Hogwarts Bound
- "I went to look at a boarding school." �“
“So, how do we get in?” Rachael asked. She and Ms. Marshall were faced with a seemingly solid brick wall. Ms. Marshall didn’t say anything; she just withdrew her wand from her pocket and tapped the third brick from the left above the trash can. Immediately all the bricks began shuffling up, down, left, right and soon they were standing in front of a crowded alley. Rachael and Ms. Marshall stepped inside and headed down the long alley towards a crooked marble building, Gringotts Wizard Bank.
Rachael looked around, observing all of the different stores. She saw an owl emporium with the most adorable brown owl with black specks. If she had enough money, she definitely wanted to buy that owl. She looked further ahead and saw more shops like Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions, Magical Menagerie, Ollivander’s, and many others. Of course, she couldn’t go in them yet, she needed her money. Rachael looked at all the witches and wizards combing through the street, she hoped to find someone her age and going into her year. She saw some who seemed to be her age. There was a girl with auburn hair and dark green eyes, she looked friendly, but didn’t seem to know where she was going. Muggle-born probably, Rachael thought. Wish I could help. But she couldn't because Ms. Marshall was now dragging her up the steps and into Gringotts.
They walked in and saw rows of desks with greedy, evil looking goblins sitting at them. Some were stamping envelopes, others sealing them. They went up to the front desk. The goblin looked down on them with black beady eyes.
“Can I help you?” it asked, its voice full of malice.
Rachael flinched as it spoke, but Ms. Marshall seemed to be unaffected.
“Yes,” she answered politely. There’s a switch, Rachael thought bitterly. “Ms. Rachael Lupin would like to retrieve some gold from her vault. Oh, yes.” She stuck a hand in her coat pocket and pulled out a silver key. “Here’s her key.”
The goblin took the key and inspected it closely, as though trying to detect a forgery. He ordered a goblin named Griphook to come over and take them down to the vaults. They followed the goblin through a giant door and found themselves sitting in a small mine cart, going down a twisting track. They passed several torch lit corridors that led to different vaults. They stopped in front of Vault 345. Griphook took the lantern out along with the key and opened the vault. The door shifted open revealing a rather large amount of gold galleons, silver sickles and bronze knuts.
Rachael and Ms. Marshall exited Gringotts with a large sack of gold for her books, a cauldron, robes, potion supplies, and a wand. They entered Flourish and Blotts to find it oddly empty. They soon found out why, it stunk in there. The owner rushed over and apologised for the smell. It seemed a boy had let off a pack of Dung Bombs and they had to evacuate the building while he got the smell out. Much to Rachael’s surprise, the owner gave her all her books for free just for being brave enough to go in there with the smell still lively in the air. Good, Rachael thought. Now I might have enough money to get that owl!
They were then off to the Apothecary to get potion supplies, then to the wand shop. Rachael’s wand was Phoenix Feather, Maple and 7 ½ inches. Emerging from Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Ms. Marshall excused herself for a while, while Rachael went to get her robes. She entered the robe shop and saw the girl she had seen before, standing on a stool. Apparently she was waiting to get her robes. Madam Malkin rushed over and told Rachael to stand on a stool while she attended to the other young lady. Rachael did as she was told.
“Hi,” the girl said.
“Hi,” Rachael answered.
“I’m Lily Evans, who’re you?” she said, holding out her hand.
“Rachael Lupin,” Rachael answered, shaking Lily’s hand.
“So, is your family all wizards?”
“Well, most of us. You’re Muggle-born right?”
“Muggle-born?”
“You’re a witch with non-magic parents.”
“Oh, well, yes I am.” Just then Madam Malkin walked in with Lily’s robes and she was off. “See you at Hogwarts!”
“Yeah, see you.”
“Do you need to get an owl?” Ms. Marshall complained as Rachael ran into the emporium; the owl she wanted still there.
