Blackened Essence

~ Chapter 1: Memoirs of a Nobody ~

Sky's heart pounded steadily against her chest as she took her first steps onto the Hogwarts Express. The steam billowing out of the train made her eyes water slightly so she hurried to get out of the congestion. Each compartment was alive with chattering students, talking about their wonderful summer holidays and giggling carelessly to one another about snogging their boyfriends in the moonlight, or something else of equal insignificance to Sky. Each happy thought that danced into her ears almost made her retch as she fumbled with her trunk to find a seat. As much as she may have wished, there were no happy memories gleefully spilling out of her lips, no boyfriend to brag about, nor anything of sheer importance, for that matter. It was hard enough having to go to Hogwarts... she didn't need anything else to make matters worse.

Sighing, she whisked her way into the nearest empty compartment and threw herself into the chair, preparing for yet another couple hours of loneliness. It was rather loud now and she just wished she could become invisible and float away. At that moment, she sat up straight, smirking hopefully as it hit her. Well there was one way, she thought to herself but no. She slouched down, resigning in her seat. She couldn't... she had been forbidden to ever since...

* * *

Harry Potter grinned wildly as he sat back ecstatically in front of his two best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. It was great to see them again and after another, long summer with the Dursleys; he was more than ready to come back to his real home, Hogwarts, for his sixth year. The train's final whistle blew and his stomach leaped fervently as the Hogwarts Express left Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King's Cross station.

"You know what Harry?" Hermione smiled sneakily as she lowered her head and spoke in a hushed tone, "I bet that if the Order lets us, we could take driving lessens!" She seemed a lot more eager than Ron who looked absolutely appalled at the thought.

Harry rolled his eyes while the two launched themselves into another row so he got up anxiously and walked around. Everywhere he turned, people were calling his name and waving, throwing him sympathetic smiles whenever he would look... as if they knew. Going back to Grimmauld Place only reminded him about how he would never see Sirius again and it didn't help that every single night he'd go over that very moment in the Department of Mysteries in his head and just like always, he'd wake up to his scar's aggravating twinge. The part of the summer with the Order had been even more uneventful than the part with the Dursleys. It was obvious that everyone - especially Mrs. Weasley - was trying to prevent him from hearing anything about Voldemort and this time, without the help of Sirius, she was able to do as she pleased. Every time he thought of his godfather, his head pounded mournfully and he groaned as he took refuge in an empty seat at the back of the train. As hard as they tried... no one could understand how he felt. Not even the great Albus Dumbledore... no one.

* * *

Sky opened up her notebook out of pure boredom and started scribbling down words. It was what she did best: composing. Back home in Yorkshire, she had worked at her mom's muggle restaurant and barely got paid. Not that she cared about Muggle money... it wouldn't do much in the the wizarding world. No, it was more like she had to, living in an orphanage and all. When she was eleven and dropped off at Deirdre's School and Upkeep for Young Witches, the owner had insisted upon her being called "mum". Sky shuddered at the picture of a young, pregnant witch that would be etched in her mind forever. She had been awfully shaken upon her first arrival, and to this day, she still couldn't remember anything that had happened before then. Every time she'd ask, mum would just shake her mane of golden curls and tell her to stop talking about such rubbish and to get on with her homework. So that's how its been, for five years she worked and studied where she had been abandoned and learned to acknowledge the school and orphanage as her home. It wasn't that she hated mum, she wasn't cruel, it was just that she sometimes felt rejected and deprived of the attention that a developing young lady would need. Nevertheless, she was grateful, grateful to have clothes on her back, a roof over her head and to have become such an independent woman. She reached farther into the small amount of memories that she cherished and remembered that night when the visitor had come to call.

It was the end of the summer and Sky had just turned sixteen when all of the girls in the home heard the familiar, loud, popping sound of someone appearing using Floo Powder. Normally, it was just a Ministry Attendant, doing a monthly inspection but by the urgency in mum's voice, she could tell that it was anything but.

"OK ladies, upstairs for tea a wee bit early today, but it won't hurt! No run along!" she urged breathlessly. Her shrill, crisp voice was higher than usual as she practically shoved them all out of the living room. Her huge belly made it almost impossible for her to move to the fire and the sight must have been quite entertaining to the visitor for he laughed throatily,

"Not as swift as we use to be, eh D?" Sky was the last one out of the room but the man's voice made her stop dead in her tracks. Curiosity taking the best of her, she hurried to hide behind the swinging door. Something about that voice knocked her brain, like a piece of a puzzle being slid into place. Pushing open the door slightly, her eyes darted to the fireplace where she saw not the full torso of a man-but just the head of one! The emerald flames licked around his tired looking face and they danced around his graying hair without scathing it. His face was like an unfriendly reminder of what a piece of junk her memory was.

"Now Remus, you know I'd join you lot in a millisecond but I'm afraid you're right about the little one slowing me down." She patted her stomach affectionately and winked at him with excitement twinkling in her eye. Even his name sent Sky strolling down the vague path of memory lane which only irritated her more.

"Besides," mum continued, "you need me down here now, don't you?" She was about to chuckle when she saw how grave Remus' face had become and she too turned serious. "Ah now... I haven't heard from any of you in five years. I knew eventually something would be up," she sat down in a chair close to the fire and glared intently at his face. At that moment, something irked Sky and made her eager to listen to more of the conversation.

"Times have changed, I fear," Remus began regretfully. "Ever since Voldemort's and Harry's bout last year at the Ministry and the capture of the Death Eaters, we've been even more on guard of him now... considering-"

"Oh, how is the poor boy?" Mum sighed sadly.

