Ineffable | Remus Lupin

V

Ingrid leant against the wall of the compartment, losing herself in thought. Surely it couldn't be possible for four teenagers to make anymore noise.

"She's just a bit of a freak. Why's she just sat quietly in the corner?"

Ingrid snapped her head up to see the girl sat beside Lily staring intently at her.
"Got a problem?" Ingrid asked, causing the girl to stammer and stutter in response.

"What? Marlene what did you do?" Lily raised an eyebrow, looking between the two girls.
"I didn't say anything!" The girl held her hands up in defence.

Ingrid rose to her feet and pulled open the compartment door, quickly fleeing from the scene. She felt like her head was going to explode as she strode past the constant shouts of students with their friends.

"Slow down!" Ingrid turned to see Remus running down the carriage towards her, "Where you going?"
"Dunno, why?" Ingrid frowned as Remus came to a stop in front of her.
"I was going to keep you company." He shrugged, digging his hands into his pockets.

Ingrid folded her arms as she turned to fully face him, "Why?"
"Does anyone really like to be alone?" Remus asked, "I'm sure we can find another compartment to sit in anyway. I'm a prefect; I can always just kick some first years out."

"Why did you come after me? Why do you care?" Ingrid asked.
"It was either me or Lily coming to check on you and well... I'm just better. Or at least I hope I am." Remus chuckled to himself as he lead the way down the train.

Ingrid followed quietly, keeping her eyes glued to the floor and almost stumbling into Remus as he came to a sudden stop in front of her.

"What did Marlene do? In the compartment when you spoke to her, what had she done?" Remus turned to face Ingrid as it was just the two of them stood out alone. It clicked in Ingrid's mind that Marlene must've been the girl she'd confronted earlier.

"She thought I was a freak." Ingrid admitted.
"She didn't say that."
"Well... She sure thought it. I'm pretty sure nobody could have given a dirtier look than her." Ingrid mumbled.

"Nobody thinks you're a freak. Why would they?" Remus asked, pulling open a compartment door and stepping inside.
"Because I'm starting in fifth year and only just learnt about this whole magical world a couple of weeks ago." Ingrid grumbled, huffing as she fell onto one of the seats and Remus took the seat opposite her.

Darkness had fallen outside by this point and their arrival at the station was immanent. Ingrid looked out of the window as Remus struggled to think of what to say next.

"You don't need to say anything. You can go if you want, I don't care." Ingrid spoke up.

Ingrid expected him to question her about the past. Surely Remus would have a long list to quiz her about all the facts of her life. Why was she starting late? Why hadn't she been invited to Hogwarts at eleven? Who was she? What was she doing?

"Pretty bad year to start, don't you think?" Remus sat upright, bouncing one leg up and down.
"Come again?" Ingrid blinked hard and faced him now.

"I mean there's the OWL exams this year. They're meant to be virtually impossible, let alone if you're learning everything from scratch. I'm sure you'll manage though; you might even persuade me to tutor you." Remus grinned.
"I don't need a tutor." Ingrid looked away from him.

"I'm only the best at Defence Against the Dark Arts. It's a personal favourite." Remus nodded smugly.

Ingrid didn't reply. Perhaps if she fell silent Remus would stop feeling the need to talk about anything and everything. Ingrid kept her eyes on the view outside, her eyes occasionally flickering down to her lap before out of the corner of her eye she saw Remus moving.
She looked over fully as he was rifling through his bag before pulling out an old, tattered book.

"Want a book? I've got spares." Remus offered.
Ingrid just shook her head in response and watched as the boy opened his book and began to quietly read it.

Ingrid sunk down in her seat, allowing her drowsy eyes to drift shut for just a moment before a loud crash startled her, almost causing her to scream as she jumped up to her feet.
Remus leapt forward and pulled open the compartment door, glancing left and right before his eyes fell to the floor.

"Lily? What in Merlin's name..." He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation.
"We're pulling into the station and I figured we'd catch a carriage together." Lily moved into Ingrid's line of view and was straightening out her robes as though she'd clambered up off the floor.

"Well you didn't need to throw yourself on the ground to get my attention." Remus laughed, stepping out of the compartment and looking over at Ingrid as he waited for her. She hesitated for a moment, before mentally agreeing with herself that perhaps having two acquaintances might make her life easier.

"So... Ingrid. What house do you think you'll be sorted into?" Lily asked, grinning up at Ingrid.
"House?" Ingrid frowned as she followed the two towards the door of the train as it began to pull into the station.

"You don't know about the Hogwart's Houses? Merlin... Do we have a lot to teach you." Lily linked arms with Ingrid as she lead the way out the doors and off the train.

Ingrid looked down at where their arms were linked and simply stared. "I-I don't..." Ingrid couldn't even finish her sentence as a frown formed over her features.
This was quickly wiped away as Lily spoke up again, "Is everything okay? I can only imagine how overwhelming this all must be."
"Um, yeah, sure." She replied shortly.

"Lily is probably a good person to talk to because she comes from a muggle family." Remus explained, "So she knows what it's like to learn about all of this from scratch."
Ingrid turned to him and quietly asked, in the hopes of avoiding much further embarrassment, "Muggle?"
He elaborated, "Non-magic people. Witches and wizards can come from a line of entirely magical ancestors - they're called purebloods and there's not a lot of them. Most nowadays are half bloods, so their family is a mixture of magic and muggle. And some witches and wizards are muggle borns so they're the first magical person in their immediate family."

This only raised even more questions in Ingrid's mind - many about her own family that Remus certainly wouldn't be able to answer. But before she could think about it further, they were interrupted.

"You! Y' must be Ingrid Temple?"

Ingrid turned around to see an enormous man with a large bushy beard and long pink umbrella by his side. The man could have been at least three times Ingrid's height as she looked up at him in shock.

"Suppose I must." Ingrid replied a little tentatively.

"Rubeus Hagrid." Hagrid pointed at himself, "Dumbledore asked m' to tell y' that a teacher will meet y' off tha carriages. Tha's some stuff y' need ta go through before ya' lessons start." Hagrid informed her.
Ingrid eyed Hagrid tentatively before he resumed gathering up first year students.

"Ingrid! You coming?" Lily called loudly, startling the girl in question.
Ingrid quietly followed Lily and Remus as they made their way towards the carriages.

"What are those... Creatures... pulling the carriages?" Ingrid asked, walking in front of one of the carriages and holding her hand out for the dark best to smell it. It almost resembled a skeletal horse, but was the darkest shade of black imaginable.

Remus frowned, "What?"
"What are they?" Ingrid asked again, rolling her eyes as the animal breathed warm air onto her palm.

"Thestrals." Lily spoke up, watching Ingrid closely.

"What are you on about?" Remus put his hands on his hips, "Just get on the carriage before it leaves. Nothing is pulling it."

Ingrid looked over at Lily, "What's wrong?"
Lily looked away, following Remus as she got on the carriage, "Nothing." She muttered although she couldn't see the creatures herself she knew what they meant.

Ingrid sat down opposite the two of them and the carriage started to pull away, leading them towards Hogwarts. Lily was unusually quiet which left Remus to make all the conversation. It's not easy making conversation amongst three people when two of them won't talk.

It would be later that night that Ingrid finally found out what was so troubling about being able to see Thestrals.