His Mark
[Knowledge is Power]

1st September 2016
Thursday

Aileen

Three months later Aileen Geraint Vauxhall, or rather Aileen Geraint Gaunt stood at the train station.

He had never ridden a train before in his entire life.
After he had flinched at the first loud whistle and had almost dropped his suitcase, he was now more cautious and only briefly glanced at the trains around him.
Aileen held the leather handle of the suitcase in one hand, and Momo's now furry feline head could be seen peering out of the backpack that he wore on his back.

He had his own suitcase!

Until now, he hadn't had many things in his life that had truly belonged to him, unless he had taken them from someone.
But this suitcase and, above all, its contents belonged to him and revealed that the feeling that he had been having for eleven years hadn't deceived him.

He was indeed special.

He had something that the other children in the Orphanage would never have.
Magic!

Platform nine.
Platform ten.
In the center: only a stone wall.
Aileen looked around furtively.

Another whistle and the train from Platform 9 rolled out of the station, out of London, and out of Aileen Gaunt's life.

He nervously bit the inside of his lower lip.
The agonizing restlessness in him seemed to have spread into every fiber of his body, and the giant issue that was before him seemed to cover all other thoughts.

What if it didn't work?
For a brief moment he wondered if it would have been wiser to accept the assistance of the professor.
No.

Aileen stood a little straighter and banished the insecurity out of his eyes.
A habit that helped him feel more courageous.
No one was allowed to see him weak.

Every minute that he stood delaying here, would be more time that he'd be wondering what was waiting for him behind that wall.
He took advantage of the sudden determination that briefly flared up in him, and ran toward the stone wall.
With an effort, he tried to keep his eyes open, but he didn't succeed.
He was about to run into a stone wall!

As he continued running, he felt a strange tingling on his skin.
The world around him went dead quiet, but a second later, everything was back to normal.
Or was is it?

Aileen opened his eyes wide in amazement and looked around.
From the ceiling dangled a wooden sign that read:
Platform 9¾

The train was crimson, unlike the ones he had seen mere seconds ago.
Aileen gazed up at the wall and ran his hand over it.
The jumbled thoughts in his head seemed to have dissolved into bubbling foam, because everything that he felt at the moment was a happy daze, and more questions which seemed to slowly overcome him.

"Hey boy, get away from there! You're blocking the entrance," a man demanded and Aileen turned around quickly.
Unquestionably a conductor.
He obeyed silently and took a firm step to the side.
Not a minute too soon, because as soon as he moved, a man walked through.
There was no question that he was a wizard.
Aileen had had enough time to observe them during his trip to Diagon Alley.

The man paid him no attention, but stepped aside to make space for the rest of his family:
A blonde woman and a little boy, around Aileen's age.

"I see that you managed to get trough Daniel," said the man, and his voice sounded distant.
The boy immediately let go of his mother's hand and lowered his eyes in shame.
He was carrying a large brown suitcase.
It was bigger than Aileen's.
But the boy didn't seem to have problems with the weight.
Maybe they used a spell to make it weightless?

''Look, Daniel! This is the Hogwarts Express!'' Said the blond woman who seemed to be Daniel's mother enthusiastically, and placed her hand tenderly on her son's shoulder which in turn made Daniel smile up at her happily.

"What's going on today! Please keep the entrance free! It can't be that hard!"
The conductor called out annoyed and the family moved to the side, so they now stood directly in front of Aileen, who didn't quite know where he was supposed to go.

"Behave and don't get into any mischief!", The man said to his son with a stern voice.
"Yes, Father," the boy confirmed promptly.
"And be sure to write us, I want to know everything that you experience," his mother added lovingly and fumbled nervously with the collar of his shirt.
He was wearing normal clothes.

Aileen suddenly came to the realization that he didn't want to witness a touching farewell scene, so he determinedly picked up his suitcase again and walked briskly towards the Hogwarts Express.
All around him were families, little brothers and sisters who were crying, mothers hugged their children and gave them advice for the coming school year, as the inexhaustible vapor that flowed from the train eventually evaporated into the vastness of King Cross station.

Aileen Gaunt however behaved as if he didn't see the happenings around him.
As so often, he walked with an expressionless face past them as if they didn't belong to his world.

He walked briskly toward an entrance of the train, after all, he didn't have anyone to say goodbye to, but his path through the door was cut.
A boy who was much bigger than him stormed through.
"Alex!" Came the resounding voice of a man, but the boy didn't seem to hear, or simply ignored him.
Aileen looked back at a dark haired wizard who stood there smiling slightly and shook his head.

