Chapter Text
“You stop that right now, Tocsin! Or I’ll tell Mother!” Melody Avery shoved her cousin back. Unrepentant, he reached for her long, blonde braids to tug them once again. She kicked his shin, but before she could call for her mother, he darted off. In the blink of an eye, he was on the train, making one last face at her before finding a seat.
Her mother’s stern voice clanged in her ears. “Melody, stop dawdling and get over here!”
Looking around, she found her mother adjusting the robe of her brother Brio. He stuck his tongue out at Melody as she approached.
“Melody! A lady does not make such faces! Behave yourself!” Her mother pat Brio one more time on the cheek, then sent him off with a kiss. “Have a good school year, darling!” She turned to Melody and frowned. She adjusted Melody’s robes with a disapproving cluck that they were nearly too short already. “It’s unfortunate you’re so tall for your age. Boys don’t like tall girls. You will do well this year, understand? I don’t want to hear a single word of you stepping out of line.”
Melody stared at the floor as she said, “Yes, Mother, I’ll be good.”
“Chin up! You’re an Avery, act like it! Hurry on now and do us proud, if you can manage that.”
“Yes, Mother.” With a shove, her mother directed her to the train.
Melody hesitated for one moment. She wanted to glance down at her palm, in case her words had somehow reappeared. The buzzing of excited conversations reminded her that there would be no pairing up for her. No one on the train, or at the school, or anywhere at all really, was waiting for her.
She watched the smaller girl about to board the next carriage look down at her own palm and board the train with a wide smile on her face. If only she could be so happy. If only someone wanted her so much.
But her palm was blank, the words fading away three years prior. Her soulmate was gone.
She took one last deep breath, and boarded the train.
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“Oh my sweet girl, going to Hogwarts already!”
Yvette Fletcher rolled her eyes. “Oh, Mum, we’ve already had tears. Don’t start up again!”
“I’m going to miss you so much. Write us all the time, all right? As soon as the sorting is over! It’s all right if you’re not in Gryffindor. Your father and I just want you to find friends and be happy, all right?” Yvette was enveloped in another warm hug.
“All right, already! Let me go!” She squirmed in her mother’s embrace. Only babies were smothered so tightly! She adjusted her wrinkled robe and pat her hair to be sure the brown curls were still contained in their twist. “I’ll be back in just a few months for Christmas.”
“Right, yes, of course. If you want to come home with some of your new friends, they’re of course welcome! We’ll have a big party if you like.”
“Yes, all right. Let me go, Mum!”
Yvette finally pulled away. She rolled her eyes when her mother wiped another tear from her eye. She wanted to bounce on her toes with all the excess energy. There would be so many new people to meet, so many new experiences!
She paused outside the carriage and looked down at her palm. It was empty as always. She’d always felt free, with no words like everyone else had. She could be anything, anyone. The possibilities were endless.
She smiled widely, took a deep breath, and boarded the train.
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“All right, this is it. You sure you packed everything? Plenty of tape?”
Veronica Nettles looked down at her hand, her words covered with both muggle medical tape and fingerless gloves. “It’s a little late now, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, if you forgot anything, let me know and I’ll send it on.” Her mother tucked a stray black curl behind Veronica’s ear. “Don’t be afraid, darling. It won’t be so bad.” Green eyes just like hers blinked back tears.
Veronica’s right hand folded into a fist, as if she could forget the words on her palm.
“You’ll tell me? If you find him?” At Veronica’s nod, her mother smiled. “Wait for him, okay? Don’t settle for less, no matter what the words say.”
“I’m eleven, Mum. A wedding is far off anyway.” Her mother’s sparkling laugh calmed her a bit.
Wrapped in a warm hug, Veronica allowed one last moment of peace. It was time to leave her safe bubble at home and enter the wide world.
She looked back at her sadly smiling mother. Veronica gave her an encouraging smile and waved one last time.
Then she took a deep breath, and boarded the train.
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The Hogwarts Express bustled with activity as everyone tried to find a place. Outside, the whistle blew, shrill and piercing.
Veronica, eyes on the floor to avoid being spoken to, was grabbed by a wild-haired boy with glasses. He practically shouted at her, “Hi, I’m James!”
