Needles and Nostalgia
fifth year, 1976.
Nostalgia is the only accurate description Adeline could use to describe the plethora of emotions erupting in her chest as she stepped through the barriers of Platform Nine and Ten at King's Cross Station. It was like dream walking back into her past timeline but attempting to act as though it was her first time, which in a sense it was. It was her first time on Platform Nine and Three Quarters in a new timeline, with so many new faces and a new name to herself. Though despite the early arrival to the barrier with her Aunt Druella, Uncle Cygnus and Cousin Narcissa, the train platform was just as busy and lively as she remembered it to be on Express days, with the easily spotted red steam engine parked and waiting for the many students of 1976 to board.
There were first years clinging to their parents in rushed goodbyes, exclaiming and pointing in wonderment of the magic that seemed to buzz around them. There was escaped pets, crawling across the cobblestones, chased by erratic children of all ages with their parents ripping them a new one at their turned back. But with all the good memories, filling with the smell of sweets, steam and the familiar buzz of magic beneath her skin there was also the darker less fond ones peaking around the corners of her overwhelmed mind.
She recalled her later years bordering on the train—the tension and dark looks casted to and fro across the platform with an obvious divide in sides. Adeline fuzzily recalled not only an escort of ministry officials and the compartment checks of dementors in her third year. Most years it was a happy day, one of magic and light attitudes, but there was always something else lurking about that seemed to leach away from it. It took her arrival to the station as Adeline Black to realize just what the shadow was in her previous timeline.
Herself.
Well, not literally of course, as she was only one person in her now very dark-rooted family, but it was obvious that they, the Black's as a whole that is, weren't particularly well liked in many of the huddles of families around them. One particular family reminded her of the Weasley's in how rowdy they were, only absent of the freckled faces and crimson hair. The mother was hollering about, laying into one of her children about studying hard and not messing about all year as it was his NEWT's. The child in turn hardly seemed to be paying attention and kept eyeing another family across the platform with a mousy haired girl giving her father a tight embrace.
All around them people seemed to scatter out of the way, as they cut through the crowds to the centre of the platform, both her own and Narcissa's trunk floating mindlessly behind them in polished black trunks with Hogwarts crests. Well, Adeline'a had originally been charmed pastel blue with the Beauxbatons crest but her Aunt had seen to that quickly enough. She refused to have her wandering around with a French School emblem plastered across it. Frankly, Adeline could really care less about the public opinion on that front.
When they arrived to the seemingly prearranged destination, Adeline came to a short stop behind Narcisaa who was quickly speaking with her Aunt Walburga, who had seemingly been waiting for their arrival. The introductions were short, so much so that Adeline hadn't been able to catch a word between them and was instead gaping like a fish out of water at her first cousin’s whom she hadn't seen since she was nine years old.
Sirius didn't stick around long—it seemed to Adeline that as soon as his parents were otherwise occupied that he found his escape from the unwanted family reunion. Adeline assumed he hadn't even noticed her behind his blonde haired cousin, whom he saw far more regularly, before spinning on his heel and taking off in the other direction with his trunk pulled behind him. Regulus however stayed for the introductions, and looked just as shocked as she felt at seeing him for the first time in years.
He had grown up much from when she had last seen him, with curling dark hair not dissimilar to her own but cropped to the nape of his neck and styled to not block his view. He was thin, almost unhealthy so, with the beginnings of a sharp and square jaw and the usual bright grey eyes of the Black family. What bothered Adeline more so about his change in appearance since she last saw him was his height. It seemed that the boy, who was barely thirteen, but in his fourth year due to early acceptance, was going to be quite tall, as he was already close to a foot taller than herself. It was the one aspect of herself that Adeline didn't find all too pleasant, as it usually required her to wear heels—much like she was currently, to not be confused with a twelve year old seeing as she was only five feet or so. That seemed to be something even dark magic couldn’t affect fully in terms of re-modifications, as she blearily recalled being quite short as Hermione as well.
"Adeline," Her Aunt Walburga addressed promptly once meeting her gaze. "You look lovely, though I do hope that the blue is not in favour of your assumed sorting."
Adeline had to force herself to smile with the grace and poise she was trained into at a young age. She had always felt uneasy around her Aunt, almost like an accessory or jewelry piece that her Aunt couldn't find the proper outfit to pair with.
