Year One At Hogwarts - Hidden Scars

A young girl of eleven years stood on Platform 9 and 3/4 before a scarlet-colored train, smoke gently curling around it. People bustled around everywhere, children and teenagers trying to get their trunks and animals loaded on the train, parents and relatives trying to help and hurrying around to have their children get on the train in time. More people appeared out of nowhere by the brick wall and joined in the fiasco. It was 10:50 and the Hogwarts Express would be leaving the station in exactly ten minutes.

The people who were surrounding the train weren’t your average, everyday people, some others might go as far as to say that they were abnormal. These people were wizards and witches and the train was to be taking their children to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for schooling on how to be a witch or wizard. The station was placed between Platforms 9 and 10 at the regular Muggle, or non-magic person, stations. Muggles were not allowed to go on to Platform 9 and 3/4 and, in all actuality, very few Muggles knew the wizarding world existed and that’s the way it was suppose to be. They were to know nothing of the wizarding world unless they were directly involved.

Now, at that moment, the eleven year old girl stood there, all alone and no one bothering to come near her because of the look that was across her face. A cold, hard look was held in her eyes and her face was set like stone only breaking momentarily with a scowl if someone dared to come close to her. She was a fairly attractive young girl actually, with golden brown hair in loose curls that fell past her shoulders and wide, bright hazel eyes framed by thick black lashes, but that didn’t matter then because people were merely scared by the look on her face. They gave her a wide berth and only glanced at her as they passed.

This girl’s name is Theresa Raddens and she was to be starting her first year at Hogwarts. Her trolley, with all her luggage and her tawny-colored owl, Reeses, stood in front of her and now she only had five minutes to get all of her things loaded but she still made no effort to move. Her eyes wandered around the station and laid to rest on several people before flicking away to look at someone else. Even though she emitted a cold exterior, inside she was absolutely miserable. She wanted to be kind but she had been taught for so long to show no emotion and be cruel to everyone that she barely knew kindness anymore. Her eyes started to water a little but she blinked fiercely before someone would notice and the wetness vanished.

She finally sighed heavily and pushed her cart forward. She pushed it to one of the compartments towards the end of the train and quickly loaded her trunk in. She picked up the large wire cage containing her owl and stepped through the door and in to the compartment. Luckily, it was empty and she immediately sat herself on the red seat and set Reeses on the seat next to her. She crossed her arms and legs and proceeded to stare out the window as the last few people hurriedly got on to the train. Finally, the last compartment door shut and the train’s whistle blew and she could feel it starting to move away from the station.

The girl sat there for about fifteen minutes, just staring out the window as the train gained more speed and the countryside flew by. She finally got up off the seat and considered walking around more of the train to see who else was on here. Not that she really cared, she never had any real friends, she was merely curious and her curiosity often got the better of her. She started to walk out of the compartment but quickly called out to her owl, “I’ll be back Reeses, just stay put for now.” The owl hooted softly in reply and she shut the door behind her.

She walked down the aisle and looked at the different people she was passing. None really paid attention to her, they were too busy talking with their friends to notice the silent and stone faced girl. A few people raised their eyebrows at her and pointed, whispering to their friends but she said nothing and simply ignored them, used to the way people reacted to her. She just continued holding her head up in a snotty fashion, not caring in the least what they thought of her, at least that’s how it appeared to everyone on the outside.

Theresa, known more by her nickname of Teri, guessed they recognized her simply because of who her uncle was. Teri lived with her aunt and uncle. Her uncle is Scott Raddens, Assistant Minister of Magic and a retired Auror, considered to be one of the best Auror’s of that century. The height of his career was during Voldemort’s time of destruction, the most evil and dark wizard of all time. Voldemort and his supporters, called Death Eaters, had killed hundreds of Muggles, and wizards and witches who stood up to him and fought to bring him down. Voldemort had met his end when he had gone to a particular wizarding house, owned by James and Lily Potter. Voldemort killed both of them but when he tried to kill their son, Harry, the killing curse had rebounded, reducing Voldemort to almost nothing with Harry surviving with no damage except for a lightening bolt scar. Harry Potter became known all over the wizarding world as The Boy Who Lived and was awed over by everyone.

