Alec del Signore and the Forgotten Book

The Hogwarts Express

There were three weeks between 11 August, Alec's birthday, and 1 September, the day that he went off to Hogwarts. Each day of this period, Alec's time was spent nearly the same way: He would fly around on his broomstick, either in the backgarden or in the fields scattered throughout Mould-on-the-Wold, and then go in and spend time with his aunt, making sure to be helpful around the house whenever he could. Alec struggled to feel remorse for leaving Aunt Vikki all alone, because he was so anxious for Hogwarts, but he tried to be extra good for her in the final days before he left. When the Daily Prophet would come, Alec would look through the Quidditch section for any off-season moves made by the Magpies, Alec's Quidditch team. The season was coming, set to start on 10 September. And then, at night, he would head to bed extra early just so he could mark off another day from his calendar.
On the fateful day that he would finally go to Hogwarts, Alec woke up bright and early to the sun streaming through his open blinds. A look at his wristwatch told him that it was only seven in the morning. The Hogwarts Express wouldn't leave until eleven, but Alec still thought it was a good time to be up and at it. Aunt Vikki seemed to think the same, and soon Alec could hear the sizzling of food in the downstairs kitchen. He took a shower and changed clothes, and then, after saying 'good morning' to his aunt, spent his first hour or so scouring the house for anything he wanted to take with him to Hogwarts. He had already crammed most of his important stuff into his luggage—his robes, cauldron, telescope, and books were all packed away. His aunt had placed an unbreakable charm on his new crystal phials to ensure their safe travels but even so, Alec placed them in the most secure, padded corner of his trunk.
He gathered up his apothecary ingredients and carefully placed him in with the cauldron. Then he realised that his brass scales were also missing, which he found in his closet, buried under some pants. Alec added a few extra pairs of socks to the trunk, then zipped it up and lugged it down to the front door.
'Breakfast is ready, Alec!' his aunt called.
They settled down to a full English, which was very good indeed. When Alec had polished off his egg and drank the last of his tea, leaving nothing but the dregs at the bottom of his cup, he pulled out his Hogwarts Express ticket and stared at it with an aloof smile on his face. He had been waiting in unbearable anticipation for months, and now that the day had finally came, it didn't feel real at all.
After his dish was rinsed and Vikki had finished her own meal, Alec retrieved his trunk from the front door and brought it to the living room. Aunt Vikki had taken some green Floo powder from the ramequin and divvied it up between the two of them.
'Be very certain, now, Alec, that you say, 'King's Cross Station, Wizard's Entry,' and nothing else,' Aunt Vikki warned him.
'Yes, auntie,' he said. Then he tossed his powder into the burning hearth and said, loudly and clearly, 'King's Cross Station, Wizard's Entry.'
Alec stepped inside. There was a burning sensation at his feet, and then he found himself inside a bathroom. As he appeared there, many other wizards and witches did, too, with their own baggage trailing beside them. Alec stepped to the side as a tall, mustached wizard appeared with his two children and led them out of the washroom.
Aunt Vikki finally appeared beside him. 'Come now, let's go,' she said, grabbing onto his hand. She pulled him from the bathroom and they emerged into King's Cross Station. Alec had never been before, and he stared around at the massive, Muggle-filled train station with a sense of awe and nervousness. There was a huge, glass-domed roof that looked up into the autumn sky above them. Trains whistled about loudly as Muggles milled around and gabbed haughtily towards each other. By each railroad end was a number on a blue poster — 2, 3, 4, 5, with long gaps between every two or three, some filled with shops proposing food for the journey in the middle — marking each platform down and explaining which train would be there.
    Vikki led Alec down the lines of railroads, occasionally glancing to the large clocks on the walls to ensure they were on time. The train didn't leave until eleven and it was only ten forty, plenty of time to cross the final four and a half platforms to arrive at Nine and Three-Quarters. Only once did they bump into Muggles, hindered by the trunk trailing behind them, but Aunt Vikki apologised and all was well again.
    'Here's the spot, Alec,' Aunt Vikki, said, pointing at a blue poster to their left. It had a large black number 9 on it. There was a tall, red brick barrier between nine and ten, and Alec and Vikki promptly stopped there.
    'Well, you'll go first, Alec,' she told him. 'And quickly now, we don't want to get trampled, the Muggles are moving fast —'
    'But — but how?' Alec stuttered nervously.
    'You know how, Alec, just straight through the border.' Aunt Vikki was clearly anxious due to her packed surroundings.
