before the hurricane of our years

Spoiler:

Lorcan d'Eath and Marissa Knight walked their son to a pillar at King's Cross station. Eleven year old Damien d'Eath. Wide-eyed, eager, hopeful. Father bent down to tell him how to get to platform nine and three-quarters. Damien nodded as he stared hard at his father's face. Although he does not live with the man, Damien felt easy affections for his father. Lorcan, upon knowledge of this son's existence four years ago, had made efforts to be involved, enough to please Damien. Besides, Lorcan's wealth had allowed Damien to acquire what Marissa would prefer not to spend her limited but sufficient money on - one of which was the Nimbus 2001, which Damien counts as the greatest gift he has received so far. It was not a Firebolt, for sure. But for a boy who never owned a broom before in his life, it was as grand as offering him a palace already.

Mother was teary, and Damien walked to her for a hug, making sure to give her a kiss on the cheek, for he loved her so. He would always be a mommy's boy, he will find out later even when things change. When he felt a hand affectionately pat his head, Damien looked up to smile at his father's handsome face. Just four years into knowing the man and he already wanted to be everything that father has been, though he had little knowledge to what father does. Damien gave Lorcan a decent hug, signalling still a slight unfamiliarity with the man. After the antics of farewell were committed, Lorcan finally let Damien take control of his trolley of belongings, having been the one to push it all the way to this pillar before this. Damien grabbed the bars and turned to look at his parents one last time before. He waved, then turned back to his trolley. Pushing it now, he rushed through the pillar and found himself staring at the massive object that greets every Hogwarts student at this time of the year - the Hogwarts Express.

Life has become good for the boy. Previously living only with mother and having no other friends of his own, Damien had now come to know his father and met pleasant siblings living at the d'Eath residence. He had become especially close to his elder twin sisters, whom he was excited to attend school with, despite being in different years. Soon, though, they got called away by a group of other Ravenclaws. He watched them walk away, their robes a reminder to him about all that he has learnt about houses at Hogwarts. Both his parents had been from Slytherin, and from what Damien had read, he felt himself drawn to the idea of this house too. He could only hope the Sorting Hat would feel the same way. Damien glanced around him before making his way to where he saw children at his height boarding the train, assuming that there was where First Years should board at.

Damien strolled through the corridor of the train. He was slightly early. Most of the compartments were either empty or had just another person in it. He decided to settle into one empty one as he did not want to have to venture to ask for permission to sit in an already occupied one. Feeling nervous and excited at the prospect of being at Hogwarts at the end of the train ride, Damien sat comfortably near the window of the compartment, staring out at whatever the view outside the window can offer him.

Spoiler:

George Weasley was in his element, but Angelica Johnson was not so happy about today. She was having some trouble letting go, honestly, and it brought back a lot of memories that she was not sure were so welcome. George, however, was practically jumping up and down, one hand holding Roxi's trunk, the other holding Roxi's hand, who was jumping up and down.

"Mum, look, a train! Dad, look, an owl! Daddy, I want an owl- Mum look at that cat! Can we fget a cat, Daddy? Real quick! We could go to Diagon Alley SUPER DUPER quick and get one teeney itsy bitty kitty so I will have a friend at Hogwarts-" she trailed off suddenly, her eyes wide. "What if I don't make a friend, Daddy?"

Her little brother Fred piped up, "The Giant Squid will be your friend!"

Roxi threw herself at her brother, whose hand was attached to Angelina's, but George caught her around the middle, tossing her over his shoulder. Sh squealed with laughter and clambered onto her dad's back, so she was riding him piggy back. She was already attracting attention- not because she and her father had no regard for others, but because of her colorful outfit.

She'd get used to that eventually.

She reached the train and slid off her dad's back, looking seriously at her parents. "I won't make friends unless I trap someone alone in a compartment. BYE!" She leaned up and kissed her father and then her mother, who tried to protest but was prevented by her husband saying. "Angelina! Is that Oliver Wood? We have to heckle him! Have fun Roxi!"