He finally entered the Hogwarts Express.
The inside of the train looked like the ones in which he had looked through this morning.
After all he had been at the station for hours.
Aileen curiously walked down the aisle and threw occasional furtive glances into the various compartments.
In many there were only two or three children, and he guessed that most of them were probably still outside.

Finally he found a completely empty compartment in the far back of the train, and immediately claimed it for himself.

He tried to to place the suitcase in the space above the chairs that was probably intended for it, but it remained a pitiful attempt because the suitcase was way too heavy.
"Wait, I'll help you," Aileen heard a voice and in the next moment his suitcase had already been lifted.
The redhead glanced up at the much taller blond boy.
The boy in turn smiled widely down at him and his pale blue eyes seemed unnaturally bright.

Aileen stared at him with disdain.
'He must be part of that Scorpius boy family,' Momo's voice shot through his thoughts.
'Maybe you should at least act a little bit nicer-'

"Just between the two of us," the older boy continued in a conspiratorial tone, unintentionally interrupting Momos little speech.
"It doesn't hurt to say thank you," he winked and disappeared out of the compartment.

Aileen watched after the boy annoyed.
This time he closed the door.
He really didn't need any more people of that kind in his compartment on this long trip to Hogwarts.

Cordelia

The sight of the raven haired girl was almost comical.
She staggered through the narrow corridors, bumping and pushing into the lingering crowd with her wheelie suitcase, which was half her size, her cage, which held a disgruntled black owl that at intervals tried to peck at her hands, and the handle of her violin case, which was strapped across her back was grazing at people's sides.
She left in her wake a series of curious stares, followed by expressions that one would expect when watching a Pygmy Puff beg for food.

"Excuse me! Oh, oh- sorry! Excuse me!" she chanted over and over again, her pale face growing red with every bump. Her eyes darted around, searching for a suitable compartment-one without seniors or obvious friendship groups or...

"Aaargh!" If Cordelia's face was as red as a tomato before, it was now a blazing inferno, set alight by a passionate couple entwined so tightly that you could barely see where one ended and the other started.

My poor virgin eyes! Cordelia lamented, wishing that someone could obliviate that scene from her mind. She hurried away, crashing into more people while calling out even more apologies.

After for what seemed like an hour, she finally found what seemed like an empty compartment at the rear of the train.
As soon as she opened the door, a piercing whistle rang through the air and the train lurched forwards, throwing Cordelia to the door frame and into a heap upon the floor. The cage, still grasped in her hand smacked on the floor with a nasty clash, resulting in the owl screeching and doing it's utmost best at clawing it's mistress's hand in vengeance.

"Oww! Crud, crud, crud",hissed Cordelia , her eyes watering from her bruised body and bleeding hand.

Her gaze wandered to the other side of the compartment, as she heard a sudden movement.
A white kitten was comfortably sitting next to a sleeping boy and watched her, with what she could only describe as a look of pure disdain.

The boy had a shock of vibrant red hair, comparable to a Weasley. He was lanky and rather tall for his age, his pale limbs sprawled out in his slumber. Despite the ruckus that was going on he stayed as still as a grave as if he had some sort of spell- a muffliato cast around him.
Cordelia nervously glanced at the cat-the little puffball seemed to be guarding the sleeping boy and was eying her like a possible threat with mismatched eyes.

Judging from the kitten's deadly glare, she didn't want to know what happens to actual threats.

Cordelia gingerly picked herself up,wavering like a drunkard as the train rushed forwards.
The momentum threw her on the seats, making her give out a hiss of pain as the violin case on her back digged into her bruised back. As she lifted the case and placed it beside her, she nervously glanced at the sleeping boy.

He was still dead to the world.

Wow...what a heavy sleeper. Is he still alive? Cordelia thought to herself.
As if he was trying to prove her wrong, the boy suddenly winced and opened his eyes.
Still half asleep, he ran his hand through his red curls and looked around the compartment seemingly disoriented.
Cordelia felt like a rabbit caught in headlights.

Her hazel eyes met his blue and hazel mismatched ones, and for a moment they just stared at one another. Cordelia felt slightly disoriented looking into his eyes- it was like directly focusing on two people at once.

The boy kept looking at her, his expression turning almost identical to the look she had gotten from the little puffball just minutes earlier.
But where the cat's look gave Cordelia the impression that it was protecting it's master, the boy's look held curiosity,and in contrary to the kitten his stare rather than glance as it had been just seconds ago, had no traces of disdain, just pure annoyance.

