Child of the Moon

Chapter One

King's Cross Station was a mass of people, sound, conversations, laughter, and occasional sobs, all rushing to some unknown destination. A flurry of people from all over the country filled the station, young and old alike. Yet in the middle of all this, one person stood out against the crowd. In the middle of this mass of humanity was a young girl, no more than eleven, all alone, no parent in tow, not even a parent to run after, just her pushing the very large and heavy trolley along the concourse.

Although she was obviously young, one look at her features told you that something was amiss with the girl. Dark and sunken circles surrounded her beautiful amber-coloured eyes, making her look worn and tired. Her tired face was framed by two locks of her brown blonde hair that had escaped her ponytail. Her jeans mirrored her expression - tired and worn. This Eyre of shabbiness was topped off by a faded baggy T-shirt that had also seen better days. To complete the mismatched picture she wore a faded black cloak, the bottom of which had long worn through, so now all that remained was a rough edge that had once been the hemline.

Not only did her clothing seem odd, but so did the constituents of her trolley. A large, oddly new-looking trunk that contrasted her worn look took up most of the room on the trolley. Sitting elegantly on top of it was a small, odd colored cat. It was mainly black, with several off white patches around its paws with a reddish brown colour streaking its fur here and there. It looked around with lazy curiosity with pale green eyes as it enjoyed its ride.

The girl had a different air than the cat about being in a station full of people. She kept her head down and avoided looking anyone in the eye. It seemed like she was trying to put walls around her to shield her from the gazes of the strangers. She quickened her pace, making her dishwater blonde hair wave behind her in its ponytail. She raised a hand and tucked a lock of hair behind each ear to keep them from whipping her face. She cast a glance up at the station numbers and saw she was coming close to station number nine.

She slowed down and stopped at the barrier between stations nine and ten. She remembered her father telling her about this once when she was little. All she had to do was walk through the barrier and she'd arrive at station nine and three quarters - the station the Hogwarts train left at. She scanned the people around with her light brown eyes. Thankfully, no one cared to notice her at the moment.

The girl took a deep breath. She remembered her father mentioning he always liked to go through at a run. Why not? She started pushing the trolley again, gaining speed. She aimed the trolley at the dead center of the barrier. As she came closer and closer to the wall she prayed to herself that she remembered correctly. At least her cat didn't seem to be fazed that its owner was pushing it towards the seemingly solid wall.

The girl squeezed her eyes shut just before the trolley made contact with the wall. She opened her eyes again when she noticed that she had, in fact, not hit the wall. She slowed down, looking at the sight in front of her. A long scarlet train baring the words 'Hogwarts Express' stretched along the station. A small smile played at her lips as she looked at the train.

"I'm actually going to Hogwarts," she whispered to herself. "I can't believe I'm actually going to Hogwarts."

She let the smile linger on her plain face for a few moments before she came crashing back down to earth.

The girl was early, as she had planned it that way, but there were a few families already here. As she watched a mother hug her child, the lone girl's smile faltered. She quickly busied herself by pushing her trolley to the last door on the train. She heaved her trunk up into the corridor, her cat giving her a disgruntled look at having to jump off the trunk.

"Now don't give me that look, Ash," the girl addressed her cat. "You knew you would have had to get off eventually."

The cat gave a soft meow, following his owner down the corridor as she looked in the compartments. The girl instinctively headed to the last compartment, but to her amazement, it was already occupied. There was a man in there placing a briefcase on the rack. The girl was taken by surprise; she hadn't known teachers also rode the Hogwarts Express to the school. The girl turned to find another compartment in order to avoid conversation, but the Professor spotted her before she had moved too far.

"You're welcome to have this compartment if you wish," he said with a smile. The girl noticed that he looked young, but had premature age lines on his face, and his brown hair had flecks of gray in it. He also looked very tired - as tired as she felt.

"N-no," the girl stuttered, "I-I'll just find another one."

The girl was thrown off; she hadn't expected to see someone else with her... 'condition' so soon.

"What's your name?" the man asked, obviously thinking the same thing she was.

"It's Amaris Klein," the girl answered sheepishly, "but I prefer Ris."

