Arrival
“Who used a love potion on whom?”, Minerva asked, her hand still in Tom’s biscuit box. “His mother on his father”, Constance said, just as Tom answered: “Merope on dad.” Minerva knitted her eyebrows. “Isn’t your mom a muggle called Cecilia?”, she asked. Now it was Constance’s turn to look confused again. “Yes, my mom is called Cecilia and she is a muggle but she did not give birth to me. That was a witch called Merope Gaunt, who gave my dad a love potion. She forgot to dose dad one day when I was five and sick. He woke up, we realized what had happened and ran away as soon as we grabbed all necessary things. We took a taxi back to Riddle Manor and dad got back together with his girlfriend Cecilia. We have no idea where Merope is now, with all of our stuff and dad’s old car.”, he explained as fast as possible.
He still felt rather guilty for not noticing that his dad had been under a love potion, even if he had been very young and dad had told him very often that it had not been his fault. “Oh Merlin, she is scarier than I thought!”, Constance muttered, going pale, “She works in my father’s shop now. She... I think she is looking for a way to find you. Miss Gaunt practically inhales every single book on dark magic father gets in. The darker the better. “
“So you are Tom’s friend that he met in Diagon Alley as a kid? The shopkeepers daughter?”, Minerva inquired with thin lips. She did not seem very pleased to meet Constance. “Nocturn Alley, but yes”, Borgin answered, either not noticing Minerva’s dismay or simply ignoring it. “My mother says Nocturn Alley is full of dark wizards”, Minerva hissed. “well that is mostly right.”, Constance began, but was interrupted when a rather short, mean looking girl, ripped the compartment doors open.
“Well hello. I sure hope that you are not the guys, who bought all the pumpkin juice on the snack trolley or I can assure you, I will destroy you and make it look like an accident.”, the girl growled. Tom and his friends slowly shook their heads, slightly scared. “Are you sure? If you lie, it will only be worse. Ask Claudius Lestrange. I broke his collar bone last summer!”, she hissed, glaring at them. “No, the trolley wasn’t even here yet! And you really should not just come here and threaten people, you know? Tom boxes, I play Quidditch as a Beater and I bet Borgin here knows a ton of curses.”, Minerva snapped back and got up, towering over the other girl.
The girl just scoffed and left with darkblonde, wavy hair whipping behind her. Constance’s jaw dropped. “Did you just scare Augusta Macmillan off? Everybody who ever met her on one of those fancy pure-blood balls, fears her! I mean, except for Longbottom of course, but he is just… well he is very Gryffindor. He is already in third year.” Minerva tilted her head to the side. “What is very Gryffindor supposed to mean?”, she asked, dangerously quiet. “He is so brave that he lost every ounce of survival instinct.”, Constance explained shrugging and also stole one of Tom’s biscuits.
“Anything of the trolley dears?”, another voice could be heard from outside. Tom, who had been thrilled to try all the different types of magical candy bought one of almost each sort. The ones tasting like pumpkin of licorice he left out. He did not like those flavours. They snacked their way though all the different foods and discussed which ones tasted best. Then they talked about their families.
Over the hours even Minerva and Constance seemed to get along better, especially once they realized that they both love Quidditch and supported the Magpies. Tom was happy to see that. Wouldn’t it be great if they could all would be friends?
After some time the sky outside started to become dark and Tom went back to the toilets to change into his Hogwarts robes, leaving the compartment to the girls. It was weird to wear robes and not the many layers he was used to. This was how it must feel to wear a dress. Hopefully he did not look as ridiculous as he felt. Tom quickly rushed back to his friends, hoping that the pretty boy from earlier would not spot him in the strange robes. But the boy with the black curls did not show up.
Now it did not take long for them to reach Hogwarts. They were told to leave the luggage behind, as it would be fetched for them and off they went. As they left the train, chatting excitedly about the feast, that Minerva’s mother had described as absolutely wonderful and the sorting that Mr. Borgin had talked a lot about. Apparently it was pretty strange and involved mind reading. They agreed that it sounded quite scary, but at least there would be food after and none of them had heard of anyone dying while being sorted.
On the small station of Hogsmeade, the town next to Hogwarts, a tall man with muscular arms waited for them. “First years come here! I am Mr. Ogg, the groundskeeper of Hogwarts, I will bring you to the castle! First years to me!”, he yelled over the crowd. Some students seemed to know the man and waved. Tom, Minerva and Constance followed the man with big eyes, as he led the first years to the edge of a big lake and behind the lake... there was a beautiful, brightly illuminated castle.