In The Dead of Night

In The Dead of Night

Chapter 1: Cloudless Horizon

Today I leave for Hogwarts, and nothing can go wrong. For the first time in years it seems I feel relaxed and happy. My sister will take my place on the full moon, using the potion we brewed together. I am so grateful to her: ever since I was first afflicted I have felt a great weight on my shoulders, and now some of that is gone. I know that what I´m doing is dishonest, but what choice do I have? No one in their right mind would ever be friends with me if they knew what I was, not with all the prejudices and misconceptions there are around...

"Now remember," Kerynn´s mother said as her father drove them into London, "all you have to do is walk through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. You should see the Hogwarts Express immediately-"

"It´s a great big red steam engine, can´t miss it!" Carina added, grinning back at her sister from the front passenger seat- she was on her way to her new part-time job at the Ministry of Magic, the office for Werewolf Support Services.

"Carina!" her mother snapped, and Carina´s head disappeared round the chair again. "Anyway, yes, the Hogwarts Express is divided into compartments- try to find an empty one if possible- nothing´s worse than spending the whole train journey stuck with people you don´t get on with."

"Kings Cross Station," her father announced.

"Now, you have a good time, you here me? If you have any problems, any problems at all, you owl me and I´ll sort it out for you, okay?"

"Yes Mum," Kerynn replied, replacing her diary into her trunk and climbing out of the car. "Good luck at work, sis!"

"You too, Wren. Don´t get into too much trouble while you´re there!" Carina said mock-severely, waving a finger at her.

A look of understanding passed between them- they hadn´t told their parents of their plan, but both of them knew it by heart. Carina had picked her job carefully, and she could easily get the full moon off without arousing suspicion. Kerynn had devised a way of telling her sister what had happened that month so that Carina could play the part faultlessly, and Carina had practised `being´ her sister during the holidays. The plan was perfect, foolproof, no one could ever discover Kerynn´s lycanthropy- well, unless that person was another werewolf, but what were the chances of that? Dumbledore had only become headmaster the previous year, and his predecessor had not taken kindly to what he considered `beasts´ being accepted to his school. And what were the chances of there being two werewolves of the same age, both attending Hogwarts? Slim to nothing, without question. And even if there was another werewolf, he or she wouldn´t want his or her secret to be known any more than Kerynn wanted hers to be, so there wouldn´t be a problem even then. In fact, maybe it would be a good thing if there was another werewolf at Hogwarts, maybe then someone would finally understand her, maybe then she wouldn´t feel so alone all the time, maybe then she would feel more normal...

Kerynn heaved her trunk out of the boot of the car, and put it down again quickly onto the trolley her father had fetched. Together they pushed the trolley up platform nine, past all the regular commuters, to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, where the gateway to platform 9 ¾ was concealed.

"Thanks Dad," Kerynn said, taking the trolley from him.

"Good luck at school, Kerry. Don´t let things get you down, okay? You´re to enjoy yourself, you hear? I won´t let you allow it to take over your life, Wren; you´re bigger than that. Do you understand? Promise me?"

"Yes Dad, I won´t," Kerynn replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. He was a good dad really, accepting the wizarding world the way he had. Anyone else would most likely have run a mile if they found out their partner and children all had magical powers, especially if one had been bitten by a werewolf, but not Monty, he´d just taken it in his stride.

On impulse Kerynn hugged him- she was lucky to have a parent like him, and too often she didn´t appreciate him as much as she felt she should. Her lycanthropy had caused Kerynn to grow up hard and fast, and she knew what it felt like to be treated like an outsider.

"Thanks Dad," she said again, pulling away and preparing to go through the barrier- it was only ten minutes until the train was due to leave.

"For what?" he asked, bewildered by his usually reserved daughter´s sudden display of emotion.

"For being there; and for being you. For everything."

And with that she turned way and ran at the concealed gateway she knew was there, and disappeared from sight.

"You´re welcome," Monty replied, quietly, turning away from the platforms and walking back towards the car park, where his wife and eldest daughter waited for him in the car.

