Howl

Ever-changing eyes stared back at me as I gaz at my reflection. With a sigh, I adjust my back and trot downstairs where my father and my brother are waiting for me. My father, Zev Molviola, smiles sadly at me while my brother, Baile, grumbles angrily at me. Jealousy.

“Are you ready, sweetheart?” My dad rises from his seat at the kitchen table and gestures towards the door. I tug anxiously on the ends of my hair and my dad curls a hand around my fist. “Stop that, Lyall.”

“I’m sorry, papa.” I bow my head respectfully and drop my hand by my side. Baile lags behind us as we make our way to the Ministry car. “I’m nervous.”

“I understand, kultaseni.” The car begins to rumble deeply within the metal frame and I frown – I don’t much care for the Muggle means of travel. It was odd and frankly, not as revolutionary as they were lead to believe. The Wizarding world had far better means of getting from A to B. “I know the move was difficult for both you, especially since your mother… well, I’m sorry. We’re just going to have to get use to life in Britain now and—and Hogwarts.”

I sit back in my seat with a dejected sigh. We had moved from Sweden to Britain shortly after the death of our mother. I had just finished my fifth year at Durmstrang when we moved, leaving our old life behind and plunging into a completely foreign one. Baile was too young to attend Hogwarts – much to his dismay – and he would stay home and learn from my father for another year. I was on my own.

I hadn’t wanted to leave but givien the circumstances, I didn’t want to argue with my father. I left behind friends and family and a whole life just so I wouldn’t further upset my dad. Baile had clung to me most of the journey, shaking with fear and anger. I had never seen him like that before but now that we were here, he had gone back to his usual scowling self. At least he didn’t have to attend a high school in another country in the middle of his education.

I had heard enough about Hogwarts to know what the year would have planned for me.

“You’ll get your turn next year,” my father ruffles Baile’s hair as we slip out of the car and into the surging sea of people in King’s Cross as we searched for the barrier between the Platform’s. “And at least you’ll have someone to help you out – Lyall hasn’t got anyone.”

“Thanks, dad.” I groan and shuffle towards the barrier where I see a bushy-haired girl and her family. The three, together, take a run at the wall and disappear. I smile, because it is wonderfully obvious and in plain sight. “I guess this is me.”

“You do not want us to come with you, tytar?” My father smiles encouragingly as he slings an arm around Baile. I nod my reassurance and he reaches out to hug me. “Write to us and let us know you’re okay. I will miss you, kultaseni, and I hope I will see you for Christmas.”

I nod and smile in agreement before rushing through the wall with my things—

And right into the bushy-haired girl who I seen before. “Oh!” she exclaims as I push her forward. I grab her to keep her from falling and pull her back before she turns around. “I’m terribly sorry – we were in the way!”

“No,” I’m overly aware of my accent as her father hitches an eyebrow high upon his forehead. “It’s my first time running through a wall, I may have over judged it a little.”

The family laugh and I relax a little. The girl says, “Have you transferred from Durmstrang?”

“What gave me away?”

The family laugh again and lead me towards the bright red train that idles by the platform while families and students bustle around recklessly.

“Well,” the girl seems to do most of the talking for her family. Her parents just smile politely and followed us. I figured that they were muggles and their daughter a muggle-born witch. “Your accent, of course. But, this isn’t your first time at Hogwarts.”

She was right, I had been here before. Briefly, during the Tri-Wizard Tournament but I hadn’t participated and, considering it was a few years ago now, I was surprised she even remembered my face. I introduced myself, since she had been kind enough to let me follow her around. “I’m Lyall, by the way. Lyall Molviola.”

“Hermione Granger. It’s nice to meet you,” she smiles brightly and I see that she is quite pretty, the kind of pretty you might overlook if you weren’t looking properly. “I’d be happy to show you around, introduce you, if you’d like.”

“Oh, would you?” I feel relief and a weight shedding from my shoulders. I smile graciously at her parents and tell them it was lovely to meet them. I stand to the side and let Hermione say goodbye properly before she comes to me and loops our arms together. We drop off our cases and she starts to explain the dynamics of the school to me as we rummage through the carriages for her friends.

“Ah, here they are!” Hermione pulls me into a carriage where there are three boys and another girl. With the addition of the two of us, it’s beginning to get quite cramped already. “Guys, this is Lyall – she just transferred from Durmstrang.”

A boy with a considerable amount of baby fat, blanches at the sight of me and I try to place his face in my memory as I sit across from him. The others are introduced: Harry (I know who he is but I didn’t much care for his status), Ron and Ginny (brother and sister) and finally, the boy who looked positively frightened of me is Neville.

“It’s lovely to meet you all.” I say and throw a look towards Neville. Before I can help myself, I lean towards him and catch his eyes. “I’m sorry, I can’t help but notice you look rather terrified of me, I was wondering if there’s a reason for this.”

The carriage falls into silence and I almost wish I hadn’t opened my mouth at all. I lean back in my seat as the group around me look between Neville and I curiously. It was unnerving and I thought about leaving for a moment, perhaps I would walk the length of the train and work better on filtering my thoughts. Ginny purses her lips and frowns at Neville.

