chapter one
platform nine and three quarters was overflowing with people.
first years and their families weeping into each other’s shoulders. friends reuniting after exhausting months apart. brags of vacations taken abroad and freshly learnt cultures. a pair of best friends searching for their third piece in the sea of wizards and witches.
jarvis felt a tug on his arm. ana was at his side, looking up at him with a grim smile. his heart sped up as he thought of their missing friend.
“i don’t think she’s here, jarvis,” ana said, pulling him toward the open train doors. “she’s probably already in our normal compartment. i’m sure she’s just fine, i mean, she just sent us each letters a couple days ago.”
“you know her parents, they could do anything with a snap of their fingers,” he grumbled out, his hands playing with the bottom of his frayed jacket. his mom has sewn up the breaking sutures, but they had tumbled into unevenness once again. he would have to ask nyx for help again. if they could find her.
“i’m sure she’s fine, jarvis,” ana said, her voice coming out more exhausted than she had intended. she hadn’t meant to be annoyed with him, but she couldn’t help it. they could only stay positive. nyx had a habit of dropping off the face of the earth for a couple weeks at a time and ana knew that was what this was. she didn’t want to think of what it would mean if that wasn’t the answer. “let’s just get to our compartment and decide from there.”
jarvis could only nod in agreement. nyx witcher and her disappearing tendencies would surely be the death of him. he couldn’t help the worry that held his heart hostage, digging it’s claws into his emotions. it shoved a fist into his throat and he felt the product of that line his waterline. nyx’s last letter had been vague, a scary sort of vague. she had assured them she was okay, but that had been a lie before.
how could this be different?
his hands shook at an ever increasing rate as they neared their normal compartment. they had sat in the same compartment on every train ride since their first year, it had long been claimed as theirs. five, nearing on six, years of memories were ingrained in those uncomfortable seats and beige walls.
they stopped in front of their door and jarvis gestured to it, allowing ana to slide open the compartment door. they both felt the anvil’s on their chests be lifted by merlin himself.
nyx witcher was alive. not well, but alive.
she slept, her back turned to the compartment door. jarvis would have went over and shook her himself to ensure her heart was beating if he hadn’t seen the shallow breaths she took in far increments. she was breathing, that’s all that mattered.
he tip toed in, carefully lifting his and ana’s trunks into the space above the bench seat that mirrored nyx’s. he tried his best to be quiet, knowing that the more sleep nyx could get, the better. that girl had perpetual dark circles under her eyes that she tried to hide unsuccessfully with concealer. he and ana sat down slowly, ensuring that the seat beneath them wouldn’t creak before relaxing slowly.
“you guys know i am not sleeping, right?” nyx asked, still not turning around.
her voice was hoarse, as if she had been screaming for hours on end. jarvis and ana elected not to ask.
“of course, we did, nyx-y poo!” jarvis said, his previous concerned demeanor falling away into something much more cheerful and fake. “we were just trying to…sneak attack you.”
“funny,” nyx droned. “let us not forget what happened the last time you tried to do that.”
jarvis shivered, his hand ghosting over the scar on his side. he and ana had thought they were really funny back in their third and second year respectively. they learned very quickly not to fuck with a focused nyx.
“how was each of your summers?” nyx asked, sitting and turning all at once, successfully keeping the pained feeling she had off her face. “i trust they were incredibly exciting.”
“totally! i had the most fun helping my mother pull weeds out of her garden bed and feeding her sourdough starter. i’m convinced that thing is going to gain consciousness and kill me in my sleep,” jarvis said. sourdough had been his mother’s newest fixation and the target of his hatred.
“bold of you to assume that it doesn’t already have a mind of it’s own,” ana said, widening her eyes at jarvis with a sly smile. “i read one time—”
“stop there,” jarvis said, covering his face with his hands. “just, just stop there. please.”
nyx chuckled. “and you, ana. how was your summer?”
“france was lovely, per usual.” ana shrugged. “i pretty much told you everything in my letters. i had the time of my life in our manor and at the beaches. had the time of my life with a few select men and women.”
“sounds riveting,” nyx said, her lips curling up into a genuine smile reserved just for her two friends. “mine was filled with the usual. pureblood training, ballroom dancing, fittings for upcoming galas, talk of potential engagements.”
“what?” jarvis asked, tilting his head to the side. “surely, you’re still too young. don’t they normally start that shit your seventh year?”
