Chapter Text
“Come on, stay together,” Konstantina called, scanning her gaggle of kids fussily over the top of the luggage trolley. “Millie, that means you!”
“We’re coming, we’re coming!” Harry called, breathless with joy as Fay dragged him along.
King’s Cross station was crowded and noisy, as busy as it ever was, and Tanti considered herself reasonably paranoid about losing track of her kids.
Millicent stuck her tongue out as she drifted back into the group. Tanti raised an eyebrow, more teasing than scolding, and Millicent scrunched her nose.
Millicent Bulstrode was the second tallest of Tanti’s kids, only a few centimeters shorter than Dean, with the build to match. Straight black hair she had begged Tanti to cut short before boarding school fluttered in the train station winds, framing dark blue eyes and pale skin. She was in jeans and a blue button down, belted over a white tank top. None of it matched her purple headband, and Millicient could not care less.
Tagging along beside her was Dean Thomas, a few centimeters taller than Millie, though his short afro added an extra four or so. He was lanky, with brown skin and bright eyes, his nails painted bright green to match his t-shirt. He was pushing a second luggage cart, and Su, who had perched herself on the front bars.
Su Li, Tanti’s third child, was sporting a flowy, floral dress and leggings, her black hair braided and hanging to her elbows. Su had brown eyes and almond skin, colorful bracelets she’d made herself going up half her forearms.
Tracey Davis, child number four, was wearing last night’s french braids, each one tied off with little green ribbons that matched her eyes and her boots. Her hair was brown and cut just past her shoulders, tied slightly shorter by the braids. She had tan skin, and a jacket thrown overtop of the grey uniform skirt and jumper. She had one hand on Tanti’s cart, keeping her tethered as she scanned the station with wonder.
Harry and Fay, Tanti’s first two children, had control of the third luggage cart, throwing their entire weight - and probably a little magic - into each attempted turn, laughing loud enough that Tanti didn’t have to worry nearly as much about losing track of them. Harry had shaggy, dark hair, bottle-cap glasses, and brighter bottle-green eyes. Fay was the singular outlier among the kids, her pigtails a daisy blonde that could fool onlookers into thinking Tanti was her biological mom. She had storm-blue eyes and overalls she’d spent months embroidering flowers and shapes onto. Su had a coordinated bracelet.
“Tanti, what’s the platform number?” Dean called, slowing down.
“Isn’t it nine?” Tanti asked, glancing at the sign above his head. None of the outgoing signs listed Hogwarts, 11 o’clock though.
“Nine and three quarters,” Su corrected.
Fay and Harry’s cart slowed down as they came abreast with the others. The station signs very clearly went from Platform Nine to Platform Ten. Tanti frowned.
“What do you want to bet it’s hidden like their shopping district was?” Fay asked.
“Of course it is,” Harry rolled his eyes, leaning his arms on the top of the trunks. “They have amnesia sticks, I’d be more surprised if it wasn’t.”
Tanti reached over and rubbed her knuckles across his shoulders. “You good, sweetheart?” She murmured.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Harry said.
She rubbed his back for a moment more, then glanced around, raising her voice. “Well, any ideas how to open it? I didn’t see anything on the letters.”
And she’d read the letters an obsessive number of times.
Konstantina was one of three ‘magic-aware’ foster parents, and the so-called ‘wizarding world’ wasn’t aware of their existence. Wizards had a disturbing tendency towards secrecy, a tendency that stopped cases from being solved, that stopped people from being saved.
(That stopped children from being saved, that kept them in homes where they had no avenues other than lashing out, and if Tanti ever met an oblivator she was going to break their bones.)
When Millicent, the oldest by only three months, had gotten her Hogwarts letter, - delivered personally by a professor from that accursed institution - it became incredibly, disturbingly clear what Tanti had been struggling against for five years.
“We can just start poking walls,” Su suggested, kicking her legs out. “Eventually either we’ll hit the brick, or some poor sod’ll see us and take pity.”
“Worth a shot,” Tanti agreed. “Who’s willing to stay with the carts?”
“I’m going to look,” Tracey said, unwinding her fingers. Tanti frowned, but let her go. The disquieting truth was that the Wizarding World was made for Wizards, and without a wand, Tanti didn’t have the same access her kids did.
She was terrified that they’d get locked away from each other.
Su sighed, dramatically put out, and pushed herself off the edge of the cart. Millie yanked her back by the collar when a teen dashed past them, riding on the handles of a cart, and drove straight into the pillar marking the difference between the platforms.
They went through.
“Well, that was easy,” Fay said drily.
Tracey slipped past them and ran her fingers over the bricks on the pillar from each side. “It only opens here,” Tracey announced, tapping the wall the teen had already gone in. “Looks like an illusion.” She shoved her fist through, vanishing up to her forearm.
