A Farewell to Home
- If she had been in this position the year before she would've been only too happy about being able to leave... but now she wasn't so sure about it. -
Defence Against the Dark Arts was canceled the next day, and every other day after until Professor Dumbledore was able to find a new teacher. It was a very sad moment after Professor Lupin found his daughter in the hallway. He brought her with him to go get Remus, who was in the Quidditch stands watching the Gryffindor team practise, and the three of them went down to Hogsmeade station, where the twins would see their father off on the train.
Once down at the station, they stood with Professor Dumbledore, who had also wanted to bid the professor farewell. The two shook hands as Professor Lupin thanked Dumbledore endlessly for everything he had done for his family.
“No need to thank me, Gregory,” Professor Dumbledore said, shaking his hand. “I would not be a real headmaster if I hadn’t allowed your son into my school.”
“Yes, but you’ve done so much for my family,” Professor Lupin continued, wringing the headmaster’s hand. “You’ve helped the authorities catch my wife so she can’t come near my daughter anymore. You’ve helped my kids so much.”
Professor Dumbledore smiled and nodded towards the train. Professor Lupin stepped away from the professor and looked at his children, who were watching him as he thanked Dumbledore.
“You know, this isn’t really goodbye,” he said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “I’m going to come and get you one day, and raise you myself. This is just something I have to do before I can do that. You understand, don’t you?” Remus and Rachael nodded. They couldn’t understand it at first, but now that their dad was really leaving, they knew it was for the best and he would never let them down. Professor Lupin picked up his bags and glanced at the train. “I’ll see you soon.” And he entered the train, off for America.
“Flip a coin and pick one!”
“Flip a coin? Sirius, this is supposed to be taken seriously!”
“So what? You want me to be serious?”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt…”
Sirius rolled his eyes at James’s and went to go find a coin to flip. Rachael, Remus, Sirius, James, Peter and Lily were seated in the common room amongst their fellow second years as they pored over their elective class list. Professor McGonagall had handed them out during dinner and they had been looking at them over and over, trying to figure out what classes to take. Rachael had already chosen her classes “ Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. Lily had decided to take those classes as well. But the boys were locked in what they made out to be a life or death situation when it came to this.
The four of them had already known that they didn’t want to take Arithmancy or Divination but they would be taking Care of Magical Creatures. So they were stuck on choosing between Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. Both classes seemed appealing, but they still couldn’t decide, so that was Sirius’s sole reason for flipping a coin.
“Got my galleon!” he announced as he reappeared in the common room. James looked over at him and twirled his finger in the air in false enthusiasm. He dropped it down on the table and looked from James, to Peter, to Remus. “Who wants to go first? Heads is Ancient Runes and tails is Muggle Studies.” He looked at his three friends again. “Fine, I’ll go first, then.”
Sirius threw the coin up in the air, caught it, and flipped it over onto the back of his other hand. “Heads for me. Guess I’m taking Ancient Runes.”
“You’re not really going to take it just because you got heads, are you?” Rachael questioned.
“’Course I am,” said Sirius. “I flipped the coin!”
James rolled his eyes and snatched the galleon off the table. He felt stupid about using Sirius’s method, but he figured he wasn’t going to be able to choose in any other way. He tossed the coin up in the air and watched as it landed on tails “ Muggle Studies. James sat down on one of the chairs and quickly marked off Muggle Studies on his course list, while Peter went to flip the coin. Heads.
“Ancient Runes for me,” said Peter as he handed Remus the galleon.
“Muggle Studies,” Remus announced, tossing the coin back to Sirius.
The boys finished filling out there new courses, all the while muttering about how unfair it was that they couldn’t drop Potions. Professor Binstom would be happy to get rid of any Gryffindor he could, especially Remus and his friends. They were known for wreaking havoc in the dungeons every Thursday and Friday. Binstom actually left a wanted notice on the bulletin board right outside his classroom, offering a reward for anyone who caught the four in the middle of either planning or executing a prank. Unfortunately for him, however, Rachael and Lily (who was roped into this unwillingly) managed to keep everyone out of the dungeons during this time.
