Chapter 73: Wise Words, Mix of Light and Dark, and He Is Back
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo / AlanL]
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"Are you going to that place today as well?" asked Ms. Rosey as she saw Quinn off at the gate of the West manor. "You have been going there daily."
Quinn tied his shoes and replied with a single word, "Yes."
It was five-thirty in the morning, and Quinn was dressed in a tracksuit, ready to go out. He hadn't taken the magic dampening potion because he liked to take it sometime around noon, and that would last him till dinner time.
"Is fighting that much fun?" Ms. Rosey asked. She didn't like the prospect of Quinn participating in something so inelegant.
"It isn't the fighting I like, Ms. Rosey... Well, I don't dislike it, but I like the physical exertion that comes with it. I like my body responding swiftly to my commands when I am sparring against someone else. It gives me a sense of control."
Quinn answered as he got up and spoke out, "Polly, let's go."
When he opened the door, he found the house-elf was standing there as if waiting for Quinn to get ready.
He turned back towards Ms. Rosey and informed her, "I will be back before lunchtime."
Polly raised her hand, and Quinn held it. The next second, both the house-elf and human disappeared with a pop.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Polly and Quinn appeared in a deserted alleyway, appearing with the distinct pop of elf-apparition.
"Thank you, Polly," said Quinn letting go of the hand of the West family house-elf. "I will call you when I'm ready to leave."
Polly nodded and popped away, leaving Quinn in the alleyway.
The raven-head boy exited the alley, crossed the road, and walked for half a minute, and reached the destination he visited every day at the same time.
「Kaewpadung Gym」
It was one of the few Muay Thai gyms in Britain. Quinn had been coming here in the summer breaks since he had started Hogwarts.
At first, it was just for fun, and didn't take things too seriously, and just did it to remain fit because he thought that he had been spending too much time sitting. But, this year, he had been going there every day and had been spending many hours in that place before returning home.
Muay Thai was developed centuries ago as a form of close-combat that utilizes the entire body as a weapon. Referred to as the art of eight limbs, Muay Thai uses eight points of contact that mimicked the weapons of war.
The hands become the swords and dagger. Shins and forearms hardened in training transform into armor.
Fighters used the elbow as a mace or hammer. Legs and knees became the ax and staff.
The body acted altogether as one unit.
...
He entered the gym and shouted "Good morning!" as he walked inside.
"Morning!" ... "West." ... "Kid." ... "Good morning!" ... "Morning."
Multiple shouts greeted him back as he entered the gym. He went to the back, deposited his duffle bag, and walked back out.
"When are we starting," asked Quinn as he walked to the group of young adults and adults.
One of the guys in the group ruffled Quinn's hair and said, "You should smile more, kid."
Quinn sighed and swatted away the hand on his head. He had learned to portray fabricated expressions while under emotional occlumency. But even then, Quinn came out as a quiet boy.
"I will smile when I find something funny," said Quinn as he stretched as he waited for the instructor to arrive so that they could start.
Suddenly a rather loud yell greeted the people present,
"Good morning!"
Instinctively, everyone responded back in unison.
" "Good morning!" "
The people who were sitting down or talking in separate groups gathered around as the man walked towards them.
"How is everyone today? I presume all of you are feeling well."
There were lots of ayes and 'yes' in response, which made the man smile.
The man standing in front of the group of ten was Sken Kaewpadung. He was a British-based Thai Muay Thai trainer, fight choreographer, and fighter promoter. Sken decided to learn Muay Thai to avenge his father's murder, but in the end, was dissuaded from such a path to devote his life to teaching Muay Thai to anyone who wished to learn.
Sken Kaewpadung was the only person largely credited with bringing Muay Thai to the United Kingdom.
"Let's get started with a five-kilometer run to warm ourselves up," said Sken as everybody nodded.
As everyone there was an adult, Quinn trailed behind the group and arrived a couple of minutes after them.
"Alright, fifteen minutes, skip-rope, three sets of five," shouted Sken as he moved around the gym, instructing everybody. "Boxer step, high knee, criss-cross, and show me some speed!"
The repetitive motions of skipping rope while staying light on their feet helped the fighter become fast on their feet when moving around an opponent in the ring. It improved coordination and timing; to jump a rope for a sustained period required coordination and timing, or you would keep snatching the rope with your ankles. Jumping rope was a highly energetic cardiovascular exercise that made it great for conditioning training for boxers and other striking styles. And finally, it was a great way to build stamina, keeping the intensity high during skipping.
After everyone was done skipping, it was time to do rounds of shadowboxing.
Quinn started his own drills of jab, cross, hook, followed by a knee. But just as he was about to get into it, he heard a shout.
"Quinn! Move after a rep. You don't want to stay in the same position after striking. Move to a different position," Sken shouted from a distance. "Build that into your muscle memory. I don't want to see you standing still. Move! Plus, give me a double-teep double-check after this. You are ignoring the legs."
