Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

02 | BEHAVIOUR

"I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel."

★

A SMILE CURVED up Phoenix' lips as soon as her family and her stepped on the platform, where the red train was already waiting that would take them back to Hogwarts. Smoke and people's shouts filled the air and it was terribly crowded with children hugging their parents goodbye. Neither the smoke nor the shouts or the thick crowd bothered Phoenix, however, as she stepped further onto the platform. Excitement filled her heart and she felt like she was going back home although they were doing the exact opposite. She didn't doubt it anymore; she was more than ready to go back to Hogwarts.

Not even her mother's hand on her shoulder to make her turn around to her father and her and the woman's stern look were able to change anything about that happy feeling. "I expect you two to represent perfection. No interactions with Mud-bloods, half-breeds or blood traitors – including that misfit you used to call a brother. The other families are already talking about us, but we have to keep up our family's reputation and I am not willing to let anything besmirch it ever again. Have you heard me? I do not accept any mistakes."

Their father, a tall man with dark curls, which already showed some grey strands, nodded in approval. While other children were hugged by their parents, that was what the twins received as a goodbye, but they didn't complain. They had never experienced anything but that. There was no reason to miss anything they never had. Phoenix smiled at her parents. "You will be proud."

"I'm sure we will be," her father replied and put a hand on the shoulder of his only daughter, while his wife, a brunette, elegant woman, simply nodded with a pleased look on her face.

"We should go and find a free compartment," Regulus chimed in. "We wouldn't want to risk having to sit with a Mud-blood, would we?"

He shot a quick glance at his sister, who grabbed both, her trunk and her brother's arm. He knew perfectly that she tried to avoid any expressions of her own opinion on that topic, but somehow she recently often found herself in a position where she had to agree with the values. She nodded and agreed, "Of course not."

With a last look at the pleased faces of their parents, the twins made their way to the train. They easily found a free compartment at the end of the train and sat down in the two window seats after putting their trunks on the luggage racks. Phoenix crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Regulus, who brushed one of the longer strands of his dark hair out of his face. "What is it with you these days? Why are you acting so strangely?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He kept staring out of the window, which made her raise an eyebrow at him.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about and you know it. First you're so keen on showing that you agree with our parents' values and I get that, but then you push me away. You don't even look at me and force me to agree with things that you perfectly know I do not completely agree with. What has changed? I get that you're hurt by Sirius' departure, but that doesn't give you the right to suddenly behave like that. You hurt me by doing so."

"Your imagination is tricking you, sister. I don't do any of those things you mentioned," Regulus told her, watching parents as they waved their children goodbye and the train slowly started to move.

Phoenix on the other hand leaned back in her seat and rolled her eyes. "Sure, it's just me."

Regulus didn't answer to that as they left the train station and just kept staring out of the window. For the first time in her life she felt uncomfortable in company of her brother. She knew he was hiding something. He even went lengths to hide it by making her feel awkward, which he had never done before. She snorted, pulling a book out of her bag and opening it. Phoenix tried to concentrate on the distraction, but she didn't succeed. Still the words in front of her had a weird way of calming her down.

They must have been sitting like that for ten minutes, when the compartment door finally slid open and the rest of their friends entered – or at least most of them.

"Why did you have to choose a compartment at the bloody end of the train? We've been searching the complete train for you."

A wide smile spread over Phoenix' lips and she jumped up to hug her pink-haired best friend. "I missed you too, Maureen."

Over the girl's shoulder she saw William Nott, a muscular boy with black hair, wink at her, while the brunette Dawn Prince sat herself down next to Regulus, who all of a sudden didn't seem to be that grumpy anymore. Phoenix didn't have any idea what was going on with her twin and everything that she could hope for was that Hogwarts would get him back to normal.

"Where are Damian and Rabastan?" she asked, looking with a quizzical look at her friends. She placed her book, which had fallen to the floor when she had jumped up to hug Maureen, next to her on the soft seat. Will crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back in his seat next to Dawn. "Dam went to greet our dear Lupin with a little welcome hex."

"Does he still blame him for what happened to Daphne?" Phoenix wanted to know with a frown.

In May of that year Damian's sister Daphne had been found dead in an alley in Hogsmead by her best friend. Considering her open wrists, nobody had looked further into it, as it was obvious that she had committed suicide, although no one could understand why a sunshine like her would do such a thing. Unable to believe that his innocent little sister would do that to herself, Damian had found somebody to blame her death on: Remus Lupin, a Gryffindor boy who had been dating Daphne when she passed away. Apparently he still couldn't stop picking on the other boy. Phoenix, however, felt pity for Remus. He was one of Sirius' best friends and her brother had told her that it wasn't easy for him to let people in on his feelings. Before Daphne he had never had a girlfriend and according to Sirius he wasn't one to hurt a girl the way other boys did. Nonetheless, Damian slammed all doors shut when it came to that topic and Phoenix had already realised that there was no point in telling him to stop.

"Apparently, and Rabastan is probably snogging Cara in an empty compartment." Maureen rolled her eyes, while Dawn stared at her bug-eyed. "Cara as in your little sister?"

"I actually don't know anyone else with the name Cara, but isn't it obvious anyways? Little Miss Perfect always gets what she wants and well, this time she wanted Rabastan."

"Everybody wants me, you know," said boy pointed out as he entered the compartment with a smirk plastered on his face. "I bet you dream of me at night and you regret being friends with me because I have the strict rule not to touch my friends like that."

"Eww, that thought is more than disgusting," Maureen cried out and covered her eyes with her hands, which made everyone laugh.

Phoenix looked at Rabastan, realising that he had changed a lot during the summer. He had grown several inches, wore his nearly white hair a little longer and his face didn't look like one of a child anymore. In other words; he had grown up, and it suited him well, as Phoenix had to admit.

Since she didn't want to be caught staring, she turned around to face Will with a smile. "So, have you made it?"

His face turned into a mask of utter confusion, as he asked, "Made what?"

"Were you made captain, stupid?"