The Boats
After a few hours of gorging themselves on treats from the trolley that had been around, and chatting excitedly about themselves, Adhara had come to the conclusion that Remus was painfully shy, but might open up more with some time, Lily was very kind and loyal (She will probably end up in Hufflepuff, Adhara had thought), and Sirius was sick to his stomach with nerves about the Sorting, even though he would never say so.
Remus was sitting on the cushioned bench reading his big book whilst munching on a chocolate frog, and Lily and Sirius were quietly talking to each other near the door, leaving Adhara to her thoughts, which she was glad about. Having had such a hectic day, which would probably only get more chaotic later, she hadn’t had time to think much, which was unusual for her, as she usually thought through every specific detail of most of her life.
She thought about the Sorting, and what would happen. Of course she knew about the enchanted hat, which the four founders had bewitched to choose their students before they had all died, so the legacy of their houses would not be lost, but she still was feeling quite apprehensive, because according to ‘Hogwarts: A History,’ it read your mind. One of the many reasons Adhara disliked her mother’s traditional punishments, (although not nearly as much as Sirius), was her use of legilimency on her children. Adhara hated that her mother knew everything she thought, and did, and she despised the prickling, cold feeling of hands clawing through her mind’s memories and emotions.
This worried Adhara, because whilst she had built up some level of resistance to it, and didn’t react too badly, Sirius would, more often than not, end up pulling his hair, sometimes hard enough it came out and shouting, rocking back and forth like he was crazy. This had gotten slightly better over the years, but she still wasn’t confident in his abilities.
Suddenly, the carriage door was opened, and the same blonde prefect stuck her head in the door, pulling Adhara out of her thoughts. “We are going to arrive in about half an hour, guys, so you should get in your school robes. Oh- Lily, was it? Glad to see you’re looking happier. Anyway, yeah, get in your robes, and remember at the Sorting that Hufflepuff is the best house!” She said, winking at the four and shutting the door behind her.
They had all changed and were back in the carriage, their faces pressed up against the window, steaming up the glass, looking for a sign of the castle that would be their new home. The train slowly turned around a bend in the tracks, and the cluster of trees that had been obstructing their view of the school were no longer in the way, and all four gasped at the sight. Lily whispered “Woahhh….”, and Adhara had to admit she was thinking the same. All of them were in awed silence.
The castle’s candlelit windows penetrated through the twilight darkness, but not coming even close to shining as brightly as the stars that hung stationary in the purple sky. The crescent moon’s light was reflected of the dark vast waters that separated them from the hill which the castle was stood upon. There was a small village on the other side of the lake, and they could see the lights from it illuminating the night sky.
The train slowed as it approached the station ahead, and when it stopped, they all scrambled towards the door, bursting into the corridor, which was quickly filling with students trying to leave the train they had been stuck on all day. When they made it to the platform, they all looked around for some sort of instruction on what to do next. “What about our bags?” Lily asked, her eyes searching for signs of where their luggage could be.
Adhara glanced around, and seeing that none of the older students were carrying big trunks, she said, “I suppose the house-elves will bring them up for us.”
Lily looked confused, but stayed quiet, resolving to ask Severus what ‘house-elves’ were later. Deciding the best course of action would be to follow the other students, as they had no clue where to go, they set off down the lane towards the lake.
When they poured through the gates with the hundreds of other students, the heard a booming voice shouting, “Firs’ years! Firs’ years over ‘ere!” The source of the voice was a huge man standing near the shore of the lake, waving his giant hands above his head.
He looked at least 11 feet tall, and had a vast tangle of hair and a beard circling his head. He does not look human, Adhara thought, or at least fully. No one is that tall. Thinking he could be a small giant, she wasn’t really sure how tall they were, she hesitated. However, there was already a small cluster of little eleven year-olds gathered around him, not even reaching his mid- thigh, but looking perfectly safe, and not unusually scared.
The four were stood staring up at the man, until Lily roved her eyes over the crowd of first years, and spotted Severus. “Ooo! Sev’s there! Do you mind if I go, and I’ll maybe catch you at the welcome feast?” She said, but dashing off before any of them could reply.
Adhara followed her with her eyes, and saw her run up to a lanky boy with limp, greasy hair that hung around his face like curtain. He grinned widely when he saw her, and they hugged quickly, before Lily started to talk animatedly at him. Her hands waving around as she spoke. He’s probably another muggle-born, she thought. I hope she doesn’t try talking to me much again, mother could hear about it. And if that greasy boy tries to, I shall just walk the other way.
Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines, “Ugh, she’s friends with him? Look at his hair. That’s even worse than Kreacher’s!”
Suddenly, he looked up at them and saw them talking to each other, looking at him with disgust. Adhara stared back at him, slightly raising one challenging eyebrow, and he sneered at the pair. Remus was stood next to them, and he looked deeply uncomfortable, with his small hands hidden inside his jumper’s sleeves. “Shouldn’t we go and stand with the others?”
“Oh, yes, I suppose we should.” Adhara replied, and they all walked over, just as Hagrid started a head-count.
“Righ’ then I think everyone’s ‘ere, so let’s go. These are the boats tha’ will take you across to the boathouse, so when you get there jus’ get out and wait for me there. Only four to a boat, excep’ me, I need me own one.”
The three made their way to a boat, and Remus started to climb in, when they heard a small voice behind them said, “Can I please join your boat?”
Adhara turned around and looked the girl in front of her up and down, then asked, “What’s your name?”
“Um, Emmeline Vance.”
“Are your parents magic?” Remus looked up quickly, in surprise, rocking the boat he was sat in. He looked over at Sirius, who didn’t notice as he tried to clamber into the boat.
