The inevitables

We arrived at the train station with the Pettigrews. I assumed our parents would have tea at our house once we left and the place would finally be quiet again. Peter’s uncle moved in with them a few years past, so there really is never quiet at their house.

My mum still has not gotten past the idea of her babies leaving for the year. She squeezed James and I so tight I thought we were going to become conjoined. Her eyes were teary still but at least this time she wasn’t crying. My father took James and Peter aside to share some ‘man advice’ whatever that means.

“Whatever those boys do this year, ignore them.” Mrs. Pettigrew smiled and my mum laughed.

“Hazel, this is about the time when boys get all nervous and dumb around us ladies. But eventually they turn into sort of tolerable men.” My mum explained. I could never image James or Remus getting giddy over girls. We’ve hung out loads of times, why would this year be any different? If anything we should have gotten over the stupid boy phase. But, these ladies were experts about boys. My parents have been married for almost fifty years! My mum had to be onto something.

“How long does that last?” I asked.

“Oh just one or two years for most. Some take longer.” Mrs. Pettigrew explained. Wow. I didn’t want to be around dumb boys for the next two years. I would be a fifth year before any boy got some sense! I didn’t want to wait that long. This could not be true. I turned to look at the first boy I saw: Regulas Black.

He stood tall and poised as his mother perfected his robes and hair and everything really. Regulas didn’t seem like he would try to puff himself up or act like an idiot around me. If anything he was the type of boy that would brag about his money and talent and family.

Oh.

I get it now.

Some boys choose to do dumb things for girls but Regulas definitely won’t. Regulas would tell you how much he’s inheriting or how dark and scary his family is. That primp, posh, prince would definitely enjoy making himself look good and having girls fawn at all of his accomplishments. The worst part was that Regulas wasn’t bad looking either. His hair waved the perfect amount, his entire face and body were sculpted to perfection, his elegance and grace perfected his walk and style. But that’s for other girls to ogle at. Not me at all.

I meant to look away but he made eye contact. This was not good. I tried to smile as if I wasn’t just staring at him. Luckily for me, my status as a blood traitor disgusted him and he rolled his eyes at me before looking back to his mum.

That was close.

I hugged my mum one last time before starting my way to the train. James and Peter were already long gone but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t going to sit with them anyways.

“Love you and make good choices!” I mum kissed my forehead and my dad hugged me before sending me off.

The more I looked around, the more I realized I was one of the last people boarding. I stepped on and started looking for my own mates. How long was I staring at Regulas? It didn’t matter. I didn’t care about him. He’s rude and coarse and probably hates muggleborns and-

“Hazel!” Someone grabbed my hand and turns me around. I almost had a heart attack, the black brothers look so much alike. Sirius just has bigger and longer curls. His face is an oval shape and he knows how to smile.

“Sirius! How was your summer?” I attempted to sound as if I wasn’t out of breath or shocked.

“The usual torture.” He said rushed. “I need to talk to you and James about an idea I’ve had. It’s absolutely brilliant. You’re going to be astonished!” Sirius smiled like a maniac, but I liked the confidence.

“Ok I’m ready for my mind to be blown.” I edged him on. I really was curious about this idea. But I didn’t get to hear it.

“Hazel there you are!” Lily ran and hugged me. “I saw your brother so I knew you had to be somewhere. Hello Sirius.” She said the last bit as dry as ever.

“Hello Evans.” Sirius looked annoyed too. “We’ll continue this conversation a different time heppy.” Sirius smiled at me and left. I guess I’ll hear his idea later then.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Lily took me to the compartment with our friends (no Snape thankfully).  Mary was beaming and glowing as ever, but Marlene looked down.

“What’s wrong Marls?” I asked sitting down.

“You must know of all people…” she said. I looked at Lily and Mary confused, but they just shrugged.

“Know what?”

“About… the dark magic.” Marlene whispered so that I could barely hear her. The volume didn’t matter, I understood what she meant. A few weeks ago my father sat James and I down and explained what was going on. I’ve tried not to think about it, which has been easy because there’s no magic in the summer. But now back at Hogwarts, there’s no way we can look past it.

“Oh… right..”

“What? What is it?” Lily asked. Maybe this was one of the good things about muggle parents, they didn’t know anything about wizard problems. I didn’t want to tell her, to dampen the mood especially since today is supposed to be happy. But her and Mary had every right to know. Actually, they were the only ones who truly deserved to know.

