Now, I'd like to bore you with a few dedications. Sorry! I'll make them
short! Firstly: To Mary Fatestraik for being the best friend ever, and also
for getting me hooked on Nickleback and Final Fantasy! Secondly: To Laus
(jjbgirl) for being really cool and for being my friend, thirdly: To the
author of 'My name is Remus Lupin' which got me inspired, and finally to
Laurenna, the author of 'A Fallen Hero' for writing a really good story!
Disclaimer: I only own Hathy, Keelia and Melissa, and if my insane brain (hey! That rhymes!) thinks up any other new characters, then I guess they're mine too!
A/N: I've put that James Potter plays the position of Chaser on the Team, because the marvelous JK *bows to the local shrine* said that James played Chaser, and that Chris Columbus got it wrong in the film!
Die for You. Chapter 1: The brown-haired Goddess of Pranks
You know, I can still hear her voice, see her face, look into her eyes.I dream about her sometimes, she's there, telling me that it was all a mistake, that she didn't die.then I wake up. And then I cry. For a long time. Over and over again the emotions keep on coming, I feel pain ,rage, guilt. The pain of knowing that the only girl I truly loved is gone, the rage against the monster who did this, the guilt for me. Because if it wasn't for me she would still be alive. If it wasn't for me she's still be alive. I know that she would forgive me, and shrug it off, saying that if she was crazy enough to die for her boyfriend then I should lock her up in a madhouse, not mope around, or some sort of joke. But that makes me hurt more inside.I don't speak of it often, not even to Sirius, the last of my friends. A few months ago when he was staying at my house 'lying low' he asked me if I ever thought of her. I hadn't answered. If you read on you will discover a tale of a love that burns so brightly that it cannot be snuffed out, even when she is gone...
~*~
"Hey Moony!" Sirius called over to me on the Platform. It was the beginning of our 7th and final year at Hogwarts, and we were reaching the end of 7 years terrorising the students and teachers alike. Sirius dashed over to where I was standing waiting for a large group of proud parents to move.
"Look what I, ehem, found, in my basement!" he held up five pairs of pink earmuffs, twice as fluffy as usual and looking absolutely revolting. "I fixed them up a little, and here are the results!"
"Err, you've found some old earmuffs?" I asked, feeling bemused, and wondering if this was one of his jokes, which he was notorious for.
"Old earmuffs?!" gasped Sirius in askance. "These are Nouthiavasis!"
"Err, which are?"
Sirius seemed exasperated at my lack of knowledge. "These-are-earmuffs-that- let-you-listen-to-peoples-thoughts!" He said, speaking very slowly and clearly, as though talking to a three-year-old.
I felt my jaw drop.
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
"But-"
At that moment the whistle blew, startling us both, and the train started to inch out of the station. Sirius, finding us both in danger of being left behind on the platform, grabbed one end of my trunk and shoved his way through the gossiping parents, which I had been too polite to do, ignoring their scandalised looks, and ran for it. I did likewise. I saw James hanging out of the window precariously, desperately waving at us to hurry up. We reached the door just in time. Sirius threw my trunk violently in, narrowly missing James, then we both jumped in. We both hit something very solid. The good news: we missed the trunk. The bad news: we hit James. We landed in a tangled mass of bodies, arms and legs in the corridor. James was first up. Laughing desperately, he helped untangle Sirius from me.
"I thought the plan to skip school was later on in the year, Sirius." He said, still laughing.
"I know!" said Sirius, grinning. "But I just couldn't help myself!"
Laughing, we made our unorganised way to the compartment that James had managed to get for us. Three people were sitting there. Peter, Lily and Keelia, a blonde haired wispy Gryffindor 5th year, who was Sirius's girlfriend. She stood up in relief when she saw us.
"There you are!" she said, smiling. "Where on earth did you get to?"
Sirius suddenly looked very mock-sorrowful. "Well Keelia, I've been very evil today. First I tried to stop Remus from getting to school, then I attempted to murder James."
"Liar." Said Keelia affectionately, and they laughed together.
"So tell us about those fashion accessories you have there, Padfoot!" said James, pointing to the pink earmuffs that lay on the seat, conspicuous in all their ugly glory. "Did I hear rightly when I heard you say that they can actually make you listen to peoples thoughts?"
"Yep, they certainly can!' said Sirius cheerfully.
"Yeah right!" I snorted.
Sirius put on a greatly hurt expression.
"Ok then, I'll prove it to you."
He picked up one of the pairs of earmuffs and snapped them over his ears.
"Ok then Moony, think of something." He instructed me.