    'I — you're sure?' Alec had, of course, known about the method to arrive on the Platform, but actually doing it was an entire different story.
    'Very sure, Alec.' She took the trunk from him. 'Jog right into it, I'll keep the —'
    'Excuse me,' a woman said. Alec glanced over at her from nervously eyeing the very hard brick barrier. 'I — I couldn't help overhearing — I mean, we couldn't help overhearing — Muggles, and going into a barrier — and we were wondering...' She looked back at her family, a stubble-faced, brown-haired man and a girl around Alec's age, and then continued, 'If, um, if you could help us... you know, get through? To the Platform?'
    'Oh!' Aunt Vikki exclaimed. 'You mean, you're off to Hogwarts, too?'
    'Yes!' the woman said, nodding fast and looking relieved. 'I'm Nicole. This is my husband, Neil, and our daughter, Guinevere. It's just — well, we're not witch and wizard, or warlock, or whatever — and we don't know how to find this Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.'
    Aunt Vikki let the tension from her shoulders in a sigh. 'That's an ease. For a moment I thought you were going to call a doctor.' She shook the woman's hand. 'I'm Vikki and this is my nephew, Alec. Of course we can help you get to the Platform.'
    'Thank you very much,' Neil, the husband, said. He had the girl's trunk behind him, set with a cat cage on top that housed one brown feline.
    'No problem,' Aunt Vikki told them. 'I know it sounds a bit odd — you'll just have to bear with me here — all you must do is walk into the barrier there confidently, and you'll end up on the other side.'
    Nicole and Neil shared a glance, as if they'd made a mistake in approaching Aunt Vikki and Alec.
    'I promise, I'm not leading you on,' she said. 'Here — Alec, why don't you go along, show them how it works.'
    'Okay,' Alec said, turning back towards the border. He had begun to jog when the Muggle family spoke up.
'No — that's okay,' Nicole said. 'We believe you.' She turned to her daughter. 'Guin, could you go through with the nice boy? Just so you're not alone, you know — I don't think any of us will fit through with you.'
She hesitated for a moment, then said, 'Okay.'
Alec smiled at her, trying to seem friendly enough. He held out a hand and she grabbed it.
'Don't run, Alec,' Aunt Vikki said.
Glancing at the girl, he began at a jog, and she kept up. She looked terrified. Alec knew that she would stop moving if he didn't hold on to her, so he tightened his grip and they passed through the brick barrier, one moment running through in King's Cross, the second standing in an new world. The isolated platform looked exactly like a miniature version of King's Cross — a tall, domed glass roof and closed in sides with bathrooms and exits along the walls. It was bustling with wizards and witches and Hogwarts students — a few were in their robes already, most of them being older students. The train there was a large, scarlet steam engine, black at the head and bearing the words 'Hogwarts Express' along the side. There were compartments all along the sides, along with a narrow door that lead right into the hallway in the midst of the train.
    Suddenly, Neil appeared behind Alec, with his daughter's trunk rolling behind him. He stepped away, looking awed, and Nicole came through the barrier, eyes clamped shut and hands out in front of her to stop the impact. Clearly much calmer, Aunt Vikki appeared right behind her.
    'All here?' Aunt Vikki asked, looking around them. She glanced down at her watch. 'Not much time now, we should —' She had started to say that they should get a move on, but then she had seen the overwhelmed expressions on Neil and Nicole's faces and changed her mind. 'Um, Alec, Guinevere... would you guys be okay to move ahead? I'll bring your parents out, Guinevere, once the crowd's gone — we'll find you guys, I promise.'
Clearly excited to explore the mystical platform, Guinevere nodded. 'That's fine.'
'Don't lose her, Alec,' Aunt Vikki said sternly.
    Alec took his trolley from her, then waited for Guin to take her own and push down the platform after him. They walked for a while to get to the center of the train, where Alec assumed they could find a doorway into the midst of the steam engine, so they could locate an empty compartment from the peace of the inside. The first few compartments at the head of the train were already packed with students, hanging out of the large windows to talk to their families, stuffing away their baggage, or fighting over seats. Smoke hung over the top of the platform and owls hooted aggrievedly to each other over the babble of hundreds of voices and the noisy scraping of trunks.
    They passed a brown-haired boy with a crooked nose, who was glancing nervously around. 'Ollie's gone off again, mum,' he whined.
    'Again, Sam?' his mother asked, exasperated.
