Chapter 4: All Aboard

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My last month at home was all but a blur to me. Sadie had seen a spike in court sessions at work, meaning that for a good few weeks on end, she'd spent more time out of the house than she did inside it. I, on the other hand, mostly spent the rest of the holidays reading through my textbooks and testing out some basic spells, doing my best to commit as much as I could to memory.

Seeing my sister leave the house so full of life and energy, only to return completely drained day after day was hard to watch and even harder to stomach. I was well aware, though, that her job was necessary to prevent us from being thrown out onto the streets but it didn't mean that I had to like it.

Hence my frenzied studying. I hoped that the wizarding world would be an opportunity to bring my plans to earn some money forward a little earlier than usual. So the more I did now, the less I'd have to do later, and the more time I'd have to figure out a way to earn some quick cash at school.

I'd entertained the thought of running some sort of gambling den for the inter-house quidditch matches, but something like that could easily be shut down by professors if they felt like it wasn't appropriate for a school setting. Though to be honest, enticing underage children into gambling away their parents' money was probably a tad on the immoral side of things.

On the other side of the spectrum was tutoring. But for that to work, I'd have to cement myself as either practically or theoretically inclined to my peers, which was another reason for me to study ahead. The former could be achieved easily enough at school under the instruction of professors who I hoped would be more qualified than Quirrell.

I glanced around at my room and frowned at the peeling plaster on the far right side of the wall opposite my bed. The sooner my sister and I could move out—preferably to a much nicer neighbourhood—the better. With my plotting coming to an end, I snuffed out my small bedside lamp and stared at the wall, waiting for sleep to claim me.

Sometime in August, Sadie, thankfully, had been given the month off. She'd taken it upon herself to help me study, asking me questions at random points in the day to test that I was studying efficiently. And in the face of her earnest attitude, I could do little but agree as she helped me make flashcards and a timetable for studying. No matter how many times I told her I didn't know how long the school day would be, she seemed adamant that no sane school would teach students after four in the afternoon.

Most of my days passed in such a fashion and soon, it was the first of September. On the morning of my departure, I stumbled into the kitchen—my hair flattened on one side—after being roused from my sleep by my sister's accursed purple feather duster.

"Did you have to use it?" I sat down and smothered a yawn.

Sadie flipped the pancake over before she replied. "I didn't, but it sure was fun. It's not like you woke up when I stopped by to knock on your door— three times, might I add."

I grunted and nestled my head into my arms, doing my best to remain awake. In my half-asleep state, I thanked my lucky stars that I wouldn't see the feather duster until December.

Halfway through the thought I jumped, the clatter of a plate against the wooden table startling me.

"Eat up, boio!" Sadie ruffled my bed hair, laughing as she shuffled back to the stove with her spatula in hand.

Too tired to complain, I looked down at my plate, watching the butter slowly melt, and inhaled the warm, sweet scent.

"Thanks for the food." I mumbled, shovelling a bite into my mouth and practically melting at the taste. It was like everything good in the world mixed together and served as a circle of splendidly soft goodness. "Oh Lord, your pancakes are heaven."

If Sadie had heard me, she didn't reply, but I heard her giggle as she placed another pancake on top of her pancake tower before pouring out some more batter onto the pan.

Once I'd finished my pancake, Sadie swooped over and shovelled another onto my plate despite my pleas.

"Come on, Sadie!" I groaned. "Do you want me to leave the house unable to walk?"

"You're a growing boy, Cyrus," she sang, sliding a pancake onto a plate of her own. "Better eat it whilst it's still hot."

So I quickly stuffed down the pancake—not that it was hard to; it was frigging delicious—and glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Why didn't you tell me it was eight?!" I exclaimed. My eyes goggled, darting between my sister and the clock as I struggled to decide which source of panic to fix my eyes on.

Sadie chewed her pancake in slow measured bites. "Because it'll only take us around an hour to get to the station— if you hurry up that is."

I stared at her for a moment, narrowed my eyes, and raced to the bathroom. I didn't know what would happen if I missed the train to Hogwarts, but if I could help it, I didn't want to find out.

OOOO

"We're here!" Sadie grunted, hoisting my suitcase up onto a trolley. "Now to ask around for directions to a…" she leaned over my shoulder and glanced at the ticket held in my hand. "... platform nine and three-quarters."

I stared at my crumpled train ticket, feeling a sense of déjá vu as I did so.

"Sadie?" I hummed. "I reckon it's somewhere between platforms nine and ten, and even if it isn't, we can follow all the oddly dressed people over there." I pointed towards flocks of robed families wheeling their own trolleys down the station.