She grabbed her trunk and began dragging it as her father drug his wife and son to speak to his old Quidditch captain. Roxi's thin arms somehow mananaged to drag the trunk up the steps and down the hallway, her feet shuffling as she moved backwards, pulling the trunk with her. Her rear bumped into a door and she turned around. She glanced through the window to see one boy alone. She smiled and opened the door.

"Hi!" she said brightly, before truning back and grabbing the handle, pulling her trunk inside and dropping it. She smiled at the boy. "Hi," she repeated. She glanced over at the hallway and saw that one of the lollipops she had stocked in her pocket had fallen out. She gasped and jumped over her trunk, reaching down and picking it up. "Got it," she announced, to see a group of tough kids staring at her. She stuck out her bottom lip and backed into the compartment.

That's when her foot hit the trunk, and she fell over. "ARG!" She flailed and turned over pulling her feet up and looking up at the boy. She reddened. "Hi."

She might think about greeting him too.

She jumped up and pushed the truck against the wall before collapsing into the chair across from him. "Woo," she said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Sorry. I'm Roxanne Weasley- call me Roxi though. Roxanne's too long," she explained, scrunching up her nose.

Spoiler:

This is where it would all begin. For Georgia Wheelbarrow she would be very literally starting a new life. Away from the constantly watching eyes of her paranoid father and overly doting mother. It was officially time to have fun. Watch out Hogwarts. Her father, Fredrick was pulling her trunks and owl cage for her. He leaned closer to his daughter so she could hear over the noise of Platform 9 3/4. "Don't worry dear! Hogwarts really isn't scary!". It was clear that the man was worried about Georgie's nerve.

"Daaaaadddddd" she moaned, as if his concern was positively the most annoying thing she had ever heard. The truth was G was starting to get a serious case of butterflies in her stomach. But the last thing in the world she wanted to do was to let someone know that. "There's the train. Go get on it quick. Sit with some kids your age and then wave to me through the window so I see you're safe." Fredrick urged his daughter, as if she needed encouragement to get away from him. Georgie rolled her eyes and Fredrick chimed in "Go on!" as if she was stalling.

Geogie grabbed her trunks and owl cage and hurried on to the Hogwarts Express. There weren't very many people on yet but she didn't want to sit alone. Only losers sat alone. Georgie passed carriage after carriage, looking for one that had people her age (per her fathers request - he was scared of her hanging out with "the wrong crowd"). Finally she found one, already holding a girl and boy. They looked just as inexperienced with what was going on as she did. "Hi - I'm Georgie. Can I sit here?" she asked boldly. Shy was not used to describe her.

Geogia could still see her father standing on the platform expectantly so she went over to the open window and waved. Even if she didn't end up sitting here at least he would go away. "Sorry, that's my Da." Without waiting for their response she pulled her stuff into the compartment. "He's a bit crazy." She said as if that explained everything. Without pausing a beat she continued "Is it your first year too? Do you know what house you're going to be in? I'm not really sure but they all seem really fun"

If someone didn't stop her she would continue on a rant the whole train ride. Talking must just be her way of showing nerves. And nerves she had.

While surveying the scene outside his window, Damien began to notice other students who look like they were going to be in his year too, sifting through them and wondering who would become his friends in years to come. Damien wanted friends. He wanted many of them. But he would choose them, he thought. He would be selective. This was a year before his mother changed, causing him much confusion when she found love with a muggle. As for now, her stories as a student at Slytherin and the wizarding wars were always pleasing to him. She would spend years later trying to rectify what she deemed to be her mistakes later when she marries that muggle.

Damien's eyes landed on a group of Slytherin boys who obviously looked like they had entered this school a few years before him. Fascinated, he watched their movements, gestures, the way they talked, though he could not make out what they were saying. One of them reminded him of father when he talked, and Damien remembered how Lorcan d'Eath had told him that one must deserve a place in Slytherin, because it is not given. Damien was already full of excitement to deserve this exclusive place, or so he has been told by people who believed so.

