Chapter 1
The Carson sisters were known as being somewhat enigmatic to the student body of the school known as Hogwarts. Edith, the eldest, had adopted a "speak much, say little" philosophy for her daily socialization. In her seven years at Hogwarts she had become an expert at being vague and uninformative. The younger Carson sister, Jolene, was in her sixth year and simply didn't speak at all. There methods worked equally well for both girls; Edith had many friends and was well aquainted with most of the inhabitants of Hogwarts, but few knew any truly important aspects of her character unless they bothered to actually observe her. Actions do speak louder than words, after all, and Edith stated quite plainly who she was every day through her actions, but that someone would notice was very rare. Jolene simply didn't care who was her friend and who wasn't. If some wretched soul wanted to make her aquaintance, they could walk right up and introduce themselves. She wasn't about to instigate some friendship or - Merlin forbid - romance with anybody who expected her to be all bubbly and friendly. That was Ediths' job.
The sisters shared a compartment on The Hogwarts Express; Edith reading one of her beloved Muggle novels, absentmindedly chewing her bottom lip and running painted fingernails through her long, dirty blonde hair, and Jolene fluctuating between her copy of "Quidditch Through The Ages" and glaring at any poor person so unfortunate as to open their door. So far, no one had been brave enough to even stay in the compartment for over ten seconds. Jolene counted. Around the twelfth time of this, Edith looked up and snapped her book shut irritably,
"Jo, stop it. You're supposed to be a good example." She chided.
"Easy for you to say. Do you know how hard it is to be a Quidditch sensation and keep good grades and still be a nice person? The only fun I get all year is scaring these poor kids half out of their wits!" she laughed, then quickly sobered, "Please, don't tell me I should be dull." Now, if there was only one thing they could agree on, it was of how dreadful being dull was. It was their greatest fear and most potent insult.
"Oh, no! I could never bear it if you were dull, Jo! I just wish you would be kinder to the poor children!"
"Edith, please stop acting like you care about the little ingrates."
"Fine. But each time you make one of them scream it interrupts my reading. How am I going to read through this book before we get to 'Warts, huh?" She held up a battered copy of "Pride & Prejudice" and waved it around, as though it could give her the answer.
There was a shuffling from outside the door and Jolene prepared to hex another first year. But the small figure with curly mouse brown hair was only Olivia Varten, one of the only people who knew Edith rather well. She pushed her hair away from her face and gestured to her luggage.
"Any chance you'd help me with this?" Jolene looked at Edith as if to say, 'Your friend', and went back to her book. Sighing, Edith lifted one end of the large trunk above their heads and went to sit back down.
"How was your Summer, Liv?" she inquired politely.
"Oh, it was fine. Mum tried to convince me to go out with Gregory Phillips for most of it. He doesn't even understand the fundamental difference between The Goblin Wars and and The War on Goblins!" She laughed as though it were the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard, "But anyway, how was your Summer?"
"It was good. I finished seven books and went horseback riding every day, like a muggle. Jo did, too, when she stopped practicing Quidditch." She cast a long-suffering look to her sister.
"What're you reading? Pride and Prejudice again?" she laughed, "You know, it doesn't matter how many times you read it; it'll end the same." That was as close to a joke that Olivia ever got.
"Well, find me a good book from this century and I'll read it. Other than 'Lord of the Rings', that is. I've read 'em already." Edith smiled and returned to her book while Olivia opened 'History of Magic: a Comprehensive Study', her favorite book. After half an hour of blissful silence, Jolene glanced around the room curiously.
"Hey, Olivia, where's Lily?"
"Hmm?" Looking up, Olivia gazed around bleary-eyed, "Oh! She had a Prefect meeting. Or some sort." Lily Evans was the fourth member of their little party and, without a doubt, the life of the party. "It should be over soon, I imagine."
Edith got up and went to the door, "I'll go find her." The truth was, she was getting a little bored with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's incessant bickering. It reminded her too much of some other people she knew.
"Potter, how dare you! You cannot simply waltz around casting the furnunculus curse on people!" Lilys' dulcet tones sounded from around the next corner.
"Oh, but Lily-flower, I wasn't waltzing." There was James' smug voice, doing nothing to remedy the situation, as usual.
"He didn't even do anything to you! Now he's completely covered in boils! Apologize and fix it!" Edith turned the corner and took stock of the scene unfolding before her. There was the boy with boils, he wasn't in his school robes yet, so she didn't know what house he was in, but he looked to be about a third year. There was James and Lily, in their usual angry and defensive stances. Actually, there weren't very many bystanders to speak of. Maybe people had finally gotten tired of it all. Edith had.
"Finite Incantatum." She said lazily and with a flick of her wand, all the boils were gone, "Lily, lets go." She stepped to the girls side and tugged her sleeve while the boils boy ran off.