“Neville,” she starts slowly as though talking to a child. “Didn’t you ask Lyall to the Yule Ball?”

I tilt my head to the side and rake my memory. A few boys from Hogwarts had asked me to the ball that year, because none of them knew I already had a date. I hadn’t thought much of it, I just reckoned I was new and different from the girls at Hogwarts. I politely declined with a smile – as my mother taught me to – and sent them on their way. I couldn’t have told you any of their names.

“Oh,” I smile reassuringly at him. I lie. “I only told you no because I had a date by the time you had found me. If you had been a little quicker, ystäväni, perhaps we could have gone together.”

I feel awkward now and excuse myself. I didn’t want to stay in there with stale memories that meant nothing. I probably wouldn’t have gone with the Neville boy but, as my mother had taught me, lying to make someone feel better is as good as telling the truth. I slipped through a door and found myself surrounded by green; green robes, drapes, walls. I nod in acknowledgement to the people sitting there but do not attempt to converse with them as I try to slip through their section of the train unnoticed. It turned out, that disappearing wasn’t as difficult as I had thought.

Pure darkness fills the carriage and I take a deep breath. I can feel the tips of my fingers tingling and bones begging for me to move. I stay put and breathe deeply until the darkness recedes as I knew it would. Several angry eyes are trained on me now and I shrug and try to continue through the carriage.

“Hey, you.” I groan quietly and turn around to find a strikingly handsome boy with a dark suit on. His hair is bright blonde, it borders on white and he has cold, ice blue eyes that demand my full attention. “What were you doing in there?”

“Walking.” I say it so simply that I offend him. “I’m new. I was just looking around.”

“I’ve seen you before.”

I stare at him for a long moment, getting bored with him as he stares back. I offer him a shrug before turning my back on him and attempting to leave. I feel his hand on my shoulder, his cool finger brushes against the bare skin of my neck and we both jump away from each other. Kusipää! He must have used a jinx on me!

“What do you think you’re—”

“How dare you—”

We lapse into silence and I tilt my head to the side as I tug on my hair. It wasn’t him, nor was it me – so what just happened?

“I… Um. Draco Malfoy.” He extends his hand to me and I regard it warily before reaching for it.

“Lyall, my name is Lyall Molviola.” I grasp his hands and the same shock races through my body but this time I am braced for it so it doesn’t come as quite a shock, ironically. I close my eyes and all that there is, is Draco and me, our hands wrapped around each other. I don’t want this. I don’t want anything of what is happening. I tear my hand away and barge by him, making my way through the same route that I had on my way. I slip back inside the carriage where only Neville and Ginny remain and compose my face into something more appealing than the sneer I had previously worn.

“There’s not much longer left.” Ginny smiles at me. I offer her a tense smile back. She takes my tension as nervousness and for that I am glad as she launches into reasons I shouldn’t be nervous. “It’s really quite good. There’s four houses…”

I let the two of them drone on about the school and the adventures they and their friends had endeavoured on. I let my mind sweep back to my old life, my friends and what they were doing on the morning of September 1st. A castle flutters in and out of view and I sigh. Durmstrang was a castle too, albeit not as comfortable as this one but it was home to me. I miss it, even the horribly cold weather and the thick accents and the poor heating inside the school. I just miss it. I miss the forest that surrounded the place where my friends and I felt free. Here, I had been told, the forest was forbidden.

“What house do you think sounds the best?” I drag my sight away from the castle and my mind away from the window and look at Neville as he looks at me excitedly. I rake my brain for what they had said of the houses and answer truthfully.

“Slytherin,” their faces fall and I gather that they are not in Slytherin. “What house are you all in?”

“We’re all in Gryffindor – we don’t really make friends with Slytherin’s.” Ginny informs me and I cock an eyebrow but do not inquire further but she continues to talk anyway, as I expected she would. “Slytherin’s tend to be purebloods—” I interject her, informing her that we were all purebloods in this carriage. “—Yes, but Slytherin’s are usually stuck up and all they care about is blood purity and wealth.”

“That’s the people though,” I point out to her. “Not the house.”

“Yeah, but, we just don’t know any nice Slytherin’s.” Neville argues his point and though I believe he is telling the truth, it doesn’t mean that if one is in Slytherin one is incapable of kindness. “That’s all.”

“I can’t tell you you’re wrong.”

“You’ll probably be in Gryffindor anyway, you’re too nice.”

“You never mentioned kindness in any of your house description,” I frown at them. I did like them but their arguments against Slytherin were poor. “I’m sure you don’t think everyone in Ravenclaw is incapable of cruelty.”

“Well…” Ginny blinks. “I suppose you’re right.”

We let conversation drift away from that as the train idles to a stop and we hop off the train. I catch glimpses of the others I met earlier. I don’t see Harry or the Malfoy boy. Neville takes me to a serious looking lady with a pointy hat and informs her that I’m new.

“Ah, Miss Molviola.” She ushers me towards a carriage where she and I sit alone. I eye the beasts that pull them suspiciously sure that I could see right through them. The woman doesn’t say anything so I don’t ask. “I’m Professor McGonagall. I’m going to take you to get sorted ahead of the first years.”

This was it. I was officially a Hogwarts student.