Chapter Text
Safia sat on the platform, watching various parents and their children file in. The train was due to arrive in half an hour, and her ever-busy mother had, once again, dropped her off 45 minutes early. She reached over to grab a textbook from the top layer of her school trunk, her eyes occasionally flitting along the platform in search of her best friends.
She flicked her tongue over her braces and moved up to sit on her trunk.
Why did I let Tonks talk me out of divination again? Safia mused, fighting the now trained in urge to yawn as she looked over her arithmancy tome. I could kill a handful of first years if I fall down the stairs with these books, She realized with a grin.
Taking a bottle from her bag, she twisted off the top, and took a healthy swig. Safia reclined on her trunk and surveyed the platform, feeling something like a queen overlooking her court.
Speak of the devil, she thought as she smirked, her eyebrows raised as she watched a clearly muggle family be guided through the passageway by a helpful family of brunettes- probably Gryffindors. I don’t recognize them if they’re ‘puffs... She couldn’t help herself from smirking at the common nickname for her house- that often led to many a fight between unknowing purebloods and usually enraged muggleborns. She had been one of them, last year, before she had to gently spread the word about what it sounded dangerously similar to.
Rolling her eyes, she stretched and put the textbook down next to her. Conjuring up a mirror, the fourth year checked her appearance. Safia’s tightly permed hair was starting to flatten in the downpour that had ambushed her on the way in. Only once she was on the right side of platform 9 and ¾’s could she cast the drying charm to try and resurrect her sodden outfit. Fat lot of good those things do. My hair is always flat after those things.
Grumbling and attempting to revive her hair, she didn’t notice someone sneaking up beside her. She let out a shriek and her concentration broke, causing the mirror to vanish.
“Hullo, Luv!” An overly lanky redhead said with a grin. “Lovely weather today, eh?”
“Merlin’s Beard, Charlie!” She exclaimed, ignoring the stares she was getting from the people on the rest of the platform. “You about scared me to death, idiot!” she said, starting to giggle as she tried to mock-frown and thump his arm.
“See Tonks yet?” He asked, plopping himself down next to her on the trunk; his long lanky legs extending out into the platform absentmindedly, sprawling to take up as much space as only a Weasley boy could.
“Not yet I’m afraid, but it’s early yet,” She said, frowning before she glanced back over and visibly twitched. “Bloody hell, Charlie. Did you get hit by a fabric lorry on the way here?” Safia asked, looking over the visual catastrophe that was Charlie Weasley’s technicolour robes. “They have special meetings for that. ‘Fashionably tone deaf’ and all that...”
Before Charlie could retort, the rest of his family came through the platform barrier.
Bill was the first to enter, wincing a little at the sound of the quickly approaching train whistle. He not so gently butted the front of his cart into Charlie’s legs to get him to move both his legs and his trunk out of the walkway. “Up you get. Train is about to pull in. ‘Lo Safa.” Bill nodded,
Safia blushed and waved shyly, standing abruptly in a half-curtsy, half stumble; much to Charlie’s bemusement. But before he could make a comment, his mother’s voice cut through the loud bustle of the nearly full platform.
“Ronald Weasley! You put that stick down! You’ll put your eye out!” she yelled, holding a squirming four year old girl on her hip. “Ginny, stop that. Percy, Where did the twins go?” She asked, trying to track her four remaining not-yet school age children on the crowded platform.
Hearing their trademark giggle, Safia turned quickly to see Fred and George trying to sneak something into her trunk. “Oy! They’re here, Mrs. Weasley.” She said with a scowl at the redheaded and freckle-covered duo.
“Oh, thank you Safia dear. I didn’t want to bring them, but Arthur had work today and since no one is starting this year, well...” She made a half-smile half-grimace. “You know how it is, love.”
Safia nodded awkwardly. Her mum had to unceremoniously drop her off at the front of the station as she rushed off to some court case in inner-london. Life as a barrister’s daughter wasn’t an easy one, but Hogwarts had made it all less of a hassle she supposed.
Her mind drifted back to the days from before, but she was startled back to reality when the large red train pulled in and let off a massive cloud of steam, fogging up Safia’s thick-rimmed glasses. She blindly fumbled for the handle to her trunk, and tried to look for her other best friend at the same time.
