September 1973
It was the day to leave for Hogwarts. Adelaide wore a spaghetti strapped baby blue dress with a blue cardigan. At first, it was a little but hot, but seeing how her collarbone popped, it was perhaps not the best time to let go of it. At first, she wanted to wear something dark, but her father forbade any one of them to wear dark clothes, citing their mother's wish for them to not wear mourning clothing anymore.
She wore a blue silk headband to match the colour of her cardigan, but her long and thick hair hung loosely. She wore black boots. Again, she pinched her cheeks to give herself some colour.
Adelaide went to the dinning room, she was hungry but she couldn't bring herself to really attempt to raise a spoon or fork. So with her hand she took a piece of bread and ate a piece of bacon. She stood up afterwards and went away, waiting for her family in the sitting room for them to finish their breakfast.
After half an hour, they joined her. Elizabeth was wearing a pink blouse with a flowing black pencil skirt that was longer than her knees. Her hair was pinned in her usual bun. Victoria wore a white pullover, with some red details and her jeans had white flowers and some red petals and her long hair was pulled in a ponytail. Helena was wearing a light green jumper with a light coloured jean skirt and under it a light pink shirt. Her hair was pinned with a silk light pink bow, and her curls were more prominent.
They went to the train station, and Adelaide was practically dragged to 9 and 3/4 since she wasn't really trying to reach it. But their father had paid attention to not going too soon, so that the girls wouldn't be stared and talked about what happened to them.
"I love you all. Try your best like always and good luck. Edmund and i will be fine." Their father hugged each and every one of them. Edmund wasn't that talkative that morning and looked a bit lost. His closest sister, Helena was leaving him behind and Adelaide her second closest sister was also going.
"Eddie, write me letters, now you can write, isn't it? So write. This year after my Hogsmeade trips i'll buy you some very tasty sweets and stuff. I promise." Adelaide hugged him tightly. "Don't pain father too much. I will also look after to our sisters, i will take care of Lena, so don't worry." Edmund nodded.
"You know, even though your talkative persona can be too much sometimes, I'd rather you talk my head off than just staring at the ground." Adelaide joked. "Bye Eddie. I'll see you at Christmas."
Then she saw Lily walking to her, with Severus in tow. Nope. That's not what i imagined my day. Adelaide was panicking about what to do. Both of them, especially Severus, had shot up and grew taller. Lily looked at her with a pained expression and came close to her.
"Dela, i- how could you pretend with us that everything was fine? We didn't know what happened until last week that i saw the girls. They thought i knew. Severus's father doesn't let them read wirzarding papers and i don't have any subscription to it, nor does Mary. We all learned about it last week. Why did you not tell us?" Lily was angry but seeing the state of her family, she didn't say anything else. She only hugged her. "We, the girls and i and Severus, were so worried for you. You didn't reply to us."
Adelaide just dumbly looked at her after the hug ended. "I'll see you inside. I need to settle Helena. It's her first year." That was everything that she said. She waked away and went back to her family.
Then she turned to her sisters, "i'll take care of Helena, you two can go and see your friends." They nodded and thanked her and went. Helena had bought a pet owl, who was still too tiny to send letters, and named her «Nova», she had its cage and a small bag in her hand, while Adelaide held her own bag and Midnight's box.
"Let's set you in? Hold on tight." Helena somehow managed to take her arm and they went to board the train.
When they board the train, she could already feel people's stares. She dragged Helena and the walked in the train with some first years or an empty one. Some of the first years were together in one compartment, but Helena didn't like or feel some of them so she told them to move on. They finally reached a compartment that a tiny girl, was sitting inside it. She was wearing a floral dress with a jumper on it. Her long light blonde hair reached her back and when she looked up to them, she had pretty icy blue eyes. She was reading a book on charms.
"Hello, my name's Adelaide and this is my sister, Helena. She is first year."
"Oh, my name is Pandora. Pandora Cleverly." She gave them a sweet smile, which Helena returned. "I'm a first year as well. It's nice meeting you."
"I'll be sitting here for a while too myself, then i leave you be." This was mostly addressed towards Helena. Adelaide wanted to stay there until it was empty enough to go on without seeing a familiar face. She didn't want to see some of her angry and confused friends nor the random people who might try and just give her pitiful looks.
The girl, despite clearly being from a wizarding family, didn't look at them weirdly and that wad something that Adelaide appreciated. After some moments of silence, Helena, surprisingly, broke the silence.
"What house do you want to be in?"
"I will really be happy if i was in Ravenclaw."
"Oh really? Me too." Helena excitedly replied.
They talked about some of their theories and shared some of their knowledge of first year with each other. Helena, obviously having three older sisters, had many things to say. They have already such great connection to each other, Pandora though a bit mysterious, is such a sweet girl, i hope they become friends.
Ten minutes after the train started its journey towards Hogwarts, Adelaide got up. "I suppose i need to go." Where? I don't know. "Elizabeth would check on you, but if you want i can do the same." A small part of her wanted Helena to agree, so that she would have some excuse to just wander around, but she told her: "no, go see your friends. It's ok. You need to talk to them." It shocked Adelaide how Helena had this wise sympathetic look when she told her that. So she a clear idea what was happening with her friends.
Adelaide only got up, after seeing that it was something that was going to happen, either way, so she went to find her friends. On her way, she saw Narcissa, exiting her shared compartment with some Slytherins.
"Oh, hello Adelaide, i wanted to go and join your sister's compartment. Do you know where she is?" She asked her kindly.
"No, i suppose she sat at the front of the train."
"Thank you." They walked in silence a bit.
"How is everything? I imagine it's worse than any horror." Narcissa carefully worded her statement.
"Elizabeth is devastated, please help her. She is not so social anymore. Just watch her back." That was the only thing to tell. Ironically, two years ago, Elizabeth and Adelaide were to calm and comfort Narcissa, when her sister was disowned. Even last year, Adelaide would sometimes sit beside her and talk to her to check on her.
Narcissa nodded and kissed the top of her head and walked away. Then she turned around and said: "You can always come to me, if you wanted to tell anyone anything." Then she went away.
Adelaide continued on and in her way she heard someone call her.
"Winchester!" She didn't recognise the voice and when she turned around she saw Somerset. Wow, his voice had gotten deeper and it's not as annoying as before. Adelaide was shocked of how he had somehow matured and now had some of the traces of his childhood wiped, he had also grown taller.
"Somerset." She said coldly. Midnight hissed a bit at him.
He was looking at her. "What is it?" Adelaide asked already annoyed.