"Professor Dumbledore told me about you," the Professor nodded, acknowledging the information.

"He told me about you, too," Ris muttered.

"If you need help with anything, feel free to ask," the Professor offered in a friendly fashion.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin," Ris gave a small nod, "I appreciate it."

"Any time," he said, giving an encouraging smile as Ris turned to find another compartment.

Ris chose a compartment halfway down the corridor. She pulled her book out of her trunk and lifted her trunk into the overhead rack. Ash settled himself on one of the seats and curled up and Ris sat in a seat between her cat and the window. She opened the book to a marked page and started reading to pass the time. She was very tired but she had found that it was very hard for her to take naps, no matter how tired she was. Besides, the book was a very good fictional piece and she had enjoyed it so far. She slid down in her seat to make herself more comfortable and immediately was drawn from the real world into the fictional world of the book.

She had read several pages before she was interrupted by a light knock on the compartment door. Ris stood up and slid the door open, keeping her book in her hand to mark the page.

Sliding back the door revealed two girls, which appeared be around the same age as her. One was slightly taller than Ris and had brown hair tied back in a high ponytail. The other girl was shorter than Ris by about a head and a half. She had blonde hair that was slowly turning brown and was cut at chin length.

"Sorry, to bother you," the taller girl said, "but everywhere else is full. Do you mind?"

Ris hadn't planned on sharing a compartment; she didn't like being around people much, especially with recent events. However, she was much too polite to deny them.

"Of course not," Ris responded with a slight smile. She stepped back and sat back down in her seat. Ash opened a sleepy pale green eye to look at the intruders.

The two girls heaved their trunks onto the rack when they entered. Ris noticed that the taller girl placed an owl cage holding a tawny owl next to her trunk. The other girl sat a basket across from Ris and opened it. A fluffy white cat raised its head out, looked around, and quickly retreated back into the basket.

"Hail?" the girl said looking curiously at her cat. "What's wrong Hail?"

Ris felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach.

"She probably doesn't like Ash," Ris stated with a small smirk. She felt she had better give some sort of explanation so no suspicion might be aroused. "He is rather odd."

The girl looked over at Ash, who was now sitting up and staring at the basket containing the female cat.

"He has weird eyes," the girl stated, "but he's really pretty."

"Yeah," her friend agreed sitting next to her. "By the way, my name is Shannon Bollard." She nodded and smiled at Ris.

"And I'm Renée Smith, with an accent on the second 'e'," the shorter girl piped up and drew the accent in the air to emphasize her point.

"I'm Amaris Klein," Ris introduced herself to the other two, "but please just use Ris."

"I never knew all this stuff existed," Renée started talking excitedly on a sudden topic change. "I was amazed when I got the letter! It was like all my fantasies coming true, you know?"

"Renée's Muggle-born, in case you couldn't tell," Shannon said in a fake whisper.

"And I've known you all my life and you never breathed a word to me!" Renée attacked her friend.

"I have like three quarter blood or something like that, you know?" Shannon explained to Ris. "My dad is a Muggle-born wizard and my mom is a Pureblood. My dad thought it best if I received some Muggle education before I started Hogwarts because he felt that my brother and sister didn't know enough about the Muggle world before they went to Hogwarts. That's how I know Renée, anyway. Only bad thing was my mom didn't like my dad's idea, so I live with him during the week and with her during the weekend." Shannon looked slightly put out about this fact, but passed over it quickly. "My dad made me promise not to tell anyone about our world. I was really shocked when Renée told me she had gotten a Hogwarts letter."

"What about you?" Renée turned to Ris. "What blood do you have?"

Ris took a moment to respond, she hadn't expected the two girls to be this talkative, nonetheless actually include her in the conversation.

"I'm half," she responded after the question finally sunk in. "My dad was the wizard."

"Ooh," Renée squealed, "so you knew about all this stuff before your letter, like Shannon?"

Ris nodded slowly, not sure of the shorter girl's high excitement level.

"You have to excuse Renée," Shannon sighed, "usually I act the way she is, but she's so excited about all the magic stuff, and she had a cappuccino this morning. Trust me, she's not like this all the time."

