Gaia felt her heart beating faster than ever, her small figure slightly stumbling as her mother shoved the pair of 2-year-olds into her arms.
"Gaia! Gaia, take Lele and Lucas and hide! Hide!" her mother whispered hurriedly.
No. No. Nononononono-
Not again. Please, no.
"Gaia!" her mother kneeled down in front of her, "Gaia, please. I need you to trust me, sweetheart."
"Mama, no. When I left Auntie Lily, she-"
"Gaia." Mrs. Eruditus looked at her daughter sternly, "I promise you, that won't happen again. Alright?"
Gaia's mind was racing with the suppressed memories of that night in the Potters' house. No, she couldn't leave her mother. When Auntie Lily told her to do the same, the next thing Gaia knew, she was-
"Gaia."
"Promise?" Gaia's voice shook.
"I promise."
Gaia's eyes snapped open, meeting the dark ceiling of her room. She blinked a few more times, her breath heavy as the dream started to fade from her mind. After a few seconds, it became blurry; but she still knew exactly what she was dreaming of.
She sat up, her eyes automatically flicking to the picture frame on her desk. Shown there was a picture of a 4-year-old Gaia holding two babies, a boy and a girl, one in each hand. Before she could process it, she was already walking towards the desk. She took the picture in her hand, raising it up to her eyes as they focused on the baby boy.
"I wonder what house you would've been in, Lucas."
✧✧✧
The Eruditus household felt too quiet. One would be able to feel the tension in any corner of the house. It was unusual, as the family was usually very bright.
"We need to talk, Maria," Mr. Eruditus said one night.
"No, we don't." Mrs. Eruditus' tone was light, but firm, as she sat in front the vanity mirror in their room, brushing through the tangled locks in her hair.
"Love," Mr. Eruditus stood from the bed and came up behind her, "Let me rephrase then; our daughters need us to talk."
Mrs. Eruditus' hand stopped, slowly putting down the brush.
"Lele hasn't come out of her room in days. Gaia's hair has stayed blue ever since; blue. When was the last time we even saw her hair fully blue?" Mr. Eruditus continued.
Mrs. Eruditus sighed, gripping the hand of her husband that was on her shoulder and looked at him through the mirror.
"And what do we say? We remind them that Lucas is gone, and that there's nothing we can do about it? What else can we say?" Mrs. Eruditus asked, her voice starting to tremble, "I'm their mother, Will. I should know them better than anyone. But I don't know what to do," she cried.
"Mari-"
"I can't get my youngest to even respond, I can't cheer up my eldest. What am I supposed to do!?"
"I'm sorry, mom."
The pair whipped around to see Lele standing in the doorway, the mention of Lucas having brought her out of her room, and to her parents'.
"Lele, sweetheart-"
"I was just... scared. No one's really mentioned him in 11 years," Lele said, stepping into the room, "But, I'm okay now. I just... needed time to process."
Mrs. Eruditus let out a sob of relief when her daughter's familiar smile finally made a re-appearance. It seemed at least one of her children was alright.
"And Gaia," Lele paused, biting her lip, "She'll be fine, mom. Gaia's not one to let her emotions ruin her for too long. She'll be fine soon. You know her."
✧✧✧
Lucas.
Lucas.
Lucas-
"Gaia?"
Lele's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, her mind registering that they were at Platform 9 ¾, about to board the train. She sighed, shaking her head.
"You really should stop thinking about it," Lele commented.
"I'm not thinking about it!" Gaia defended.
"You can't exactly lie about how you about that kind of thing if your hair tells everyone the truth," Lele said with a small grin.
Gaia rolled her eyes, smiling fondly. She shook her head slightly, the blue color retreating back to her roots.
"I really am fine. I think it's just because we were at home. It's easier not to think about it when we're at school," Gaia said, Lele nodding in reply.
"Yeah, it really is," Lele said, "Well anyway, I'm off to find my friends."
"Do you mean your secret lover?" Gaia said, a teasing grin on her face.
"Shut up," Lele mumbled, though her face was flushed as she turned her back to her sister and walked away.
Gaia watched Lele walk away for a few more moments before turning around and starting to look through the compartments. By the 5th compartment, she found the Weasley twins with Lee Jordan. The moment she opened the door, the three Gryffindors went quiet, two of them staring at the girl with wide eyes.
"Oh, were you discussing something? I wasn't going to patrol 'til later so I decided to come find you. But if you were in the middle o-"
"No!" Fred hurriedly said, "No, we weren't really, uh, discussing anything important."
"Yeah!" George cleared his throat.
Gaia looked at the two weirdly, stepping inside and sliding the door closed behind her. She sat down beside Fred, across from Lee.
"Why are you three acting weird?" Gaia asked.
"Well-" George glanced at his brother.
"I'm not. These two went quiet so I decided to go quiet as well." Lee shrugged.
Gaia let out a small laugh before tilting her head at the twins.
"Seriously, what's wrong?" Gaia asked.
"Gaia. The last time we saw you, you were a bit..." Fred hesitated to continue.
"Distraught?" George supplied nervously.
"Oh," Gaia's eyes spaced out for a moment before a smile covered her face, "No worries, I'm fine now. I'm sorry about not answering your letters. I wasn't in the best state of mind. I'd rather not talk about it," Gaia said.
"Alright." Fred smiled before it turned into a full-blown grin, "You ready to get beaten by Gryffindor in the Quidditch Cup again?"
Gaia scoffed, the memory of Lucas already being pushed to the back of her mind in the presence of her best friends.
"As if!"
✧✧✧
"Can the weather get any worse?" Kaleb asked, flinching slightly as another boom of thunder sounded.