“Yes I do!” Rachael called back through the open window of the shop. Ms. Marshall shook her head in disgust and waited in front of the shop. Despite her being a witch (both at heart and in being) she hated owls, which made the reason for buying one more appealing to Rachael. Rachael looked over to where the owl was sitting; it was hooting and flexing its wings out. It was the best out of all of them, but probably most expensive. No matter, she thought. She looked into her moneybag; she still had a lot of gold left to buy it.
She approached the owl and petted its head. The owl turned around and began hooting loudly. Rachael jumped back, thinking she had done something wrong, and jumped right into Mr. Eeylop himself. He was a middle-aged man, tall, black hair, mustache, and square glasses. He was looking a bit anxious at the moments, probably trying to see what the commotion had been.
“I’m sorry sir… I-” Rachael began but, to her surprise, he was smiling.
“Don’t be sorry, that means she likes you,” he answered, striding over to the owl and stroking its back, the owl hooting even louder than it had when Rachael was near it. “She goes deathly quiet when she’s near someone she doesn’t like.” He looked out the window, assumingly checking to see if anyone else was coming to the store. Rachael looked around at the empty store; business was going quite slow apparently. “Now, what can I help you with?”
“Oh, yes, I would like to buy that-” but the door opened and Mr. Eeylop was now bustling over to see who it was. It was a woman with her son, Rachael’s age, she assumed. The boy had pitch-black hair that stuck out in all directions imaginable, hazel eyes and glasses.
“Oh, Mrs. Potter!” Mr. Eeylop said, his eyes bright. “How have you been?”
“Busy, we’ve been up and down the alley twice, making sure we have all James’s items for school. You remember James, of course? My son?”
“Of course I do. Hullo James.”
“Hi,” the boy named James said quietly. James walked off to look at the owls. He stopped in front of a snowy white one. “This one’s nice,” he muttered, just loud enough for Rachael to hear. She went back to the owl she favoured and, yet again, it started screeching uncontrollably. She jumped back and grinned sheepishly as Mr. Eeylop and Mrs. Potter looked at her. She stepped away from it and pretended to be occupied with another owl.
“That owl doesn’t seem to like you very much, does it?” James had walked over to her and was looking from her to the owl.
“No, it does,” Rachael said, looking up at James. “Mr. Eeylop says that means she likes me.” James smiled. He walked over and the owl went “deathly quiet” as Mr. Eeylop said. “That means she doesn’t like you.”
James walked away from the owl. “Oh,” he said shortly. “Well, I liked the other owl better anyway.” Apparently he felt embarrassed that an owl didn’t like him. He walked over to his mum, said something, and they went over to the owl James had been looking at before and Mr. Eeylop gave it to them. They left the shop. James waved at Rachael, and she waved back.
Mr. Eeylop finally remembered that she was there.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said apologetically, bustling back over to her. “Mrs. Potter, an old friend of mine from school.” Rachael nodded. “So, have you found anything you’d like to buy?”
“Yes, the owl over there.” She pointed to the loud owl. If she got it she’d have to break it of that habit. Mr. Eeylop nodded. He went out of the room to get a cage, put the owl into the cage and handed it to Rachael when she collected her money. She paid ten galleons for the owl and left to go get Ms. Marshall. On the way home she noticed her owl was quiet. Smart owl, she thought.
Rachael was now sitting on her bed, upright, leaning against the wall, stroking her owl as it perched itself on her shoulder. She had spent the past few hours telling it over and over that it had to be quiet. When they got back to the orphanage she drew a lot of strange looks from everyone with her owl and oddly shaped packages. She didn’t care; she had her ticket to the next world, well her world, in those packages. She had decided to name the owl Emerald, because of his deep green eyes that reminded her so much of emeralds. The door to her room opened.
“Are you back yet?” Becky called.
“If you mean me,” Rachael said coolly, “then yes I am.”
“Oh, great. Where did you go anyway?”
“Out.”
“Obviously, I mean where.”
“Oh, um,” what was she going to tell her? Oh right, Becky, I just went to a place where Muggles can’t see and got a cauldron, a wand… nothing unusual. But she had an idea. “I went to look at a boarding school.”
“Boarding school? You can’t afford a boarding school.”