"She's right," Renée nodded, agreeing with her friend. "I just can't believe all of this exists. I mean, there's wands and everything!"

She quickly pulled her wand out and held it like it was the most precious thing in the world.

"Eight inches, willow with dragon heartstring," she said fondly caressing her wand. "And Shannon has an eleven inch, oak with unicorn hair." Renée stated knowledgeably. "What do you have?"

"Ten and a half inch, rowan wood with phoenix feather," Ris answered.

"Brilliant!" Renée squealed. "Do either of you know any spells?"

"No, Renée," Shannon stated flatly as Ris shook her head. "I've told you, under-aged magic is illegal outside of Hogwarts."

"Aww..." Renée whined. She started to ask another question but was cut off by the sudden jerk of the train.

"Yay! We're moving!" Renée exclaimed.

"Let's go say goodbye to our parents," Shannon said motioning to the corridor.

"Okay," Renée nodded, getting up. Shannon started to open the door, but noticed that Ris hadn't made any movement to get up. In fact, she opened her book and started reading again. Confused, Shannon invited her to come with them, "Hey, you can come too, you know."

Ris glanced up at Shannon, and then looked back down at her book, "I already said my goodbyes. My mom had to leave early for work."

Shannon looked at Ris curiously. She could tell the girl wasn't being honest, but she decided to let her keep her secrets. For now.

Shannon stepped outside and slid the door halfway closed. Ris started to read again, but her feline distracted her. Ash had taken advantage of Renée's absence and jumped across to her seat to peer into the basket that contained Hail.

"Ash," Ris said in a warning tone, "the poor thing's already scared of me, she doesn't need you hitting on her." She reached over, picked Ash up and placed him on her lap. "You're some wonder," Ris sighed. "You're not even afraid of a werewolf."

The cat gave Ris a look that said, 'Why bother? You're no danger to me now.'

Ris smiled at her cat and stroked him as she continued reading. Ris realized after several pages that Shannon and Renée should have been back by then. She was just about to get up to investigate when they came bursting back into the compartment.

"That was really Harry Potter?" Renée was asking in a disbelieving tone.

"That was really Harry Potter!" Shannon exclaimed. "The one that brought the downfall of You-Know-Who! The famous Harry Potter! He had the scar and everything!"

"Harry Potter?" Ris asked, matching Renée's tone. She had heard that he was only two years older than her and went to Hogwarts, but she wasn't sure if she should have believed it.

"Yes, in the last compartment!" Shannon sounded as if she was catching a bit of what Renée had earlier.

"Oh," Ris said trying to suppress a smile. "So that's what took you so long to get back."

"Well, yeah," Shannon smiled. "You know, it's not every day you see someone famous. I'm excited, all right? Seeing Harry Potter on the first day is a good reason to be too."

Ris smirked and went back to her book, pretending not to have any interest.

"I wonder if we'll be in the same house as him," Shannon said dreamily.

"House?" Renée echoed. "What house?"

"Gryffindor," Shannon answered. "I heard that was Professor Dumbledore's house when he went to Hogwarts."

"Wait, hold up," Renée held up a hand, confusion on her face. "I know who Professor Dumbledore is, but what's Gryffindor?"

"Oh, right," Shannon said, hitting herself in the forehead. "Of course you wouldn't know about houses."

"Glad we finally got that covered," Renée said sarcastically.

"Sorry," Shannon mumbled before explaining the houses. "At Hogwarts there are four houses, I think that's what my family told me, anyway, and they're like a replacement family for you while you're there, or something. Somehow you're, like, tested into what house you belong in."

"What kind of test?" Renée asked breathlessly.

"They refused to tell me," Shannon huffed. "Said it should be 'a surprise'."

"Are your brother and sister still at Hogwarts?" Ris asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.

"Nah," Shannon responded, "they both graduated awhile ago. My sister is training to be a Healer at St. Mungo's and my brother's working as an employee at Flourish and Blotts, and he's the oldest. I do have a younger brother coming up in two years, unfortunately. Do you have any siblings at Hogwarts or graduated?" she asked Ris

"No, I'm an only child," Ris answered shortly. At least she didn't have to lie about that. She didn't like lying.