“Yeah…”
“Alright then, you may join our boat.” Adhara did not plan on talking to anymore muggle-borns again, at least today. She vaguely recognised the name Vance, but she couldn’t think why. They weren’t part of the sacred twenty-eight, but maybe one her parents did something at the ministry?
Sirius was now safely sat in the boat, and Adhara waved her hand to allow Emmeline to climb in before her. Most people were now all in the boats, and Emmeline had sat next to Sirius, so Adhara started to climb in. She got in and straightened up, when Sirius started violently rocking the boat. She wobbled around, trying to keep her balance, before losing it, and toppling over the side into the shallow water.
“Sirius!!!!” she screeched, and standing up in the water, she pulled out her wand, despite not knowing any real spells yet. However, her rage fuelled her magic, and, like a child, she performed accidental magic.
This had been a major problem all throughout her child hood, as she pushed down and hid almost all of her emotions, due to her parents, so when she had an outburst, it was big and usually quite uncontrollable. Over the past year or two, she had gotten better at it, and they were a lot more infrequent, and she quite direct her magic, instead of it just exploding outward.
However this control meant it was quite a bit more powerful if she wanted to target something. Or in this case someone. In normal circumstances, something small and rather insignificant like this would be easy for her to get over, but after such and emotionally draining day, she was not at her best.
She raised her arms, and behind her a wave rose up, until it was taller than her by at least one meter. By 5this point all the first years were watching, and Hagrid was struggling to get out his boat without falling in himself. She pushed her arms and wand forward, aiming straight at Sirius’ face.
The water followed her movement, and a powerful jet propelled towards him. His eyes widened in shock, and his mouth dropped open, before he got a face full of water. It was so powerful, that Sirius was knocked headfirst over the side over the boat into the water.
He stood up, looking angrier than she had seen him in a while. Good, she thought, he deserves it. Both of them were riled up now and they waded towards each other. Sirius punched Adhara in the face, and she shoved him.
He stumbled backwards, and grabbed her long hair to keep himself upright. They were both shouting at each other, not really knowing what the other was saying. She punched him in his stomach, and grabbed him in a headlock. He pushed against her, and they tumbled backwards, splashing into the water again.
Sirius was just about to hit Adhara’s head again, and she was about to knee him in his private parts, when Hagrid reached them. He had been shouting at them all the time, but they hadn’t noticed in their fury. He wrenched them apart, holding their shirt collars in his hand forcing them apart as they glowered at each other.
They often fought like this at home, sometimes severely injuring each other, but they knew that they’d both be fine, because their injuries would be fixed by magic. This meant neither had many inhibitions about hurting the other, and this lead to frequent vicious fights that were quickly forgiven. Of course their parents hated it, and they would be punished by solitary confinement in their separate rooms.
They were put on separate boats, both sopping wet. Sirius got to stay on their original boat, which Adhara found deeply unfair, and she was put on a boat with three boys she didn’t know. How unjust.
Hagrid climbed back into his boat, shouted “FORWARD,” and they all started to sail across. She was still scowling, but that didn’t stop the boy opposite her asking her cheerfully, “I’m James, what’s your name?”
She glared at him and said, “Adhara Black.”
“Cool! This is Peter and Kingsley!”
“I’ve met Kingsley before.”
“Yeah, that ball was awful. My parents are always trying to drag me to things like that.” Kingsley said, rolling his eyes. Adhara agreed, that ball had been particularly bad. She, Sirius and Regulus had been introduced to so many different people, they had run off and hidden in the kitchen of the manor, eating fancy pastries.
“Ugh I hate things like that too. They’re so dull.”
“Anyway, how come you had a fight with that boy? Who was he? It was sooo cool. How did you do that thing with the water? Can you teach me?”
“Woah, calm down mate.” Kingsley said, patting James on his shoulder, as he shifted around in his seat, seemingly unable to stay still.
“That was my brother, Sirius. And I had a fight with me because he rocked the boat so I fell in.” She chose to ignore the questions about the water, because performing accidental magic still, at her age, was very embarrassing.
The boat ride didn’t take too long, and Adhara spent most of it trying to stop her teeth chattering. Kingsley noticed and gave her his dry cloak, which was helping her warm up. It smelt like cinnamon and oranges, which was unusual, but quite comforting, though she felt quite bad, as her long hair was getting it all wet.
“Righ’, duck your heads ev’ryone!” Hagrid shouted, and the went through a curtain of ivy that hid an opening in the cliff that the castle was stood upon. The boats travelled along the dark tunnel, which ran straight underneath the school.
Everyone was silent, any whispers that were made echoed loudly throughout the passageway. They soon arrived at the boat house, which was some sort of underground harbour, and everyone managed to get out with no one else falling in. Hagrid led them all through a corridor and up lots of narrow stairs, and onto a flat grass lawn.
A huge oak door stood in front of them, and James looked up at it in awe, still and silent for the first time since Adhara had met him. She said goodbye to Kingsley, and tried to give him his cloak back, but he insisted she keep it, and return it later, and then she wandered over to where Sirius was. His nose looked like a bruise was forming, and he was still soaked through. His teeth were chattering as he said, “You look awful.” At the same time Emmeline asked, “Is your lip okay???”
Adhara brought her hand up to her lip, which was split and swollen. It was sore, but she hid her pain as she brushed her fingertips against it, not wanting to give Sirius the satisfaction of knowing he hurt her badly.
“Wow, thanks, Sirius. And my lip is fine, thank you, Emmeline.”
They all started to follow Hagrid up to stone steps to the door, where he knocked three times, with a gigantic fist.