Hogwarts Reimagined

As Arthur had warned they might, the Weasleys did indeed have to stay the night at the Rookery. With Xenophilius’ help they all gathered spare mattresses and bedding from the attic, and set them up in a great wide array on the living room floor, taking comfort in the closeness. All were still rattled after the horror of the attack, and even after the Weasleys were able to go home – much to Dudley’s disappointment – the remaining two weeks of the holidays were tense ones. Remus and Sirius had to return to Sirius’ house in London, which left the Lovegoods, Rhiannon and Dudley to rattle around inside a too-empty house alone, all of them anxious and continuously looking over their shoulders for the next threat. The aurors were pleasant enough, but having them so close only served to reinforce how fragile their safety was.

Rhiannon half-expected she would be terrified at the prospect of returning to school. After all, what better place than Hogwarts for the Death Eaters to target? But after last year, she had first-hand experience of how difficult it actually was for someone to break in and get what they wanted in there – and here at home, all she had to do was stew on the experience. Hogwarts promised distractions, as well as safety.

That wasn’t to say the three students weren’t anxious at all, though. Under advice from Madam Pomfrey, Xenophilius treated all three of them with small doses of Calming Draught and regular Dreamless Sleep potions, as they woke screaming and disoriented from nightmares any night they slept without them. Rhiannon found herself constantly smelling smoke where there was none, and jumping at even pictures of fire. But the distraction Hogwarts promised was an alluring one – to be too busy to think, that was a dream for all three of them. So by the night of the 28^th their belongings were packed, and on the 29^th Remus and Sirius arrived early in the morning to collect them.

The 29^th of August was an inconvenient night on all fronts. First, it wasn’t September yet, and that was bothersome. The days didn’t line up nicely, which was irritating to Rhiannon who liked things to be a bit more ordered. Second, it was the day before the full moon cycle peaked, and that meant both Rhiannon and Dudley were colourblind, foggy, and cranky from the restlessness and pain.

But worries, pain and brain-fog aside, it was almost pleasant to be pulled through space into the hidden area of Euston Station set aside for such a purpose. They were much too early for the train, so it was unusually peaceful on the platform as they passed through the barrier and handed off their cases to the porter, leaving the three students with only a backpack each and three cat-cases to take care of.

“Thought you all could use a treat before the train,” Remus explained to them with a shrug. “I’d guess you probably haven’t looked around the platform much, right? Xen’s usually late and stressed, so we figured we’d take over for him this time. There’s this cafe a bit further down, we could get you all some good breakfast before we get on the Express, I know you two pups’ll be hungry with the moon – I sure am.”

Rhiannon’s stomach growled loudly and she flushed behind her decoy glasses, mortified. “Yeah, uh – I could eat,” she mumbled, while Luna and Dudley cackled.

“Can I have coffee?” Dudley asked eagerly. “Xen doesn’t let us have it at home.”

Remus spluttered indignantly and Sirius patted him on the back until he stopped coughing. “Yeah, that’s, uh – no.” Sirius told Dudley firmly, though he couldn’t quite keep a smile from his face. “You know what chocolate does, yeah? Caffeine’s much the same, but worse – werewolves can’t really handle stimulants of any kind. No, Dudley, you can’t have white chocolate either, the issue with chocolate is theobromine – another stimulant.”

Dudley drooped, and Rhiannon could almost see his wolf form laid over top of his current form in the shared body language, could almost picture his tail brushing the floor and his ears lying flat. “Oh, yeah, I – forgot,” he replied dejectedly. Luna giggled and reached over to ruffle his hair.

“Didn’t you study all that for Herbology last time you got anaphylaxis in class?” Luna asked him with a grin.

Dudley groaned and slapped the palm of his hand against his forehead, his freckled cheeks flushing scarlet. “Yeah. Yeah, I definitely did,” he replied with a sigh. “Bloody idiot, I totally forgot it all. My head’s all muddled.”

Remus grinned and clapped Dudley on the shoulder, then turned to Sirius with his mouth comically agape. “You read up on all that? I could swear you didn’t used to know it,” he commented, swatting Sirius’ arm playfully as they walked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Yes, Remus, I have on occasion opened a book,” he retorted. It sounded like the latest instalment in a very old playful argument, and that was comforting to Rhiannon somehow, her and Dudley being included in it. “In all seriousness, I get some of the bleedthrough myself so I read up on the specifics. Not as bad usually but, I’m pretty wobbly after Azkaban and the whole on-the-run thing so I’ve got to be a bit more careful.” he explained with a shrug.

