Back to Hogwarts
Rhaena was conflicted about going back to Hogwarts. She sat on the train ride to the castle awaiting what she felt like was the peak of her anxiety. Or it could be the start of a great rekindling.
This would be her 3rd year and the previous two were just decent enough. It wasn’t the amazing experience she thought it would be based off the bragging and stories she’d heard from her older cousins. The sorting hat barely touched her head when it immediately sorted her into House Hufflepuff. She knew the stigma associated with the house and knew what the consequences were. She should have known something like that was coming based off her life’s track record so far. The unwritten rule in their world being that only outcast and rejects were placed there. Hufflepuff was the house known for taking in students that didn’t qualify for the more prominent houses.
The whispers came because Rhaena, a Targaryen, didn’t make it into Gryffindor or Slytherin. Being one of the last remaining pure-blooded families, they were known for their success and dominated both athletically and academically. The family was extremely competitive and congratulated the kids on their house acceptance. All except Rhaena who received nods and forced smiles when they heard what house she was placed in.
Daeron was in the same year as her. He opted out of being an athlete and instead excelled with his intelligence, other students bowing to him since he started selling the answers to quizzes. He made it into Gryffindor and now spent most of his time with Jace and Baela.
Those two had also been more fortunate than Rhaena. They were one year older than her and became the crème de la crème of Gryffindor. It was even worse that she nearly failed her Intro to Valyrian class, having been the only one of her siblings to not learn the language in her youth.
Baela and Jace got their wands at an early age and were star athletes in Quidditch. Jace even won awards for some of his achievements and started "helping” Baela with her wand abilities. Rhaena noticed though, most of this tutoring of his actually turned out to be them making out in the corner of the common rooms.
Rhaena was glad for them. Despite everything they had been through, they were both resilient and happy. Jace had always been there for them when the girls lost their mother Laena. He had lost both his parents and brothers in attacks by the dark lord himself. Rumors still circled that Jace wasn’t actually pureblood like his stepsisters since he lacked their notorious silver hair.
Rhaena felt as if her other disappointments weren’t enough, she’d been cursed with a gentle temperament. She knew her father had hoped she’d be more like her mother and her sister. Baela was bold. Always speaking up for herself. Just like Jace, she never avoided a challenge.
They had practically raised themselves the past couple years, all 3 of them in the huge manor with servants and the occasional pop in from the girls’ father. The wizarding world branded him The Rouge Auror. He was always working, infamous, and took his job a little too seriously even surpassing Mad-Eye Moody. He was either killing dark wizards or treating them so brutally they tried to file complaints with the Ministry once they got into Azkaban.
Every now and then he would take leave and go to Hogwarts to watch the games, glad that his kids were winning. He never cheered though, and instead watched with a smug face. Rhaena assumed it was because he was in Slytherin while attending school and was too proud to cheer for Gryffindor. She wasn’t sure whether to cheer or mimic his casualness when he sat beside her.
Speaking of Slytherin, Rhaena suddenly found herself trying not to think of HIM. The boy who she thought of as her ‘beloved’ cousin. Aemond was the only family member of their generation to make it into Slytherin. He was proud of himself, proud being an understatement as she remembered him boasting about it during the summer before Jace and Baela went to school.
They had a precarious relationship. They had grown up close, closer than anyone in their family and they were the only kids without wands. While Aegon was blowing things up and the other kids were practicing with their wands, those two spent their time distracting themselves. Anything that could take their minds off of feeling left out, but they never wanted to acknowledge that. Reading history books in the library, sneaking away to try out new candy shops in Hogsmeade, and laying under the covers telling scary stories.
When Aegon used his wand to turn Aemond’s hair a neon orange, Rhaena had comforted him in his humiliation and begged a giggling Baela to change his hair back. When Rhaena got left behind while her siblings accompanied her father on his work assignments, Aemond would come over to the manor and spend the day with her. They would laugh reading the angry letters her grandparents were sending her father. Apparently, they disapproved of his parenting style.
She never saw it coming, but all good things came to an end.
They started to grow apart when the older boy had gone to Hogwarts before her and finally gotten his wand. She thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, the little distance between them. Since his father was a governor at the Ministry he couldn’t stay away forever. She wrote letters to him and as his school year went on, she received less and less responding owls.
Eventually, he came back for the summer very different from the sometimes solemn and silly boy she could be herself with. He had grown a little in height and his hair was now shoulder length. But the change that really shocked Rhaena was his demeanor towards her. He was colder and business like, as if talking to this younger child without a wand was beneath him. From then on, he started to spend more time with his own siblings instead of her and eventually, they stopped talking all together.
It was made even worse when one Christmas ended with her father and his mother having a shouting match and hurling insults at each other. The words “whore” and “cunt” echoed through the walls. Their separation growing larger every time Jace and Aegon got into a fight with each other.
Rhaena didn’t know what to do with her new loneliness. She should have known of course, eventually they would grow up. He was growing into the perfect Targaryen man, and she was still just the wandless girl. Of course, he started ignoring her at family events. She wouldn't dare go to Baela’s chambers to bother her, afraid of walking in on her and Jace again. Daeron was the same age, but he had a habit of disappearing for long periods of time. Rhaena decided it was best to continue doing what she had gotten used to doing, exist quietly and not upset the order the things.
She occasionally thought about how she must have been a dark wizard in her past life, and this isolation was her god’s punishment.
Aemond was so brilliant in his studies that he was known as the best potion maker, even writing instructions that were more accurate than his own textbooks. He was an amazing Quidditch player and not surprising to anyone, the wizarding world both fell in love and became slightly terrified of him. Rhaena had heard the recently graduated Aegon tell stories of him being cheered on by classmates when he performed spells with his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Cole.
Eventually, he had been invited to be a student teacher at Ilvermorny to help their failing students and he was finally returning home after 2 years. Rhaena wanted to be either nervous or excited, but she reminded herself to stay calm. She could finally reunite with her only close friend and she wanted to get back what they had. She loved her entire family and knew how blessed she was to have her siblings so close in age. For her though, with Aemond it was different.
This would be his last year, so she had to make the most of it.
After school, he’ll probably be busy doing adult things and won't have time for me.
Rhaena thought hard, listing everything she’d done to prepare herself. She had her wand for 2 years now and tried to learn new spells all summer to impress him. She closed her eyes and giggled to herself that she’s supposed to be doing all of this for her professors, not for Aemond.
They could attend games together. They could finally show each other tricks they picked up over the years. She could sneak him into the girl's bathroom and introduce him to the weird ghost. She couldn’t wait to tell him all about the moment she finally got her wand from Ollivander’s.
Baela noticed her sister sitting with her eyes closed when she approached.
“Rhaena, the train stopped come on.” Baela stood with her minimalist single pastel green suitcase.
Here we go, Rhaena thought to herself as she started shrinking inward internally.
She didn’t realize how she was barely breathing while rambling with her anticipations. She took a deep breathe, grabbed her bags, and slinked off the train.