Home It Is
- "Thanks... I'll tell that to Becky." -
“That was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me in my life!” Sirius exclaimed as they all left the Transfiguration classroom and went down to the Great Hall for the remainder of dinner.
“It’s not like anyone knew it was you,” Rachael said from behind Sirius.
“Yeah, but do you know how embarrassing it is to be yelling at a Slytherin and then you’re snorting at it?” Rachael couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
“How’d they find all of you anyway?”
Turns out that they had all been heading down to dinner after helping the Arithmancy teacher with something when a group of Slytherins found them and performed a simple Transfiguration spell and turned them into pigs, then after showing them to all of the Slytherins, stuck them in the bathroom on the second floor.
It didn’t seem like any time at all before the first years realised their finals were approaching them. Time seemed to fly by in the blink of the eye. They had been able to laze around the grounds for hours on end until the finals came, then they were locked down in the castle with never-ending study periods.
“If I have to look at one more spell I’m going to go insane!” Remus howled one day as they prepared for the Charms final, which would take place for the next day. They had been in the common room (which was under a sort of silencing spell since everyone was preparing for exams) for nearly four hours, poring over every note they had ever taken from the beginning of the year up until that point. At first they thought it wasn’t going to be that hard to study for, but then the second years told them they better start studying otherwise they would regret it.
“You mean you haven’t already?” Rachael asked slyly as she looked up the Levitation Spell and practised it on a small feather she had gotten from her owl, Emerald. It hovered a few feet in the air until she allowed it to flutter to the table. Remus gave a sarcastic laugh.
“So all we have is Charms tomorrow right?” James asked, searching his bag for his final schedule.
“Yes,” said Lily. “Then the next day we have Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, the next day History of Magic and Herbology, then finally Astronomy and Potions.”
James nodded. “Why do I even bother making a schedule?” he asked himself. “I have the human schedule right here!” He gestured towards Lily, who rolled her eyes and flipped the page in her Charms book.
Their Charms final went rather well, Lily felt especially confident that she passed. Remus and Rachael thought they did pretty well, so did James, Sirius, Frank and Alice… Peter wasn’t so sure. He spent the entire morning pestering his friends for help while he did some last minute studying, as was the rest of the hall.
Transfiguration was a simple task of transfiguring a turtle into a tissue box; McGonagall graded them on how pretty the box was and took points off if it still had the shell pattern. Defence Against the Dark Arts was just the simple test of knowledge of Dark creatures and where to find them and how to protect yourself from them.
Their other exams were pretty easy in the eyes of the Gryffindor first years… they didn’t have a fear in the world that they would fail, as a matter of fact if one of them did they would be shocked beyond belief.
It seemed like no time at all when they found themselves in the Great Hall listening to Professor Dumbledore as he announced the House Cup winners, sadly Gryffindor didn’t win, but luckily Slytherin didn’t. The scores were Hufflepuff in fourth place with three hundred and fifty three points, Slytherin in third place with three hundred and sixty nine points, Gryffindor in second place with an even four hundred points and Ravenclaw in first with four hundred and seventy four points.
Unfortunately for Rachael she would not be able to stay at Hogwarts over the break, she would have to go back to the orphanage. But Professor Dumbledore assured her that maybe in the future they would be able to have her.
“Don’t worry,” her dad had told her as she left with the rest of the school to head to Hogsmeade station. “Next year I might have enough gold to support us both and you can stay with me… but until then, try and have a good summer.”
“I will, bye Dad.”
“Okay, they said we can go through,” said James as they stood in front of the barrier at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. They walked the barrier and appeared on the other side in a crowd of Muggles at Kings Cross. James, Sirius, Peter and Lily immediately spotted their families and went over to say hullo to them. Remus and Rachael hung back while they looked around.
“There’s Mum,” said Remus, pointing to his mum who was standing by Platform Eleven. Rachael nodded, looking around for Ms. Marshall, who was supposed to be taking her back to the orphanage. “Come on,” Remus said, trying to get his sister to go over.
“No, she’s just going to yell at me,” Rachael answered holding back towards Platform Nine; she didn’t want to go near her mother. But now she had no choice as her mother was walking towards them.
“Come on, Remus!” she said nastily. “We haven’t got all day!”
“Nice to see you too, Mum,” he answered coldly. “I just want to wait so I can say bye to my friends.”
She nodded.
“There you are, Miss Lupin!” came the harsh voice of Ms. Marshall from behind her. Rachael turned to see her approaching. She stopped in front of Rachael and Remus. “Is this a friend?” She gestured towards Remus.
“He’s my brother,” Rachael corrected her.
Ms. Marshall eyed Remus curiously, then her eyes darted to Rachael’s mum. “Are you her mother?”
“Yes, unfortunately. May I ask who you are?”
“I am her personal instructor at the orphanage.”
“Well I hope you’ve been teaching her not to be foolish and cause terrible accidents!”
Rachael’s fists clenched. Ms. Marshall didn’t say anything at first. But then she did something Rachael thought she would never do in her life. She took a step forward and looked Rachael’s mother in the eye.
“Now I may not be this girl’s biggest fan but I must tell you this… this girl is your own flesh and blood, your daughter, and you shouldn’t accuse her of such things! I like her as much as I like you but you have no right… she’s your daughter… she loves you even if you don’t love her. Come on, Rachael.”
Rachael, who was too shocked to move, turned to follow Ms. Marshall. “Hold on,” she said. She doubled back to Remus.
“I’ll see you next year then… it’s funny… I never thought she would ever say anything nice about me.”
Remus smiled. “Well… she is right… but I’ve got to get going… see you next year.”
Rachael watched the departing figures of Remus and her mum as Remus waved bye to James, Sirius and Peter, who Rachael waved to them as well as she went with Ms. Marshall.
“Ms. Marshall? Can I ask you something?”
“I suppose,” she answered, now taking back the strict voice she used with her.
“What you said back there, all of the things you just said to my mum, did you really mean it?”
“Yes I did… I said you weren’t my favourite person in the world but… you would never do anything she said you would… no one deserves to be treated in such a way… even you.” She smiled and patted Rachael on the back.
Rachael smiled. “Thanks… I’ll tell that to Becky.”