"Yes, sir!" Quinn replied.
"Louder!" shouted Sken.
"YES, SIR!"
"Excellent!"
They ended the shadowboxing session with burnouts and pushups.
After that was time on the bag. It was just more striking but against a heavy bag. Quinn repeated the same drills he did during shadowboxing.
Shadowboxing and bag-work complemented each other.
The heavy bag was great for developing power and explosive endurance. You were essentially punching the bag with a very high degree of force you can exert over time. But there were limitations to overworking the heavy bag. Generally, people tended to stand way too close to the heavy bag, at a distance where you would not stand in a real fight situation. This was okay when strictly working for power. But if overused, it could inhibit the perception of proper distance and striking ability at full reach of the fighter.
Shadowboxing helped with that as it forced you to focus on your own body movements and proprioception (awareness of your body with its environment) without looking for the satisfying feel or sound of striking. This was a good thing because people often strayed into poor techniques to hit harder or hear what they thought sounded impressive.
Heavy bags were for working more on the form while hitting a moving target. Fighters had to focus on speed, coordination, and power while also having to move to hit the target they wished to strike.
Shadowboxing allowed total freedom of footwork as you didn't have to position yourself relative to an apparatus like a punching bag. Plus, it also allowed unrestricted body methods as strikes weren't unimpeded by the unhuman-like dimensions of the heavy bag.
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Pad work is arguably the most representative and important part of training in Muay Thai. Unlike many gyms in the West, pad-holding is a task that is more commonly performed by a trainer and not a gym partner. It is a role that is taken seriously by the Thai trainers. Pad work was one of the most intimate moments in training. Where an instructor got to shape and sharpen the style of a fighter. Something that couldn't be achieved by only training with a partner.
Sken and other trainers made sure to point out things during pad work. Besides, pad-work at Sken's gym was intense as the gym's standard practice was to mimic ring action with three to five rounds of three to eight minutes. Quinn did four rounds of three minutes in one stretch of pad-work.
After that came the part of training that Quinn hated; clinch wrestling.
The clinch was defined as 'stand-up close-quarters grappling'. This is a position where both competitors are fighting for control to gain a dominant position.
What made the Muay Thai clinch so different from clinching in other striking combat sports like Boxing or Kickboxing was that the referee would not immediately break the clinch up. Clinch was allowed As as long as there was action going on in the clinch. Which meant that as long as either fighter was in a fighting position to get in strikes, the clinch was allowed to continue.
Unlike some other Muay Thai gyms in the West part of the world, Sken paid extra attention to teach clinching just as it was done in the combat sports' homeland, Thailand.
Afterwards, all the people in the group ended their session with warmup and stretches. All either had work or college, so they needed to go home to get prepared.
Quinn, who didn't have anything to do, just continued with his shadowboxing and heavy bag. He didn't have anywhere to go and liked to spend his time there because there was nothing much to do at home.
"Quinn, come, let's do some light pad work," said Sken as he was free around this time. He would do with Quinn another session of pad work.
Quinn walked over and did pad work with Sken.
"No, not like that. You need to plant your other foot firmly on the ground to create ample force for a knee strike. Do it again."
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"Don't flap your foot while kicking. Bring your knee up fully before extending it. You want to kick like you are stabbing something. Good, that's it."
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"Keep your hands up and try to grab some kicks to counter. You need to take advantage of the openings."
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Quinn kept on doing whatever Sken was throwing at him.
"So, Quinn. Why did you join the gym?" asked Sken as Quinn continued to kick and punch.
"Hmm... For fun, I guess," replied Quinn between moves. He had other motives, but those motives were for the future.
"Why do you only come in the summer?"
"I attend a boarding school in Scotland," replied Quinn. He wasn't lying as Hogwarts was a boarding school in Scotland. "So I am not at home for most of the year."
"Oh, why did your parents send you off to a boarding school? Have you caused trouble?"
Quinn fakely chuckled and denied it, "No, my grandfather attended the school, so I also went there. It is quite fun, actually."
"Hmm..." Sken hit Quinn with his shin, who wasn't able to dodge, and asked as Quinn punched in retaliation. "But, you have been coming here daily this summer, and you have been working hard as well. Is it just for fun?"
Quinn didn't know where Sken was going. "...Yeah, why?"
"Even though you don't show it in your expression or words, your strikes show great anger and frustration. So I'm sorry, but I can't believe that you are still doing it for fun."
The student was surprised to hear that, and it showed when he was flipped over by Sken. Quinn went down with an 'oof.'
"So, tell me, what angers you so much?"
He just laid down there, and while staring at the gym's ceiling, Quinn didn't know what came over him, but he spoke,
"I was good at it, you know. I didn't consider myself a genius or something. Even when everybody praised me for being so great, I didn't think I was some kind of prodigy. I thought of myself as a normal bloke who just worked hard at what I loved."
