The Leaky Cauldron
The Leaky Cauldron
Platform 9 and 3/4 was as chaotic as always as we navigated our way off the train and through the noisy, bustling crowds of students, pets and parents waiting to welcome them home.
Our group of sixteen was by far the largest as we were all reluctant to start saying our goodbyes. We huddled together off to the side of the platform, each hoping someone else would be the first to depart.
Before any of us got up the courage, I noticed another small group headed our way. They were familiar looking and all had flaming red hair.
"Charlie! Charlie, over here!" Called Arthur Weasley, his height making the top of his head clearly visible even through the crowd as they shuffled closer to our group.
"Hello Samhain, Merula, it's so good to see you both again!" Molly Weasley exclaimed fondly as they finally reached us.
"Hello Mr and Mrs Weasley, it's been ages." I replied. I smiled when I saw they had their two youngest children with them, whom I had never met but heard many stories about from Bill and Charlie over the years.
"You must be Ron and Ginny, it's great to meet you finally. I'm Samhain Strixx, a friend of Bill and Charlies."
They were both rather shy but perked up as their brothers Fred and George bounded over to us, dragging a ruffled and irate looking Percy along with them.
"Oh dear, is that the time? I'm afraid we had better get going. Auntie Muriel will be wondering what's happened to us. Are you ready to go Charlie?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"I suppose so, take care you lot. Make sure you all write to me while I'm abroad. I want to know how everyone is getting on with being contributing members of society!" Charlie laughed.
We all promised we would and called out goodbyes as the Weasley's disappeared through the enchanted barrier and into the Muggle side of Kings Cross station.
After their departure the spell holding us all together seemed to break and we said our goodbyes to the rest of the group. At last it was just Barnaby and I, Merula, Ismelda and Liz left and we started making our way to the Leaky Cauldron.
It was almost dark when we arrived at the inn. We were all starving but not at all tired, so we checked in quickly with Tom and commandeered a large table in the pub. Barnaby immediately frowned at the menu, "I already miss the food at Hogwarts. It's strange having to choose a specific meal instead of having unlimited options." I sighed fondly, Barnaby had the biggest appetite of anyone I'd ever met.
"Why don't we all order something to share?" I suggested. "Then it will almost be like we're back in the Great Hall one last time." Our friends all seemed to like this idea because they happily agreed and we soon had a table overflowing with our own mini feast.
"I'd like to propose a toast" Merula announced, after everyone was full to bursting. "To the future of the most powerful Slytherin's to ever leave Hogwarts, except perhaps for Salazar himself, but seeing as I never had the opportunity to duel him .. well, to us anyway. We're all going to do incredible things and make history."
"To us!" We all cheered as we clinked our glasses of butterbeer together. "And to Rowan" I added. "May her memory live on to inspire us to be the greatest witches and wizards we can be." "To Rowan" they all echoed with another clink. "And to the Circle of Khanna, forever" Barnaby concluded.
As good as it felt to be with my friends that night, talking about Rowan was still very hard for me. I didn't want to spoil everyone's night so I excused myself and slipped upstairs to the room Barnaby and I would be sharing that night.
I sat down on the large canopy bed and tried not to think of how different things would be if Rowan was there with us. But it was impossible to keep the thoughts at bay now. She should have been there.
We had always said, after we left school we would spend the summer traveling together and studying all kinds of magic. Rowan knew what she wanted out of life and it was all within her grasp. I was supposed to go home with her for a visit to her parents tree farm before we started our adventure as adult witches together.
I wondered briefly if I should still go, if her parents would even want to see me. I had met them at Hogwarts only once, when they came to collect her.. body. And her things to take home.
I was too distraught to even think of introducing myself properly then, and even if I could have, I wouldn't have intruded on their grief.
But now that it had been more than a year, maybe I could visit and tell them some things they might not have known about their only daughter. I thought wistfully about the Head Girl badge I'd left on Rowan's bed that morning. Suddenly I regretted not keeping it, to give to the Khanna's.
I got up off the bed and went to my school trunk, thinking maybe there was some other memento I could give to them. Something of mine that Rowan might have liked or borrowed or even just touched. I opened the heavy wooden chest and gasped in surprise. There it was, the badge! Right on top of my hastily folded clothes. Polished, and gleaming like the day it was given to me. And next to it was a note, written in a familiar slanting handwriting.
Samhain,
You may not believe you ever deserved this badge, but perhaps someday you will have a use for it again. In my mind, there will always be two Hogwarts Head Girls from this school year.
As such, it is imperative that we honour them both appropriately and never forget the sacrifices made and all they have done to protect those at Hogwarts.
I will be forever grateful to and so very proud of you both.
