Queen of Disaster | 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑛

Chapter 05

"So you're telling me that Remus Lupin jinxed you?" Layla repeated after Diana had finished explaining all that had happened at Diagon Alley, and the way she had run away from the boy afterward.

"I actually don't know," Diana said earnestly. "I went over all of my books... but there was no jinx or curse with such effect. It was just... different... it didn't really feel like a spell. Besides, he's not of age yet. He couldn't have done magic outside school."

"Then what do you think it was?" Layla mused, but Diana only shrugged, glancing outside the compartment's window thoughtfully.

"I have no idea..."

The train finally started moving. Diana had thought that she was no longer going to think of Remus Lupin. But now that she had seen him again, it brought back the feeling she had gotten by touching his hand. She couldn't possibly shake the thought away. The feeling lingered in her memory like a bad nightmare that she couldn't wake from.

  Diana tried distracting herself by listening to Layla's fascinating stories of what she had done over the summer. Layla's father used to be a Ravenclaw, but her mother was French and therefore had studied at Beauxbatons.

Diana had never met her personally, but she had seen her pictures numerous times in Witch Weekly. Layla's mother was a well-known model in the Wizarding world. From the pictures Diana had seen, she was tall and had short hair, with skin as dark as the glorious night and beauty worthy of the moon. And Layla had certainly taken after her mother when it came to good looks.

    Diana had always wondered how Layla's father had met a famous French witch and ended up marrying her. But her question had been answered a few years ago when she'd found out that Layla's dad was a celebrated author and a famous editor of the Daily Prophet.

Diana admired how Layla always got to meet interesting people and hear fascinating news that happened in the Wizarding World. Although for a few years now, the news had started to take a dark turn with the Dark Lord at large and the number of his followers growing each day.

"We should better change," Layla said after long hours, checking her watch. "We'll be arriving at Hogwarts soon."

"Yeah, okay." Diana nodded warily before standing up and taking her Hogwarts robes out of her trunk.

While Layla chose to wear a skirt for her Hogwarts uniform, Diana always wore trousers. She felt more comfortable in the boyish look, as her mother would call it. She hated when she was told how a proper lady should dress or behave.

But now that she was at Hogwarts again, Diana was planning on doing everything that she was forbidden to do at home; she would run through the hallways, skip the last few stairs, stretch her legs out and put her feet up on the table, swear loudly, and wear trousers all year long.

At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble among the crowd of students to get outside soon. After fully changing into their Slytherin robes, Diana and Layla left the train along with the others.

    It was freezing on the tiny platform, and it looked like it was going to rain that night.

"Firs' years! Firs' years this way!" Diana heard a familiar voice call out. Looking up, she saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake.

She always thought that Hagrid probably came from a giant bloodline. Diana was raised in a family that believed half-breeds to be evil, or rather a disgrace to the Wizarding community. Although Diana had never really given it much of a thought. But she couldn't deny that she did find some half-breeds rather scary in some stories she had heard as a child.