INIMICUS, sirius black

September 1st, 1974

Compared to the harsh winds of the North, the drizzle of London was practically a warm embrace, soothing chilled, frostbitten skin with languid drops misting the air grey. Nadia Chernova held her hand out from under her black umbrella, feeling the small droplets bead on her skin like tiny crystal balls. The droplets were misted over, reflecting the groggy, opaque air of London. She blinked, tilting her head up to stare at the overcast skies. A droplet landed on her eye. 

She blinked again. 

Nadia hated London. 

The world seemed monochrome in this country, as if she were looking at the world through the lens of a newspaper with smudged printer ink. It didn’t help that the buildings were of gray stone as well, muting the colors beside them too. She hated it. She hated this stupid city, with its stupid warm rain, and its stupid gray skies, and its stupid dull stone. She wanted to go back to the snow, the cold, where the wind chill blasted into her face like a morning greeting, where the snow collected on her hat like a pillow, where the ever present threat of frostbite made her stride through the weather with energy and life (Moreso, the fear of the loss of it). But here… it was as if she was living in slow motion, as if her brain had become foggy like the weather itself. Her mind had dulled from the sheer ordinariness of the city, and she despised it. 

Nadia sighed again, and shook her head. 

It wouldn’t do well to be so disparaging of this weather, be so discontent with her new home – oh dear, she winced at that thought. She cleared her head, but the sour taste was left in her mouth. It was really quite warm, she thought to herself. 

She missed the snow. 

Station 9 ¾ was as dreary as could be, the gloom of the rain seeming to overtake the atmosphere as crying parents bid their children goodbye with faces that looked as if they were saying goodbye to a coffin. Handkerchiefs to faces, tears hardly blotted as kids raced away to the train – it was depressing, the lot of it. This scene never would have happened back home, she mulled bitterly. Yes, this never would have happened back home. She had never seen her father shed a single tear ever, yet these people find it in them to play the part of the lead in a tragedy, when hit with the simple fact that their children are leaving to boarding school. Utterly pathetic. Nadia turned away a little too quickly, unable to bear the sight any longer. Weaklings, she thought condescendingly, flaring her nostrils in concealed irritation. 

Nadia weaved her way through the crowd, hands gripping her luggage as she pushed her way through the doors. She glanced at the tall clock outside, and heaved a sigh at the time. She made her way through the different train compartments by shoving her way through a throng of twelve year olds, stepping on several toes, and pushing a few midgets to the side. One of them screamed (a bit of an overreaction, no?). Another one opened its mouth, like an albatross about to gulp a fish (another overreaction?). Nadia Chernova was not a fish, and definitely had no intention of getting bitten by English midgets. She glared at them, contemptuously eying their ragged attire. 

“Move,” she demanded them, eyes narrowed. The twelve year olds seemed well and properly terrified, if their widened eyes and gulps were anything to go off of. As she passed through them, Nadia grinned. Hogwarts, Nadia mused inwardly, would be a breeze. 

Nadia peered through a compartment door which oddly, was completely empty (despite how late she had been to arrive on the train), and opened the door, settling her luggage in the storage compartment. She glanced quickly at her checklist, double checking that she had not forgotten anything (though it was unlikely that she would have, considering the near obsessive organizing of her bag she had done for the past few days), and after once more ensuring that she was well good and settled, promptly sat back down. Nadia leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes for just a second. In the empty cabin, it was almost calm, noises of students muffled by the cabin door. It was ironic, how happy they seemed despite quite literally being shipped off to a boarding school. Every year. Nadia departed to Durmstrang with an odd feeling of disquiet in her stomach. To wade the deep sea with carnivorous monsters, to roam the halls with goosebumps prickling her neck in anticipation of some student trying to take out the heir to Chernov… it was disconcerting. It was not that Nadia disliked Durmstrang (for how could she? She was a Chernova) but she certainly did not come to the school in joyous giggles and smiles. She certainly never spoke so loudly and happily with her friends, in voices that could be heard even from a closed compartment door. 

The voices came closer. 

Nadia frowned, and shut her eyes tighter. It was fun hearing other people have fun, she supposed, but at this point it was getting annoying. 