    An Indian girl with a bindi on her forehead was surrounded by a large family, one woman of which being severely pregnant.
    'Oh, dadi, I don't need anything more, my bag's already full!' she complained to an elder amongst her.
    'Be grateful, Parminder,' her father warned her.
    Alec and Guinevere pressed on through the crowd. They found the door into the train's hallway and entered. Alec, in the front, pressed on until he found an empty compartment, to which he rolled open the door and entered, slinging his suitcase into the storage shelving above the seats with much strain. When he turned back, expecting to make room for Guinevere and her cat, he found that she had moved along nervously, apparently searching for her own place.
Alec poked his head out of the compartment.
'Oh, you could, um, sit with me, Guinevere. If you'd like, of course,' Alec stuttered out.
She turned around and hesitated for a moment, then said, 'Yeah, I'd like that.' She smiled nervously at him. 'And call me Guin.'
Alec nodded at her and went back into his compartment, taking a seat by the window. Guinevere — Guin, rather — came in and sat across from him, lifting her trunk into the storage area above her own head but keeping her pet beside her.
They sat in silence for a moment. Alec hoped they hadn't gone so far that his aunt and Guin's family wouldn't be able to find them. While he was waiting, he stared out of the window at the families around him. In the distance he could see many red-haired children boarding the train and the Indian swarm dispersing as the girl stepped into the steam engine. Two similar-looking boys in Hufflepuff robes said good-bye to their parents near Alec. The platform was clearing up, and soon, Alec could see his aunt and Guin's parents approaching them.
    'We've only got a few minutes, Alec, so we must get on to it quickly,' she said as she walked up to the open window and grabbed his hand through it. Guin's family was talking to her on the other side of the window. 'I'm going to miss you very much. I should hope you know that. But don't dwell on it, Alec. Hogwarts — especially your first year — should be a time of joy and of curiosity, not worry for your old auntie.' She smiled at him, trailing her thumb over the back of his hand. 'Now, that doesn't mean you don't need to write me, okay? And you'll be home for Christmas and Easter, of course — it won't be that long before we see each other again, don't worry.'
    The train's whistle blew. Alec could feel the scarlet steam engine rumbling beneath his feet.
    'I'm very proud of you, Alec,' Aunt Vikki said sincerely. 'You've grown into a very mature young boy, and I know you'll show that at Hogwarts. Make lots of friends,' she said, as the rumbling got louder, 'and be kind to everyone, not just those in your House. I know that Slytherins can seem rude, but that's just the view society has put on them. I promise, for every twat you find here, there'll be a gem to replace them.'
    The train was getting ready to move, Alec could feel. Guin and her parents were saying their final goodbyes across from him.
    'Good-bye, Alec,' Aunt Vikki said emotionally. 'I love you.'
    'I love you too,' Alec said.
    The train started to move, slowly stumbling along the tracks.
    'Bye, auntie,' Alec said softly.
    'Bye,' she responded, letting her arms fall from the window.
    Alec watched his aunt for as long as he could, staring at her, already feeling guilty. Then, at last, he tore his eyes from the disappearing blurs of color that his aunt and Guin's parents had become and, for the first time, felt the train taking him to his new life, to the place he had been dreaming of going to since his very birth. He smiled.
    Guin's eyes had gone glassy and she was staring out the window, not daring to look at Alec. She had grabbed her cat out of its container and was holding it in her lap, squeezing it tight. Trying to be respectful, he stared around at the door to their compartment. Suddenly a familiar form was passing by, and Alec and he met eyes. The boy pulled open the door and stumbled into their compartment, nearly falling with the speed of the train picking up. His trunk was trailing behind him, which he held onto very carefully as he sat down.
'Hey, Alec,' Arthur Longbottom said, grinning at his friend from the robe shop.
'Hey, Arthur,' Alec responded, grinning back.
After their hellos, Alec glanced back out of the compartment window, staring at the big city of London blurring by them, and took a deep, contented sigh. Finally, he was on his way to Hogwarts. Arthur stood and stuffed his trunk into the last bits of room in their overhead compartment once the motion under his feet had evened out.
'Arthur, this is Guin,' Alec told him, once he had sat down.
'Hi Guin,' Arthur said cheerily. He was clearly very excited to be on his way to Hogwarts.
'Hello,' Guin said nervously.
'Is that your cat?' Arthur asked, staring at the lump of long fur in her arms.