"Of course not, Aunt Walburga," Adeline breezily lied with a quick grin. She pulled her coat a little tighter around her middle, "just a little homage to my previous learning."
The dark haired woman raised a brow, with a twisted curl to her lips in reply. "Indeed. Well, Regulus is more than willing to escort you to the train though, I suspect you'll be sitting with Narcissa for the ride."
Adeline noticed from her peripheral how the boy had flinched ever so slightly when his mother spoke his name. Whether from inattention or something else entirely, Adeline couldn't be sure. Admittedly, she was far less interested in such oddities than she was at the thinly concealed expectations her Aunt was pushing forward to be accepted.
Being escorted by Regulus was a simple power play, and likely more than just a hope for familia unity and bonding. Adeline hadn't forgotten about Walburga's idea of betrothal between Sirius and herself when she was younger. Now that Sirius was likely to be thrown out and blacklisted any coming day it seemed that Walburga had decided to push forward the spare instead. She felt a twisted sort of sympathy for Regulus in that moment.
The expected seating arrangement of her accompaniment with Narcissa was laughable at best, seeing as neither of them got on much these days, but Adeline was hardly going to bring up that tid-bit of gossip. The last thing she needed was to be reprimanded by Druella or Walburga. She doubted her Uncle's could care less about such grievances and would rather be anywhere but at the train station as it were to begin with.
"Oh, it's no bother," Adeline hastened to reply, feeling the apples of her cheeks blossom red. Not in embarrassment but more so in the anticipating remarks about rudeness in public. She doubted Regulus wanted to be seen babysitting her to the train like she was a young girl needing to hold his hand or a dog in need of a leash. "I'm sure Regulus has friends to be seeing to."
"Nonsense." Walburga waved off before glance sharply at the single son staring vacantly forward at her side. "He will escort you, won't you child?"
"Of course," Regulus replied simply with little emotion to be cleaved from his otherwise vacant expression. He seemed to resemble that of a wall, blank and not at all revealing to what was going on inside. Adeline pondered whether she too looked like that when occluding so heavily as a child. As it was obvious that was what he was perfecting at the moment, his Occlumency shields, it seemed he had something to hide from someone nearest to him.
"Where did Sirius wander off to?" Druella suddenly asked off side, noticing the missing and highly rebellious boy from the party. Orion and Walburga both whipped around to find the place their eldest son had previously standing in to be empty. Adeline thought it slightly comical at how red they both became in the faces, looking like kettles ready to blow their tops.
While Orion hissed in anger, Walburga cussed in a twisted rant of French before spatting out in disdain towards the small gathering. "That boy has no manners or decorum. It was like pulling teeth all summer to attend his lessons." She huffed, "That is without bringing up the mischief and mayhem he has been making and exploiting in my halls."
Adeline had heard little to nothing about Sirius all summer, seeing as she had never been over to Grimmauld Place, and likewise they had never come to visit her. With the departure of Andromeda and the passing of her mother, Black Manor had been on more or less a temporary lockdown for the summer. The commonly used excuse was to get Adeline settled in, frankly Adeline would have liked a bit of livelier company. She could only fake a smile and prattle on about polite politics and propriety for so long in the high society circles her extended family ran in.
Though it seemed not much had changed since the summer before with Sirius acting out and Regulus being deemed the perfect child of the family according to Walburga and Orion Black. As was explained in angry fragments by her seemingly enraged Aunt who had been polite and manipulative rather than rash and abrasive seconds before.
"...portraits vandalized, I don’t even know how he smuggled a mangy coated mutt into my house! He’s been arguing constantly with myself or throwing tantrums fit for a five year old! And his room, has now become a Museum Exhibit on a Muggle Sexual Endeavours—It's disgusting how far he has fallen!" She exclaimed with a sour expression and glare setting deep into her facial features, though it soon morphed into one of complete and utter lunacy and fury when she added on sharp and cold, "But of course, it's all the blood traitors and half breeds he associates himself with that we have to thank for what sort of monster they've made him into."
At seeing Adeline's confusion towards the former, though the girl assumed readily on who is was they were referencing, Adeline let her Aunt Druella inform her properly nonetheless.
"The Potter's of course, though they are our relatives a generation to so back. That detail is unimportant."
That seemed to do little to calm Walburga down as she flipped her gaze back to Adeline and spoke, though much calmer than she outwardly appeared to be. "When you see Sirius do tell him that I expect him to follow our lessons from the summer or he will be disciplined most harshly upon winter break."
