Genesis
6th Year
September 1st, 1976
Kings Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾
10:47 am
The Weasleys.
Known for their exceptionally bright red hair. Hand me down clothing. Their blood traitor status. Being sympathetic towards muggle-born witches and wizards. As well as the undying curiosity towards the muggle world and all the wonders within it.
Except for Estelle Alula Weasley, for she had none of the obvious features of a biological Weasley. Instead of the infamous red hair sported by Weasley’s, Estelle had luscious chocolate brown hair that contrasted with her porcelain skin. As she looked at the sun you could see specks of hazel and green in her light brown eyes. Nearly as perfect of a match next to dark oak wood.
Being the only girl from a predominantly male family, the clothes she wore were new enough to look like they had never been worn before. The clothes were bought by her mother, but never worn, so were given to Estelle. Often her outfits would be complemented by a pair of commonly used white earth shoes. Her robes were also second hand. After being the only daughter and last child from the Weasley family to attend Hogwarts, her robes were the only thing brand new from her wardrobe.
But seeing as September 1st had come around just as quick as summer was to end she would hardly be acknowledged as Weasley unless it was by the professors or the headmaster of Hogwarts himself. If one referred to her on the last name basis everyone would use Alula. To Estelle, to say, ‘Hi my name is Estelle Alula Weasley’ as an introduction was exhausting. So only to extremely close friends and family, she would allow the usage of Weasley. To everyone else, she was Estelle Alula. Some had initially forgotten that Estelle Weasley was called out in the first year as they were all getting sorted.
But standing on the border between Platform ¾ and Kings Cross Station with William Arthur Weasley her six-year-old nephew in hand, something about her upcoming 6th year felt different.
It wasn’t that this was the first year she had chosen to wear her robes underneath a cardigan. It also wasn’t the same as last year when she was nursing a newly broken heart. But like a second instinct, she felt it had something to do with Marcellus Winslow Aldrich.
But she shook those thoughts as the 5-year-old holding her hand tugged on it repeatedly. Not realising she was already standing at platform 9 and platform 10. Turning her head down to look at her nephew only to see a downward tug to his usually smiley face.
Turning around to see if any other wizarding families were waiting, she turned towards her mother and father. As Estelle pointed towards the bench opposite, Cedrella Weasley nodded her head as her father remained oblivious to what Estelle pointed towards. “Estelle, Be quick, the train will be leaving in 10 minutes, we’ll say our goodbyes on the platform.” Her mother said to her, quickly kneeling to give her oldest grandchild a kiss on his cheek. “Auntie Elle will run with you through the wall Willam, understood?”
Bill gave his Grandmother a quick nod and Cedrella and Septimus Weasley were walking into the barrier between Platform 9 ¾ and Kings Cross Station. As her parents vanished between platforms 9 and 10, she faced her attention to the little redhead staring up at her with his blue eyes.
“Billie we talked about this, remember, all we have to do is run really, really fast and then BOOM, there will be the biggest red train you’ve ever seen. And in front of your own eyes and guess what?”
Bill looked at her still with a smile that made parents scold their children for doing it and scare them into believing it would be permanently burned onto their faces. “Is there a big treasure chest?” He said with curiosity still lingering behind his words.
Estelle had a smile on her face as she ruffled the top of his head and leaned in closer to him. “Even better, you get to go through there,” pointing towards the brick wall. “You get to hear the train do the big toot, toot.”
Estelle quickly jumped up and held out her hand out for her nephew to grab onto. And as quickly as she put it out, he latched onto it and put an even bigger grin on his face. “We just run?”.
“We just have to run, and very, very fast. Now quickly or otherwise you stick with me until Christmas.” Estelle said, bending her legs trying to slow down her pace so as to not fall straight forward onto her face. “Now in 3,2,1,”. As soon as Estelle finished on 1, Bill had run forward to the brick wall.
Bill moved his left hand to cover his face as if the brick wall was going to stay just that of a brick wall. His hands quickly retreated down as a breeze flew past his face.
Platform 9 ¾ was always busy with students and families on September 1st. Mothers coddling their children and their fathers stood tall and proud, giving a pat on the back to their children. With 6 minutes still left until the train took off, students were already boarding.
Estelle stood on the tips of her toes and she scanned the crowd for her parents. Seeing a familiar head of red hair and a brown shearling-lined jacket, she moved towards her father clutching tight onto Bill’s hand.
“Estelle please take that horrid cardigan off before it permanently leaves me blind.” Cedrella Weasley irritably said while patting the flyaways from her daughter's hand and then doing the same with her eldest grandchild. “Now remember we expect a letter every weekend from you and at least once a month to each of your brothers. Oh, and make sure to send a letter to Bill and Charlie. Septimus was there anything before she boarded the train?”