“It’s free. Besides, you should be happy. I won’t be able to embarrass you if I’m at school for ten months.”
“Yeah, I guess. Hey, what’s that hooting sound?”
Rachael let Emerald fly down to Becky. She screeched out of the room yelling, “you weirdo!”
“Happy birthday to me… happy birthday to me.” Rachael was sitting out in the courtyard behind the orphanage on one of the wooden benches. It was a bright sunny day, the last day of August. The sky was a clear blue, with white puffy clouds drifting lazily overhead. Every now and then a crow or sparrow would fly over head, and perch itself onto a tree branch. The courtyard was a peaceful place to be. It was small, but full of green grass with a circular walkway around and on the walkway were dozens of benches for everyone to sit on. In the centre of the yard was a giant oak tree, which, at the moment, was occupied with a group of five year olds as they played their childish games.
“Happy birthday to Rachael, happy birthday to me.” She sighed and looked around. Another birthday had nearly passed, completely forgotten. Not that it surprised her. No one at the orphanage knew it was her birthday, except for the staff, but they didn’t count. They didn’t even like her very much. Not one kid there knew it was her birthday. She hadn’t gotten so much as a, “so today’s your birthday?” in three years. She wondered if her dad or Remus even remembered today was her birthday. Wait, they would have to because, after all, it was Remus’s birthday too.
She got up, deciding to just head indoors. She walked unfocusedly in through the double doors and walked right into Kathleen McDonald.
“Oops,” Rachael said, stepping back. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Kathleen answered, smiling pleasantly. “Actually, I was coming to look for you.”
Rachael stared up at her, dumbfounded. True that Kathleen and her friends were nice to Rachael, they never really made an effort to talk to her. This was new. “Why?”
“You’ll see, follow me.” She led Rachael through the back door of the orphanage, up a short corridor, through the door that leads to the hall going to either the kitchens or the common room. They went through the left door, into the common room and what Rachael saw nearly made her faint with shock and surprise.
The entire common room was decked out in birthday decorations. Balloons of all colours were hovering in the air, there were streamers roped around the banisters, confetti was on the floor, glittering in the light. There was a red banner hung suspending from the ceiling and in golden letters were the words Happy 11th Birthday Rachael! Sitting on one of the couches were Greg Lawrence, Brittany Becker and Adam Finch. They were all smiling, pleased with Rachael’s reaction. It was a birthday party... for her. She couldn’t believe it; it had been so long since she had one. Besides, she had become so used to people neglecting her birthday.
She had such a wonderful time; she couldn’t even remember having so much fun. Though she wasn’t with anyone her own age, or her family, she couldn’t help but just have a good time. They goofed around, played all these weird games where they had to act out something, charades basically, but they were allowed to talk. Rachael had to act like Freddy Kruger, so she ran up to her dormitory, stole into Becky’s draw and took a whole bunch of her fake nails, taped them together into five long sticks and taped the bottom one to her fingers and used them as claws.
The only time they were interrupted was when Becky came in, crying hysterically that her fake nails were missing. Rachael quickly hid them under the couch while she and the others tried hard not to laugh, but to look as confused as possible. When Becky tore out of the room and began to rip apart the rest of the building, they all burst out laughing. Rachael ducked under the couch to retrieve the nails and put the on again and began sneaking behind Becky (who was looking through the utility closet, for some strange reason) and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Where did you find them!” she shrieked.
“Under the couch,” Rachael said in her most innocent voice. “Looks like one of the little kids got to them.” And she casually walked away.
The party only ended because they had an earlier curfew, as classes would be starting up soon and Rachael had to catch the eleven o’clock train the next day. She sat on her bed, pulling on her socks that night; she wasn’t ready to go to bed, so she figured she’d just check her trunk to see if she had everything she needed. She had Emerald out of her cage and was letting her stretch her wings because she would be shut up in that cage for a long time the following day. The dormitory door opened and Becky walked in. She looked up at the owl and scowled in disgust.
“Why is that thing out?” she snarled.
“Because I want her out, and it’s not a thing, it’s a she,” Rachael grumbled.