"You really wanna jinx that?" Jewel asked, an eyebrow raised as she propped her head up with her hand.
"Wonder who DADA this year is gonna be," Gaia hummed, gesturing to the still empty seat at the teacher's table.
"Huh, hadn't noticed that. It was a shame about Lupin, though," Jewel commented.
"Yeah, I actually learned from him!" Kaleb added.
As usual, Gaia tuned out the sorting, only clapping when the rest of her housemates did as well. At one point, Kaleb thought it would be funny to pretend to start clapping so that Gaia would do the same.
"Kaleb!" Gaia hissed as she repeatedly slapped his arm, her hair a shade of violet as some students looked at her in amusement.
"Tuck in!" Headmaster Dumbledore finally said after everyone had been sorted.
"Finally!" Kaleb groaned out, immediately moving to grab one of the chicken legs in the middle.
"Woah, calm down, Kaleb. Those legs aren't going to run away from you," Gaia teased with a grin, reaching for a different dish.
During the feast, Gaia found herself only listening to her friends' stories about their summer. She remained quiet, not really eager to share her own experience. Fortunately, it seemed like Jewel and Kaleb had picked up on her reluctance to speak, so they let her stick to listening.
"So!" Headmaster Dumbledore spoke up when the students were mostly done with their meal, "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."
Gaia could faintly see the corner of the headmaster's mouth attempt to pull up into a grin.
"As ever," he continued, "I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year."
"As if anyone would even want to go into that creepy forest." Jewel shuddered.
"I'm just waiting for him to announce something about qui-"
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
"What!?" Gaia exclaimed, being the first to make a sound in the Hall, subconsciously standing up from her seat and slamming her palms down onto the table.
"Wait, I didn't mean that kind of announcement!" Kaleb complained, standing up as well.
"That's rubbish!" Gaia somehow picked out Michael's voice from the loud sound of disagreement from the students.
Gaia could see that the Ravenclaw house was the first to get loud, her earlier outburst having snapped her housemates out of the shock. The other houses, however, were gawking at the headmaster.
"Silence!"
Immediately, the hall fell silent.
"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts –"
A loud rumble of thunder accompanied by the sound of the doors slamming open cut off what the headmaster was saying. Gaia's eyes widened, her mouth falling open slightly as her eyes followed the familiar person of Alastor Moody – or Uncle Ali, as Gaia's father had teasingly introduced to her when she was 3. Unfortunately for them, the little nickname stuck to her even until now.
"No way..." Otis Rashley trailed off from a few seats away from Gaia, "It's Mad-Eye Moody," he gaped.
Gaia could practically see the stars leaking from the boys eyes, knowing how much he wanted to be an auror.
"Who?" Kaleb asked.
"He's a famous auror. Apparently, half the people in Azkaban are in there because of him," Jewel explained.
"Azkaban's the place that Sirius Black escaped, right?" Kaleb asked, earning a nod from Gaia.
Other than the whispers, the Hall remained quiet even as the peculiar-looking auror reached the front and shook Headmaster Dumbledore's hand firmly. Dumbledore gestured the mean to sit down at his right side, the man doing so. His prosthetic eye kept glancing around, making the students quite uncomfortable, but Gaia was used to it.
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Headmaster Dumbledore said, his voice in its usual cheeriness, "Professor Moody."
Unlike what usually happens when a new professor is announced, only 4 people applauded – Gaia, Lele, Headmaster Dumbledore, and Hagrid. The rest of the students seemed to be too focused on Moody's unusual appearance.
"How are you clapping? He seems like he'd throw us to Azkaban just for coughing in class," Jewel whispered.
"Well, Lele and I know him because of dad," Gaia explained.
"As I was saying," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling at the students who were still staring at Professor Moody, "We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
"You're joking!"
The tense atmosphere was broken by Fred's loud voice, making Gaia smiled subconsciously at the sound of his voice.
"Merlin, you are so whipped," Kaleb teased, gagging jokingly.
"I am not!"
"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said with a slight laugh, "Though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.
"Ah, yes. Maybe it is not the time," Professor Dumbledore said, shooting a sheepish look at the other professor, "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament... Well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation and allow their attention to wander freely. The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."
"People die in this competition!?" Kaleb hissed.
"It just makes it exciting," Gaia said jokingly, though Kaleb must've missed her joking tone based on the look of horror on his face.
The headmaster went on to explain the history of the Triwizard tournament even further, mentioning how Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving in October.
"Wow, the other schools here. It'll be interesting to meet them," Jewel thought out loud.
"The veelas from Beauxbatons are gonna have even stronger charm than you, right Gaia?" Kaleb asked.
"Yes, so don't be a pervert," Gaia said.
"I was just asking!"
Then, the headmaster announced the age limit, and the Hall erupted in outrage. Gaia could see the Weasley twins being part of the loud crowd, both boys standing up and shouting 'That's rubbish!' repeatedly. Headmaster Dumbledore had to raise his voice to be heard over the noise, but he was heard nonetheless.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!" the old wizard finished, sitting down to converse with Professor Moody.
Almost immediately, the students swarmed the giant doors, eager to get back to their common rooms for their own reasons. Gaia stood up calmly with Kaleb while Jewel immediately got into a conversation with Desiree, who was debating on entering.
"We never get a boring year, do we?" Gaia said as she walked beside Kaleb.
"Honestly? I don't think it'll happen as long as Potter's at Hogwarts."
✧✧✧
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi! Just in case anyone starts asking, This chapter already has votes and stuff because it's just written over the previously published chapter E L E V E N. Also, the existing comments in this chapter will make absolutely NO sense in the context of this new chapter, so yeah! Just wanted to let you know!
Thanks for reading! <3