Remus ruffled Sirius’ long hair affectionately and pressed a kiss to his temple with a sad smile. “Guess we’ve both got to start taking better care of ourselves,” he replied, taking Sirius’ hand in his as they walked.

Almost unconsciously, Rhiannon slipped her hand into Luna’s and Dudley snickered to himself at the sight. Rhiannon went to pull her hand away but Luna held it tighter and the two of them shared a tiny smile like a secret. Luna coughed and chewed xir lip, clearly musing over something, and Rhiannon cocked her head curiously. “Everything alright?” she murmured.

Luna shrugged. “Just, finding the words,” he replied slowly. “It’s, uh. You know how usually you and the others switch up pronouns and stuff? If you could, maybe do it less, like... sometimes I feel like that works, other times – it’s more solid, like? I don’t know how to explain it.” she replied.

Rhiannon nodded and squeezed Luna’s hand reassuringly. “Sure, I get what you mean – Hermione probably knows more about it, but, yeah. Should I just, ask which ones work each day?” she asked.

Luna grinned and bounced a few steps before settling. “Yeah, that – I’d like that,” they replied. “I’ll figure out something neater, maybe a button or something when we get to school and I can get at Professor Flitwick’s enchanting laboratory. But, uh – if you could use he for me, today, I’d like that.” he finished, his free hand twisting anxiously in the hem of his loose shirt.

Rhiannon’s smile spread until it nearly matched Luna’s and she nodded. “Sure, that’s easy enough,” she replied, still grinning.

“Hey, lovebirds, looks like we’re here,” Dudley told them with a crooked grin, as he elbowed Rhiannon gently to get her attention. He gestured to the cafe that stood before them, a slightly untidy little nook set into the brick wall of the station. The doors stood open to catch the breeze, and a faded rainbow flag hung in one window as the five of them crowded inside. Inside, the place smelled of pastry, cooking sausage and spices thick in the warm air. It was heavenly, and had Rhiannon had a tail it would have been wagging as she towed Luna over into a seat beside the window.

The five of them settled in for a late breakfast, chatting and laughing and managing to forget their shared anxieties for a time. But before long, the station – and by extension the small hole-in-the-wall cafe – grew crowded and the five of them, werewolves, a dog Animagus and an autistic human alike, had to cover their ears for protection from the shrill blast as the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station. Rhiannon helped Dudley from his seat, and the five of them plus three indignant caged cats made their way reluctantly to the crowded edge of the platform. And for the first time, in all her time at Hogwarts, Rhiannon was leaving something behind as she prepared to get on the train. She’d never been homesick before. But the thought of leaving Sirius behind, with nothing to do but clean up his awful house by himself with no one to help – it seemed near enough to homesickness to her. And it hurt.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry, don’t cry,” Sirius whispered, as Rhiannon crumpled into his arms, crying and trembling. “I can Floo over on weekends to visit, and you can come back for holidays and that. You just remind Remus to look after himself for me, yeah?”

Rhiannon sniffled and nodded hesitantly as Sirius gently untangled her arms from around his waist and held her at arms’ length. “But – b- but wh-who’s going to look after you?” she whispered. She didn’t feel fourteen, maybe because she’d never really gotten a chance to be anything but more grown up than she should be. She just felt like a child, hurt at the thought of leaving the family she’d only just found. It had only been two months since Sirius’ name was cleared, that wasn’t enough time.

Sirius sighed and shook his head, and pulled Rhiannon into another wordless hug. “It’s good of you to worry, but I’m a grown-up. I can take care of myself. And if I forget, Molly Weasley comes over once a week to hound me about buying groceries, she’ll remind me. You just head off to school, maybe they’ve invented a spell for getting my damn mum off the wall you can come back and teach me.”

Rhiannon giggled and begrudgingly disentangled herself from Sirius for a second time, and Remus patted her shoulder as she drifted back to stand beside him, Luna and Dudley. “I will owl you reminding you to eat until I’m satisfied you remember what a fork is,” he threatened Sirius with a mock-ferocious scowl. Sirius pulled him into an embrace and then a kiss, and the three teenagers awkwardly shuffled their feet.

