New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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The chill in the compartment faded as quickly as it had settled.
The Hogwarts Express rushed through the countryside.
Every compartment was full of lively noise, and Callan’s was no exception.
Lily had recovered and was now glaring at Callan while talking on and on.
“Petunia cried. She cried. She cried, do you understand?”
Snape coughed at the right moment, trying to warn Lily about her tone, only to receive a merciless look of contempt.
Lily had seen his earlier humiliation quite clearly, though admittedly she had not been much better.
Callan scratched Balian behind the ears and gave in.
“All right, all right. I understand.”
Only then did Lily stop.
She watched him keep sniffing Balian and asked, “Why do you keep smelling her? If you like cats, you could have bought one yourself.”
“I do not have the patience to keep a pet.”
Callan took another sniff.
Balian still did not dare move and only looked at Lily with pleading eyes.
Lily had indeed taken good care of her.
The kitten smelled fresh and clean.
Satisfied, Callan returned Balian to Lily and said, “Borrowing yours now and then is enough.”
Balian’s eyes filled with even deeper despair.
“We might not be sorted into the same House.”
Lily stroked Balian gently, looking at the kitten with sympathy, and muttered, “Then we might not see each other as often.”
“It would be best if you were sorted into Slytherin,” Snape said, summoning his courage.
Then he looked at Callan as well, clearly meaning the same for him.
Callan only gave a scornful laugh.
‘Slytherin, the House that seemed to funnel half its graduates toward the Death Eaters?
No, thank you.’
“Slytherin?”
Clearly, Callan was not the only one in the compartment with an opinion about Slytherin.
“Who wants to be in Slytherin? I would not want to go there. What about you?”
James Potter asked Sirius, who had relaxed again opposite him.
But Sirius did not laugh.
“My whole family has been in Slytherin.”
James looked surprised.
“And here I thought you were all right.”
Sirius grinned.
“Maybe I will break tradition. If you could choose, where would you go?”
James raised an invisible sword.
“Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad!”
Snape gave a contemptuous snort.
James turned to look at him, and his gaze flicked briefly toward Callan, who was watching the scene.
“Got a problem with that?”
“No,” Snape said, though his arrogant smile said otherwise.
“But if you would rather be brawny than brainy…”
“Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” Sirius cut in.
Like James, he glanced at Callan, only to find Callan already watching him.
James laughed loudly, though he kept glancing at Callan from the corner of his eye.
Lily flushed.
She straightened and looked at James with disgust, then at Sirius.
Finally, she turned suddenly to Callan.
“Callan, they are bullying Sev!”
James stopped laughing.
Sirius’s hand slipped casually into his robes.
Callan froze.
“What?”
He had been watching the first clash between the boys who would become the Marauders with great interest and was caught completely off guard.
“What did you say?”
“Those two!” Lily pointed at James and Sirius in turn, still disgusted.
“They are bullying Sev!”
Snape also looked at James beside him with wary eyes, then said to Callan, “I will handle this one, Callan. You take the other!”
“Wait!”
A wave of profound disorientation swept over Callan.
Under the eyes of four people and one cat, he curled inward slightly and murmured, “You cannot see me. You cannot see me…”
“You know the Disillusionment Charm?”
James’s eyes changed at once.
He had recognized Callan as the strange boy from Diagon Alley, but since they had not really interacted then, his hand quietly slipped inside his robes.
“Uh…”
Callan suddenly lost all interest.
He simply stretched a hand between Snape and James, gave Sirius a warning look, and abruptly lifted his hand.
“Fine. One on one, then.”
“Callan!”
Lily was becoming angry at his nonsense.
“What are you doing?”
Callan sighed.
“What do you want me to do?
“He did say…” Callan pointed at James, though James immediately leaned away from where Callan was pointing.
The bit of wandless magic from earlier had clearly left him wary.
Callan withdrew his finger in distaste.
“He did say Gryffindor was his father’s House. Snape’s words insulted his father. I wouldn’t tolerate that either. Of course, Snape himself might not care. His father is rather awful.”
Snape had not expected Callan to turn the blade on him.
His face flushed red with anger and shame.
“Wise choice!”
James’s opinion of Callan improved considerably.
Sirius also looked at him strangely, confused by the relationship between the three of them.
“However.”
Before Lily or Snape could speak, Callan’s gaze swept coldly over James and Sirius.
“You insulted my friend right in front of me.”
James and Sirius stiffened.
“So let us call the matter finished.”
Before the atmosphere could turn cold again, Callan added suddenly, “After all, his mother is a very kind lady. She even wanted to buy me ice cream.”
He pointed at James again.
James froze.
He had not expected Callan to remember something like that.
“So we’re even now, yes?”
Callan looked at James and Sirius in turn.
It was only an ordinary glance, but both boys felt vaguely threatened by it.
As for Snape, after a moment’s thought, he turned back with a dark expression.
“See? Is that not better?”
Callan smiled at Lily, but Lily was still angry that he had not stood up for his friend and turned away, refusing to speak to him.
Callan rolled his eyes and fell silent too.
The compartment became painfully awkward.
Fortunately, it was not long before the door opened again from outside.
A pale, frail-looking boy stood there with a short, plump one beside him.
When Remus Lupin noticed the strange atmosphere in the compartment, he froze.
He said quietly to Peter behind him, “Let’s keep looking. There may be another empty compartment farther back.”
“No need.”
Callan suddenly spoke.
He took down his luggage and said to the two boys, “You two can sit here. We are leaving.”
Then he cast Levitation Charms on Lily’s and Snape’s trunks, bringing them down as well.
Callan looked at Lily and Snape in turn.
“Unless you want to stay here?”
Before long, the three of them had closed the compartment door behind them.
Callan looked at the two following him and muttered, “How dull.”
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.