Remus set his quill down on the table and cracked his knuckles loudly. He scratched his head in thought. He felt like he had forgotten something that he needed to do. He looked into the fire and thought. He had done all of his homework, so that definitely wasn’t one of his worries. He had just completed his selection of new classes so he knew that wasn’t bothering him, so what was it? He rested his head on his elbow and listened as his friends talked.
“When’s Dumbledore going to get a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor?” Peter asked James curiously.
That’s it, thought Remus as he remembered what he needed to do. It had been a month since their father left and they still hadn’t gotten a new replacement for Defence Against the Dark Arts, nor had Remus and his sister gone to Professor Dumbledore about the arrangements for them staying at the castle during the summer holidays. They were supposed to have done this a week after their dad left, but their homework was piling up on them so much that it made going to the Headmaster near impossible. Now was a perfect a time as any for them to go.
Remus got up from the chair he was sitting in and went over to his sister, who was listening to an anecdote of Lily’s from Charms class. Remus walked behind the couch and tapped his sister on the shoulder. Lily stopped talking abruptly and Rachael looked around and raised an eyebrow at her brother.
“We’ve got to go see Dumbledore,” he explained. At these words she raised her eyebrow even higher. She hadn’t the faintest idea as to why they would need to go see Professor Dumbledore. “Remember, he needed to talk to us about staying here.”
Rachael looked at him for a second, still not sure about what he meant, but then she mouthed ‘oh’ and followed him out of the common room.
They walked down the corridors, dodging students who were running to catch the last few minutes of dinner. They walked towards the second floor, stopping for a second to say hi to Frank Longbottom and Alice Gordon, but then hurried to Professor Dumbledore’s office, hoping that he was in there and that the password he had given him the month before was still his current password. They finally approached two giant gargoyle statues and knew they were at the Headmaster’s office, especially when one of the gargoyles rudely remarked, “Why would two students want to visit the all mighty Headmaster?”
Rachael and Remus looked at each other and back at the gargoyle.
“I didn’t know statues had bad attitudes,” Remus muttered sarcastically.
The gargoyle sneered at Remus, only to be scolded by the statue standing beside it. Remus smirked at the pair and said the password: Sugar Quills. The gargoyles sprang forward and to the side, revealing a long spiral staircase. The twins stepped forward onto it and started with surprise when the stairs began moving upwards. They waited patiently for the stairs to come to a halt and all the while they were thinking about the arrangements Dumbledore had mentioned.
Would they be staying in Gryffindor Tower during the summer holidays? Or perhaps they had separate rooms for these cases. It was possible for that, after all. Students had lived at the castle when they had no parents or their home lives weren’t ones fit for children. They also wondered what it would be like to stay in the school the whole summer. The professors certainly didn’t stay then so it would really only be the two of them, Professor Dumbledore and all of the ghosts, as well as the house elves who worked in the kitchens. It would be an odd feeling to be two of the three people living in such an enormous castle. Then again that had to be how Professor Dumbledore felt every summer when he was the only living thing inside the castle.
The stairs came to a halt, startling the twins. They exited the stairwell and knocked on the door to Professor Dumbledore’s office. It was silent for a moment before the door opened on its own accord, allowing the two to enter. The two stepped cautiously over the threshold and were instantly stunned at the sight of the Headmaster’s office. All around them were shelves filled with the most spectacular looking instruments. There were stacks upon stacks of sneakoscopes, dark detectors, little squares that buzzed around whenever someone walked by, which they guessed was a motion detector of some sort.
Also on the shelves were mounds of books, the Sorting Hat was perched on a pole next to a shelf and beside it was a cage with the most magnificent looking bird they had ever seen. It had red and orange plumage and stood proudly on its perch, letting out a beautiful note when it saw the twins watching it in amazement. Following the note of the bird were the footsteps of Professor Dumbledore as he appeared in the room.
“I see you’ve met Fawkes,” he said, walking over to the bird and petting it on the back. “Phoenixes are lovely birds, are they not?” The twins nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable now that Professor Dumbledore was in the room. “Now, I believe you’re here about the arrangements for your stay during the summer holidays?”
“Yes,” Remus answered promptly.