Sken listened to Quinn. He didn't know what the 'it' meant. But he just listened as the boy vented.
"I spent all my time on it. I barely had a life out of it. Now, when all my hard work has broken down into shambles because I've made a mistake, I don't know what to do. I don't even know how to fix this. It's just so frustrating when all the work I put in crumbled, when I was just trying to gain more, just trying to get better at it."
Quinn's detached emotions felt numb. It had been a month and a half since he lost his magic. He had already spent a little less than half of his summer break doing what felt like pushing against a wall, trying to make it move.
"It is just so damn frustrating."
Sken sat down beside Quinn and spoke,
"You know, I trained in the art of Muay Thai because I wanted to avenge my father who was killed by some bastard back in Thailand. I thought that if I became strong enough, I would be able to kill that man," Sken said, not considering the fact he was talking to a nearly fourteen-year-old teenager. "I was so focused on to achieve that goal that I lost sight of everything else. Just like you, I had no life outside of fighting. Just going into fights to hone my skills and earn money to live another day."
Quinn turned his head and stared at Sken as he spoke.
"But, one day, I found out that, without knowing it, that bastard had already died. There I was, having trained all my life, without knowing what to do. All of a sudden, I had no aim in life. Nothing to focus upon. All I was left with was skills in fighting."
Quinn opened his mouth to ask, "So, what did you do?"
Sken glanced at Quinn and smiled, "Negative emotions like rage, fear, loneliness, or anything that isn't considered positive have an important role to play in a happy life; they are big, flashing signs that announce that something needs to change." He looked around the gym and motioned at it. "I left the country because it brought me so many bad emotions within myself. I needed a change, so I traveled here and opened this gym, as teaching was the only thing I knew to do."
Sken took a deep breath and spoke,
"When something bad happens, you have three choices." One by one, Sken counted the things on his fingers. "You can either let it define you. Let it destroy you. Or, you can let it strengthen you."
Quinn's pupils dilated in surprise. It just clicked in his mind. It was sitting there, and he didn't see it.
'Ah, maybe this would work,' Quinn thought as he looked at Sken. He got up and spoke, "Thank you, let's continue."
Sken nodded and set up his pads for Quinn to strike against. After some strikes, Sken smiled. He felt it; something that had changed, as Quinn's strikes were no longer of anger but of hope and determination.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Time passed and August 31, 1993, arrived. It was just one day before Quinn had to leave for Hogwarts.
"So, where is he?" asked Alan. The old mind-arts master had come to get one final look at Quinn.
"He is in the garden. He's been outside for quite some time this past week," replied George.
George had called Alan in order to have him take a look at Quinn. He feared that Quinn wasn't ready to go back to Hogwarts. It worried him that Quinn would force himself to go to Hogwarts and keep on taking on the magic dampening potion.
"How long do you think it will take for the potion to show a negative effect?" asked George. Quinn hadn't been showing any negative effect, but George wanted to know if something could go wrong.
"From my estimates, I think he could take it for another month before his physical condition starts to deteriorate," answered Alan. "The potion is a modified version. The effects are diluted, and the doses are regulated so that it isn't active around the clock. It isn't strange that Quinn hasn't shown any symptoms."
"I'm worried that he will become dependent on the potion." George sighed. He knew his grandson's personality; Quinn loved magic more than anything else and would do anything to be near magic.
"Well, let's see how has he been doing. Do you know what his progress with magic is lately?," Alan asked. Quinn's progress with his magic would be the deciding factor. He would look at Quinn's condition before making any suggestion. "Has he been doing magic while under the potion?"
"I don't know, actually," answered George, causing Alan to frown.
"What do you mean?"
"Quinn spends a lot of his time running in the backyard, doing exercises. While he is in the house, he plays his instruments or silently reads a book. When he is not under the potion, he either goes to the gym he has been going to or locks himself in his room to only come out for meals."
At first, George thought Quinn was distracting himself, but after a month of Quinn not speaking much at all, he started to get worried. Plus, George had been told that sometimes Quinn would spend hours intensely thinking about something.
"... I see," murmured Alan. He couldn't think of a reason why Quinn would behave as he did. But he was about to meet Quinn, so maybe he would get some answers.
The two adults arrived at the West estate garden, and in the lush green of a well-maintained garden, they saw Quinn standing with his hands behind his back, facing away from them.
George was about to call Quinn when Alan raised his hand and quietly asked, "Is Quinn under the potion right now?"
"Yes, why do you ask?" questioned George. Quinn had been taking the potion at the same time every day, so today shouldn't be different.
"Quinn's shields are operating in full effect," Alan replied, and for once, he didn't sneak into Quinn's mind. He was confused. "Let's go talk to him."
The two adults walked towards Quinn, and the sound of their footsteps in the grass caught Quinn's attention, as the boy turned around. They saw Quinn had a smile on his face.