Guin nodded. 'She's called Peregrin.' The cat had long, straight fur and was mostly medium brown, with a few lighter spots mixed in. She had green eyes.
'That's cool,' he said. 'I wish I had a cat. I asked, but Dad said that then everyone else would want one, and where would that put us?' He grinned. 'At least we have an owl, though!'
'Do you have a lot of siblings?' Guin asked curiously.
Arthur nodded. 'Three. It's me, my brother, the twins, and our mom and dad. I guess he was kind of right, I couldn't imagine having to deal with four animals.'
'And you're all magic?' Guin was clearly a muggle-born, Alec knew from the Station — a witch or wizard born of two non-magic parents. Families that revolved around the wizarding world must have been very interesting to her.
'All of us,' Alec responded. 'Up to our great-grandma. Well, we think the twins are. I'm not so sure, they might be too annoying to be witches.'
They all grinned at that.
'What about you, Alec?' Guin asked him.
'Er... it's just me and my aunt and grandpa, really. We're all magic. I know I have some aunts and uncles and cousins out there, but I've never met them.' He shifted a little. 'They're probably magic too, though, considering that everyone I know of is.'
Just then, the compartment door slid open. A taller, brown-haired boy with a round face appeared. He had a copy of The Dark Forces: a Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble in his hands. It was one of the books that Aunt Vikki had bought Alec for his first year.
'We got our books mixed up, Arthur,' the boy said, looking around the compartment.
'Oh,' Arthur said, going a bit pink and getting his trunk from the storage area.
'I'm Andrew, Arthur's brother,' the boy in the door explained in the silence. 'Nice cat,' he said to Guin.
Arthur returned from his trunk with his brother's Defence Against the Dark Arts book and handed it to him, looking away. He was clearly a bit embarrassed to have his brother appear in their conversation. Andrew said good-bye and left.
'What year is he in?' Alec asked.
'Third,' Arthur said, stuffing his own book back into his luggage.
'What about the twins?' Guin said.
'Nine, so they're not at Hogwarts yet,' Arthur responded, leaning back into his chair. 'Sorry about him.'
They all shrugged.
For a while, they let time pass. The lots they passed were becoming bigger as the properties became more valuable, being calm and isolated from the hubbub of London.
'What House do you want to be in?' Alec asked to no-one in particular. It had been a subject on his mind a lot since his birthday party.
Arthur thought for a moment. 'Any but Slytherin, I suppose. I don't see myself as much of a Ravenclaw,' he admitted. 'My dad was in Gryffindor, but my brother and my mum are Hufflepuffs. And now Dad's the Head of Hufflepuff House, even though he wasn't there at school.'
'Your dad's a teacher?' Guin exclaimed. 'At Hogwarts?'
Arthur nodded.
'You must have learned a lot of magic from him already,' she said.
He shrugged. 'Well, he's just the Herbology teacher. There's not much magic in that, not really.'
There was a moment of quiet. Then, Guin said, 'I think I want to be in Gryffindor. It sounds like they've produced a lot of great witches and wizards.'
'McGonagall's Head of House,' Arthur commented. 'She was teaching when dad was at school. He says she's nice.'
'What about you, Alec?' Guin asked.
'I want Gryffindor, too,' he admitted. 'My mum and my grandpa were. I have some Slytherin in my family, too, but... I don't really think I fit there. I guess Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff wouldn't be terrible either.'
    'I bet I'll be Hufflepuff,' Guin said, 'even if I want Gryffindor. It just sounds the most like me.'
    'You were pretty brave in King's Cross,' Alec pointed out. 'You walked into the barrier even though you weren't sure it would work.'
    Guin shrugged. 'I guess.'
    They were quiet again. The large houses had disappeared and were replaced by tall green grass. Small lanes and cows flicked past the window as the train carried them towards Hogwarts. For a while, they just stared at the roaming wilderness and let the quiet of the compartment (save for Peregrin's purrs) content them.
    Guin pulled out a book and so Alec and Arthur talked about Quidditch. The British and Irish League, where both the Magpies and Puddlemere United played, was set to begin in about ten days. They talked for a while about the signings of the off-season and who they thought had the best chances at the cup. Just near the end of the signing period, Puddlemere had picked up Rudolf Honeysett, a star Chaser with loyalties to the German national team. Alec and Arthur spent a while discussing him.
    At around half past twelve, there was a great clattering in the corridor that got closer and closer to their compartment as the time went by. A smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, 'Anything off the trolley, dears?' In tow was a large cart filled with every kind of wizarding sweet imaginable.