The men were interrupted by a loud whistle-blast from the train and leapt apart like teenagers caught kissing in a corridor, each straightening their clothes and flushing crimson to the tips of their ears. “Ah, you’d best not be late – since it took so much effort to get the job back in the first place,” Sirius muttered bashfully. He and Remus exchanged a last, brief kiss, before Remus pulled away and took a hesitant step towards the train.

“Come on Rhi, Dudley, Luna,” Remus said, and gestured to the train. Dudley nearly flattened Sirius with a last impulsive hug before they squeezed past Remus onto the train, and as Rhiannon looked back over one shoulder she saw that Remus and Sirius’ hands remained joined even as Remus stepped onto the train, only broken when Sirius teetered on the very edge of the platform and could reach no further. Rhiannon, Dudley and Luna clattered down the hallway until they found two empty compartments across from eachother. Rhiannon herself flopped wearily into a corner and then Luna beside her side, while Dudley perched on the edge of his seat in the other compartment and bounced his cane against his leg, clearly waiting impatiently for something.

Despite Dudley’s impatience, the train was rather slow to fill, and as Rhiannon peered out the window she could see why. No more than two or three were allowed through at a time, and while the security was informal at most, it was still some change from the usual torrent of students that flooded the Hogwarts Express every year.

Eventually their friends began to drift down the aisle and settled into seats around Rhiannon, Dudley and Luna. Parvati and Padma Rao were first, unusually quiet and wary, and their younger brother Abhi little more than a shadow as he slunk into a seat in Dudley’s compartment. Then the Weasleys, at the sight of whom Dudley leapt to his feet and embraced Ginny enthusiastically, before sharing an impulsive kiss. Fred and George wolf-whistled and cackled, and Ginny flushed scarlet as she and Dudley settled back into the compartment together.

“When did that happen?” Nina asked them, still laughing as she settled into the carriage compartment beside Luna.

Ginny snorted and tore a page out of her sketchbook, wadded it up and lobbed it at her sister in disgust. “For being so nosy, you don’t notice much, do you?” she retorted drily. “We started going out at the dance last term, but it’s been uh – kind of a thing since earlier that year.”

Dudley flushed and slumped in his seat, looking very much as if he wanted to disappear into the floor, but Ginny slung an arm around his waist and kissed his cheek affectionately. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I know you don’t think much of yourself. You know I still think you’re a catch, wolf boy.”

Rhiannon grinned, and reached over Luna to retrieve the discarded sketch Ginny had thrown at Nina. Upon unrolling it, she found a partial sketch of a wolf in sparse detail, the shape clearly defined and some shading begun around the head. “Why did you chuck this? It could’ve been really good,” she asked Ginny curiously.

Ginny groaned, and tossed her sketchbook across the carriage to Rhiannon who caught it with a start, almost dropping it as the train began to move with a rumble and a shriek. “Because I can’t bloody draw anything else!” she replied, sounding exasperated with herself. And indeed, as Rhiannon leafed through the pages, the book was filled with little else but wolves – herself, Dudley, even Remus curled up in Sirius’ lap as he had been on that night in May, each drawn in beautiful detail, each page protected with tissue paper.

“I mean, they’re very good – the anatomy’s near on perfect,” Luna told Ginny, peering over Rhiannon’s shoulder at the book. “There’s not really any point in trying to draw something else if that’s what your brain is stuck on, it’ll just come out a mess.”

“And don’t I know it,” Ginny complained, reaching out to take the book as Rhiannon passed it back. “I tried to make some sketches for my Creatures homework and they came out all hideous. Granaian winged horse? Nope, it’s got four paws and sharp teeth now.”

Rhiannon, Nina, Parvati and the rest of them cackled, before Dudley interrupted them with an awkward cough. “I was pretty surprised, honestly,” Dudley admitted shyly, gesturing to the book. “I thought it was kind of one-sided before I saw all that. Like, I didn’t really think of what we all looked like out there at night, I just kind of lived it, but she made it all so beautiful.”