"Erm." I said, bewildered. What should I think about? Quidditch of course! I began to visualise a Quidditch match, Gryffindor VS Slytherin.in my imagination James scored a goal with the Quaffle (he was a Chaser) and Sirius, a beater, got hit in the face by a Bludger.
"Very funny!" said Sirius darkly. (A/N: black-dark! Geddit? Oh never mind.)
He took off the earmuffs, and then said, grimacing in over-dramatic anger, "You were thinking about James scoring a goal against Slytherin, and me getting beaten up by a Bludger!"
I said nothing. My open mouth told them everything.
"What?" asked four voices.
"So can we-"
"That means-"
"This is gonna help us-"
"Wow!"
Naturally the journey was a very noisy one. Lunch came and went, and the talk turned to what we had done over the summer. Sirius had burnt down half his kitchen when he had tried to cook some dinner for his Mum. James had bewitched some old basketballs to bounce as high as a two-story house, and then sent them down the road to the Muggles who lived next door to him. Peter had been to the States for a holiday, ended up being tricked onto going on a roller-coaster and had been violently sick afterwards. Lily had been to Hawaii with her Muggle parents and her sister. Keelia, who would have never in her wildest dreams done anything wicked, had been to Ireland with her Auntie. I had stayed in Italy with my parents for two weeks. We were discussing the best method to blow up a kitchen and then re-decorate it in five minuets when there was a commotion outside. Angry cries and shouts reverberated down the corridor, and there came the sound of hurried footsteps. All at once the compartment door flew open, and a girl darted in. "Sorry about this!' she said breathlessly. Her voice was a peculiar mix of accents, sometimes a Yorkshire accent, sometimes one that was unmistakably forren.
"Do you think I could possibly wait here a bit? They're verrrrry angry with me out there!"
"Yeah, I suppose." Said James, looking at her with his eyebrows raised. "What are they after you for?"
"We-e-e-e-ll." She began uncomfortably. "I set off a few Stink Pellets out there in the corridor 'cause of some stuck-up idiot! He had sooo slimy hair!" she broke off, and laughed at the slimy-haired boy.
She went and sat down in the seat next to Keelia, opposite me. All the others started asking her questions-except me. I was too busy looking at her. She had long, brow hair, long enough for her to just about sit on, and sparkling brown eyes, with just a tinge of red in the depths. They were the sort of eyes that looked into you and through you, the sort of eyes that were full of warmth, and full of secrets. She seemed to vibrate with mayhem, friendship, intelligence and laughter.
"So what's your name and what house are you in?" James was asking her. "I don't think I've seen you around before."
"No, you won't have." The girl said, shaking her head emphatically. "I've transferred from a foren school, Verstehe, and so I don't know what house I'll be in!"
"I think I've heard of Verstehe." Said Lily thoughtfully. "Isn't it that one in Greece?"
"Yeah, it is" she replied. "I'm from Greece actually because my Dad's from there."
"But then how do you know such good English?" blurted out Peter in amazement. Everyone turned to look at him and he blushed.
"My Mum's from England, and although my Dad's from Greece I was born here, and I grew up on the North Yorkshire moors." She replied.
"Wow!" Said Keelia. "I've visited up there!"
After that there was no stopping them. They were deep in talk about the best picnic spots along the river Swale when the door burst open, and Snape marched in, arrogantly pushing aside one of our trunks from the middle of the floor. My insides went cold. The last time I had seen him was at the full moon when Sirius had told him how to get under the Whomping Willow-and get to me. I now lived in terror of what Snape might tell the whole school. And now, what he was about to flout in this cabin. Sirius, James and Peter already knew, but if he told Keelia and Lily, not to mention the brown- haired girl would hate me.
"Well, well, well." Snape sneered, looking round at us all unpleasantly. "What have we here? The freak and his friends perhaps?"
Sirius stood up. His face was as black as his name. "Just say that one more time Snape!"
Snape laughed derisively.
"What's to stop me? I can say a lot more than that, in fact I can betray your little secret to the whole school if I wish!"
James stood up as well; one of his hands wrapped round a Pumpkin Pasty so hard his knuckles turned white.
"You filth!" he said hotly. "You can't tell the whole school, Dumbledore will expel you for sure!"
"Oh yes?" Snape smirked. "Not if he didn't know who told. And anyway, it would be too late then; the whole school would know about the Freak and his pathetic frie-"
"Hey, stop talking like that!" Yelled the girl
"Oh yes?" said Snape, looking at her with a sneer firmly fixed on his face. "And who is this?"