Sadie nodded, and we followed the crowds of what I assumed to be wizards making their way to the platform. Standing beside my sister, I watched a grinning child looking to be around thirteen race towards the wall without a single hint of fear on his face.

"See you on the other side, mum!" he yelled, taking off in earnest.

"Wai—!" Sadie reached out, ready to stop him from giving himself a concussion, but froze when he and the trolley melted into the wall. "What the fuck?" she whispered, her outstretched hand falling limply to her side.

I stared at the section of wall he'd disappeared through blankly, trying to fully digest what I'd just seen.

And I was struggling.

A brown-haired middle-aged woman—likely his mother—turned to Sadie and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Is your son a muggleborn?"

Sadie jumped, not expecting the question, and turned to her. "Oh, no, he's not my son." she said, nervously placing a hand on my shoulder. "He's my little brother, but yeah, he's a wizard. It's all been so mind blowing. I've known about…" she took a couple of conspiratory glances over her shoulders. "...magic for a month now, and it still hasn't sunk in yet."

The woman nodded understandingly. "I'd imagine it would be quite the shock. I'd recommend you hold onto the trolley with him and run straight ahead— you can close your eyes if need be." she smiled at us before stopping her two-year-old son from toppling out of the trolley with a panicked leap.

Sadie nodded and looked at the wall, her face wan. She stepped towards me, curling her fingers around the bar just outside of my own hands. A few of her hairs hung down and tickled my face but I didn't complain— she was already nervous enough as is.

"Alright, are you ready?" I asked her, but received no response. Chalking it down to nerves, I began to countdown from three to make it easier on her. "One… and go!"

Despite the woman's advice, I kept my eyes open, the wind rushing past my face bringing tears to my eyes. The wall drew closer and soon, I could make out each individual ridge and gap in the bricks. I resisted the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, gasping as the trolley seemed to pass through the wall as we followed after it.

I slowed my run to a walk but was carried forward by Sadie.

"Hey," I said, nudging her chin with the top of my head. "We're here. You can stop running now."

"We are?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically small. Slowly, she relinquished her grip over the trolley's bars and stopped to look around.

True to the cover of the first book, the train was a vibrant red and the pitch-black cast iron funnel on top of it spouted cloudy steam that trailed and coiled all across the platform. People huddled close together, bunched up in little groups as they spoke to their relatives through the open windows of the train.

I looked back at the wall we'd just come through and gawked up at a sign that told us when the train would depart.

It took me a puzzling few moments to decide that it was one of those things that were better accepted than thought about before I turned back to my sister.

"Do you know what time it is?" I asked.

She glanced down at her wrist. "Ten-to-eleven. Why?"

I pointed up at the notice board and she stared at it for a while before her eyes and cleared. She gasped, her bottom lip trembling slightly.

"R-Right." she said, clasping her left hand over her wrist.

I stood there and shuffled my feet, wiggling my toes from within my shoes as Sadie sniffled from beside me. I sighed, and turned to her, wrapping my arms around her back, giving her a soft but firm hug.

"Sadie," I said, gently patting her back. "I'm not going to disappear and never return when I get on that train. You know that, right?"

I felt her shoulders tremor as she replied. "Y-Yeah. But that doesn't mean I won't miss you." she said, placing her hand on my head. "I've been with you for your whole life, you know."

I winced at that.

"So you leaving to go away to magic school feels pretty weird." she said, her throat no longer sounding as constricted. We stood there for a while, simply content to sit in each other's embrace before she said, "You will write to me at least once a week, okay?"

"I promise." I whispered, slowly uncurling my arms from around her and stepping back. I rested my arm on top of my suitcase, stared at the woman who'd raised me for the last few years, and smiled. "Mind helping me move this onto the train?"

She wiped her face and nodded. We walked towards the train, her arm slung over my shoulders as we basked in the last few moments we had together for the next couple of months. It was an odd few minutes for me. As we loaded my suitcase onto the train, I couldn't help but wonder what would be in store for me for the next few hours. It dawned on me that for the first time in a while, Sadie wouldn't be there.

And whilst it wasn't that much of a problem in the grand scheme of things, I had to admit that it would take some getting used to. I realised, as she stepped back and stared at the train with a forlorn frown, that despite her teasing, I quite enjoyed having Sadie around, and that alone brought forth a whole slew of emotions.

"Oi." I snapped my fingers in front of her face, blinking back tears of my own. "No frowning allowed. Who knows, when I come back, maybe I'll bring you something cool like a magic feather duster or something."

She gave me a small smile, her eyes glistening with fresh tears that she seemed to barely be holding back. "I'll hold you to that then." she said, holding her arms out for me. "Now come here, you."