When the door to his compartment was opened, he had to turn his eyes away from that Slytherin pack, only to find a girl with a head full of red hair. A thought immediately jumped inside his head, but of course he was not sure. With hair like that, could it be an obvious sign that a Weasley had landed herself into his compartment? He would not venture to guess that out loud. She was making a lot of noise with her entrance though, and Damien merely watched her without a response. He waited for her to introduce herself, which she shortly did, after she sat herself opposite him. When she did so, Damien wondered about his first train ride, feeling worried about how it should turn out to be like.

"I thought so," he began, as soon as he heard Weasley. "You're famous," he continued in a slightly sarcastic manner. "It's d'Eath," he decided to go with his last name first. "Damien d'Eath". The boy had learnt this from somewhere, and in a comic way, thought it cool to start all his introductions like this thereafter. As he offered his name, the boy also offered his hand for a polite shake, though he did it with much hesitation. He was not sure if he would like this girl, or not.

Suddenly, there was a second voice, that of another girl. Damien groaned a little inside. He had wanted to meet boys that he could grow up with in his years at school, and do everything possibly bad and good together. It was also the first time Damien would actually talk to girls his age. The only women in his life are mother and his sisters. He had some friends who were boys but never anyone significant. And girls ... well, he never had friends who were girls before.

The train ride now looked to be awkward and uncomfortable to him. Damien remembered what Lorcan d'Eath had said though. At that time, he did not understand when mother said that father was a serial womaniser, blaming it on the vampire part of him. Damien wondered what womaniser could mean. A woman who does ... what? Anyway, father had said to be very nice and polite to girls. Damien had asked why, and Lorcan had winked at him and said oh, you'll find out soon. It was all so confusing. Damien wrinkled his nose at that reminder and merely nodded to the new girl's question. He continued to observe her as she talked.

"I am hoping that the Sorting Hat puts me into Slytherin. But father said that one must deserve it. I hope I deserve it." Damien began to voice his thoughts to the one thing that interested him in what Georgia had said. He found her a little more pleasing than that Weasley girl, who had made a ruckus when she entered. In his excitement to answer Georgia about houses, Damien had forgot to introduce himself to her. He was merely eagerly waiting for the girls' response about the matter.

Roxi grinned pleasantly at him as he stared at her, her eyebrows meeting as he said that she was somehow famous. Her father always talked about the 'good ol' days' and assured his children that their father was amazing and incredibly well known and well liked. The way that her mother always rolled her eyes, though, had led Roxi to believe her father was full of hot air.

She tilted her head. "Am I?" she chirped innocnently. She knew there were a lot of Weasleys, but she did not know that that made them any sort of famous. "Well, it's nice meeting you Damien. Spooky last name.. I like it!" She nodded her approval, as though it was her approval that kept the world spinning on its axis, that was how important it was.

Suddenly, another girl entered. "Hi Georgie! I'm Roxi! This is Damien. Damien DEATH!" She waggled her fingers impressively before giggling. "You can sit here, uh huh." That was when she noticed the owl and her eyes bulged as she gasped. "An OWL! You lucky goose! I don't have an owl, I wanted one, but my dad said we couldn't get one and to get on the train and-" she gasped for air. "And now I don't have an owl." She pouted and sighed.


"It's okay," Roxi responded brightly. "My dad's weird too. He brings home weird stuff all the time and pranks my mum. She hates it." She grinned widely. "Yes, I'm first year. I'll probably be in Gryffindor, like my entire family, and my dad trashtalks Slytherin, but I don't mind.. I might mind Hufflepuff. It's for softies." She scrunched her nose up.

