarrassment to go and tear right through me
1st September 1976
It was just like always; whenever Genesis had an important event or appointment, her alarm seemed to not work. Though it probably had to do more with the fact that she went to sleep very late.
But that was hardly her fault! Who wouldn’t be nervous about joining a new school, especially one where ‘transfer’ students were a rare occurrence? She even tried to go to bed early, but her mind couldn't seem to rest; not even the 3 cigarettes or calming tea helped. It was also too late to ask her grandpa for some sleeping draught, and as much as she wanted, taking some of the Valium that Max got her a few weeks ago wasn’t that smart either. Sure, they would help her fall asleep, but the effects always lasted at least half of the next day, and that was not what Genesis wanted at all.
So instead she stayed up until at least two in the morning; that was the last time she checked the time, so probably even longer.
Besides the nerves that played part in her inability to sleep, there also was the fact that her bedroom still didn’t feel like it really was hers. Sure, the townhouse in Mayfair was nice and all, but it still wasn’t the one she spent most of her life in. It also was furnished in mostly new furniture as they couldn’t, or in her grandpa's situation, not wanting to, take many pieces of furniture with them.
So falling asleep so late made her not hear-, maybe actually just turning it off when half asleep and not remembering that, -her alarm clock. So when her grandpa woke her up an hour after she planned to, she obviously was in a hurry. Luckily she for once listened to the advice of Grandpa and packed her suitcase already, so all she had to do was get dressed and eat something or drink a coffee.
Maybe she took too much time getting dressed, as the only thing she managed to do before leaving was chugging the lukewarm coffee that was made 30 minutes ago for her by the house-elf Nixa.
She left technically with enough time to board the Hogwarts Express after taking the tube. But luck really wasn’t on Genesis' side that morning; someone on the metro before hers apparently had a medical emergency, which caused her to only have a few minutes to get to platform 9¾ and board the train.
Arriving at platforms 9 and 10 Genesis was confused at first, not seeing platform 9¾ until remembering what her grandpa told her. She skeptically looked at the seemingly solid wall in front of her. Taking a look around to see if anyone was watching, she took a deep breath, grabbed her suitcase, and ran straight at the wall.
After opening her eyes, the sight of a red train directly caught her eye. It reminded her of the trains you’d see in western movies. Letting her eyes wander to the people on there, she noticed the only ones still on the platform seemed to be parents and some siblings. Looking at the watch on her wrist, the minute hand was already on the last line before reaching the 12. Instantly hurrying to the closest door, she thanks her grandpa in her head for putting a spell on her luggage to make it light as if it were empty. At least this time luck was on her side as the door closed directly after Genesis got on.
Catching her breath, she looks around the moving train. Some students were still walking through the corridor, looking into each compartment to find their friends. Although maybe she should have tried to find a compartment she could sit in, the bathroom seemed like the best choice at the moment.
Putting her suitcase on the closed toilet lid and locking the door, she saw herself in the mirror. Her jet-black hair that reached the middle of her back looked a bit messy, and her wispy bangs were not laying how Genesis likes it. Rummaging through her purse, she pulled out a small bag containing basic makeup products. Using a bit of ivory-colored concealer, she covered her dark undereyes and freckles. Her best friend Eve always told her how pretty the freckles are and how they remind Eve of the night sky, but it was obvious that was just a lie to make Genesis feel better.
Not wanting to overdo it, she put on a bit of powder to make the concealer less obvious. Applying a trick someone from her hometown taught her, she used powder meant for people with a darker complexion than hers to ‘contour’ her nose, even slightly accentuating her cheekbones. Using a small amount of blush to make her look a bit more alive, she finally could try out a new product she bought the day before. It was a sparkling pearly eyeshadow that is lighter and finer than the one Genesis was using before. Putting it on the top of her nose and cheekbones complemented the contour she did before.
Doing the rest of her everyday look, she put on some kajal on her water line and around her brown eyes to blend it with a small brush, making it seem artfully smudged to someone who doesn’t know much about make-up. The eyelash curler reminds the girl of a torture device from the Middle Ages, but without it, her eyelashes don't look like much. Putting mascara on her upper and lower lashes and using a dark red lipstick on the middle of her lips and smudging that with her finger to lighten the color while avoiding harsh lines, the look was completed.