Not even a moment later, I threw myself forwards and wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on her shoulder. Patting my back, she reluctantly pushed herself away from me and jutted her chin towards the train. "Now get on there. Find some friends too, alright?" she squeezed my hand.

That one might end up being a tall order, I thought. It was hard for me to look at the children on the platform as anything more than that. Still, I didn't want to unnecessarily worry her.

"I'll try." I sighed and stepped onto the train after giving her one last glance as I began my walk to find a compartment, my suitcase trailing behind me as I did so.

The minute I turned to walk down the compartment, I damn near ran into a uniform-clad man who stared down at me tiredly.

"You got your ticket?" I nodded, and he snatched it out of my hands, returning it to me with a hole punched through it. "Find yourself a compartment. Once we get to Hogwarts leave your luggage on the rack. It'll be taken care of."

"Thank you." I said, to which the man grunted.

With only a handful of minutes left to spare before the train began to move, I strode down the cart, dead-set on finding an uninhabited compartment to occupy for the seven-and-a-bit hours long journey to Scotland. Most, if not all, the compartments had been slid shut— soft murmurs and excited laughs travelling beyond the closed doors.

Well, all but one, that was. A few steps ahead of me one compartment had its door half-open.

Trying not to alert the occupant, I took a peek inside and spotted a wild-haired blonde child hanging out of the window, yelling at an older looking version of himself— his father, I realised, who was waving his arms around, his face almost as animated as his son's.

"Oi dad!" the boy yelled. "I'm going to go to Hogwarts and be the greatest inventor ever. Watch me!"

His dad's reply took further straining on my part to hear over the general noise of the station, but I managed.

"You do that, son!" his smile seemed to never fade from his face as he expressed his undying confidence in the boy. "You make sure that the Stebbins name becomes a legend in that castle, you hear?" fervent tears shone in his eyes as beside him, a rosy-faced woman held her face in her hands at the odd stares the pair were drawing.

And while I was all for weirdness, even I had to admit that sharing a compartment with the blonde boy would be nothing short of exhausting. So I gently slid the door shut and continued on in search of a different—perhaps calmer—compartment.

I didn't have to look far.

I opened the next compartment from the previous one and locked eyes with a withdrawn, brown-haired boy sitting next to the window. His hair hung low over his face—falling over slightly scratched and scarred skin—but couldn't hide his bright emerald eyes— or at least, not completely. I waved at him and he flinched at the movement. An odd thing to do when someone waved at you, I thought, but ignored it. Perhaps he was feeling especially nervous today— even I was, to some extent, so his reaction wasn't all that surprising.

"Hello there." I said, giving the boy what I hoped was a disarming smile. "Mind if I sit here?"

He blinked at me, not seeming to register what I'd just asked so I repeated my question.

"O-Oh, sure. Feel free." he stammered, gesturing to the seat opposite his. He helped me place my suitcase atop the luggage rack, much to my relief.

I noticed he was already wearing his school robes. Meeting my gaze, he wrapped them around himself as I sat down— as if they were protecting him against something.

"So," I said, piercing the tense silence. "I'm Cyrus Azar. What's your name?"

He stared at the table between us, not meeting my eyes, but eventually, the boy spoke. "I'm Remus Lupin."

His flinching suddenly made a lot more sense to me now.

We stared at each other, an uncomfortable sensation pooling in my chest as the silence stretched on. Safe to say that my first interaction with somebody "my age" was going horribly but I refused to give up. There was no way that I couldn't coax him out of his shell, right?

"So Remus, can I call you Remus?" I asked him, to which he nodded. "What class are you looking forward to the most?"

He was pensieve, a small change from the nervous, stammering child from moments earlier, but a welcome one regardless.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts." Remus decided, lowering his hand from his chin.

"Oh," I placed my hands on the table. "Why?"

Not expecting the question, he froze, but began to speak after a little. "Well, my dad works with the Ministry to help them with research on non-beings."

"Like dementors and ghosts?"

He nodded. "Right. He's an expert on dark creatures."

"That sounds cool." I supplied, smiling at him.

It worked, and he gave me a small smile. "What about you?" he asked, seeming to not be as guarded as earlier.

I paused whilst I thought about my answer.

Charms seemed to encompass every facet of wizarding society. They had uses that spanned pretty much every category I could think of. From everyday cleaning, to bringing permanent, crippling harm to people. Then, there was transfiguration, every Harry Potter fan's wet dream. Who wouldn't want to conjure cool things out of thin air, or turn one thing into something completely different.

