I woke up early as ever the next morning and decided to perform the Routine particularly slow rather than go for a jog through Diagon Alley. By the end, all my muscles were shaking and my skin was coated with sweat. I left the deeper part of my mind and took several deep breaths before stepping into the bathroom, stripping down, and turning on the shower. As I shampooed my long hair, I realised I had forgotten to have my hair cut when I was here, and as we were leaving early this morning, I wouldn't have time today. I sighed, and decided to ask one of the girls in my dormitory to do it for me when we got to Hogwarts.
I got dressed in a light blue pair of bell bottoms and a large grey jumper: the sky had grown overcast that day, and the dark clouds threatened rain. I pulled on my boots and packed the last of my stuff in my trunk. I dried my hair with a towel, and decided to let it air-dry. As always. I had almost given up on brushing it nowadays, so I let it fall down my back in damp knots.
I checked my watch to see that it was now half past eight, and thought most of the others should be up so I walked I took my wand from the night stand, stuffed it down my boot and closed the door behind me. Just as I walked off the last step, the room filled with cheers, and I looked around to see the whole group sitting at a table.
"And sleeping beauty has awoken!" Sirius exclaimed. Panicking, I checked my watch again, but saw that I had not read it wrong
"Wha-"
They all roared with laughter at the look of confusion that was no doubt on my face.
"Don't worry, dear, the boys convinced us to get up a bit earlier as a joke." Hope said, moving over on the bench by the long table so I could go and sit down, which I did.
"Now that the person we have all been waiting for has arrived," Sirius said, and I scowled at him. He winked at me, then continued, "She should know that we have all bought her a start of term gift!"
I looked up, "Oh no, you shouldn't have! I really don't need anything."
"Hush now, little one." James - who was sitting on my other side - said, and put his hand on my head. Even sitting down, I was much shorter than him.
Remus cleared his throat and brought something out of his previously suspiciously bulky jumper.
I gasped, my hands over my mouth, "Oh, she's beautiful!"
It was a small, bengal kitten. Its fur was a warm orange spotted and striped with black. I reached over the table to take her from Remus, who beamed at me. The young cat climbed up my jumper and started to lick and nibble at my chin, then continued to venture around my shoulder, sniffing at my hair and playing with it with her paw. I giggled and brought her back down to my lap, where she eventually settled and started to pur.
"Thank you all so, so much, she's absolutely perfect!" They all smiled at me, and I felt a small tear leak out of the corner of my eye, and I looked away embarrassed, hoping no one had noticed.
Whilst I practically inhaled my breakfast, partly because I was starving after the tough training session, partly because I was excited to play with the cat, James and Sirius played with her, having already eaten.
"So what've you got to do as a prefect?" I asked Lily and Remus through a mouthful of food, to which Hope attempted to look reprovingly at me, but ended up just smiling.
"Well, first off, we need to meet up in the prefect's carriage on the train and do some duties there, so you'll have to be on your own with those duffers." Remus told me as he looked over at Sirius and Remus who were now walking around on all four meowing at a confused looking kitten.
"Or," Lily said, looking smug, "I bet Oliver wouldn't mind you sitting with him, he was looking you all over when you weren't looking at the Quidditch shop yesterday."
I blushed furiously and hissed, "Lily!" I looked over at Hope and Lyall, but they had started talking to each other quietly, and hadn't seemed to notice what Lily had said. I suppose it didn't really matter if they had, but they had sort of been like my aunt and uncle growing up, and it felt weird if they had heard it.
"Yes, I did notice that, too." Remus said calmly.
"Remus!" I said, glaring at him, "I thought you were supposed to support me. Besides, he was not 'looking me all over', if he was looking in my general direction, it was probably because I was standing in front of a new line of water repellent goggles."
Remus and Lily exchanged knowing looks then said, "Whatever floats your boat, O."
I finished the rest of my third slice of toast and drunk the last mouthful of tea, then went to sit with Sirius, James, and the kitten.
"She needs a name." I said.
"That she does." Sirius said, untangling the cat's paw out from his hair.
Once free, the cat padded over to me and purred as she rubbed her little head against my knee. I felt the corners of my lips lift as I watched her.
"Cleopatra." I said.
James picked up the kitten, raised her above his head said rather loudly, "I dub thee Cleopatra, queen of all of our hearts. Not unlike her dear mother." He winked at me, then handed me the kitten, who had been squirming out of his grip.
I blushed and stroked Cleopatra's head.
Sirius, James, Peter, and Lily went upstairs to go and pack the rest of their belongings, Hope and Lyall went to the barman to check us all out, and Remus- having already packed- came and sat beside me, watching as I played with the kitten.
He hesitantly reached forwards to stroke her, but she hissed at his hand.
"I don't think she likes me much." He observed.
"Rubbish," I said and smiled at him, "She just needs to get used to you."
"She probably smells wolf." He said.
I looked at him. It was the first time he had actually mentioned his lycanthropy to me.
"She probably smells that you entered the situation doubtful of it's outcome."
Remus snorted but smiled all the same, "Perhaps she'll get used to me once I get used to her."
I nodded, and carefully took Remus' hand and held it towards Cleopatra. I could feel Remus' blood pulse through his veins: he had never been fond of cats.
"Just relax." I said softly.
Cleopatra slowly came forwards, sniffing around our two hands, then brushed her head against Remus, who breathed out and smiled at me.