"No, Edie! He's got to apologize." Lily reiterated, glaring at James, arms crossed and stamping her foot.
"James, she's glaring, crossing her arms, and tapping her foot. You'd better apologize." This was Ediths specialty. Diffusing tension.
"I've done nothing to apologize for. He deserved it." James replied flippantly.
"Yeah? How did he deserve it, Potter? Did he step in your path? Breathe Your Majesties air? How dare he!" Lily cried with mock indignation, "He deserves more than boils for that! That's near treason!" She smiled smugly. Apparently insulting people is incredibly satisfying. James seemed ready to retaliate and Edith decided she needed to get this situation back in hand.
"Lily, if you don't stop this, I will report you to Dumbledore." Lily instantly sobered and looked at Edith quizzically, "And James, if you don't knock it off I will tell Remus, Peter and Sirius that you are unable to cast a Furnunculus curse properly. You'll surely be laughed at for that. The boils are supposed to be about two inches in diameter and are purple, not red. As you cast it, the boy had more of a bad case of acne, not painful boils." James looked as indignant and yet, as remorseful as Lily. But, it had the desired effect. Lily slunk off around the corner Edith had come from while James nodded his understanding and went the opposite direction, towards his three friends, no doubt.
Heading where Lily disappeared to, Edith shook her head and nearly ran into somebody tall. She squinted and looked up; annoyingly long black hair, grey eyes, angular face. Sirius Black. She sighed and moved past him.
"James went that way. He'll want to complain about me to you." She informed him monotonously. He laughed and jerked his thumb the way Edith was already going.
"And Lily went that way. She'll probably want to complain about James to you." Thank you for that supremely helpful and surprising information, she smiled to herself and kept walking. She thought she had seen a flash of red hair just up ahead.
Jolene had gotten bored of 'Quidditch Through the Ages' five minutes and thirty-two seconds ago and the trolley lady was nowhere in sight. She would die here alone. With Olivia. Completely alone. Olivia was still engrossed in some rather huge book that looked suspiciously like a like a school textbook. Boring
Jolene's Siamese cat, Hecate, was curled up in her cage napping and licking herself occasionally. Boring.
The Scottish countryside whisked by outside the window. Everything was lush and green and fertile. How she yearned to fly out there. To feel the wind whip through her hair, to see the world down below and laugh because for this one beautiful, blissful moment she wasn't a part of it. But no, she was cooped up here in this tiny, stifling compartment that was approximately fifteen degrees hotter than necessary, complete with an oppressive silence. Boring.
Then Lily stumbled in looking incredibly vexed, with Edith trailing behind sporting her usual amused expression. Lily threw herself down on the bench, folded her arms and glared at the ground.
"It was under control, Edith. Insufferable boy." She looked at Edith, suddenly worried, "You wouldn't actually tell Dumbledore about me fighting, would you? Stop laughing!" Edith grinned and sat down in a very graceful, lady-like fashion.
"You know very well that your predicament was not under control. It was the opposite, really. And no, I wouldn't tell Dumbledore. There's nothing to tell; you didn't start the fight, you were trying to fix it as a prefect, and you didn't even cast a single spell. That's hardly grounds for expulsion." Lily nodded and went on about how terrible James was, which Jolene really didn't understand. He was a good Quidditch player and so naturally that meant he was a tolerably decent person. He was Chaser and Jolene Keeper, so they socialized often. Sometimes, when they weren't encouraging or yelling at each other over their practice they were able to hold a conversation. About Quidditch, of course. There was also something rather nice about his mouth and eyes when he smiled.
Lily was about halfway through her annual beginning of year monologue of how terrible James was when Olivia finally left school world in her book and looked placidly at Lily, "Can we please stop with the 'Potter Bashing'? It's mentally draining." It was about time Olivia cut in. She couldn't stand gossip or 'people bashing', as she dubbed it. Jolene was surprised Olivia let the tirade go on as long as she did, Lily had almost gotten to James' hair, and that section took nigh on ten minutes.
"Right. Sorry, Liv. I shouldn't have gone off like that." Olivia smiled graciously and shut her book as Lily stood,"I should get my robes on. Prefect duties and whatnot. We'll be at 'Warts soon, you guys may want to change, too."
A/N My first story! Yay! So, I would love constructive criticism, because I've never done this before, you know? And I DO NOT want any Mary-Sue characters, so if any of them are acting like it, digi-slap me. I also haven't decided if I want to make it a SiriusxOC story yet. Honestly, I have really no idea where this is going Because I like to take it one chapter at a time. :D Anyway, thank you sooo much for reading this far! It means super duper much to me. As I said, reviews are appreciated. (Hint, hint) :D :D