"Mr. Alan, what a surprise. Not that it is not good to see you. What are you doing here?" asked Quinn. He wasn't expecting to see Alan today.
Alan eyed Quinn before asking, "I'm here to see if you're doing okay..." He took a pause before continuing. "... and to see if you are set to go back to school."
Quinn laughed in response. He guessed the motive of Alan's visit and George tagging along with him. It was just a day before he had to leave.
"You two don't have to worry. I am fine now." Quinn looked at his hands and spoke. "I'm back to my full capabilities and healthy as ever."
"What about your magic?" asked Alan. George looked curious about the question, too.
Quinn stared at the two older men and grinned. Immediately, flowers sprouted out of the ground. Rainbow-colored flowers littered around the green of the ground.
The two men's eyes widened as they saw the flowers growing, and the next thing they knew - bees, butterflies, and beetles started to futter around the flowers as if to collect pollen from the newly grown flowers.
"My magic is back under my control," Quinn smiled when a butterfly on his finger. "I haven't felt better in such a long time."
"How? How did you regain your magic so quickly?" asked Alan, bewildered at the scene. He could only explain the rapidly growing flowers with magic, as the tiny butterflies fluttering around them weren't indigenous to the region.
George chimed in and asked a question of his own, "But you said that you were having trouble with progressing your magic."
"That was a month ago, grandfather," replied Quinn as he stretched his arms. "I have made a steady and fast recovery since then."
"How? How did you regain your control so fast?" questioned Alan, genuinely curious.
"I always thought that I understood the place of emotion and will in magic," Quinn spoke as he walked towards the two. "But it turned out I was wrong. I was so wrong. The past 'me' knew nothing about the place of emotion in magic."
A cool breeze of wind swept through the area as Quinn continued spoke,
"I thought about it, you know. If the curse increased my control by utilizing the emotional connection between me and my magic, why couldn't I use the same method? I could use my emotions to strengthen and build up the focus I lost."
Suddenly the three watched as a deer hoped into the garden before stopping to nibble on some grass.
"I drew on all my emotions to increase my connection to my magic. Steadily, I used my emotions to emulate the same thing that the sin curse did to me. And, you know what? It worked," Quinn laughed as he joined his hands. When he separated them, tiny orbs of light flew out of his hands.
"The curse forced my connection to my magic by manipulating my magic. It wasn't me who was in control. This time around, I was the one who felt my emotions on a deeper level and actively tried to connect them to my magic."
Alan frowned. He knew about emotions and this wasn't how emotions and magic worked together.
"Quinn, that is not how things are supposed to go. You couldn't have gained your focus back so fast. You lost years worth of progress." He stepped forward. "How about you let me check if there is something wrong."
Quinn chuckled, "Of course, you can check. But you are wrong. The thing about magic is that there is no dark or light magic. We, humans, categorize magic as such. I always subscribed to this school of thought. And then I thought, why aren't emotions subjected to the same way of thinking? Why are emotions like fear, anger, hate, and suffering termed as negative emotions?"
"Love is said to be the strongest emotion of all, but I think every emotion can be just as strong if utilized properly." Quinn stared at George and Alan and revealed, "I used the so-called dark emotions to regain my focus."
Alan's eyes widened at the statement.
"Quinn, you know that the negative emotions could consume you. Rage, resentment, failure, sadness can consume magic users. Especially someone with a deep connection to magic as yourself." He was getting worried about Quinn. If Quinn utilized the darker emotions, then it could become a problem later. The darker emotions had a seductive charm that had ruined a lot of people.
Quinn quickly stepped forward and spoke, "True, they have a certain quality to them, don't they? But, they will only consume you if you aren't true to yourself." He quoted what Sken had told him, "I could have let them define me, I could have let them destroy me, or I could use them to strengthen myself."
"I felt frustrated that I was not able to use magic. I feared that I would never be able to get my magic back. I hated myself for not having thought it through. I was miserable because I had nothing other than magic going for me. I was drowning in feelings like those." Quinn looked at his two hands, bending his fingers into claw shapes. "I had all these emotions, emotions that I was trying to run away from. I had them in such abundance. Now, wouldn't it be a waste to let them go unused?"
Quinn had a sad smile on his face which then turned into the brightest of smiles as he said, "So I tapped into every single type of emotion I was capable of feeling, it didn't matter if it was 'good' or 'bad'. I opened every door, turned every stone, and plundered everything I could get my hands on. I used the frustration I felt —as I wasn't able to use magic— to push myself towards, in the hope of, one day, regain my magic back. I hated my previous self, so I strived to be better than him. The determination that this wasn't my ceiling overcame the fear of never getting back my magic. I didn't believe that this was the end of my magic."
