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Rosie watched as her parents disappeared from view in the leftover smoke of the Hogwarts Express. She gripped the side of her window seat, trying to keep the stir of emotions inside. “Pretty soon you’ll have your first missions, Sampson,” she murmured to the barn owl in the cage next to her, noticing the riot he was making at having been enslaved so. She shirked back in her seat at the sight of his glaring green eyes.
“May I join you?”
Rosie jumped, having been lost in thought, her focus on the landscapes emerging out the window. She turned to see a pale boy her age, tall and thin, his fine light-brown hair almost covering his intense blue eyes.
“If you wish,” Rosie said casually, though inside her heart pounded wildly; she had always been strange and shy and had never found friends in her Muggle school who could accept her, and she knew this was because they had seen during the few times her emotions controlled her magic instead of vice-versa. Rosie tugged at her Muggle’s clothes as the boy sat down across from her and took his wand out from its hidden place within his newly-made robes, slowly twirling it between his fingers. When he noticed Rosie watching him with keen eyes, he hastily shoved the stick back into his robes, blushed slightly, and looked away.
“What? Do I have somethin’ on my face?” the boy asked, rubbing around his face gingerly. Rosie rolled her eyes and looked away and he got the message, slowly dropping his hands from his face.
“Who are you anyway?” the boy asked, furrowing his brows.
“Rosie,” Rosie said, still not looking at him. Her face suddenly flushed with some color and she turned to look at him, trying to make what came next sound casual instead of insulting. “You’re the Malfoy boy, right? Smith or something?” The boy nodded, his eyes still on her face. “I’m not supposed to talk to you, so if you would please…”
“Why not?” the boy asked defensively, “I won’t hurt you! How can you know you don’t like me when you don’t even know my name?!” The boy ran his fingers through his hair, which quickly took its original neat form on top of his head after contact. “Well it’s Scorpio; does no one know my name?! I’m not my father, you now,” he added quickly, hoping to reassure her.
“Please, I shouldn’t be—”
“But you are, aren’t you?” Scorpio interjected quickly. “Come now, your dad may not like me because I’m a Malfoy, but your mum isn’t like that, is she? And besides, our dads aren’t here now, are they?” Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the thought of disobedience; she had always been her father’s girl, never been so negative as the Malfoy boy was now.
“I guess not…”
“Good,” Scorpio said quickly, “Have you thought about which house you’ll be in? I’m guessing you want to be in Gryffindor like your mum and dad—”
“Cousin! There you are!” Albus exclaimed entering the cabin, happy at having discovered a friendly face, though freezing at the sight of Scorpio. “Who’re you?”
Scorpio looked up serenely at him, relief expressed in his eyes at not having been called “Draco Malfoy’s son” or “the Malfoy boy” as he usually was at the cost of his father’s celebrity at having been Harry Potter’s enemy in their Hogwarts years.
“Al, this is Scorpio Malfoy, Draco’s son,” Rosie said before Scorpio could get a word in. Scorpio blushed furiously, looking out the window so as to hide his flushed face from Albus.
“Oh. Alright,” Albus said casually, sitting down beside Rosie. Rosie’s eyes widened at Albus in disbelief of her cousin’s ignorance that Scorpio was his father’s enemy, grandson of the hated Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. Scorpio composed himself and smiled over at Albus.
“D’you reckon we’ll be in the same House, erm…what’s your name?” Scorpio asked, his face still lightly blotched with color.
“Albus Severus Potter,” Albus said with a grin, “Dunno ‘bout you, mate, but I want to be in Gryffindor. My dad told me we had some choice,” he added, hoping to impress his new friend. Scorpio just stared for a moment; Potter’s son, son of “The Boy Who Lived”, who defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort. He forced his eyes off this boy who so resembled his hero father except for, of course, the lightning-shaped scar Albus’ father Harry bore as a symbol of the loss he had experienced soon after his first birthday from Lord Voldemort as well as a symbol of he who had saved the wizarding world from the evil of Voldemort and his famous Death Eaters. Awkward silence passed through the compartment. Scorpio pulled out the new September edition of Quiddich Today and pretended to be reading. Albus had taken note of it.
“They aren’t letting that old bloke Viktor Krum back in the game, are they?” Albus asked conversationally, “He’s around my dad’s age!”
“He was a pretty good Seeker in his day, though,” Scorpio said looking over the magazine at Albus, “But it must be hard to let go of somethin’ you love like that.”
“I s’pose,” Albus replied thoughtfully. Lily still sat by his side, looking out the window with an empty stare. “Lily?” She did not respond. Albus waved a hand in front of her eyes. She did not blink, but sat still and as responsive as though in a trace. “Lily!”
“She’s coming right now,” Lily said tonelessly, “The unknown daughter.” Albus and Scorpio just stared at her; they knew she was not really there with them, knew Lily was having a vision of some sort.
“’Lo,” said a female voice, and Albus and Scorpio jumped and, a moment later, found themselves clinging to each other like children. A young woman stood at the entrance of their compartment, long dark curls hanging loosely around her shoulders and back, her eyes black as coal. She seemed tiny, though the passiveness in her face and her expression showed her to be older than them, perhaps a teacher or a student in her seventh year. Albus felt Lily stir back to a more conscious state, though he could not take his eyes from the dark woman in the doorway. She did not seem to notice nor did care that all eyes were on her, meeting Albus’ gaze expressionlessly, then gave them all a strange sort of smile as she strode into the room, taking a seat next to Scorpio. Moments passed in silence and awe, that Lily should see her coming without sight.
As if answering their unsaid question, the newcomer said beamingly, “I’m Selene; Selene Black.”
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