She looked into his wide expectant eyes, and nodded awkwardly. “Veronica,” she whispered back. He smiled politely and moved beyond her.
He grabbed the next girl and shouted the same to her, “Hi, I’m James!”
The other girl, with deep red hair and startling green eyes, looked down at her palm and shrieked, “Already?” in outrage. James hooted in triumph and tried to hug her.
The red-head shoved him off with an angry glare. “I didn’t expect to find you so soon.” She sighed heavily. “I guess we’ll meet up again later. Let’s go, Severus.” She dragged a slender dark-haired boy in ill-fitting robes behind her and made her way down the train.
James hollered after her, “Wait, I don’t even know your name!” Desperately he looked at the grinning boy peeking out of the door next to him. “She left me!”
The black haired boy quirked his head with an odd expression, then laughed at James. Veronica wanted to smile, but she dropped her eyes insead. She didn’t want to ruin his happy mood if he was hers. “We’re all going to the same place,” he said. “You’ll see her again. My name's Sirius, like the star.”
Veronica couldn’t hear anymore when the door to the compartment closed. Without looking at anyone else, she made her way to another compartment with two girls inside. One, small and vibrant, chattered excitedly, while the other, taller and wide-eyed, nodded in a bit of a daze.
“Hullo! I’m Yvette. You are?”
“Veronica.”
“Lovely to meet you. This is Melody.”
Veronica smiled at them both and sat down, tucking her hands under her thighs.
“Melody doesn’t say much. Her palm is blank, like mine. What’s yours say?” Yvette fairly bounced in her seat, eyes shining with excitement. “Wouldn’t it be something if none of us had anything on our palms? How strange that we would find each other, right?”
Melody blinked her wide blue eyes a few times then smiled shyly at Veronica. Veronica cleared her throat, “I don’t like talking about my words.”
“Oh, well, that’s okay.” Yvette smiled hesitantly, then abruptly changed the subject. “Are you excited about the sorting? My parents were both Gryffindors and they said they didn’t care if I was in Gryffindor or not but I know they hope that’s where I go. What about you? Do you have any idea where you’ll go?”
Veronica looked at Melody but she seemed to be waiting for Veronica’s answer. “Well, my mum was a Hufflepuff and my dad was a Ravenclaw. I don’t think I care really.”
“My family are all Slytherins,” Melody said. “My older brother and cousin are both in Slytherin. If I don’t sort there, my family will likely chuck me out.”
“Well that’s rotten luck. I can’t imagine a family that would do that to a kid. No matter! Wherever we end up, we’ll be the best of friends. You’ll see, it’ll be lovely! I can’t wait!”
Veronica felt a smile creep across her face. Perhaps Yvette was right, and everything would turn out just fine.
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Veronica’s stomach twisted in knots during the sorting. The other children seemed just as nervous. Aside from James and the redhead, it seemed two other couples had found each other on the train. One was a first year that nervously eyed his third year mate cross the Hall. The other was a pair of first years that chatted happily as they waited for the sorting. There would be many excited letters home this evening.
She watched her new friends Melody and Yvette sorted into Slytherin House before her. When it was her turn, she nervously crossed to the little stool. Her palms were itching and she had to force her legs to stay still. When the Hat landed on her head, she begged to go where she would be safest.
The Hat whispered in her ear. “You could go anywhere. Be anything.”
“But my words. He’ll be very angry, won’t he?”
“You want to avoid him?”
“I want to be happy.”
Then the Hat yelled to the entire hall, “SLYTHERIN!”
Was he there and he would make her happy? Or was it simply because her new friends were there?
Too late to ask, she made her way down the Hall to a seat next to Yvette.
“I knew it! I just knew we’d be together! I can’t wait to write home!” Yvette babbled happily all through the feast.
After, they followed the prefect down to the Slytherin Common Room. They were directed to the dorm with their names already printed on the door. Four large beds were situated around the room, with their trunks nearby. A pale green light glowed through the windows under the lake. A shimmery red fish glided by.
Yvette, of course, was the first to comment. “Four beds. But there are three of us. How strange!”
Melody said, “Must be an odd number of girls. Three in here, three in the next room.”
Veronica began to dig through her trunk to find parchment and quill, so she could write to her mother. And then she tumbled exhausted into bed. It had been a very long day.