Adeline felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle with goosebumps as she nodded curtly. "Of course, Aunt Walburga."
"Well, I won't hold you up." Her Aunt Walburga replied with a sharp grin before letting her eyes narrow to her youngest son. She spoke directly to him with a hidden undertone that's Adeline wasn't quite familiar with enough to dissect with flippant complaints and orders aired outright. "Regulus escort her, properly. And enough with the slouching. You'll never get a wife with proper breeding with such horrid posture."
Adeline waited for some sort of explosive reaction from the boy, something that would suggest he was simply a tampered down copy of Sirius. She was taken back when all the boy did was steadily meet her gaze and reply clear and honest, "Yes, mother."
Adeline felt a frown begin on her features as her brows began to furrow and her lips turn downwards. "What about—?"
"Already taken care of lovely, Orion will see it to the luggage carriage." Her Aunt replied with a blood red grin and a glance to her husband which quickly sent him away with his wand waving behind him with her bags being sent off towards the luggage cars next to Narcissa's.
Adeline assumed the gesture and endearment were supposed to sooth her, though they swiftly had the opposite effect. She was slowly getting more and more uncomfortable in the woman's presence. Not that she would let a single person notice it, as it was very improper of her to do so.
"Now, I expect a letter on your sorting much like Druella's dear, though I'm sure we're all certain to where it will be." Adeline could only offer a helpless nod in agreement, as her Aunt Walburga then brushed a dagger-like coloured nail across her cheek bone with a smirk before offering the centuries old greeting and dismissal of the Black Family.
"Toujours Pur, Darling."
Adeline pulled away and plastered the most falsified smile to date along her lips, "Toujours Pur."
Boarding the red steam engine train was simple enough, nearly cathartic after the sort-of family reunion and send off of the platform. Though Adeline did accept Regulus' offered arm to be escorted onto the carriages she was thankful that the boy pulled away nearly the instant they were away from their joint relatives sights. Narcissa had lead them both, with her head high and lips pasted in a cold and unfeeling smile as others parted for them to waltz forwards. Adeline tried her utmost best to keep the disdain and disgust wallowing in her gut hidden at the display. It was wrong, the way others seemed to fear their mere presence and how easily they stepped to the side as if to avoid their ire and spell casting. Everything was different, yet the same too.
Fear. So much fear was held around nothing but whispers of dark witches and wizards.
Didn't Harry and Ron also exercise this effect, the former more so than the later. Flashes of her fourth year slammed to the forefront of her frontal lobe, images of thrown hexes, curses and snide comments made an appearance, as people targeted him for entering the Triwizard Cup. How they thought him as a traitor and later a hero, but only after they had something to gain from it. It was sickening really, how easily the populaces loyalty was so easily transferable and dismissed at nothing more than an unspoken agreement of bystanders.
Once they were boarded safely on the train, Narcissa wasted little to no time in spinning on her heels and speaking down to Adeline as if she was nothing more than a piece of chewed gum on the bottom on her custom fitted heels. Regulus stood off to the side, seeming to wait for Adeline's attention afterwards.
"So we're clear, you will not be joining my carriage and we will not be associating outside of the most basic of necessities." Adeline felt her face nearly drop in sudden shock at the blonde girl’s icy words. Spoken as if she held not a care in the world and that this was simply the way things were going to be from then on. Before Adeline could even contemplate a response, Narcissa pushed forward in her words, as if she had a checklist of things to be spoken and only so much time to make sure the newest Black heiress got with the program she had dutifully laid out for her.
"As far as mother knows we are best friends, bosom buddies, whatever you call it—I don't care." She rolled her blue eyes at the last one. Adeline cautioned a glance at Regulus to see if the older girl was being truthful at the moment but he was once again straight backed and blank faced. How utterly annoying that stupid face of his that revealed nothing was starting to become.
Though Narcissa's next phrase was far more irksome and scandalizing than any sort of face her youngest cousin would concoct. "Also any and all letters being sent to my mother must be scanned by myself first so our stories align rightfully."
"You are not looking at and reading through my mail!" Adeline exclaimed, her ivory cheeks going bright pink at the suggestion, "Narcissa, that's illegal!"