“Don’t get your Prefect badge revoked and don’t forget your luggage again.” Her father quickly added and as his sentence concluded he made sure to tug the straightness of his lips into a smile. Moving closer to embrace his only daughter in a tight embrace. “Only two more years and we don't have to keep saying goodbye like this.”
Estelle gave her father a quick kiss on the cheek and escaped his tight embrace. “I’ll miss you too Dad.” She then turned towards her mother, giving her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “I’ll make sure to send lots of letters off with the twins.” She then turned her attention to her eldest nephew and kneeling to his level. “I’ll make sure to write a letter just for you as well Billie and I don’t want to hear that you’ve nearly sent your Mother toppling down the stairs with one of your pranks, got it?”
Bill looked at Estelle with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “What about Charlie?” He said as if his three-year-old brother was falling to his doom as he spoke.
“As long as I don’t have to visit anyone in St.Mungos.” Glancing toward the train she could already see Alice Fortescue waiting at the stairs of the train waving to Estelle and then putting up three fingers. “Okay, now I promise to send everyone their letters on the weekend.” As she stood up she hugged Bill and spun him around quickly as she stood up and peppering kisses on his face. “Stay safe Bill, Mother, Father, please don't miss your favourite child too much, I’ll be back home for Christmas.”
Grabbing her bags she quickly waved herparents and Bill off as her father had quickly placed Bill on his shoulders and was waving towards her. She nearly wouldn’t have realised she was already at the train if it wasn’t for Alice already screaming.
“You know it's a real tragedy that you have to spend the 9 hours of the day staying with all the prefects and just patrolling the train when you could spend time with all of us,” Alice said as she hooked her arm through Estelle’s. “And to think you have to spend them with Severus, thank Merlin you have Lupin otherwise you would probably be stuck with Potter or Black.”
Estelle shivered as she thought it would be like to have to act as four prefects if Sirius or James was chosen for the role. Which, thankfully, they had enough detentions and death threats from Filch to keep them away from the Headmaster's list. “I think the Headmaster would have to be threatened with endless complaints from Filch and Madam Pince too. Imagine Madame Pince exclaiming that James Potter had matured enough to become the Gryffindor and replace Remus.” They then both looked at one another and began laughing. Nearly toppling over as they clutched their stomachs.
“That would be like Lily telling James she is head over heels in love with him and wants to bear 12 of his kin,” Alice said giggling.
Suddenly, as if summoned by Severus himself, the compartment door they were about to walk past, was met with panting as the door was opened. “Padfoot heard someone say Lily said she loves me and I'm pretty sure someone said, kids.” James stood at the foot of the compartment, bent over and panting as if he had just run from England to the HighLands of Scotland and back. After every word, there came a puff and a huff.
From the corner of her eye, Estelle could point out the other 3 infamous so-called ‘Marauders’. Remus Lupin was watching the scene as he stuck a piece of chocolate in his mouth. Peter Pettigrew was watching but looked fearful as if something was going to drag him out of his comfortable position. Despite the tense feeling, she felt just by standing near him, she felt safe and scared whenever with Peter Pettigrew. Then there was Sirius Black, who was looking out of the window. Dead silence, looking out of the window and there was no sign that this was supposedly the boy who had alerted his best mate that Lily Evans fancied James Potter.
After four years of the ‘Marauders’ calling each other by ‘nicknames’. James was known as Prongs, Sirius was called Padfoot, Remus somehow allowed them to call him Moony and everyone who took Herbology with the Marauders used Wormtail more often these days.
Alice took a quick breath and rolled her eyes. “She may one day if you learn to give her space.” She poked him in the chest repeatedly until she noticed Sirius Black had turned his attention towards them. “And you need to learn how to apologise.” Glaring at him with a look he knew meant. After a minute of poking James and Sirius, Alice had turned her attention to Remus and Sirius. “Remus, we can talk about summer later but I’m sure you would love to escort Estelle to the prefect meeting you both seem to be heading to.”
“Buggers, nearly forgot about that because of these tossers, thanks, Alice.” Standing up, Remus looked at Sirius. “Remember you have until after the yule break otherwise we’ll-” Pausing in the middle of his sentence to look at James still panting at the door, shook Peter who looked more interested with the string dangling from his robes. “I’ll tell her. Shall we go? They must be waiting for the most vigilant prefects.” Walking to stand beside Estelle they began to walk to the last carriage where the Prefects were situated.
She turned back to look at the 3 boys left in the compartment. James flung himself next to Peter and began mumbling about Lily Evans again. He hadn’t realised Peter was already asleep and had placed his Herbology textbook on his face. Yet Sirius seemed to still be off in his own world. Either he was so tired he didn’t care where his eyes were looking or he was looking at her on purpose. She snapped out of her staring as she heard Alice’s voice.
“Ellie when you're patrolling make sure to come past and talk with the girls for a bit.” Alice cheerfully said with a bright smile on her face.
