The Train
Meissa and her family were positively convinced that Lupin must have been an a hallucination of some sort what with his quick entry and exit. Her mother had barely talked to her the rest of the day. She had said she needed to think about things and had went to her bedroom so Meissa and her grandfather had opened the presents together. Meissa however still had her Hogwarts letter. Everyday she would reread it and wonder what Hogwarts was like. She had, somewhere deep inside of her, always known that she was special, magical. For the next week she noticed her mom peering out the sitting room window more than expected as if someone was about to turn up. She was right of course and one week from her birthday Remus Lupin once again came up the drive and knocked on the door. Meissa was dressed and had a bagged packed and immediately rushed out the door with only a quick goodbye to her grandfather reading the paper.
They made their way by taxicab to the Leaky Cauldron. Lupin gave her a small bag of coins which he said was spending money. They made their way about the beautiful shops of Diagon Alley buying books and robes. Finally they went up-to Ollivander’s wands. Ollivander was a strange man with frizzy grey hair and equally grey eyes.
From the moment she stepped in the door Ollivander began studying her. Her grey eyes, her black hair and her light skin.
“Ahhh, a member of the Noble house of Black no doubt,” he said.
She nodded and gave a weak smile.
“Was your father Regulus Black,” he asked
“Yes,” she said, nodding, “my name is Meissa Black,”
“Let’s get started then,” he said, heading into the rows of shelves.
They attempted a variety of wands but ended up with a rather long wand according to Ollivander at 14.5 inches. It was a dark grey/brown Apple wood with a Phoenix feather core.
“I remember selling Regulus his wand,” said Ollivander, “It too was rather long, and Phoenix feather, a noble wand for a noble family,”
“What did he mean by noble family?” asked Meissa when they had left the shop.
“The Black family is one of the oldest wizard families in Britain and one of the richest,” said Lupin.
“You mean I have money,” she said.
“Well your family has a vault in that bank,” said Lupin pointing to Gringott’s, “If you had a key it would be more yours then anyone else’s,”
Meissa imagined the vaults overflowing with gold and treasure.
“Would you like an ice cream Meissa?” asked Lupin.
Meissa spent the two weeks before she left to Hogwarts pouring over her books, especially Hogwarts a History. It was a lot on information to soak in. Lupin had said that he would come back to fetch her in the early morning of 1st September.
Once again she and Lupin got into a taxicab now loaded with her school supplies and made the drive north to King’s Cross Station. It was so early in the morning that hardly anyone was at the station. Nevertheless Meissa pushed her cart behind Lupin who led her to a large brick pillar between the platforms 9 and 10.
“Here we are” said Lupin, gesturing at the pillar. “Now all you need to do is run your cart directly at the pillar,”
“What good’ll that do,” she asked.
“Why don’t you try it,” he asked.
Meissa was expecting to be surprised by some sort of magical enchantment and ran the cart directly at it only wincing slightly as they made impact.
She exited onto a small handsome brick platform with a crimson steam engine sitting besides.
“I for one plan on napping,” said Lupin from behind her.
Soon their things were loaded onto the train and they had found a comfortable compartment near the back of the train. As he had said, soon enough Lupin was fast asleep in the corner and in a different corner Meissa was reading a book she had borrowed from him on defensive magic. The illustrations stood out to her the most, gruesome fights and spectacular colours both exploded over the pages.
After around an hour or two many more people started boarding the train, she watched from the window hundreds of young students and their families make their way about. In not too long the whistles started blowing and the train started to move. Meissa remained in the dark corner of the compartment reading, nearly blending into the shadows behind the pages. Soon however three young wizards who seemed roughly her age entered the compartment. they seemed not to notice her.
“Who d’you reckon he is?” asked one of them, a tall lanky boy with red hair, as they sat down.
“Professor R. J. Lupin.” Whispered another, she had bushy brown hair.
“How’d you know that,” asked the first boy.
"It's on his case," she replied, pointing at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.
They continued discussing Lupin but Meissa went back to her book, they seemed to not have noticed her. But then she heard something that seemed rather important.
“He said that I needed to know, wether or not fudge thought I should know,” said the second boy, with messy black hair.
“Know what,” asked the first boy.
“SiriusBlack broke out to kill me, to finish what Voldemort started.
Meissa suddenly looked up at them properly and for the first time they noticed her.
“Oh gosh, who’re you,” asked the first boy.