    Alec was still rather full from his breakfast, but he did have a sack of gold in his trunk and no adult around to tell him how to spend it. He got up and waited behind Arthur while he bought some Licorice Wands, then chose a pumpkin pasty for himself.
    Just as he was about to go back to his seat, he looked back at Guin. 'You're not going to get anything?'
    'We didn't really convert much into gold,' she admitted. 'I should probably save it.'
    Alec bought another pumpkin pasty. 'Here,' he said, handing it to her as the trolley rattled away.
    Her eyes went wide. 'No, you shouldn't—'
    'It'll be a while before you have a chance to try them again. They don't cost much and there's no reason for you to miss out.' He smiled at her as she took it.
    They sat in contention as they ate their sweets. Guin liked the pumpkin pasty very much and gave the last nibble to Peregrin, her cat, who seemed to share her sentiments. Alec found himself very lucky to already have two friends with him before he'd even arrived at Hogwarts — he'd barely had any his entire life prior to then. Occasionally he'd talked with the other wizarding children of the village, but there were none his age and that had separated them.
    'I'm quite excited for Charms,' Guin said, putting away her Muggle book. 'I'd like to learn every spell I can. There must be hundreds of things throughout the day that could be made easier with magic. Or even made possible.'
    'Professor Flitwick teaches that,' Arthur said knowledgeably. 'He's the only other teacher, except Professor McGonagall, who was already teaching when my parents were in school.'
    'Is he nice?'
    He shrugged. 'I think so.'
    'I want to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts,' Alec said. 'Do you know who teaches that, Arthur?'
    'Er... his name's... I think it's Baxter? Or maybe Baines?' He waved his hand dismissively. 'I don't know much about him, he was new last year. But yeah, Defence sounds fun. Or maybe Transfiguration? Heard McGonagall's pretty strict, though. D'you think there'll be openings on the Quidditch team, Alec?'
'Maybe,' he responded, 'but first years never make the team, do they?'
'Uncle Harry did,' Arthur said. 'But he was the—' 'Harry Potter?' Guin exclaimed.
Arthur nodded, grinning.
'You're related to Harry Potter?' Guin was shocked.
'Not by blood,' Arthur told her quickly. 'But he was friends with my dad at school — they fought together in the Battle of Hogwarts, when they finally killed Voldemort — and so we're like family.'
They talked about Harry Potter and their lessons for a while more. Arthur said that he wasn't looking forward to History of Magic much, but Guin said the opposite. Alec found himself just as interested in Charms as he was Defence Against the Dark Arts — although he had been around wizards and witches his whole life, he, like Guinevere, found he wanted to learn as much magic as he could.
Just as Guin was going back into her bag for her book, there was some activity outside of the compartment and a boy and a girl, already dressed in Hogwarts robes, appeared. The boy opened the compartment door and peered inside at them, smiling slightly. Peregrin hissed.
'So you must be Alec del Signore,' the boy said. He had slicked-back dark blond hair that reached the middle of his neck and a thick scar over his forehead, as if he had fallen as a child. And, although Alec had never seen him in his life, the boy knew his name.
'Er... yes,' Alec said. 'Do... do we know each-other?' He was feeling most confused indeed.
'I know you,' the boy said vaguely. He stuck out a hand at Alec. 'Cowen Yaxley. And this —' he glanced at the girl next to him '— is Mariah Flint.'
Alec shook his hand, still confused.
Cowen Yaxley looked around the compartment at Guin and Arthur, then back towards Alec. 'You know, you shouldn't associate with riff-raff like these, del Signore.' He glanced towards his friend and smirked as if they knew something Alec didn't. 'Not with your family.'
'What about my family?' Alec said, feeling suddenly defensive and wishing he had never shaken the blond boy's hand.
'Oh, nothing,' Cowen said, smiling darkly. 'Well, just wanted to say hello. You should think on what I told you.'
He and Mariah Flint left. Alec, Arthur and Guin watched them go.
'What does he mean about your family?' Arthur asked.
'I... I don't know,' Alec admitted.
'Well, no time to figure it out now,' Guin said, standing up and glancing out of the window. 'We're almost there. We need to get our robes on.

~ 1 John 3:17 — 'But who so hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?.' ~

This is a rough draft of Chapter Three. This will not be its final form. Please leave any constructive criticism in the comments, and vote if you'd like.
    - Esau