“Just walk through, then?” Tanti asked, wheeling the cart nearer.
“Probably.” Tracey agreed.
“I’ll go through first,” Millie volunteered. “Make sure nothing’s blocking the way.”
“Absolutely not,” Tanti said. “We don’t know if it’s a one way entrance, I’m not sending you ahead alone.”
Millie stuck her tongue out, but when Tracey drifted back to join Tanti, Millie didn’t rush through.
“Tanti first, then Dean, then Fay and I?” Harry offered.
“I’m up for that,” Dean agreed. “Su?”
Su hopped back over and pulled herself onto the front of the trolley. “Onwards!”
Tanti laughed, a little, and picked up the pace.
Walking into a brick wall was odd. At the shopping district, the bricks opened up, but then, the entrance to the shopping district was hidden in an alley behind a pub. This was in the middle of the train station.
It felt a little cold to step through, and the sound level racheted up once Tanti and Tracey were on the other side. Tanti stepped forward a little further and turned around, facing a giant arched gateway with a watery portal. She pulled back a little further, watching Millie step through and make a face at the sensation. Millie scrunched her nose and stepped up to Tanti’s side.
Dean and Su were next, their distorted images looking around a few times before shrugging in Harry and Fay’s direction and pushing forward. They crossed the border flinchingly, and Tanti wasted no time in herding them over to her corner.
“Walking through a brick wall, not my favorite thing,” Dean muttered.
“I thought it was fun,” Su said, shrugging. “It’d be funny to tell someone to lean on it and watch them fall through.”
Tanti stifled her smile.
Harry and Fay barreled through at a run, momentum carrying them past the group until Millie grabbed the side of their trolley and forcibly stopped it.
Fay cackled, wiping her hair away from her face. “That was amazing! Do you think there’ll be more of those at school?”
“I hope so,” Su called. “We can hide behind them and trip people!”
“And stalk our enemies,” Harry said, smiling just wide enough for it to be a threat.
Tanti rolled her eyes. “Try not to make too many enemies just yet, yeah? For my sake, if not your own?”
Harry stuck his tongue out, but slotted himself under her arm in half a hug anyway. “Don’t worry, Tanti, we’ll be fine.”
She hoped so.
Goodness she hoped so.
“We’ll be together,” Tracey pointed out, lightly. “Between the five of us, even Dean will be safe.”
“Hey!”
“No, she has a point,” Fay teased loudly, to be heard over the others’ laughter.
Dean stuck his tongue out. “Well excuse me for the audacity of being normal.”
Harry cackled.
Tanti rubbed his shoulder and started leading them towards the starkly red steam engine. Her gaggle of goslings followed, everyone holding onto or shadowing a sibling to stay together on the busy platform. There were Wizards crowding the area, undulating groups with matching robes or with matching hair. Steam and owls occupied the limited air space, lowering visibility.
Tanti hid her grimace as she helped her kids ferry their luggage into the train. Three carts worth was a lot for six kids. There was a quick debate over whether they'd sit together or separately; together won. Tanti would worry about their dependent tendencies when they were older, if they got worse. Boarding school was a chance for them to branch out. “You'll keep an eye out for each other, right?”
“We will,” Fay promised, ducking in for a hug. “We always do.”
Tracey dropped herself on the red bench with a bounce. “Who will win, a bunch of coddled magical kids, or five feral gremlins and their emotional support Dean?”
“I know who I'm betting on,” Harry said slyly. He'd come so far, and Tanti was so proud of him.
“My bet’s on you too, I just worry. It's my prerogative, remember?”
“Bonus moms have rights,” Sue agreed, sweet enough to choke. Tanti took it as a compliment - there were years where Sue couldn't say that word without exploding, and even with qualifiers, the title was a gift she'd never forsake.
A whistle blew outside. Tanti hadn't let them cut it too close, but the drive had been long and full of anxious eleven year olds - truly, it was a miracle that her kids were all in the same academic year. Bloodstained knuckles and all.
“I love you,” she said again, squeezing Fay close before letting go to hug the rest of her kids. “And if anything happens-”
“We ditch and we owl you immediately, find somewhere safe to wait for you to pick us up,” Dean recited.
Tanti sighed. She needed to get off the train before it took her along to their magic school, and she ended up late to work. She was going to miss her children terribly. “You are stronger than you feel and have survived so much already. Try to make friends, keep yourselves safe, and know that whatever you do, I am proud of you.”
Tracey sniffled a little bit. She scrubbed at her eyes in the moment before a trickle of magic brushed past Tanti’s heels and climbed up the walls. Tanti crouched and cupped her face. “You are more than they made you. And I will always be proud of that.”