"Ah, only child, like the little spoiled brat sharing this compartment with us," Shannon said with a smile, but quickly added, "Not that I'm saying all only children are brats, just this one."

Renée had a disgruntled look on her face as Shannon slandered her. She just sighed and asked, "What are the names of all the houses?" Apparently she was used to this treatment.

"Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, I think," Shannon responded. "I don't know what I'll be in. My dad was in Gryffindor, and my mom was in Ravenclaw, and my mom's whole line has mixes of everything. Except Slytherin, thank goodness. Think I'd leave if I was put into there."

"Why?" Renée asked curiously.

"'Cause every witch and wizard that went through that house has turned out bad," Shannon answered easily.

"Well, I hope I don't end up in there either!" Renée announced.

"Well, not all of them are completely bad," Ris corrected, "and not all bad people are Slytherins. They just say that as a generalization." Ris now found herself looking at all possibilities of every generalization and not believing what 'they say'. After all, 'they say' she's a blood thirsty and dangerous creature. Little did 'they' know she's a vegetarian.

"That may be true, but ninety percent of them are," Shannon said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Thats true," Ris conceded.

"Well, I still don't want to be in that house," Renée said confidently.

"Any idea where you'll be put, Ris?" Shannon asked her politely.

"Well," Ris answered slowly, "my dad was in Ravenclaw, and I think a lot of my ancestors were too, and I think there were a few Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, but I'll probably get in Ravenclaw."

"I hear that's a good house," Shannon nodded, accepting Ris's answer.

"Well, they're all good," Ris said sincerely, "depending on your view point."

Shannon blinked at what Ris just said. "I never thought of it that way," she said slowly. "You have a point there."

"I always have a point," Ris said good-naturedly and returned to her book.

Shannon eyed Ris, a small smile playing on her lips. That girl was an interesting character. She thought she may just be worth getting to know. Shannon still had questions she wanted Ris to answer, but decided they could be answered later; she didn't want to interrupt her newfound friend's reading.

"Hey, Renée," Shannon turned to her short friend, "wanna play a wizard game? I can teach you how to play Gobstones. I have set in my trunk."

"Sure," Renée answered, eager to learn about wizarding past times.

Ris stared at a page in her book, not absorbing any of it. Thoughts plagued her mind. Maybe being completely anti-social is a bad plan, maybe I can afford to not be and to make friends,Ris thought to herself. But if they get too close, they'd probably find out, and what then? How would they react? If I had them as friends and then lost them, I would go mad. She massaged her forehead as she thought; she was too tired to think this much. She finally went back to her book with the decision that what will come will come and she'd just deal with it then, or perhaps after she had gotten some rest.

The time passed quickly as the train rattled on its track at a constant speed, taking Ris away from any sense of anything familiar, beginning a new chapter in her life. Ris had advanced several pages in her book and Renée was finally getting better at Gobstones. The game didn't seem to be Renée's forte, but the girl had a very large repertoire of words at her disposal. She kept taking explanations that Shannon gave her and putting it in terms that meant the same thing, but confused Shannon into thinking that she didn't understand.

One of their consecutive games was interrupted by a pair of boys suddenly barging into their compartment The pair was identical from their flaming red hair to every last freckle on their face.

"So sorry to intrude," one of the twins stated as they sat down on the floor with their backs to the door. "We just need to borrow the space for a moment."

"Our brother just found out we changed what his badge said," the other explained. "For some reason he got really angry about it. Don't see why, though, just a little joke. Nasty temper."

"Badge?" Renée questioned, eager to find out more.

"He's head boy," the first twin said with a disgusted look on his face. "Huge disappointment."

Ris smirked. She easily picked up the boy's sarcasm - obviously the twins did not respect figureheads. The door slid open behind the twin's backs causing them to fall backwards. Another red headed male stood in the doorway looking down at the two other boys with a very stern look on his face.

"Fred! George!" he exclaimed at the two. "What are you doing in here? Are you trying to corrupt the first years?"

"Of course not," one of the twins faked innocence. "We were just going to enjoy a game of Gobstones with these two lovely innocents."

