Sadly Sings Destiny

By RaistlinofMetallica

---

Blanket disclaimer: Anything you recognize, except for my OCs and the plot, I don't own. I do this for fun and absolutely no profit.

---

Chapter 1: Journey

Jon had arrived at Platform Nine and 3/4 long before anyone else had arrived. His godfather had ushered him there in utter secrecy, moving through the streets of London under a complex web of illusions. It was hard to move about freely when you have been famous before you could even walk - a fact his godfather, Harry, knew all too well. But that was not the only reason for using the illusion spells. No, there was another more prominent reason that they travelled like this: protection. It was for his safety that they travelled this way. It was for his safety that he'd been kept from his grandparents and changed his last name.

He could remember a time when he didn't have to watch over his shoulders for enemies, when he hadn't had to fear anything. His mother had protected him from the world's eyes, while his father had entertained them all with the music he so loved. And there was his godfather, so tightly woven into their family that he was as an uncle; Harry was a source of never-ending tales of Hogwarts and pranks. Jon had watched from backstage as his father and his godfather poured out all their energy to the screaming audiences in their songs and had been proud to see that his father made so many happy. There were his grandparents, too, and though he saw them but three or four times a year, he had always enjoyed his time with them.

It was after Easter that it all changed. His entire world crumbled around him and he was left with nothing except the shattered pieces and fear. In one night, he had lost everything. He wasn't allowed to go to his grandparents, nor was he allowed to keep using his last name. It was his godfather who now protected him, keeping anyone from discovering where the boy called Jon Malfoy had gone, and it was his godfather who cried with him on his birthday for the memories of his parents. It still hurt to think of what happened, even though it had not yet been six months. Time could never heal this wound completely.

It would be a while before eleven o'clock came to pass and, yet, students were already trickling onto the platform with their families. Jon's heart clenched painfully and he turned away from the window, sniffling back tears. He wouldn't cry. He was too tired to cry and he had cried too much already. Closing his eyes, he tried to rest. And hopefully, he would not dream.

---

Tom had never been more excited or nervous in his life. Today was the day he'd be starting at Hogwarts and he couldn't wait. All of his older cousins had already boarded the train, but those cousins that were just about his age were waiting for him. It wasn't his fault that his mother had suddenly become very scared about seeing him get on the train. Then again, he was the absolute youngest of the family, only turning eleven in October.

"Now, remember to brush your hair," his mother said, while embracing him in a tight hug. "You know how it gets, Tomas."

He sighed, hugging his mother back. It was his father's fault that he had this naturally wild black hair. "I won't forget, mum."

"And if anyone gives you any trouble?" she asked, pulling back a little to look into his eyes.

Automatically, Tom replied, "I go straight to my head of house."

"Try to stay out of trouble and remember that Professor Snape expects you to pay attention the very moment you step foot in his classroom," his mother warned him, as she straightened the collar of his robes. "And absolutely no midnight duels! Your father and your uncle both nearly got themselves eaten by a three-headed dog in their first year because of a stupid midnight duel!"

He nodded, remembering a bit of the story. His Uncle Ron had told him the tale once or twice. Of course, it was only a small part of the grand legend that was Tom's father. "Mum, I should probably get on the train soon."

"Oh, yes! Can't have you missing the train, now can we?" she blurted, her face growing rapidly as red as her hair. She quickly kissed him on the forehead and stood, smiling at him. "You're so handsome - just like your father."

Tom smiled and hugged his mother one last time. "Bye, mum."

"Run along now, Tomas," his mother said, smiling as she pushed him off towards his waiting cousins. "Don't forget to write!"

"We won't let him, Aunt Ginny!" his cousin Daniel shouted, waving good-bye as he climbed up and into the carriage.

One by one, Tom and his cousins filed onto the train. Daniel had run on ahead, sticking his head into compartments in his hunt for an empty one. When and where possible, the family preferred to stay together. They were very close-knit. They followed Daniel towards the back of the train, cheerfully talking as they walked.

"Okay, this one has room for four more," Daniel announced, suddenly. "Cesare, Rupert, and Debbie -"

"Deborah!" his blonde cousin corrected him pointedly. She was one of the very few blondes in the family. In fact, it was rare to find any other colour than varying shades of red in their family.

"Right, Deborah, let's go," Daniel sighed, rolling his eyes and indicating the compartment door impatiently. Cesare adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and entered the compartment, Deborah and Rupert following him. Pausing at the door, Daniel smirked, "If we can't find your compartment, we'll see you at the station, okay?"

Alexandra replied, "Of course." She was the elder half of the identical twins of Uncle Ron. The only visual way to tell her apart from her twin, Dolly, was to check their necklaces. The necklaces had their names on them and, if they ever switched them, the lacquer in the names would turn bright red. It was rumoured to be grandmother Molly's idea.