Oh great. If the cat was bad, I don't even want to think about it's master.

"Err- hi. Sorry, but I couldn't find a free compartment, and I thought it was empty, but you see I fell in the compartment and your cat-!" Cordelia hurriedly tried to shut up her nervous rambling- it was a awful habit she had, one that gave her away when she was lying.

"Oh, my name is Cordelia Ya-err just Cordelia. What's yours?"
"Cat?'' The boy asked seemingly confused.
"Your name is Cat?" Cordelia replied, deciding to play dumb to cover up her slip.
''What- no, that was a question, not an answer to yours...'' He answered matter of factly.
''What kind of parents would name their child Cat? And please don't even think of answering that, it's a rhetorical question.''
"I'm guessing a rhetorical question is a question that isn't suppose to have an answer, which is kinda contradictory if you think about the purpose of a question" Cordelia stated thoughtfully.
"Yes, that's exactly what it is." The boy answered slightly annoyed completely ignoring the rest of her sentence.
"Well, to answer my non-rhetorical question that requires an answer- what's your name?" Cordelia inquired once again.

She could see he was getting annoyed with her-but shouldn't she at least get to know his name?

The boy however seemed to be having an inner conflict of some sort as he glanced around the compartment, as if searching for something.
That something turned out to be a little ball of fur who was slowly making its way to Cordelia's black owl.

''Momo leave the owl alone, you don't know where it's been.'' The boy said to his cat who in turn stopped dead in its tracks.

The cat, who Cordelia now knew was called Momo, sat down in front of the owl's cage looking back and forth between its master and the owl.
The two seemed to be having a silent discussion of some sort, which the kitten must have lost because the next thing it did was so out of character- well out of character for a cat that looked like it wanted to scratch Cordelia's eyes out a few minutes ago, it rubbed its fluffy self against her leg.

"Awww, you're so cute! Like a Pygmy Puff!" She bend down to stroke the kitten's head.

****

Almost an hour had passed, in which the boy looked out the window seemingly deep in thought, whilst Cordelia continued to pet and play with a somewhat tired looking Momo.

''I still didn't get your name,'' she said, as the little kitten seemed to have developed a sudden interest in a bracelet she was wearing.

The boy sitting opposite of her, managed to tear his eyes away from the beautiful landscape they were passing through with some difficulty, and looked at her.

Really looked at her.

His eyes wandered from the tip of her shoes, to her hazel eyes, and once again Cordelia felt herself as if in a trance.
For a while he just stared wordlessly into her eyes. Almost without blinking, like a snake.

Then as if coming to some sort of conclusion, he gave her the most sincere smile she had ever seen and answered: ''It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance just Cordelia, my name is Aileen, Aileen Geraint Gaunt.''

''Gaunt? Are you from a Muggle family?''
Cordelia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

Aileen looked slightly taken aback by her reaction, or rather lack of it, and added:
''No, I'm a pureblood. My grandmother was Geraint Ollivanders daughter.''
''So you're related to Ollivander, the wandmaker? I didn't even know he had relatives..." she mused.
''The women of the Ollivander family aren't that well known, seeing as only the men of the family get into the wand making business.'' Aileen replied annoyed, then he lay down again and fell seemingly asleep only moments later.

Cordelia sat down opposite him and put the cage of her owl next to her on the bench.
She had wanted to talk about Hogwarts and the upcoming year.
But she got a hold of herself.
Aileen looked really tired, it would have been rude to wake him.

As the train passed the many landscape, Cordelia immersed herself in her school books, any thought of Aileen driven out by spells, potions and history figures. Momo had taken advantage of Cordelia's disinterest in him and was curled up on his master's side, watching Cordelia distrustfully and eyeing the owl as a possible source of food.

The sun was setting when the peace of the compartment was disturbed by a tall, sandy blonde boy wearing green robes and a glittering prefect badge. His cool blue eyes fell on Cordelia who was just looking up from The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection.

