First Year - (Effie) September...Lions
Lions
Euphemia Braithwaite
September 1st, 1943
It was a strangely sunny day for what felt to Effie like the worst day of her life. The owls were screeching and the station was packed, but there were no throngs of students chattering excitedly about their summers, no groups of mum's swarming adoringly about the new babies of old school friends, or gossiping about the new editor of The Weekly Witch.
There were no families hugging and laughing, in fact nothing much of anything that related to the many stories Effie had been told whenever she asked about the school.
Only one adult per child, this year. That's what the letter had said. So Effie had said a tearful goodbye to her sisters the evening before, following it up with a dance and a kiss. And then in the morning mum had made her get up and dressed in silence, so the younger ones wouldn't cry until she's gone.
The whole platform had been turned into a sort of maze, a zigzag queue that herded the small groups of students up and down like sheep on parade. A line of aurors led down and along each side of the train, easily outnumbering the meager collection of parents that had dared to face the danger of the school run.
Effie and her mum were waiting third in line for the beginning of a series of checkpoints, each of which was set up for a different form of protective spells.
Effie did think it was all a bit overkill, you know. Grindelwald was bad but what would he want with her? Why on earth would he want to be attacking the school? Surely he should be out in Paris or Berlin, dismantling the bureau of druids or some other world order, not smashing up school desks or blowing up detention.
Still, there wasn't very much she could do about it so she followed her mother dutifully, listening to her endless stream of instruction and moral musings, and tried not to let her tears show too clearly on her face.
"Now, remember, lots of the other children are going to have parents who are fighting in the war, and some of them may even have family who've-" mother stopped and puffed through her nose. “Well, you know what happens when soldiers fight in the war. I heard nannie caught you stealing papers again, so I know that you know. Even if I'd prefer it if you didn't- but I suppose that doesn't matter very much any more, since you'll know everything anyway now, once you’re at the school. There's not much more I can do, I suppose, but it's good to be aware.”
Effie was surprised at the slight tremble in her mothers voice. They often talked of duty and empathy and how Effie was to look after the other girls in her dorm just as she did with Leia and Elsie, but it had never made her emotional. Come to think of it, this might have been the first time Effie's mother showed any remorse at all to the thought of sending her eldest away for a year, and a small part of her felt triumphant at the win.
Her mother stopped pushing the trolly for a second and crouched down before Effie to look her in the eyes.
"The thing is, Effie, you're a very lucky girl. You've got me, and dad, and Elsie, and Leia, and lots of the other children might not have that. They might never have had it, or they might have lost it in the war. Some of them might lose people even when you're there, so you have- you have to be brave for me, okay? And look after them, look out for the little guy," she smiled, fiddling with the collar of Effie's prim little dress. Effie smiled back.
“Brave like a lion.” Effie recited. Her mothers mouth twitched.
“Yes. Of course. Brave like a lion, kind like a bear, clever like an eagle and, no, wise like an eagle, clever like a- which ones the snake?” Effie tried very hard not to laugh at her incompetence - a Durmstrang student through and through.
“The snakes are the bad ones.”
“The bad ones?” her mother asked, pulling back, looking confused. “What, all of them?”
“Yeah, well, most of them- dad said that most of them turn out to be dark wizards.” her mother offered her a strained, knowing smile.
“So, a fourth of your entire school is evil. I feel that is not statistically possible.”
“Not evil, just…”
“Rotten? Nasty? The lowest of the low?”
“No!!!!” Effie laughed. “Just- okay, fine, they’re sneaky.”
“Ahh, so they’re the clever ones.”
“No, that's Ravenclaw,” Effie sighed. She felt like she was talking in circles. “I promise I’ll be brave though.”
“Like a bear.”
“Like a lion.”
They stopped and Effie searched her mothers eyes. They were wet now, just a little, sparkling slightly in the fresh autumn sun. Deep chestnut brown, warm and intelligent. She was going to miss those eyes, if she wasn't going to miss the lectures.
"Move along please, Miss," a ministry man ordered, coming up to interrupt them from blocking the queue.
"Mrs." She corrected the man, dabbing her cheeks as she stood again to face him. “Oh, //, it's you.”
"Mrs Braithwaite," the ministry man corrected himself, bowing to her slightly like lots of aurors did. Effie's dad was high up in the ministry and a fan of social dinners which made him both very rare and very popular, as people said. Or a stuck up, string pulling snob, depending on the company you keep. Still, he was important enough to warrant effie her own little strangled bow.
"Good luck to you, too, miss," he said, giving Effie her own half nod. "Your mam'll be fine, I'll keep an eye on her m'self," he winked. Effie smiled at him as her mother laughed.
"I'm telling your wife you said that,"
"Do. She needs a laugh. Good day, Miss and Mrs. But please keep moving, the security’s very tight."
“Of course,” her mother smiled, and they carried on along the winding, snakelike line.