Scott had continued to work as an Auror to bring in more of Voldemort’s supporters that were still wandering around. Then four years earlier, when Teri had been eight, he abruptly retired and was offered the position of Assistant Minister of Magic which he accepted only because he wanted to remain active in the wizarding world. His wife, Michelle Raddens, a well known witch who works at the Ministry, as well, under the Department of Mysteries. They are known as Unspeakables and work with top secret items. Michelle never even discussed her work with her husband and would often leave abruptly. She had been an Auror as well though but had been injured in an attack on a large group of Death Eaters right before Voldemort had fallen, leaving her almost paralyzed. She was forced to retire and was asked to work at the Ministry.

When Teri was eight years old, Scott and Michelle took Teri in because her parents were believed to be dead. No one actually knew for sure, which was a great mystery, for it seemed to everyone that they had just simply disappeared. Teri refused to speak of her parents and would only claim them as being dead before moving on to another subject. Teri was a very secluded and secretive girl and not even her aunt and uncle knew much about her. She never spoke about the eight years that preceded her being with them and even when they questioned she would only give them a cold stare and refuse to speak. Eventually, the subject had been dropped when no answers were given.

Her uncle and aunt had tried vainly to get Teri to try and open up and to be more friendly but to no avail. Teri was very cold and could be pretty cruel sometimes. She threw insults at people for no reason and was sometimes caught working dark magic in her room. The first two years of her living with them had been the worst for Scott and Michelle. Gradually though, through their hard work and continued kindness, some of the coldness had left Teri, and she quit working dark magic. She communicated with them a little more but was still quite aloof and very secretive. Surprisingly though, unknown to everyone that knew her, Teri desperately fought the darkness in her and often cried alone in her room at night, wanting nothing more than to break free from the cold and blackness inside of her. Even though the coldness was slowly melting away from her it wasn’t totally gone and her aunt and uncle feared how people would react to her at Hogwarts.

What people didn’t know though was that Teri had several deep, dark secrets in her that were well hidden behind the many walls she had learned to build up. She never trusted anyone enough to tell them her secrets but she had a feeling she would have to let them out to at least one person soon. No one needed to know about the mark that was burned into her forearm that was a constant reminder of her past and the darkness within her. Teri sighed, remembering that fateful day when her whole world had completely changed, and not for the better. She shook her head fiercely, her brown hair flying around her face, her mind firmly set. She had already decided to tell Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, everything. Her uncle had actually convinced her. Scott knew that Teri held many things within her that needed to be known about and that she needed help with. He believed Dumbledore was the only one who could truly help Teri at the moment. After many months of persisting, Teri finally agreed and was actually starting to see the positives of mentioning her horrid past. Even though she was afraid, she needed one person to know and she had heard enough about the famous older wizard to know he could be trusted enough. He would never tell, she was sure of it. Besides, she needed his help in blocking a few things so no one else would figure anything out. She shuddered a little bit, in thinking about trusting someone finally. It was a weird feeling and she hoped she could actually do it.

Teri finally reached another compartment more toward the center of the train. She slid the door open and stepped in, shutting the door behind her. Two boys her age looked up at her in surprise. One had red hair and blue eyes and a rat was lying on his lap, sleeping soundly. The other boy looked vaguely familiar, he had unkempt midnight black hair and bright emerald green eyes with round, black glasses over them. Candy and sweets lay all of their seats. They just sat there, staring at Teri with her only looking back at them. They both immediately noticed she was pretty but with a cold and distant look in her eyes.

“Oh hello,” the red head finally said, “are you looking for someone?”

Teri raised an eyebrow before shaking her head no. “Oh well, ummm.....wanna sit with us? We have enough candy here to share between about five people.”

Teri almost laughed but held it in. “All right, if you don’t mind.” She sat down next to the red head and reached for a Chocolate Frog, ripping the package open carefully.

“I’m Ron Weasley by the way,” the red head spoke again, “and this is my pet rat Scabbers.”

Teri hesitated before saying her own name, wondering what would be said about her name. “I’m Theresa Raddens, call me Teri though.”

Ron said nothing about her name and went back to eating his Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Teri turned to look at the green-eyed boy and he looked up to see her staring at him. “What’s your name?” Teri finally said slowly.

“Umm..Harry Potter,” he replied quietly, wondering how she would react to this.

Teri managed to keep her cool but almost dropped the Chocolate Frog in her hand when she heard the name. “Harry Potter?” she thought frantically, “THE Harry Potter? Oh my God, this is really not good. If he ever found out about....anything.....oh goodness, he would hate me!”

