CLAUDIA COULD FINALLY breathe again. From the moment she separated from her family, everything felt better. Lighter. Easier.

As she walked through the heavily crowded Platform 9 3/4, a hand was softly placed on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"Claudia!" Betty exclaimed as the girl, who was expecting a final warning from her father, turned around.

"Are you alright?" The blonde immediately asked. "You kind of... don't look so well."

It was true. She was still sleeping badly, still not eating, still not going outside and still not smiling.

But, she was going back to Hogwarts and things would be somewhat good for a while.

"I'm fine," Claudia said with the first smile she wore in weeks, besides the one that appeared every time she re-read Remus' letter. Betty then pulled her in for a hug, causing her to be forced to hold in a wince as she placed her hands on Claudia's back.

Which was still hurting like a bitch.

She had continued to clean it, bandage it and hope for the best - but nothing worked. It hurt just as badly as it had been ever since an hour after the curse had been casted on her. And, it was bigger.

Like, it was physically fucking growing.

And more gross too. It was now black, and Claudia swore it was like her skin was becoming an ashtray.

She tried her hardest to not think too much about it; she sat in chairs like a perfect lady so her back wouldn't touch the wood, slept on her stomach despite it being extremely uncomfortable, and showered in super cold water so it wouldn't burn, despite it being freezing.

That day she had pulled a black sweatshirt over her head in hopes that no trace of it would be shown.

As the pain became more bearable during their somewhat long hug, Claudia opened her eyes and immediately saw him.

Remus.

He was looking right at her with a faint smile, out of pure relief, as well as just a soft and comforting look.

Claudia didn't technically give him a single expression back, but if one would've studied her face they would've seen how it slowly became more relaxed, more like she wasn't pretending.

More like she stopped being that same old porcelain doll.

And then, Claudia's eyes flickered to a woman next to him. She was quite young, but still old enough to be who she was.

And that was Remus' mother.

She looked kind. Beautiful. Like she would take Claudia in with open arms. Which she would definitely do.

The woman looked at her son, and then looked at who her son was looking at. And then, a big smile came upon her face. She waved to Claudia, and in a way of returning it, Claudia smiled.

And Remus smiled too at the sight of that. Almost a little too cheerily.

And then, Claudia saw another person.

"Oh my god," she said under her breath, but Betty still heard her. The blonde turned around and saw exactly what Claudia saw:

A bruised Sirius Black.

"He got disowned," Betty said sadly. "On Christmas Eve of all days. The letter he sent me... it was so scary. I can't believe people do things like that, especially to their own children."

"Me neither," Claudia replied absentmindedly as she felt a pit grow in her stomach.

Sirius had been disowned and clearly rather beaten up the same night of the ball.

She couldn't help but to feel like it was her fault. She felt she could have stopped it. She could have ended the prank. She could have told him off better when he spoke poorly to her father.

And, she also figured Sirius was at the ball just because of her, because she wasn't stupid.

Since Claudia was very young, things had always been blamed on her, which was why she always felt so guilty.

"It's your fault your father is always angry."

"It's your fault everybody is so miserable."

"It's all your fault."

"It's. Your. Fault."

"I should probably go talk to him, I'll come find you later, okay?" Betty said as she placed her hand on Claudia's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

Blonde hair disappeared into the crowd, and as if on cue, black curls appeared.

"Claudia," Inez said under her breath, her face showing both relief and fear at the same time. She opened her mouth again to speak, but Claudia broke into a smile.

"I know," she sighed dramatically as she smiled. "I look like shit. Betty said the same thing, with an attempt at saying it as nicely as possible, but I get the gist."

"What happened?" Inez asked worriedly.

"Nothing much," Claudia shrugged with the same old smile. "Just your average lack of sunlight, happiness and sleep."

"Please don't lie."

"I'm not lying!" Claudia laughed.

"Alright," Inez said, even though she didn't believe it whatsoever.

"Let's find a compartment."

•••

"So! Who would you rather marry out of the two of us?" Betty asked Claudia as the four Ravenclaw girls sat in the compartment.

"Pandora," Claudia said, causing the girl who was reading out of her notebook to smirk whilst hiding her face behind it.

"Hey, she doesn't count!" Inez said.

"Okay... I guess I'd go for Betty," Claudia sighed.

"Yes!" Inez exclaimed happily, but as Betty looked at her with knitted eyebrows, Inez's face fell. "Wait, what did you say?!"

"Betty."

"But I was so sure you were going to say me! And I'm always right!" Inez said offendedly.