Tom started on down the carriage, checking each compartment as he passed. Unfortunately, the rest of the carriage was full, so the four cousins moved on to the next carriage. Shortly, they found a compartment with only one person in it - a blonde boy, about their age.

The boy was asleep in the furthest corner of the compartment, trembling in his sleep. All of a sudden, the train lurched and the boy woke with a terrified shout, "Father!" Dazedly, the blonde boy looked around the compartment, and fixed his blue eyes on the startled cousins. The very moment the blue eyes met Tom's, the black-haired boy was assaulted by memories that were not his own.

There was the sound of an explosion and a woman's scream was cut short. Alarmed, a blonde man stood, drawing his wand. "Jon, come on!" the man hissed, tugging the short blonde boy to his feet. The boy was very frightened, but did not hesitate. His father, for that is who the man must be, shoved his son before him and said, "Upstairs! Run!"

The boy ran up the stairs, stumbling in his haste, and scrambled into a hallway. "To the window, Jon!" shouted the man from somewhere behind the boy. The boy did not hesitate, running for the window at the end of the hallway. A metal staircase waited outside the window. The boy pushed at the frame, but it stuck only a quarter of the way open.

"It's stuck!" the boy shouted in terror, turning back to look at his father.

The man hissed a spell and turned to his son. He quickly reached over and shoved the window open with all his might. The boy jumped up and crawled out onto the metal staircase, turning back to look at his father. Beyond the man were four or five black-cloaked figures, trying to get past a shielding spell. The boy's father narrowed his grey eyes at his son. "Don't worry about me, son. Go to your godfather! Run!"

"Father -" the boy protested.

A bright green light exploded against the man's back with the sound of a thunderclap and he slumped over the windowsill, grey eyes still open, staring ahead at him.

"FATHER!"

Tom snapped his head away, feeling intensely ill. "Sick," he muttered, shoving past his cousins and hastily running to the toilets at the end of the carriage. As soon as he had shut himself in, he vomited in the sink. Turning on the tap, he stood there, gasping for breath. He stuck his hands under the cold water and splashed it against his face. What had just happened there?

That blonde boy in the compartment had seen his father murdered and Tom had just seen it all as though he had been there. But, how was it possible? Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He had feelings about things and people from time to time but he certainly wasn't psychic.

He raised his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Disobedient jet-black hair and piercing green eyes set in a pale face stared back at him. His mother always said he looked like his father. People said that his father knew things just by looking in a person's eyes, but he wasn't psychic. Maybe he was just like his father in that respect. After all, he did have the brother wand to his father's.

Relieved, Tom turned off the tap and dried his hands. He exited the toilets and found his cousin Izzy waiting outside. "I'm feeling better," he told her, knowing that she was probably worried.

"You looked like you'd seen a ghost," she said matter-of-factly.

He didn't answer right away. "Did you find a compartment?"

"Yes," Izzy replied, guiding him to the middle of the carriage. "We found an empty one. That weird blonde boy said he wanted to be alone."

Tom shook his head slowly. "I get the feeling that he has good reason."

"Really? You and your feelings," she sighed, opening the compartment door. "You always have a feeling about something!"

He was about to enter the compartment, when a voice stopped him.

"VAIT!" a girl shouted, running up to him. She had dark hair in pigtails, deep brown eyes and was already in her new Hogwarts robes. He had never seen her before, but he had a funny nagging feeling in the back of his mind that said he knew her from somewhere. "Haff you seen a toad?" she asked in an accented voice. "A boy lost his toad. I am helping him look."

Tom sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry. I haven't seen one."

"Oh," she said, seeming disappointed. "Thank you, though. I vill see you at the station?"

He smiled, then, and nodded. As she moved on down the carriage, he entered the compartment and sat down with his cousins. "I have a feeling that we're going to remember this year."

"Don't be silly," Izzy said. "You always remember your first year."

---

Logic dictated that the toad must still be on the train, Inova reasoned. Logic also dictated that the amphibian could not have gotten from one carriage to the next without using a person. Therefore, the toad was still in this carriage. However, the Hogwarts Express was not without magical quirks that defied conventional magical reasoning, hence the problem in locating aforementioned amphibian.

Inova was a girl of mathematics and sciences, of facts and logic. Her mother was of a scholarly nature, while her father pursued the subtle evocations of the literary world. She had grown up surrounded by books and history, constantly absorbing every bit of knowledge she could find. Once she had gotten her Hogwarts letter, she had been eager to get to her books as soon as possible. There had been so much she didn't know about the school and she was eager to learn it all.