Teri pondered on her thoughts for a second, wondering why she would care what someone would think of her, she never had before. It then occurred to her that one thing she wanted above anything else was friendship. Teri had been friendless basically her whole life and it was very depressing and lonely. She wanted friends so she could have someone to hang out with, to talk to, to confide in, and most importantly, to trust. Teri had briefly known trust but it had been stripped from her leaving her the way she was now. Teri firmly set her mind at that moment to try and change her life for the better. She refused to be what her parents had wanted her to be. It would be hard to break through the coldness that surrounded her day and night but she knew she would be able to fight it off, especially if she found friends to help her. And here, sitting in front of her were two boys who seemed willing to maybe be her friends.

Teri finally jarred herself from her thoughts and blinked. “Very nice to meet you Harry,” she stated simply.

His eyes widened, expecting a different response with a lot of staring, especially at his forehead but the girl in front of him merely went back to rummaging through more of the candy. He was very shocked by her nonchalant reaction to his name, no one had ever treated him this normal yet on first meeting and, he admitted to himself, he was very glad she was treating him this way. Harry hated the way people gawked at him and pointed whenever they saw, whispering immediately to people around them. Ron had acted awed at first too but it eventually wore off and he was acting fine towards him as well. He was just really grateful that Teri had reacted normal towards him from the beginning, like he was just Harry, not Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.

A silence fell over the compartment, all three of them unsure of what to say because they barely knew each other. Teri wanted desperately to make friends but having none before she wasn’t very good with communicating. Most people were scared of her and didn’t want to be her friend or try to get to know who she truly was and it saddened her. It made her become even more secluded and despise people even more, giving in to the darkness even more, the darkness that she hated more than anything. Teri sighed very quietly under her breath and opened her mouth to say something when suddenly Ron spoke up again.

“Would you guys like to see me try and turn Scabbers yellow? George, my older brother, gave me a spell, since he’s always so boring.”

Teri raised an eyebrow in amusement, wondering how the fat rat sitting on his knee would look being yellow, probably no more interesting actually. Harry though, quickly nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”

Ron reached over to his right and picked up his wand. It looked very old and a piece of unicorn hair was sticking out of the end of it. Teri stifled a giggle and put her hand over her mouth. Ron looked at her questioningly and she quickly pointed. “Ummm...your wand...looks a bit run down....”

“Ohh...yeah...it’s not originally mine....” he flushed a slight shade of red and looked away from Teri. Her eyes widened and she quickly shut up, the boy was obviously from a poor family. Harry watched her curiously, wondering why she had to put Ron in a bad position, it was quite rude.

Teri felt him looking at her and glanced upwards, staring right into his green eyes, an emotion of regret passing over her own eyes before quickly fading away and the emptiness returning. She looked away and fixed her gaze on the window. Harry continued to watch her, intrigued by the simple show of an emotion and knew he had to try and find the mystery lying around this girl. She was obviously holding back something.

Ron quickly recovered though and cleared his throat a little and raised the wand up. At that moment though the compartment door slid open and they all looked up in surprise.

A girl with bushy brown hair and brown eyes stood before the three of them. She held herself up very tall with an air of bossiness surrounding her. Her Hogwarts uniform and robes were already on. A slightly chubby boy stood behind her, looking quite miserable about something. She stared at them for a second before speaking.

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” she stated, indicating the boy behind her with a slight incline of her head.

Teri narrowed her eyes slightly at the girl, wondering why she had to sound so bossy and know-it-all-ish, people like that annoyed her. She continued to watch the girl apprehensively as Ron spoke up.

“He was just in here. No, we haven’t seen a toad anywhere around here.” Ron looked away from her but the girl suddenly noticed the wand he held.

“Oh, are you doing magic? Go on then, let’s see it.” She leaned herself against the compartment door frame while Neville still just stood there, still looking miserable.

Ron’s eyes widened slightly and Teri’s eyes narrowed down even more, she was getting quite upset with this girl and she had barely met her. Harry just sat there, not sure how to respond to the girl in the doorway.

“Umm...well...all right,” Ron spoke slowly. He raised his wand again, cleared his throat, and began to recite the spell.

“Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.”

Unfortunately for Ron, Scabbers remained gray and fast asleep, even while Ron kept waving his wand. The girl with the bushy hair simply raised her eyebrows while Harry smiled sympathetically at Ron and Teri surpressed a small smirk behind her hand.

