The Hogwarts Express was full, as usual, but had an eery feel as the four friends boarded.
Isabel suddenly felt very self-conscious as many people gave her looks. Either or disgust, surprise, or sympathy.
"Why is everyone looking at me?" Isabel whispered to her friends.
The friends watched as other students watched Isabel.
They finally got a compartment to sit in.
"I'll be back in a minute, I need a minute in the bathroom," Isabel told the others as she turned on her heel to the back of the train.
"Poor thing," Hermione muttered.
Ron nodded.
The trio sat in silence until a knock on their compartment was heard.
They looked up and saw Ginny.
They opened the compartment and let her in.
"Ginny? What's going on?" Hermione asked.
"Have you seen this? It's all everyone's talking about," Ginny said, handing them a copy of the Daily Prophet.
The headline read: Death-Eater Strikes and a Twisted Murder.
Harry gulped, "This is about Isabel's family isn't it."
"Yes, read it," Ginny encouraged.
Hermione snatched the paper and read the article to the others out loud.
"On August 16th, there was another Death Eater attack. Our findings show that You-Know-Who himself was there along with his most loyal servant who calls himself HEL or Hell.
The attack was on a small family made of the mother, Sarah, father, Thomas, son, Oliver, and daughter, Isabel Lyston. The attack was late at night and the mother, father, and the son were murdered." Hermione read.
"Oh my gosh, can someone else read for me?" Hermione sputtered, not wanting to read about the murder of her friends family. Ron snatched the paper and cleared his throat.
"Daughter, Isabel Lyston, was spared. She is a sixteen-year-old Hogwarts student who is now in her 6th year. For what reason the Dark Lord has spared her, we do not know. But, many Aurors have found some interesting findings on the Death-Eater, HEL.
HEL, or Hayden Elijah Lyston, murdered his own brother and tortured his sister. Our findings show that Hayden was very interested in dark magic from a young age and liked to experiment on his little sister, Isabel Lyston until he left and became a death eater." Ron cut himself off.
"He was her brother," Harry said in shock.
"The rest is about You-Know-Who and other murders," Ginny said taking back the paper.
"Hello, oh, are you reading the Daily Prophet? I read that today," Luna said, peeping into the carriage, "I usually don't but I heard a student we knew was in it,"
"Yeah, our friend, Isabel," Ron said.
"People say that she is a death eater too, others say it was planned and she actually killed her family and blamed it on You-Know-Who," Luna said.
"Rubbish!" Hermione exclaimed.
"I know, I don't believe it," Luna said, as Isabel squeezed her way into the compartment.
"I'm very sorry about your family, Isabel," Luna said as she skipped off with Ginny.
Isabel spotted the Daily Prophet still in Ron's hands and tried to take it from him.
He instinctively put it behind his back.
"Why are you hiding it from me?" Isabel asked, "I just want something to read,"
"It's just that... uh... I fancy reading it," Ron stuttered as he tried to make up an excuse.
"Ron, I know you, you don't like reading, especially the Daily Prophet, so may I please have it?" Isabel asked, reaching out her hand.
"No," Ron said, holding it above his head and standing up.
"That's not fair, I'm a lot shorter than you!" Isabel laughed.
Harry and Hermione exchanged happy glances as the noticed Isabel was laughing.
Isabel suddenly got a mischievous look on her face and sprung up from her seat.
She jumped up and gave Ron a quick kiss on his cheek.
Out of surprise, Ron dropped the Daily Prophet and tried to wipe off his face.
"Yuck! Isabel!" Ron groaned.
Isabel laughed and snatched up the Daily Prophet and held it close to her chest as she sat down like someone was going to take it from her again.
Little did she know, the meaningless cheek kiss made Harry and Hermione very jealous.
Everyone watched as Isabel started to read the Daily Prophet.
As she read the smile quickly fell from her face.
She shoved the paper back into Ron's hands and brought her legs close to her body, like a small child.
"He was your brother?" Harry asked, quietly as if talking too loud would hurt her.
Isabel nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. Small tears ran down her face as she bit her lip.
She looked up and saw everyone looking at her and hid her face in her legs.
"He tortured you? And practiced dark magic on you?" Ron asked, making sure they got the true facts.
"Yes," Isabel said, her voice muffled.
"I'm so sorry, Isabel," Hermione said.
"It's not your fault," Isabel sighed, wiping her tears away.
-
The train pulled to a stop at the station and Harry still wasn't back.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked.
"He's probably already on the platform, come on," Ron said, leading Hermione off the train.
Isabel hung back a bit until she finally decided to go.
She looked around the platform and she didn't see any of her friends.
She wandered around looking for them.
"Did you lose something?" A voice asked.
Isabel turned around and saw a tall boy with dirty blonde hair and striking blue eyes look at her.
"Uh, just my friends," She laughed. She was frazzled, the boy was so handsome.
"That's funny, I did too," The boy said, giving Isabel a genuine smile, "Wanna join me?"
"Yeah, sure," Isabel said.
"Excuse my manners, my name is Shane Anderson, you are?" He said as they walked towards the carriages.
"I'm Isabel Lyston," She said, looking at her feet.
"Oh my goodness, you were in the Daily Prophet, I am so sorry for your loss," Shane said, purely sympathetic.
"It's alright," Isabel shrugged, trying not to cry.
"Wait! You're a Gryffindor too?" Shane exclaimed pointing to her robes.
"Yeah I am, you are too I'm guessing," Isabel laughed.
"I'm just surprised that I haven't noticed your pretty face before!" Shane said.
Isabel blushed and laughed, "I'm surprised I haven't met you either,"
They got to the carriage, the last one left, Isabel assumed her friends were already there.
Isabel noticed a strange animal pulling the carriage this year.
"So those are thestrals," Isabel whispered under her breath.
She watched the strange creatures that she always longed to know what they looked like. She suddenly wished she couldn't see them anymore.
She would much rather be able to see Ollie.
•••