So, here she was on the Hogwarts Express, at last, and she was looking for a boy's toad. It seemed that very few of the students she'd encountered so far were willing to offer any help to the boy in the first place and even fewer were willing to help her find the lost toad. It was almost as though they couldn't understand what she was saying; she had an accent, true, as English was her second language but, otherwise, her English was impeccable. And the boy who had lost his toad understood her clearly enough.

She knocked on the next compartment door and, hearing no answer, she opened the door. There was no one in the compartment, though a few trunks were stowed away. The owners must have gone looking for the trolley. She sighed and gave a cursory examination of the compartment, but was unable to locate the toad. Disappointed, she left the compartment and moved on to the next one.

Strangely, Inova felt herself looking back towards the compartment she had seen the black-haired boy enter. That boy had given her an eerie feeling of familiarity, as though she had definitely seen him somewhere before. This, of course, could not be possible, as she did not know anyone on this train. She tried to focus on where she thought she had seen him before and, soon, her mind wandered back to her mother's study.

"Mama, who are those two boys behind you?" she had asked, pointing at the photograph on the wall. The redheaded boy smiled and waved out at them, while the black haired boy stayed very still, trying to hide his laughter. Her mother, much younger, seemed mortified by their behaviour, though she still smiled to them.

Her mother walked over, looking closely at the picture. "Those were my friends at Hogwarts. We used to be very close."

"What happened, mama?" she asked, curiously.

"Time, darling, time."

Yes, that was it. That boy looked like the one in the photograph from her mother's school days. Now, if she could only remember the name of her mother's friend, she could guess what the name of the boy she'd just run into was. For the moment, the name escaped her, though it lingered on the tip of her tongue, waiting to pop up when she least expected it to.

Inova sighed and knocked on the compartment door.

"Who's there?" a boy's voice called out, hoarsely.

"I am looking for a toad," she explained as clearly as possible. "A boy on this carriage lost his toad. Haff you seen one?"

There was a pause and the door opened. She found herself staring at a short blonde boy, who looked as though he hadn't slept well in weeks. His unkempt hair fell into his face, but she could still see his piercing blue eyes staring back at her.

"I found him under the other seat a few minutes ago," the boy said, suddenly, gesturing to the left-hand seats. And there was the toad, croaking away. "I was wondering who he belonged to," the boy added, wearily.

"His owner will be most grateful," Inova replied, smiling genuinely. "I vill take him to his owner, okay?"

"You're not from around here, are you?" the boy said, matter-of-factly. "Your accent..."

"I am from Bulgaria," she said, blushing slightly as she picked up the toad. No one had bothered to ask her before.

"Kak se kazvash?" the boy asked, suddenly.

"I- Inova," she managed, stunned.

"Priyatno mi e," he said and smiled slowly. "I learned a little from my tutor. He thought I should be able to say proper introductions in whatever country I was in at the time."

"That vas smart of him," Inova noted, holding the toad close. "Did you travel often?"

"Too often," the boy sighed.

There was a pregnant pause.

"I should go," she told him. The toad was squirming in her hands.

"Dovizhdane, Inova," the blonde boy said, turning to sit by the window.

"Goodbye," she said and left the compartment.

The toad croaked up at her, struggling to get free as she carried it back to the compartment that she shared with the toad's owner. The strange blonde boy had unnerved her somewhat. He seemed troubled, though she could not deny that he was educated. She was not quite sure what to make of him otherwise. Perhaps later she would try to talk to him again and find out just how much of her language he knew.

Then, she saw the boy who had lost his toad running from the opposite end of the carriage. "Any luck?" he shouted, making a beeline for her.

"I haff found him," Inova said, holding up the squirming toad.

The boy sighed in relief and gratefully took his toad from her hands. "You are brilliant! Where did he get to?"

"He vas in one of the compartments towards the front of the carriage," she explained, opening the door to the compartment they shared. "He did not get very far."

The boy entered and she followed, watching as he quickly slipped the toad into a small glass box. Another boy, fairly similar to the one who had lost his toad, sat next to the window.

"I did not catch your names," she said, sitting down next to the boy who had lost his toad.

"I'm sorry," the second boy said, smirking. "I'm Regulus and this is my twin, Sirius."

The boy sitting next to her nodded. "For the stars, I know. It was kind of funny considering dad's a Herbology Master and he wasn't much good at Astronomy, or so mum says. He's a professor up at Hogwarts, you see..."

"I see," Inova said.

"And you are?" Regulus asked, raising a single eyebrow.

"Inova Krum," she replied, coolly.

Sirius grinned excitedly. "Really? That's neat! I'll bet you know lots about Quidditch!"

"Oh, Sirius," sighed his twin, shaking his head in embarrassment.

Inova had a feeling that this was going to be a very long day.