Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
I looked out the window as the train finally started moving; there was a long journey ahead. I pulled out my phone and started browsing through forums. I really needed to stop visiting these places before I got addicted to the content I found, but reading about the experiences and chats about the other contractors was a good source of information, no matter how many of them were stupid or just showing off to their waifus.
I had been cruising for almost an hour when the door to my compartment opened, and I grimaced. I had been enjoying my solitude. I was lucky that no one had decided to enter. I looked up to see the door open, only to reveal Narcissa Black in all her glory.
Narcissa was beautiful, with blue eyes and blonde hair. It was long and flowed to her waist with two small braids on the sides of her head tied to a blue ribbon at the back. She had a figure and an aristocratic bearing that easily caught the eye. She was thin, so there was little baby fat on her cheeks, giving her a more mature appearance. A look of disappointment appeared on her face as she looked at me before raising her chin petulantly.
"My apologies, I was looking for my partner." she turned to leave.
"Narcissa, nice to see you again." I smiled at her as I put my phone in one of my pockets before sending it to the inventory. Narcissa turned back around, blinked, and squinted her eyes in my direction as if she were scanning me. After a few seconds, she gasped and brought her hand to her mouth.
"Serena?!" she exclaimed incredulously, looking me up and down, I smiled at her.
"The one and only, Narcissa."
"Y-you- a-are-." Narcissa kept opening and closing her mouth in shock; I laughed at that.
"I hope it's something positive if I can leave the Slytherin princess speechless." She looked at me incredulously.
"Anything positive?! You look serene- wow! " She said while pointing at me, which made me smile even warmer.
"I appreciate your praise, Narcissa, even if it was so... ineloquent." I scoffed, and she rolled her eyes with a snort.
"Oh shut up, you, it's your fault that I'm shocked and speechless. It's the first time I've seen you like this." With that, she entered the compartment and took my arms. "Stand up. I want to get a good look at you." It was my turn to snort, but I stood up.
I didn't have any assets that were out of this world, at least not by muggle standards. I wore tight black jeans ripped at the knees, a slightly oversized violet shirt, platform boots, a fishnet glove on my left arm up to my elbow, and all my rings and bracelets on both hands. I still had my ear piercings, short hair, violet eyeshadow, and lipstick, basically how my general aesthetic had been since I came to this world. I liked this look a lot, and it made me feel pretty, so I would stay with this for a long time. "take a turn." Narcissa said, and I obeyed, turning reluctantly.
"Serena, you look amazing." I couldn't help but preen myself at the compliment. I was a simple girl, and receiving the praise of another pretty girl was always good. "You look healthier. You got some more meat like I told you to do." She ran her hands over my arms and hips, I snorted.
"Look who's talking, lady on a perma -ouch!" She pinched my hip, and I glared at her.
"Don't be a girl Serena."
"I'm a girl Narcissa, thank you very much!" I blurted out with more force than I intended as I stepped away from her hands. Narcissa's expression turned into one of almost horrified apology.
"Oh Serena, I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean it like that." I winced and nodded slightly. I hadn't been an insecure person despite my dysphoria. My old body didn't really matter enough to me to care, so no insult really affected me enough to get angry, but a person questioning my femininity in this new world was apparently a sore spot. Now that I could actually be a woman, I wouldn't let anyone doubt that fact, but Narcissa didn't know about all that. Instead, she had reacted because of the marauders. It had been a usual insult to overly doubt my femininity due to my figure, or rather lack thereof.
"It's okay Narcissa." I sighed and ran my hands through my hair tiredly.
"W-what happened to your eyes?" Narcissa looked at my face before gasping, "A tattoo?!" she exclaimed in horror. She grabbed my wrist so quickly that I could barely react; she looked at my transmutation circle with a grimace before looking at my rings.
"Is that gold?" She asked incredulously, and she immediately began to look at my rings and bracelets with calculating eyes. "Is that pure gold?" She asked, confused, and quickly took one of them off my finger.
"Hey!" Narcissa ignored me as she stared at the ring.