"Julius? What do you want?", she said in a resigned tone.
Julius moved the owl's cage and sat it on the floor.
He rested his arm around the headrest and attempted to place his long legs on his sister's lap, which she immediately started to pummel until he dropped them off.
"Just wishing my little sis good luck on her sorting. You'll need it"
"And why would I need luck?" Cordelia retorted while trying to beat off her brother's hands from mussing up her hair.
"Quit it Julius!"
"Well...," he pretended to think carefully and avoid her failing fists,"it's hard and painful"
"Oh?" Cordelia's face took on a skeptical look.
"Yeah, I can't tell you as it's against the rules, but this guy in my year fainted on the spot when he took the test". Julius gave up on harassing Cordelia's hair and leant forwards on his knees.
"So he fainted while he put on a hat," Cordelia snickered at Julius's face who immediately started to poke her stomach.
"Stop it, or I'll tell Cleo you wet your pants when she's swimming in a bikini!" she cried out rather loudly, curling into a ball to protect her vulnerable stomach.
"Shhh!" Julius's face was almost synonymous to a ripe tomato.
"Don't you dare, Cordelia, or I'll..."
"Oh, go away. I need to get changed."
"Ok. I'll see you at the Slytherin table" Julius moved to the door, gripping the handles to prevent himself from falling like his sister.
"Yeah. Ok" Cordelia could feel her smile freezing as her brother's heavy footsteps faded away.

Cordelia packed her books up and pulled out her robes. After retreating into a small toilet cubicle she pulled on her robes, feeling shaky and cold as three thoughts danced in her mind.

I don't want to be in Slytherin
I can't be in Slytherin
But I have to be in Slytherin

She walked back to the compartment and watched the sunlight play on Aileen's fiery hair, giving him a halo of heavenly fire.

I should wake him up. He's out like a dead candle.

She started towards him but was blocked by a hissing Momo, looking more like a fluffball with his fur standing on end, albeit a very dangerous fluffball with teeth sharp enough to pierce through bone.
Cordelia could almost see her obituary.

Cordelia Yaxley, died at a tragic age of 11, killed by a angry puffball kitten.

"Oh-kay. Look, I'm not going to hurt him."
An angry hiss and another display of teeth. Cordelia gulped and eyed the door.
"Look, he's been out the whole day and we're almost at Hogwarts. Do you want him to be carried off to London, asleep while he misses the first day of school?" Cordelia couldn't believe she was conferring with an animal, but this one had a gleam of human intelligence that was lacking in most animals.
The cat glared at her. Cordelia could almost imagine the cogs turning in his brain, weighing the risks of trusting her.
"Look, you're watching me, right? So how can I do anything?"
Momo gave her the cat equivalent of a sullen glare and stepped aside, displaying his teeth for good measure.
Cordelia repressed a shudder as she sat beside the motionless figure.
"Hey, wake up. We're almost there" Cordelia gingerly shook him, very aware of the slitted eyes watching her every move.
"Wake up! Aileen, you're cat's going to kill me if I have to do more to wake you up..... AILEEN THE TRAIN'S ON FIRE AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!" Cordelia shouted, hoping it would get through him.
"Whaat?" Aileen opened his eyes and blinked slowly, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes.
Cordelia sighed in relief.
"We are almost there, Sleeping Beauty. Get changed." Cordelia sunk into her seat, feeling like she had just completed a life-threatening task. In a way,it was.

Aileen muttered something under his breath before fumbling for his robes and stumbling out of the compartment to the same cubicle that Cordelia was just in.
Cordelia closed her eyes as the knot of nerves in her stomach started to unravel, sending adrenaline coursing through her veins.

She could see the train pulling into the station before she realized that Aileen still wasn't back.
The announcer had just told the students to leave their baggage on the train before departure.
Aileen couldn't have just gotten off the train- he still needed to put his muggle clothes away and he went without Momo...

Speaking of Momo, he was constantly pacing and meowing, looking at the door from which his master left. If she was having a bad feeling, and Momo was having a bad feeling... that can't be a coincidence.

Cordelia started to fast walk to the cubicle, a very dire feeling weighing her stomach. She wrenched open the door and started to scan the bathroom.

One cubicle out of two was locked, and Cordelia could see an outstretched hand sticking out from under the door.

"Oh Merlin..." Cordelia stumbled back, suddenly feeling dizzy.
"Aileen! Aileen!"
She banged at the door, breathing heavily while her mind was a screaming blank sheet of panic.
The door refused to budge and the outstretched hand still laid there.

"Aileen! Dammit, please don't scare me...Aileen!"
She could hear the students' moving footsteps, and she knew she only had seconds to minutes until the train left.

Cordelia ran into the other cubicle and climbed on top of toilet, praying that it would hold her weight and that Aileen was fully dressed when she jumped down.
She let herself down carefully on Aileen's toilet and lept down.

What she saw almost sent her fainting as well.

His eyes firmly closed, his lips pale and his long limbs sprawled out like a broken eagle, Aileen Geraint Gaunt looked like he was already dead.