"It's like you can talk to animals, you know." He said.
"Oh, no. You just have to see things from their perspective." Though I thought back to when I had had no control of my magic when I was younger and had often called for different animals, like birds, who would come to me.
I left Cleopatra with Remus as I went to carry my bags down. He looked hesitant, but I watched him take a deep breath and pick her up and put her on his lap right before I turned the corner up the stairs. I smiled.
I picked my toiletry bag out of my trunk and quickly applied some concealer to my acne and mascara to my already unusually long and dark lashes. I could just use my metamorph ability to obtain clear skin, but I had learnt that using it for such trivial reasons as vanity would probably leave me constantly unsatisfied with my appearance and a major identity crisis.
I put the bag back into my trunk, went to the toilet one last time before leaving, then carried all my bags down, where I found Remus giggling as he watched Cleopatra chase around a loose string on his jumper.
We played with her together until everyone was back down and the wizard taxi had arrived to drive us to King's Cross. I convinced Cleopatra into the soft bag they had all bought for me and promised her I'd let her out once we got on the train.
Though the taxi was much larger than any muggle one, it was still cramped, and I was pressed up against Lily and Remus. Every time we drove over a speed bump I would grasp onto Cleopatra's bag. Remus sensed my quite obvious discomfort, and began telling me about the different creatures they had studied in Care of Magical Creatures, and how he had known about all of them from before because he had read about them already in the book I had bought him for Christmas almost four years ago.
When we arrived at the station, we made our way to the hidden passageway and began talking, making it look like we were standing in that particularly spot out of mere coincidence. Sirius and I shared a trolley, he had- of course- made a snide comment referring to me not being able to manage trolleys, referring to our shopping expedition some days back, though I carried the great wooden staff myself. As I watched James disappear through the wall, then Lily, I felt myself growing nervous. It had been so long since I last had run through there, and the wall looked very solid.
"Shall we go through together?"
I could feel Sirius' breath on my neck, and resisted the sudden urge to lean back against him. I nodded.
He put one of his arms around me, so I was positioned between him and the trolley, his arms on either side of me.
"Ready?" His voice rumbled through his and my body.
"Yeah." I whispered.
We started walking together, and though I had been nervous that I would trip over his legs and we'd both fall over, we moved forward with a smooth coordination. Just as we approached the wall, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, allowing Sirius to lead me forwards. There was a moment of darkness beyond my eyelids, then sunlight turned them red and illuminated the blood vessels in my thin skin.
I opened my eyes, and turned excitedly around to Sirius, "That wasn't so bad!"
He chuckled, "That," He said, "Is what over thinking looks like, I think."
"Yeah, well, I have a habit of doing just that."
Just then I noticed exactly how close we were standing, our chests almost touching each other, his hands on either side of me, gripping the trolley.
"Oi, lovers, move out the way before others come through, yeah?" A platform conductor yelled at us and I ducked out under Sirius' arm, knowing I was blushing ferociously.
"Ollie, Sirius, over here!" James called out from the far end of the station. The platform wasn't very busy yet, with still a half hour before the train departed.
"We like to come early every year so that we get to choose our compartment before some snotty first year tries to claim it." Sirius told me as we walked towards Lily and James, who were very obviously bickering.
When we reached them, Lily was fuming and James was trying hard not to laugh. Soon after, Remus, Peter, Hope, and Lyall caught up to us all and Peter had started to tell us a joke he had heard, but found that he had forgotten the punchline. I smiled reassuringly at him as the others laughed at him, but it seemed he was quite satisfied knowing that he was the source of laughter even though it wasn't in the way he had intended.
"You really are one of a kind, Peter." Remus said, clapping him on his shoulder. I decided to carry Cleopatra and my staff into the train first, then go back to carry my trunk and bag on-board. As I climbed carefully down the stairs, I looked up to recognise a boy with brown hair and warm brown eyes who had been about to climb up the stairs I was descending.
"Oops, sorry." I said, taking half a step back so as not to be pressed up against Oliver, who despite standing several steps below me was still taller than me.
"No no, I'm to blame." He said, jumping of the unstable metal stairs and holding out his hand to help me down. Smiling, I took it.
"Do you need help with your stuff? Those trunks can become awfully heavy." He offered.
"Oh, no thanks. I should be fine." I said politely and grabbed hold of my trunk. Though it was heavy, years of intense training with Atle allowed me to pick it up with ease.
"Alright then." Oliver said, and I could almost hear him smirk as he watched me pick up my bag too and sling it over my shoulder. I carried my trunk in front of me as I walked onto the train and down to the compartment where the boys and Lily all were, Oliver following me.
"At least let me put it up on the racks for you?" He offered.
"I really am fine," I said, putting in an effort to make it seem as effortless as possible as I swung it up, "I need the exercise."
"Doesn't bloody look like it." He said, obviously impressed with my strength and I felt my face glow.
"Fancy doing mine too, muscle freak?" Sirius asked. He hadn't put his stuff overhead yet, but sat with his legs up on the seats and black sunglasses on his face. Though I couldn't see his eyes, I could feel them burning into me and his signature smirk looked more like a scowl.
"You can bloody well do it yourself," James said before I could answer and poked Sirius' stomach, "I won't like you when you're pudgy."
A/N
Long time, no updates.
My apologies.
Hope this makes your day shine a little brighter, and watch the video if you're feeling down (:
Lots of love,
21stCenturyMarauder <3