* * *

Kerynn lifted her trunk from the trolley and dropped it heavily onto the floor. She carried it barely an inch off the ground, putting it down every few feet. She reached the train quite quickly, and set about pulling the trunk inside the carriage. Having succeeded with difficulty, she dragged the trunk behind her as she searched for an empty compartment. Just as she felt her arms were about to fall out of their sockets she found a compartment with only one occupant, a girl who looked about eleven with shoulder length black hair tied back in a low ponytail.

"Hello," Kerynn said awkwardly. "Can I sit here?"

"Sure!" the girl replied, grinning.

Kerynn smiled back at her gratefully, and pulled her trunk into the compartment. That was when she noticed that there wasn´t just the other girl´s trunk in the compartment with them; there were others as well. Kerynn put her trunk in front of the window end of the bench seat opposite the girl and sat down.

"I´m not intruding, am I?" she asked anxiously, indicating the other trunks.

"Oh! Of course not, they´re just my twin brother´s and some people´s. They should be back in a bit; there was some commotion down the other end of the train, something about someone´s pet imp causing havoc. Speak of the devil."

Just then a boy with the same shoulder-length black hair as the girl, also tied back in a low ponytail, came into the compartment, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey girls," he said, flopping down onto the bench-seat on the same side as the other girl. "That imp´s awesome, you should´ve seen what it did to some passing prefects! That´s what I want for my next birthday!"

The girl shook her head at him. "That´s Sirius, my brother; unfortunately he´s also a first year. I´m Tallibeth."

"A.k.a. Tally," Sirius put in.

"And you´re better known as Sissy," Tallibeth replied scathingly.

Kerynn grinned. "I´m Kerynn."

"Kerry?" Sirius asked.

"Or Wren," said Kerynn.

"Jenny!" he crowed.

Tallibeth rolled her eyes. "Ignore him, he´s just hyperactive. I can´t see why, he hates having to do any work, and as we´re on our way to SCHOOL you´d imagine he´d be a bit more, I don´t know, demure or something."

"Please, this is me you´re talking about. I may be Sirius by name, but I´m not by nature!"

Kerynn laughed out loud, but Tallibeth just groaned.

"See! See! I am funny! I am! Jenny thinks so, don´t you Jen?"

"I..." Kerynn looked between the twins, knowing that she had somehow got herself stuck between a rock and a hard place. "I´m not Jenny," she said, attempting to make use of the precise art of weaselling-out.

"Nuh-uh, I´m the King of Weaselling-Out," said Sirius. "No one gets out of answering a question that easily; you´re going to have to come up with something much better than that to throw me off the scent."

"Okay, you´re funny- "Kerynn conceded.

"Ha! See? I win, I win, I win," Sirius chanted, interrupting her.

"Weird funny, but still funny," Kerynn finished, grinning.

Tallibeth´s I´m-disappointed-in-you expression changed to one of delight, and she began laughing. Sirius´ delighted expression fell to one of comic dejection, which just made Tally laugh harder. Before long Sirius was laughing too, and that´s how the owners of the other trunks found the three of them: laughing and grinning so hard that their cheek muscles were starting to ache.

"Err... did we miss something?" a slightly plump boy with blond hair asked, smiling uncertainly, his pale blue-grey eyes conveying his amusement.

"No, no, it´s nothing," Sirius said, as they all fought to keep a straight face. They succeeded for about ten seconds, then Kerynn met Tally´s eyes and couldn´t hold back a snort of laughter, which set them all off again.

"Do you think they´re mentally okay?" a girl with hazel coloured eyes and curly dark blonde hair asked, genuinely concerned about their sanity.

"Arabella, this is Sirius we´re talking about, he´s never been mentally okay," a boy with out-of-control black hair and blue eyes reminded her.

"That´s true," the blond boy agreed.

Kerynn fought to regain her composure, and this time succeeded. "I´m Kerynn Stevens," she introduced herself.

"James Potter," the black-haired boy said, shaking her hand.

