The seventh year at Hogwarts was going to be a nightmare. I could tell by the weight of m trunk. I could hardly remember it being heavier. Panting, I eventually managed to take it on the Hogwarts Express with me, without asking my parents to help me with a lifting charm, conscious of a bundle of Slytherins looking at me, waiting only for me to give them something to laugh about. The highlight of the year was that, apparently, I was allowed to give them detention, as a matter of fact I had been authorised by Albus Dumbledore himself, the day he sent me the letter with the Head Girl badge in it. I had no doubts whatsover on who was going to be the Head Boy, therefore it came with no surprise to me finding Percy Weasley already giving instructions to the new prefects, in his peculiar own way, his badge shining so brightly I wondered if his mother had spent the summer polishing it.
«Oh Bill, here you are, I hope you don't mind me starting a little bit earlier, I just thought we may need to add a few extra things this year, you know, with Sirius Black being on the run and everything.»
One of Percy's biggest problems was that he spoke too much.
«Don't worry Perce» he shot a very nasty look in my direction. I had taken the habit of calling him that way from his older brothers and he didn't seem to like it very much. Find it unrespectful, he said. «However I think that we'll be hardly honoured by Mr Black's presence, this year.»
Some of the newly appointed prefects smiled and Pecy's gaze got nastier. I smiled at him in an innocent sort of way and waited for him to continue.
«So, of course you'll take turns to patrol the corridors at night. You will do that in pairs, of course, no one wants you wandering alone in the castle in the dead of night...»
I stopped listening to him, I knew far too well which where the prefects' duties and also which where the Head Girl's as a matter of fact. My head left the train for a while and was already at the castle. I was worried about N.E.W.T.S., I had so many subjects I wondered if I would have been able to breathe that year (I was already conscious that sleeping and eating weren't possible options). Plus the Care of Magical Creatures teacher had retired and I had to do my final exams with an entirely new someone preparing me, which scared the hell out of me. Of course it was mad to worry about Care of Magical Creatures when I had to take also Transfiguration, Charms. Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and, worst of all the others put together, Potions.
Snape had already mentioned that I was nowhere near being a student who could manage to get my NEWT with an E and I was sure he was going to make sure I didn't get one. The ability that that man had to get onto my nerves was not something common.
«Bill do you want to add something?» Percy suddenly brought me back again on the Hogwarts Express.
«Uhm...no Perce. I think you've been perfectly clear, couldn't have done better myself» I said similing, not having a single clue of what he had been telling them for the past twenty minutes.
«Ok, well then guys, I suppose you can join your housemates now. Just remember to check the corridors every hour, Hufflepuff's starting»
With an air of great relief the bunch of prefects got up and left the compartment, chatting loudly.
Percy sat next to me the moment I was thinking of getting up. What now?
«Oh Merlin! I am exausted! Those Slytherins are even worse than the ones we had in our year, don't you think? The others seems ok though...of course we'll need to keep an eye on the Gryffindor's, you know, Fred ad George's year, they are all afraid of them...»
«For heaven's sake Perce!» I exlaimed, jumping on my feet «Can't you just relax a bit? Blimey, you're actually making this sound like we're training Azkaban's guards!»
The thought of Azkaban's real guards made me shiver, I expelled it from my mind immediately.
«You're right, I'm sorry...I was surprised that you were ok with us patrolling the castle with them, I thought you might not like it...»
«You told them...what?» I asked, my eyes almost closed, in an extremely thin line.
«Oh well,...I thought it was just safer for them to have an older student...with Black and everything...»
I closed my eyes and counted to fifty before answering that. I might have jumped to his neck way to easily and strangling the Head Boy only two hours after the beginning of the trip was not going to help me.
«Did Professor Dumbledore ask you to join the prefects? Did McGonagall or any other head of the houses sepcificly tell you that they needed our help?» I asked, in a forceful calm tone.
«No but...»
«THEN WHY THE HELL SHOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT? ARE YOU COMPLETELY MENTAL?»
«Look, it will only make a better impression on teachers and they'll surely tell abut how good we are with tasks that we've been given to our future employers...»
«I WON'T HAVE A FUTURE EMPLOYER IF I DON'T SLEEP AT NIGHT, WEASLEY! I WILL FAIL ALL OF MY NEWTS...BUT OF COURSE, WHEN I'LL BE A SAD OLD WITCH, SERVING FIREWHISKEY AT THE THREE BROOMSTICKS I COULD TELL TO STUDENTS THAT I PATROLLED THE CORRIDORS!»