After fixing her hair and spraying the lotus flower and white tea perfume that she forgot to put on in the hurry that morning, Genesis stepped out into the corridor.
Although only taking 10 minutes, the corridors were mostly empty. Walking through the train trying to find a compartment that wasn’t filled with younger students and had a space available, she notices a pair of boys standing at an opened door. Getting closer, she could hear the blonde one speaking to someone sitting in the compartment. “-on, we always sit together on the way to Hogwarts!”. “Stop acting so childish, Evan; we share a room; you will see me often enough,” replied the boy flatly, whom Genesis still couldn’t see. The second one of the pair in the corridor, a bit taller than the other and with brown hair instead of blonde, joked with a grin: “You know we could never get enough of you, Reg." From where she was walking, the girl couldn’t tell if he winked, but it certainly seemed so. “Also Pandora is neither in our dorm nor in our house.” A sigh was heard, presumably from ‘Reg’. “Just leave it be; I’ll catch u-”. Genesis didn’t feel too bad when she interrupted the boy she finally saw. “Excuse me, I need to get past you," told Gene to the boys blocking the way.
Immediately feeling multiple eyes on her, the black-haired girl kept looking at the two boys blocking the way. “Can’t you see they were in the middle of a conversation?” asked a gruff voice that belonged to a boy she couldn’t see from where she was standing. "Well, that doesn’t mean they should block the way, does it?” Her words apparently upset the boy, but one look from ‘Reg’ was enough to make him sit back down. “Are you American?" ‘Evan’ questioned while scanning her up and down. “Apparently a mudblood one too,” he added after seeing the self-made queen t-shirt she was wearing. Her gaze turned cold, and the next words weren’t said in the same soft tone as her request before. “Yes, and you’re apparently a blood racist." With that, the already tense atmosphere got even heavier. Noticing the stare on her, Genesis looked directly into the gray eyes of the boy that the boys tried to convince to sit with them. A few seconds pass, and no one moves. “Just let her through. She’s not worth it, so calm down, Barty.” ‘Barty’, the brown-haired one, stopped looking like he was about to go off on her and instead got grabbed by ‘Evan’ and pulled towards the compartment door, letting Genesis walk past them.
All Gene could think was, “Why are the cute ones always assholes?”
After walking further down the train, Genesis finally found a compartment with a bit of space and not being occupied by 12- to 13-year-olds. Knocking on the door before opening it, for the second time she felt a group of boys looking at her.
“Hello, can I sit with you guys? I’ve been trying to find somewhere to sit for the last 10 minutes, and the only free spaces were with first-year students." Genesis asked with a calm voice, but internally she was freaking out, the situation with the boys in the corridor still on her mind. She probably would start to cry if they were rude too.
The one with glasses responds with a smile. “Sure! Though our friend will join us in a while, but it shouldn't be too cramped.” after exchanging looks with the other two.
Genesis exhales the breath she unconsciously held. “Thank you so much!” She expressed her gratitude while giving each boy a smile. Remembering she didn’t introduce herself, she quickly started talking again: “By the way, I’m Genesis Dowflower, but you can call me Gene if you want!” “Like the band?” asked the guy next to her while she sat down. Looking at him, she saw how similar he looked to one of the guys earlier. His eyes were the same shade of gray, and the hair structure was similar as well, maybe a bit curlier than the one she saw earlier. But the hair of the one she was looking at now was longer, reaching his shoulder. And instead of an expressionless face and a cold gaze, he looked relaxed and wore a smile.
"Yes! Although I do have to ask, since you look similar to someone I met earlier who doesn’t seem phased by the word ‘Mudblood’, you aren’t a blood supremacist, right?” While saying that the smile on the boys’ faces disappeared and Gene wanted to punch herself. Way to ruin the mood, just after they welcomed her to sit with them. They probably think the same, and she’d have to search the train for a free seat again.
“That probably was my brother Regulus; he still believes in that crap,” answered the long haired one with a sigh. “And no, you don’t need to worry; we don’t care about that stuff.” Genesis visibly relaxed at that, and so did the rest too after seeing that.
“Oh, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m James Potter; that's Peter Pettigrew,” he pointed at the shorter, chubby boy with dark blond hair next to him, “and the one beside you is Sirius Black.”
Peter gave a small wave, and Sirius grinned at her. “And are you American? And are you a transfer student?” James asked eagerly.
