Carina McGonagall is named after the constellation containing the second brightest star in the sky - and it just so happens one Sirius Black is named after the brightest. They've always had an interesting relationship throughout the years - pranks...
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1st September 1976
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"It'll be fine," Minerva assured her daughter. "You got the train back last term, and you always got in your first and second year." "But it's strange getting it at the beginning of the year. And that means I have to get the carriages....." Minerva sighed. There could be no denying the Thestrals.
Carina never mentioned how, or why she could see the Thestrals. Minerva didn't even know if Carina remembered how, or if she'd blocked it from her memory but if she knew, Carina never talked about it.
"They'll be fine, I'm sure. The ones that pull the carriages are well trained and they never bother you when you're in the forest do they?" With a sigh, Carina agreed. She hated having to get the train; sitting, waiting for the countless hours that it took to get from London to the Scottish Highlands to slip away. Of course, it could be fun - if you were with good company.
"And another thing, getting the train means you'll see the boys sooner." Minerva took her daughter's hand and squeezed it. "Sirius will be OK."
That had been what was worrying Carina most. Sirius had always been distant from his family, but he had confided in Carina once in the Room of Requirement that he never wanted to be disowned. For his brother's sake. That had always confused Carina - Regulus was awful to Sirius, to her, to all of Sirius' friends. He just hung around with other Pureblood Slytherins and was often pretty brutal in Quidditch. She had several nasty scars from Regulus and his limb-breaking tactics. But Sirius still wanted to protect him, more than he wanted to escape from his parents' control. Why?
Sirius said it was like how Carina would always protect Peter, Remus, or James if they got in trouble. Sure, they could act like idiots but she loved them so she would look out for them. They were her brothers, in a way. And that did make sense to her.
Carina had not said a word to her mother about what else was bothering her. If Minerva knew what Nola had said... What would she do? Would she say to be the bigger person and ignore it? Or would Minerva seethe with rage in the way only she could, with an anger so powerful that it could make anyone cower in fear?
It didn't matter, anyway. Because Carina wasn't going to tell her.
Arriving at King's Cross Station was relatively uneventful. No shocked or confused Muggles staring this year as people ran through the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. No accidental falling through the wall and landing on the railway tracks. No escaped owls, rats, cats and roads going wild around the station. Everything was quite normal.
Minerva left swiftly, giving her daughter a passing kiss and a goodbye, as she hurried off to go and meet the other teachers standing further up the station. It was a little sad, just watching her mother having to constantly rush off. It felt as if the two had barely communicated over the past few weeks. Minerva's life seemed to be slowly being consumed by the impending threat of You-Know-Who and his legion of Death Eaters, and while Carina knew how important that was, she thought, perhaps, just maybe, Dumbledore was becoming.... overbearingly obsessed with them and dragging all of the teachers into it. In Carina's head, student safety should be priority, which means dealing with all outside threats and stopping Dumbledore bringing more in. Student safety didn't seem that important to Dumbledore.
Apollo sat in his cage impatiently as Carina saw her luggage off in the holding area and finally boarded the train. His indignant hoots increased until she finally placed down his cage in an empty carriage. Once the door was safely shut, the latch on the owl cage was flicked open and Apollo leapt from its confines. After swooping around the compartment a few times, the owl settled upon Carina's shoulder.
"'Rina!" called a familiar voice from outside the carriage. Peter sprung in, smiling brightly. "I've missed you. It's been so, so lonely. No one wanted to listen to me talk about the Bugsy Malone film that came out." Carina laughed and gave the boy a knowing pat on the head. "Cheer up, bud. Did you know they're making Carrie, y'know the book by Stephen King, into a movie?"
The two talked for a while until more familiar faces could be seen through the door of the carriage. The other boys came crashing into the carriage just as the clock struck eleven and the train began to slowly creep out of the station, gaining speed as it went.
There was no jumping to her feet or shrieking or squealing when Sirius squeezed into the seat beside her. She felt it, the sadness radiating from him. He had never truly believed he'd have to leave his home, although it could barely have been called that, or that his family would disown him. Fortunately, the Blacks disowned many and there were still a few still willing to support him - his cousin, Andromeda, and her husband and four year old daughter, Nymphadora; or his uncle, Alphard. And there would always be the Potters, Lupins, McGonagalls and Pettigrews there to help him too.
With his head nuzzled into Carina's neck, Sirius barely spoke, simply lying against his girlfriend with his eyes closed. Instinctively, she wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders and her other hand made its way to his hair. Perhaps it was the dog side of Sirius, but he always liked his hair being stroked, played with or petted.
Remus already looked unwell as the full moon approached once more - September 8th. Every one of them (except Peter) had taken Astronomy and also took care to pay attention to the date of the full moon. It was always important to prepare for it. At Hogwarts, things often went wrong with "that time of the month" for Remus. Sometimes, Carina couldn't brew the potion, or it was contaminated, or otherwise rendered useless - for example when Peter dropped her entire batch of Wolfsbane for the month the day before the full moon. The potion was still experimental as well though, occasionally it just didn't work. Once, Remus had escaped the Shrieking Shack, sprinting into the woods in were-form. Sirius had tried his best to calm his friend, even trying to fight him into submission, but Carina had run to get a teacher. McGonagall knew that Carina was an Animagus and helped Remus during full moons, but by the time they got back the other boys were gone, saving them from death at the hands of Minerva McGonagall, for being so reckless. The teachers had found Remus and brought him back into the Shack.
So as Carina knew, it was always best to prepare for such accidents to occur.
As the train continued to chug onwards, the lull of sleep pulled Carina in. The rocking of the train allowed her to slowly drift off, still holding on to Sirius.
A hand on her shoulder woke her, shaking her awake.