“yeah,” ana said. being a pureblood herself, she had similar knowledge to nyx when concerning expectations of a young pureblood girl. “my parents won’t start looking until the summer before my seventh year, maybe the tail end of my sixth, but i doubt it. they’ve brought it up a couple times, but not frequently, especially considering i’m only a fifth year.”
“yes, normally they would start the summer before seventh year,” nyx said, her voice trailing off as her eyes focused on the blurs of nature flashing through the window. “but, you both know my parents, they are ever the overachievers.”
“i’m sorry, nyx,” jarvis said. “that sucks that you have to think about that, especially because this was supposed to be our easy year before we graduate next year.”
“all will be well,” nyx said, picking at the skin around her cuticules noncommitingly. “they won’t marry me off until i’m graduated, and the engagements prior to are essentially a couple gossip sessions over tea and dress shopping for the bride-to-be. i won’t be swallowed by over zealous, pureblood mothers anytime soon.”
jarvis and ana hummed in agreement. a comfortable silence settled over the compartment for a couple moments before nyx broke it by standing quickly and grabbing her sweater. the two friends exchanged a look as nyx through the sweater over her head and moved for the door.
“i’m going to grab a couple packs. do you want any, ana?” nyx asked the girl, her dark eyes, nearly black, focusing on her with a hot sort of intensity. jarvis didn’t smoke. in fact, he hated that ana and nyx did.
“yeah, grab me four packs. thank you!” ana yelled as nyx left the compartment quickly. “i’ll pay you back later.”
“no need,” nyx called back into the compartment. the hallways were empty, most likely due to the fact that people had no need to go to the bathroom or get snacks as the trainride had only just begun. most were probably catching up with friends and laughing about what the next year would bring.
it would be interesting, that much nyx was sure of.
she stopped in front of a compartment that had smoke tendrils leaking out of the unsealed portions of the door. dimitri alonso sat inside and due to that fact, she took a deep breath and stuck her wand in the depths of her pockets. she did not need to pull her wand on alonso and have a teacher walk past at the same time, leading to both of their detentions. together.
she didn’t bother knocking, instead sliding the door open to reveal a drug fest of illegal activities. alyssa mccallister took a thorough hit out of cowboy boot bong as jeremey reb snorted the last line of what nyx assumed was cocaine off the fold down table in front of him. her gaze slid over to alonso and she rolled her eyes as he jumped up to greet her, holding a hand out.
she ignored it and started at him, waiting for him to speak. he always made a fool of himself and nyx relished in the way he tried to recover from it.
he drew his hand back slowly, as if she would change her mind and take his. she would not. he smiled at her before speaking, “what can i do for you, miss witcher?”
“eight packs of marlboro lights, four packs of silk cuts,” nyx said, leaning against the doorframe.
alonso opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it as he his gaze moved to something behind her.
“greetings, dimitri.”
nyx tensed. of course the second she stepped out of the safety of her own compartment, the prick would find her. that prick being archer black. the most annoying, incomprehensable, infuriurating, grating person she had ever met. even more so than hera.
“hello, love,” archer whispered in her ear, his arms moving to either side of the compartment door, effectively caging her in. though, one well placed kick and he would be kneeling at her feet. “how was your summer?”
“glorious without you, of course,” nyx said, being careful to not move her body an inch in fear of touching the specimen behind her. “and don’t call me ‘love’, it’s the worst thing i’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.”
“no can do, love,” he whispered in her ear, uncaring that dimitri had been watching their exchange for a handful of moments now.
“what can i do for you, archer?” dimitri asked, rubbing his hands along his skinny, coked out arms.
“you can get the pretty lady what she asked for,” archer said, inching impossibly closer to nyx.
nyx ignored the heat that spread through her body and threw an elbow back into his cashmere-clad torso. he grunted in a way that made her stomach flip. she huffed out through her nose, appearing as annoyed as she possibly could.
dimitri turned around, throwing her twelve packs into a plastic bag that was decorated with a heaping of red ‘thank you!’s in a perfect arrangement on the front. he went to hand her the bag before pulling it back after noticing she hadn’t gotten her money out yet.
she tilted her head at him curiously and sweat started to bead on his forehead.
“120,” he muttered, as if he couldn’t believe the price he had decided.
“bullshit,” she said instantly, her curious stare turning into a seething glare. “it was eight per pack last year.”