Rhiannon didn’t really have a name for the feeling that welled up in her chest – joy, delight hope, but none of it was quite right, and she squealed and wiggled in her seat as the feelings grew too much for her to contain. Luna squeezed her hand and the two of them shared a smile. “It is beautiful, when we’re all out there – I’ve thought that since the first time Rhi let me see her,” Luna agreed, fiddling with his hands as he spoke. “All the writing on werewolves talks about how awful and vicious it is, how much pain there is – and that’s a part too but, it feels like nobody sees the beautiful parts too – the things Ginny draws. That could change minds, if anyone saw that book.”

Ginny shrugged uncomfortably. “We’re whispering across a train carriage at eachother about this. There’s a lot of minds to change and most of them don’t want to, there’s a lot more to do before my book’s going to be any help.” she replied. Rhiannon winced – Ginny was right. Everyone in both carriages knew of their secret, but they certainly weren’t being careful enough – and at the same time, the fact they had to be careful at all proved Ginny’s point. Pictures alone would just be lost amid dissension, they had to do more if they wanted to make any actual change.

Rhiannon was interrupted from her thoughts as the train once again screeched to a halt, this time at Kings’ Cross Station. Once again, students filtered onto the train in small groups, but finally the one Rhiannon waited for arrived and she nearly dislocated her knee as she sprang from her seat to greet Hermione with a bear-hug. “Oof – easy, Rhi, I cant breathe!” she spluttered, mortified. Rhiannon relented, and they settled back down in the now nearly-full compartment, Luna on one side and Hermione on the other.

“Sorry, just – I missed you,” Rhiannon muttered, blushing. “It’s just been a w-w-w-w-weird few weeks, is all. Weird feelings.”

They all sobered, and Hermione shook her head sadly. “Weird is one word for it. The worst kind of weird.” she replied quietly.

Padma bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest, sinking back against the seat. “That’s an understatement,” she murmured. “Aeden’s not starting term until later, his little brother died from his burns after the attack.”

Luna drew in a sharp breath, his eyes wide behind the violet lenses of his spectacles. “Cillian? Merlin, I had no idea,” he whispered, horrified. Rhiannon bit her fist, remembering the mischievous red-headed boy who she’d met at the Quidditch World Cup, laughing with his mother and tugging on his older sister’s hair. He’d been ten or eleven, maybe even ready to start Hogwarts that year. But instead, he was dead, like so many others from that night.

As Rhiannon dwelled on the matter, there came a quiet knock at the door of the compartment and a familiar fair-haired boy stood there, wringing his hands anxious at his sides. Draco Malfoy. He seemed thinner somehow, his face shadowed and his posture stooped, hunched somehow as if trying to make himself smaller. “Um – hello. Would it be alright if – if I sat with you?” he asked, his voice soft and husky, entirely lacking the bravado he had put on over the three years before.

Nina bristled, but Rhiannon glared at her until she lapsed back into her seat in silence. “Sure,” Rhiannon answered him, keeping her voice intentionally level. She did not fully trust Draco, of course she didn’t. And there had been no news of Lucius Malfoy’s arrest, which painted Draco in a strange light. But she could not turn him away, or even bring herself to ask the question that weighed on her mind – why he had not turned his father in. Because she’d seen the look he wore on his face many times, in the mirror and in the eyes of her cousin. Whatever might have happened, he had been hurt as much as any other.

Draco managed a tiny smile and perched on the edge of the bench in the compartment with Rhiannon, Luna, Hermione, Nina and Parvati. “Um. Thankyou,” he replied, in little more than a whisper.

While Nina had been cowed to silence, and Hermione, Luna and Dudley were perceptive enough not to bother him, Ginny was neither and she glared at Draco across the aisle of the carriage. “Thought you were starting to do better. How come your old man’s still free, then? You could’ve had him in jail.” she asked him pointedly.

Dudley growled at Ginny, and would have flattened his ears had he been in his wolfish shape. “Hey, that’s – that’s not fair, knock it off,” he told her sharply.

Ginny flushed angrily, but did not withdraw her comment, and Parvati’s brows drew together in a suspicious line. “Your father was one of the Death Eaters in the attack?” she inquired pointedly. “Ginny’s got a point, if you’re on our side but you saw something – why keep it to yourself?”