“Well, take a seat then.” Dumbledore gestured to the two chairs that were placed in front of his desk. They took the seats offered to them and waited patiently while Dumbledore settled himself in his own seat. He leaned forward on his desk and folded his hands as he watched the twins. “Well, it’s all very simple, actually,” he said at long last. “Your common room will be open to you for the summer, so you will be staying in your dormitories. Also, there will be very few people in the castle, as I’m sure you’re aware of already?” They nodded, waiting for him to continue. “Well, that means that you’ll have to help the house elves. Peeves loves to get into mischief during this time of year and there’s only so much the elves can handle. You don’t mind doing the work, do you?”
“We don’t mind,” Rachael said. She knew about Peeves’ pranks from experience and sympathized with the house elves. She never did forgive Peeves for when he pushed her into the flood in the girls’ bathroom. Swimming against her will was just something she didn’t like to do.
“Well, I believe that is all you need to know,” said Dumbledore, rising to his feet and moving over to show the twins to the door. “Good day.”
The next two months consisted of basically the same bland activities, such as schoolwork, homework, being chased about the castle by Snape, avoiding Peeves as he went on a rampage about the suits of armor (he saw the need to go inside at least one every day and pick a student to chase) and, of course, preparing for the oncoming final exams. All of these activities tended to get old after a week of them, especially studying for the exams that were still months off. But, of course, the professors didn’t see this the way their students did and the students didn’t expect them to see it their way.
However, they still found things to take their mind off homework and oncoming exams, one of the being James, Sirius, Remus and Peter’s latest prank. The four had taken a considerable long break from their pranks because of everything that had unfolded since the first day of school “ beginning with James and Remus fighting and ending with the departure of Professor Lupin from the school. Now, they realised, it was nearing Easter and the boys realised that they hadn’t pulled off a single worthy prank in months. Their last prank was the failed attempt to throw water balloons on Snape during the Christmas break. So, they were back in their prank swing and were better than ever “ starting with a little clothing prank on Snape, which gave him the nickname of “Snape the Cross Dresser.”
It was a very simple prank and was executed excellently by James and Sirius, who managed to find a secret passage into the Slytherin common room. They had been innocently walking around the dungeons admiring some of the paintings on the walls when they came across one of Salazar Slytherin. They knew, of course, that this wasn’t the real entrance to the Slytherin common room, that entrance was a few portraits down, but this one was far simpler to open. All they had to do to open it was say how wonderful Slytherin was, all the while cursing themselves silently for praising such a house.
Their homage to Slytherin paid off, however, when they saw the fruits of their labour. During dinner that day, the hall was buzzing with calm chatter about classes and Quidditch, everything seemed to be business as usual. Then, suddenly, the hall went quiet and every head was facing the doors. Standing in the entrance was Severus Snape, dressed in a lime green knee length dress and bright pink high heel shoes and to top it all off was the fact that his face was decked out in horribly applied makeup. The hall was quiet for only three seconds before, a roar of laughter erupted and Snape growled menacingly at them all.
He marched down the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff table; his head kept down as he did so, and placed himself at the Slytherin table. He had tried everything in his knowledge to reverse whatever charm had been placed upon him, but his efforts proved futile and he had to wait the humiliation out.
It was a wonderful few moments for James and Sirius, who were laughing hysterically with the rest of the hall. However, it soon ended when Snape hurled a pile of mashed potatoes at them and it splattered on the back of Sirius’s head, causing a food fight to break out and resulted in them getting detention.
Luckily for the boys, their other pranks were not credited towards them; therefore they avoided any further detentions for the remainder of the year. Their second feature prank of the year wasn’t targeted towards Snape; rather it was aimed at Professor Binstom’s blackboard. They had found a nifty charm in a spell book of Professor Flitwick’s. It was a charm that could make an inanimate object temporarily animate “ it could talk and laugh and it would even develop facial features for a short amount of time. So the four decided it would be nice to know what Professor Binstom’s blackboard thought about the professor and what they found out from it wasn’t very flattering, not flattering at all.