As if to add further fuel to the metaphorical fire, Narcissa snorted into her hand as if Adeline was being the ridiculous one at the moment, "Don't blow your top, Black. I've been doing it for Sirius and Regulus for years now, Bellatrix taught me all the tricks so I could do the same for Andy."
Adeline felt her mouth gape ever so slightly, as she whipped her head to side to wordlessly ask if what her elder cousin was saying was true. Regulus simply smirked, with a dimple sinking into his one cheek as he reiterated Narcissa's claims with a shrug.
"It's true."
"Why?"
"So we don't actually have to associate with one another, honestly keep up," This time Narcissa was looking far more impatient than she had any other time she had come across Adeline in Black Manor. Her cheeks tinted pink and her lips thinned into a close mouthed snarl.
"Sirius prefers to run hog wild in the lions den with his group of blood traitors—he has much better things to occupy himself with than our falsified tea sharing on Sundays and Lord and Lady lessons on Saturday's." Adeline half wanted to comment on her cousin's words but instead kept her tongue firmly glued to the roof of her mouth as she prattled onwards without a care in the word.
Narcissa blandly stared at her nails, as if pondering whether she needed to address her cuticles again with her clippers as she went on. "Regulus does what he wants when he wants. He doesn't keep a schedule and he's likely to forget about tea sessions in favour of reading his latest Muggle book or some other random hyper-fixtation."
Regulus shrugged once more as if unbothered by the assessment with an impish grin. Adeline had no idea what she had gotten entrapped into between them but said nothing of it, even when Narcissa went to further lay out Regulus' apparently unorthodox habits of disappearing for weeks on end with sketchy and odd people.
"... wandering the forbidden forests with that Ollivander girl is one of the few hobbies I know he keeps, also potions ingredients gathering with Snape during October—though they apparently practice blood rituals on the new moons as well. His month to week long disappearances outside of class times in February and November do leave me puzzled though. Hardly anyone knows where he goes during those months."
Adeline felt overwhelmed, like any second she might crawl out of her skin or wake up in her bed at the Black Manor and this entire conversations had been part of one horrible strange dream. The pinch on her arm that she gave herself however, left her to face the fact this was indeed an actual conversation she was having, and perhaps one of the oddest ones yet.
"What Narcissa is trying to say is that it's easier to tell lies than it is to tell the truth," Regulus cut in suddenly, with a nonchalant attitude and look of assessment on his features as his gaze lingered on Adeline. Not like the undressing glimpses she had received in the past but one like a specimen a potioneer had just collected. It was an interest to study her, to understand her ticks and tricks, her secrets and hidden thoughts.
"Just look at how well the truth worked out for Andy when she started hanging around that Muggle born boy Edward and thought she could tell mother and father about it. That they would love nothing more than to bring a Muggle born into the family fold and hold the wedding at the family estate. " Narcissa supplied in example with a huff, Adeline knew that entire situation was still a sore spot for the blonde and winced at the bitterness that had latched itself onto the girl’s tongue.
Regulus must have known this as well, as he quickly added on to her words, "Or Sirius when he got into Gryffindor and thought Mother would be okay with the situation and not go completely batshit crazy."
Adeline had to stifle a cough at the boys bold word choice , but said nothing else otherwise on his comments. Instead, the dark haired girl glanced to the both of them warily before asking "You really do this? To keep the... peace with your parents?"
Regulus shrugged once more and spoke, "It's easier."
Unable to reign in her tongue she snipped back with no true heat behind her words. "It's cowardly."
Both of her companions shrugged noncommittally before Narcissa, her posture straight and lips held in a sharp grin, offered her last words on the matter at hand.
"Letters need to be written and in my hand by Saturday morning so I can send them off Sunday. If you'd rather take on the ire of the entire Black Family be my guest. Just know I won't be throwing you a rope like I did Andy before she left."
Adeline could hear the anger curling in the girls lips by the sheer tension in her shoulders and how high she let her head tilt. Narcissa was obviously still affected by Andromeda’s departure and snub to the entire family, even more so than she had been in the summer months. Granted, you couldn't offer up much emotion in the Black Manor lest you wanted to be ruthlessly teared apart by anyone other than yourself living in it’s walls.
The dark haired girl watched, like someone left on the side of the road, as Narcissa turned on her heels to retreat to her own waiting compartment. Before she could think anything of it, to rebuke the olive branch tenderly offered to her after such an animosity filled summer break, Adeline called after her in thanks, "Narcissa... um, thank you,"
Narcissa paused in her steps, almost seeming to mull over the words before calling back without hesitation in her steps as she went to leave to the next carriage towards the back. "Saturday morning at the latest, Black."
