The trio slowly settled into a comfortable silence alongside us as we stared out the window to our right. London was beginning to slip past as the train picked up speed, the faces of mothers and fathers fading into the distance behind us. A soft coolness enveloped the inside of the room whilst Autumn's stirring winds rattled the windows as we picked up speed.
"U-um... So... You have another person inside the same body...? H-how does that feel?" Neville nervously shifted in his seat as I turned towards him, his hazelnut coloured eyes flicking between his lap and us.
Harry and Hermione seemed intrigued by the answer, their bodies leaning forwards just a touch more attentively as Neville waited for me to respond.
~I'm going to take a nap~
'You son of a bit-'
~Now, now, what would mother think of your language?~
'That her son is a massive asshole.' I deadpanned as he laughed, his image fading away within our mind's eye... The little twit was torturing me on purpose!
I sighed before answering, mine and my brother's argument all passing within a singular second.
"It is, a blessing, and a curse... We don't usually differentiate who's body this is and therefor usually use 'we', 'our', 'ours' and 'us' when referring to any countless number of things or referring to objects that are in our possession." I paused a watched them all attempting to process the information, grimacing as I realised there were better ways to explain it to them, simpler ways.
"Look. Let's put it this way... Imagine that you have a brother." They all nodded along. "And that brother was somehow merged with you in every way imaginable." All of them paused and slowly confirmed that they could grasp what that means; though I doubted it. "I have his thoughts in my head constantly, when he is awake. We share our knowledge and emotions with one another because there is no separation in actuality. Our magic is simply that, united, 'ours', for all intents and purposes."
Hermione broke into my explanation abruptly. "Wait! Does that mean you can even feel his dirty thoughts!?" After a few seconds she had the decency to blush.
I nodded our head.
"Yes Hermione. If you'd had of let me finish you would have also known that our souls are merged in this same way... Meaning that we have a 'taste', so to speak, for a certain gender or type of person."
"Wait, that means that when you are dating someone they are dating both of you?" Harry broke into the conversation this time, Hermione nodding along with his question emphatically.
"Yes. Essentially we are a two for one package."
"Holy! That is so..." I nearly grimaced as I waited for him to call it weird or disgusting.
"So cool!" I blinked rather slowly and eased back into my seat as if it were close to swallowing me whole.
He continued rambling about how awesome it would be to have someone with you at all times, able to comfort you and look after you when you forgot to look after yourself. I was too shocked to pay too much attention, the mere fact that he was so accepting of our condition a stunningly new dilemma... Internally I was dreading the fact that my brother forced a shift in front of people, but now, well, I was just gobsmacked that it had turned out so well...
Hermione piped in with a few comments on his ramblings whilst Neville listened along with a small smile attached to his face. The conversation started morphing into what we knew about magic and what spells we could do... Hermione quickly taking over the conversation with a precocious attitude that had almost been non-existent beforehand.
"Well, I read all of the course material before I came. It's all so interesting you know? Magic can do anything!" Harry was nodding along as Neville soon joined in on her thread.
"I-i saw my gran turn a table into a pig once..." Hermione's eyes gained a shiny quality to them, excitement bubbling forth to the surface of her expressions.
"Ohh, I wish I could have seen that! I've only been able to achieve the Oculus Repairo spell so far... Mainly because daddy broke his on the way onto the platform."
Harry perked up at the mention of the spell, his wand in his hands as he began waving it back and forth in a small semi-circle pattern.
"Avifors" He intoned, turning Lun's book into a shoddy looking bird that had half of its right wing broken and a beak that looked more akin to a pool noodle. It stumbled around for a few moments much to the delight of Hermione and Neville before he lost concentration or intentionally stopped it, the 'bird' becoming our book once again and slumping pages down onto the seat next to us.
"That, was so cool! Where did you read that spell!?" Hermione began grilling the eleven year old saviour, her hunger for knowledge rivalling Lun's own passions for the same topic.
