Lumos: Year Three

“Helena—Jude—get these books out of the kitchen!” Ursula, Helena’s mother screamed as she hid herself on the counter. Another summer had passed and Hagrid had sent the kids who signed up for Care of Magical Creatures some monstrous books.

“Coming!” Helena ran through the door and stunned the book quickly. Buckling its mouth shut, she put it in her trunk near the door. Jude had done the same without a word. Ursula sighed as she stepped down from the counter. She wiped off her dress and smiled.

“Do you know what day it is?” her mother asked.

Helena wasn’t sure, shrugging as she looked around the room.

“You get your own wand today.”

“Really!? Finally!” Helena smiled brightly as she jumped up. “What are we waiting for!? Let’s go!”

“You and I will go just as soon as your father is back with Annabel.”

“They’re already home though,” Helena blinked.

“Since when?” Ursula narrowed her eyes.

“They’re in the living room going over her summer homework, last I saw.”

Ursula, of course had not believed her and went to check through the door. Surely there they were, sitting on the couch going over her scrolls.

“All right then,” Ursula sighed, “Floo powder time.”

Excited and ready to go, Helena immediately went over to the fireplace, barely able to keep herself still. She had only wished she got to have her own wand from her first year. Her family had the means to do it, but her father insisted that she could use her older sister’s old want until she was mature enough to handle the responsibility of her own wand. To her, that just meant that he didn’t want to waste his money on her.

When they arrived to Diagon Alley, the area was flooded. Thankfully for her, she had already bought all her of her supplies ahead of time, for there were many people, especially students who were roaming around the area. Looking around for Ollivander’s, she heard some yelling going on in the bookstore nearby.

“Get out of here! If you’re just going to read the books without buying them, get lost!” one of the clerks screamed as he kicked the girl out of the store, slamming the door behind her.

“Well sheesh, I just wanted to make sure I liked what I was buying!” the girl with bright red hair snapped back as she turned around. It was Lanee. Noticing Helena right away, she waved.

Thank god that Helena was here with her mother instead of her father. If her father saw that she was friends with a Gryffindor… or someone with hair as bright as hers, he’d probably disown her.

“Hey, Lanee… disturbing the peace?” Helena laughed.

“As usual,” Lanee winked. “What are you up to?”

“I’m finally getting my own wand,” she smiled.

“Finally? You didn’t get one your first year?”

“No, I was using Victoria’s old wand.”

“That sounds dumb,” Lanee shrugged.

“Oh, this is my mother by the way. Mum, this is Lanee,” Helena leaned in to whisper to her mom. “She’s a Gryffindor, so it’s best not to tell dad I’m friends with her.”

Ursula laughed and held her hand out to shake Lanee’s, “Any friend of Helena’s is a friend of mine. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ah so you’re miss V!” she shook her hand tightly.

Ursula laughed as she looked around. “Well, Helena, Ollivander’s is right there, so I’ll be waiting on a bench outside of it. Don’t take too long, alright?”

Helena nodded as she looked back to Lanee, “Well I better get going. I’ll see you at King’s Cross, alright?”

“Alrighty then,” Lanee nodded.

As she headed over into the wand shop, she was surprised to see that no one was in there.

“Well well… if it isn’t Helena Villar. I was surprised when you didn’t get to visit your first year,” an old man spoke with a wide smile at his desk.

“I was using my sister’s old want,” Helena held it up. Ollivander picked it up to examine and nodded.

“I see… 13 ¼ inches… mahogany wood with unicorn hair. It’s quite dense. This wand, who prefers our sister is not a good match for you,” Ollivander went to find a few wands. “Try this one. Phoenix feather with hawthorn wood. Swishy.”

Helena took the wand and gave it a quick wave as the wand boxes in front of her scattered aggressively.

“Oh I see. No, not this one…” Ollivander put several wands on the table in front of her. “Any of these. Try any of them.”

Helena loved over the few and tried to decide which wand she should pick. One had caught her eye especially. It was dark in color and the shortest of the four. Picking it up, it began to glow and she immediately felt a bond form over the wand and herself.

