The Train and Fungus
The ride to Hogwarts was going better than Scorpius thought it was going to be. He had spent most of the trip talking to Al about quittidge, their favorite sweets and deserts, what they thought classes would be like, and what Hogwarts in general would be like. James sometimes gave his input into their speculations, but left the boys to wonder, not wanting to ruin their fun and excitment by spoiling it all before they got there. Scorpius had talked a little to Rose and James as well, and was surprised at how genuinely nice they were to him.
The three of them didn't seem to be putting on any sort of front, pretending to be nice to him because Mrs. Potter had told them too. They answered any of his questions about themselves ernestly and openly. While he did mostly the same back. There were some topics that were never brought up, the war, their parents roll in the war, Scorpius' family past, speculations on their house placement (all their families were definitivly Griffindore and Slytherin, so no point in pretending to think they might be place any differently) and aside from James' and Scorpius' minor slip ups at the start of their journey, the topic of his sister was also never brought up again.
Every so often Scorpius would check on his sister, who spend most of the ride to Hogwarts either reading her book, or listening in on all their conversations. She spent most of it seated next to Rose, sometimes distracting Scorpius in his conversations with Al by making comments outloud about whatever Rose was doing or talking about.
"You know, if I was actually here, Rose would be my new best friend. We have so much in common. We both adore her mother, we love to read cheesy romance stories, and her favorite color is purple. Though she likes the lighter lilac shade, where I like the darker almost midnight shade."
"And how do you know her favorite color? She has not mentioned it once." Scorpius mentally scolded her, while trying not to lose focus on the detailed description Al was giving him about his bedroom back home.
"Duh Ned, her jumper. My favorite jumper is in my favorite color, and I would have brought it with me to Hogwarts, so obviously Rose is wearing her favorite jumper, which is also in her favorite color. Us girls just know these things ok."
Scorpius held back a chuckle and nodded along to Al explaining how his Mum had to charm all of his siblings wardrobes to be able to accomidate their 10 year supply of their gran's knitted christmas jumpers.
"My uncle George tried to convince all my aunts and uncles, and my parents, to be stratigic with us kids' names. He wanted to plan it out right so that for family christmas photos we could be placed in just the right order so as to spell swear words or other dumb words or phrases. After I was born he tried to convince my mom and dad to name Lily and Ruby names that started with S so we could have family photos that have the three of us standing together spelling ass. Mum hexed him. Not because she didn't find it funny, she found it absolutely hillarious, so George says. She did it because 'there is no way you are telling me how to name my children'" Al finished with an impression of his mum.
"Uncle Charlie says he would do it if he had a choice in naming his kids." James chimed in.
"Why doesn't your uncle have a choice?" Scorpius asked shocked. From what he knew about their family, there wasn't much standing in their way from getting what they wanted.
Rose jumped into answered this question, "Because Uncle Edwin said that if he has to carry the kids for 9 months, then he is naming the kids. It was the deal they made when they decided to have kids. Charlie didn't hesitate to agree."
Scorpius was taken aback. His parents had explained how babies were made, even some of the book in their family library had old some explainations in them, he was certain that there was no way for their Uncle Edwin to give birth to kids.
His sister had noted his confused and put her face in her palm. The two of them had the normal magical twin ability to be able to feel each other's stronger emotions along with each other's heart beat, so Aniara could sense Scorpius' confusion. But it seemed that she knew the answer to the question he had. She also was and wasn't shocked at the same time that Scorpius didn't know the answer.
"Oh Merlin, Racky, you need to read more modern books."
"What?" Scorpius questioned outloud. He caught his slip up and tried to play it off as best he could.
"Sorry, what, how? Ugh, I mean, your Uncle Edwin he gave birth? Did he, or your Uncle Charlie... not that't not right? No what I meant to say was...oh..."
Aniara groaned so loud it almost echoed in his skull. He felt a hand on his shoulder from Al sitting next to him. "It's ok mate. I guess this wouldn't be openly taught to most pureblood families."
"Our Uncle Edwin is transgender and was born a female. He started transitioning to present as a man about 15 years ago. He waited for some of the more complex cosmetic transfigurations so that he could eventually have kids. He and Uncle Charlie have two girls, Elizabeth who's seven and Kathrine who's four."
"Oh, I haven't heard about that before. Its definitly not mentioned in any of the books in my family's library. Guess my sister was right and I need to read more modern books."