"Yes, it's pure gold." she murmured incredulously. Her gaze went from the ring on her fingers to the rest of my hand, scanning it quickly along with my bracelets. Her fingers lingered on the gold ones before moving up to my face, specifically my ears. She took the star hanging from my left ear. "Also gold, the others I... don't recognize the metals." Disbelief still dripped from her words.
I rolled my eyes and slapped her hand lightly. It barely contained any strength, but it was enough to pry her hand away from my rings. It was getting slightly painful with her tugs. I took the ring from her hand and placed it back where it was.
"Yes, they are gold. The rest are various metals, I was practicing with some enchantments, and they were more useful with metals other than gold." I wasn't lying, maybe bending the truth a little, filling them with invest -magic was almost the same as enchanting jewelry.
"Where did you get the money to get gold jewelry, Serena?" She asked incredulously with a hint of suspicion. I rolled my eyes once again.
"Wow, thanks for calling me poor without saying poor. You have a silver tongue, just as I remember Narcissa." I snorted, and she slapped my shoulder.
"Don't give me that, Serena," she rolled her eyes, and I chuckled. "But seriously, no... you didn't do anything illegal, right?" she asked, worried, and I rolled my eyes. I was the one who had to worry the least about illegal things, especially since she had a fiancé like Lucius Malfoy. I was about to answer her when the door opened again, even thinking about the devil she summoned, Lucius Malfoy in the flesh.
"Cissy, darling, were you able to find Serena?" He asked softly. He looked fondly at Narcissa, and I wrinkled my nose. When I read the books, I always thought they had been together by a marriage contract. It turns out they really did love each other and were sickeningly sweet when they wanted to be.
"Ah, Lucius! Look who I found!" Narcissa said excitedly as she grabbed me by both shoulders, presenting me to Lucius as an object, forgetting the previous question.
"Lucius, nice to see you again," I drawled slowly as I repeated my greeting. Lucius looked confused, and it took him longer than Narcissa to connect the dots.
"Serena?!" He exclaimed in disbelief, and I rolled my eyes again. This reaction was getting annoying. It's okay that I looked different than the old Serena, but I could do without the surprise and disbelief in their reactions.
"No, Lucius, I'm Evan Rosier," I snorted. Narcissa patted my shoulder again with a smile. I had to give Lucius credit. He shook off his stupor quickly.
"I wish Rosier looked as good as you. I must say you look lovely, Serena. Did you change your hair?" Lucius gave me a winning smile, and I snorted in amusement while Narcissa let out a small laugh.
"Smooth, Malfoy, very smooth," with that, I dropped back into my seat again.
"Thanks, I try," he bowed slightly in amusement. Narcissa couldn't take it anymore and took Lucius' arm with a smile and dragged him to the seats in front of me.
"You came just in time, dear. Serena was about to tell me how she got her... new additions." Narcissa insisted as she pointed to my hands. I rolled my eyes. Malfoy looked at me curiously before narrowing his eyes at my rings.
"May I?" he asked softly, and I nodded, extending my hand. At least he asked permission, unlike Narcissa before. Lucius gently took my hand and looked at the rings with curiosity.
"I must say that I don't recognize the metals they are made of."
"You Wouldn't. They're not really common metals to make rings out of. I was experimenting with enchantments over the summer and managed to make some progress. Some uncommon metals worked better than others."
"Oh?" Lucius looked curious, as did Narcissa.
"Besides gold, my rings, bracelets, and hoops are made of pewter, tin, iron, steel, zinc, brass, bronze, cadmium, and bendalloy." The pair looked at me while blinking.
"I... see, they are certainly metals... uncommon for jewelry," Lucius said diplomatically.
"What's cadmium? And bendalloy? " Narcissa asked confused.
"Cadmium is a metal found in zinc mines, relatively rare, quite toxic if ingested. Bendalloy, also called cerrobend or Wood's metal, is a cadmium-bismuth alloy." The pair blinked slowly again. I sighed tiredly and removed my hand from Lucius.