"As best as he could be given the predicament," Remus sniffed dismally. "We brought him to his friends at Grimmauld Place as quickly as possible but ever since then, things have been pretty dull...anyway, as I was saying, after everything that's happened, Dumbledore believes that she," he said this with a strong emphasis, "would be best off under our Guard as well. He thinks that with Black gone, she'll be in even more danger than before." Mum was sitting back and breathing deeply, lost in her own thoughts.

"I suppose you want her in Hogwarts with the rest of them, then? I don't think that was what Black would have wan-"

"She is almost of age, Deirdre," Remus reasoned, his eyebrows rising, "She's a young lady with a mind of her own and although I'm sure she got a wonderful education from you, wouldn't you rather her go to a real school? It's only a matter of time before she pieces it all together! There's less risk at Hogwarts, believe me..." Mum nodded at all of this and stood up silently,

"You're right then... it is time. But the least we can do is not alert Harry about anything at all right?" Remus nodded in agreement and his head disappeared from the fire and just then, Sky had flung out of her trance. She clung to every word of that meeting as it replayed itself in her mind. She had heard all about the famous Harry Potter and all of his narrow escapes... but why did that bug her? Slowly she walked up the stone steps, staring absent mindedly in front of her. The whole encounter seemed familiar to her, but it only prodded her mind annoyingly. She reached the door to one of the house's bedrooms and just then, she heard the snippy gossip from two other girls who had apparently been listening too.

"I heard she got totally warped by You-Know-You and her own mom!" Sky could hear the bed creaking inside as they moved.

"No stupid, they put a sort of Moment Block charm on her so she couldn't remember a particular event...you know, a scarred-for-life-moment?" another voice said matter-of-factly.

"None of it's true..." one whispered intensely. Sky was just going to keep walking by until she heard the other girl giggle viciously,

"I always knew there was something spacey about Sky..."

* * *

Harry woke with a start as he noticed he was sliding off his seat. Having not gotten much sleep at the Dursley's, it was a nice break for him. He glanced around the empty compartment, wondering how long he'd been gone for when he noticed a forlorn looking girl in the next aisle. She sat alone with her head bent over a book in which she was scribbling furiously. She looked about in Harry's year but she must be new for he has never seen her around before. Just then, as if hearing his questioning thoughts, the girl looked up and stared directly at Harry. Her jet-black mane was caressing her neck in a sort of wavy manner Harry had only seen on one other person. Her mesmerizing blue eyes were staring keenly at him and as he glared back, Harry thought that her sudden pout gave her a sad and distant expression. A face that he had believed that only he could master. He waited for the usual up glance at his scar but it was not to come for she had shut her book, opened another and had turned to face her sleeping black owl beside her in its cage. Harry had a fleeting upsurge of a strange feeling when he saw her but none of them seemed to connect. He suddenly had so many questions to ask but couldn't bring himself to do it. Luckily a familiar red-headed girl popped her smiling face into their corridor, flashing an extremely shiny PREFECT badge in his direction.

Sky flipped hurriedly through her book that mum- or should say- Deirdre- had given her on who to trust and who not to. A silly idea really, she thought to herself, but what else is there to do? She sniffed as she thought to herself, I just saw Harry Potter! My complete opposite: he has far too many memories, and I have way too little. Suddenly, a flow of cascading red-hair and freckles came at her as a girl in the Hogwarts robes stood grinning broadly through the door.

"Hi!" she said brightly as she took a seat next to her. "I'm Ginny Weasley, Gryffindor Prefect this year! I was checking the student list and I just noticed that you weren't on here..." slowly she glanced over her clipboard and then looked up expectantly.

"Oh," Sky heard herself say dazedly, completely aware that Harry was listening. "My name's Siar-Kyla Monroe," and by the usual black expression of never hearing the name before, she quickly spelt it out for her and added hastily, "-But everyone calls me Sky." Ginny finished writing her sentence with an enthusiastic tap of her quill.

"Welcome to Hogwarts Sky! By the looks of it, you'd be 'bout in your sixth year, right? Well I'm in my fifth year... so what brings you here?" she commented excitedly, glancing around her as Harry walked grudgingly down the aisle with another red-head and a girl with amazingly bushy, brown hair. Sky breathed deeply at the thought of someone actually being happy to talk to her and answered,

"I've been taking my lessons where I use to live in Yorkshire by a retired Hogwarts teacher," she began, "We were never allowed to leave, because...well-" she struggled for words, unsure as to what Ginny would think of her if she knew she was from an orphanage. Oddly enough, she didn't have to answer because the crystal clear whistle of the Hogwarts Express was sounding through the night air, signaling their arrival at Hogsmeade Station. Ginny's head snapped up urgently and she stood,

"So sorry Sky, have to go do my PREFECT duty you know, I'll see you later!" With a brief wave she was lost in the sound of students either shaking with anticipation or fear.

Light rain was spinning dizzily on the ground outside of the train as if unsure of where to venture off to. In a way she felt like the rain - confused - and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't drain her mind to ground herself. As the floor beneath her lurched to a shuttering halt, Sky grabbed her belongings and wheeled her trunk down the aisles, out the beckoning doors and into the dampened night air. She drifted forward without a clue of where to go. As she stared up at the welcoming peaks of Hogwarts castle, she felt enticed and suddenly more mature. She through her head back and closed her eyes and let the rain embrace her skin and fall into her hair. This is where I start my journey, she told herself confidently, to find a different part of me. With a last look back at the life she had to leave behind for the year, Sky Monroe opened her eyes and smiled for the first time in five years and walked onward, feeling slightly rejuvenated. As if on cue, the blackened sky overhead of the castle suddenly burst into an uproar of writhing flames.