~~~~~Strykers POV🦁~~~~~~~~~~
Why don't you go and say hello to your friends Stryker?" He said, roughly, more like a command than a question.
I knew what would happen if I went over. Lucius was still angry about what happened in the first year, and he still mad at Harry because of when Harry set his slave free and for everything after.
I didn't want to go over, but I knew what would happen if I didn't. I went to take a shaky step forward but Lucius roughly grabbed my sleeve and pulled me back.
"On second thoughts," he purred darkly, grinning. "Why don't we wait until we get to 9 and 3 quarters? Now, where is this thing? How do I get to it?" Asked, shaking me.
"P-platforms 9 and 10, walk in between them." I gasped, every part of my body shaking.
"Liar! That's nonsense! I'll teach you to lie!" He spat.
He reached for his wand, I recoiled and braced for whatever spell he was going to use. Just then Lily and her family disappeared through the wall between 9 and 10. Lucius put his wand away, scowling.
"Well, it seems you are not a complete idiot after all. Even if you are a Mudblood traitor." He hissed.
He dragged me over to the wall, my case clutched in my hands. When we got there he threw me at the wall, head first. I landed on the other side, but I didn't hit the cement like I'd expected to. Instead, I ran into Lily.
"Ouch, Oh, Stryker! I'm so glad to see you! Why didn't you reply to my letters?" She asked helping me up.
As soon as I was standing I almost fell again. The grin fled from her face as she took in my appearance. My robes hang too loose, my legs were too shaky and my face was too sunken. I could hear the panic in her voice.
"Dad!" She yelled, not looking away from me.
Harry looked over and as soon as he did, the bricks pulsed green. He ran in front of the bricks, his wand ready and yelled.
"Everyone stay back! You too Lily, Stryker." The bricks started to crumble and, with a flash of red hair, Ron was by Harry's side. He nodded at Harry and Harry nodded back. I was dimly aware of the Hogwarts Express pulling up to the station. I could barely hear the children climbing on board, Sai went on with them. Ron yelled at me, Matt and Lily to get on the train. None of us moved. Ron came over to us and shoved us onto the train, apologising the entire time. Then, just as the train started moving, the bricks fell away. I could see blurs of green and red lights from the station as the train started to pick up speed. The train left 9 and 3 quarters but Lily and Matt still had their faces pressed up against the glass on the doors. We hadn't even found a seat. As soon as the station was out of view I fell. It was embarrassing but I was starving and every part of me ached so much that I couldn't bear it. Lily turned to me, tears in her eyes. I knew she blamed me, I blamed me too. It was me who couldn't stand up to Lucius, it was me who couldn't fight back, no, that's not true. This is dads fault. It was him who married a Muggle-born, it was him who couldn't fight back. It was him who made my mother leave. But even as I thought this I couldn't believe it. Lily's voice cut through my thoughts.
"You! This is because of you!" She yelled at me.
I just let her yell, I was used to it. Matt cut in, he spoke in a gentle, soothing voice.
"Lily please, you know it's not his fault. This isn't anyone's fault, just Lucius. Your father is a talented Aurora, he'll be fine." He held out his arm and pulled me up, as soon as he did I fell again.
"Lily come on, look at him. He's Stryker and he's on our side."
Lily took a deep breath and wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"Y-Yeh, your right. It will be ok, my dad will be fine, and so will yours, Matt." She muttered as if convincing herself.
She looked at me and reached out an arm. Matt and Lily put an arm each around my shoulders and helped me into the closest carriage.
~~~~~~~~~~~Lily's POV🐍~~~~~~~
After seeing my dad fighting, not knowing who was winning, I felt helpless and scared. I wanted someone to blame, anyone. So I choose Stryker. Now I regret that choice. Something bad obviously happened over the holidays. He was way too thin, he had bruises on his arms, he was shaking and very weak. This wasn't the boy I know. I borrowed Matts' wand and used basic healing magic to heal the burns and bruises on his hands and feet. I only knew the spells because Hermione thought they would come in handy, in case I was anything like my father. I pushed my father from my mind and chose to focus on the topic at hand.
"Stryker, what happened to you?" I asked, gently.
"Nothing Lily, I'm fine." He answered, roughly.
"You are obviously not 'fine', you are shaking, hurt and can barely stand. What happened?"
"Nothing ok? Just drop it." He said, angrily.
