Chapter Text
Hadar smiled at his father, trying – and failing – not to hop up and down with impatience.
"You go first," the old man finally encouraged him, pointing to a wall that looked like all the others in the station. "I'll catch up with you."
Trusting him, Hadar did not hesitate for a second and rushed into the wall, slowing down suddenly once he reached platform 9 ¾ to avoid colliding with one of the children from the family of redheads they had seen pass right in front of them earlier and followed with amusement.
The trunks were very distinctive, no Muggles had them anymore nowadays.
The redhead turned around at the last moment, smiling happily with his... no, it was not a reflection, probably a twin, who smiled in exactly the same way.
"Wow, you seem to be in a hurry, kid. First year?"
Hadar nodded.
"You'll have to take your trunk over there," one of the twins' older brother pointed out to him with a pinched expression, directing his brothers toward the rest of the family.. "Fred, George, everyone's waiting for you."
"Hey! I'm Fred!"
"And I'm George!"
"Yeah, sure. Hurry up and go reassure Ron."
The two devils exchanged a mischievous glance and slipped away.
"Thanks for your help, young man, we'll get through this now," his father said, placing a hand on his shoulder, reassuring the teenager as he disappeared into the crowd.
"They seem... interesting," Hadar murmured, looking intrigued.
They had the same kind of mischievous look as his cousin.
"I've always found it adorable to see a protective, motherly instinct in teenagers. He takes his role as a big brother very seriously, so you can probably turn to him if you need anything."
Hadar hummed, already further down the platform, smiling innocently at his father when he returned without his trunk. The man shook his head slowly, his long black hair moving with his low ponytail, an amused smile on his lips.
"Promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise."
"Study hard, have fun, and make friends. I'm sure this year and the years to come will be amazing for you."
Hadar nodded: he had heard this before... oh, hundreds of times now? His father was very worried about sending him to Hogwarts. For good reasons, of course, but still.
"I'm sorry, look at me, I'm rambling like an old man and boring you. Go on, try to find a compartment to sit in. Just write to me from time to time."
"Every day," Hadar promised.
Even though he was a little too worried about him on a daily basis, Hadar knew it was to protect him from a very real threat, so he did not hold it against him. And he loved his father very much. He would tell him about his days in great detail.
He would let him experience through him what he himself had never known... and what had cost him everything.
"I'll miss you, Father."
"I'll miss you too, son."
After a brief but intense hug, Hadar boarded the train, confident that even though he would be far from home and his family, he would not be alone. He would never be alone. Not anymore.
He walked through the compartments, many of which were still empty, and chose one at random. In the minutes that followed, the wagons began to fill up and Hadar was joined by a shy girl named Tracey and a nervous boy named Neville. The three of them were still together when the train started moving and Hadar said goodbye to his father for the last time.
"You didn't want to say goodbye?" He noticed immediately.
"My mother is a Muggle, I said goodbye before I got on the platform," Tracey replied curtly, looking at him defiantly.
Hadar did not understand, then he noticed the obvious: he was dressed like a Pureblood, and Neville was not such a common name that one could not guess he was the youngest of the Longbottom Pureblood family. She was knowledgeable enough about the politics of the wizarding world to know that being a Half-Blood was already a stigma for Purebloods, even without being Muggle-born.
"It's really unfair that they can't be here," he replied. "Muggle parents are bound to know about their children's magic, so there's no point in excluding them."
Neville nodded in agreement and Tracey relaxed carefully.
"My apologies, that was unnecessarily aggressive."
"Your mother can't even say goodbye to you like everyone else, you don't have to apologize for being upset."
She smiled slightly.
"Don't get me started on that, I'm the rebellious type."
The door to their compartment burst open, startling them.
"Is one of you Harry Potter?" A blond boy asked demandingly.
"Who are you?" Hadar replied, refusing to answer that name.
"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. What about you?"
"Hadar Black."
They all stared at him with wide eyes. Malfoy in particular. He was a distant relative of his father but on his mother's side, Hadar knew that.
"Black, as in the Noble House of Black?"
"It depends."
"On what?"
"Are you interested in the son of a Squib?"
Hadar could see the struggle unfolding on the blond boy's face. Clearly unsure of how to respond, he said nothing.
"None of us goes by the name of Harry Potter. Go look somewhere else."
He slammed the door behind them and smiled slightly at Tracey, as if to say without actually saying, "See? We're not so different."
She relaxed completely and hummed softly.
"Black, huh? You're going to make heads turn, maybe even more than Malfoy."
Neville stifled a laugh.
"A Black at Hogwarts, that's definitely something no one expected."
Hadar said nothing, raising an almost imperious eyebrow and adjusting his glasses, making them laugh even harder.
And yet, they were still unaware of something that would surprise them even more.
The name Harry Potter would not be called this year.