She soon showed off her skills by repairing Harry's damaged glasses, the tape that bound it all together sliding off as the frames and glass quickly and effectively pieced themselves back into their original form. Magic was indeed awesome when it came to inconveniences.
Neville attempted a spell, his wand waving in the air in a controlled if nervous manner. He furrowed his brows as he concentrated, sweat slowly beginning to trickle from his pours in larger amounts. His magic failed however, his intended Lumos spell coming out closer to a vagrant spark from metal hitting flint.
He slouched forwards and held his head in his hands. We had seen this many times with people who hadn't gotten their correct wands... Dad always had us sitting around when he was offering the youth of his cause wands.
"Neville, that is the wrong wand for you." He tensed up and dragged his head upwards to meet my gaze, his fists tightening upon his wand and leg respectively.
"Y-you don't know that!" I narrowed my eyes whilst Harry and Hermione shifted slightly away from the enraged boy.
"I do. That wand isn't meant for you. You need one that can channel your magic, that one won't."
He paled slightly and looked down to his wand before looking, once more, at me.
"But, I can't get a new one now... And Gran would kill me if I got a new one."
I blinked our eyes once or twice. "Ask one of the teachers about getting a proper wand. They will intercede on your behalf, most likely. And if they don't then I will figure out a way to get you to Ollivanders." He looked to be in thought before my last statement, his expression lighting up in hope and expectation.
"Y-you'd do that for me?"
We chuckled slightly.
"Of course, we all deserve a proper wand. Imagine what would happen if you didn't... You could be considered a near-squib and that wouldn't do for any noble house, let alone yours." He quickly paled and nodded emphatically, his desperation leaking out of him silently.
The conversation stagnated for a time in the lull of our chat. Some harmless small talk was shared here and there but for a quarter of our trip to Hogwarts we remained silent, reading or taking naps. I even managed to fall asleep alongside my brother for a time before we were awoken by the cart-lady.
Harry bought some of everything whilst Hermione looked on at the confectionaries as if they were delicacies from the gods. All three of them were odd in their own way but that was their charm as well. The silence melted away under the sugared sweets as we all began comparing different flavours and types, Harry receiving a Nicolas Flamel card from one brand of chocolates; Neville having to explain the collectability of the cards to Hermione and Harry. All together the friendly atmosphere was enjoyable.
Just as we were settling down after scarfing sweets another knock came to the compartment's door. Harry was closest to the door, Hermione sitting in-between him and Neville on the opposite seat to us, and thus he opened the door. A beautiful girl stood there with her silver-platinum hair done in tight plaids that began halfway down her shoulder-high locks. We all observed her as she scanned us, her lavender eyes sweeping over our features before stopping on our body, a frown slowly creeping down onto her face before she curtsied.
"Greetings." She finished her curtsy before straightening out her posture. "I apologise for any interruptions to your socialisations... I was searching for one Harry Potter and also a Solaris Emyrs?" Harry plonked down onto his seat and barely hid a grimace from the girl.
Licking inside of my lips briefly I stood and curtsied back, following pureblood etiquette to a fault. "And who, may I inquire, is asking for this information?" The girl had the sense to feel a touch embarrassed at my question, said emotion showing in the way her feet ground into the corridor carpets.
"Ah, Dracoria Malfoy, heiress of the Most Noble House of Malfoy." A couldn't stop the grin that broke out on my face due to my apparent luck on this trip. All of my plans to associate with these heirs and heiresses going down the wash closet in an enjoyable way.
"Pleasure to meet you Lady Dracoria. As for the answer to your inquiry, I am Solaris Emyrs-Grindelwald-LeFay-Nightingale... Or any mix of those family names; whichever you find most impressive." I winked at her and waggled my eyebrows slightly, a giggle quickly filling the chamber after my comments.
Harry took the cue after Dracoria settled down, standing once more and bowing before kissing her hand. He introduced himself as if he was the depiction of pureblood etiquette, an interesting juxtaposition given his lack of common magical knowledge.