Matt just sat in the corner of the carriage, saying nothing. I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"We're halfway there, we should get changed into our robes before the trolley lady comes. Do you need help getting there Mate?"
"No, I'm fine," Stryker huffed, before shakily standing and walking over to the back of the train.
I decided to go and find Sai, I wondered what carriage she went into. I strode down the isles, knocking on each door, I was greatmm with 'Hello Lily or hi Lil', and the occasional fearful glance. Eventually, I found her, sitting in the back carriage, all by herself.
"Hi Sai, what up?" I asked, sitting down, somewhat exhausted.
She didn't even reply, she just hugged me. Still hugging me she whispered gently.
"I saw what happened, are you ok?"
"Y-yeah," I replied.
"Are you mad at Styker?"
"No, it wasn't his fault," I said kind of roughly, breaking the hug.
She held her hands up in a surrendering gesture.
"Ok Lily, I was just asking."
"Sorry, it's been a weird day," I said, sighing.
"Yeah."
"We found a carriage at the front of the train, but we might want to get dressed first," I said.
She grabbed her bag and walked with me back up to the front of the train. The boys were already there.
"Wow, you guys get dressed fast," I said.
Matt looked uneasy and smiled half-heartedly. He looked at me with a strange expression on his face.
Sai and I put our bags down and started to make our way to the private carriage to change into our robes. Matt followed us.
"Um, Matt, you know you're not allowed into the girl's carriage right?"
"Huah? Oh, no, that's not what I...I just wanted to...um..." He tried to say, before taking a deep breath and starting again. "Lily, can I talk to you...in private?"
"Um, sure Matt, brb Sai," I said, confused and curious.
We walked into the closet empty space.
"Lily, somethings wrong with Stryker." He whispered.
"Well yeah, Matt I got that when he could barely stand," I whispered back.
"No, something worse."
I raised an eyebrow, what could possibly be worse?
Matt continued.
"We were changing and the carriage was empty so no one saw but me, when he lifted his shirt up he had small burns all over his back, but they were green which meant they were magic torture and..." He seemed to lose his confidence.
"Go on, I pressed."
"...and, the middle of all the burns he had a huge black and purple bruise and...Lily...it looked like a Death Eater mark but it took up most of his back...Lily, I'm so sorry."
Matt kept talking but I couldn't hear him, I felt like all my emotions had been drained out of my body, I felt empty and cold. Stryker was a Death Eater. The very thing that my father had pledged his life to rid this world of. When my father defeated Voldermort some of his supporters wanted to go out with a bang, others waited, convincing other people to join their cause. But how did Stryker end up one? His father was an ex-Death Eater and I know Lucius is one too, maybe he felt like he should follow in his fathers' footsteps? I didn't know. But I did know that I hated him. This WAS his fault, everything was his fault. I stood up, ignoring Matt and walked straight past Sai, ignoring her too, I walked past everyone and ignored everything until I reached the carriage that Stryker sat in. I was furious, actually furious was an understatement. Angry tears filled my eyes and when I saw in sitting there, I started punching him, I was weak with sorrow so my punches just harmlessly bounced off him, but it made me feel better.
He just sat there, he didn't protest, he didn't wince and didn't try to stop me. He just sat there, limp and unmoving as he took my punches and venomous words. He probably believed them as much as I did. Eventually, I stopped punching him and tears started flowing down my face, I melted onto the floor. Landing in a heap, crying. Matt and Sai just stood there, shocked and kept everyone else out of the carriage until I got back up.
~~~~~~~~~~~Author🐈~~~~~~~~~
I am so sorry if you just read that! I didn't mean for this to get so emotional! Sorry. It gets less feels later on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little while later I was sitting in a separate carriage with Sai, both of us were dressed in our robes and avoiding the subject of what happened, I was grateful and didn't want to talk about it, ever. So we just made small talk, discussing things that happened over the holidays. The trolley lady came in and I didn't feel like eating, but Sai forced me to eat a chocolate frog. I unwrapped the card, I got my father and I almost started crying again. I pushed the card into my overcrowded bag and turned my attention to my black and silver cat, I had named her Midnight. She was purring in her carry cage and kept rubbing against the bars. Eventually, the train stopped and Sai and I got off, taking our bags with us. We got into the carriages pulled by the strange horses that no one could see apart from a few people, lucky I was not among them. I got into one and it took off, down the winding road and up to the castle.