"Peter Pettigrew," the blond boy introduced himself.

"Arabella Figg."

"Lily Evans," called a voice from behind the other three, and Kerynn saw a head of dark red curls bouncing into view between the heads of James and Arabella and caught a glimpse of emerald green eyes. "Nice to meet you there!" Lily´s stopped bouncing, and disappeared from view again. "Guys, I saw another compartment just a bit further down the train, it´s going to be a bit squashed in here if we all stay, so I think I´ll go and sit there. Is it okay if I leave my trunk here?"

"I´ll come with you, Lils. You don´t mind, do you chaps?"

"Not at all," Sirius said, taking charge of the situation, as he had been the one to find the compartment first.

"Cool. I´ll race you Lils!" Kerynn saw flashes of dark red and blonde curls as the girls tore past the compartment, laughing with a carefree-ness that Kerynn envied.

The five first-years left in Sirius´ compartment spent the rest of the train journey playing exploding snap and chatting, and after the lady with the trolley came round they started playing twenty questions. The catch was that in James and Sirius´ version of the game, the person who has the questions asked to them has to give you clues at the start and you´re only allowed to make direct guesses- and if you got it wrong you had to close your eyes and pick a Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean from the packet, which resulted in James having to choke down a Brussels sprout flavoured bean ("But I hate Brussels sprouts!" "Quit your whining, Jimmy!"); Kerynn having to eat a Beetroot flavour one; and Tallibeth pelting Sirius with the remainder after he announced that the `small, fluffy, and dangerous´ thing he had been talking about was his sister ("It was the perfect thing, though, `cos even if someone had guessed it they wouldn´t have dared say it out loud!" "Why you little-!").

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid was standing on the Platform at Hogsmeade Station, waiting for the train to arrive. He glanced at his watch. Right on time the train pulled into the Platform, screeching to a halt. The doors opened, and students began piling out.

"Firs´-years! Over here firs´-years! Follow me now, that all of yer? Right, c´mon firs´-years, this way!"

Hagrid led the first years along a path, down to where the fleet of boats was waiting for them on the shore of the lake, ready to ferry them across.

* * *

The first years all climbed into the boats; Kerynn found herself in a boat with Lily, Arabella and Tallibeth, while Sirius, James and Peter were in a boat with a boy with dusty brown hair. Their boats were too far away to tell, but Kerynn had a strange feeling about the other boy, almost as if she`d seen him before.

Maybe you met him in Diagon Alley, or saw him on the platform,

she reasoned with herself, and thought no more of it. That had to be the reason; either that or she was just imagining things. There simply wasn´t any other possibility.

Amazingly, by some miracle or other, everyone reached the harbour on the other side of the lake in one piece, and without falling into the lake; despite Hagrid making the mistake of yelling "Duck!" when they came to the ivy curtain, which caused both James and Sirius to stand up in the boat and call back "Where? Ahhh!" and throw themselves to the floor of the vessel just in time to avoid whacking their heads on the rock.

"You guys are stupid!" Tallibeth berated them when they´d climbed out of their boats. "Really, really stupid! If you had hit your heads maybe it would´ve knocked a bit of sense into you!" The two black-haired boys sniggered in response.

"So you´re saying we shouldn´t have ducked?" Sirius asked, innocently.

"That´s exactly what I´m saying!" Tallibeth agreed, hitting her brother round the back of the head.

"C´mon you eight, keep up!" Hagrid called, and the group scuttled up to the rest of their year.

They all followed the path up to the castle, and climbed the stone steps to the door. Hagrid knocked three times, and Professor McGonagall, her long black hair tied up in a bun and square glasses framing her eyes, opened the door. Seeing who it was McGonagall nodded and welcomed the first years inside.

"You may leave them here, Hagrid. Welcome to Hogwarts, first-years. This castle will be your home whilst you´re at school here, and your House will be like your family. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, all of which have produced some out-standing wizards and witches. Now if you´d please wait here, I will return when we are ready for you in the Great Hall."