"Wonderful!" She slapped her hands together in excitement before stepping into the compartment, her trunk being dragged softly by a large eyed and floppy eared House Elf that quickly hovered her belongings up onto a rack and popped out once more. "I was hoping to meet some important people whilst sitting on this dreary train ride... Guess I am lucky today!"
She scotched herself back into the seat beside us, her school robes already snuggly comforting her form as she looked at Neville. Naturally Neville followed in Harry's footsteps and greeted her, all of us settling down once more.
"Any idea what houses you'll all be in?" Hermione piped up in excitement, much to Dracoria's happiness; it seemed.
"I read Hogwarts a History before I came and it said that Ravenclaw was the one with the most knowledge and books... So that one i guess... Or Gryffindor; considering Dumbledore was once a member of that house."
~Pffft, as if that is a positive thing~
'You're awake again.'
~Good job stating the obvious sis~
I sighed softly before refocussing on the conversation, Neville confirming that he'd be fine with whatever house he was placed in. Harry was utterly silent, his eyes glued to the floor by his feet. He was a mystery for sure. Everyone, seeing the saviour not answer just yet, looked to me for my answer... Hermione and Dracoria with similar puppy-dog eyes as they waited.
'What do you think brother?'
~Well, I would definitely be a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor if it were just me... You, well, you would be a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff with how fierce you are against any who would harm us... Honestly, we have more Ravenclaw or Slytherin in us than anything else. If we were to judge the house system off of what a two-hundred year old book tells us.~
'I'll just say Slytherin since we're especially cunning when it comes to our specific topics.'
~Probably for the best~
I coughed into the silence.
"Probably Slytherin considering me and my brother's attitudes, likes and dislikes... We could enter any house and do well, don't get me wrong, but Slytherin is just where we'd be capable of doing the best we could."
~That was a bit heavy handed...~
'Shhh, some of them needed a bit of a push. And if we can consolidate our friend group and powerbase within a single house it'll make expanding it in the future all that much easier.'
He shrugged before receding back into our memories, his current obsession being the spell knowledge he had gathered on souls and such.
Dracoria was beaming brightly at my answer, her hands tapping her thighs as if they were piano keys whilst she rocked her head side to side. She answered much the same as I did whilst showing off her wand to the group; its handle carved to look like a coiled serpent of dark green as it tapered off into a fine point that looked not too dissimilar to the ending of a snake's tail. This led to everyone showing their wands off whilst trying out even more magic.
Harry's was a long wand of a mixed white and black, the two colours helixing around once another before meeting at the tip to create a muddy grey hue. I didn't know anything about wand lore except for the tiny bit we got from Ollivanders so we couldn't figure out what it was made of... It was 13 inches... But other than that all we knew was that it looked cool. He didn't join in on the casting much and thus we couldn't get a feel for its rigidity.
We skipped Neville as his wand was his father's and not his own.
Hermione's wand was oddly unique, being a bone-white with small engraved runes speckling each intercardinal direction of her wand until they faded about midway up. It was roughly 12 inches and a half, with an apparently whippy nature; seeing as how we could notice how her wand wobbled slightly with every spell she cast.
"So, when do you think we'll get to Hogwarts?"
...
Several hours later we stepped out of the Hogwarts Express, the train having ground to a halt in a very rural station with a veritable forest right on the borders of it. Hundreds of students were walking all over, the older students gathering towards several carriages whilst a huge man shouted out towards us.
"First years, gather r'und here! First years!" He couldn't be anything other than a giant due to his size, the man's peculiar clothing only confirming that fact for us.
Dracoria was waylaid on our track to the large man, her older brother; by the looks of him, holding her by the arm and snarling towards her in anger. He looked like the type of bad men father used to capture and make an example of when he found out they were doing something bad. His snarling expression was vicious and judging from the flinches of Dracoria, she didn't like her brother all that much.
"Give me a moment." We slipped away from the others towards Dracoria.
Her brother's voice quickly made our attention as we got closer...
