Ineffable | Remus Lupin

IV

The noise of Platform 9 3/4 was deafening. Ingrid clutched her hands over her ears as she neared the train. It would only be a couple of minutes before the train finally left the station and maybe that would give Ingrid enough time to find an empty compartment to give her some peace and quiet.

Over the past two weeks Ingrid had barely slept she'd been spending so much time reading and teaching herself all of the school content. After all, she did have fours years of teaching to catch up on.

Her mind had played over what few memories she had of her parents. Perhaps there had been clues about the wizarding world, or why they had abandoned Ingrid. Maybe she was missing something obvious. The few spare moments she hadn't been teaching herself the school content, Ingrid had been deep in thought. She thought of her parents and for some strange reason Remus Lupin kept popping up into her head.

Ingrid had always been surrounded by many children. Growing up in various orphanages and children's home would lead to that. Yet Ingrid had never met a child that was nice to her, she'd never met someone that tried to be friendly. It wasn't like Remus had any reason to be kind - she was a stranger to him. Although, it was probably just all some lie. Ingrid could imagine the students at Hogwarts finding out about her past and making fun of her or judging her. The idea of it made Ingrid feel slightly sick.

"Excuse me!"

Someone abruptly shoved past Ingrid in an attempt to keep their trunk from toppling over and spilling its contents all over the platform floor. The girl had grabbed her arm, causing Ingrid to yelp and jump away. As she rubbed where her arm had been grabbed, Ingrid watched as the girl wrestled with the trunk, pushing it back onto its wheels whilst flaming red hair flew about the place.

"Lily! What have I told you at least a thousand times?" A tall, slender girl shouted from behind as she neared them.

"Petunia!" Lily called, "You're the one who pushed me!"

"You nearly knocked this poor girl over! I'm so sorry-Lily, what do you have to say?" The girl folded her arms as she looked over at her sister.

"I said it was your fault." Lily mumbled under her breath, looking down at the floor.
"Freak-"
"Sorry! I'm sorry, really really sorry! Won't happen again!" Lily exclaimed hysterically in an attempt to get her sister to be quiet.

"I though Mum and dad told you to wait in the car!" The girl - presumably Lily - stomped her foot on the floor.
"As if I'd miss winding you up."

Ingrid, still clutching her arm as though it were burning under the fabric of her sleeve, discretely fled from the situation and finally boarded the train.

Now the mission would be finding an empty compartment. Ingrid felt a little sick thinking about the idea of spending the gruesome train journey cramped into a small box with several other loud students.

Unsurprisingly, every single compartment appeared to have at least one student already sat within it. Just as Ingrid was about to begin walking down the carriage for a third time, the train began to pull out of the station and almost simultaneously one of the compartment doors in front of her flew open.

"Looking for somewhere to sit?"

Ingrid looked up to see the same brightly-coloured-haired girl as before. Lily. She was poking her head out of the compartment door and grinning wildly.

"What gives off that impression?" Ingrid asked, eyeing the girl suspiciously.
"The pacing. Probably." The girl replied, "I'm Lily by the way. Kind of ran into you on the platform, remember?"

"Guess you don't want some company then?" Lily raised an eyebrow, stepping fully out of her compartment now.
"Not really, no."

"Well... There's no need to be rude."

Ingrid frowned at Lily, pursing her lips as she did so.
"Don't call me rude." Ingrid snapped.
Lily stepped back, looking bewildered, "I didn't call you rude, honest."

Ingrid looked over her shoulder but there was nobody else around to have said it and she definitely didn't imagine hearing those words. It was like what her parents had always told her growing up: Don't act on the voices in your head - they mean to trick you.

"I did think it though." Lily attempted to mutter so Ingrid couldn't hear but failed. Ingrid, however, was more distracted by the memory flooding back to her and couldn't respond to the girl's snide comment.

"Excuse me?" Lily called out, snapping Ingrid back to reality. She looked over at Lily again, a cold icy glare taking place in her eyes as she gritted her teeth to stop herself from shaking.

"It's Ingrid, actually." Ingrid corrected.

"Well, Ingrid, care to join us?" Lily asked again as she flashed a warm smile.
"Not really, no." Ingrid repeated, hoping more than anything to just be left alone.

"Nobody likes to be alone. Especially not on their first day. Speaking of which, you certainly don't look like a first year so why are you new?" Lily smiled warmly at her again, attempting to combat Ingrid's cold exterior.

Ingrid balled her hands into fists at Lily's nerve. Sure, Lily didn't actually know anything about Ingrid, but how could she be so nosy and prying? It reminded her of Dumbledore.

"What's going on out here? Hope you're not fighting over me." A familiar voice chuckled.

Lily scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Shut it, Black."
"Sirius." The shaggy-haired boy corrected, coming to stand behind Ingrid in the cramped corridor of the train.

"Who's thi-oh! Er, sorry, Ingrid, right? Bookstore? Yeah, hi." Sirius grinned widely upon recognising Ingrid as she turned to face him.
"Sirius... Hi?" Ingrid looked puzzled but greeted the boy nevertheless.

"Done with your prefecting duties or did you get fired already?" Lily smirked as another familiar boy walked down the carriage towards them.
"I don't need any training. I'm already too good at the job." Remus shrugged confidently, grinning again.

"Can't be as good as me. I actually follow the rules." Lily retorted.
"Lily, if you're not careful I'll have to deduct house points from you." Remus laughed, clearly gaining some sort of victory over the girl. Lily huffed before stepping back into the compartment as Ingrid started to focus back in on what was actually happening around her.

"I'm hoping you're new." Remus spoke up after a moment of silence.
"How come?" Ingrid stepped away from him to face the boy and be a little more at distance from him.

"If it'd taken me five years to notice you then I'd be a right idiot." Remus admitted, kicking at the floor and scuffing his shoes.
"You're not missing out on anything." Ingrid responded.

Remus looked up at her, "You starting your fifth year? What school did you go to before? Were you home schooled?"
"I'm starting my fifth year." Ingrid only answered the first question.

Unlike Lily, Remus didn't want to pry anymore but also didn't want to leave the new girl alone to wander the train for the next several hours. Even if he did know all too much about wanting solitude.

"She is pretty. Don't be such an arse."

"Excuse me?" Ingrid frowned, stepping further away from him.
"What? I didn't say anything yet." Remus widened his eyes at her sudden reaction.

Ingrid focussed her gaze on him, sometimes she'd hear people's 'inside voices' by accident and it always startled her as much as it did them.

"You should come in and sit with us." Remus nodded, beginning to pull open the compartment door. He had noticed Ingrid distancing herself from everything possible and was just trying to cater to her wants.
"You don't have to say anything and can just sit quietly in the corner if you want. I just think it might make you stand out less when you're with a group of us." He suggested.

Ingrid agreed and followed the boy into the compartment. There were two girls (Lily and one other girl) and three boys (Peter, Sirius, and another unknown boy).When Remus and Ingrid joined, this brought the total people in the compartment to a cramped eight.

The other students glanced at Ingrid and then at Remus as the two sat down side by side. Ingrid fiddled with her hands in her lap and looked down as Remus shot each one of them an attempt at a threatening glare to ward off any questioning.