Her hands caught the front of someone’s robes and she used them to pull herself up- before she realized this person was far too broad-shouldered and terrifyingly skeletal to be Charlie.
“As much as I appreciate the... compliment, Davis, would you mind letting go of my robes?” A familiar voice drawled. Safia squeaked and quickly let go as her glasses cleared up. Her face blanched as she nearly fell backwards into Charlie.
“I don’t want your filthy halfblood hands all over my new attire, Davis.” The thin, and impossibly angular boy sneered as he moved to walk away.
“Trust me, Pucey. It wasn’t on purpose.” Safia spat at his back, as she left her trunk in the shrinking pile near the back of the train and filed on with Charlie.
They passed several full cabins, Charlie nodding and waving to people as he moved for the front of the train. “Y’know, you could have left your trunk in the pile before I got here, Safa.” He commented, stepping into the next carriage.
“I didn’t even know there was a pile my first year. I had to do it all myself, remember? Dragged it halfway up the train in my third year, before you told me.” She smirked. “Besides, it’s practically tradition now. Four years we’ve been going here.” Safia settled herself into the corner, letting Charlie sprawl and put his ridiculously long legs on her side of the cabin. “Where is Tonks?” She frowned as the train’s final whistle sounded.
Suddenly, a panting purple-haired girl burst in, sopping wet, and nearly cross-eyed as she tried to recover.
“You would not believe the day I’ve had.” She gasped, as she flopped herself onto Safias bench, ignoring Charlie’s feet and resting her head on top of them. Looking up, she gave a lopsided grin. “Regardless, how are you my trusty compatriots?”
“Well, Safa managed to grope William Pucey on the platform, and she’s fallen madly in love with Bill.” Charlie stated, barely holding a straight face.
“Who is madly in love with me, now?” Bill asked, his head popping in.
Charlie and Tonks merely grinned innocently as Safia rolled her eyes, grateful her darker complexion hid her blush for the most part- at least that’s what she had convinced herself. “N-no one, just Charlie being a git is all.”
“Ah, so the usual.” He nodded understandingly, before winking at his brother. “Well, mind if me’n Maureen sit in here? It’s uncomfortably empty this year.”
“If you can fight a space out of the greedy tits who feel the urge to cover every inch of bench they can muster.” Safia said, prodding Tonk’s head and Charlies shins. “If I didn’t know any better, Nymphadora,” Safia said pointedly, knowing it’d make Tonks sit up indignantly. “I’d say you rival Charlie in taking up space.”
Her friend made a loud squawk and try to cover Safia’s giggling mouth, allowing Bill and his girlfriend to sit down across from each other near the door to the cabin. Maureen let her cat out of it’s carrier and let it sit on her shoulders. The ridiculously fluffy white persian gave Tonks’ a weird look before letting out perhaps the most pathetic sounding mewl and falling asleep.
Things settled down, falling into an almost awkward silence as the train chuffed to life. Tonks fiddled with a lock of her ridiculously coloured permed hair, Charlie turned over some trinket in his hands, Bill and Maureen talked between themselves muttering back and forth. Safia just sort of stared out the window, fiddling with the hellish braces in her mouth.
“So uhm. It’s Safia, right?” Maureen said, breaking the silence.
Safia nodded, jumping a little at the break in silence. “Uh, yeah. Safia Davis. Fourth year.”
“Maureen Buck, fifth. Are you two...” She trailed off as she nodded to Tonks and Safia, whom were both still in street clothes. “Yanno.”
“Hufflepuffs? Yeah.” Tonks said icily. Her nostrils flared and and both girls tensed up. It became dangerously silent as they glared daggers at Maureen. If Slytherin was the most derided house, Hufflepuff was a close second- especially in the past few years.
Charlie made a face at his brother, who replied with an apologetic shrug. “Hey, Maureen. I think I hear the sweets trolley. Lets head it off to get the best stuff before it runs out, yeah?” Bill said, ignoring the fact that the train was half empty and would still be well stocked by the time it reached them at the far front. Maureen nodded, muttering something under her breath as she left the cabin.
