The train ride started with a drizzle, but sure enough it was now raining hard, almost sideways now. The thunder boomed, and twice the train had been hit with lightning. Luckily, magical charms prevented damage to the train and the students.
"How come it always rains on train rides to Hogwarts, but not from?" Heather Greene asked in her calm stature. Sitting next to her was the fiery-haired Lily Evans and the vicious Italian Christi Caggiano.
The girls shrugged and Lily asked, "So how were your summers?"
"Fantastic!" Heather said, jumping into action. She was surely the most daring out of the three. She took risks. She attracted people with simply her beauty. She had elegant French features, with a ski slope nose and high cheekbones. That didn't make up for how sunken her face sometimes looked. Her eyes were deep set, her lips were thin and her cheeks were hollow. Her body didn't agree with that of her face. She was curvy and well in volume. It was that of her Greek side, as was her tan, grungy skin color, black hair set in spirals, dark brown eyes and bushy eyebrows.
"What'd you do?" Christi, who had all graceful Italian, features from both her parents. Her lips were luscious and thick, the opposite of Heather's. Her body was much like Heather's though, curvy, well-rounded, and hourglass-like. Christi had the olive skin tone, almond shaped, prominent green eyes and a slightly long face. Her hair was long, brown and wavy and even though she was Italian, she had a button nose.
Heather looked at them, checking if they were prepared, "I went to a nudist colony!"
Christi laughed while Lily sputtered, "Excuse me?"
"I was a nudist all summer!" Heather laughed, "In France! Of course, there they call it being a naturist. Only in America do they call it a nudist." Yes, Heather was daring, energetic and overall a happy person. She didn't find anything wrong with a lot of stuff, being a nudist in particular.
"Your parents didn't mind?" Lily asked.
"They sent me there! To control my sexual urges or something of the sort." she shrugged. Heather allured people with her body; she was very sexy and kept in shape with Quidditch, since she was the Keeper for the Gryffindor team. Boys were incredibly attracted to her sexually. "Load of rubbish that was. I was there since July eighth, until last week. Once I got back I shagged my neighbor."
Christi said, "How were you able to stand it?"
"Oh, you precious virgins." Heather smiled, "You've no idea. I've built up a resistance. I have tolerance. However, once I got my change I went down on anyone. I also may have shagged a few other guys at night." she coughed guiltily.
Lily gave her a reprimanding frown, "You need to calm down."
"Lily," Heather whined, "My libido is too high! I don't need to calm down at all."
"You're going to get some disease." Lily said.
"You know," Christi began, "You could shag Sirius Black. He could probably satisfy you just enough."
"You might be right, but I don't want to shag him. For all I know, he could have a disease, what with the loads of girls he's been with." Heather abruptly changed the subject, "So what about your summer, Christi?"
"Well I was doing a lot of ballet, but I spend time with Severus too." Christi said. She, like Lily, was a Muggle-born. They both lived in the same neighborhood and had both befriended Severus. However, Lily cut off all ties with him when he called her a Mudblood. They didn't know why Christi stayed friends with him, but that had surely changed Lily's and Christi's friendship.
Heather, on the other hand, was a pureblood. She didn't have uptight, pureblood supremacist parents though. Her parents were laid back and mellow, but also enforced the rules well. She had a semi-good life. She was privileged, had good parents, and knew what there was to know about magic. She had a lot of brothers and sisters though. She had to share the little attention they got with all of them.
Lily didn't respond to Christi, but Heather smiled and said, "Christi, why do you keep hanging out with him? He insulted Lily. What do you see in him, because what we see is no good." she asked, but was still smiling bittersweetly at the end.
"I see a sweet, loving, funny, smart guy under all the bitterness." Christi said lovingly, "He said it on accident."
"What if he called you a Mudblood?" Heather asked, "Would you still hang out with him?"
"If it was an accident, yes."
"Lily doesn't think it was an accident. It was still a very insulting, derogatory term for you people." Heather said. Christi let the 'you people' thing slip and shook her head.
"Heather, he's my best friend. I can't just let him go."
"He's also Slytherin." Lily piped up, "No one good ever comes from Slytherin."
This time, Heather stayed silent. Her brother was in Slytherin and her dad had also been. Christi shook her head, "That's a rumor. Good people do come from Slytherin."
Heather looked up and smiled the same kind smiled that she always did, "If you feel that way, then fine. But next time you hang out with him, warn me so I won't have to be around you two, please."
"I will." Christi shrugged. Heather stood and exited the compartment. However, as she was doing so, she bumped into Sirius Black.
