Hogwarts School: A Harry Potter RPG

I. His Sister, And The Train She Broke

Fenton is four years old. He sits, as he does, every day in his room, staring at the wall. When he wakes up that is all he does. His parents are getting worried - he doesn't speak, doesn't move, doesn't make a noise; surely this is not a four year old.

For Christmas Fenton gets a train for his birthday. A steam train model, and it goes flying around him, puffing its tinny little whistle. He lets it soar without saying a word, just round and round and round.

Viola his sister is worried too. She's six and she doesn't know whether she's scared for him, or of him. She peeks into his room and watches the train. She stretches out her hand in mid-air. And takes it. And breaks it.

Carriages loose, wheels dislodged, links bent. Fenton says nothing, just stares at the wall, almost like he hasn't noticed the wreckage and ruin.

That night, he fixes the train.

I. The Broomstick In The Shed

Fenton is nine years old. He talks lots more, nowadays, and sometimes Viola wishes that she'd never broken the train. He takes apart everything - clocks, radios, a bicycle - sometimes he forgets to put them back together again. He runs strange experiments in his room and sometimes things explode but oddly enough he's happy when they do. He knows the square root of 23918 to three decimal places and he doesn't even know why.

He sees the broomstick in the shed one day, hovering off the ground just a little. He drags it out and tries to take it apart, only it's a broomstick, and there's not much really to take apart. So he does the next best thing and climbs on it. And it's not the thrill of flying that excites him, but the physics. It's the velocity and trajectory and altitude. And when Harry calls him down, Fenton is grinning. Because he won't ever be picked on by other boys again, not when he can fly.

III. The House That Burned

Fenton is twelve years old. It's a family dinner and aunty Juliet is having a par-ty at her house (and Fenton remembers the address and the height and the square area, but not what it looks like).

Harry says gallantly that he'll go alone since the children don't like parties. Fenton thinks that this is an ex-cep-tion-al idea, but all the same he wants to know what the house looks like. So he sneaks out after Harry from corner to corner, and maybe Harry notices and maybe he doesn't. But then the sky lights up and there's a great big ball of fire, all orange and red and loud, and nothing like what happens with his chemistry set.

Fenton watches, entranced, until he realises that someone is crying out, a keening wailing cry with anger and sadness and no hope left in the world. He turns and realises it is Harry on his knees, eyes wide and mouth open. He realises he will never know what aunty Juliet's house looks like.