Safia nearly launched herself at the older girl’s back, but Charlie’s legs deftly pushed both her and Tonks back into their seats.
“Sorry about that.” Charlie said with a grimace. “Bill met her over the summer. You... you know how it is. She’s pureblood and...”
Tonks silenced him with a glare. “Yeah. We get it.”
The next few hours were spent quietly, Safia playing a few rounds of exploding snap with Charlie, and the trio buying a small fortune on the sweets trolley. Sugary drinks and tooth-meltingly sour confections abounded as the three feasted on the remains of Tonks’ and Safia’s summer pocket money.
As the sky started to darken, the girls ushered Charlie out to change into uniforms before the train stopped. “It’s been five bloody years, Tonks.” Safia said darkly. “My family wasn’t even involved. Your family...”
“Got disowned. Doesn’t matter. A lot of Hufflepuffs... well. When favors are called in, they’re called in. A lot of the pure families go back a long time. That’s all people remember.” Tonks muttered, buttoning up her robes and straightening her badge.
The train’s whistle blared loudly throughout the train, both girls now fully dressed. Safia grabbed Maureen’s forgotten cat carrier, and considered pitching it into the forest, but decided against it. Instead she left a nasty sticky hex on it for the next person to pick it up.
Piling into the horseless carriage, She held the boobytrapped carrier awkwardly on her lap.
“Who wants to bet a first year is gonna fall in this year?” Safia asked with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
“You know that’s not fair. If none fall in, Peeves’ll get ‘em,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes.
“Fine, then how many will claim that the squid tried to eat them?” Safa retorted, rubbing her fingers together. “You gonna bet or not, Charlie-bones, Nymphadora~?”
“You’re just gonna win anyway. But three sickles on at least one not falling in, but claiming that it ‘totally tried to eat the boat, you guys.’,” Tonks said with a chuckle, “And that’s twice you’ve called me that. Cut that out, Safia.” Her face sobered for a moment, before breaking into a grin when she looked to Charlie. “And you, Buddy-boy?”
“I say none fall in, but Peeves ambushes the lot with a hose.” He said confidently, leaning back as the carriage hit a harsh pothole.
“And your amount is...?” Safia leaned in, interested.
“Three sickles, same as Tonkaroo. And you, Safa?”
“Hm... Can I say any other outcome I win?” Safia asked with a gleam of hope in her eye. That was quickly quashed when she was pelted with a fine mist of Bertie Botts. “Fine, Fine. I say, one falls in, squid saves the kid, but the kid tries to convince everyone his screaming was really him using magic to convince the squid to put him back. I’ll match you guys, three sickles.”
As they all shook hands, the carriage came to a stop, and Safia gave Tonks a wink as she went off to find Maureen. Safia feigned surprise when she caught Bill and Maureen having either a make out session, or Maureen was secretly a vampire and trying to eat his face behind a carriage. Safia pretended it was the latter in her head, as she politely coughed.
Bill disengaged from the ‘kiss’ faster than Maureen did, and Safia was amazed at how nonchalant he was about the whole thing.
“Oh hey, Safa. What uh, what d’you have there?” Bill asked, gesturing to the cat carrier.
Maureen had a look of apprehension on her face. “Oh! You found Lucille’s carrier. Thanks,” She said, forcing a grin. But Safia could hear the missing “Half-blood.”.
“It’s no problem. I found it on the train and well. I figured ah, Lucille might be missing it.” Safia matched Maureen’s smile with a doubly sweet one. Safia knew she had a better chance of winning than Maureen, who started to falter a little in the deafening silence.
“Right. Well then, I guess we’d better be going inside, yeah?” Bill said, breaking the awkward silence. “I’ll just take that...” And he reached for the carrier. Safia almost handed it to him, when she remember the hex. She couldn’t give Bill the hex! That would be like, the worst thing ever. Oh Merlin, what could she do. She panicked for the moment, before she found a way out.
“IthinkIhadbetterhandthis to Maureen. She has the cat after all.” She blurted, and then tried to cover with a grin.