“Professor Binstom?” said the blackboard in a high pitched voice as its bright blue eyes scanned the classroom. Its eyes fell on the professor, who was standing at the back of the room with his mouth hanging open and a stupid expression on his face. “I never liked the man,” it continued, its faced contorted in disgust. “He never erased me properly. Now, you would think a blackboard wouldn’t care about these things, but let me tell you, you are mistaken. How would you like to have the eraser battered against you when the professor is too lazy to use magic? It is not a pleasant experience, let me tell you. We do have feelings, you know, Marvin.”
The class turned around and gaped at the professor… Marvin? Well, that was all they needed so they could burst out laughing at their professor.
It was now time for the Easter break and Professor McGonagall slowly made her way around the Gryffindor table during breakfast, taking down the names of the students who would be remaining at the castle for the holiday. Unlike the Christmas break, more students chose to stay at the castle so as to be able to get more peace in order to study for their upcoming exams. Lily, however, chose to go home for the holiday, but she didn’t want to go alone.
“Why don’t you come home with me?” Lily asked Rachael, who was busy concentrating on her toast, though she wasn’t very hungry. Rachael looked up at her friend and immediately shook her head. “Come on,” Lily pleaded. “It would be fun.”
“No, Lily,” she said firmly, she felt bad going to Lily’s house and Lily could never go to her nonexistent house. Professor McGonagall waited patiently behind the two girls, tapping her foot on the ground.
“Please? You could meet my family! They’re… interesting people.”
“No, Lily. I need to uh… study for exams and stuff.” She turned around and accepted the clipboard from Professor McGonagall so she could write her name down on the list. When the professor moved on to the next group of people, Rachael shrugged her shoulders apologetically. She did want to go to her friend’s house for the holiday, but it just didn’t seem fair.
The Easter break came and went and after that morning nothing was mentioned of it. Besides, neither of them had any time to mention it due to the fact that the moment all of the students returned to school they were loaded with massive amounts of homework. Every moment of the day, students were either seeking quiet in the library so they could study, or were on lockdown in their common rooms doing the same. Either way, every student had just one thing on their mind and one thing only “ and that thing was studying.
Rachael, Lily, Remus, James, Sirius and Peter were all nervous about their exams. Unlike last year when they were prepared and knew they couldn’t mess up, they had hardly studied this year and found themselves shivering with the nerves when June came around the corner. The boys had spent more time working on their pranks than their charms and Rachael and Lily had just been forgetful. So the moment the first week of June rolled down they had locked themselves in their dormitories and were up to their ears in studying materials.
However, once they sat down for their first exam, Transfiguration, they knew that their last minute cramming had paid off and they were going to pass with flying colours. The same feeling came with their Charms exam, History of Magic, Potions and Herbology. All of the students were spared of having to take a Defence Against the Dark Arts exam, as Dumbledore had yet to find a replacement. So, there was one small bright side to not having a professor for the subject. Still, it was a very small bright side and hardly made up for it.
The six were happy to find out that their feelings of passing were correct when they received their exam results. They had indeed passed with flying colours and were able to move on to the next year. Along with the thrill of passing all of their classes, was the thrill of Gryffindor winning both the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup.
“What are you doing?”
Rachael looked out the closet door and saw Becky Beckham watching her. It was the first day of the summer holiday and Rachael had been sent back to the orphanage in order to collect her belongings. She would stay at the orphanage for the remainder of the week and then on that Saturday she would be taking the Hogwarts Express back to the castle, never to go back to the orphanage again. Rachael pulled one of her jumpers off its hanger and stepped out of the closet to face her roommate.
“Packing,” she said simply.
Becky raised a curious eyebrow.
“Packing for what? Have you been adopted or something.” Rachael gave a sarcastic laugh and shook her head. No one would adopt a girl who was almost thirteen, so she hadn’t a clue as to why Becky had thought that. “What then?” Becky pressed, even more inquisitive now.
“Well, you see, the Headmaster at my school is letting my brother and me stay at the school during the holidays,” Rachael explained as she folded her jumper up and placed it neatly in her trunk. Becky walked over to where Rachael was standing as she processed what her roommate had just explained.
“But you’re at the school all year anyway,” Becky said. Rachael nodded and went back over to the closet to retrieve some more articles of clothing. “So, you’re going to live there then?”
“Yeah, the Headmaster thought it would be a good idea. I’m staying for the rest of the week and then leaving on Saturday.”
Becky nodded.