He stared Alan right into the eye and laughed, "Don't you get it. I used both sides of the spectrum to progress my magic. I didn't struggle by using the only side which is seen as proper. No matter what I am feeling, be it joy or misery, turmoil or serenity... all the emotions are mine. I had to accept that I was feeling down and the emotions that went along of it. A mix of emotions coming together to create a magnificent symphony. When you mixed that blend with magic? Magic would reward you, it would dance at your fingertips, move at a single thought of your mind. You just need to… feel."
Quinn turned to George and beamed. "Adversity is what builds character and strength. I was at rock bottom, and you know what? After hitting rock bottom, there is nowhere else but to go up."
"I used adversity to regain whatever I lost in just a month. I used everything that I had, every resource I had available, to claw my way out of the pit." Quinn's voice gained some solemnity as he continued, "Humans need adversity to grow. They need hardship to appreciate the good times. Without it, we become lazy and stale. Adversity to gain happiness keeps us moving. Being happy all the time is not at all bad. Everyone should aim for happiness, but without knowing what is on the other side, how would you learn to understand yourself."
"Do you know that I haven't taken the potion in close to three weeks, and even before that I was skimming on doses" Quinn softly smiled as he looked at the two older men, who were stunned at the sudden piece of information. "I stopped taking it because it was dulling my connection to magic as it was supposed to do. I shouldn't have run away from my magic in the first place. I should've faced it head-on. But let's not talk about the past."
"I let my magic flow. It was painful, oh so painful... I hated every second of that time, but I had to continue because it was helping me," sighed Quinn as he remembered those times. "Pain is a powerful motivator, so I endured it. Slowly but surely, under the pressure to reduce the pain and solve the consequences, I was able to stop my rampaging magic by getting all of it under control. Negative thoughts combined with the positivity I was feeling from seeing progress, so I combined it together to boost my progress. It helped that I was rebuilding something that I had lost, so my progress was so fast."
"The time I spent feeling all these emotions, even those I didn't want to feel, made me learn a lot about myself and my magic. I felt free. I actually feel much better from before the sin curse got a hold on," Quinn stretched his hands above his head and stated, "My magic, which was made to grow artificially, is now under my control. Do you know that I gained an extra year and a half of progress? My artificially expanded magical core has now become a natural part of my magical physiology. My control might not have gotten the same boost because I had to rebuild it in such a small amount of time, but I learned a lot about emotion and will, and that will help me in the long run."
By the time Quinn stopped speaking. The garden was full of short shrubs and beautiful flowers. Squirrels, butterflies, three dears, one peacock graced the transformed landscape.
"Do you know how difficult it is to fool the senses of two practiced occlumens? It gets more difficult when one of them is literally on the top of the mind-arts field," Quinn waved his hand over the colorful scene and said. "This much amount of work is required. I wouldn't have been able to do it before, but now I've been able to pull it off."
"What do you mean?" asked a frowning George.
Quinn raised his hand and snapped his finger. Instantly, half of the flowers and shrubs vanished like they were a mirage. The larger animals like deers and peacocks ceased to exist.
"I did not conjure those things or transfigure those animals. They were the work of an elaborate illusion," Quinn stated in a quiet voice. He pointed at the butterflies and bees and said: "Only a quarter of these flying insects are conjured; the rest of them aren't real. A huge share of the flowers and shrubs weren't even corporal and were just accompanying the small amount of transfigured flora. They gave an illusion that they were real. I used small details so you wouldn't look at the bigger picture."
He turned to face Alan and said, "I distracted you with the buzzing of bees, the chirping of crickets, so you would believe that all of this was real. My words kept most of your focus on me as I continued to add more illusions. None of them were mental illusions because you would catch them instantly, so I used physical light manipulation. I faked sounds, created light gusts of wind to immerse you in the scene. A lot of delicate illusion work combined with a small amount of corporal mixed together to form something you thought was completely real."
Quinn gave a beaming chuckle, "Fooling a master of mind-arts, who has complete control over his mind is great for a day's work, don't you think?"
Quinn closed his eyes and yelled at the sky.
"I AM BACK! QUINN WEST IS BACK! WOOHOO!"
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End of Volume Four: Hogwarts: Year Three
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Quinn West - Light and Dark mix to create brilliance - Yeah~!
Sken Kaewpadung - Your typical wise master - My words are wise and I am real.
Alan D. Baddeley - Mind-arts master - Feeling shocked.
George West - Worried grandfather - Still hasn't comprehended what happened.
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Chapter 74: Another Year, Another Train Journey
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
.
[The chapter was edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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In northwestern London lay King's Cross Station, a Muggle railway station that was one of the busiest in the city. It was a perfectly ordinary station, with big plastic numbers over each track and guards who had never heard of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
However, every September 1st, as the clock overhead approached eleven o'clock, the InterCity-125 was pulled into platform nine. A strange crowd turned the occasional people's heads. The pack was wizarding children, bearing enormous trunks and caged owls and other unusual pets, making their way toward —and then through— the solid metal barrier between platforms nine and ten.
