The Godmother

4. the first day

THE TRAIN PULLED UP AT HOGSMEADE STATION WELL AFTER DARK. The talk of the Dementor attack had fuelled a sea of conversation amongst the students.

They filled the hallway to escape the train and get to the carriages and boats, leaving no room for Remus and Elizabeth to leave the compartment they sat in with Harry, Ronald and Hermione.

There was shouting and cries from what Elizabeth presumed was coming from Head boys and girls as well as Prefects. The students slowly funnelled out of the train doors, landing on the platform.

By the time Elizabeth and Remus got off, the platform was a chaotic mess of people scurrying around, trying to figure out where to go. It was dark and the sky was shrouded behind clouds that swirled and filled the air. 

"Bloody hell, Murray! You've done this for six bloody years! Carriages are tha' way!", Elizabeth heard Hagrid's voice roar. Her heart skipped a beat at seeing him again. Hagrid had taught her since their second year, always kind and loyal, especially Dumbledore. She wanted to go over and hug him, but he was busy calling for first years and her mind was occupied, trying to get the students in order and on the carriages to get to the castle.

She spotted a group of first years that had overheard Hagrid and were marching towards the carriages.

Elizabeth jumped towards them and grabbed ones shoulder. It was a small boy who seemed a little overconfident. "First years go to Hagrid," she said, pointing towards the giant man who stood twice over the crowd. They thanked her and moved over to him. 

She sighed to herself and looked around, realising that Remus had disappeared. She didn't want him to leave. She'd lost him in the routine of ushering first years to Hagrid. She sighed to herself again, knowing that he was probably getting the crowd moving, too. Elizabeth stood by the edge of a small cluster of trees, watching carefully. 

The older students knew where they were going, it was the occasional first year or teenager mucking around that needed help getting on their way. She stood for 15 minutes, watching and directing and waving away carriages full of students, until the platform was mostly empty. Only stragglers remained, like the grains of sand that stick to your feet after you go to a beach. 

Hagrid's roaring voice had disappeared along with the first years, presumably to row across the Black Lake. It was eerily quiet. Elizabeth didn't like it. It was too reminiscent. It felt too much like the way it used to. Her and James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily being the last ones off the train because they'd all gotten drunk and had to help James and Sirius (who were quite often the drunkest) off the train. 

Remus was standing by the train, towering over a crying boy who could only have been 13 years old. 

He appeared to be comforting a boy who looked to be panicking. "Ahh, Professor Black," Remus said wonderfully as Elizabeth approached. He gave her a wink. "Perhaps she can help?" The boy had his hands in his face, hyperventilating. He let out loud, wailing sobs into his hands. Elizabeth felt bad instantly. 

"Yes, of course," Elizabeth said, smiling warmly to the boy. "What do you need help with?"

"Neville Longbottom here has lost his toad," Remus explained. Elizabeth felt like Remus had turned her to stone. Her breath hitched. She looked down at the boy, and for the first time, he looked up from his hands. And there it was. The child of Alice and Frank Longbottom. The people she fought alongside with in the Order. 

Alice who was cunning and unmistakably smart and Frank who was strong and had some of the greatest battle plans that Elizabeth had ever seen. Frank had ways of turning 10 soldiers into the worth of 100 with his plans and schemes and what spells to use and when.  The Longbottoms were the bravest people Elizabeth thought that she'd ever met. Of course, they were in hospital, but the last Elizabeth had heard of them was that they were slowly recovering.