“I see. Dragon heartstring core with sycamore wood. 10 ¼ inches… quite bendy,” he smiled.

“This is the wand I want,” Helena murmured.

“Well that wand seems to want you as its master, so I don’t see why not.”

Helena felt a bit more at ease. She finally had her own wand. After paying, she stepped out to find her mother outside, not at the bench, but reading over a lamp post where several posters were hanging on the wall.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE
Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.

“WE are doing all we can to recapture Black,” said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, “and we beg the magical community to remain calm.”

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of this crisis—

Helena stopped herself from reading more. The news of a madman escaped from Azkaban didn’t sit well with her. Ursula turned and immediately grabbed her hand.

“Let’s go. Come on—come on—“ she pulled Helena through the crowd before they apparated.

When she arrived back at home, she headed up to her room to write a letter.

Dear Lanee,
I didn’t really get much time to say hello in town, so how was your summer? Mine was pretty boring. I’m a bit excited to come back to school. I guess some guy from Azkaban escaped… that’s a bit scary. After all the stuff Hogwarts has gone through, they’re probably going to take this very seriously…
Hopefully we can sit together on the Hogwarts Express!
Well, I’ll seeya.
Helena

With that, she sent off the owl and it was off to do something for the rest of the day. By the time the weekend ended, it would be time to go back to King’s Cross.

****

Helena and her siblings got onto the train as quickly as possible when they had arrived. Since they had arrived somewhat late, Helena was scared that she wouldn’t be able to sit with Lanee. Sighing, she looked around and was able to find them thankfully. Lanee, Seamus, and Dean were all in their own compartment and she entered it quickly.

“Hey guys,” Helena sat next to Lanee.

“Hey there,” Dean replied.

“Is it just me or is this train especially full today?” Seamus quickly said.

“We have like… double the number of first years,” Helena rolled her eyes.

“Any of your siblings one of them?” Lanee asked.

“No, the next sibling is coming next year. Veronica… she’s very spoiled and bratty, unlike Annabel who’s rather shy and reserved.”

“How many siblings do you have?” Seamus’s eyes widened.

“Three brothers and three sisters. I’m right in the middle.”

They began talking, telling ridiculous stories of their summers, not that Helena had anything interesting to say about hers. The most interesting thing that had happened was when the monster books arrived in the mail and nearly tore off her father’s hand.

Suddenly the compartment opened. A boy who was rather tall and fit in Ravenclaw robes was standing awkwardly. He had dark blue eyes and unkempt, black hair that fell over his eyes. His voice was deeper than most of the boys, but he looked about their age.

“Excuse me,” he spoke, “Could I sit here? Everywhere is crowded.”

“Uh…” Helena blinked, watching him. To her, he was incredibly handsome. His face was slim, yet round.

“Sure,” Lanee smirked, noticing that Helena was blushing slightly.

“What are you doing? Helena whispered.

“You told me you wanted to get over Malfoy over the summer…” she winked.

The boy walked in pleasantly and sat next to Helena, smiling. “I’m Jayden.”

They all introduced themselves (Helena did so awkwardly) but it didn’t take long for them to all hold a conversation that lasted. None of them seemed to have noticed that the room was growing dimmer and that the windows were fogging up.

“My parents never go to that cottage anymore. During Christmas was a last minute decision since my mother was ill. We should all spend a summer week up there,” Helena smiled.

“What lake is it on?” Jayden tilted his head.

“Er… Water Lilly Lake.”

“My cottage is up there!” he smiled.

“No way!” Helena was pretending to act excited because she was too nervous to act any other way.

“Well that actually sounds like an awesome idea—“ Lanee stopped herself as she looked around. Narrowing her eyes, she turned to Helena.

The train was coming to a slow, yet abrupt stop. She looked over to Lanee, who had shifted to sit next to Seamus, who was confused as well.

“Are we there?” Seamus asked.

“It’s supposed to be a little over a three hour ride,” Helena shook her head, “We’ve only been on for 45 minutes…”

Unsure of what was happening, the room began to feel much colder. Shaking, Helena leaned herself against the wall since Lanee had moved over a seat. It was too cold, to the point where she was shivering.