borealis • R. LUPIN

chapter 1

chapter 1 - first year greetings

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The first time Poli Dulworth and Remus Lupin met was on the train to Hogwarts their first year. Poli was cruising the compartments, saying hello to everyone whilst simultaneously looking for somewhere to sit. For a first year, she was incredibly confident. A façade no one knew existed.

She came across a compartment with a boy that just seemed to radiate warmth, but that warmth was crowded by nerves. Even as an eleven year old, Poli had became quite the master of picking up on people's auras and emotions. She had made that mistake of not knowing with her mum and she wouldn't make that same mistake again.

She opened the door quietly and knocked gently on the frame. His head quickly turned to her and his eyes were wide.

"Do you mind?" She asked sweetly and kept her voice soft in hopes of Poli not scaring him. The boy seemed to short circuit and opened and closed his mouth a few times before simply giving up on the idea of talking, opting to simply nod instead. She gave a warm smile, slid the door closed and sat across from him. His cheeks were slightly pink which made her want to giggle but she held it in knowing he was embarrassed and it would just make it worse. "Poli Dulworth." She stuck out her hand and he stared at it for a few moments. "Don't worry. I'm not going to bite." She smiled as he gave an embarrassed grin and blushed but shook her hand anyways. His hands were slightly bigger than hers and she was right about the warmth and the kindness he radiated.

"Remus. L-Lupin." The boy, Remus, said quietly. Poli smiled. It was a nice name. Remus.

"Nice to meet you, Remus." Poli leaned back in her seat, getting herself into a more comfortable position.

"You t- you, you as well." He stumbled over his words.

"Are you always this articulate." She teased playfully and his cheeked burned red making her chuckle quietly. Before he could open his mouth to answer, another boy slid the compartment door open, looking just as shy as Remus and holding a hopeful glint in his eyes. He was shorter and scrawnier than most of the boys, even for a first year.

"Do you mind if I sit here? Most other compartments are full and the trolley lady yelled at me to find a seat so-" the boy rambled but Poli cut him off.

"I don't mind." She then turned to Remus with her seemingly signature calm, light-hearted smile. Remus just smiled in return and gestured to the seat. The boy gave a grateful smile and sat down next to Remus.

"Thanks."

"Of course. What's your name?" Poli asked stretching out a hand. He grinned shaking hers immediately and answering.

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Poli Dulworth and this is Remus Lupin." Remus shook his hand and smiled.

"Nice to meet you."

"You as well." Poli grinned, happy with her making of two, hopefully, new friends.

"So what houses do you all hope on getting in?" Peter asked with an innocent smile. "I hope Ravenclaw." Remus answered after him seeing as the two others looked to him.

"M-Maybe Gryffindor like my father." The two boys turned to look at the girl. "What about you, Poli?" Remus asked.

"Possibly Hufflepuff, like my mum, but any house would be great." Poli smiled and hid her clenched fist under her robes. The pain of her nails digging into the soft flesh of her palm kept her from crying. It had been months and still Poli couldn't bear the thought of her mother without crying. Poli didn't notice, however, that Remus saw her tense at the mention of her mother.

"Every house except Slytherin." A voice interrupted from the door. The three heads already inside the compartment turned seeing two boys standing there grinning and chuckling. One boy had grey eyes with long black hair to his jaw while the other had short, light brown hair, brown eyes and round silver glasses framing them.

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Poli crossed her arms defensively, her normally light hearted grin was replaced with a venomous scowl. Poli has already heard all of her mum's warnings on the Slytherin house, (making sure to reinforce that if she was in that house she would still love her unconditionally) but she hated the idea of people judging other people's characters without taking the time to actually know someone.

"What isn't?" The boy with the long black hair scoffed.

"It's where all the bad people come from." The boy with the glasses added. The boy that had previously spoken went quiet but didn't seem to disagree with the statement, the only thing he exuded was a slight somber and fearful glint in his eyes.

"First of all, just because that's where all the bad people come from doesn't mean all people in Slytherin are bad." The boys paused for a second, taking the time to process her slightly confusing words. "And second of all, Slytherin qualities include being resourceful, cunning, determined, ambitious and clever none of which include being bad. If you were in Gryffindor you would immediately be labeled as arrogant, which I wouldn't be surprised by, instead of being judged by your actual character." Poli immediately stood. She wouldn't be surprised if there was smoke literally coming out her ears. She was fuming with rage. "Next time think about it before you decide to be prejudice to someone just because of the house they were sorted in, you twats." She pushed past the two aggressively and stormed out of the compartment leaving the four behind dumbfounded.

"Nice meeting you!" She heard one of the two boys yell at her retreating figure. She stopped in front of a compartment that only seemed to be occupied by two girls. She slid the door open, turned back to the staring faces of the two boys - both with lazy smirks on their faces- flipped them off (adding an innocent smile), entered the compartment and slid the door shut, plopping down in front of the two girls who looked at her wide eyed. She could hear the howls of laughter coming from the boys until they calmed down and retreated into their own compartment. One girl had bright, fiery red hair and emerald green eyes. The other has large, curly, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hello. Sorry about just barging in. Hope you don't mind. I'm Poli Dulworth."

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oh hell yeah. first chapter done and what a nice way to set up Poli's relationships with the marauders and, if you couldn't tell from the two girls mentioned at the end, Lily and Marlene.

btw, I decided to make Marlene poc cuz it just seemed right, like I know she's supposed to be white even tho she was mentioned for 5 seconds in Order of Phoenix but I can't really imagine her as white. Ya know what I mean?

lmk what you think

stay alive x
reah