"You're hanging around with mud bloods and blood traitors now!?" His hands clamped tightly down onto her right arm, a wince and tears burgeoning forth as she tried to apologise in desperation.
"I-i'm sorry bro-brother..."
"Sorry!? Sorry isn't enough bitch! You will leave that group of undesirables this bloody moment!" His other hand reached out and grabbed her hair, resulting in a small scream of pain that was ignored by most pedestrians. "You hear me...!?"
~Let me out. I'll deal with die Stinkfotze~
'Are you sure? I could deal with him...'
~Lass mich jetzt raus! Ich werde mich um ihn kümmern!~
'Fine. Have fun.'
Lun grunted as he took over, his temper leaking into his diction and language skills. He only used German when he was pissed beyond the norm.
...
(Lunaris's Perspective)
This fucker was abusing his own family! He was scum beyond the worst. Hurting strangers or criminals was understandable to a certain extent, based upon the circumstances, but this was utterly disgusting.
I'd gotten so pissed watching him treating our new friend in this manner, in public no less, that I'd used German for the first time since I'd gotten grounded for something Solaris did. Being multi-lingual was one of my most boasted skills and me and my sister always loved showing off our skills... German was our first language and therefor our less, showy, language. It was our default in sticky situations though, always springing forth when we were serious about what we were talking about.
"DID YOU HEAR ME!?" Dracoria whimpered and started bawling her eyes out, trying to nod but failing due to his vice-like grip on her scalp. Her brother was becoming even more of a Scheißkopf as he leaned into her face.
I'd, had, enough.
"Flippendo, Impedimenta, Incarcerous!"
Our wand whipped into our hand with the speed of a bullet. Three spells launched from the tip like miniature rockets and soared through the air. The first hit the little Stinkfotze right in the hand that was grasping her scalp, shunting his hand backwards and him along with it. The pale silver spell then froze his movements in mid-air, his legs locking as if he were plunged into a freezing bath of ice-cold water. The last spell burnt out mid-flight and transformed from magical energy into tangible ropes that quickly spun around him and tied itself in knots.
Within a matter of seconds he was flung into the nearby train attendant's office, shattering several of his bones, then flexed into paralysation and then tied up like some prisoner of war... Our wand still glowing with the remnants of the spells' magic.
"No one abuses their own family before me and gets to go home without repercussions!"
The boy was too tied up and bound to answer me, his eyes glimmering with fear whilst his pants sagged under the weight of his own urine.
"Dracoria, what is the name of your older brother?" We turned to the girl we had only just met, someone we could strangely consider a friend despite our limited time knowing one another.
"D-Draco..." We sneered at the fact that her parents dared to even give her a part of this ponce's name; I made sure we were faced away from her when we did.
"Good. Draco Malfoy, Psion of house Malfoy, I demand; as your liege lord, for your immediate expulsion from your family and its magics. You shall never be reclaimed to the name Malfoy or any other families under my command. For all intents and purposes you will be considered excommunicado from our services, businesses, aid, acceptance and niceties. From this moment forth, you are Draco no-name. So do I intend it, so do I say it, so mote it be!" A flash of golden light flickered from the end of our wand as his status as a pureblood was revoked.
Dracoria was bug-eyed as we, in my male form, stared down the arschloch. We ignored her however and simply turned on the spot, our form shifting back into its feminine setting as Solaris slowly took the reigns once more.
'Fuck I hate assholes like that.'
~Calm down brother... Let me take it from here, go read or something~
I must confess, reading sounded like a nice escape currently.
...
(Solaris's Perspective)
I turned my head and gestured for Dracoria to follow me as I stepped up to the giant, everyone's eyes attached to us. The spotlight was glorious in many ways, but in this circumstance... Well, we just revealed our ability to the world... Not a massive loss seeing as how it would be near impossible to hide it without encroaching upon one another's peace of mind; something we would never do to begin with.
We reached the group once more, the giant looking at us with a bit of concern before he coughed like a goof.
