Obscure Occurrences |C. BAREBONE|

☛ Twenty-Five ☚

• May, 1926 •

Nobody said integrating yourself into the Wizard world after a Muggle upbringing was easy. Nobody said having a Muggle upbringing and having a pure blood family was easy. Nobody said trying to impress said Purebloods was easy.

But Genevieve did all that in five months.

Hugo Goldstein loved his granddaughter to pieces as she expressed her magic skills after months of schooling. Genevieve achieved what some Hogwarts students couldn't after five years of school. What especially drew Hugo to his half-blood granddaughter was her wand, especially the core which had an unconditional affinity to the Dark Arts... Like the rest of her family.

That mostly explained why Hannah and her older sister, Fiona ran. They weren't like Vivienne: accepting of every art magic had to offer, including the dark.

Along with Defence against the Dark Arts, potions, herbology, history of magic, ancient runes and divination, Genevieve studied unforgivable spells and dark creatures. In all honesty, as Genevieve read through the restricted books Vivienne had collected from Borgin and Burkes, she found them to be her most favourite subjects. With the intrigue, Genevieve's wand naturally excelled at the Dark Arts and cast unforgivable spells perfectly. Meaning, she also surpassed Garrick despite him attending Hogwarts every year for seven years.

When Genevieve found the time, she spent her day at Hogsmeade -near Hogwarts- with Garrick. There, he introduced her to every flavoured jelly beans and each candy she never knew existed. With Genevieve being an obvious sweet tooth, she fell in love and made visiting Honeydukes and sitting in Three Broomsticks with Garrick a weekly event. For five months they had done this and gotten to know each other deeper each day. Because of Garrick, Genevieve learnt new things everyday. Like of the sickly-sweet drink butterbeer and Hogwarts as a whole. The majority of the time when he spoke of the Wizarding school, Genevieve wished she wasn't a late-bloomer. Then the young witch would've been able to be sorted. Garrick said she would've most definitely have been a Gryffindor.

"What house were you in then?" She asked as she sipped on her butterbeer.

"Ravenclaw obviously, I'm too smart to be put anywhere else" Garrick remarked arrogantly but in a joking way.

"Oh yeah right-" she countered sarcastically,
"- maybe it's because you're too original".

At those words, Garrick lightly smacked Genevieve's arm as she burst out laughing. Despite Genevieve preferring the Dark Arts over anything else, Garrick preferred her over the company if anybody else. Even over Fleamont Potter, who was known to be quite nice, even though he was a hard-headed Gryffindor.

"Would you go back if you could?" Genevieve asked through her laughter.

"Of course, it was the best seven years of my life" he expressed with a smile before asking: "what about you? Would you go back to New York?".

For a moment, Genevieve truly considered going back and seeing her Father. Of course she had to return at some point but there was so much more to learn, to do, to create and cast.

"Not soon, later I guess... Christmas preferably".

"Isn't that too far away?",

"It's not like I'm homesick Garrick... You know what it's like back there, what he wanted me to do. He was going to practically sell me like some common prostitute-" she ranted, taking a pause to catch her breath before continuing,
"- and you know what? I know he let me go. I know him letting me do this let me meet you and find out who I am. But I was going to run anyway initially, the only reason I stayed for that long was because I was a coward and met-".

"Genevieve-" he interrupted before placing a hand over her own, a platonic gesture,
"- I don't need you to go back. You're not there anymore, you're here... You don't need to remind me" he reassured softly as his thumb caressed her knuckles, calming her as a sigh escaped her lips.

"You're right-" she smiled. "- I'm not there I'm here, with my best friend".

"Good... I must be your best friend by now" he chuckled, pulling a giggle from her lips before she pulled Garrick into her side, giving him a small hug before they changed the subject.

"Now, how's Gervaise? Are you still trying to convince him to give you the shop sooner?",

"Of course, you know it's a passion of mine" he smiled before taking Genevieve's wand into his hand.

"The day I gave you this was the day I knew that's what I'm going to do",

"And I couldn't imagine you any other way" Genevieve added until their conversation was drowned in the white-noise of Hogwart's student body chatter. A mob of them filed into the Three Broomsticks with a chuckle and a push before the whole inn was crowded and barely anyone could find comfort amongst the bustle.

This is what Genevieve wanted for the rest of her life. She wanted it to be easy, fun and free.