Emerald swooped around Becky’s head and she shrieked. The dormitory door opened again and Ms. Marshall came thundering in. She looked from Rachael to Becky with Emerald still circling around her head.
“Rachael Lupin!” Ms. Marshall boomed. “Put the owl in its cage if you can’t control it.” She bustled out of the room, slamming the door loudly.
Rachael groaned and coaxed her owl to come over. “Come on, Emerald. Are you inspecting the mean and nasty Becky?” Becky scowled as Emerald fluttered to Rachael and perched itself on her wrist. “Don’t worry, she doesn’t have fleas, she is the flea. Oh, what’s that? She reminds you of an owl pellet... me too. Bet she is one, small and smelly and brown and... Hey! We can cut her in half to see inside her. Bet it’s all black, black heart, black lungs, black kidneys, black everything.”
“Do you know how ridiculous you look talking to an owl?” Becky mocked.
“No, but I know how ridiculous you look.”
“Lupin, you’re asking for it!”
“I like asking for it. Now, I’ll be out of your smelly hair in about an hour. I have everything I need? Yes I do. Good night!”
“Hurry, the train’s leaving in fifteen minutes!”
“I’m coming... darn trolley... move!” Rachael went racing through the train station as Ms. Marshall jogged ahead of her, speeding towards Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It was ten forty five and, unless they hurried, they would miss the train. Rachael dodged a few people, and nearly ran Ms. Marshall over as they dashed through the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. They fell through on the other side of the platform to see a scarlet steam engine standing proudly before them, huffing and puffing clouds of smoke into the blue sky. There were dozens of students running about the platform saying goodbyes and loading their trunks in the train. Rachael went to put her trunk and owl in the train, said a rushed goodbye to Ms. Marshall and dashed off to find a compartment.
She walked down the train, peering through the compartment door windows, trying to find one. But all she found were full ones or ones with rather nasty looking students. Near the middle she found one with a single occupant, a rather familiar one, she couldn’t place him. She slid the compartment door open and looked at the boy.
“Can I sit here?” she asked politely. The boy nodded. Rachael sat down across from him. She looked at the boy; he appeared very tired and sick. He had dark circles under his drooping eyes, his mouth was curved into a small frown as he gazed lazily out of the train and out onto the platform. Why did he look so familiar? She didn’t think she had seen him before. She looked harder at him, feeling rather awkward, but luckily he didn’t seem to notice her. She knew... it was!
“Remus!” she shouted happily.
Remus jerked his head up suddenly. For a moment it didn’t look as though he knew who Rachael was. He was looking at her strangely, but then his eyes widened.
“Rachael!” he shouted, smiling, eyes sparkling.
“I can’t believe it’s you! Wow, I almost didn’t recognise you.”
Remus smiled. “Well I didn’t even know it was you. Three years... you haven’t changed a bit!”
“Let’s see if you have. Stand up, come on, stand up!” Feeling foolish, Remus stood up. Rachael stood next to him and moved her hand across her and Remus’s head. It grazed the top of his hair. “No, you haven’t either; we’re still the same height.” She gave a short laugh. Soon enough, she and Remus were talking as though they had never been separated, even though they were talking about the three years when they were separated. Rachael was telling Remus all about her life in the orphanage and how she had to put up with Ms. Marshall, Becky and all Becky’s friends. She went into detail about how they acted, doing accurate impressions of them that made Remus laugh hysterically.
She asked Remus why he looked so tired.
“Full moon last night,” he answered, casting his eyes down towards the floor. Rachael squirmed uneasily in her seat. Remus looked up at her, knowing what she was thinking. “It’s not your fault... just forget it ever happened.” Rachael opened her mouth to protest but Remus wouldn’t let her. “Just forget it.”
Rachael nodded, although she knew she couldn’t forget.
“So...err... how has Dad been?” she asked, trying to keep the conversation light. Remus began to look uncomfortable and immediately Rachael sensed something was wrong. “Is something wrong with him?”
