Puppet Strings (Hogwarts x Reader)

Chapter 1

The train whistle blew again, a call for last passengers to board.

"Come on," Harry said. "Ron and Hermione went ahead to get us seats."

Harry and Y/n both wheeled their trunks along the platform.

"Where'd you stay, then?" Harry asked.

"The Leaky Cauldron."

Harry snapped his head to the side to look at her. "What? I stayed there!"

Y/n frowned. "You—huh? What do you mean you stayed there? I thought you were staying with....with our aunt and uncle."

"We got in a bit of an argument, so I left for a bit," Harry said sheepishly. "I, uh....well. You know Aunt Marge? I blew her up."

Y/n went pale. "Oh, Harry...god, that woman was a nightmare, but she didn't deserve to die...."

"Wha—no, not like that! I mean like a balloon. Got all big and swollen."

Y/n glared at him. "That's not much better. How was the Ministry not after you?"

At this, Harry seemed to almost shut down. His cheerful demeanor vanished and he looked side to side before shaking his head. "I've actually got to talk to you about that, sort of. But not here—we can talk with Ron and Hermione on the train."

They found the two friends in question in a compartment at the very end of the train. Besides Ron and Hermione there was another occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray.

"Who's this?" Harry asked.

"Professor R.J. Lupin," Hermione said quietly as Y/n and Harry entered the compartment and began putting their luggage overhead. "It says it on his suitcase."

Hermione's eyes lit up when she saw Y/n. "You must be Harry's sister!" She had a bit bigger teeth and her hair was rather wild, but overall she was quite pretty.

"It's so nice to meet you," she went on. "Is it true that during your sorting, two of the statues picked you? It's extremely rare, don't you know—the story even made its way over in England!"

Y/n smiled. The girl's wide-eyed curiosity and bright smile was contagious. It was true. At the Ilvermorny sorting, students would appear before four statues of the house mascots—the Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird, and Pukwudgie. The statues would react if they wanted the student in their house, and usually only one did so. However, with Y/n's, the Thunderbird and the Wampus had reacted. She had chosen Thunderbird, of course. She'd always been a bit more ambitious than most, and it just felt right.

But Hermione was correct. What happened to Y/n was extremely rare. In fact, it had been the talk of the school, and one of the reasons why she didn't make many friends.

"I have to tell you all something," Harry said as he shut the compartment door, then sat down beside Ron. Y/n took a seat beside Hermione, who the stranger was on the other side of.

Harry went on to explain about how he had heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arguing last night about Harry—and Sirius Black. Even in the states, the name was famous. But that wasn't even the most troubling part. Sirius had broken out, and now he was looking for Harry, according to Mr. Weasley. Apparently after Mr. Weasley found out Harry overheard, he gave him a warning not to go looking for Black. With each word Harry spoke, Y/n's stomach sank lower and lower.

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" said Ron shakily, as if he was voicing Y/n's very thoughts.

"Trouble usually finds him," Y/n muttered. That much was true. Out of the two of them, Harry had always seemed to fall between a rock and a hard place more than Y/n. Even the night Harry got his scar—the night Voldemort had tried to kill Harry—Y/n hadn't been there. She was being watched by a friend of the family apparently, or that was what she had been told. And then there was what happened to Harry in first year, and second year.... Maybe it had something to do with cursed genetics. Y/n was adopted as a baby, after all.