“Lately, there’s been a surge of dark magic. There hasn’t been this much dark power since Grindelwald tried to take over.” My friends looked confused by the name. I realized muggles most likely don’t know about him. “He was a dark wizard who sent havoc through the wizarding world but he’s now at azkaban. Anyways the ministry is split over what they want to do about the dark magic. Some select few are trying to blame the dark magic on muggle borns. Over the summer my father had a work ball and they invited about a hundred new wizards trying to convince everyone that muggle borns have nothing to do with this and we need to take action against the dark wizards we know of. He managed to convince half of them.”

My friends remained quiet as they absorbed everything I told them. This was a scary time for me and I’m not even a muggle born. I couldn’t image being blamed for something that had nothing to do with me.

“I have a few guesses who supports the anti muggle propaganda.” Mary looked like she was ready to forget about magic and go right into fistfights.

“I bet half of Slytherins already tried to lock us out of Hogwarts.” Marlene looked madder than I’ve ever seen her. Marlene was a halfblood, I wondered if she was worried that she would be next. I felt so terrible. I was the only pureblood, my friends feared for their lives while I sat comfortably at home. I wished there was more I could do but I was only thirteen years old. What could I do?

“Excuse me.” Lily spoke for the first time. She got up and just left the compartment. She didn’t come back.

The three of us made small talk as the train ride went on. I waited for Lily. I had one idea where she went and it would only be worse if I went with her. I tried to picture Snape saying that he had no idea and swear that he would never support such a thing as he hexed any other muggle born.

We didn’t see her until the feast started. I sat next to my brother because I felt miserable. Sirius was on his left and Marlene was on my right. Peter, remus sat across from us, Lily sat next to remus and Mary next to Lily.

We didn’t speak much to each other, still bummed out about todays train ride. I felt like I destroyed my friends happiness and childhood all in one sentence. How do you tell someone that they’re being categorized into a group of dark wizards and basically called evil? But whatever I was feeling, I imagined they felt ten times worse. How do you go one with your day after being categorized as evil?

“You’re taking Runes, aren’t you Remus?” Lily broke her silence, but she still wasn’t talking or looking at me.

“Yep,” Remus only slightly acknowledged her.

“Moony’s abandoning us!” Sirius, who had no idea about the train ride we had, pretended to sob into James shoulder.

“There, there,” James frowned and rubbed Sirius’s shoulder. I nudged the two of them to the side. “I hope you’re happy, Remus. All very well you moving on to bigger and better things, but think about us little people you’re leaving behind.”

“I’m not leaving anyone behind,” Remus fumbled, he looked down at his food and his face began to turn red, “Just didn’t fancy divination.”

“Ignore them,” Lily said before I could. I ‘accidentally’ spilled my pumpkin juice on James who yelped and scooted back causing Sirius to fall on the bench, “You lot don’t have to be attached at the hip all the time. Anyway, Hazel and I are doing Runes too, have you done the pre-reading?” I looked to her as she said my name. I hoped this meant she wasn’t mad at me. I didn’t mean to ruin her day, I just thought she should know.

“Yeah, it looks really interesting.” Remus didn’t appreciate how important Lily’s phrase was. I did though.

“Aha!” Sirius smirked, “Now I see.”

“What?” Remus asked, nervously. Sirius stared from Remus to Lily like he was speaking a language only he knew. I started to believe my mum and Mrs. Pettigrew about idiot boys.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with furthering your academic career, I think our dear Remoony has been lured away from everyone’s favourite doss subject by the fairer sex!”

“Shut up,” Remus lost all of the little eye contact he had on Lily. His cheeks blushed, maybe Sirius was onto something.

“You better not be talking about my sister black!” James started to laugh, but also gave Remus a weary look. James had always been protective of me, but if this was how he was going to behave, I’ll never get a boyfriend.

“Yeah, shut up, Black,” Lily sighed, “Honestly you lot can’t even be nice to each other. Just because no girls would come near you with a five-foot barge pole—”

“I’ll have you know I was very recently engaged to be married,” Sirius replied and flicked his hair. James lost it and started heaving with laughter.

“I want every to know that he was unsuccessful in convincing me to marry you!” I grinned and Lily gave a small laugh. Sirius stuck his tongue out at me, James laughed even more which I didn’t think was possible.

“What else are you taking, Remus?” Lily changed the subject, but I could tell that she was seconds away from laughing too. She just didn’t want to join the boys idiocy.

“Care of Magical Creatures,” Remus looked like he was seconds away from getting up and leaving the feast. If it wasn’t because the food, I imaged Remus would have stayed in the dorm.

“Oooh!” Marlene finally participated in the conversation. We were all slowly coming back to reality after our depression ride, “Me and Mary are taking that!”

“A-HA!” Sirius jumped out of his seat and yelled. James turned blue from laughing so much as Remus melted in his own seat. I looked at Lily who shook her head. This is the start. The start of boys acting like complete fools whenever a girl is involved.