Potions seemed alright. It was kind of like chemistry in a way, and to some extent, cooking. A useful subject that required a keen mind and focused hand. And sure it still counted as magic, but it wasn't something that grabbed my interest like wandwork did. Herbology was also useful, if a little on the dull side of things. With all that said, I couldn't deny that knowing which plants could kill you was a useful thing to know, though.

"I guess if I had to narrow it down to one choice, it'd be Transfiguration." I said. "It's really cool, no? You could conjure pretty much anything you want out of thin air. It lets you do things that simply boggle my mind."

Remus blinked, stewing over my answer for a while before speaking. "You're right. But dad tells me it's really hard."

"I bet it is." I agreed, folding my arms. "Nothing worth doing is ever easy, mate. Besides, if we didn't do something because it's hard, d'you think we'd ever get anywhere?"

Remus frowned and chewed on his lip but said nothing. I had a feeling that I'd gotten everything I could get out of him for the time being, so I reached up to my suitcase and slipped out 'Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling' from it, gazing out of the window as I did so.

Flashes of sprawling fields and smudged hills rushed past as the train continued its journey towards the Scottish highlands. I sat back down, opening to the page I'd bookmarked from a couple of days ago, taking curious glances at Remus from time to time. He sat perfectly still, his eyes intense enough to bore a hole through the table. But every once in a while, they moved between the book and myself, as if he wanted to ask me something. He didn't quite seem to be willing or ready to ask, though, so he decided to stare out our compartment's window instead.

It was completely silent. So much so that I could hear the din of conversation from the other compartments on the carriage. Except this time, it didn't feel as uncomfortable anymore.

I returned my gaze to the page, nestling into the back of the chair as I readied myself for a long journey.

OOOO

Over the course of the last couple of hours, Remus had ended up falling asleep, much to my amusement. Though I was grateful for it. The few students who'd trickled into the compartment had decided to swiftly disappear after noticing the unconscious boy in front of me.

The much appreciated alone time also allowed me to get some extra reading in, something that I took advantage of. I wondered, staring out of the pristine window, what house I'd be sorted into.

Slytherin was immediately out of the question. My own ambition aside, placing a muggleborn in a house famed for its derision of them would be a bad move on the hat's part.

I also wasn't someone to pursue knowledge just for the sake of it. To me, it was always a means to an end. In my previous life, I pursued it to make my parents proud. In this one, it was a weapon to bring change to the sordid circumstances that I found myself in.

As for Gryffindor, that was a slightly more realistic option. To me, there was a time and place for bravery, but I honestly didn't subscribe to the house's sense of self-righteousness. Just because one wore a red and gold uniform, it didn't make them better than anyone else.

That left Hufflepuff. A place that valued loyalty, hard work, and fair play. I, of all people, knew that life wasn't fair, but the sentiment was appreciated nonetheless. I did believe, though, that the fruits of hard work almost always paid off, and loyalty was something that anyone would appreciate in a person— be they a friend or a colleague.

Muttering a curse, I regretted drinking as much water as I had over the last couple of hours and stood up out of my chair. Keeping an eye trained on Remus, I slowly slid open the compartment door and took off in search of the train's bathroom. There had to be a bathroom, right?

On my way down the carriage, I saw two older students—perhaps in their fourth year—arguing in the distance. From what I could tell, the girl seemed angry at a regretful looking boy who was doing his best to stop her from leaving.

"Leave me alone Whitby." snapped the blonde girl, moving to walk past the taller ginger boy but he blocked her way.

Wait, hadn't I seen her before? She turned around and I noticed a familiar pair of sky-blue eyes.

Holy fuck, it was Petunia Evans.

"Evans, please," he sighed, running a hand through his hair and grabbing onto her arm. "I didn't mean it like that, I swear."

"Tell that idiot friend of yours that." Petunia seethed, yanking her arm back.

She shoved past him despite his pleas for her to stay, barrelling straight into me and knocking me to the ground. Contrary to my expectations, she paused, her face softening a fraction.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there." she helped me up, brushing off some lint from my shoulder. "My name is Petunia Evans, yours?"

My breath hitched in my throat as I stared at her but I quickly collected myself. "It's okay. It was an accident." she smiled at that. "I'm Cyrus Azar. Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, Cyrus." she smiled.

"Do you know where the toilets are?"

She snorted softly and pointed towards the direction she'd just come. "Walk down there, past him," her voice took an edge before calming. "And keep going for around a couple of compartments or so. You should see a sign directing you to the toilets."

I thanked her and bolted down the train, catching the boy grumbling something about idiotic friends underneath his breath as I ran past. I returned to my compartment a few minutes later. Between the time it took me to go to the bathroom and return, Remus had woken up and was reading the book I'd set on the table.