The voices came even closer. 

Nadia opened her eyes in annoyance, readying  to get up and lock the door, but she needn't have bothered – the door burst open with a crash.  

     A short, gnome-like boy toppled in front of her, landing near her feet, and Nadia unconsciously grimaced. She glanced upwards, taking a look at the source of the commotion. In loud voices, two boys were arguing with each other, though in all honesty, she couldn't be bothered less. She looked away from them all, intent on pretending as if that commotion had never happened, as if she could go to sleep for just this once, when –

“Hey!”

She suppressed another grimace, turning to the source of the voice, finally taking a good look at the source of the voice, and paused. 

She (quite reluctantly) noticed the eyes first . It was startling, Nadia thought, that eyes could look that gray. Devoid of color, of shade, of shadow, yet still had the emotion mustered in them to look at her like she had committed a grave sin. But ignoring his enraged expression, his eyes were quite bleak,  she thought, devoid of undertones, and plunged in a monochromatic dullness. It looked like the sky of London, and the gray clouds, and the oddly faded brick of the train station. Yes, Nadia affirmed, it looked exactly like this dreary city. 

She turned away, uninterested. Boring, she thought to herself. How boring. 

“Are you even listening?” Said the boy once more, his voice sounding… even more annoyed, if that was possible. Nadia turned her head in annoyance, to look at the boy once more. Gray eyes, black hair, and an ugly frown on his face– god, she wished she hadn’t turned to look at him. His face was, astoundingly, more annoying than his voice. She could feel a headache coming onto her. 

“Is there a problem?” She asked chilly. 

The boy scoffed, running his hands through his jet-black hair. “Yes! Didn’t you read the sign?”

He pointed a finger to something right behind her, and Nadia turned around. 

A signature with a burned “M” adorned the wall of the compartment. She felt a chill come onto her. A branding. She paused, analyzing its meaning. Perhaps London had made her blind as well as stupid, she thought to herself morosely. She hadn’t paid any attention to the compartments at all, too focused on trying to get through the crowd to even glance at the actual train compartments. Why,  she hadn’t even thought to check if the compartments were trapped either. Ah, she thought to herself, it made sense why the compartment was so empty. 

A burned “M’...? A gang symbol for sure then, she thought to herself. Who would have known Hogwarts was the very same as Durmstrang? And just her luck, she had managed to get herself involved in gang business before even setting foot on the school. She took a look at the three boys once more, the gray-eyed one and the spectacled one supposedly engaged in some hushed, riveting conversation, with the short one tiptoeing to hear them. In all honesty, the three of them didn’t seem too dangerous, though she was definitely at a physical disadvantage.

But then again, they had wands, like she did. And a three on one did not sound appealing to Nadia, not one bit. 

I could probably take them, she thought grimly, but I would likely get expelled. The rules of Hogwarts were unknown to her, and something she didn’t wish to mess with (yet). And somehow, given the crying parents at the station, she had a feeling that gang violence was tolerated far less than it was in Durmstrang. Their conversation went silent, and the three of them turned to look at her in creepy unison. I’m fucked, she thought to herself. Completely and totally fucked. 

“Pads, calm down,” the spectacled boy interjected, putting a hand on the gray boy's shoulder. “Sorry about Sirius, he’s a little–” he made a rolling gesture next to his ear. (“Hey!” Grey-eyes yelped). “I haven’t seen you here before, what house are you?” The boy asked, in an apologetic tone. 

He must have had extremely bad eyesight, Nadia deduced, his glasses comically making him look like an owl. 

Nadia narrowed her eyes. It appeared that this black haired, owl-like boy was the gang leader, considering how the other boy listened to him with no interjection. So, she thought to herself, this was the boy she needed to prove herself to. She could see behind those large, doe like eyes— his apologetic tone was a simple farce. He was sizing her up, trying to find her usefulness, her strength, her importance— there was nothing she knew as well as prying eyes and false smiles. She couldn’t let her guard down, even here. 

“I am from Durmstrang.” Nadia clarified curtly. She did not appreciate Grey-eyes’s tone of voice at all. She held her tongue though— she had no intention of getting in a fight even before she had understood the layout of this location. 

