Medicine - T. Nott

one

September 1st, 1997

"Alexandria!"

I ignore my mother's yelling and shove the three remaining journals into my bag before tucking the cardboard box in the back corner of my closet.

I'm halfway down the stairs when my mother's shrill voice echoes throughout the empty house.

"Alexandria Vivian Rosier! You will be late if you don't get down here right-"

"I'm here, I won't be late," I interrupt. "I just had to grab some books I forgot."

My mother looks at me with her lips pressed into a thin line. She is not pleased with me right now. Matthew, my younger brother, is standing by the Floo with his trunk. He looks like he's trying to put as much distance between himself and our mother and her yelling.

My trunk is already downstairs, so I point over to it. "We can go now," I say, making eye contact with my mother.

She exhales dramatically.

"Good luck on your N.E.W.T. 's this year," She begins. "I'm not sure how things are going to be this year so please just look out for Matthew. He's going to be targeted a lot more than you." Her voice is quiet, just loud enough for me to hear.

I glance over at Matthew. This year is going to be rough for him.

The Death Eaters are practically running Hogwarts now, which is a problem of its own, and Matthew has a Muggle dad who left him and my mum about ten years ago. There's that and the fact that Matthew got publicly outed after Rita Skeeter snapped a picture of him kissing a boy at a Holyhead Harpies game over the summer.

"Yeah, of course," I say. "I'll always look out for him."

"Good, I-, I'll see you at Christmas."

My mother is not an affectionate person, especially towards me, so she just gives me a tight lipped smile that I return.

"Ready to go Matt?" I ask.

My half brother and I take the Floo, stepping right out onto Platform 9 ¾. It's already bustling with people, but the crowd is noticeably smaller this year.

I spot my friends from across the platform. It's pretty easy to spot them since I've been best friends with the same people since first year. Daphne, Pansy, Theo, Blaise, and Draco are all standing near a pillar talking to each other.

"Alright, I'll see you later," Matthew says.

"Wait-," I argue. "Are you going to be okay? I know you haven't seen a lot of your friends since the whole-," My voice trails off.

"Alex, I'll be fine. A few of my friends already knew, and the ones that didn't wrote to me. I'll be okay," He says.

"Okay, but you better tell me if anyone says anything-"

Matthew smiles, "Okay, I will."

"I'll see you later, Matt."

"See you later, Alex."

He wanders off to his friends and I watch for a minute. They all seem to be treating him like everything's normal, which is good. They all smile and hug each other before walking off towards the train.

I join my friends, immediately wrapped into a hug by Daphne Greengrass.

"Alex!" She says. "We've been waiting for you."

I pull away and smile. "I was running a bit late."

I say hello to Pansy, Draco, and Blaise. Draco gives the least enthusiastic greeting out of the three of them.

Theo drapes his arm across my shoulders and grins. "Did you miss me?" He teases.

I stand on my tiptoes and mess up his already messy hair. "Terribly, it's been far too peaceful without you," I joke. "The longest week of my life."

"Alex, you're not going to believe what happened," Pansy says. She pulls me away from Theo and links our arms as all of us start walking onto the train. She glances behind us to see Draco at the back of the group, talking to Blaise.

"Go on, what happened then?"

"Draco and I got back together," Pansy says quietly. "He doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, but isn't this great?"

This is not great.

"That's amazing, Pansy," I respond. "I'm so happy for you both."

Draco and Pansy have been an on again off again couple for two years. When they're on, everything is fine, but then the arguing and fighting inevitably happens and then breakup, When they're off, everything feels so tense because Pansy is an incredibly petty person and Draco likes to play games.

We enter a compartment towards the back of the train, and Daphne, Blaise, Draco, and Theo file in behind us.

Daphne and Blaise sit next to each other, and Pansy practically glares at Draco when he sits down beside Blaise and not next to her. He mouths something back to her and she just shakes her head before sitting down in the window seat across from him. I sit next to Pansy and Theo sits beside me.

I reach into my bag and dig out one of the journals labeled 1977-1978.

"What's that?" Blaise asks, looking at the E. Rosier inscribed on the spine of the journal.

"It's my dad's journal from school," I answer. "I was bored this summer so I went snooping through the attic and found a whole box of his journals."

"Uh-, isn't that an invasion of privacy?" Draco asks.

I shrug, "He's dead, so no, I don't think he'd mind."

"Fair enough," Draco replies, trying to keep a straight face.

"Find anything juicy yet?" Daphne asks.

I shake my head. "Nope, mainly just complaining about school and Professor Binns. Then lots of stupid shit him and his friends got up to."

Theo taps the journal on my lap. "Well what school year is this?"

I open up to the first entry.

September 1st, 1977.

"Sixth year," I say.

Theo smirks, "Well you're probably just now getting to the good stuff then."

"I bet your dad pulled," Pansy says offhandedly, staring out the window as the train pulls out of Kings Cross Station.

Daphne laughs, "Oh I bet he did. Your dad was so fit-" She trails off and looks at her boyfriend. Blaise is looking at her with his brows furrowed. "Not as fit as you though," She says, kissing Blaise on the cheek.

I rolled my eyes at them.

"I guess we'll find out then, won't we?" I say.

The train ride is dreadfully boring. Daphne and Blaise both fell asleep leaning on each other, Draco and Pansy got into an argument and went to go find somewhere else to argue when Blaise yelled at them.

I took Pansy's window seat and Theo stretched out, his head resting in my lap as he read a book whose title I didn't recognize.

He had been quieter than usual today, but I didn't want to ask and interrupt his reading.

I was reading my dead dad's journal that I found hidden in the attic with one hand resting in Theo's hair. I was beginning to get bored of the rambling on about quidditch and homework when I reached the next entry.

November 19th, 1977

My dad's handwriting was written messier than usual and he was rambling on about how he had been in Hogsmeade that day with Regulus Black and Barty Crouch Jr.. He was mad because Regulus had been in a mood and ditched him and Barty, then he was rambling on about Barty and oh-, oh.

I closed the journal and shoved it back into my bag. Theo, who was pissed about my sudden movement, sat up.

"What? You get to the good stuff?"

I shook my head, "You have no idea."