Georgie liked Roxi already. Either she was always this hyper (unlikely in Georgie's opinion) or just had the same nasty quirk of talking really fast when she was about to piss herself with fear. No matter, Georgie knew already that it would be a very easy train ride merely because of her enjoyable company. The boy supposedly named Damien "Death" (she really wasn't sure if Roxi was telling the truth on that one) didn't look so pleased. He just sat there nodding for a moment. At least he answered her question. Slythirin. Fredrick had told her about that house, and it seemed like Roxi was under the same impression - that Slythirins were evil.

Not that Georgia would mind being in Slythirin. Being considered evil might be exiting. Of course the girl's idea of evil was not very developed and she would someday regret thinking this. When 11-year-old Georgia thought evil she though of pranks and taking the last cookie. Not death. And just looking at the happy smile on her face was enough to tell almost anyone that Georgie was not evil at all. When Roxi scrunched up her nose, Georgie mirrored it without even thinking. "I wouldn't want to be a softie" Georgie said matter-a-factly. "It wouldn't be much fun."

"I think Ravenclaw would be too much work" she continued. As if just being in 'the smart house' made school more work than if you were in the other houses. "All that studying and reading and studying. I don't like school very much. But I think Hogwarts will be fun. I mean it's magic so it can't be nearly as boring as ol' St. Constance." Georgie gestured to the school uniform already on her body. It was a gray pleated skirt with a maroon sweater and gray tie. On her feet were little gray flats. The whole ensemble was very unflattering, as if the boarding school she had been at the last two years made it their mission to make perfectly pretty little girls into nothing more than gray and maroon blobs. Needless to say, Georgie had hated it there. It was no fun at all.

OOC: Judging by how I'm writing her it might be fun to have G admire R a bit and model herself after her in the early years.

Roxi was glad that Georgie agreed with her. She sat up, nodding eagerly, swinging her legs, flashes of pink in the corners of her vision- probably had to do with her pink pants and shoes. Roxi was not girlie, per se, she was actually quite the tomboy when it came to activities and the way she acted- hyper and peppy, she could still be tough. But as for her matter of attire, Roxi liked to experiment, mostly with matching bright colors in zany ways. She was quite comfortable with that too.

"Right?! I like to skateboard, and I don't think Hufflepuffs would. They would probably be too worried about consequences or something stupid!" She giggled, reaching up to run a hand through her long hair. It was a lot brighter red then it would be later in life, having come out as a flaming ginger and slowly had her hair darken to more of a rehead. Eventually, she would have wine colored hair- not quite red, not quite brunette.

Georgie continued on, commenting about ravenclaw and Roxi bobbled her head in eager, enthusiastic agreement- this Georgie girl and Roxi sure seemed to share a lot of the same opinions. "Uh huh!" She agreed. "I would rather be outside doing something, having fun, than staying inside all cooped up. Magic is gonna be cool, but it IS still learning. Hogwarts is gonna be a blast!" She grinned, bouncing excitedly in her seat. She was not the most eloquent, but she was happy to have new friends- yes, she already considered them to be her friends. Even if the two had been cold and unfriendly, she would have been the same, always having been sort of an odd character. She began to hum a cheery tune as she reached down to relace her shoes that had become untied in all the kicking and bouncing.

Damien wanted to roll his eyes when Roxanne believed him when he said that she was famous, wondering how she could not catch the sarcasm in his voice. Then again, if he even knew about the existence of the Weasleys, then what he had said was definitely half true. Before Damien could proceed with the eye-rolling, Roxanne proceeded to say something that actually pleased him, when she commented about his name. Mother had told him before how the Dark Lord had used fear as a hand of power, teaching him that fear was a tool. So if my name is spooky, he thought, I will do great things! Damien grinned a little right after that, not wanting to admit that Roxanne's chirpiness was getting a little too infectious. This was especially so, the way she had given his name to the new girl in the compartment.