“Fair enough.” Bill said, pulling his hands away in an “I surrender” way. Maureen practically snatched the carrier from Safia; and she took the opportunity to run for it. Catching back up with her friends, she tried to look as casual as possible before- Ah, there it is.
A bloodcurdling scream filled the hall as Maureen tried to set down the carrier, and found she just couldn’t. Charlie just rolled his eyes. “Y’know, Bill was prolly going to talk Maureen into apologizing. He won’t now.”
Safia thought it over a little. Disappoint Bill, or petty revenge. While it was probably best that she hadn’t done that, there was no time to fix it now. Now if she just laid low she could-
A firm, cold grip grasped her shoulder, and Safia cringed. She knew that hand well. She also knew the man connected to it.
“Hello, Professor Snape.” Safia said without bothering to turn and look, trying to smile innocently. “Lovely evening, isn’t it? All fresh new faces, and a lovely feast I’m-”
“Do stop blathering, Ms. Davis. Your incessant chatter is reminding me of every detention you have served with me.” His voice coldly stated, as his fingers started to dig almost painfully into her shoulder. “You might actually have achieved a new record today, Ms. Davis.”
“Oh, and what would that be? Most gorgeou- hrrk.” She was cut off from finishing her terribly witty remark when Snape picked her up by the back of her robes and carried her out of the crowd of students, not unlike a mother cat hauling a rowdy kitten. While Safia was many things, she wasn't particularly tall, and she struggled only lightly as her feet dangled off the ground.
“For fastest detention from the start of the new year. You perhaps even rival the late Mr. Potter, who I believe managed to wait a day before causing havoc on any given year.” Snape intoned, setting her down outside of the crowd and taking hold of her arm before walking off, dragging her rather unceremoniously.
“But sir! What about the feast! My friends! I have a betting pool goin-Sh-Fffbugger.”
“25 points from Hufflepuff, Ms. Davis. Twenty for having an illicit betting pool on school grounds, and five for swearing in front of a teacher.”
“Oh come on! That’s not even an offense! The betting pool bit! I know my rights!” Safia squawked as she was hauled down a hallway to the grounds.
“Ms. Davis if you’ve seen the rules of conduct then you also know backtalking a teacher is also a points-removal offense. Ten additional points from Hufflepuff. One more word, girl; and I will remove fifty.”
Safia blanched. Fifty! Merlin his man had no humor. All this over a silly hex on a stupid pox-ridden cat carrier. Sprout is gonna kill me over this.
Safia was dragged over the dew-covered grass into an office attached to the greenhouses. The office itself looked a bit worn, and made of stone. It had a sturdy roof that was likely several decades old, but suspiciously plantlife free. Safia had always found that funny. The building looked like it had the insulation of a wet tissue, and it may well have had those problems, if not for magic.
The inside was warm, and there was already a crackling popping fire under the mantle. Snape guided Safia roughly to the chair, and barked an order for her to sit quietly and like a ‘lady’ when she tried to get comfortable. She made a face when his back was turned, but refrained actual comment. Snape had his knickers in a knot tonight and he might very well take the whole pot of demi-residual points away from them if she didn’t play her cards carefully.
Safia sulked a little, and watched the fire. She had always admired fire. So pretty and changing and yet dangerous. Her back was starting to ache from sitting bolt upright and from the look Snape gave her when she reached down to fiddle with her shoes, she just had to ignore the itching at the back of her neck.
But it was just driving her insane. I mean, honestly. Surely he wouldn’t mind if she just reached up a little to scratch a perfectly innocent itch-
She couldn’t help jumping a little when the fire suddenly turned green.
“Ms. Davis, I do believe you’ve outdone yourself this year,” A new voice said, popping out of the fireplace. The kindly face of Mrs. Sprout forming in the burning cinders. “I’ll send some house-elves over with some sandwiches and we can talk about what you’ve done.
“Severus? I know you hate first of the year feasts, but Albus says you can’t use a student as an excuse to hide from the rest of the students. That’s just silly. Now get back to the hall before he comes back here himself and drags you.”
Safia could almost see Professor Snape roll his eyes, and give the barest of audible scoffs, before he gave Safia a withering look and stepped through the floo-fire. As soon as his billowed cloak vanished, the fire returned to its friendly orange hue.
