Fractions and Innocent Curiosity
1st September, 1986
“Dad stop crying, we’ll be late”
Sirius sniffed and rubbed his eyes, “I’m not crying it’s allergies”. Remus poked him, “yeah and what are you allergic to? First I’ve heard of any allergies”
Sirius smirked and stared at Maggie and Remus, “werewolves, too bloody sweet”
“Shut up” Maggie and Remus yelled at the same time. Maggie rolled her eyes for extra emphasis while Remus groaned. Maggie was getting impatient, she’d spent the morning posing for pictures and checking her trunk to make sure she packed everything, then more pictures for Sirius, then consoling him while he cried, then being told for the hundredth time that McGonagall will want to see her at the feast. It’s only ten-thirty in the morning.
“Dad I’m serious, I’ll ban you from coming if you can’t keep it together”
“No I’m Sirius”, Maggie cursed herself. She walked right into that one
“Seriously dramatic maybe” Remus said, offering his husband a kiss. He whispered something in his ear, Maggie didn’t try to overhear, Lily warned her about that long ago.
“Right we'll get to the platform good to be there early” Sirius said, seemingly much better. He was clearly trying to hide a smirk.
They took the floo to kings cross station- trunk and all. They were all dressed in Muggle clothes, though they did that everyday anyway. Apparently other families wore robes all the time which is completely boring and probably uncomfortable.
You can tell what families were magical, they either wore horrendous Muggle clothes or just their normal robes. Maggie could sense their magic too, but not anyone could do that. She’s been very good with Magical crowds now, Diagon Alley was hardly a challenge and she hasn’t flinched away from touch since she was first bitten. But if she tried she could feel the presence around her, she could smell the iron of it.
Aside from the clothes though, they all had large trunks with owl cages, or cats. Some even had rats and toads. They talked like magic, throwing around the words muggle and hogwarts, talking about quidditch and potions.
Ironically Maggie with her two dads (one wearing all black and leather) stuck out the least on the train platform.
“Where’s platform nine and three quarters?”. Maggie could only see nine and ten, she thought there would at least be a sign like Diagon Alley that only magic folk could see.
Sirius pointed at a brick wall between nine and ten, “Right there, no sign just gotta run through”
“But that’s in the middle of nine and ten”
“It is platform nine and three quarters, love”
Maggie rolled her eyes, no wonder he wasn’t in Ravenclaw, “yeah but shouldn’t it be nine and a half, that’s how fractions work”
Sirius looked downright confused, Remus was laughing, “never thought of that”
Sirius just shook his head and muttered “bloody hell-fractions?”
Maggie was about to run on the platform when she saw a little boy calling out her name. Of course she had a while going away party. She was brought into the most mushy loveing family ever. But that’s what she liked about them.
“Hi Harry”, Maggie said when Harry ran right into her, hugging so tight she found it hard to breathe. “I’ll miss you,” Harry said. Maggie returned the hug and assured him that she’ll write him letters at school. Lily and James caught up and the six of them walked onto the platform together.
People stared at them, practically everyone was at Kings cross station. At Diagon Alley they could be relatively unnoticed, it was large enough and it wasn’t too busy when they went; But kings cross was full of all the wizarding families who were desperate for gossip. Sirius and Remus tried to go unnoticed, but Sirius was still the ex heir to the house of black, and James is a famous quidditch player, and Harry was pretty loud too. So people stared.
Maggie wanted to sink away, could these people not mind their own damn business? Sirius was unbothered and pushed Maggie’s trunk towards the edge of the station, he seemed to thrive in the spotlight. Regulus appeared five minutes later and seemed to scare away anyone tempted to walk up to them, except for Marleen, Mary, and Dorcas of course.
Everyone gave long hugs and congratulations and their own advice. James said to talk to everyone, Lily said to get some close friends, Sirius said to give out candy (and handed her a sack of money to do so), and Remus said to do what will make her happy.
The train sounded and everyone gave a quick second hug goodbye, James helped lift her trunk onto the train, Sirius started crying again too. She shooed everyone away and promised to write as soon as she could, and stepped onto the train alone.
“Wotcher Maggie!” Maggie turned around to find Nymphadora standing next to a boy with fiery red hair, even more so than Lily’s, and a freckled face. His robes were frayed and patched, and his trunk was beaten, but Maggie didn’t care. She was dirt poor for the first eleven years of her life.
“ ‘lo Tonks," Maggie smiled. It was nice to have a familiar face, she was starting to get a little overwhelmed.
“You can come sit with us, plenty of room in the carriage and this is my friend Charlie Weasley, Charlie this is my cousin Maggie”
Charlie waved hello and insisted she join them, Maggie felt inclined to do so, not like she had anywhere else to go. The three filed into a carriage where another boy was already sitting, he introduced himself as Dominic Luswick. He was in the same year as Tonks and Charlie and was in Gryffindor with Charlie.
The two boys started a conversation about quidditch, they were both on the team, and Tonks started to trade chocolate frog cards with Maggie, the other girl talking the whole time.
“What classes are you lads taking this term again? Keeps slipping my mind”, Tonks asked the Gryffindors.
