Ch 1: A Demented Beginning

Chapter 1: A Demented Beginning

          The whistle for the Hogwarts Express blew loudly, startling several people. One mother turned to her daughter and scolded her for being so jumpy before turning and greeting an acquaintance with her falsely sweet smile. The girl blushed at the scolding as her father followed suit and greeted the acquaintance with a firm handshake. Judging from how they were acting, you would think it was a special day for Mr. and Mrs. Trolsk instead of being their daughter’s special day: the day she returned to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Trolsks continued chatting with random acquaintances as their only child gazed almost longingly at the other families gathered on the platform. They were all checking lists, doling out final instructions, or giving teary good-bye hugs to their children. The girl pulled her gaze away from a particularly emotional mother who did not seem to want to let go of her son, to look back at her own parents. They were too busy to even notice her wistful look, let alone the fact that she grabbed the handle of her trunk and dragged it towards the train. A passing Hufflepuff prefect helped her get the trunk up the stairs and onto the train.


         “Thank you.” She said quietly. The boy just nodded before heading towards the front of the train, where the prefects had a private compartment. She felt a pang of remorse as she watched him go. *I’m* supposed to be a prefect... She thought miserably as she remembered how upset her parents had been with her for not being selected as a Gryffindor Prefect. Then again, they had been pretty upset that she had been put in Gryffindor to begin with... She sighed. Well, I’d better find a place before all the compartments fill up. The girl thought to herself and started dragging her trunk down the hallway, glancing in the compartments as she passed. It seemed most of the students had already boarded the train, as almost all of the compartments were full already. Just what I need, she thought. A compartment full of strangers. Wait, this one looks empty... She slid open the door to the very last compartment on the train and froze with one foot on the threshold. The compartment not only had a passenger seated next to the window already; it was an adult! I thought the only adult ever on the train is the witch that pushes the lunch cart? She then noticed an old case next to the apparently sleeping man, on which a name was written in faded gold letters. ‘R.J. Lupin’? Why does that seem familiar?


         “Meyoline!” The girl turned to see the head and shoulders of her best friend sticking out of a nearby compartment. “I was hoping I hadn’t missed you. Come on, there’s still room in here!” She continued, motioning towards the compartment she was leaning out of. Meyoline gave one last look at the sleeping man before stepping back into the hallway and sliding the door shut again. She didn’t realize she was just standing there, staring at the closed door with her hand still on the handle until her friend pulled the trunk out of her other hand.


         “You okay, Meyo?”
         “Oh, sorry Mizzie. I – I’m fine.” Meyoline added when Mizzie raised her eyebrows at her.
         “If you say so Meyo.” Mizzie responded noncommittally as she dragged Meyoline’s trunk to the next compartment. Meyoline glanced again at the shut door, wondering why that man’s name was familiar to her, before following her friend. Mizzie had already stored Meyoline’s trunk on the luggage rack and cleared the seat next to her for Meyoline to sit on, which she did. A ginger-colored, tiger-striped tabby seemed to come out of nowhere and jumped onto Meyoline’s lap.


         “Angel!” Meyoline exclaimed. “Geez, I’d almost forgotten about you.”
         “You almost forgot your cat?” Meyoline looked up at the questioning blue-eyed brunette sitting across from her and blushed.
         “Oh! Meyo, this is Anna Kay; she’s a 5th year Gryffindor so I’m surprised we haven’t run into her before. Then there’s Tonia Ainot,” Mizzie continued, motioning to the brown-eyed girl with hair that was dark and – Meyoline was surprised to see – streaked with blue, that was sitting next to Anna. “She’s a 6th year Ravenclaw, and so is Brianna Caelistina.” Mizzie added, motioning to the blonde girl sitting across from her. Meyoline rolled her eyes inwardly with a small smile. It was just like Mizzie to already know the basic facts of everyone around her.
         “And this is my friend Meyoline that I was telling you about. She’s a-”
         “6th year Gryffindor, I know. We’ve already met.” Brianna added with a smile. “Last year in Potions, right?” Meyoline smiled and nodded.
         “That’s right. My partner kept blowing up her cauldron, so Professor Snape would have me switch to your table.”
         “Wait...” Mizzie said, her brow furrowing. “I was your potions partner!” The five girls laughed amiably as the train started on its way towards Hogwarts.


         “Meyoline, if I can ask... Why is your cat’s name Angel?” Anna asked some time later, her head tilted slightly to the side. “I mean, you’re from a Wizarding family right? I didn’t think most Wizarding families believed in angels.” Meyoline was slightly surprised by the question. No one had ever thought of that before.
         “Um... I read about them somewhere and thought they sounded kind of interesting. When I got Angel as a kitten, she reminded me of them somehow.” Meyoline explained, her face reddening a little.
         “Oh, that’s neat.” Anna replied. Soon she and Mizzie were trading stories of what each of them did over the summer break, leaving Meyoline to her thoughts. In truth, her cat didn’t remind her of angels in general, just one angel: her angel. Every year, without fail, for as long as she could remember, she would get a letter on her birthday that was always signed ‘Your Angel.’ Meyoline smiled to herself just thinking about it. No matter how badly she felt, or how much her parents ignored her or put her down, she always knew her angel was out there somewhere, watching over her.


