Ikigai - a hp fan fiction

I'M YELLING BECAUSE IT'S FUN

~ 2 years later ~

"I FUCKING HATE IT HERE!"

"What? Why? It's only your third year."

"WELLLLLLLL. LET ME JUST EXPLAIN SOMETHING TO YOU."

"Valerie, why are you yelling? But, please, explain."

"I'M YELLING BECAUSE IT'S FUN. LEAVE ME ALONE ROXANNE." I told my best friend of two years, we were just coming up on our three-year anniversary. Yes, we have a best-friendiversary, what about it? "But, I'll calm down to tell you this because my throat hurts. Every year, something really fucking terrible happens. Like, year one, one professor had LORD VOLDEMORT on the back of his head. Oh, and there was a fucking troll. A fucking TROLL. Year two, Ginny Weasley opened the fucking CHAMBER OF SECRETS and my brother almost DIED. That's why I hate it here. Something bad is gonna happen, I can feel it. Is it cold in here to you? It feels cold."

"Well, I suppose bad things have happened the last two years, but that doesn't mean something will happen this year. Yes, it is a tad bit cold." Roxanne replied in her small, sweet sounding voice.

"Woah, look at that. The windows are, like, frosting over." I put my finger against the glass, then I struggled to get it off. "Roxy, my fingers stuck, helppppp." I whined.

The lights flickered, and I looked at my dark-haired friend in fear. She grabbed my arm as the train slowed to a stop and we yanked in order to remove my finger from the window. We glanced at the door, feeling colder as goosebumps appeared on my arms, and I felt so.. so hopeless. So empty.

The lights turned off altogether. A skinny hand came upon the door, pulling at the gap between the two doors.

"Perhaps it's the candy-trolley lady?" I murmured.

As the doors opened, a cloaked figure I could barely make out in the dark entered the room. The hand that we saw earlier was now completely visible, and it looked horrid. It was gray and slimy. It looked as if it was decaying.

As it entered the room, I felt even more helpless and depressed than I have before, if that was even possible. The figures only exposed body part, their hand, went up to where its head should be, and lifted the veil covering its face. It was terrifying, its mouth was stuck in a circle shape (it kind of looked like that one Van Gogh painting, you know which one I'm talking about) and then I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I was horrified. I felt as if someone had cast the immobilizing curse on me, then put a pillow over my face. It felt like I was being drained, drained of everything good, of everything happy, drained of life itself.

I felt myself fall over, my finger finally detaching itself from the glass behind me, my head hitting the bench, then my entire body hitting the ground. Feeling myself drift in and out of consciousness, accepting what was about to happen to me, then a bright light, then nothing.

***

When I had finally come to, I was still on the train. There was a man sitting across from me, he was wearing an old set of robes, had light brown hair with grey speckles, there were scars across his face (three of them, from the top to bottom, it looked as though they were fading.) And he had a small mustache.

"Here, it'll help." He assured me while handing me a bar of chocolate.

I nodded at him in response and slowly sat up; I was laying with my head in Roxy's lap, curled in a ball. There was a throbbing pain in my head, and it hurt to bite down on the chocolate.

"I need- I need water." My voice sotto voce.

"I'll try to flag the trolley down." Roxy consoled me, getting up and leaving the compartment.

The man sat staring at me, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I'm Valerie."

A shocked look made its way onto his face, but he wiped it away and smiled.

"Remus Lupin. I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Nice to meet you, Professor Lupin. Thank you for.. saving me, I guess." I let out a small laugh, my voice still scratchy.

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Miss. Potter. Now, if you excuse me, I must go see the driver. I'll see you at the feast."

I nodded at him and he left the compartment, muttering something under his breath that sounded like "she looks exactly like her."

***

The train had arrived only ten minutes later, Roxanne and I made our way to the carriages, and we sat with Fred and George Weasley.

"Are you alright?" George asked after Roxanne told them what had happened on the train.

"Don't be silly, Georgie. Valerie's our strong little third year, aren't you?"

I laughed in response, "Yes, I'm fine George, thank you."

We soon arrived at the castle, and we spent the carriage ride talking about how our summers had gone.

"He BLEW UP your aunt? Seriously?"

"Yes, Roxy. But Fudge told us she's fine now, and they put, like, a memory charm on her or something. Then he wanted to run away, so we accidentally called the Knight bus."

"That's insane."

"Potter! Girl Potter!"

I turned my head to see Draco whisper-shouting at me.

"Yes, Malfoy?"

"Is it true you both fainted? You and your brother actually fainted? Both of you? Is it some weird twin thing?"

"What? Harry fainted?"