A soft pop behind her, and a gentle touch to her elbow made her turn, when she remembered Professor Sprout saying she’d send sandwiches. Impressed by the efficiency, Safia quietly tucked into the plate of seemingly unending sandwiches, and thanked the elves.
They merely nodded curtly and handed her a pitcher of water, a potion bottle, and a glass before popping away.
An hour and a half later, Professor Sprout walked into the office, her plump frame fitting right in with the rest of the office; giving it the final home-y touch.
She ushered Safia to take a seat in front of her desk, and let her get settled before giving a long suffering sigh.
“Really Ms. Davis? A hex? You couldn’t have waited at least a few minutes? You got into a duel with a fourth year- which, if you remember, left you in the hospital for three weeks in your first year. You tried to scale the castle in your second. You got into an actual fist-fight last year over a silly word, and now this?”
“If you remember, I was only trying to scale the greenhouses. Someone threw my bag on the roof and no one would let me use a broom. And in the third year, I thought they called me a poof. And in the first they... they called me a dirty pa-” Safia was starting to get upset, her face turning red as she tried to explain.
“That’s Quite Enough, Ms. Davis. I understand your explanations for each of these... transgressions. However. I cannot allow you to get off every time your temper takes you.” Professor Sprout said, enunciating the capital letters in her own special way.
“And it was just a silly sticking hex on a cat carrier! You can’t say that’s even slightly comparable! That’s not even in the sam-” Her voice rose, as she forgot who she was talking to.
“Ms. Davis!” Mrs. Sprout snapped, snapping the tip of a pointer on the table to refocus Safia. “One more word and you’ll be in detention for a month. I’ve had to convince Professor Snape to not just outright petition to expel you. He was after two months detention. If you can hold your tongue for five minutes, I will ensure you only get a week. Now, are we clear, Ms. Davis?” She said, slightly flustered, but with a steady and serious tone to her voice.
Safia sighed and nodded slowly.
“Good girl. Now, if you can promise to try to not let your emotions overtake you again in the next... let us say twelve hours, perhaps I can allow you to return to your dormitory unscathed.”
Safia stood, and bobbed a curtsy. “Now, you’ll be serving detention with Professor Snape, cleaning the first week’s classes of cauldrons.” Safia blanched. “Without magic.” Safia thought she might faint. The first week of Potions was literally the worst week of the year on those poor cauldrons. And to clean without magic? Unthinkable!
While Safia had been raised without magic until she was 11, it was still something you got used to. Mud tracked on the floor? Fixed with the wave of a wand. Broken dish? Wand! Book a bit past it’s prime? Just a simple charm and it’s good as new.
“You’re a clever girl, Safia. Perhaps not the smartest, but you’re clever. At least try to not get caught next time. Surely you’ve learned how to delay the effects of a hex by now.” Professor Sprout said, before ushering her out the door. “And do try to remember Professor Snape is the... source for your tonic, my dear.”
Safia blinked, but when she turned back to make sure she heard her Head of House right on that second to last statement, the door to the humble little cottage had already shut. Slightly bewildered, Safia made her way back to the dormitory, allowing more pressing matters to take precedence in her mind.
As Safia trudged up the lawn and into the warm castle, she didn’t notice the shadowy figure watching her from a dark alcove.
She dragged her feet down the hallways, grateful that the entrance to the Hufflepuff dormitories were on the ground floor, where it was warm. No hiking up eight flights of stairs, or climbing down slick dungeon floors in the middle of the night. Just right past the giggling fruit painting and there was the entrance. Now she just had to tap the wall just right, aaaand three up, two left, four down, and middle, and...
She returned to being surprised when the stones didn’t work the first time. Nor the second, third, or seventh times. Sitting dejectedly in the hall, she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. This was very obviously all Maureen’s fault, she thought bitterly. If she hadn’t been so rude, so wouldn’t have had to hex her carrier, and then she wouldn’t have gotten caught, and then she could have made the feast and learned the passcode so she wouldn’t be trapped in this hallway all night after walking all the way to the greenhouses and back.