"Well, erm, co'me on li'l ones. We got sum boats to ba goin to!" He tried to summon some level of energy for the journey, his words falling on deaf ears however as murmurs broke out amongst nearly all the students. It was a nice attempt though.
Fortunately most of the older students were already on those horseless carriages, otherwise it'd be one hundred times worse, attention-wise. The four people around us stayed quiet and simply allowed silence to claim the void left after our actions. It was obvious Hermione was curious as she got on the boat but she didn't say anything after Neville shook his head, his hand extended out for Dracoria whilst we were helped in by Harry.
The boat trip itself was rather topsy-turvy with the lake being somewhat irate tonight. Though inconvenient, the journey was made worth it as we were struck with our first view of Hogwarts... The castle's windows invitingly glowing in the inky back-drop of night. Warmth surged through our body as the moon softly shone over the parapets and roofs of the castle proper, the winding structure imposing itself upon the cliff-side like a mighty dragon smothering its hoard.
Hagrid, the giant man; as I had found out through small chatter between another boat's occupants, was smiling widely as we slowly shuddered underneath a massive archway. He called for all of us to be careful but it wasn't needed as we were so much smaller than him.
All of us were in awe of Hogwarts as we inched closer and closer. The harbour had the feeling of ancient magic despite only having the most basic of enchantments present inside of the wharfs. Imposing double doors peaked out from the top of a small stairway, runes flashing with magic for a brief moment as they opened.
The good old giant walked ahead of us and called for us to follow him, all of us complying as he took us before the doors. In front of said doors was a woman that looked as if she had a stick up her behind, a set of lavish green robes and witch hat draped across her body as her aged features lent her aura a sense of kindness despite her contrite disposition.
"Here we ar'a pr'fessor Mc Gon'gall. All ya firsties, redy for the'r sortin!"
"Thank you Hagrid." She flashed a smile before returning to her seriousness, her vibrant bluey-green eyes screening each of us for any misbehaviour whilst she did so.
Hagrid said his goodbyes quickly before journeying back into a boat and sailing off onto the lake. It took less than a minute for his farewells, in which we were then left with the strict-looking professor.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you will be sorted into your houses." She paused and looked out over us all, continuing on when no one interrupted or said anything. "The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family at Hogwarts... You will have classes with your housemates, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room..."
"Your triumphs will earn your house points, your rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
She turned on her heels, her wand whipping along with her, sending the door slamming open. Stepping forth into the warm halls of Hogwarts she began speaking once more... Her pace just slow enough to allow us to follow behind her.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the whole school. I shall drop you off at the doors and leave you all to go get prepared. Do not misbehave, otherwise I will have to deduct points before the house cup even begins... A fate you would find most displeasing, i assure you."
We followed along at a brisk jog as she wound through the halls. Passing armoured figures that moved and even a poltergeist that got some shrieks from a certain red-haired boy we all slowly became nervous at the prospect of a sorting ceremony. Nothing was spoken about it except for the fact that it was the same every year. We only hoped that the others knew their spells in case it was something a touch more violent...
The professor stopped outside a large set of doors and turned once more, ensuring that we were all present; which we were. Finishing her counting she nodded and restated her warning before venturing away into the right corridor where she disappeared without a sound.
"Do you think the sorting will have us fighting something?" Neville was slowly coming out of his shell.
Harry scoffed. "If it is, Lunaris has this nailed. Did you see him hand a second year his ass?"
"Language!" Hermione hissed as she blushed at the looks she instantly received.
The saviour rolled his eyes whilst Neville chuckled, Dracoria smiling from behind the three of them; her gaze tunnelling into our form, refusing to move it whatsoever. Coughing we decided to enter the chatter.
"How about we wait until we get there?"
All of them nodded at that with Dracoria being a tad more energetic with her agreement. Hopefully the sorting would be far easier than the train ride that we took to get here...
~Heh, good luck sis~
'Shut up! It could be different!'
He snickered.
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