Gene chuckled lightly at his curiosity. "Yes, I’m American, but I don’t think I count as a transfer student.” Gene wasn’t sure about the last part, but technically she wasn’t a transfer. Confusion painted the faces of the trio. “But if you’re American, you went to Ilvermorny, right? And wouldn’t you now going to Hogwarts make you a transfer student?” Peter questioned.
"Well, that’s the thing. I didn’t go to Ilvermorny; my family and I just assumed that I’m a squib as I didn't show any sign of magic.” Looking away from Peter, she noticed that James furrowed his brows at that. “But at the start of this year I started showing magic without trying. Kind of like kids do before they learn to control it,” continued the girl.
“But that’s impossible!” exclaimed Sirius. "Also, didn’t you say you were a muggle born? So why did your parents assume you would be a squib?” Gene looked at him confused. It took her a second to understand what Sirius meant. He was just about to explain his question after noticing her confusion when Gene finally spoke up. "Ohhh, you meant when I complained about someone using the word 'mudblood’?” Sirius nodded. “Everyone in my family grew up using magic, except my grandma, who was a muggleborn but also only discovered her magic after turning 15. That Evan guy, or whatever his name was, noticed my shirt and just assumed that I’m a muggleborn from that.” Her explanation turned more into complaining at the second part.
Only now noticing the Queen shirt the American was wearing, Sirius exclaimed, “Queen is so good! Was the first muggle band I got into, actually. Though this summer I discovered this one ba-” James cut him off, firstly knowing that Sirius would start rambling, and secondly, he himself was still confused about one thing: “But why go to Hogwarts instead of Ilvermorny? Wouldn’t that be closer and easier in general?” Neither Peter nor Sirius thought about that apparently, as Peter muttered just that with Sirius nodding and agreeing.
Gene wasn’t sure about how to reply, remembering what her grandpa told her about speaking about the main reason for moving to London to start at Hogwarts. A moment passed with the three boys looking at her questioningly before she settled on not lying but not telling the whole truth either: “Mostly because my grandpa wasn’t happy with the education my parents got there and we were going to move anyway.” After a second, she added, “My grandparents went to Hogwarts, so maybe he is just biased, but I’m not complaining since I grew up with stories about their school time. Though I do miss my friends.” Sensing that it would probably not be sensible to question her further on that topic, the three looked at each other once more.
James, who apparently is good at not letting awkwardness affect him, brought up a safer topic. “So you probably know about the four houses then. Which one do you think you will get sorted into?” Gene has thought about that a lot actually, so she was quick to reply, “Probably Slytherin-" Not noticing the looks the boys gave her, she continued. “-As it’s the house both my grandparents were sorted into, and as far as my grandpa knew, his family has always been sorted into that.” Glancing shortly at Sirius, James responded, “The same was told about Sirius’ family too, and he still got sorted into Gryffindor with me, Peter, and our friend Remus.” Looking at the three, she could understand how they were sorted into Gryffindor, though Peter's timid attitude would probably fit into Hufflepuff too.
Not really wanting to talk about her grandpa's family Gene just replied with an “I guess we will see at the sorting,” and quickly changed the topic back to music. If the three Gryffindors noticed that, they kept quiet about it.
After about an hour or two, the door opened and the conversation stopped. A tall, lanky teenager entered the compartment but stopped after noticing Genesis. Sirius excitedly introduced them to each other: "Gene, this is Remus Lupin, the fourth of the marauders; Remus, this is Gene, a new student from America!” Remus nodded to her as a greeting while she smiled and greeted him. Sirius moved closer to her to make space for Remus to sit at the window.
"So, Moony, how was the prefect meeting?” asked James, though it seemed more like teasing than genuine interest. Remus sighed, “It was unnecessarily long. Aubrey and Tolper got the headboy and headgirl positions, so you can guess why it took so long.” Peter snickered at his friend's misery. “So just Bertram proposing an idea nobody likes, and Tolper telling him that?” “Exactly, though this time he apparently sent a draft of his idea to McGonagall, and she already signed off on it.” While Remus was talking, she observed him. Like her, he seemed tired but not the kind of tired from going to sleep late one night. No, it was the tiredness you get after going through exhausting situations without any time for a break. The hair his hand went through was brown and messy. The messiness made him look cute instead of not put together. The most eye-catching feature were the scars on his face though; they were almost pearly compared to his skin tone, which wasn’t really tanned either.