“Well, that’s good, then,” she said, adopting a cheerful voice. “You’ve always hated living here, now you won’t have to.”
Rachael smiled and finished packing up the last bit of clothes. She heaved her trunk up onto her bunk, wincing as she did so, and pushed it on her bed.
“Are you okay?” Becky asked as she saw Rachael wincing painfully.
Rachael had never fully healed from the beating her mother gave her and her ribs did tend to hurt her if she lifted anything heavy.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Rachael replied, climbing the rest of the way up the ladder and sitting down on her bed. “I hurt myself at school last week, roughhousing out on the grounds, fell in the lake and hit something.” She laughed as though it was actually very funny, but she knew it was a fake laugh.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m fine, really, never been better.”
Becky hesitated for a moment, as though she was going to ask again, but decided against it.
“Anyway,” she said, dropping the subject completely. “I’m glad you’re finally getting what you wanted, to get out of this place.”
“Thanks… I’m glad I got it too…”
Soon came Saturday “ the Saturday that Rachael would be leaving the orphanage for good, never having to go back unless it was on her own will, which she doubted very much that that would happen. She was standing outside of the orphanage waiting for the cab that Ms. Marshall had called earlier in the morning to take her to Kings’ Cross. Rachael was leaning against her trunk and looking around the grounds of the orphanage as she reminisced on when she had first come there. She had discovered that she now had mixed feelings about the place in which she had lived for five years of her life. If she had been in this position the year before, she would’ve been only too happy about being able to leave, but now she wasn’t so sure about it.
The year before she had no friends and Ms. Marshall didn’t even acknowledge her unless it was for a reprimanding. Now, Becky was friendly towards her and, even though Rachael couldn’t call her an actual friend like she could call Lily a friend, she did feel a little sad about leaving her and Ms. Marshall had become a sort of aunt to her. She was actually upset about leaving her. She sighed and looked down at three little girls, who couldn’t be more than eight years old, playing tag. One of them tripped and fell on the ground. The two girls who had been playing with her began laughing, and did not stop when the little girl started crying.
Normally, Rachael would’ve tried to ignore this and pretend that she hadn’t seen it. But Rachael had been in that position too many times and found she had to say something. She got up from her trunk and went over to the three girls.
“You shouldn’t laugh at her,” she said to the two girls, who were still chucking.
The two girls stopped giggling and looked up at Rachael, wondering why she had scolded them for laughing.
“Why not?” asked one of them.
“How would you like it if that was you?” Rachael countered as she knelt down and helped the crying girl up. “What if you fell and got hurt and your friends were laughing at you?” The girls looked shamefully at each other. “See, it’s not funny anymore, is it?” The two shook their heads and looked at the girl, who was still crying, and apologised sincerely. “Good, now go on, go play.”
She watched as the girls ran off, satisfied that she had helped them. She sat down on her trunk again and not a second after she had done so did the door open and Ms. Marshall came out.
“The cab should be coming soon,” she said in a matter of fact voice.
“Around noon, right?” Rachael asked, checking her watch.
“It’ll be here in ten minutes, then.” Ms. Marshall walked over and placed a hand on Rachael’s shoulder. “You’ve finally gotten what you wanted.”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me, but right now I don’t feel that it’s what I wanted… I mean I’ve wanted to get out of here ever since I got her, but now that I’ve got the chance, I don’t know what to think about it. So much has changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Becky used to hate my guts completely and now she’s so nice to me, and you never used to pay any attention to me, but now you do… I’ve just got mixed feelings about the whole thing. I’m happy to leave because I’m going to get to be with my brother again, all the time. But, surprising as it is, I really think I’m going to miss this place…”
Ms. Marshall smiled down at Rachael. She knew this day was going to come soon and yet she never expected to hear those words uttered from that girl’s mouth. She was glad to hear it though, it made everything seem worthwhile.
The cab pulled up in front of the building and the driver honked the horn.
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Ms. Marshall. “And just remember, our doors are always open to you. If you ever need anything you can always come here. Now, hurry up or the cab will leave without you.”
With one last smile, Rachael ran down the steps, dragging her trunk behind her, away from the place, which had been her home for five years… and was now no more than a memory.