Adeline couldn't help the smile that creeped across her features at the sudden shift between them. Perhaps, it was nothing besides an odd and cold exchange between cousins, but Adeline knew that there was much more to the conversation than just that. Narcissa was willing to give their tentative friendship another try away from Black Manor and it's many expectations, despite their obvious differences on opinions.
Adeline couldn’t have stifled her internal glee even if she had wanted too.
Once Narcissa left, Regulus quickly took his leave as well. He half-heartedly offered for Adeline to join his compartment as well, though he did state that he would be reading in silence for the majority of it. Knowing that she would hardly be able to sit quietly for the entire ride, even if she stuffed her nose in a book, Adeline declined the offer politely and stated she would branch out and attempt her own networking skills.
Regulus offered her a few bits of advice in that area, the most important being that she should drop her Lady decorum lessons lest she wanted to be ridiculed the second a fifth year or older came across her, or worse a younger year thought she was legitimate royalty. She took his warnings to heart but wasn't entirely sure which sort of decorum she was meant to drop in introductions. Seeing as there was many rules regarding them.
Soon enough she found her own compartment down the carriage, vacant of anyone else inside. Despite knowing she ought to branch out and seek friends, she needed a few moments to herself, to recollect her memories and sort out her mind. Being on her way to Hogwarts was doing nothing more than elevate her stress and memories, she prayed her Occlumency Shields held when in Dumbledore's office and that no one would see it pertinent to start snooping about her activities. There of course would be spies within her peers, those contacted by her prestigious family sent to give daily reports on what she was doing, who she was with, and where she was going.
It seemed silly now to worry about something as bland as a sorting, when really she should have been worrying about being shoved directly back into her once-was memories. Where she roamed the halls with Harry and Ron, giggled and laughed with Pavarti and Lavender in their dorm. Hogwarts was full of memories both good and and it was only logical that her mind would feel jumbled upon her upcoming arrival.
Taking a few deep breaths she situated herself on one of the cushioned seats nearest to the window, and let her eyes wander to the terrain. They had just taken off, the valleys of hills and shrubbery coming into view quickly before disappearing as the sun slowly slipped lower and lower in the sky. She wasn't left alone long however, as the compartment door was suddenly skidding open with a girl dressed still in her street clothes with a messy bob of blond curls atop her head.
The blonde seemed to be taking her in with her bright blue eyes, that strange and direct gaze holding tight to the way her black trench coat was tossed next to her side carelessly and her blue blouse and grey skirt was on full display paired with her borrowed heels. Adeline felt like a falsehood as the girl stared at her in a mix of intrigue and wariness. She knew it likely that news of a transfer student would be high gossip along the train but she never expected to get such a honest reaction of wavering emotions across the strange girl’s face. They were only fifteen Adeline had remind herself— most fifteen year olds didn't have the need to hide themselves from prying eyes and minds.
"You must be the transfer student." The girl spoke suddenly, her lips titling in a lazy grin and her freckles seeming ready to dance of her skin at the sudden acrobatics of her facial expression. "I'm Marlene McKinnon."
The sudden gravel tone as a voice from her future-past suddenly filled her ears, her mind filling with pictures of old newspaper clippings and Order of the Phoenix pictures.
'Marlene McKinnon, she was killed two weeks after this was taken, they got her whole family.'
Half-imagined and half-true corpses with the girls bright smile and determined eyes looked glassy as they stared up at the caved in ceiling. A spell held stagnant on her now blood stained lips, with her limbs jutted out at odd angles from the hours of torture she was left in. Marlene McKinnon, the first of the Order's major fatalities— three months before the end of the war and the deaths of Lily and James Potter.
Adeline shook her head to clear the images of things she ought not to see. Not now, but later she would look at them. Later, she would think of the words and who had spoke them. Instead, she offered the pretty blonde a quick grin and replied to her introduction mostly on autopilot as she tried to starve off the dizzied feeling her disgruntled memories left her in.
"My apologies," She stated in reference to her earlier floundering, she raised to a small curtesy and the girl all but let her mouth drop open in shock. "I am Adeline Black, the youngest heiress of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, youngest and only daughter of the late Cassiopeia Black."