Tracey leaned forward into Tanti’s chest.
Fay scooted over on the bench, and wrapped an arm around Tracey’s back.
Another whistle. “I’ve got to go,” Tanti whispered. “I love you. You’re going to have such a good time here.”
“I’m not sure I will,” Tracey whispered back. “What if it’s just like home?”
“Then you owl me, and I’ll help you drop out.”
“And we’ll protect you,” Millie promised, cracking her knuckles on Tracey’s other side. “You think they can beat me in a fight? Think they can beat Su?”
“No,” Tracey said weakly.
“We’re going together,” Harry promised, leaning over Tanti’s back. “They won’t know what hit them.”
“They won’t know what bit them if Harry has a say,” Fay teased.
Tracey snorted violently, snot and tears choking the sound. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve got this.” A deep breath, and she pulled away from Tanti. “And we’ll do our homework together too, make sure Harry doesn’t fall behind.”
Tanti reached up and cupped Harry’s head, bony chin digging into her shoulderblade. “You’ll do fine,” she assured. “And if the coursework is too much, the same rules apply. I’ll break you out, we can homeschool.”
“Okay.”
Another whistle.
“We’ve really gotta let Tanti go if we don’t wanna sneak her in through our trunks,” Dean warned. The other kids pulled away - he was the least attached, the one who hadn’t needed as vicious of a rescue. Tanti wasn’t sad about it - how could she be, when it saved one of her kids the tiniest bit of trauma?
She slipped off the train with a heavy heart, dodging scurrying witchlings and shouting young wizards, and returned to the steam-covered platform.
Her kids were crowding around their compartment window, nails with dirt in the beds and chipping pink polish waving wildly.
Tanti waved back. She was one of dozens of parents here, wixen and muggles alike, waving off beloved children for ten months in the care of teachers they’d never met.
Tanti prayed the teachers would be good to them.
“First time?” Asked a woman with bright orange hair, plump and sweet looking, clearly a witch. There a wand up her sleeve and a little redheaded girl, nine or ten or so, hanging around her legs.
“Fraid so,” Tanti said politely.
“It gets easier,” the witch promised, as the train pulled away and her daughter started racing it out of the platform.
“That’s what they say,” Tanti sighed. “That’s what they say.”
She had never believed it. It never got easier to see panic take hold of little bodies, to see the blood desperate children left in their wake. And she couldn’t imagine it getting easier to set her kids into the world - not for fear of what they’d do, but for fear of what could be done to them.
They deserved a world that would care for them. They’d only known one that hurt them.
*
Delphi waited until the train was moving to actually find her seat. She doubted her parents were waving goodbye, so they wouldn’t know, and she’d need all the luck she could get for them to not find out about this.
If she were being a good daughter, she would find a compartment full of half-bloods and the good kind of purebloods, who would ooh and ah over her and repeat snide comments their parents said about how long it took her to kill Voldemort.
People died because of her.
Delphi didn’t want to be a good daughter today. She wanted to be normal, for as long as possible, and the only way to do that was to find someone who hadn’t heard of her. Muggleborns, if possible, or sheltered halfbloods, or foreign students, maybe.
Anyone who wouldn’t recognize her on sight, who wouldn’t see her as a soldier who took too long.
She wandered up and down the aisle, keeping busy and waving and smiling at anyone who stopped to look at her. So many compartments were loud. Chittering and chattering and Delphi couldn’t tell from here what they were talking about, she didn’t want to open every door and back out when she recognized someone, she just wanted-
Maybe being normal was a pipe dream.
Delphi slid open the door of the single compartment that was quiet, deciding that sitting alone would be better than being gawked at - and she jumped, because the compartment wasn’t empty.
Six kids looked up at her, all first or second years, most in muggle clothes, the one in her Hogwarts uniform wearing a grey tie. Unsorted. Delphi froze.
A silencing charm on the door? On all of the walls. One of them had to be a second year. That wasn’t a spell someone would just know.
She should leave. They were all staring at her.
Delphi messed up. She tried to summon her press-smile, and something about it must have failed because the singular blonde in the room turned bright blue eyes on her and smiled. It dropped her stomach faster than Headmaster Dumbledore’s searching looks. Delphi breathed in sharply, stepping back to dodge whatever was going on-
“Are you looking for a compartment to sit in?” the blonde asked, not too sweet and not too dry, just… evenly.
“Yes,” Delphi whispered. “I’ll, uh- sorry for disturbing you-”
“No, you’re alright,” a boy said, eyes such a bright green that they matched Delphi’s own. Those mirror-familiar eyes flicked to the rest of the kids, and then he scooted over. “Come join us.”
