"Okay Rian, do you have your trunk?" Hadrian held up his necklace, on which his shrunken trunk hung. "Your wand?" He lifted his robe sleeve, letting his eleven-inch holly and phoenix feather wand peek out. "Anguis?" A short hiss answered that query. "Oh, what else is there? How about-"
"-a hug and a kiss from my beloved sister?" Rian interrupted cheekily. Heather chuckled and obliged. "Really, Heather, you worry too much! Just go board your carriage, I'll be sharing the boat with Ron. And I promise not to dive into the lake. Or feed the Giant Squid. Or feed the squid by diving in and offering myself as a meal."
Heather smiled sheepishly at hearing the concerns she'd had repeated. She did sound ridiculous. She sighed and waved her brother on, waiting till he got safely on a boat before leaving for her own ride.
"Back already, Mummy Heather?" Fred said.
"Thought you'd have ridden on the boat with him, actually," George ribbed.
Grimacing slightly, she continued to stare worriedly down at the lake, though the carriage flew too high up to see clearly. "I was convinced not to."
"Oh cheer up, Heather!"
"You'll see him soon at the Sorting."
"Besides, Ronnie's with him."
"Uh, Gred? I'm worried now."
Heather allowed the twins' byplay draw out a smile. "Rather, Rian should be worried, leaving me here to fend against you two," she said glibly.
Rian would be just fine. Now, if only she could believe it.
~~~
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat finally shouted after at least six minutes. Heather sighed in relief and clapped hard, ignoring the subtle glares her housemates gave her. She had been immensely worried by the long time the hat had taken, despite the precedence of hat stalls. She shouldn't have. She herself had taken about four minutes to sort, after all.
Heather looked over at the Gryffindor table and caught Fred and George's gazes. Her eyes flitted briefly to her brother before returning to them. They inclined their heads solemnly. She smiled gratefully. They would look out for him.
Sighing as the Headmaster began his typical welcome speech, Heather recalled the conversation she had had with Hadrian.
"Heather?" her brother said abruptly after a whole hour of tossing and turning on their bed. Heather immediately began to worry. What had her brother sounding so scared? She made sure the silencing charms around their bed were active. Wouldn't want to wake the twins.
"Rian? What's wrong?"
He was silent for a few moments. "...Will you hate me if I'm not Slytherin like you are?"
Heather sighed in relief. That's all he was worried about? "I don't care which house you Sort into, Rian," she said honestly, "As long as you're happy."
"Even Gryffindor?" he said in a small voice.
She couldn't help it; she laughed. "Rian, Mama and Papa were Gryffindors. Fred and George are Gryffindors. We're in a houseful of Gryffindors. Believe me, the house rivalry doesn't bother me. In fact, I should be asking you whether you hate me for being Slytherin."
He shook his head frantically. "Of course not! You're my sister, a silly thing like your house won't make me stop loving you!"
Heather gave him a fond smile and cuddled him closer. "I couldn't have said it better myself. Good night, Hadrian."
There was a slight pause, then a soft kiss was placed on her cheek and a softer, "Good night, Heather," was said.
Surfacing from the memory, Heather frowned when she went over what Headmaster Dumbledore had said. She, Fred and George had explored most of the castle already and nothing had been amiss at the third floor corridor last year, certainly nothing that would result in painful death. Why was it out of bounds?
~~~
As Heather settled into bed, she began to worry about her brother again. Was he with the other first year lions in the tower? Or had he gotten lost already? He was very curious about the castle. Oh Merlin, what if he'd wandered into the third floor corridor?
Worrying at her lip, she rummaged around her trunk for a piece of parchment. A whispered password later, she sighed in relief when she saw the dot labelled 'Hadrian Potter' tucked safely in the Gryffindor common room. She had worked herself into a frenzy for nothing.
Thankfully, she had the Marauder's Map with her. She and the twins had taken a few months to discover the secrets of that blank parchment nicked from Argus Filch's office, but their effort had been well worth it.
An odd phrase had suddenly popped into her head while they'd been thinking of possible passwords. The words they had already figured out, 'solemnly swear', had triggered a burst of memory.
Heather thought she'd been going mad when her impulsive utterance of 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' had activated the parchment. Until she had read the writing.