“Durmstrang?” The owl said in shock. He turned to Grey-eyes (Sirius, she reminded herself). “Mate, did you hear that? From Durm-“

“What the hell are you doing here then?” He said coldly, a flicker of suspicion glimmering in his eye. No, it wasn’t just suspicion. Recognition. It had to be that— why else would he look at her with such cold eyes, only given the name of her school? Yes, Durmstrang did have a bit of a dark reputation, but Nadia expected the novelty of her arrival to quickly overcome that hurdle. But clearly, that didn’t happen to him. He knew something about her– and what scared her the most, was that she couldn’t identify how. The only people that knew of her arrival would be her father, the headmaster, and the Sacred 28. And, she regarded his outfit (a robe draped over a t-shirt of a muggle band), he didn’t seem to fit any of those categories. 

Nadia maintained her composure, her gaze steady as she regarded Sirius. "My family has business to attend to," she stated evenly, her voice devoid of warmth. "However, such matters are hardly your concern."

With a subtle raise of her eyebrow, she continued, "And while I appreciate your curiosity, it would be wise to remember the boundaries of polite discourse." Her words were like ice, polite on the surface but carrying an unmistakable chill beneath. It was a tactic she used often back in Durmstrang, her words carrying no identifiable malice, yet her tone saying what she couldn’t. It was a test, of sorts, to see his reaction. To her excitement, Sirius Unknown-Last-Name did not disappoint. 

Sirius’s frown deepened, clearly irked by her response. “You think you can police my words?” He asked challengingly, taking a step closer to her, his demeanor confrontational. Nadia’s eyes gleamed with hidden malice– there it was. Perhaps her vow of no confrontation could wait until she actually arrived at Hogwarts. And besides, it wasn’t as if getting on the bad side of a gang was completely unknown to her– Durmstrang, she deduced, was likely far worse than whatever this dreary country could come up with. 

Nadia smiled brightly, meeting Sirius's gaze with unwavering confidence. "My apologies then, for perhaps misjudging the depth of your courtesy," she replied with a hint of restrained politeness. "It seems I may have overestimated it." 

The slight twist in her words carried a subtle sting, a suggestion rather than an outright insult, leaving Sirius to decipher the underlying implication for himself. Nadia smiled internally. 

It was disarming, displaying such a clear smile and speaking such poisoned words, of course. Nadia knew that it was so, having been on the opposite side of such grins and dagger sharp words before. And as it appears, she observed interestedly, Sirius had noticed it as well. But silence was telling, far more than noise, and his silence cemented his loss. 

Sirius's jaw tensed, his eyes narrowing further at her calculated response. But it was too late, wasn’t it? He had missed the time to reply, and all that was left was an awkward silence in which the other two boys were perplexed on whether to break or not. 

"Respect is earned, not demanded," he retorted, but far too late. "And civility is a two-way street."

Nadia's smile remained fixed, though her eyes betrayed a glint of amusement at his reaction. "Ah, but perhaps I reserve civility for those who show themselves worthy of it," she countered, her tone dripping with icy composure. "And as of yet, I find myself unimpressed." She smiled again, gloating at the gobsmacked look of frustration on his face. This boy certainly had to have had one of her favorite responses yet. Nadia could tell already that this year would prove… fun. 

As Nadia's words hung in the air, the owl and the gnome exchanged a glance, momentarily taken aback by her frosty demeanor. The owl, ever the leader, cleared his throat and extended a hand towards her. "Well, I'm James, and this here's Peter," he introduced, his tone genial despite the tension in the air.

Peter nodded in agreement, offering a tentative smile. "Nice to meet you," he added, his trembling voice a contrast to James's confidence, but warm nonetheless.

Nadia glanced at James’s outstretched hand, but made no move to shake it. 

"I'll bother you no longer," she stated, her voice carrying a hint of finality. "But rest assured, you'll know my name soon enough."

With that cryptic declaration, Nadia disappeared down the corridor, leaving James and Peter to exchange puzzled looks, wondering just what they had gotten themselves into. 

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old chapter im just tryna catch up with how far it is updated on quotev hahaha