“excellent mental math,” he mused, suddenly growing the balls to stand up to her. if she had to guess, it was due to his need to impress that man who stood too close to her back at that moment, lighting her skin up like a furnace. “but, you know, due to inflation and everything. i’m sure you know what that is.”
nyx’s blood sung at the mocking tone his voice held. she would run his body dry. “inflation, really? you want to know what i think is happening, alonso?”
he chuckled, but his eyes held a hint of unease. she relished in it. “what?”
“i don’t think you have as big of a supply as you did last year. that’s because of your muggle father and his recent lack of job,” nyx said, watching his eyes widen deliciously. she bent slightly, uncaring that her hips were now touching archer black. “it happened over the summer right? the first week of june, if i’m not mistaken.”
“how?” dimitri said, horror coating his features.
“you don’t want to know,” nyx said, unable to resist digging deeper in alonso’s mind, her mind honing in on the memories that flashed before her eyes. “you used to steal all his shitty cigarettes and reroll them for yourself and eventually, you got so good at it you could sell them for a profit. though, clearly not a big enough one as you’re raising your prices. maybe you’re just getting greedy though, i wouldn’t know for sure. what i do know is that me and my friends are some of your biggest customers, and without us, you would tank. so, i’m going to be merciful and give you eighty. still much more than you deserve, but enough to get you buy, right?”
the only thing dimitri could do was nod, his mind reeling. he had never told anyone that information, much less someone that would let it get back to nyx witcher. his body didn’t move as she threw her money at his feet and turned around, shouldering past archer who let his eyes linger on her retreating figure until she entered the bathroom before turning to alonso with a fierce new look in his eyes.
“hey, alonso,” archer said, snapping dimitri out of his stupor. “if you ever pull that shit on her again, you won’t only have her digging through your past. yeah?”
“yeah, man, totally,” he said breathlessly. archer lingered for a moment, giving dimitri just enough time to ask one of many questions lingering on his mind, “how many packs do you need?”
“oh, i don’t smoke.”
and with that, alonso was left reeling. nyx witcher had invaded his mind and he would get her back for it. he would make sure no one would ever know about his muggle father and his lack of income.
—
dozens of feet away from the breathless dimitri alonso, nyx witcher sat in the bathroom of the hogwarts express, inspecting the scar across her stomach that had been previously glammored away from view. her fingers brushed against the barely healed skin and she shivered at the memory of how much it ached during the first few weeks of healing.
the cuts she endured due to her familial magic would always be worse to heal than quite literally any other cut she could get. that’s why her parents were so keen on inflicting her with them.
nyx liked to pretend the world was against her and that she didn’t deserve any of the hurt that was served to her on a silver platter, but she knew the truth. she deserved every cut, curse, and profanity slung her way. it was all in preparation for the type of person she became the moment she turned eighteen. the moment she became a member of the cult she couldn’t bare to even think of.
nyx would become one of the strongest beings on the planet, and with it, she would become an evil, evil thing. something that didn’t deserve to roam the green pastures of this earth. something that should be bound to pits of the underworld, tortured day in and day out by hades most ruthless hounds.
she had seen her future, and while she had always been so intent on dividing herself from it, she knew that fate was fate and it could not be changed, nor even fractured.
she would become a god.
an awful, bloodthirsty divine being.
her self-hatred was cut short by a knock on the washroom door. she murmured something about one more minute but the door was pushed open, anyways, revealing one hermione granger. one of the only griffindors that nyx could stand to speak to.
“oh gosh! i’m so sorry, nyx,” hermione had said, baking out of the bathroom. “i didn’t hear you in there.”
“all good, hermione,” nyx said, smoothing her shirt over her glammored stomach. “should’ve spoken louder. how was your summer?”
hermione smiled. “it was nice, i visited various places in greece with my parents. i got the burn of my life, but that was to be expected in such direct sun. the ruins of athens and the history behind the greek gods was so incredibly intersting.”
nyx almost flinched at the mentions of the gods but she held herself deathly still. “my family is from greece. my grandfather was a first generation immigrant from greece, he went to school there and everything.”
“how interesting!” hermione said, unknowing of the history behind the witcher family and what it actually meant. “do you know much about the gods or your family’s heritage?”
“i know plenty, likely more than the average greek person,” nyx said, folding her arms over her chest. she itched to light a cigarette, but knew how hermione detested the scent of burning tobacco in the air. “i have been taught since a mere babe about various aspects of greek history, especially that concerning mythology.”