«I thought that I hear someone screaming» said a cheerful voice from behind my back. Oliver Wood, my former best friend, was standing at the door, with a familiar expression that he usually wore when he was unsure whether he should laugh or not.
«What do you want Oliver? I was having a few words with Percy, here...» I grunted.
«Oh I could hear that, believe me» he grinned «I just wanted to know if you were coming back to the compartment. We'll be starting a tournament of Gobstones very soon»
«You will have Percy when I'm finished with him...»
«What you're talking about? You're in our compartment as well» Oliver looked at me as if I was mad.
«What? No! I don't share compartments -or anything else as a matter of fact- with you, Wood»
«Percy asked me to keep a couple of seats for the two of you...but if you don't want to come feel free to find another seat, bet there's lot of space on the train» he had still that stupid grin on his face. Of course I was not going to be able to find another seat at that time. I gave Percy a murderous look, then followed the two of them down the train.
I knew I should be grateful Oliver took seats for us, but I just didn't want to have anything to do with him, not anymore. We used to get along really well, we became friends as soon as we were sorted in Gryffindor the very first day of Hogwarts, but then he was made Quidditch captain. Of course I always knew that Oliver was a bit over-enthusiastic about Quidditch, but I could have never predicted how he would have turned out after getting that damn pin. I was prefect at the time, and I was struggling to keep up with my huge amount of homework for my OWLs and the prefect duties. Oliver was only spending his days talking about Quidditch, reading about Quidditch, studying for Quidditch matches. He seemed to have forgotten that in the school there were almost other 993 students, except the ones in his team. I barely had any contact with him at all. We ended up blaming each other for that. He blamed me saying I was not willing to go to the matches, or their prctices, or even to check that Quaffle, Snitch and Bludgers were ok before the match. I blamed him for thinking about Quidditch only. we shared a couple of letters during the summer, then, the year after, some rumors about me started going through the school. It was some very private stuff, concerning me and Bill Weasley, something that was known only by me, Bill and Oliver. He swore that he never said anything about it to anyone, but then how come that Flitt and his idiot-gang knew everything?
Dating Bill Weasley had been the highlight of my life at Hogwarts so far, we broke up only because Gringott's sent him to Egypt and it absolutely broke my heart in a billion pieces. It was not funny having people laughing at you about something that made you feel so bad. I avoided Oliver ever since.
«Bill, seriously, you're being too loud» said Adrian, another seventh year. He probably noticed that I spent the whole trip seated in the very last place, scowling at everyone.
«It's everything all right, Sybil?» asked Eve. She was my favourite roommate, and probably also my best friend. Not to mention that she was the only one who kept calling me by my full name.
«Yeah everything'...»
The lights on the train got suddenly turned off, and I could feel a chilly sensation -slowly becoming freezing- getting down my spine.
I could hear people around me muttering, wondering what was going wrong, but I didn't join them. I just took out my wand and held to it, breathing uneasily. Then, suddenly, the door of our compartment was opened and a huge, cloacked figure showed up in the darkness. I felt drops of cold sweat going down my forhead and my mind started showing up things I had no wish whatsoever to see again. It was my last fight with Bill all over again, we were shouting at each other so badly...I held to the seat, as if he could give me comfort...and then, suddenly as it started everything finished. The lights turned on again ad the Hogwarts Express began the last miles of his trips and we got back to normality.
«Whatever they've tought us about dementors during DADA didn't even come close to the real thing!» Mumbled percy, drying his sweaty nose wih the back of his hand.
Adrian nodded and muttered something about going to buy some chocolate for all of us.
«Are you ok?» Oliver asked me, in a whisper.
Only then I realized that what I held for the whole dementor visit wasn't the seat, but Oliver.
I let go of him immediately and seated as far as possible for him, my cheeks turning red for the anger and the shame of what I just did.
«You ok?» he insisted, getting closet to me again and forcing me to look at him in the eyes.
«No. I'm not ok with you breathing in my face. I need space to breathe, would you mind reaching the other end of the train?»
He sighed, but showed no sign of wanting to do what I asked for. Oh well, I could still stun him, if necessary.
«What's wrong with you two?» asked Adrian gettin back in the compartment, his arms full of chocolate frogs.
Finally Oliver let go of me and went back to his seat. I sighed loudly with relief, before rising my eyes on Adrian's
«Nothing. Give me a chocolate frog, will you?»