“Are you sure that’s a real spell? Well, it’s not very good is it?” she stated, her head turning upwards a little. “I’ve tried a few simple spells myself but they’ve all worked for me. Nobody in my family can do magic so it was quite a surprise when I got my letter asking for me to attend Hogwarts. I was very pleased though, this is the best school of witchcraft there is. I’ve learned every course book by heart of course, I sure hope it will help. By the way, I am Hermione Granger, who are you?”

She spoke very rapidly and the three sat in a stunned silence for a couple seconds. Teri finally let a loud whoosh of breath out of her mouth and glared at Hermione, wondering how someone could sound so full of it. She crossed her arms across her chest and continued to stare at the girl in disbelief. Hermione glanced at Teri and seemed to lose a little of her poise with the look she was getting sent.

Harry and Ron, meanwhile, had been shaking their heads at each other, more shocked by the news of Hermione already knowing the course books by heart. Finally Ron decided to say who he was.

“I’m Ron Weasley,” he mumbled.

“Harry Potter.”

Hermione’s looked at Harry with much interest. “Are you really? Oh, how stupid of me to say, of course, I see your scar. I’ve read all about you. You’re in a bunch of books, like Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts. That’s just a couple but there is more. Quite interesting actually.”

“I’m in books?” Harry said quietly, a look of amazement on his face.

Hermione and Teri both looked at him at the same time in surprise. “You didn’t know?” Hermione spoke up, “Goodness, if that were me, I’d be buying every book I was in!”

Teri again turned her gaze to Hermione. “That’s conceited sounded,” she said suddenly, harshness radiating off of her words.

Hermione turned her brown eyes on Teri and a flicker of uncertainty passed through them. “And....who are you?”

Teri formed her mouth into a smirk again. “Theresa Raddens, call me Teri.”

Hermione gave Teri a brief puzzled look, as if trying to place Teri’s name. Recognition suddenly dawned on her face. “The Assistant Minister of Magic’s niece?”

Teri nodded shortly. “Yup, that’s me.”

“Oh, ok.” Hermione still had a confused look on her face and Teri slightly wondered if she suspected anything else. ‘Doubt it,’ Teri thought, ‘no one does know....anything.’

“Well, I better take Neville to look for his toad some more. You all better change into your school outfits. We’ll be arriving soon. Maybe I will see you all around...or not.” Hermione glanced briefly at Teri when she said this before turning her back on them and leaving the compartment, taking Neville with her.

As soon as the compartment door slid shut and silence had again fallen over them, Teri turned to the two boys before her. She wrinkled her nose up and let out a quick laugh under her breath before speaking. “Can you believe that girl? Who does she think she is, waltzing in her like a Miss Know-It-All? I was about ready to curse her or something!”

Harry’s jaw dropped open and he stared at Teri in absolute disbelief. Who was she to talk about someone like that when she was clearly no better? Here she was, complaining about Hermione, when she had been so extremely rude to her for no apparent reason. Sure, Hermione had been a little bit annoying but she seemed to be trying to be nice and make conversation but Teri had just glared at her the entire time and been very harsh towards her when speaking. Harry turned towards Ron who had raised his eyebrows up and his eyes wide. They both shook their heads at each other, not understanding the girl sitting in front of them.

Teri had turned away and was staring out the window once again, watching the mountains slowly inch past the train. With everything she had, she tried to fight the evil and dark feelings within her, but they wouldn’t leave, she just wasn’t strong enough. Everyday she fought it, but the hold was so incredibly fixed on her that her mind and body could just not beat it’s power. Why had she said those things to that girl and why was she so stony looking towards her? Was she just afraid....afraid of what might happen if she broke away from the darkness and found herself to be all alone? Or was she just afraid to get close to people and finally show who she truly was? ‘Maybe,’ she thought bitterly, ‘I’m just scared to think of what might happen if I do....break away.’

Teri surpressed a small shudder and continued to stare hard out the window. Suddenly, before she could stop it, a single tear left her eye, one of the eyes that always tried to refuse to show emotion, and slowly ran down her cheek, leaving a wet trail in its wake. She swiftly lifted her hand and brushed it away, hoping beyond hope, that neither of the boys saw it. She didn’t need sympathy from anyone.

But she was wrong, one of them did see her sudden lapse in her blank features. He noticed that the girl was hiding something and there was more to her than met the eye. He knew he would have to do a lot to gain her trust and break through her hardened heart, to find out exactly what made her such a mystery. He didn’t care that it might take him the whole seven years at Hogwarts either. Harry Potter was determined to know Teri’s seemingly many unknown secrets.