Marlene shook her head, as she swiftly let her mouth shut with a click of her teeth before blustering out, "Bloody fuck that was a mouthful."
"Sorry," Adeline swiftly apologized as her cheeks flared to a bright red and she glanced to her feet before sitting back down in a hurry. So much so that she nearly tripped over the toes of her own feet on her sloppy retreat. So much for making a good impression.
"Don't be." Marlene quickly stated, as she ran a calloused hand through her already mused curls in what had to be stress, as she stepped further into the compartment and seemed to be itching to pace the entire length as she began to ramble. "I don't even know where to start with mine— that is the Sacred introductions."
Adeline was about to speak though it seemed Marlene had much more to say and get out into the open on the topic at hand. "Morgana's tits my Mum would be pissed at me for forgetting! Uh, something about Warden's of Light and Battles of Blood? Or maybe it's Warden's of Battle and Light of Blood? There's something about laurels too... don't ask me where the fuck those fit in—,"
"How about we restart?" Adeline suddenly interrupts feeling like she's working the girl up into a tizzy just by existing and really she would give anything to restart whatever mental breakdown she accidentally created in this girl named Marlene.
The blonde haired girl beamed brightly at that and swiftly spun on her heel with nothing more than a "You got it!" and paraded outside the compartment before re-entering with the most determined facial expression Adeline had ever seen. So much so that the dark haired girl had to force herself not to start laughing outright at the expression.
"I'm Marlene McKinnon," The girl stated upon her re-entry before adding with that same sunbeam like grin, "Mind if I sit?"
"Not at all," Adeline replied instantly and quickly stomped down any ideas of reiterating her previous pureblood introduction that started the entire clusterfuck of a conversation beforehand. "I'm Adeline Black. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The girl sent her a thumbs up in reply before all but collapsing across from her on the compartment cushions. Adeline wasn't sure if she ought to say anything else but thankfully it seemed that Marlene had no qualms in filling in the awkward silences.
"So..." she started off simply, as she tucked a strand of her hair behind a heavily pierced left ear "I heard you transferred from that French school, bow-buttons or something. Is it different from Hogwarts?"
"Not really, I don't think." Adeline stated after a moments pause thinking back to her train travels to Beauxbatons compared to her Hogwarts ones.
There was little she could state about differences in academics, simply because she isn't supposed to know the differences yet. She also pointedly ignored the horrific pronunciation of Beauxbatons by the blonde. The last thing she need was to incidentally offend the first person she met at her new school. Harry and Ron had made it abundantly clear that she had been very annoying at the start of their friendship when she was constantly 'mother-hen-ing' them.
"We travel by train too, though it's sectioned off by years for the carriages." She started off offhandedly. Adeline purposely left out how she didn't have many friends back at her old school and how many of her peers thought her to be weird and distant with a possibility of smothering them in their sleep. She doubted that would be a good ice breaker for a conversation between near strangers.
"Yeah, we're more of a first-come-first-pick basis," Marlene replied with a shrug. "It's nice when you have friends in other houses because of it. You can't sit with them for meals often but you can during the train ride."
Adeline felt her interest pique at her words. Before she was well, her, there was hardly ever anyone mingling between houses. It was super uncommon, but maybe it wasn't now?
"Is that common?"
"Not really," Marlene replied honestly, "I mean the 'puffs , they're like super sweet. Like cavity enducing niceness, they get along with everybody. The Snakes and Lions usually keep their distance and the ‘claws hate all social interactions."
Adeline felt her eyebrow arch at the girls words but didn't offer her own stammers towards it. That Hufflepuff's had to be more than just the friendly, happy, go-lucky type. That there most definitely was lots more of differentiation into the House than Marlene knew of. That’s without even touching on the stereotype that the Ravenclaw’s didn’t know how to take in social cues. Sure, they were a bit backwards on conversation more often than not but so was Adeline and she doubted that had anything to do with her brain and more likely with the trauma of being dead and then dropped into an unknown timeline in the past very much alive and as a baby.
"Shit, you probably know nothing about the houses!" Marlene suddenly exclaimed as she bolted up in her seat and looked ready to give a long and dramatic lecture about the Housing and point-gaining system of Hogwarts School. Adeline had to cover her chuckles at the girls antics as she paraded onwards, "Do you need a rundown? Gryffindor is the best, obviously, but I can—"
"I did some research actually." Adeline cut in, not even bothering to try and hide her genuine smile at the girl. She liked Marlene, she really and truly did. With her loud personality and frantic ramblings—Adeline even thought her far too crass language to be endearing. Like a breath of fresh air from the stifling nature of the House and life she just left behind at the platform.