"I'm sorry, Greene." Sirius said.
"Oh, it's fine, Black." Heather shook her head. They walked away and fell into step with each other.
"How was your summer?" he asked.
"Fantastic. I went to a naturist colony."
He raised his eyebrows, "Really? Wow."
"Yeah." she smiled, "What about you?"
"I, umm, I ran away from home." he said.
"Oh…" Heather said, "I'm not going to say sorry since you must have had good reasons. Where'd you stay?"
"James's house. He's such a good friend. His family took me in my flesh and blood."
Heather smiled, "It's good to know there's still good people in the world."
"Yeah. So, where are you headed?" he asked, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
"The loo." Heather said, but then noticed she was headed toward the front of the train, not the back where the restroom was located. She laughed, embarrassed. "The… Loo." she turned around. "I'll be seeing you around."
"Greene!" they heard a slimy voice call. Heather turned and saw Snape looking at her. Sirius stepped in front of her, guarding her.
"What do you want, Snivellus?" Sirius snarled.
"I believe I was asking Greene, not you, Black." Snape said. Heather stepped out from behind Sirius and smiled bitterly at the Slytherin.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Where's Christi?" he asked.
"I don't know." Heather lied.
"You're lying." he accused.
"I'm not." she shook her head. She turned and headed toward the restroom. Sirius passed him, and Snape began to follow Heather.
"Greene, tell me." he demanded.
"Stop following me." Heather said. She passed the compartment that Lily and Christi were in quickly so that Snape didn't see them.
"Tell me where they are." Snape said, grabbing her arm.
"Get off of me, you pathetic creep!" Heather screeched, alerting several compartments on the train, one of them being Lily's and Christi's.
"Shut up, you blood traitor." Snape hissed.
Christi runs over to them and pulls Snape away before either of them could pull their wands out. She turned to face Heather, her eyes narrowed and she said, "Back off, Heather."
Heather coughed and raised one eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
"You heard me!"
"I'm afraid I didn't, Christi. Did you seriously just tell me to back off?" Heather asked threateningly. Christi rolls her eyes and pulls Snape to her and Lily's compartment.
"Heather!" Emmeline Vance-who was in a compartment with Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald-caught her attention, "Come into our compartment."
"Thank you." Heather said gratefully. Lily caught the door right before it closed and asked to come in.
"Of course, Lily." Marlene said. Marlene was a short, bubbly blonde girl. She was the typical small party girl. On the other hand, Emmeline was different. She was tall, had long, straight brown hair and strong features. Emmeline and Marlene shared a dormitory with Lily, Christi and Heather. Mary, a shy brunette, was in a different dormitory.
Meanwhile, Christi was lecturing Snape.
Pulling Snape into the compartment then sliding the door shut Christi turns and glares at her boyfriend. "BLOOD-TRAITOR! REALLY SEVERUS? SERIOUSLY! Okay I understand she can be...overly mean sometimes but that's just Heather. Ignore her when she's being like that! I do it all the time and she eventually calms down. I mean Sev really you have to stop picking fights with people or else Headmaster Dumbledore will surely expel you! Now can you try and be reasonable with Heather? Please?" she asks pouting with her puppy dog pout with the big eyes and the lip. She knew it was his soft spot and whenever she did it he caved in easily.
"Alright, I'm sorry, love." he smiles and kissed her cheek.
XXX
When the train stopped, Christi and Snape were already out of the compartment when Lily and Heather got their trunks.
Once they got to the feast, they all sat together. Heather was on the end and waved Christi over when she saw her. Christi smiled and was about to sit by Heather, but Sirius took that spot.
"Evenin', love." Sirius greeted Heather.
"Don't call me that." Heather said with a straight face. James sat across from Sirius, right next to Lily and Remus and Peter sat by their sides. Christi was left with the other end.
"Children, children," McGonagall hushed then, beginning to sort the first years. "Samson Adams." she called out. A frightened first year came and sat on the stool, and got sorted into Hufflepuff. A few names later, there was, "Regulus Black."
Heather looked at Sirius and whispered, "Is that your brother?"
"Yeah." he whispered back.
"Slytherin!" the Hat called out. Sirius scowled and looked down at his empty plate. Heather felt sorry for him that his entire family was practically against him.
"Darren Greene." McGonagall called out.
"Woo!" Heather screeched, "Go Darren!"
Darren blushed a dark red while the Hat waited a while before calling out, "Gryffindor!"
Heather cheered the loudest of all.
Sirius smirked at her when she stopped, "Do you know him?" he asked sarcastically.
"No idea."