"Transgender simlpy means that a person was born in the wrong body. Edwin was born in a female body, but his heart, brain, and magic core were male. He just takes potions from medi healers to make his outward apearane match how he feels inside. He met our uncle two years after he started that process so we have only ever known him as Uncle Edwin."
Scorpius nodded and tried to process this new information. Aniara had told him there was a community of people, both wizards and muggles, that identified different to the norm in what pronouns they wanted to use and what gender they were attracted to, but she got most of that information from more modern wizard books and even some muggle books he had snuck away to buy for her. Their parents didn't much care what books she read as she didn't need to uphold any family reputation since she wasn't allowed outside the manor (not that it stopped their gran from trying to scold her about her "new world ideals") but Scorpius's education was more strictly handled as he was the family heir. Even though their family no longer used hate words or shunned non purebloods, there was still a lot of deeprooted pureblood ideals his parents and grandparents held. He did notice his parents attempts to shake off those ideas and not push them as hard onto him as it had been pushed onto them, but it was still a hard cycle to break. But if his sister was able to project herself through his conciousness, then it seems logical that there would be people born into the wrong bodies.
"Oh, I think that makes sense." He huffed out a chuckle, "I guess my sister was right. I do need to read more modern books."
He fully laughed that time and grabed a handful of Berttybots Beans. He screwed his face in disgust as he got a weird combination of rotten apples, mayple syrup, soggy paper, and herring. They all laughed at his awkward misfortune. Once they stopped laughing there was a small silence before Al asked, "So how is your sister doing?"
Rose shot Al a look but Scorpius just looked over at him and smiled. After a few hours spent getting to know these three, he wasn't afraid to talk about her, even if he did have to tell them some lies about the matter.
"She's good. Probably spent today day reading books or chatting with Pip."
"Who's Pip?" Rose questioned.
"One of our house elves. Cheeky little thing. She drives Gran crazy." Scorpius could see the question on Rose's face before she asked, "and yes we treat her very well. Above the law really. Gran wanted to pay her minimum but Mum and Dad refused, said five galleons a week and if Gran didn't like is she was welcome to move out. But Pip is great. She was one of our first friends as kids. She taught us how to cook, how to do the chores in our own bedrooms. She even taught us how best to annoy Gran. I guess now Pip is all Aniara has."
"Don't make me cry Stinger." Aniara jokingly scolded. They both knew that last statement wasn't true, but it sure felt true to Scorpius sometimes.
"Is it true she is fully bedridden now?" James asked bluntly, which caused Rose to kick him in the shin. "What? He's talking about her, so why can't I ask? And you also asked about her so kick yourself while you are at it."
"You just don't have to be so blazen about it Jay," Rose scolded and turned back to Scorpius and appologized.
Scorpius smiled at her and shook his head, "Its alright Rose, I don't mind telling you guys about her. Just don't go blabbing to the press or the other students." They all chuckled but nodded their promise.
"Sort of. The Prophet exaggerates everything, like always. She isn't totally confinded. She can move about the house and even spend some time in the gardens, but they aren't wrong in that she spends most of her time in her room."
"Well my closet but same thing I guess."
"I'm sorry. I would hate to be cooped up at home all day. Especially if it was with Hugo all the time. He idolizes our uncle so he is always finding himself in some sort of mischief."
The two Potter boys nodded in agreement and they all started to get into different stories about their younger siblings. Turns out that Hugo and Lily were their generations troublemaking duo in the family.
"There is always one in the Weasly crew. Great Grandpa Dorig and Great Uncle Sylvester, Aunt Imogen and Alice, Uncle George and Fred."
"I swear there is still some moss growing in the hallway from their swamp prank 21 years ago!" James added, promting him to tell Scorpius about their Uncle's final goodbye prank to Hogwarts in their 7th year.
"At least our House is huge so its not like she is cooped up in some small shack in the woods or something. She is also owl friends with my best friend Anthony's older sister Elesa so she has someone who isn't family or a house elf to talk to. And that girl loves books so she has all the time in the world to read every book ever published."
"What's her favorite genre? Mine is romance and mystery. Has she read the new Phineas Odare book? I just got it last month and I've already read it three times. That twist ending was written so well I almost called it but then it just snuck up on me and I had to go back and find all the other hidden clues I missed on my first read through." Rose egarly questioned with excitement in her eyes. He could feel his sister smirking at him and chose to ignore her.
"Yeah I got that book for her when it came out. She told me she didn't see all the clues on her first read either. I think she has read it at least five more times just to find them all. But she is like you and likes romance as well. Those books make me gag."
