Overshadowed - An HP Marauders Era Story

5. Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts...

In the hours spent on the train, Marlene and Gwen learnt quite a lot about Dorcas. For one, she really liked to talk. She asked lots of questions, most of which Marlene answered, and she was really friendly and bubbly. Her last name was Meadowes, her birthday was the 18th of April, she was a halfblood, and super excited for Hogwarts.

Gwen managed to take a lot of pictures, walking up and down the train a few times. After one too many pictures, Marlene snapped at her.

"Will you put that damned thing away? Sometimes I get so sick of all the bloody photos!" Gwen paused, slowly moving the camera away from her face.

"Come on Marlene," began Dorcas. "It's not that bad."

Marlene looked between the two of them, then sighed loudly, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Just don't let people start thinking you're me, alright?" She said, pointing a finger accusingly at her twin. At this, Gwen rolled her eyes. When had anyone ever asked her if she was Marlene?

Smiling gratefully at Dorcas, she turned back to the window, snapping away.

…

There came a point at which her camera turned itself off, and for a second she worried that Hogwarts' magical enchantments would break it, but a second later it turned itself back on, automatically clicking another photo.

It was at this point in time when she fully processed what had just happened, looking up in amazement at the new view out the window. Gesturing to the other girls, who joined her in crowding around the window in amazement, she smiled happily.

It was truly magical, and even though she'd been brought up around magic and could currently only really see the top of the towers, she was dumbstruck with awe, glued in place, but automatically still taking photos.

After the original view, there was a mad scramble to get off the train, and in the ensuing chaos she was separated from her twin and new friend. Once outside, she was buffeted along towards an extremely tall man calling out for first years. She managed to get photos of him, and after the group came to a stop, waiting for everyone else, she clicked away excitedly, each photo being added to her pockets for boxing later.

They started moving again, down a path towards a lake with quite a few rowboats sitting on its glassy surface. The man, who had introduced himself to everyone as Hagrid, instructed them to sit in the boats, four each.

She ended up in a boat with the blond who she'd bumped into on the train, and the two boys the girl had shared a compartment with.

"Hello again, I'm Alice! I don't think I told you that before, sorry."

"Oh, that's ok. I'm Gwen." She turned to the two boys. "What're your names?"

"'M Peter," replied the slightly larger boy, smiling up at her.

"Remus Lupin," said the other boy, shy and now without his book.

"Nice to meet you," she smiled.

It was at this point in time that the boats started moving, Remus clutching the sides quickly, clearly a bit frightened. Gwen was too busy clicking at all the views to really notice, also snapping some photos of the other three in the boat, therefore accidentally also getting some of Remus freaking out.

In the middle of the lake, they could finally see Hogwarts in all of its glory, shining a light in the dark of night. Gwen found that nothing compared to the breathtaking view of Hogwarts for the first time, and because of this, for pretty much the only time in her life, Gwen was too mesmerized to think about taking any photos. This, however, passed relatively quickly, and she stood, raising her camera and clicking away madly.