“Well... uh... the day you left... Dad and Mum got into a fight and... Dad left the house. We haven’t seen him for years,” Remus explained, looking out the window. The train had started leaving. Rachael nodded. Dad had left, all because of her? She had caused everyone so much pain, especially Remus. She couldn’t stand it. Why did her dad have to leave... and if he did, he could’ve come and got her. No, she was being selfish. But he probably would have, unless something went wrong... maybe.
“Hey, can we sit in here?” Two boys had appeared at the doorway. One was James from the owl emporium the other she had never seen before. He had light blue eyes and short black hair that fell elegantly into his eyes.
“Sure,” Remus said.
The boy Rachael had never seen sat next to her brother and James sat down next to Rachael.
“Hey, I remember you,” James said suddenly. “I saw you in Eeylops. I never did introduce myself, so might as well now. I’m James Potter. You two are?” He looked at Rachael and Remus.
“Rachael Lupin,” Rachael answered.
“Remus Lupin,” Remus said.
“I’m Sirius Black,” the other boy said. “You two’re brother and sister?”
“Yeah, we’re twins,” Rachael answered.
James and Sirius nodded.
“Cool,” Sirius said. “I’ve never met twins before... but anyway... You guys know what house you want to be in?”
Rachael hadn’t given this much thought. Of course, her being separated from her family gave her a jolt away from the magic circulation. Who on Earth could she discuss her house hopes with in the orphanage. Well, Gryffindor had always been appealing.
“I think I want to be in Gryffindor,” Remus was saying. Remus would probably get in; he was brave, smart, and loyal. Gryffindor was one of the best houses. The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was in that house himself. She knew any house was better than Slytherin. If she got into Slytherin she’d hop on the train back home in a split second. Everyone said Hufflepuff was for dodders, people who weren’t that great with magic, but it was a load of garbage. There were plenty of good Hufflepuffs. Ravenclaws were the brainy magic folk, so it wouldn’t be too bad if she got into there.
“I hope I’m in Gryffindor,” Sirius said. “I doubt it though; my entire family’s been in Slytherin, now they expect me to get in.”
“Why? What’s the big deal if you’re in Gryffindor?” Rachael asked, interested in what the reason might be.
Sirius sighed. “Because they hate Muggle-borns. We’re purebloods, and they think I shouldn’t mix with anyone from a Muggle family. Load of junk, if you ask me.” He leaned back in his seat and looked around. “I assume we’re all purebloods on here?”
Remus and Rachael shook their heads, while James nodded.
“We’re half bloods,” Remus explained.
“Ah, well, I won’t tell her. Then I won’t be scolded by Mummy Black. ‘If I catch you becoming friends with Muggle-borns, half bloods, blood traitors, or anyone with tainted blood at all, you’ll be joining the house elves on the wall!’” They all laughed at Sirius’s impression of his mother.
“House elves on the wall?” James asked through laughs.
“Yeah, all the house elves at our house get their head on the wall after they die. Go figure!”
An hour or so later the lunch trolley rolled by and the four of them bought some Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, and Chocolate Frogs. They passed the time by trading Wizard Cards from the Chocolate Frog containers and tasting the Every Flavour Beans, though Remus had gotten a vomit flavoured one and wouldn’t touch any after that. As they did this, Rachael amused them by telling them the story of how early in August her owl had pooped on the head of Becky Beckham.
“She freaked out!” Rachael explained, delight twinkling in her eyes. She loved it when Becky was humiliated. “She spent twenty minutes running in circles shouting ‘get it off me!’ Then again it really did add to her. Nasty, rotten things belong together! I got blamed for it, but it was worth it!”
“Did you do it?” Remus asked as he bit into a cauldron cake.
“No! I didn’t know it had to go, if I did I would’ve made it go a lot earlier than I did.” As Rachael told them the tale she made very careful not to mention that she had been at an orphanage. If James and Sirius found that out they would ask why and if they asked why Rachael would have to tell them about Remus, which wasn’t an option. Remus was now telling them about the village bully, Philip Runsdown, and how he had finally got caught trying to beat Remus up and was sent to the county correctional facility.
“He’ll be there forever or until they get sick of him at least.”