“He had the fantastic idea to mix up the pairs for patrol. So now the Houses don’t partner up like the years before, Gryffindor with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw with Slytherin. "Looking at Gene for the last part, making her give him a grateful smile. “All houses pair up with the other houses twice. And he obviously already paired everyone up.” Remus stopped talking after that. When he noticed everyone looking at him confused, he nodded towards the door. Somebody knocked at it, and all the boys rummaged through their pockets or bags. About to ask what they were doing, a lady opened the door. “Can I offer you some sweets?” she asked with a warm smile. Peter and James bought some chocolate frogs, Sirius got some flavored beans and five sugar quills, and Remus asked for two bars of dark chocolate. Seeing her favorite ‘wizard’ candy, she reached into her bag and pulled out a few silver coins; they’re called Sickles if she remembered right. Paying for 7 jelly slugs and putting the change back into her wallet, she focused on Remus again. Remus continued talking after the trolley witch closed the door: “Back to Aubrey’s great idea; he was at least decent enough to not pair up Lily or the other muggleborns with anyone from Slytherin. I have the great honor to patrol with Lianne Greengrass.” From the grimace on the faces of the other boys, Genesis guessed that the Greengrass girl wasn’t a joy to be around.
There was one thing that she wanted to ask but didn’t want to ruin the mood. As far as she could tell, the house dynamic in Hogwarts isn’t as great as back in the late 1800s, when her grandparents were students. So instead of bringing that up, she asked about the weird nicknames they gave each other.
“By the way, what are the marauders? You guys have mentioned that name multiple times along with those nicknames.” Sirius teasingly grinned at her, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Due to Remus’ arrival, they were closer to each other, so when he turned to look her in the eyes, she was surprised by the proximity. They were so close that she could see the faint mole under the outer corner of his left eye. Feeling herself blush, she was too flustered to speak and could see Sirius’ grin widening. “You have the honor to sit with the coolest group in Hogwarts, the marauders,” he said, and Gene couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.
Too tired for the blatant flirting, Remus spoke with a sigh, “Don’t listen to him; it’s just what McGonagall called us after we got caught sneaking around.” It doesn’t seem that Remus likes her very much, as far as Gene could tell. He barely talked to her, and when he did, it was only shortly, and this time he said it in such a flat tone, so all she did was mutter a small thanks.
Listening to the conversation around her while leaning her head against the wall, her tiredness caught up to her and she fell asleep.
When she woke up, she felt calloused hands on her arm shaking her awake. Opening her eyes, she saw James smiling after noticing his method worked. “Good morning!” he joked, but then told her that it was time to change.
Walking to the next bathroom with her suitcase in her hand, she was happy to see it was only 3 doors to the left from the compartment she shared. Locking the door and changing into her uniform, she took a look in the mirror to see if her makeup was still intact. Unsurprisingly, her mascara was a bit smudged, and her lipstick needed to be reapplied. Getting the school robes out of her suitcase, she quickly put them, before fixing and reapplying her makeup. Neating up her hair while she walked back to the compartment.
She opened the door, and the conversation ceased immediately. It was obvious that they were talking about her. Reviewing all the interactions she had with the Gryffindors, she found countless embarrassing moments; no wonder that they don't like her.
“We are there in 5 minutes,” said James, “you can just leave your luggage here and it will be in your assigned room." Nodding quietly, Genesis sat back down, listening to the boys talking about some girl named Lily. Hearing the noise from outside, she said goodbye to the marauders with the excuse that she wants to leave the train as one of the first. That isn’t untrue, as she wants to be one of the first to leave because she still doesn’t know where to go after or if she would be picked up.
Getting off the train after 3 young girls, she looked around the station of Hogsmeade to find out where she was supposed to go. “Genesis Dowflower?” called out a male voice to her left. Seeing a giant man, she walked over to him. “I’m Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts.” The bearded man introduced himself with a smile. Instantly liking him, Gene smiled back and introduced herself. After all the students got off the train, she heard Hagrid shout, “First years to me!”
As all the first years plus Genesis stood around him, Hagrid led them to boats that they were supposed to ride. Being the only non-first year she was seated in front of Hagrid.
Although she heard the stories of the beauty of Hogwarts, nothing could have prepared her for that amazing view.
So this was Hogwarts.