A murmur went round the room, and pretty soon everyone was talking.

"Hey Lily, Arabella; any idea what the Sorting Ceremony´s supposed to involve?" Tallibeth asked them.

Lily shook her head. "I´m Muggle-born, the first witch in my family, "she explained.

"I heard something about a pop-quiz on the set books," Arabella volunteered her information.

"I thought it was something to do with singing," Peter said doubtfully, "that´s what I thought I heard one of the prefects say as we got off the train."

"That´s not as silly an idea as it sounds, actually," James said. "They could sort you by what sort song you sing. If you sing a song about being evil you´re a Slytherin, if you sing a song about being simple you´re a Hufflepuff, if you sing a song about being a boffin you´re a Ravenclaw, and if you sing a song about being brave you´re a Gryffindor!"

This earned James a few dirty looks, but before he could say anything else Sirius suddenly broke into song.

"`Sing a song of Hogwarts, the start-of-year feast;

"`First-years must be sorted, before the rest can eat;

"`When they all have finished, it´s to their dorms they go;

"`Then they come back down again and run around in snow!´" Sirius sang to the tune of `Sing A Song Of Sixpence´, dancing up and down on the spot in a strange sort of jig.

Everyone applauded, and Sirius took a bow.

"Encore!" Arabella called, and the cry was echoed by others around the room.

"Encore?" Sirius asked. "Alright then!

"`Sing a song of teachers-´"

"Very good, Mr. Black," came McGonagall´s voice from behind him, interrupting him before he could sing anything further, "but I believe they are ready for us now. You´ll have to give your encore another time."

Sirius turned around guiltily and smiled sheepishly at her. "Sorry ma´am."

* * *

The first years followed Professor McGonagall through the double doors into the Great Hall, and waited in line in front of a stool with a hat on it.

"When I call your name I´d like you to come forward, sit on the stool, and try on the Sorting Hat. Please do not do what students have done in the past, and sit on the hat."

At this the Hall burst into laughter, and enough people turned to look at the Gryffindor table that it was obvious to pick out who the culprit was. A girl with wavy chestnut coloured hair had turned as red as a ripe tomato from embarrassment.

"You told me to sit on the stool, so I did! I just forgot to pick the hat up first!" she objected above the gales of laughter that echoed around her.

Sirius laughed, and turned to the others. "That´s my sister Anna, I should have known she´d do that!"

Prof. McGonagall cleared her throat and unrolled the parchment in her hands. "Black, Sirius!"

The hat let out something that sounded oddly like a pointed cough.

"Oh yes, of course. Wait a moment, Mr. Black."

The hat just sat on the stool, completely unresponsive to the silence that followed. If the hat had been human, people may´ve been forgiven for thinking it was sulking.

"Ummm..." Prof. McGonagall looked uncertainly at Dumbledore, who merely shrugged and shook his head, a slight smile on his face. "Well, okay then... Black, Sirius!"

Sirius walked over to the stool, picked up the hat, sat down, and put it on his head.

"

GRYFFINDOR!"

Everyone cheered, and Sirius, leaving the hat behind him on the stool, ran over to join the Gryffindor table next to Anna.

"Black, Tallibeth!"

"

GRYFFINDOR!"

"Evans, Lily!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Figg, Arabella!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Potter, James!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Stevens, Kerynn!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And so the sorting continued, until all the first years were sat quietly at their respective House tables. At the Gryffindor table, however, all was not peaceful.

"Food!" James exclaimed ecstatically, reaching for the plate of chicken nuggets and replacing it with his own.

"Hey! Other people want chicken too!" Tallibeth protested, knocking James´ hand away from what now appeared to be his own plate and grabbing a handful of chicken nuggets to put on her own plate.

This appeared to be too much for Sirius, who already seemed as if he was going to burst with source-less excitement.

"FOOD FIGHT!!!!!!" he shouted joyously, flinging some spinach at James- unfortunately it missed and hit Remus in the face.