"I'm sure," the older boy responded, not believing a word that they said. "Come on, these girls don't need your company."

"Oh, fine," said one of the twins haughtily, getting up. "Destroy our fun." The twins brushed past their brother and headed towards another compartment.

"I would appreciate it if you would please ignore the actions of my brothers," the Head Boy said sincerely to the three girls, "and do not judge their siblings by their actions." He closed the door to the compartment and the three girls sat staring at the door for a moment in silence.

"Well," Renée finally spoke, "that was interesting."

"That Head Boy is a real stiff," Shannon said in some disbelief.

"Well," Ris stated, "I don't think he'd be Head Boy if he had an affinity for breaking the rules."

"I guess so," Shannon sighed. "Well, let's continue our game, shall we?"

"Right," Renée nodded in concentration, "and I will beat you this time."

"You keep telling yourself that," Shannon replied with a smile.

As the train rattled on, Ris had read the same line over and over again without comprehending it. She was nervous. She used to always be close to home and never had to worry about anything, but now her world was flipped upside down and it scared her. So many things were different, there were so many new variables and it was hard for her to think positively about them. Ris was pulled out of her recess of thought by a plump witch stopping by their compartment. Shannon excitedly bought everything she knew she enjoyed while Renée inspected everything to the fullest extent before she bought it. Ris refused to buy anything, but Shannon and Renée made her eat some of the food they bought, coming close to opening her mouth and shoving the food down her throat.

Ris was snacking on a chocolate frog when she noticed the light outside was starting to dim at a sufficient rate. Rain started to hit the window and soon they rode into a full-fledged storm. Ris glanced at her watch. She was almost sure that it shouldn't be that dark out; they still had sometime before they should reach Hogwarts. Then she noticed that the train was slowing down. That most certainly shouldn't be happening.

"Ooh," Renée gasped in excitement, "are we there?"

"I guess we must be," Shannon said, starting to stand up.

"I think it's still too early to be there yet," Ris told them.

"Then why are we stopping?" Renée asked as the train jerked to a sudden stop, and the distant thud of luggage falling off racks reached Ris's ears.

Renée peered through the window curiously. Ris also looked outside from her seat. It was extremely dark outside, making it almost impossible to see anything. Although, it did look like there was someone moving outside.

"It looks like people are boarding the train," Renée said, also seeing the movement. "Does that usually happen?"

"I'll go check," Shannon volunteered, being closest to the door. She slid open the door and stepped out into the corridor. Ris noticed that other people were also looking around curiously. They looked older so she guessed this wasn't a regular occurrence. The lights flickered, and then turned themselves off, accompanied by a cold chill in the air. Renée squeaked in surprise. Ris heard several screams from other girls along the corridor. She also heard Shannon hurry back into the compartment and scramble to find her seat. Then the smell hit her.

Rotting flesh. The smell filled her sensitive nostrils. It was nauseating. She could also sense the fear emitting from the other two girls. She could almost smell it as strong as any other scent. That made her worry even more.

"What's going on?" Renée said tentatively from somewhere in front of Ris.

"Maybe one of us should go ask the conductor what's going on..." Shannon suggested tentatively.

"No," Ris rejected the suggestion a little too swiftly, "we should stay here. It's too dark to know where you're going. Besides, who knows what got on the train."

Ris was scared. That smell, the lights going out, the sudden chill in the air; they were all too coincidental. She'd heard of them before, but had never actually seen one, and she didn't have any desire to. They would know what she was and they didn't know the difference between innocent and guilty.

The compartment door slid open. Ris could see the outline of a tall hooded figure now standing in the doorway. She felt the effects of the dementor take hold of her. The smell was overpowering now. She was starting to feel very weak and dizzy.

"Who's there?" Shannon ventured the question.

The only response was a rattling breath. The cold in the compartment seemed to increase tenfold. Voices from Ris's memory started ringing through her head.

Is Daddy all right? Ris heard her voice ask, then her mother's face floated in Ris' sight, tears falling down her flushed cheeks, Sweetheart, Daddy's gone, I'm sorry. Ris tried to hold back tears as well as hold onto her consciousness. Then her mother's voice rang through her head again, this time she looked very afraid, and angry. Get out of my house! I won't have a murderous monster live here!