He flinched, slamming the tome shut as his face flushed. "S-Sorry. I didn't think of taking my own copy out of my bag because… I really wanted to read it." he trailed off, averting his eyes from me.

I snorted. "Don't worry about it." I took a seat and pushed the book towards him. "So, what're you the most interested in so far?"

He perked up. "I read a little at home, but the way Mr. Waffling describes magic is really interesting. He compares magic to a running faucet and us a container for it. So even though you could technically have an infinite "supply" of magic, you can only ever use as much as your container lets you. After your container has reached its limit, you're magically exhausted."

I blinked, not expecting him to explain it so concisely. Though he was described as a bookworm so it really wasn't unexpected.

"Exactly." I smiled. "I don't know if you got onto this part, but he says you can increase the size of you "container", so to speak. It naturally increases as you get older anyways, but training your body and regularly exercising your magic just by using it helps to an extent. Nothing absurd, but hey, who wouldn't want to wield as much magic as humanly possible, right?"

For the first time, he gave me a wide, genuine smile. "Right?" he rummaged through the bag at his feet and brought out stacks of paper. "Here are my notes on everything I've read so far. I thought something similar when I read it. Maybe we can ask one of the professors at school."

For the few hours left of the journey, during which I'd changed into my robes, we mainly discussed any interesting points we'd found throughout our reading. At some point, the trolley witch came over, but since neither of us had any money on hand, she left almost as soon as she'd arrived. By the time we'd arrived at the station, it was already pitch-black outside.

"I think I'll be sorted into Ravenclaw." Remus said, getting up to head off to the platform. "Either there or Gryffindor."

I slid open the compartment door to let him out. "Why not the others?"

"Well my dad was in Ravenclaw, but Dumbledore was in Gryffindor, so I'd like to go there if possible."

I suppressed a groan but it honestly wasn't all that surprising. From what I could tell, Dumbledore was widely regarded as the second coming of Christ in the wizarding world after he beat Grindelwald— especially since Voldemort wasn't around to terrorise Britain yet. I, on the other hand, knowing what I did, couldn't look at him in the same way. Sure I had no doubt in my mind that the man was absurdly powerful. But at his core, Albus Dumbledore was a human being as flawed as any other, not some all-knowing, all-powerful being who sat in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

I was so lost in thought that I was almost ploughed into by a familiar redheaded girl as we left our compartment.

"Come on, Sev!" she huffed, dragging a bemused, raven-haired boy with her whilst two others strained to catch up.

"Oi Evans!" shouted a wild-haired boy wearing circular glasses, hot in pursuit of the two. "I was only joking, y'know!"

A grey eyed boy with longer, inky-black hair stopped next to us, looking down the cart at his speeding friend in amusement. Atop his head sat a small black furred kitten with piercing yellow eyes.

He turned to Remus and I and laughed. "Women, am I right?"

Remus, too shocked to reply, stared at the boy. I merely raised an eyebrow. "You sure it wasn't glasses down there who's the problem? I don't know, she seemed pretty pissed at him."

He nodded. "Yeah, you're not wrong. James was being a bit of a prick to her friend. But her friend, Snape, was it? He was giving just as good as he got, so I don't see why she's so pissed. Sirius Black by the way." he pulled down the kitten and smiled. "And this is Delilah."

"Well, we're all nervous, no?" I started to walk, Remus shuffling a little to walk next to me. "Being so far away from home, I bet we're all on edge. And I'm Cyrus Azar."

Sirius snorted. "Not me. The sooner I get away from dear old mum, the better." he said, before adding on as an afterthought, "But I do feel bad about leaving Reggie home alone with her. He's coming here next year though, so it isn't too big of a deal."

Not too surprised at the information, I decided not to press on it. Remus stared at him for a moment before wisely deciding not to comment on it either. We walked in silence for the rest of the journey until we stepped onto the platform and James Potter ran up to us.

"Sirius, why'd you leave me?" he narrowed his eyes at him and turned to us, his face calming. "Oh, hello. I'm James Potter, and you two?"

He stuck out his hand and I shook it. "I'm Cyrus Azar," I nodded towards Remus, who was staring at James' hand. "And he's Remus Lupin."

"N-Nice to meet you." he said, tentatively shaking his hand before pulling back.

"Enough of all this, we're going to get left behind if we keep standing around!" Sirius yelled, already quite a way ahead of us.

I looked between James and Remus before deciding to catch up to Sirius, and if the footfalls behind me were to be believed, the other two thought the same. As I did so, I spotted a familiar nest of golden-blonde hair just ahead.

It seemed, if nothing else, that my year group would be full of interesting characters.

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