By Any Other Name; D.M

00 - The Start of the End

Life was officially over. 

Bedraggled students trudged through the station in a sluggish river, subdued reluctance cloying the air with a sour taste. Hazy memories scattered in their minds; of the sun, of shared laughter, of nights spent doing nothing and everything. Desperately, they tried to cling to the remnants as time forced them into the distant past. High in the sky, the familiar sun drained the last of its warmth, marking the end of summer 1979.

Patiently, the ruby train waited to start the new school year, a regal plume of smoke atop of its head. Promises of change whispered through the air, the chance of a fresh start tantalising. It was the chance to start anew, a blank slate to improve your school record or renew your social status, as valuable as gold dust. But Elodie Potter wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted everything to stay the same.

It wasn't that she had the perfect life, far from it. In fact, most would consider her a literal loser, that is, if they even recognised her at all. But the same was comfortable, it was safe. And as boring as her life may be, at least she was free from the risk that change bestowed. Thus she was comfortable, though not quite content, to float through life as a nobody.

To the untrained observer Elodie might even be called pretty. With a pointed chin and small nose, her features gave her the type of sweet, unassuming look often expected of femininity. Golden brown hair framed her face, with dusky, cupid bow lips and eyes of honey. But she wore her invisibility like a veil, becoming the girl next door that everyone vaguely knew but never thought of. Pretty enough but not beautiful.

Her heeled boots clacked against the concrete floor, each step taking her further away from the stress free comfort of the summer holidays. Hidden amongst the boisterous voices, she kept her head down, her face shadowed by the hood of her cloak. The warm air pulsed through the crowd as they moved as one towards the train.

Slipping through the doors and into a compartment, Elodie settled herself for another long year at Hogwarts. It was her fifth year, each one stacking atop of each other like identical cubes. The same walk to the train. The same classes. The same people. And then summer all over again. A heavy sigh escaped through her lips.

"Hey Elodie!" A small voice startled her from her thoughts.

The girl that had slipped into the compartment sank into her seat, straightening her circular glasses that had come askew in the bustle of the crowd. Her face was slim but her cheeks round, and braids threaded through her hair like wild snakes.

"Hey Darcy. How was your summer?"

So perhaps she had lied when she said she was a complete loner. She did have one friend. Though to be honest, Elodie wasn't even sure if she could call Darcy that. They were two people drawn together by mutual loneliness, their similarity of outcasts forcing them together out of sheer necessity. They would speak, sometimes, and sit together at lunch so as not to sit alone, but they had never seen each other outside of school.

"Boring," The small girl sighed, "My parents just trying to get me to fit in with them like usual."

Darcy's parents, being both Slytherin, had been furious when their only child had turned out to be a Ravenclaw. So naturally, they spent every second of their sad lives trying to bully her out of it. Elodie didn't know why they even tried; Darcy was the absolute epitome of a Ravenclaw.

As for herself, Elodie felt at complete odds with her house. The sorting hat must've been having a laugh when it placed her in Gryffindor. The house of the brave. Elodie was anything but. She practically hid from the world for god's sake. Nevertheless, she nodded sympathetically at Darcy's plight, guessing she could relate somewhat seeing as her own parents were dead.