Rose clapped her hands and bounced in excitement, "Oh sweet Circe! I have never met another person who will reread mystery books just to see all the clues they missed. Well, no one except my mom. You have to ask your sister if I can write to her so we can share our thought on the books we read. It will be nice to have someone my own age that like to read as much as I do to talk to!" Scorpius was really trying to ignore his sister's excitement at how right she was about Rose, "Oh, maybe I could do reading challenges with her. We could read the same books at the same time and talk back and forth about them as we read."
"What about your school studies Rose. You will have lots of books to read for class throughout the year." James chided her, which Rose waved him off.
"Oh I will have plenty of time to do both, I'm already ahead in my textbook readings anyway."
"I will ask Ani, but I'm sure she will be happy to talk books with you." Scorpius said to Rose before daring a glance in his sister's direction.
"Yes! And what did I say Ned! I knew her and I would be best friends. You should ask her her favorite color next just so she can prove me right."
Scorpius laughed in his head before replying back, "You don't need anyone to prove you right. I believe you Bear. I always believe you.
********
When the train arived at the station two older students who introduced themselves as head boy and girl directed Scorpius, Al, and Rose to a separate side of the platform in Hogsmade. Aniara hung back a bit to watch all the other students head off up the hill to the carraiges. She tried to keep an eye on James, but lost him in the sea of kids as he went to find his friends. Slowly making her way towards the hill to find him again, she caught sight of him and three other students, a girl with straight blonde hair, a boy taller than James with a tapered afro, and a very androgynous looking kid with short blue hair. They were all just climbing into a carriage that was being drawn by strange looking horses when she felt herself being pulled back to her brother.
She could only go so far away from him, about 30 feet or so. When her and Scorpius first learned about her unqiue powers they began testing them and her limits as much as possible. What could she see, hear, and feel? She could see and hear everything normally as if she were actually there. Feeling things was different. Everything was really muted, almost as if she was a ghost, which she kinda was. She couldn't move things or pick them up, but she did have the strange ability to chose if she could touch something or move through it. She could sit on chairs or climb ladders, but also move through walls and people. If she tried to touch people, they couldn't feel her, except for Scorpius, though she had deduced it was because she was projecting herself through his conciousness so of course he could feel her.
How far could she move her projection away from Scorpius? About 30 feet away from him before she couldn't move any father and would start to feel herself get slowly pulled back towards him as if they were attached by some sting or bungee cord. It was a slow pull at first, but got stronger and faster the more she tried to resist. It wouldn't stop pulling until she got within arms reach of him again. Once she did she could freely move away from him again.
Could Scorpius do this same magical skill? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. Could they communicate with each other without actually speaking? Yes. They could even speak to each other when she wasn't projecting, though it wasn't as clear. Could she project other things with herself that she could interact with? Yes. Obviously the clothes she was currently wearing appeared with her and she could interact with them. She could she could remove her shoes in the projection and found that they would be off her feet with her physical body. She could also bring books with her, provided her body was physically touching them, and could read the actual words of the book. But once her physical body was no longer touching the items, they were lost from the projection.
Scorpius described her projection as an off version of her. It looks and seemed like Aniara but he said it was more like seeing a slightly distorted reflection of her. Some details were fuzzy, like any embroydery on her clothes was a muddy mess of color, or words on books just looked like chilldren's scribblings. If he really wanted to try and focus on reading a book she had, he could maybe make out a letter or two, but it gave them both a headache after a while so he stopped trying to discern any details.
Once Aniara was back to her brother, she noticed a half giant with a large lantern guiding the group of first years to the boats. She found Scorpius, Rose, and Al all by the large man and realized that Rose and Al were holding a conversation with him.
"Mum said she is going to send us some biscuts by owl next week to bring to tea with you. Oh and Ruby gave me this letter to give to you in person." Al reached into his robe pocket and handed the half giant a big envelope, which still looked small in his hands. The half giant brought his other arm to his face to whipe away his tears.
"Well tell yer mum in yer first letter that I'll apreciate the biscuts. An I'll open little Ru's letter later. Don' want ta be crying up at the teach's table at dinner now do I?" the large man said. Scorpius was standing farthest way from him and tried not to be noticed, but there was no hiding his bright blonde hair.