She swallowed. Stepped forward. She dragged her trunk behind her, and tried not to flinch when the other boy in the compartment stepped up to help her put it in the overhead. “Here, I can help- I’m Dean, what’s your name?”
“Delphi,” she said carefully, watching for reactions. No gasps. No screams. No horrible invasive questions about how she did it and does she remember it and does she know how many people died in that last year?
“I’m Fay,” said the blonde. “This is Tracey, and Millie, and Su, and Harry.”
The kids shuffled as they were introduced, leaving a seat open. It was a little tight - but they had four of them on one side, and an empty seat on the other, crowding among themselves rather than squishing into Delphi’s space.
Most people wanted to be in her space.
“Do you want the window or the aisle seat?” asked the girl who’d been introduced as Su.
“Window, if that’s okay.” She’d have a harder time getting away, but she needed to pretend she could jump out the window. She wanted to see the scenery, too.
“Yeah, no problem.” Su scooted over, pulling with her a little lapbag full of string and… beads?
Delphi settled into the corner she’d gotten allotted for herself, and tried to push down her wariness. The other kids weren’t doing anything.
“What’s your favorite color?” Su asked.
Delphi jumped. “Yellow.” Because she could pretend it was gold, but it reminded her of sunflowers and autumn air, when her parents would let her outside and not judge her every move. “Yours?”
“Oh I like blue, and black, and pink, and purple, and red, and green, and- that’s not a very good question to ask me, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Delphi said, anxiously shaking her head. “I, uh-” how do kids talk to each other?
“I love your hair,” said the blonde suddenly. “Is it usually wavy or do you relax your curls?”
Delphi startled. “I- I don’t know? I just… do what my mom tells me to do with my hair.”
“Well if you want to experiment, I can share some of my shampoo,” Dean offered. “Tanti packed me so much. I think she was in doomsday mode.”
“You don’t have to,” Delphi tried to say.
“We don’t have to do anything,” Millie said, blunt and dry and oh Merlin was she mad at Delphi? “Fay likes playing with hair. If you don’t want her touching you, say so, but if you’re just trying not to be a bother, relax.”
“Okay.” Delphi took a breath. Let it out. “Maybe if we have free time. My parents said there’s not a lot of time for goofing around.”
“We’ll try to find some,” Tracey said. “Do you have an owl?”
“I have Calla,” Delphi offered. “She’s just flying to Hogwarts directly. I didn’t wanna take her on the train. Do you?”
“We have an owl to share,” Fay assured her. “Her name’s Hedwig. After the patron Saint of Orphans.”
Delphi’s heart sank a little bit. Orphans? War orphans? “Oh?”
“She’s a demon who wakes us up at six in the morning to bring us dead rats.”
Harry snorted. Delphi must have made a face. “It’s not as bad as Tracey makes it sound,” he assured. “We just feed them to Tiberius.”
“Tiberius?”
“Harry has a pet snake,” Fay explained. “He’s harmless, and Harry can talk to him so we all love him, snarky little thing.”
“I think I see a pattern of our pets being snarky little things,” Millie said, but Delphi could barely hear it.
Harry can talk to him.
A snake. Harry can talk to snakes.
“Do you like talking to snakes?” She asked around a lump in her throat that tasted like blood from a split cheek.
“Yeah, of course. Disney Princess moment.”
“You speak snake too!” Fay said brightly, and Delphi flinched. Fay’s face dropped immediately, and the little shriek of danger ratcheted back up.
“Please don’t tell anyone.”
“Okay,” Fay said gently, leaning across the divide, but Harry moved faster, suddenly on the floor between them, sitting in such a way to be entirely nonthreatening.
“We won’t,” Tracey promised, shifting until she could tap her ankle to Delphi’s.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Harry said, tilting his head from his new spot on the floor. “Has someone hurt you over this?”
“It’s- it’s just because it’s me,” Delphi tried to say, hisses catching on suddenly hitching breath. “Just- just be careful, I don’t know if you’ll targeted too.”
“Then we’ll keep it a secret,” Harry said gently. “We’re good at that.”
Delphi swallowed. Something was put in front of her suddenly, and she flinched back before realizing it was… a bracelet. Just a bracelet. Yellow and purple, with lettered beads spelling out her name. Delphi cupped her hands, and Tracey dropped it.
It matched the collection climbing Tracey’s forearms, and hanging from Fay’s overall strap, and the beaded string hooked to the back of Harry’s glasses, and adorning Su’s wrists.
Delphi slipped it on. “It’s beautiful, thank you Tracey.”
Tracey nudged her, gentle gentle gentle, and then leaned back. “You’re one of us now, Delphi. What are your thoughts on whales?”
Delphi coughed, baffled, and answered. The threat feeling died down, and the train ride passed much faster than she expected. And she didn’t feel like the odd one out.