Ris was feeling very weak at this point. These were very bad memories. Very bad. Reliving them herself for the past couple months was bad enough, she didn't know if she could handle being forced to relive them in such a life like way. She wasn't sure how long she could keep herself aware of everything around her. Then, suddenly, the memories vanished from her vision and ears, but Ris was still shivering and shaking, holding onto her chair so tight her knuckles were white. The dementor had left, apparently satisfied.

The lights came back to life and the chill lifted from the room. The smell was still haunting her nostrils, but at least the dementor left.

"What was that?" Renée asked in a small voice.

"A dementor," Shannon and Ris answered at once. Shannon looked back at Ris, noting that they spoke at the same time. Her face fell when she saw the other girl.

"You look awful," Shannon said to Ris worriedly.

"I'm fine," Ris muttered. She raised a shaky hand and wiped the cold sweat off her brow. "I'm fine," she repeated trying to sound a little more confident. Neither of the other two girls were satisfied by Ris's answer, but they decided that now was not the time to interrogate her. Ash licked Ris' hand and rubbed against her, trying to comfort his owner.

Renée opened her mouth to question about the dementor, but the train started moving again, startling her and paused her further questioning. The air of nervousness on the train started to lift slightly as they moved. Ris caught some laughter ringing through the corridor. She felt envy towards those laughing people. They could still laugh after being in close proximity with a dementor. Their lives were still normal. Renée opened her mouth again, planning on asking her question, but Professor Lupin appeared in their doorway before she could say anything. He seemed rushed and looked even more stressed than he did before.

"You three all right?" he asked quickly, accounting for the other girls in the car.

"I think so," Shannon answered tentatively.

"Here," the Professor took a chocolate bar out of his pocket, broke it into three pieces, and gave one to each of the girls. "It'll help. Now if you'll kindly excuse me, I must speak with the driver." He nodded to the girls and walked down the corridor.

"Who's he?" Renée asked after a moment's silence.

"Professor Lupin," Ris answered without thinking. "He's the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher."

The two looked at her questionly, wondering how she knew that. Ris noticed the looks and explained herself.

"I met him earlier," she said sheepishly before she started to nibble at the chocolate Professor Lupin had given her. Warmth quickly rushed over her as she ate the chocolate.

"Wonder what he's doing on the train," Shannon said. "I didn't think Professors took the train."

"What's a dementor?" Renée pounced on the opportunity to ask the question she had been waiting to ask.

"They guard the prison of Azkaban," Shannon answered with an air of nervousness.

"They're horrible," Renée stated, even though she had only had a short encounter with them. "They seemed to just...suck the joy right out of...everything."

"I know," Shannon nodded slowly. "I kinda feel sorry for the people in Azkaban. Having to be around those things all the time, you know? They say they make you go crazy after awhile. But I guess some people deserve it, like that Black fellow. Have you heard about him, Ris? I was told he escaped. Kinda scary, you know?"

Ris nodded in agreement. She had heard about Black, The Daily Prophet said that he killed thirteen people with one curse, including a wizard.

"Who's Black?" Renée questioned.

"A madman," Shannon answered simply. "Killed lots of people. They say he was in You-Know-Who's inner circle. Think we'll be safe at Hogwarts?"

"You-Know-Who was afraid of Dumbledore," Ris shared her view, "I doubt his lesser-powerful servant would try anything. It's safe for anyone and everyone at Hogwarts."

"I suppose," Shannon said thoughtfully. Ris looked down at her watch again and noticed that they shouldn't be that far away from Hogwarts.

"We should probably change into our robes," she suggested. "We should be arriving soon."

"Alright," Shannon nodded, standing up to get her robes.

Ris stood up to get hers as well. A small smile started playing on her lips again. She had been scared to start school here; so many worries plagued her mind. For the first time since Dumbledore had contacted her, she felt this might have been the right choice. She was going to school, she made two friends, and if she played it right, they may never need to know her secret. For the first time in a year, Ris felt truly happy.