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First Year - 1971
CORDELIA MCKINNON WOKE UP LATE. While this was unusual... it's fitting that the first day of her first year, she was running late.
She blinked as the light of the morning warmed her skin. It took all of thirty seconds for Cordelia to shoot up in bed and let out a strangled cry. It was already 9:00am, for Merlin's sake. The train would be leaving King's across exactly two hours from now.
"Marlene! Marlene, wake up before we miss our train!"
Cordelia only received a grunt from her sister's direction as she threw herself towards her closet. Ripping down the first pair of trousers she came across and a beige sweater, she stomped in the direction of the bathroom. What would happen if they missed the train? Has anyone ever missed the train? Her mind raced as she hurriedly dressed and burst back into her bedroom.
"Wake up!" Cordelia screeched, ripping the covers from over her twin.
Marlene huffed, "Cordelia," and lazily opened her eyes.
Cordelia and Marlene McKinnon were born on the thirty-first of October. Although only ten minutes older, Marlene loves to remind Cordelia that she is technically her big sister. Days like together remind Cordelia how much that truly doesn't matter.
Their birthday is one of the only things the girls share in common. The fraternal twins were two very different sides of the same coin. Cordelia had an appreciation for some good old fashioned mischief, which–paired with her frightening intelligence–made her a bit of a wild card. Marlene was the sweetheart of the pair. She also happened to be the biggest believer in the go with the flow attitude.
Something that made Cordelia's left eye twitch.
"Do you want to go to Hogwarts or not?" Cordelia grumbled.
"That's a bit dramatic, don't you think? Just give me five more minutes, Delia."
It had, in fact, not been five more minutes. The twins hugged their parents quickly and lunged for the train as soon as they arrived on Platform 9 3/4. Dragging their trunks to look for a compartment, they come across two girls sitting alone. Marlene slides the door open and smiles widely.
"Mind if we sit here?" Marlene phrased it as a question but was already lugging her trunk into the storage compartment. The pair in the compartment made plenty of room and waited.
"I'm Marlene McKinnon. This is my baby sister, Cordelia. Thanks for letting us share." Marlene said, plopping down on the bench.
"We're twins. Don't let her trick you." Cordelia rolled her eyes and threw a swift punch to Marlene's shoulder.
Two twinkling laughs met Cordelia's ears in response. Their long ride to the castle was filled with giggles and gossip as the McKinnon's made their first two friends, Alice Fortescue and Dorcas Meadowes.
-
Later that evening, Cordelia was seated proudly at the Gryffindor table beside her sister and their two friends. They tucked into the feast, looking around the Great Hall in wonder. Hogwarts was magical.
What happened next would become one of the most important moments of Cordelia's life, though she didn't know it at the time. She was sipping pumpkin juice and picking at her dinner as her eyes quickly scanned the pages of her Potions for Beginners textbook. Marlene was used to this sort of thing. Her sister always had a book around, it seemed like. No one paid any mind to the scene.
At least not until Sirius Black turned towards her.
"Merlin, you're already studying? We just got here!" He guffawed. This caused three other heads to swivel towards where she sat. One by one, Cordelia met the eyes of the boys who would become four of her very best friends.
"And?" Cordelia snipped. Her head tilted to the side as she quirked an eyebrow.
"That's so... boring," James said in a slow voice. The effect was instantaneous.
Cordelia felt the familiar fire in her blood. Fire meant mischief. And on a good day? Mayhem. A sinister smile began to grow on her lips as she turned back to her textbook.
"Boring, you said?" She drawled with mirth.
Oh, I'll show you boring.
-
It took one week for the boys–who she now knew as Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew–to realize that Cordelia was anything but boring.
In fact, they were enchanted by her. They spent the next two months stealing her away from her roommates to cause trouble throughout the castle. They had plenty of time in detention to get to know each other. She quickly became a staple in their schemes, much to the dismay of Lily Evans and Mary MacDonald (Cordelia's roommates, and now, friends). James and Cordelia decided to undergo a terribly important mission that they endearingly coined Operation Lily Potter. Their friends thought it was a silly idea.
James and Cordelia changed the status of their mission to confidential.
In addition to the boys fighting for custody over Cordelia with the girls, those first two months made something clear to Cordelia. This is why she lay on a cot in the hospital wing with a fake stomach ache on the second full moon of the term. She fought to keep her eyes open as night slowly turned to morning. In the end, she lost the battle and fell asleep.
When Madam Pomfrey helped Remus to a cot an hour later, his face turned even paler than it was at the sight of his friend. If the nurse knew what he was thinking, she said nothing. She simply pulled the blanket over the sleeping girl and retreated to her office. Remus couldn't sleep out of fear that Cordelia would wake and ask him what happened.
Cordelia opened her eyes hours later and smiled softly at the scarred boy in the bed next to her. She reached into her pocket and pulled something out, before extending her hand to him. Tears pricked the corners of Remus's eyes as he gently accepted the chocolate bar and the silent promise to keep his secret.
If only they knew then just how different their lives would be in the following years.