"Hufflepuff's are the green thumbs and are based around loyalty and kindness. Gryffindor are the reckless idiots who like to play hero far too often, while Slytherin are the pureblood snobs with a thirst of ambition and power. Ravenclaw is a trail mix of creative and intelligent people, most often a little backwards on social cues but genuine people."
Adeline was glad when Marlene bubbled up in laughter at her quickly made comments on the housing system. Even if it was stereotypical and quite rough around the edges, she was pleased to elicit that sort of carefree action from the other girl. Mainly becuase it’s didn’t seem too far off base form her previous timeline.
"Yeah, that about sums it up." Marlene said between huffs of air with a dizzying grin, "Any idea where you'll be? I'm in Gryffindor incase that wasn't obvious."
"I'm keeping my options open," Adeline replied simply, not entirely sure what else to say on the matter. She couldn’t say she was in Gryffindor once despite it being true.
"But which house do you... y'know feel would fit you best or like you want?" Marlene pressed. Adeline felt herself curl inwards at the question as thoughts of plans sprang forth in her head about all the things she needed to fix, all the people she wanted desperately to save that she had never even met. A life where Harry and Neville could have their parents —whole and healthy. Where Lavender wouldn't be mauled by Greyback, where Ron and Ginny survive and George and Fred never have to part ways.
"I'm... not sure. I have traits from many." She stated slowly before shaking her head and adding almost shyly at the prospect of a choice. "As a Black I'm expected to go to Slytherin—but I went to the closest thing back in Beauxbatons. I have the drive and the ambition to do well there but I lack something that most of my family don't in that aspect."
Marlene stayed studiously quiet as Adeline rambled onwards, picking at the sleeve of her blouse with a sort of needle-like fixation. "And for Hufflepuff, while I like to think myself a kind and loyal person… it would never work out. I get angered easily and am not always keen on holding my tongue."
"What about Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?" Marlene asked curiously and Adeline had to think before speaking. There was nothing holding her back from either much like Slytherin besides wants and wishes.
"As much as I love knowledge and learning, it comes back to a saying my Maman* used to read me. It went something about how knowledge is powerful only its application—how you choose to wield it as a weapon or protection. As a sword, or a shield. I tend to lean more towards a sword than shield. I'd use my knowledge to attack and act rather than defend and protect."
Marlene waited a moment or so before breaking out into an ear splitting grin as she cattily replied with a knowing look. "That sounds pretty Gryffindor-like in recklessness to me. Playing the gallant knight rather than the guardian dragon."
Adeline snorted behind her hand, knowing that the action wasn’t at all proper and poised, before shoving at the girls closed toe sneakers, "Oh, shut up!"
Both of the girls soon fell into giggles and laughter when Marlene dramatically mimed a knight and guardian dragon with a shield and sword. It was ridiculous, childlike even but it made Adeline’s stomach burst with glee and her face ache from how wide she grinned. She couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so freely, it had to have been back when her mother was still alive. On one of their many summers spent in the Rhone Alps at the now burned away cottage. It seemed like a lifetime ago really.
"In all honesty though, I think you'll be fine wherever you go." Marlene replied, her tone taking on a far more serious waver than the previously joking one they had both sported.still breathy from her previously contagious laughter. "You got fire. Besides, it's not like you won't see me in at least one of your classes anyway. So, you'll have at least one friend to come lament to about the horrid qualities of whatever house you get."
Adeline had to force herself not fumble on her words at the declaration. Adeline had never been good at making friends or keeping them for that matter. She had too much going on in her head that she couldn't explain, was too focused on her studies or annoying when she nitpicked their bad habits.
Marlene made it sound so easy, like being her friend wasn't going to make her life miserable when Adeline couldn't tell her of something, couldn't ever truly be honest about who she is or where she comes from. Despite all her worries and the sinking and simultaneous feeling of flying in her belly Adeline grinned brightly and forced herself not to cry, or laugh. Maybe a bit of both really becuase it seemed Marlene McKinnon liked to leave the world guessing at what she would say or do next.
"I'll hold you to that, McKinnon."