The half giant looked down at him and quickly looked away. Aniara noticed a small grimace behind his bushy beard and wished she was actually there to tell the man off. While her brother may be used to people's reactions to their family, she was not. Once her identity as a squib had been confirmed at 7 she was forbiden from leaving the Manor grounds. Her parents and grandmother feared how their world would treat her if her "condition" was discovered but the twins had overheard them talk about other things like, "the hummiliation," "The headline. Karma comes back for the Malfoy Name," "what little respect we did have will completely vanish," and so on. They both new it was more than just how little Aniara would be treated.
So the Malfoys leaked the news that their daughter had come down with a horrible case of a new strain of fungus. Similar to spattergroit, though not as contagious, it caused unsightly boils to grow all over her body along with causing her neck to swell leaving her mute for months. Her body was also very weak so she was put on bed rest at home along with their home being put in a massive quarantine until her contagious period was over. After three months they were no longer quarantined and after eight months the news was informed that while she had healed from the sickness, it had left her very weak and unlikely to ever leave her home.
All of that of course was a lie concocted by their family and their family's personal healer to give them time to figure out what to do with Aniara, and to hide the fact that she wouldn't be attending Hogwarts with her brother when they turned 11. It also gave the Malfoy name a small bit of sympathy.
Scorpius could feel his sister's rising anger and tried to calm her down. "What ever has you so upset probably isn't a big deal. Now relax so I can enjoy the boat ride without feeling as though you are going to try and punch me in the arm."
"It isn't you who I want to punch."
"If someone is making faces at me or talking about me behind my back, I don't care. You know I don't. This is my life Bear, and after four years, I'm used to it."
Aniara scoffed and stood next to her brother while they waited to be seated in a boat. "You shouldn't have to be use to it. Dad and Gran were pardoned because they saved Potter's life. Grandpa is in Azkaban, and Dad is working in the Ministry helping to fight against any of the remaining rogue death eaters and any other dark wizard that makes any moves to try and gain power."
Scorpius subtly nodded his head while he sat down in a boat next to Al and across from Rose while Aniara continued her usual monolgue. She always brought up the same talking points anytime he tried to tell her to ignore people's reactions to him in public.
"We are not our ancestors. We pay our house elves really well and mum doesn't even put the older ones to work so they can live the last bit of their lives in relative peace, not that that has stopped them from working, poor things. Our centuries old family wealth even get donated to lots of causes to further the betterment of the world. Why do people-"
"You done An? Can I enjoy the ride across the lake now?"
Aniara went quiet and sat on his other side where there was an open space. She noticed some of the other kids were trying to be subtle about keeping their distance from him, but Aniara noticed. She always noticed.
It didn't take long before their boat was off and the castle came into view. It was better than she had imagined it. It was like a glittering star on the hill shining on the water. She began to cry and quickly noticed that she wasn't the only one. She didn't dare look at her brother as it would have only made her cry even more.
*******
The Great Hall was huge. They entered the room to a sea of young students in black robes and hats with different colored ties and house crests. The charmed ceiling showed a beautiful clear sky full of trillions of stars. She saw some of the older students that were already seated waving at the first years and she waved back. She knew they couldn't see her, but it made her feel like she was actually there. She had on a robe that was similar to the school issued ones just to try and make her vicarious experiences all the more real.
The students aproached the end of the hall in front of the teachers table. She scanned it to find some familiar faces, the half giant from the boat ride, headmistress McGonagall, Carina Hiddles, and the infamous wizarding world savior Harry Potter. She had seen him in pictures and had one memory of him from afar at a charity gala when she was young, but she had never really seen him in person.
"How did we forget he is the DADA professor?" Scorpius mentally whispered to her in shock. She gave him a look that read 'why are you trying to whisper, I'm the only one that can hear you' but replyed, "You forgot, I didn't. Maybe because you were more focused on a different Potter all the way here to remember his dad was one of the professors."
"Probably," Scorpius whispered aloud this time, but luckily everyone around him was too busy in their own thoughts and awe to register is unpromted words.
The spritely looking young witch that had welcomed them off the boats, introduced herself as Professor Midgen, and then guided them inside was now standing by a stool with a lump of brown cloth on it. 'The sorting hat' the twins had realized at the same time. Aniara wasn't scared of it, as it wasn't actually going to go on her head, but she could feel all of Scorpius' nerves and fears as if they were her own.
She reached for his hand and squeezed as hard as she could to make sure he felt her comforting almost presense. She saw his shoulders relax a little and small smile creep onto is face. "Thanks Ani."
"Always Ned."
"Abel, Torence." Professor Midgen called after reading from the list of names on the scroll. And with that, the sorting ceremony had begun.