Through this barrier, of course, lay Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, home of the famous Hogwarts Express. A look back at the barrier revealed it was a wrought-iron archway with the words "Platform Nine and Three-Quarters [Platform 9¾]" on it. Over the scarlet steam train's billowing smoke was a signboard that said the Hogwarts Express would depart at eleven o'clock.
Though the platform was only used six days a year, a round trip for the beginning and end of term. One on Christmas and Easter holidays each; the platform on those days, was awash with activity. Steam from the scarlet engine flooded the platform as cats wound their way around the wizards' legs and owls hooted to each other, as hordes of students and parents moved around through the steam "like dark ghosts", their voices carrying through the mist.
Near one of the pillars inside Platform 9¾, stood Quinn with Lia talking with each other until the time for Hogwarts Express to leave.
"So what do you think about the Azkaban breakout? Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters," asked Quinn, having idle talk with his sister.
"Hmm... I would say that he choose the right time to break out. A lot of Aurors are busy right now," replied Lia, thinking about the recent events that had been going on the front page of every magical newspaper and magazine.
Quinn nodded in agreement. "What do they call themselves, ah, yes, Novellus Accionites. They have been targeting no-majs and first-generation magicals in Voldemort's name. Not sure if Novellus Accionites is a good name, though."
"Why not?" questioned Lia. She knew about the origins of the group's name. "Weren't the Accionites, a group of anti-no-maj, magicals? That seems a good name for their group; it goes well with their current agenda."
"Maybe you are right. People don't know the complete history of the group," conceded Quinn. Then he proceeded to tell Lia the history of the original group.
"The thing about original Accionites is that their leader was dumb, really dumb. First, he tried to steal from the goblins by summoning gold from the Gringotts. He got away with a mere lifetime ban. In that time, goblins executed anyone who tried to steal from them. After all that, he died when he summoned a large barn over his head."
Quinn laughed as he snorted, "So dumb~. I can't take those guys seriously knowing what I know."
"Quinn," called out a voice.
Lia turned her head to see who was calling her brother to see two girls walking towards them. One of them was waving her hand with a beaming smile on her face while the other girl followed her with a bland expression on her face.
'Now, who are these two girls,' she thought as a mischievous light flashed in her eyes.
"Hey, you two. How have you been?" said Quinn, greeting his two favorite Slytherins.
He had avoided everyone he knew as much as he could. He completely avoided Tracy and Daphne because, first, they were in a different house, and second, they were not in the same year as him. So it was fairly easy to avoid them.
Tracy was about to continue speaking when she met the person Quinn was standing with. The bubbly brunette peered at the woman and observed her.
She was beautiful. Tracy would describe her as one of those girls who often caused double-takes as she passed by and looked good no matter the occasion. Her first impression was that she was someone confident and outgoing.
Daphne also looked at the women with some curiosity. Given that the unknown person was talking to Quinn, it was clear that Quinn knew her. And after a second look, Daphne noticed the black hair and stone-grey eyes.
'Same as Quinn,' the blonde thought, noticing the similarities between Quinn and the woman.
"Why don't you introduce her to us, Quinn?" asked Tracy, curious about the woman.
"Oh, right," Quinn turned and introduced the two parties.
"This is Lia West, my sister," said Quinn, gesturing at Lia. Then the younger West child turned his face to his two friends and spoke, "And these two are Tracy Davis-," pointing at the brunette. "- and Daphne Greengrass," pointing at the blonde. "They are my friends."
Lia pushed herself off the wall, put a hand on Quinn's shoulder, and asked, "So which one do you like?"
Tracy and even Daphne blushed at the sudden question.
Tracy looked at Quinn and found that her male friend had changed in the break. For one, Quinn had grown a few inches. Overall, his jaw and face was now sharper as he had lost the baby fat. Tracy felt his shoulders had widened a little. Even his arms looked a little bigger overall, and Quinn was more filled out than before.
He was much more handsome than last year.
Daphne, on the other hand, recalled the memory of Quinn holding her close. She remembered him saying that he would have invited her to Hogsmeade if she wasn't a second year. She was a third-year now and was allowed to go to Hogsmeade this year onwards.
Would he invite her this year... were Daphne Greengrass' thoughts as she stared at the boy in front of her.
Quinn closed his eyes as he held the bridge of his nose. He was really feeling embarrassed and was trying to hide it. "You know, I wondered whether you would do anything to embarrass me if we met my friends. I really thought you wouldn't do it, but it turned out I was wrong."
"Why did you have to do that?" Quinn deadpanned towards his sister.
A smile bloomed on Lia's face as she gave her explanation, "Because it's so much fun!"
Quinn was about to say something, but his eyes caught sight of something. He spoke to the three girls: "I will be back in a minute. You guys talk to each other..." He turned to Lia and warned her, "... and you... behave."