There was no signature, but I didn't need it to know it was from the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had. I read the letter over and over, thinking about what it meant. I knew Dumbledore was right. Pushing away the memories wasn't going to make it hurt less. I would honour Rowan, and I would visit her parents and give them the badge, as well as the letter. So they would know the legacy Rowan had left behind.
As I was lost in my thoughts and making a mental plan of when to go to the Khanna's tree farm, Barnaby slipped quietly into our room. I snapped out of my musings as his arms tenderly circled around my waist and I felt the stubble on his chin gently graze my neck as he embraced me.
"Are you doing okay?" He asked quietly.
I sighed and turned to face him, locking my arms around his neck. "I think so. But I just can't get Rowan out of my head today. I want to visit her parents Barnaby, I want to sit and talk with them and tell them everything I can about her. About what happened. And about the Circle of Khanna. Will you come with me? My parents can wait another day or two."
He smiled down at me, "I said I'd follow you anywhere Samhain. If you want to see the Khanna's, you've got yourself an escort. And I'd love to go with you to meet your parents after. If you still want me to. I've been thinking I should have asked you to come home with me too, to meet Grandmother. Will you?"
The last part came as a bit of a surprise to me. Barnaby had been asking to meet my parents for a while, but this was the first time he'd ever brought up taking me home with him. I'd met his uncle Cecil years ago at Hogwarts, but that was it. I didn't know very much about the rest of his family. Only that his parents had both been sent to Azkaban after You Know Who fell from power, as they'd been openly very big supporters of Him, and convicted Death Eaters. His mother didn't survive Azkaban, but his father was still there. Barnaby had been raised by his grandmother, who as he put it, was nearly as bad as his parents. A pure blood extremist and very into the dark arts. He stopped going home for Christmas years ago, after we'd started dating.
At first he said it was so that we could spend more time together, my quest to find my brother Jacob and the Cursed Vaults had always kept me at Hogwarts during the holidays. But eventually I understood it was also because his grandmother treated him so poorly, although he was always evasive when I asked him about it.
Now I would finally get the chance to meet her and tell her how extraordinary her grandson was. I did worry she'd hate me on sight, being a half blood myself, or three quarter blood I guess. But maybe she wouldn't need to know that, and I could finally get her to see what I had always seen in Barnaby. An incredibly strong, talented, loyal, and loving young man.
I looked into Barnaby's dazzling jade green eyes and told him yes, to everything. "I'll follow you anywhere you go too Barnaby, always." His answering smile lit up his handsome features, making my heart pound and my body tingle where his hands were holding me.
We hadn't been alone like this in a long time. Not since the first time, our one incredible night we'd spent together in the Room of Requirement at the beginning of our seventh year at Hogwarts.
I opened my mind up to him and let my guard drop. He was remembering it with me. Sneaking out of the Slytherin common room after curfew, dodging Peeves and Filch and that wretched Mrs Norris on our way through the dark castle corridors. Finally making it to the sanctuary of our secret make out spot, only to find that Barnaby had worked for weeks to transform it into the most breathtaking and romantic place I'd ever seen.
That dimly lit room, a gently roaring fire of beachwood with it's magical blue flames, a massive and beautifully white draped bed with thousands of deep crimson rose petals scattered over the room.
I remembered Barnaby taking my hand in his and leading me in, while nervously reassuring me that his only intention was to hold me all night and sleep with me in his arms just once.
I let my mind gently touch his now with my ability and felt his nerves radiating from our shared memory. Then I let him into mine just long enough for him to feel my deep love and desire for him in that moment.
"I love it when you do that" he whispered to me.
I pulled my mind back just a little and let his thoughts lead us through remembering the most incredible night of my life. The night we gave ourselves to each other for the first time. The night our connection was the deepest it had ever been. So deep we didn't need to speak, our minds were tied together through my Legilimency and we communicated through shared mental images of what we wanted and how we felt.
I pulled back a little more so we were both aware of our surroundings again. This definitely wasn't the romantic oasis Barnaby and the Room of Requirement had created for us that night. There was a warm fire in the grate and a large bed, but the quilts were a little drab and musty smelling. And our friends were in the room right next to us with countless other guests filling every single room of the inn.
Barnaby seemed to be thinking the same thing as I watched him glance around the room. But I wasn't about to waste this opportunity with him. I picked up my wand from the nightstand, pointed it at the bedroom door and said "Colloportus." The door sealed itself shut with a sucking noise and I grinned at Barnaby.
He caught on quickly and following my lead, pointed his wand and cast the Muffliato charm, ensuring no one would be able to hear us that night. I did a quick Scourgify on the bed sheets and Barnaby cast an impressive spell to conjure up thousands of twinkling stars above us, like the Great Hall of Hogwarts at night. We tossed our wands back on the night stand and Barnaby scooped me up, carrying me to the bed to make another night's worth of magical memories together.