Off the Clock: an original Harry Potter fanfic: chapter one

Instructions

❝ ᴵ ᵈᵒⁿ’ᵗ ʷᵃⁿⁿᵃ ᵍᵒ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵏ ᴵ’ˡˡ ᵐᵃᵏᵉ ⁱᵗ ʷᵒʳˢᵉ ❞ I sit on the Hogwarts Express train, watching the greenery speed past. Or is the train moving? Am I sitting still, the train motionless, or are the trees and clouds not the reason why they’re sliding out of view quicker than I could think? Anyway, Raina, Scorpius, and Albus are in our little compartment with me, we’re all keeping each other some company. I see Albus look at me in the corner of my eye and try not to seem like I’m freaking out on the outside, no matter what I feel inwards. Since two can play this game, I turn to him and meet his eyes, and he turns away. I motion to Raina, who was watching our little moment thing, swiping my hand by my cheeks as a silent question about whether I was blushing or not. She shook her head horizontally, a no. I thank the heavens, because how embarrassing would it be if a handful of your closest friends found out you, let’s say, liked one of them a bit more than you do the others? As I push that thought away from my mind, Raina checks her Muggle watch thing and notes that we’re thirty minutes and twelve seconds away from Hogwarts with a split-second glance at the device. How that girl didn’t get Sorted into Ravenclaw, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just common knowledge how to understand a watch. It’s going to be our fourth year at Hogwarts. It feels like it’s been forever since I was there last. Teddy and my grandmother have been superior company, but it feels like you’re contained in a jar a little bit. Just a smidge. The problem is, though, whenever I’m with my //family//, I want to be with my friends. But when I’m at school with my //friends//, I wish I was back with my brother and Gramma. As Victoire, my brother’s, uh, significant other, would say, “c’est la vie,” which is some French thing I don’t bother learning. Scorpius and Albus keep looking at each other like they’re trying to communicate, but can’t, since Raina and I are right by them. Boys are weird. That’s pretty much a fact. And I’ve been living with Teddy my entire life, and he still confuses me. We’re finishing up our Chocolate Cauldrons and other sweets and I notice Albus fingering with a golden necklace-looking thing. “What’s that?” I ask him. He shoves it unceremoniously into his uniform pocket, since we changed into our uniforms about an hour or so ago. “Thing from home,” he mutters. “Could I see it?” Raina asks. “Uh, my mum probably doesn’t want anyone else touching it.” She nods. I feel, or at least realize, the train’s slowing down. I pick up my trunk and hold it close to me, as I watch the others do the same. The train has stopped, and there’s a flood of children of range of ages getting out of the compartments. Scorpius and Raina get out first, then Albus, and I’m following the group at the “back,” or whatever. The gold chain he was toying with a little bit before had fallen on the floor after a gruff fifth or sixth year pushed him out of the way. The nosiness of doors sliding open, train engine, and chatter made the sound of it clattering to the ground terribly hard to hear, and I was right behind him. I picked the chain up off the ground, pocketed it, and decided to give it to him sometime later today or tomorrow. About an hour later, Professor McGonagall is going through the L’s and I’m staring into thin air, but it’s taking all my will power not to cry, because I’m subconsciously waiting for her to say Lupin. In my second and third year, I realized I wouldn’t be Sorted again. But the Sorting part doesn’t matter. It’s the name. Lupin…. Lupin. Lupin. My brother, and long gone mother and father. Lupin. I really wish I knew them. Scorpius, Albus, and Raina are all in Slytherin, and my only friend, really, in Hufflepuff over here, is my real friend’s Rose Maysa, guy, who’s named Thomas Glean. He’s in my year and really nice, though he talks a lot. Which isn’t a bad thing, actually, he takes over most of the talking whenever our little friend group hangs out with each other. After McGonagall has finished off the Z’s, we eat, and then get hastily set into our dormitories, which I always thought was funny in a way. It’s like, “Oh, welcome to Hogwarts! We’re so happy to see you! Now, get fed and then we’ll shove you away, got it? Okay! See you tomorrow! Good night!” Or that’s how eleven-year-old me interpreted it, something like that. Thomas, though, is sitting with his sporty friends on the Quidditch Team, so I continue to stare at the food on the table, talking to no one. I slide my hands into my pockets after eating only a couple of turkey sandwiches and load up on raspberry cake, and remember about Albus’s golden trinket thing. Since everyone around me is socializing with other people, no one would notice if I pulled the chain out, so I do so. It’s beautiful, looks like gold, real, shiny gold, as if I knew what that looked like, but still. ( continued in notes and credits )