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers
Are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs... Those had been the nicknames of Papa and his three friends. Prongs was Papa. Moony and Padfoot were the wizards that had often visited when she was younger. She'd never seen Wormtail before, but Papa had mentioned him several times. She didn't know what had happened to them after That Night.
Anyway, that had explained why Heather knew the passcode for the map. Papa must have told it to her before, or mentioned it. George and Fred had wanted to give it to her since it was originally hers by birthright, but she insisted they share it instead. So now the map changed hands every week, or whenever any of them required it.
She suspected that the map, in conjunction with the cloak, helped them avoid Professors whenever they snuck out after curfew for their pranks, but never outright asked. Plausible deniability, she'd said when they brought it up.
She should probably pass both to her brother now that he was in Hogwarts too. Perhaps then Fred and George wouldn't get up to so much mischief. Even if they had memorised the map and all the secret passages already.
~~~
After breakfast the next day, Heather walked towards the lion's den to look for her brother. The Gryffindors mostly ignored her, used to her presence because of the twins.
He was sitting next to Ron, who scowled at her approach. She dismissed the brat and hugged her brother from behind. Startled, he gave a tiny yelp.
"Heather!" His annoyance turned to joy and he wished her a good morning. She took a seat next to him when he scooted over, on the other side of Ronald Weasley, thankfully.
"So, how are you doing so far? Anybody I'll have to pull aside?" she asked, only half joking.
From across the table, Fred and George cleared their throats loudly to get her attention. She ignored them.
"Really, Heather-harpy," Fred cried.
"Your brother comes to Hogwarts and you stop caring about us!" George whined.
"That's cold, it is," they exclaimed, hugging each other and pretending to shiver.
Heather rolled her eyes. "Good morning, Gred and Forge. Now hush, let Rian speak."
"Knew we were just replacements," Fred muttered to himself.
"Fine," they said louder, "let's hear Hadrian talk."
Hadrian laughed at their affronted expressions and told them about his experience so far.
"...so the two other students we shared a boat with were Sorted into Gryffindor too! Neville Longbottom." He gestured to a chubby boy a few seats down.
The boy looked up at the mention of his name and quickly ducked his head again upon seeing so many people looking at him. Heather gave him a friendly wave when she caught his attention and he gave a jerky nod.
"A shy one, isn't he? Seems like a nice boy though," Heather commented.
Hadrian nodded in agreement. "Neville has a pet toad named Trevor. I told Anguis not to eat him. The other student is Hermione Granger, at the end of the table there." Heather saw a bushy-haired brunette witch absorbed in a thick tome sitting further away.
Ronald made a rude sound. "She's a know-it-all. Real annoying. Went on and on about Hogwarts, a History – as if anyone cares."
Heather's eyes narrowed at the mean remark. It wasn't even said in a teasing tone, like the banter she had with Fred and George. The boy was a real brat. Was he really the same age as her Rian?
"Now, brother dearest, just because you haven't picked up a book in your life, it's no reason to be jealous of young Miss Granger," Fred said mockingly.
"I'm sure she would be happy to share some of hers with you. Just be sure not to drool on them," George added sweetly.
Ronald just sputtered furiously, spraying the food he had in his mouth all over his plate. Heather quickly banished the mess, pursing her lips at the disgusting behaviour.
"Well, I think it's great that she's so prepared for school. Maybe we should hang out with her. I'm sure she'll have lots of pointers for us," Hadrian said sensibly to Ronald, who reluctantly agreed.
Heather beamed at her brother for his thoughtfulness. She knew that he'd already read that book cover to cover.
She clapped her hands once to get their attention. "Well, it's almost time for the first class. We should get going." With one more hug, Hadrian walked off with Ronald.
"Thanks for what you guys said to your brother just now," Heather whispered as she saw Hadrian approach Hermione Granger.
They each swung an arm around her shoulders and started walking to their first class, DADA. It must have looked comical since she was so much shorter than them.
"We couldn't just let him insult know-it-alls like that," George said.
Smiling, Fred added, "Not when we have our own-"
"-right here!" they said, poking her head.
Heather laughed gaily and dragged them bodily to the classroom. "Hurry up or we'll be late you slowpokes!"
"Stop the lousy puns!" they complained.