“you’ll have to let me pick your brain at some point, then,” hermione said cheerfully. nyx didn’t detesete the idea of speaking with hermione about the subject nearly as much as she had thought she would. maybe it was because she was speaking with hermione, a genuinely intelligent and caring person. “you’re one of the few people around this school that has an all-around intelligence.”
“that is incredibly gracious coming from you, hermione,” nyx said, pushing off the back wall of the washroom compartment and stepping past hermione, into the doorway that would lead out to the hallway. she readjusted her grip on her plastic bag and hermione ducked her eyes down to it curiously before they shot back up to meet nyx’s. “you should come to hogsmeade with me and a friend of mine, ana—you may know her—sometime. we would love to have you. ana is one of the smartest people i know. she knows an incredibly amount about the history and russia and the soviet union.”
“wonderful!” hermione said, the surprise shining brightly, like a beacon, in her eyes. she had admired nyx for quite some years. she was always so calm, so silently powerful.
“yes,” nyx said. “you and ana would make a wonderful pairing, i’m sure.”
a blush bloomed on hermione’s cheeks and nyx caught hermione’s bashful eyes with a wink just before she shut the door to the compartment, separating to two girls with a thin wall of accordion-style wood. it was a flimsy contraption, but enough to make nyx feel alone again.
the walk back to her friends was silent, the only thing to be heard was the taps of her heels and the sounds of giggling and friendship drifting from the cracks between compartment doors and their walls. it was a lovely sound.
she slid the door of the compartment open and apologized for her long disappearance, her excuse being that she was catching up with a friend.
jarvis snorted and said, “what friends?”
“hilarious,” nyx said, her face still as ever but amusement was easily detectable in her eyes. she had been told since her first year that no one ever knew if she was joking or not. she always let her eyes betray her emotions now because of it. “knife or curse?”
“what?” jarvis said, looking at her curiously.
“would you prefer to be slaughtered with a knife or cursed to death?” nyx said. “because i will happily do either. i’ll even arrange your favorite flowers for your casket. all you have to do is ask.”
“kill yourself,” jarvis said, smiling at her sarcastically.
nyx only chuckled and threw the four packs of silks at ana who had been idly reading her book up until that moment. “happily.”
the three friends settled into a silence, only the whistle of wind and the train against the tracks could be heard. ana continued her journey through her fantasy book; jarvis picked through a few magazines he had received for his birthday a couple weeks prior; and nyx dived into a book with a blood red cover, something she had never read before but was recommended to her by persephone (which meant it was from hades, he just didn’t want to admit that he enjoyed helping nyx).
the smell of bon bons and chocolate frogs wafted past the apartment, as did the voice of the sweets lady, leading jarvis to jump up and bound for the door. he loved the various chocolate covered fruits the cart held. nyx was sure he could smell them from a mile away with how many he ate.
ana looked up with a smile as her eyes tracked jarvis’ excited face and quickly moving body. “i don’t think i’ve ever seen him move that fast.”
nyx laughed lightly, a welcome sound for ana’s ears. “i agree. even when he tried out for quidditch second year, he wasn’t as fast as that.”
ana dogeared her book and her face turned grave as she watched nyx do the same to her book. ana had been stuck on the same question since she got on the train:
“are you entering the tournament?”
nyx ignored the concern in her friend’s voice and said, “yes, i have to.”
ana only hummed. she had never gotten verbal conformation from nyx about the rumors that surrounded her and the rest of witchers. but, she knew what was forcing her friend to do the things she did. she knew why nyx dropped off the map every year for three weeks at a time, right around christmas. most of the pureblood society did.
“i know that i cannot tell you not to do it,” ana said, her voice growing stronger as she continued to speak, “but, i can tell you that this may be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. judging from the way my parents spoke about, i mean, it sounded awful. especially my dad’s account of what it was like at durmstrang. you might not make it through this one, nyx.”
nyx shook her head. “nonsense. i will be just fine, as will you.”
ana could not help the biting at her lower stomach. she had a bad feeling about this tournament, but she could not tell nyx that. nyx wasn’t someone who listened to her intuition. she certainly wouldn’t listen to ana’s intuition. ana only hoped that they lived long enough to see nyx free from her parents and the gods clutches.
jarvis burst back through the door of their compartment, arms full of wrapped candies. “they just got new chocolate-covered oranges!”