Her tonic bottle was growing light and her summer stores were nearly gone. Not that that mattered now, as they were store in her trunk. In her dorm. At the foot of her nice warm delightfully fluffy bed. Settling into an even deeper sulk, she pulled her overcloak over herself better, and nestled into the cold and oh so terribly unforgiving stone wall and floor. But it’s not like she could spend the entire night here. Someone would find her. A prefect. Peeves. Maybe even a teacher. I hope it isn’t Snape. He’d take away even more points even though it was his fault in the first place that I'm here.
Well, his fault and Maureen’s. Stupid Maureen. With her straight blonde hair and stupid straight teeth and stupid wizard robes that fit her. Stupid being the Gryffindor team chaser. Stupid stupid stupid. She thought angrily.
She had started to drift off to sleep when footsteps came tapping down the halls. She was gently picked up, and she drowsily muttered some complaint, but returned to dreamland. The dark figure that had kept an eye on her in the halls, carefully took her to her dorms. They laid her on her bed, and waving some charm to tuck her in. They took care to close her bed-curtains around her, before leaving just as quietly as they arrived.
Safia tossed and turned, curling into the familiar textures and smells of her bed. She mumbled as her dreams turned to memories, flashes of her past.
The smell of her father when he came home from the record shop. How his beard tickled her face when he hugged her close. How he called her his shahzadi- His princess- and would pick her up and toss her gently into the air.
The way her mother, then a soft warm hostess of a mother, cracked when the men came to the door.
She remembers she was sitting on the floor of their flat, eating a bowl of cereal. Her mother had been packing her briefcase and her father had yet to come home to pick her up and take her to the store with him. Safia had been about four, almost five, when the men came to the door. She could barely remember their faces, or their words. Dark silhouettes in the doorway that took away everything.
Safia remembered watching her mother nod, face taut, and close the door quietly when the men were done. Then she simply turned and gave a half-hearted smile.
“I guess you’re going to come to work with me, Saf’” She said, a barely hidden emptiness behind her words.
“But Da said-” Safia remembers protesting before her mother cut her off.
“You’re coming to work with me, Daddy’s gone away for a while.” The well dressed woman said, her hair in a long ponytail, and her pantsuit fitting as well as a half size too small suit could.
Something changed in her mother that day. Some light went out in her eyes, and her mother went from being a slightly absentminded Mum who worked all day and into the night, to the cold shell of a woman she was today in her powersuits and barrister’s wigs.
Safia spent the night curled up in a ball at the head of her bed, reliving that awful morning until the sound of Tonks waking up in the next bed over woke her. She applied a bleary charm to her hair, and did her morning restitutions with her eyes half closed before she even opened the curtains.
“S’wha’ya in for now, Safa?” An annoyingly cheerful voice called from the next bed over, garnering only a grumble and a throat gurgle worthy of the badger that adorned their house from the half-sleeping girl.
“A week with Snake. Only if I can keep my head for the next like, day or so. S’stupid.” Safia said as she stretched, popping some crick in her back and weakly tried to move a nasty muscle knot in her neck. “B’ the way, what’s the dorm pass again?”
Tonks pulled on her thick overrobe, and she scrunched up her face to remember. “I think it’s... top-leftmost, two right, down four and then double palm in the middle.” She stuffed a pick-me-up potion or three in her pocket and ran a hand through her remarkably short purple hair.
“Hold on a mo’. Safs, if you didn’t know the pass, how did you get in last night?”
Safia thought it over for a moment, and then shrugged, masking her slight internal panic. “Must’ve been a teacher or something. Or a prefect. What’s today’s first block?”
“Charms with the Ravenclaws, and then I think Double runes.”
“Isn’t herbology today?” Safia asked as she pulled her own mane of hair back into a ponytail.
“No, git. That’s thursdays.” Tonks said, heading out of the nearly empty dormitory with her tongue sticking out at her friend. Safia only grinned- and was once more eternally grateful that the Hufflepuff dorm had no stairs to speak of- or else Tonks would have died from either falling down- or up them.
This was going to be such a terribly fun year. Nothing could possibly hold her back now, this was going to be her year.