An ugly red flush had spread up Draco’s neck from Ginny’s first accusatory jab, and now he was red right to the tips of his ears. Rhiannon winced, and went to speak up on his behalf, but Draco held up a trembling hand and shook his head. “No, if they want to know, let them,” he replied quietly. “You want to know why my father’s still free? Because he threatened to kill people if I said a word. I saw him torture and kill a five-year-old girl right in front of me, so you’ll excuse me for believing him. Maybe it was the coward’s option, I don’t know. All I know is he told me people would die if I spoke, and I believed him, because I live with the fucking monster. Is that enough for you?” he hissed, tears running down his face as his chest heaved with too-quick breaths. He had not shouted. In fact, his voice had barely been raised above a whisper for fear of anyone outside their two compartments hearing. But it had carried all the same, his grief and anger clear, leaving not a single dry eye in its wake.

With that, Rhiannon’s distrust was assuaged. Draco had hinted on the night of the attack that he’d seen his father do something horrific, so awful he’d barely been able to speak about it. She cursed herself for holding that distrust in the first place – she too had seen how vicious Lucius Malfoy could be, and she wasn’t the one who lived with the man.

“I believe him, if- if that’s anything,” Rhiannon whispered hoarsely, her voice too harsh in the silence Draco had left in his wake.

Parvati shook her head and covered her face with her hands, while Ginny stood and crossed the aisle of the train carefully. She took Draco’s hands and pulled him to his feet, where she folded him into a hug. “I’m sorry. Rhiannon’s right – and I shouldn’t have pushed you like that, anyone can see you’re upset. I guess I just, wanted answers more than I wanted to be kind.”

Draco pushed her away and sat back down, shaking his head as he did so. “And don’t you deserve answers?” he asked them tiredly. “People died, kids died – I heard about Aeden’s brother, the Roberts kids are still fighting and those are the two that lived. And my – my father, he’s one of those responsible for it, of course you wanted to know why I let the fuck get off.”

Padma growled and twisted her pen in her hands in frustration. “The Ministry’s awful about that kind of thing. They’re weak to threats – sad thing is, whoever your father threatened, he could probably have pulled it off. No system for sending secure messages, no witness protection, nada.” she grumbled. “I mean honestly, give five senior students a couple of hours and they could have the basis of a better system than the Ministry has now.”

Hermione snorted derisively. “You’re not wrong. I mean, the nonmagical government is a mess of its’ own but even they have points over the Ministry on that.” she replied irritably. “Next time I’m bored, someone get me some legislation to go over, I might even make a dent in it. Mum’s a lawyer, I know the way they talk, if I poked hard enough they might actually update some of it. Getting them to move beyond modernising into actually fixing things, though? Might be a bit beyond me.”

Luna shrugged and grinned, although his expression was more wry than mirthful. “Hey, give it a few years. Hermione Ndiaye-Granger, Minister for Magic – has a nice ring to it. You could fix things then.”

Hermione yelped and reached over Rhiannon to swat at Luna. “Oh, God no!” she retorted, sounding horrified. “Me, in charge? Please, as if they’d listen to a- a woman – let alone a Black one. No, it’d be a bloody mess, I’d get more done without the fancy hat.”

Nina crowed and pointed across the compartment at Hermione with a grin. “Ah, but you admit it! You admit you could get shit done!”

Hermione rolled her eyes and aimed a lazy kick across the compartment floor at Nina’s ankles. “So could a particularly determined squirrel with a stick,” she grumbled, but there was a telltale flush in her cheeks, a reddening in the undertones of her umber skin – she was touched by her friends’ faith.

They all talked back and forth as the train ride wore on, and the light outside brightened from morning into midday and then dimmed as the train crossed the border into Scotland and afternoon crept up on them. They took turns guarding eachothers’ belongings while they changed into their school robes in small groups, the colours of each revealing where they’d been sorted that year. To everyone’s surprise, Hermione had been put in Slytherin along with Parvati, Dudley and Ginny, while Rhiannon already knew Padma was in Hufflepuff with her, Luna was in Gryffindor – of all places – with Neville, and Draco was with the Greengrass twins, Faye and Emilia in Ravenclaw, and Nina in Miremark with Sally-Anne, Eloise, Tracey and Susan Bones. To Rhiannon’s tired, moon-shaded gaze, the riot of colour amongst the two carriages was a little overwhelming, but in the best way – representing all five colours of Hogwarts, all the virtues the school strove for, right there in only some of her friends. And that was a happy thought to dwell on, as the train puttered onwards and they drew ever nearer to the school. She decided then, even if this year was a bad one, she could get through it. How could she not, with a family like them?