Quinn ran off somewhere, leaving Tracy, Daphne and Lia behind.
"So how did you two meet my baby brother?" asked Lia with a friendly smile on her face.
"We met Quinn in our first year. In fact, we met today, two years ago in the Hogwarts Express," answered Tracy. She giggled and recalled, "Oh, that day was fun."
"What is Quinn like at home?" It was Tracy's turn to ask a question. And she really wanted to know if Quinn was the same as he was outside. "He is annoyingly put together all the time." She pointed at Daphne behind her. "Along with this girl; the two dress so perfectly that it makes me feel quite annoyed. I mean, not a single hair out of place."
Lia turned her eyes to the one called Daphne Greengrass and observed the blonde. And she could see what Tracy Davis was talking about.
"Well, Quinn was raised by Ms. Rosey, and she is very particular about caring for one's appearance at every time, so being well put together is ingrained into Quinn's bones." Lia chuckled as she remembered the times Ms. Rosey yelled at Quinn for having an untucked shirt or messy hair. "Given that it is Quinn, I am sure that he uses magic to fix his appearance every hour or so."
Tracy's eyes widened, and a smile appeared on her face. She grabbed Daphne's arm and laughed. "She does it too. Every hour, she waves her wand and fixes her appearance. Like clockwork!"
Lia began to like Tracy. The brunette seemed to be a fun girl. Additionally, Lia was interested in Daphne even though she hadn't said a single word since their meeting.
What interested Lia was that when she asked Quinn the question, she saw Daphne's eyes blur as if she remembered something, and then the girl had looked at Quinn with a blush on her face.
She wanted to know if Daphne liked her brother. "Daphne Greengrass, was it? Do you li-"
But before she could complete her sentence, a joyous shout cut her off.
"Lia!"
The three girls turned to see Quinn walking towards them, a grin on his face. They saw Quinn pulling a girl with him.
Quinn stopped near them, brought the girl in front of him, and then slipped his hands under the girl's shoulder and lifted her up as if showing her off.
The girl that Quinn brought and lifted had waist-length, straggly, dirty blond hair. Interestingly or weirdly, the girl was wearing dirigible plum-shaped earrings on her ears.
Lia found herself looking at the girl as the girl stared back at her with her silvery eyes.
"Meet Luna Lovegood," Quinn introduced the young girl with a bright smile on his face. "She's my junior in Ravenclaw. Absolutely adorable, isn't she?"
Quinn put the now named Luna Lovegood down and spoke to the young Ravenclaw, "Luna, this is my sister, Lia."
Luna's eyes shined as she moved towards Lia and observed her by orbiting around her. Then she sized Lia up, sweeping her eyes up and down before saying, "You look like Quinn."
"... That I do," replied Lia. Sure, Lia found Luna Lovegood cute to look at, but she wasn't sure who she was looking at. "I'm his sister, after all."
Luna nodded before turning her back to Lia. She walked back to Quinn's side, who gave her chocolate, patted her head, and told her: "Good work."
"So what did you three talk about?" Quinn asked after giving Luna chocolate.
"Oh, Tracy was telling me about the first time you guys met," replied Lia.
"Ah, it was today, wasn't it? You two weren't able to find a compartment, so you guys came into my compartment." Quinn chuckled as he recalled that day and said, "That was a fun day. Did you know I guessed the houses of almost all first-years being sorted that year? Yeah~ that was fun."
Quinn looked at the clock that was hanging on a pillar and said, "Okay, we should get moving if we want to get a compartment." He turned to Tracy and Daphne and asked, "Do you want to join Luna and I? We're sharing a compartment."
Tracy looked at Daphne, who nodded. "Sure, we will join you," replied Tracy.
"Can we bring another person?" asked Daphne, staring at Quinn.
Quinn looked at Luna to see if she was alright with another person, but his eccentric junior seemed really interested in the wrapper of the chocolate he gave her.
"I don't see why not. The more, the merrier," replied Quinn.
"Alright, we'll say goodbye to our parents and then meet you on the train," said Tracy. Daphne also needed to find the person she wanted to bring along, so she nodded.
"Excellent, I'm going to choose a compartment somewhere along the middle of the train, so start somewhere there," said Quinn before he turned his face to Luna and shook her to get her attention. "Luna, go ahead and say goodbye to your father. We will get going then."
The three girls went back to their respective families, leaving Lia and Quinn alone.
"Do you have any male friends, or are all your friends girls," smirked Lia. She put a hand on her cheek, "My baby brother sure is popular. Are you planning to become a ladies' man?"
"There is nothing wrong with being a little bit of a ladies' man," snorted Quinn at her comment, which was another attempt to make him feel embarrassed. "And, I do have male friends." He looked around the platform. "But I just can't seem to find Eddie and Marcus at the platform or on the train. It will be the fourth straight year if I don't see them today."