“I’m Meissa Black,” she said with an emotionless blank stare. This was inconceivable, what on earth was happening.
The following minutes were filled with confusion. However, it was soon realised that Meissa knew next to nothing about the wizarding save for what Lupin had shown her and had never so much as heard of Voldemort. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, soon introduced themselves as well.
“So you’re from the States then, what’re wizards like over there,” asked Ron.
“I’m not from there I just lived there for a while and I’m not quite sure I enever met any when I was there I didn’t meet a wizard until Professor Lupin came to my house on my birthday.” she replied. Ron looked a bit shocked.
“But you’re sure you’re a Black, I thought the Blacks are a pureblood family,” he asked.
“What’s a pureblood,”
“Like all of your family are witches and wizards all the way back in history,” he said.
“Well that’s definitely not true,” she said, “my mum’s not a witch but I suppose my father was, I never knew anything about him or his family until a month ago though.”
“Right, so you’re a half-blood, the long lost daughter of the Black family, thats wicked,” he said.
“More like scary,” said Hermione, “especially with Sirius breaking out of prison, that must terrifying,”
“I think I’ll be alright,” said Meissa and she once again hid behind her book, but she wasn’t thinking about the words on the page she was still thinking about Sirius Black, her murderous uncle somewhere out there waiting.
The other occupants hardly said a word she could hear again for the next few hours. They whispered to each other. Soon the snack trolley came rolling past and Harry bought a collection of things.
“We don’t even know her,” whispered Ron.
“Don’t be a prat Ron, she’s as hungry as us, pass her a cauldron cake,” said Harry.
“I’m not a prat but fine,” he replied.
“Would you like a cauldron cake,” asked Hermione holding a small cake with green icing to her.
Meissa nodded her head, “Thanks,” she said, smiling and took it,”
With all the stress of everything going on she hadn’t noticed how hungry she was until she tasted the chocolatey goodness.
“Do you think he needs something as well,” Hermione asked her, gesturing to Lupin.
“Probably just needs his sleep,” she replied.
Eventually the sky started changing to thick clouds and drops started splatting against the panes. Three people then came down the hallway. From outside she could see a thin pale boy with blonde hair and on either flank were big lumbering boys with mean faces.
“Well look here,” said Draco opening the door, “Pothead and Weasel, and who’s your friend here, you always have an ignorant fanclub following you about don't you Potter.”
“I don’t think I’m in anyone’s fanclub,” said Meissa standing up, “my name is Meissa of the Noble House of Black.”
For a moment Draco looked at her shocked, she was nearly as tall as him and her cold eyes cut right through him.
“I didn’t now I had a traitor cousin, how’re you a Black anyways,” said Draco. But even as he said it he knew she was, her proud face and black hair and grey eyes were just like his mother’s.
“I didn’t even know I had a cousin as stupid as you and I most definitely wish I didn’t,” she said and sat back down.
Draco looked like he was going to say something back to her but instead turned to Ron.
“You’re always the poorest person in the room aren’t you Weasley,” he said and slid the door closed once again.
One by one they changed into their robes and finished the last of their snacks. The rain outside became increasingly more torrential and the sky darkened yet more. The lights all flicked on and the mountains rose higher and higher.
“Do you think we’re nearly there,” asked Ron, “We’ve got to be,”
The train began to slow until it was merely crawling along.
“Gotta trust your instincts,” said Ron getting up and starting to pack his things.
“Wait no, that can’t be right, we shouldn’t be there for another hour,” said Hermione.
And yet the train jolted to a full stop. Meissa could see people moving through the compartment window, but then, the lights too went off. Confusion ensued.
“Neville is that you,” asked Harry as someone stumbled through the door.
“Ouch I stubbed my toe,” he replied.
“I’m going to see whats going on,” said Hermione and she clambered through the compartment.
Crack, “Ouch that’s my head,” said someone
“Ginny?” asked Ron.
“What’s going on,” she replied.
“Everyone quiet,” someone said.
It was Lupin, he had woken up and he appeared to be holding a flickering blue flame in his hand. He looked around the compartment at the terrified faces and stood up. But before he could get to the door it opened itself. Meissa saw a tall cloaked figure standing in the doorway but its face was hidden under the hood. Meissa felt cold and hopeless, she saw flashes of a cave, of a rickety boat on the still water, she heard screaming, someone was screaming her name.