No one was ever spared a chance to look gloomy and miserable whenever Alice had a bright smile on her face. “Of course Alice, would you mind taking my bag as well?” Alice nodded and Estelle handed the bag over to her. Despite how Estelle seemed to find the bag heavy Alice skipped down the aisle until she moved into one of the compartments which Estelle could only assume held her friends in Gryffindor.
Estelle and Remus began their walk down the corridor. As Estelle checked for any ruckus amongst the compartments she could feel Remus sneak quick glances in her direction. After a couple of minutes, they arrived at the Prefect's carriage. As they entered screams were the first thing they heard as well. Glancing towards one another they quickly entered and closed the door. At first glance, you would think that the ones screaming at each other would be the Ravenclaw Prefect and the Slytherin Prefect. But it was the Head Boy and Head Girl screaming. Remus and Estelle quickly took a seat next to Marcellus.
The Head Boy elected was Gideon Prewett, a true and proud Gryffindor. Head Girl was Hestia Jones, she was the kindest Slytherin but they were all still too ambitious for their good. They always seemed to be at each other’s necks when they were scheduled to a patrol together once every 3 weeks. The previous Head Boy and Girl made sure to give them the smallest patrol schedule possible. It was rumoured Gideon had broken up with her due to speculations that began to arise about Slytherins becoming death eaters. It wouldn’t have deterred his relationship with her until the rumours about her family becoming death eaters became a topic of interest last year.
It had to take multiple interventions and several interruptions before the meeting were adjourned and the patrol schedules were given out. They had begun to make their way to patrol the sixth year carriages. Like this year Estelle and Marcellus paired up together. Since the start of the meeting, Marcellus had started to become a tad bit touchy, not that she minded. Since the first year, he has always been the type of person who finds comfort in showing his affection to the people he cares about through physical touch. Today was no less than the usual hand-holding when he is nervous, the partly side-hugging to keep both of them focused and grounded during the meeting, and peppering Estelle with sweet kisses on either her cheek, head or hand.
Marcellus has been harbouring hidden feelings for Estelle since their fourth year but was afraid of confessing his little crush and ruining their perfect friendship. He had been slowly gaining the courage to confess to Estelle over the winter break. He had a cute little plan to tell her his feelings and it was gonna be situated a bit further down from the carriage the marauders are situated in. This was to gain the attention of a particular marauder and to make it memorable to both of them. He was going to propose his love for her through the use of a Cheeto as a promise ring so that when he gets rejected he can ask Estelle to eat the ring as a symbolism of rejection.
As they neared the marauder’s carriage he grabbed onto her hand and tugged it to signal her to slow down. With confusion, Estelle came to a halt right in front of the marauder's carriage. Both stood in silence for quite a while. During this time, Estelle observed Marcellus and noticed a blush creeping up his neck.
"You okay Marc? Why did you want to stop?" questioned Estelle.
"Well, you see. Um, how do I say this? You know how you are my first and closest friend?" Marcellus started.
"Yes, I am very aware of the fact I’m close to being your only friend." Estelle joked.
"I don't want anything to come between our friendship dynamic but…." Marcellus suddenly paused.
Confused about how to read the current situation that is occurring in front of her, she asked, "But what? Are you asking to not be friends anymore?! Is that what's happening here?"
"No! Nothing like that, I can't bear to imagine my life without," Marcellus replied softly. "Um, you see, the thing is I've been in love with you for quite a while. And I know I shouldn't feel like that because we are friends, and I don't want my feelings to ruin our friendship, but I can't hold it in anymore." Rambled Marcellus.
Shocked at the sudden confession, Estelle froze in shock. Not knowing how to react she just stared slack-jawed at Marcellus, as she had no idea he felt that way.
"I couldn't help but fall in love with you because everything you do is just graceful and amazing. And the fact that you don't let a single tiny mishap bring you down is what inspires me. I also can't help but admire the cute little habits you’ve to keep from when we were growing up. The way your eyes light up so bright when you talk about things that excite you, or how you mess with your hair and bite your lips when you are nervous. And the fact that you always, no matter what, are willing to help the first years every year. Oh the first years, It's always amazing no matter how many times a Gryfindor is called you still make sure to hug them all after the sorting hat is,” He stopped his rambling and faced his eyes away from the floor and to her face. “Is there something wrong Estelle?”
He properly scanned Estelle's face and grew anxious every second. That was until he felt hands pull his face down and felt a pair of soft warm lips on him. Estelle had just kissed him. Him, Marcellus, the Marc is getting kissed by his best friend. His thumbs began to slightly massage her jaw while his hands were entangled in her hair, kissing her back he got a whiff of a blend of citrus and cinnamon. She then ran her fingers in his hair until they were interrupted.
A rough voice was heard behind them which broke them two apart. “Ahem, What do you think you are doing Ms Weasley and Mr Aldrich?”
Oh, Fuck My fucking life - Estelle Alula Weasley 1976