Sirius fell silent, waiting for the boy´s reaction, unsure how the unknown party would receive this. At first Remus didn´t react at all; then, very calmly, he picked the spinach off his face and put it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. The other boys looked as though Remus had just put live maggots into his mouth.

"Yummy!" Remus announced his verdict, grinning manically, licking his lips with relish. Then, at the precise moment that Sirius´ jaw had dropped, Remus impulsively aimed a spoonful of mashed potatoes in the direction of his mouth:

"BULLSEYE!!!" James and Peter cried as the mashed potato landed inside Sirius´ mouth.

In shock Sirius swallowed, not realising the consequences of his actions, and Remus looked round at everyone nervously, not sure if he`d done the right thing.

James, Peter, Tallibeth and Kerynn gasped in genuine horror. Sirius looked at them blankly.

"What?" he asked.

"You... you just ate... vegetables!" Tallibeth managed to say, still in shock. "Remus, right?"

Remus nodded, uncertain of how his response would be received.

"That was brilliant!!!!!" Tally exclaimed, pulling Remus into a bear hug, bouncing up and down in her seat. "I´ve never seen anything like it! Sirius eating vegetables! Pure GENIUS!!!!"

"Yeah, that was wicked!" James agreed with a grin, offering his hand to Remus, who shook it obligingly, returning the grin.

"Awesome!" said Peter admiringly, also shaking Remus´ hand.

Sirius looked around forlornly for support.

"Aw, poor Siri!!!" Arabella cried sympathetically, throwing her arms around him.

"Sorry Sirius," Remus apologised sheepishly, offering him his hand.

"Sorry? Sorry? For that?" Sirius asked as though Remus had gone insane. "That was excellent!" he exclaimed, pumping Remus´ hand enthusiastically. "Now where was I...?"

"About to eat more vegetables," said Lily in a business like way, brandishing a large forkful of cauliflower.

Sirius cowered in his seat, eyeing the offending item of food as though it would poison him. "Please... not cauliflower... anything but cauliflower," he begged, and received a forkful in the face from Peter.

Sirius shot back well-aimed squirts of mustard and ketchup, which hit not only Peter, but also Tally and Kerynn. The two girls, who had previously been laughing at the antics of the boys, suddenly lost heir amused expressions. Anger flashed in Tally´s eyes, and Kerynn´s face set into a look of disappointed pity for the boy on the receiving end of the glare.

"This," Tally declared, "means war!"

The food in front of them had changed to deserts, and Tally grabbed the nearest can of squirty cream and proceeded to spray it all over Sirius, then Kerynn.

"Hey, what´d I do?" Kerynn protested indignantly.

Tally shrugged. "Food fight," she explained. "There´s no logic in it anywhere."

"Thought not," replied Kerynn, proceeding to empty a small pot of custard onto Arabella and Lily´s heads.

"My hair!" Lily screeched, feeling the gloop that now covered her curls with an expression of amused outrage while Arabella delightedly poured jam sauce onto Peter and Remus. "Ooh, I´ll get you back for that one!" Lily threatened good-humouredly.

The nearest thing to hand was a custard tart, which Lily promptly threw it Kerynn, who ducked, causing the jam tart to hit the ground just in front of Professor McGonagall as she was walking past their table. The whole hall descended into silence as Professor McGonagall stared imperiously at the offending students. Slowly she bent down, picked up the tart, and walked over to where the eight new Gryffindor first-years sat. She replaced the tart on the table and looked around at the group, who were all attempting to hide smiles, some more successfully than others.

"Detention for all of you; kitchens tomorrow night for the boys at 7:30, the girls meet Filch and Hagrid in the Entrance Hall at the same time. Boys congregate in the library, someone will meet you there to take you to the kitchens. I bid you goodnight."

"G´night, ma´am," James, Sirius and Tallibeth replied simultaneously in an innocent, sing-song-y voice. McGonagall stared at them suspiciously, but did nothing else.

"One!" Sirius and James grinned at each other while Tallibeth and Peter looked at each other and rolled their eyes- it seemed that the Great Detention Race had already begun.