         Her birthday was always the worst time of year because her own parents would forget her birthday, and the only real friend she had, Mizzie, lived with Muggles so she had no way to send her an owl or come to visit (not that Meyoline’s parents would have let her anyway). So every year she would feel absolutely horrible, and forgotten about by everyone. Except her angel of course. Her angel never forgot her, and always sent her the sweetest letters. It made her happy again, which of course upset her parents. They never seemed to remember her birthday, but they somehow always knew when she was going to get a letter from her angel, and no matter how she tried for the past couple of years, they always got it first. The year she was going to start at Hogwarts she overheard her parents talking about her angel.
         “I can’t believe he had the audacity to not just send her letters all these years, but now this!” Her mother had practically screamed. Meyoline had frozen on the stairs when she heard it. She had never really thought about it before, but she now knew for sure that her angel was male. Not only that, but apparently her parents knew who he was! And they never told me? Meyoline thought furiously as she ran down the stairs and into the hallway where her parents were standing. They were startled by her sudden appearance and just stood there, dumbfounded, one holding a small basket, the other a letter. Meyoline angrily charged forward and snatched both items away, running up the stairs to her room before they could regain their senses.
         “These are mine!” She yelled as she slammed the door to her room shut and locked it. She tore open the first letter in years that she had been able to take before her parents burned it in the fireplace and read it. It was oddly short:


My Dear Meyoline;
          Congratulations on being accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope this present will be useful to you there. Happy birthday, and good luck at Hogwarts.
          As always,
                    Your Angel


          Meyoline stared at the letter for a moment, then reread it, as if expecting there to be more. Obviously no more words appeared, so she set the letter down and looked at the basket she was still holding. It was covered with a blanket and tied up with a ribbon. Wondering what odd present might be useful to her at Hogwarts, she set the basket down and untied the ribbon. What she saw made her gasp in surprise. A kitten! A cuddly, cute, and absolutely perfect ginger with tiger-striping kitten! She had almost forgotten her acceptance letter to Hogwarts had said she could bring either a toad, cat, or owl, and since her parents didn’t allow her to have a pet, she didn’t have any of those to bring with her. But now I do. She thought to herself with a smile. And she knew just what to name it...


          Meyoline was jarred from her reverie by the feel of the train slowing down. She looked out the dark, rain-streaked window before turning to Mizzie.
         “I can’t believe we’re already there... Did I doze off or something?” She asked, but Mizzie shook her head slowly.
         “Then what-?” The door to their compartment opened and an auburn-color haired Ravenclaw boy entered. Meyoline habitually lowered her eyes to the ground. Somehow she always became even more shy and embarrassed around boys.
         “Nikademus!” Brianna announced, pleasantly surprised. “What’s going on?”
         “Something’s not right: it seems like the train is stopped to let people on, but no one-” Just then the train lurched to a stop, throwing luggage from the racks as it did so. Nikademus ducked, Anna yelled out, and Brianna cursed as a trunk from the rack above Meyoline and Mizzie fell and spilled its contents over them. Then the lights went out, pitching them all into darkness.
         “Did the lights go out, or am I still under a robe?”
         “I can’t see-”
         “Ouch! Nik, sit down already!” Meyoline realized with a jolt that Nikademus had started to sit on her and tensed up. For a split second it seemed like the compartment was lit by a small lightning bolt, but somehow it was from the inside, not outside.
         “OW!” Nik yelled, flying to his feet as though zapped by a static shock and immediately tripped over the unseen objects on the floor.
         “I’m sorry!” Meyoline said immediately, blushing, even though she wasn’t sure why she felt it was her fault.
         “What was that?”
         “It looked like static-”
         “No, I mean what was that noise?” Everyone in the compartment froze and fell silent, holding their collective breath in hopes of hearing better. They were at the end of the train, so to one side they could only hear the rain of the storm beating against the train, and to their other side was the commotion and confusion of their fellow students fumbling in the darkness. But somewhere, somewhere close by, they could hear something... Then they heard raised voices that seemed to come from across the hall, but they couldn’t make out what was being said. There was a silver glow for a moment, but it was gone so fast that Meyoline doubted she had seen it at all. Meyoline opened her mouth to ask the others if they had seen the silver glow, but stopped as she heard the squeak of the compartment door opening. A flash of lightning (this time from outside the window) momentarily lit up one of the most frightening things she had ever seen.


          There was a figure standing – or hovering really – in the doorway, its entire form covered by a tattered black cloak: a Dementor. Meyoline gasped. Having grown up in a wizarding family, she was all too familiar with what a Dementor was, and all of the horrible stories that surrounded them. Somehow, and Meyoline wasn’t sure how or why she could tell, but this particular Dementor seemed agitated somehow. The air it exuded seemed not only cold, but menacing too. The hooded ‘head’ of the creature started turning from one side to the other as if it were searching for something, when a noise started to rise out of it. It was a slow, drawn-out, rattling noise. Meyoline suddenly felt as if the air had been sucked from her lungs, and an arrow of ice had pierced her heart. She felt so cold all over that she would have sworn she was frozen solid. Then her vision seemed to mist-over...


          She felt like she was falling, tumbling backwards through a swirling fog... She could hear a man speaking, but the words were too slurred to make them out... She felt herself shivering, could hear a door opening... then someone calling her name and shaking her...
         “Meyo!” She felt the mist lift and found her vision had returned. The Dementor was nowhere to be seen. Mizzie had stopped shaking her shoulder, but Meyoline felt herself continue to shake and realized she was covered in a cold sweat.
         “Are you okay, Meyo?” Mizzie asked with concern.
         “Wh-what happened?”
         “I’m not sure... The Dementor did something, and you closed your eyes and started muttering... I thought maybe it had hexed you.” Mizzie explained. Meyoline looked around the compartment. Nik and Tonia looked pale, Mizzie and Bri looked like they might be sick, but none of them seemed to have reacted as badly as she had. Meyoline felt her face flush and looked down, only to realize the trunk that had opened was hers. Meyoline sighed and slid to the floor so she could begin to gather her belongings.
         “Are you all alright?”
         “Yes – er... Professor?” Nik answered.
         “Good.” Meyoline looked up to see who Nik was talking to, but only saw the tail end of a cloak as its owner whipped down the hall and out of sight.

~*~