When Quinn returned his eyes to Lia, he found her looking at him with slight worry in her eyes.
"What is it?" sighed Quinn. He knew that look. It was the same George had given him as they were leaving home before in the morning.
"Promise me you won't do something reckless and dangerous." She held Quinn's face and forced him to look at her.
"... I'll try," said Quinn. He couldn't claim he wouldn't get into trouble. He would surely try not to get into trouble as he didn't want to seek trouble. "I will try my best to stay safe. Despite my track record, I don't enjoy getting into trouble."
Lia scrutinized Quinn for a while before she sighed. "Why couldn't you just say that you won't get into trouble." She squished Quinn's face and blamed him. "You like to cause me worry, don't you?"
"Oh, nothing like that," replied Quinn, smiling as he looked at his sister. She was always the one who got worried about him the most. "I just do it so you won't forget me."
Lia's hands left Quinn's face and wrapped around him to pull him into a hug. "Why do you have to say such silly things? I will never forget you. You are my precious baby brother."
"Will I ever be elevated from baby brother to little brother?" smiled Quinn, hugging Lia back. "I have been working hard. I deserve a promotion. Maybe a pay-raise to accompany it, and if you are feeling generous, some benefits."
"I'm sorry to inform you you have reached the peak of your career in this field." Lia giggled and joked back, "You would still be my baby brother even if we were oldies full of white hair."
"Heh, you might get old and wrinkly, but I'll never grow old," declared Quinn, scoffing.
The West siblings separated, and Lia sighed. "Send me plenty of MagiFax. You remember my WMF-id, right?"
"I decided on all our families' WMF-ids. Of course I remember them," answered Quinn, and with a final sigh, he added, "Take care of yourself and don't overwork. Remember to have fun and keep sending me souvenirs."
"You bet," promised Lia and stroked Quinn's cheek one last time. "Now, leave. I don't want to see you cry."
"Of course," smiled Quinn. He picked up his suitcase, turned back towards the Hogwarts Express, and walked away. He waved to Lia as he walked away.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
Quinn threaded his way through the narrow corridors of the train. Weaving through the students standing in the corridors. He made his way to the middle of the train, looking for an empty compartment.
After a minute or two, Quinn found an empty compartment and immediately laid his claim on it.
"Conquest... completed," declared victory Quinn as he sent his suitcase to the top rack and shot multiple cleaning and scouring charms to make everything spotless.
After half a minute, Luna entered the compartment, and Quinn helped transfer all her stuff to the racks above.
"Looking forward to this year, Luna?" asked Quinn as he took a seat next to the window.
Luna sat down beside Quinn and nodded, "I'm hoping to see a lot of magical creatures this year. Maybe even find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but daddy said it can only be found in the Netherlands. So maybe I won't find it at Hogwarts?"
"Who knows, maybe you will, or maybe you won't. The only way to find out is to look for it," answered Quinn.
He didn't know if the Crumple-Horned Snorkack was a real creature or a figment of Xenophilius Lovegood's imagination. But he wasn't outright going to deny the existence of the said creature. He lived in a magical world. Maybe the mysterious creature was real.
"I heard that Rubeus Hagrid is going to teach Care of Magical Creatures subject this year," informed Quinn. "He spends a lot of time in the Forbidden Forest, and I have heard he knows a lot about magical creatures. So we may learn about a lot of new creatures. That'll be fun, don't you think?"
Luna's eyes shined, and she looked up at Quinn. "Really? Hagrid is nice. Hmm, I'm looking forward to learning from him. He's very tall, though. My neck hurts when I look up at him."
Quinn grinned at the last part. Luna was a small girl, and the half-giant was very tall.
"Ah, found them."
Quinn and Luna turned their heads towards the door of the compartment and saw Tracy. She was looking to her right and called out: "They are here, come on."
Quinn stood up and helped Tracy with her luggage but stayed away from her cat because he thought the feline was glaring at him. That was the cat whose hair went into Hermione's polyjuice potion.
After Quinn set up Tracy's luggage, he turned to the door and blinked when he saw two girls standing there. One taller than the other. One had blonde hair, and the other one had black hair. Both girls had blue eyes.
Quinn could immediately see the similarities between the two girls.
Daphne Greengrass, the taller of the two girls, spoke up and introduced the black-haired girl to Quinn.
"This is Astoria. My sister."
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Fourth-year Ravenclaw. Back to school.
Lia West - Elder Sister - Fulfilling the duty of older siblings by embarrassing younger siblings.
Luna Lovegood - Second-year Ravenclaw - Quite easy to lift her up the ground.
Tracy Davis - Third-year Slytherin- Admiring the changes in Quinn.
Daphne Greengrass - Third-year Slytherin - Memories.
Astoria Greengrass - First-year - Daphne's sister.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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