Many are invited to The Paradise, but few are chosen.
—Bible, "Parable of The Paradise"
"Oh, sorry!"
Pomona dodged the two "Goths" coming toward her in the corridor and wandered aimlessly through the university, trembling with fear.
When you were in the "zoo" as one of the same kind rather than as a "teacher," the treatment was entirely different.
Back at Hogwarts, the children would make way for her. Now that she was disguised as a student, if she wanted a path cleared, she could only rely on herself.
A lone badger behaved just as Pomona did at that moment: Oh God, so many terrifying people, hurry up and leave!
It was Saturday, and none of the classes were compulsory, so fewer people were attending. Faced with strangers, Hufflepuffs always seemed helpless and awkward. For some reason, Pomona understood how Bella must have felt when she had been at school.
This world was truly terrifying. That was why Hufflepuffs always moved in groups—we had numbers. If anyone had to make way, it should be the side with fewer people, unless they ran into the old bat.
Wherever he went, he parted the crowd like Moses parting the Red Sea. No matter how many people there were, they had to move aside.
Sirius had been like that at school too, with Peter Pettigrew following behind him. Their relationship was less that of friends than master and follower; they just happened to share a dormitory. Remus, meanwhile, would openly walk abreast of Sirius and James, chatting and laughing all the way, though he was not as inseparable from them as the other two Marauders were.
Remus was the same age as Severus, yet when he returned to Hogwarts as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, white hairs had already begun to