I was on the platform waiting on the Hogwarts express to take me back to Hogwarts for my fifth year as a student there. My stomach was fluttering with butterflies; my brother had almost had a nervous breakdown in his OWL year, and I did not fancy throwing up in front of my entire year like he had.

“I want you all to work with somebody you wouldn’t normally work with,” he explained to us. Lily’s irritated face as she stood next to James was hilarious. She looked thoroughly frustrated as he ran a hand through his hair and tried to lean back casually, forgetting that there, in fact, was no wall behind him, and tumbling backwards awkwardly.

My friends thought that was odd too, all of a sudden I was spending time with the guys without anybody forcing me to. It only made Brey all the more suspicious about my supposed love affair with Remus.

The last day before we got to go home was one without school and we enjoyed it immensely. We had conjured up some sparkly Christmas decorations for our dorms and the boys had smuggled a tree into the common room. The first years were thrilled. The radio in the corner always played happy Christmas songs and the place was altogether jolly.