"Well, I just think It'd be easier to live with Betty, that way I could be right all the time," Claudia remarked, and laughed a little as Inez faked an angry expression.

"Don't worry, darling," Betty said as she patted Inez on the back. "I would marry you."

"I would marry you too," Inez said, not taking her eyes off of Claudia as she continued to shoot her fake-daggers.

"Then no one would marry me," Claudia sighed.

"It's fine, you'll marry some lovely Slytherin arse," Betty said sweetly.

"Or a special Gryffindor," Inez said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Gryffindor.

Betty gasped. "Who?!"

"Well, a little birdie told me that she overheard a very interesting conversation between two boys, one of which was Lupin!"

Remus.

Sirius.

Shit, Sirius!

Betty gasped again. "Oh, Rowena! That would be perfect!"

"Oh, shut up," Claudia said as she stood up and walked towards the compartment door for two reasons.

1. She needed to see Sirius.

2. She needed to hide her blushing.

"I'm going to the loo," she said as she opened the door.

"Claudia!" Pandora suddenly said.

"Yeah?"

"I would marry you," she said sweetly.

"Thank you, my darling," she said in a poor attempt at a southern-accent and then she closed the door and left.

"So," Betty said. "Tell me everything your little birdie told you!"

•••

"What the hell happened?" Remus asked Sirius as three boys sat in their usual compartment, all of them with their arms placed on their thighs as they leaned in like they were having a top-secret conversation.

"He won't talk," James said in an annoyed tone.

The night of the ball, Sirius had left Maple Manor and immediately been met by a serious beating by his mother, eventually leading to him being disowned. After that he managed to get to James' house, and that's where he had moved in.

"Please," Remus said. "Tell us."

"Alright!" Sirius said finally. "I was at the Maple Ball, and I decided to pull a prank. Nothing major, just some dungbombs and some red smoke and shit."

"Wicked!" James said, earning a glare from Remus.

"And then I was just out talking with Claudia-"

"About what?" James asked intently.

"Just, life, you know," he said, subtly glancing at Remus to tell him what they actually talked about. "Anyway, then my parents came and they apparated me back and I... got a little beat up and then I was just poof disowned!"

And before any of them could react, Claudia opened the door without warning and pulled down the small blind on the door in the matter of a few seconds.

The silence was eerie. Three boys stared at one girl, who was growing more uncomfortable by the second until she cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry," she said hurriedly, looking straight at Sirius.

"About what?" He said with a raise of his eyebrows.

"I just... can I talk to you?"  She asked.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod. "Can you two leave?" He asked James and Remus.

"Uh, why are we the ones who have to leave?" James asked confusedly.

"Just leave," Sirius said.

"But wh-"

"I. Need. Help," Peter announced the second he came through the door. With his heavy trunk in one hand, a handful of sweets in the other and a bag carried with his teeth, the boy was struggling.

Claudia immediately took the trunk from him with a kind smile, and Peter reacted as if he had just gotten help from Snape, considering how he thought she would never speak to any of them again. She managed to put the trunk up on the overhead shelf.

Let's just say that it was a mistake of Claudia to help him with his trunk.

Because her sweatshirt wasn't long enough to hide her lower back as she did so.

And the four boys all caught sight of black and purple veins as well as a small portion of a practically black gash, the rest being covered by a bandage.

"Merlin's beard," James said in a shocked whisper. Claudia turned around as he said so, and then she realised what they had just seen.

How could I be so fucking dim-witted?

They all looked at her with their mouths agape and their eyes stuck on her panicked face.

Peter was practically traumatised by the sight of it; because let's be real, it looked fucking disgusting. But he was also confused, because that was in no way an accident.

James was concerned. And he also had an epiphany. What if there really was something beneath the surface of the mystery that was Claudia Maple?

Sirius wasn't shocked, he was merely disgusted both by the sight of the disgusting gash and by the person who did it too her.

And Remus, well Remus was the following:

1. Furious. How could one possibly do something like that, especially to Claudia of all people?

2. Terrified. What would happen to her in the future?

3. Concerned. How badly did it hurt? Would it heal? Was she going to be alright? What was beneath that bandage? Was there more of it? Was it... dark magic?

The only thing the boy knew was that he wanted to do whatever it took to keep her safe.

"Claudia, what is that?" Remus said hesitantly and worriedly as her eyes snapped to him.

"Nothing," she simply replied in an almost annoyed tone, and then she headed out the door and left four shocked boys behind.

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