James was now off on a tangent about how he met a very pretty girl in Diagon Alley. She had auburn hair, dark green eyes and, as he put it, was “just gorgeous.”
Sirius and Remus sniggered.
“Hey, I met a girl like that!” Rachael said unexpectedly.
James looked up quickly. “You did?” he asked hopefully. “Tell me you got her name!”
“Calm down! I did. It was...err... some name that’s the name of a flower. Petunia? No.”
“Come on!”
“Oh, yeah! It was Lily.”
James’s eyes went out of focus. “Lily,” he said breathlessly. “Such a beautiful name, as she is.”
Rachael, Remus and Sirius burst out laughing.
Rachael soon decided to let the boys hang out by themselves, so she went to explore the rest of the train. She walked down the passageway looking at all the compartments, thinking. Sirius and James were really nice; Remus seemed to like them as well, which was good. She walked further down until she heard a voice behind her.
“What’re you doing?” It was an icy cold voice, low and menacing, definitely not that of a first year. Rachael wheeled around to find herself face to face with a most shocking sight. There stood a boy who couldn’t be much older than she was behind her. He had long, slimy black hair, cold black eyes that glittered threateningly, and a mean face. He was looking down at her with a look of disgust. If she wasn’t so shocked she might’ve been wearing the same look.
“What’s it to you?” she snapped.
“Well, I thought you were up to no good,” the boy answered in the same icy voice.
Rachael gave him a look, who does he think he is? “What d’you think you are? A prefect?”
The boy’s eyes narrowed. “Well aren’t you a big mouth.”
His hand went into his robe pockets as if he was searching for something, which he was. Rachael began trying to sneak her way back to the compartment when the boy withdrew his wand.
“Y-you’re crazy,” Rachael said, eyeing the wand nervously.
That set the boy off. He opened his mouth but,
“Oi, Snape!” She and the boy turned around to see Sirius, James and Remus walking towards them. The boy named Snape looked at Sirius with disgust and Sirius seemed to be quite pleased about it, judging by how broad his grin was. They stopped right in front of Snape. “Whatcha doing Snapey?” Sirius asked in a voice suggesting that he was talking to a five year old.
“Stuff it, Black,” Snape growled.
James and Sirius laughed; obviously they had dealt with this boy before and didn’t see him as much of a threat.
“Stuff what?” Sirius asked innocently. “I haven’t got anything to stuff.” He walked around Snape and stood beside Rachael. “Now would you mind telling me what you were doing? Because if I didn’t know any better-”
“Which you don’t.”
“I’d say you were trying to hex our friend here.”
“I wasn’t trying to hex her!” Snape tried hiding his wand out of sight but Sirius saw it and snatched it.
“Wasn’t trying to hex her, huh?” Snape growled and walked away furiously. The boys turned around and told her who that was. It had just so happened that while she was out in the hallway they had been discussing Snape and telling Remus about him. As it turned out, Snape was a very rotten kid, no friends, didn’t deserve any, knew more about the Dark Arts than any Hogwarts professor, terrible attitude, hated most kids, and was most likely going to be a Slytherin, the usual. They got back to the compartment and James pulled out a pack of Exploding Snap cards, offering a game or two.
Despite her being a witch and knowing it, Rachael had never been much of an Exploding Snap player; she was more for Wizards’ Chess. Remus was the card player. Every time she, he, their mum and dad played, Remus would always win. They used to bet on the games, each of them would put up something like a pack of candy or a wizard card, but never money. They soon learnt that was a smart thing to do, Remus never lost. He always took the pool. He once ended up with nearly two hundred packs of candy because in the one-week he and his sister played twenty games with ridiculously high wages.
“Jeez, Remus!” James exclaimed as Remus won for the fourth time in a row. Rachael’s, James’s and Sirius’s faces were covered in ashes from the exploding cards whereas Remus’s face was ash free. “How many times do you play a week?”
“Actually, I haven’t played in a long time,” Remus answered as he dealt out more cards for a new match. James looked at him as though he had five heads. He shook his head and they began to play.