When Roxanne started ranting about her envy for Georgia's owl, Damien quickly reached for his belongings and pulled the cloth that he had draped over his owl, not wanting to be left out of being the subject of envy too. Not one who treated his owl very well, the boy now presented it as if it was a prized treasure. "I got one too. Look!" He gestured towards his hawk-owk, another present from his father. "One of my best friends," Damien announced, thinking it would interest the two girls. It was a lie. Pidgey, his owl, glared at him. Damien glared back before offering a fake smile.

"Why does your dad trashtalk Slytherin?" Damien demanded as soon as Roxanne said so. "It's really the most talented house, you'll see." He was already imagining himself in Slytherin robes, beaming a little at that thought. When the conversation shifted to Georgia's experience at some school that the boy had never heard of, he scrutinized her clothes and wondered out loud: "I didn't think that there was another wizarding school in the area". He had misunderstood Georgia, thinking her fit to be his friend, and subconsciously trying to manipulate his idea of the girl. "I've never been to a school before. This would be my first. Mother has told me a lot there is to know about Hogwarts though." Suddenly, it seems, Damien began to talk a little more too. Perhaps the ice had started to break. Besides, he was just a boy with still very weak prejudices.

When Roxanne began to talk again, Damien slumped back against his seat. He did not seem to be able to relate much to what she talked about. Marissa had always ensured that her son was in sight, disallowed from muggle activities because she thought them dangerous, coming from a family of pureblood wizards and witches after all. Furthermore, he was her only treasure, and her love for him meant restrictions and loss of opportunities for him to experience a world beyond his mother and beyond his books. That would change upon the freedom, yes freedom for him, that Damien will face at Hogwarts.

Roxi's eyes bulged as Damien revealed that he too had an owl and Roxi could not help wonder when Christmas had been moved to September 1st. She stared at it and smiled, standing quickly and crossing to the door of the comparment. She closed it, latching it firmly and then wheeled around. "Let your owls out! I'm sure they want to stretch! And then they could be best friends! And I could pet them!"

She grinned before flouncing over to her chair, plopping back into her chair, grinning around before her smile began to slip, before it fell into a full on pout. "I'm the only one without a pet." She pouted before chippering up. "I'll just force Dad to get me one then." She grinned, rocking happily in her chair, again, her bright pink legs swinging away without care.

She cocked her head as Damien got defensive and shrugged, saying, "I dunno. Just does. He and his brother, my dead uncle that they named my brother after, were in Gryffindor with all my aunts and uncles and my grandparents, and apparently Gryffindors don't like Slytherins. Not all my aunts and uncles mind Slytherin and neither do I. My cousin Albus was in Slytherin." She nodded happily.

Roxi was intrigued by the fact that Georgie had gone to another school. "What was that school like? My mum and my aunt tutored me. I knew some kids went to schools, but I don't know what they are like at all!" Her eyes were wide, egging Georgie on to explain more about the school.

Georgie shifted uncomfortably in her train seat when the conversation turned to her school. Clearly the boy was under some impression that her boring old boarding school was for witches and wizards. As if Georgie was that lucky. "Um, actually St. Constance is a, um, muggle school. It was really boring and there were lots of rules. We never had any fun." she avoided looking at the boy, unsure why she was nervous to look at him. He was cute for a boy and the fact that he clearly had wizard parents made him slightly intimidating. So G choose to look at Roxi instead, smiling shyly at her. Talking about to her connections to muggles seemed to put a stopper on that giant mouth of hers. 

To break the awkward moment Georgie hopped out of her seat and reached up on her tippy toes to grab her owl cage. Oz wasn't a very impressive owl. He was quite little and looked like a brown pom pom. Georgie opened up the door of the cage. "He probably wants some air anyway" she commented more to herself than anyone. As if to agree Oz hooted happily and rustled his feathers. Then he took flight a few short feet to land on Georgies maroon shoulder. She felt like a pirate with the bird there. But anything was better than the scared 11 year old that she was. Leaving the owl cage on the seat next to Damien, Georgie returned to her seat. " He's a pretty good owl even though he can't carry much." she commented, knowing the words weren't very interesting, but unsure of what else too add to their conversation.