Sirius barked a laugh that made Heather glad she was sitting down, or she would have gone weak in the knees.
"Hello, students," Dumbledore greeted when the Sorting ended. "We are here to celebrate another hopeful year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You have all gotten the entire summer holidays to empty your minds of the knowledge you learned last year. I anticipate that this year they will be filled once again. We hope that you new ones will learn as much as you can and more. The year cannot be foreseen, but we expect old friendships to strengthen, and new ones to form. We trust that
"Now, a few announcements before we start the feast. We have several new professors and staff members. Madame Poppy Pomfrey will be taking over the post as Matron of the Hospital Wing. We also welcome Professor Pomona Sprout into her new post as the Herbology teacher this year. Our caretaker, Argus Filch, would like to remind you that curfew for fifth years and up in nine o'clock, for fourth years and down it is eight o'clock. If he sees any of you in the halls after your respective curfews, consequences will be severe. As always, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. Venturing into the Forest has a penalty.
"Now, let the fest begin!" as soon as he said that, food appeared on all the plates.
"Thank God, I was so hungry!" Heather said, but frowned when she looked at the food among her. Roast beef, roast chicken, fried sausages, tripe, pork chops, steak and lamb chops lay in front of her.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked, noticing her friend's distaste and disgust in the food.
"Well over the summer, I didn't eat meat at all. I've adapted to this and I can't stomach the look of it."
"No meat at all?" James asked, appalled. He was shoveling down beef stew like his life depended on it.
"It's a life choice."
XXX
"After the feast, I heard Black talking to Potter about you." Emmeline said to Heather. They were in their dormitory. Heather was kneeling on her bed, attaching something to the wall.
"What is that?" Christi asked, "Is that The Ramones?"
"You got it!" Heather laughed, "Over the summer there was this girl at the colony in France. She's a Muggle-American and told be all about these bands and celebrities. And Farrah Fawcett!"
"What was Black saying about Heather?" Lily asked.
"Well I suspect that he wants her to be next." Emmeline said lowly.
"Next?" Heather laughed, "You make it sound as if he's killing girls."
"Might as well be." Lily muttered, "So are you going to give in?"
"Of course not. I don't see him like that. He's a good friend. That's all." Heather smiled with her handy-work. There were posters of Muggle-American bands, icons and movements.
"When do you think she'll cave?" Lily asked.
"By October." Christi said, "She'll get bored with everyone else."
"I say November or later. She'll take her time. She's stubborn." Lily said.
"How much?"
"Four galleons."
"You're on." Christi said, shaking Lily's hand.
Heather watched in awe throughout this encounter. "I can't believe you guys are betting galleons on my love life!"
"Oh, it's hardly love." Lily said.
"I bet five galleons." Christi said. Heather rolled her eyes and pranced downstairs. Christi and Lily followed her.
As she walked through the crowded common room, Heather got greetings all over.
"Hey, Heather." Fabian Prewett smirked.
"Hello, Fabian." she smiled at him.
"Heather! How's it going?" Benjy Fenwick asked.
"I'm fine, Ben." Heather said. All of a sudden, something was pelted at her. Heather's good reflexes caught the squirming Chocolate Frog in her hand lithely.
"Testing, you, Greene!" James smirked as Christi and Lily caught up with her.
"Bloody hell, Potter!" Heather exclaimed, chucking it back at him, "Keep your damned candy to yourself!"
"Caggiano, Heather," Sirius said, "Get over here!"
Christi nudged Heather and smirked, "He calls you Heather now, huh?"
"Stuff it, Christi." Heather said forcefully, sprinted over. She smiled venomously at them, "Yes?"
"Quidditch try outs on Saturday."
"Bloody hell, James." Christi laughed, "It's not twenty-four hours into the new year."
"Yes, I haven't even written my parents yet." Heather said stuffily.
"Since when do you write your parents?" Lily asked, sitting next to the two girls and as far away from James as possible.
"Oh, you've got me." she said lightly.
"Anyways, tryouts. Saturday, be there."
"Excuse me, but is my spot not reserved?" Heather asked, offended, "Is Christi's spot not reserved? Of course, you being the Captain, have reserved your own spot. Sirius, being not important to the team but only your best friend, has his spot reserved as well. We are underpaid and underappreciated, I demand to have my spot reserved as Keeper!"
"Me too, as Seeker!" Christi seconded.
"Merlin, you birds are screechy." Sirius said.
"How can I phrase this kindly?" Christi mused, "I am going to shove an Acid Pop up your arse." she turned to Heather, "Was that alright?"
"Perfect." Heather nodded.