“Divination and Muggle Studies”, Dominic said, swiping one of Tonks Dumbledore cards, “should be easy enough”
Charlie snorted, “you don’t know a thing about Muggles, good luck with that one”, Dominic punched his shoulder playfully, “and what are you taking genius?”
Charlie merely shrugged.“Care of Magical Creatures and Divination of course”. Dominic lost it and started to laugh uncontrollably, “ha! Care of Magical Creatures, Really?”
The other boy started to blush a little but gave another shrug, “magic creatures are cool. I'm going to work with dragons one day, how cool will that be”.
“That’s so cool!”Maggie said. The two boys looked at her like they forgot she was there, then Charlie laughed and asked if she liked magic creatures.
It threw Maggie a little off guard, strictly speaking, she was a magical creature herself. But she was also told of other beautiful animals like unicorns and dragons, everything was all just fascinating.
“I like learning things”, she said
“You'll love Hogwarts, really Mags, there's so much to learn and the castle is a real stunner too.” Tonks exclaimed, followed by a speech of all the best hiding places and classes.
“... and Professor Inglewood said we were learning about lots of dark creatures this year so that something to look forward too in a few years”
“Dark creatures?” Maggie asked, voice slightly shaky. She knew what counts as a dark creature, but part of her hopes Hogwarts would decide to brush over her own affliction in classes.
“Yeah like Boggarts and Hinkypunks, things like that”, Dominic said, clearly bored with the conversation. Maggie felt the tension release in her shoulders, if they were going to talk werewolves, Dominic certainly would remember it. She was safe.
“Don’t forget werewolves”. Damn it Charlie, just had to go around bursting her bubble. Maggie took a sharp breath inwards, so they did learn about werewolves.
“Don’t look so worried there, not like you have to go near one”, Dominic said, scrunching up his nose. Maggie was half tempted to say he's been with one the whole time, but she knew better than that, thankfully. It would be funny, but she wouldn't.
“Oi what's wrong with werewolves” Tonks demanded, “aside from the full moon they are just normal people”.
“Ha, sure. But I mean how weird is it to turn into a beast every month? Its sick, heard it hurts a lot and-”
“You’re being a real prat Dom”, Nymphadora muttered.
Maggie couldn't see it, but she knew she was turning pale, her stomach was twisting into knots, any breakfast she had was going to leave, she needed to get out of this compartment immediately.
She made an offhand comment about needing the loo and bolted out the doors quicker than she should have. She walked to the loo, stalling as long as possible when she spotted an empty compartment. Maggie walked in, opened the window and inhaled the fresh air. She didn't realize how cooped up she had felt before, but she felt the tension melt away as she smelled the countryside around her.
“Need some space?”
Maggie jumped, she didn't even hear the other person walk in. The girl in front of her laughed, her deep brown curls bouncing across her shoulder. Her blue eyes stuck out against her darker tanned skin, eyes sparkling in the light.
“Oh sorry yeah, um I can go, is this your compartment?”
“Yeah but you can stay if you want, we won’t mind, Im Allera”
“Maggie”. Allera smiled at her and pat the seat next to her, “You can sit next to me I'll make Jacob move.”
Allera seemed to be pretty insistent so Maggie went to sit next to her, “are you a first year too?”
Maggie nodded, “me and Jacob are too, we’re twins, do you have any siblings?”
“No just me, didn’t even know I was a witch until a year ago”
Alleras eyes widened, “are you muggle born?, that’s so cool!” Allera had a doe eyed look to her that made Maggie feel like she was sincere. She reminded her of Tonks a little bit, innocent curiosity.
“No no, actually I dunno, my real parents died when I was a baby so I grew up in an orphanage”
“Oh” Allera frowned a little bit, “do you still live there?”
“No”, Maggie smiled thinking about her lovely new life, “ I was adopted by my parents last year, they’re magic too”. Allera clapped her hands, “oo wonderful, I love a happy ending”. Maggie started laughing, Allera just put her at ease.
Suddenly the compartment door opened once more and another boy and girl walked in. The latter must be Jacob, he had the same dark curly hair and tan skin that Allera had, the same piercing blue eyes wide with curiosity, though his sparkled a bit less. The girl had light brown hair and brown eyes with some freckles on her nose, she was red with sunburn. “Oh hello”, Jacob said.
“Jacob, Estelle, this is Maggie and she's going to sit with us, she’s pretty cool” Allera asserted, glaring daggers at the others. Jacob shrugged, “fine by me”.
Jacon and Estelle sat across from Maggie and Allera. Turns out Estelle is cousins with the twins and they grew up not too far from each other. They’re all purebloods and were intensely interested once they learned that Maggie grew up with Muggles, asking about telephones and electricity, they should probably take Muggle Studies third year.
“Anything from the trolly dears?”, a plump witch with gray hair asked, Maggie’s stomach growled. She realized was starving, though she normally is, and pulled out the bag of money that Sirius sent her off with, make sure to give out candy, echoing in her ears. “Uhm my dad gave me money if you lot want anything”. The three other children lit up and Maggie bought a little of everything to share. They devoured the cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs and took turns playing with the Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Jacob ‘won’ by getting nose hair, everyone was too scared to try anymore.
Tonks came around at one point to make sure Maggie was okay, but for the most part the four first years were uninterrupted. For the first time in her life, Maggie felt as though she had real friends.