"My name is my own and I don't do favours for idiots." Said Hathy sarcastically.
"Oh yes?" asked Snape, smirking. "I take it you're from Yorkshire from you common accent, and that you're a Mudblood, as they basically all are up there."
Was it me, or were the girls eyes beginning to glow with a red light? I rose up in alarm, but only me and Snape had noticed her eyes. Snape took a step back, then paused to look back at us all sourly, before turning on his heel and marching back out of the room.
The girl walked to the door and slammed the door shut contemptuously.
"Slimy little git." She muttered to herself.
"You never said a truer word!" said Sirius, looking at her with new found respect.
"Yeah, I probably haven't!" she laughed. Her eyes were back to normal now, brown with that red tinge that I had never seen in anybody else's eyes.
"My name's Sirius Black." Said Sirius.
"And I'm James Potter."
"Remus Lupin."
"Peter Pettigrew."
"Lily Evans."
"Keelia Eisihos."
"I'm Hathy Foties." Said the girl, beaming round at us as she introduced herself.
"So how old are you, Hathy?" asked James, offering her a Cauldron Cake.
"Thanks." She said, taking it. "I'm 16 at the moment, but I'm going to be in 7th year."
"That's great!" I yelled. Everyone looked at me, and I felt myself blush. "Well, we're in 7th year as well." I said, embarrassed, and looking down at the floor.
"That's cool!" said Hathy enthusiastically, smiling at me. I could fell myself blushing for a different reason.
"So.tell me about Hogwarts." She said. "Is it true that there are hundreds of House-elfs in the kitchens, and that every house has a ghost?"
We began to talk about Hogwarts, and of course we asked her which house she wanted to be in.
"Well, my parents were in Slytherin, and so they're hoping that I'll get there as well."
"Your parents were in Slytherin?" asked Sirius in amazement.
"Yeah, but I don't think I will be, as I'm the exact opposite of my parents.hehehehe (here she gave a wicked giggle) why? What's wrong with Slytherin?"
"We-e-e-ell." We all said together.
"They're- they're not very nice." said James, obviously trying to find the right words.
"They're a bit-"
"Evil." Put in Sirius promptly.
"Oooooh!" said Hathy, grinning. "Then I think I've just found a whole load of new victims!"
"What, you like playing pranks on people?" asked James and Sirius together.
"Yep, I sure do!" answered Hathy, a mischievous grin on her face. "In fact, in my old school I earned the nickname 'The brown-haired goddess of pranks'
"Wow!"
After that (of course) the talk turned to various methods of annoying people, pranks and tricks.
Keelia, Lily and Peter, growing bored, started a game of exploding Snap.
It was getting dark outside the window, and suddenly the cards exploded in front of Peter, leaving him covered in soot, when we stopped talking.
"Cripes!" said Hathy, looking first at the dark countryside flashing past, and then down at her watch. "I'd better get back, my sister will probably think I've set of a hundred Dungbombs, and been caught!"
"You have a sister?" I asked her, interested.
"Yeah, worse luck." Said Hathy, suddenly looking gloomy. "She's a major pain-in-the-ass."
"Oh yeah?" I asked sympathetically. "Why's that?"
"She's a year younger than me, and she thinks she's God." She sighed. "Well, I'd better get back, she'll probably think that I've been expelled!"
With a nod and a wink she walked to the door, opened it with a quick heave, and then walked out.
Well, I spent the remainder of the journey staring out of the window, trying to see into the other carriages when the train went round a bend in the tracks.
The train arrived at the station and we all got out. I occupied myself trying to see Hathy on the crowded station among the sea of hats, but with no success.
"Firs' years, firs' years and the Foties here please, any more firs' years?" We followed the general direction, to where hundreds of carriages were waiting for us. We climbed inside, and it set off at once. Inside I was rather quiet, as my friends noticed.
"What's up with you, Moony?" asked James.
"Oh-nothing." I said casually.
"Old Moony's in lurve!" sniggered Sirius. "He's been like that ever since we met Hathy!"
"Padfoot, that is NOT true!" I said, laughing a bit as I said the lie."
"Yeah right!" said five voices.
~*~
"I am pleased to announce this year we have two new students transferring from another school. They will be in 6th and 7th year, but they will be Sorted as normal students." Said Dumbledore, smiling round at us all.
'Acorn, Zelder!"
'HUFFLEPUFF!"
'Afdon, Richard!"
'RAVENCLAW!"
'Bandon, Craig!'
'SLYTHERIN!
And so it continued.
But then, finally,
'Foties, Melissa!'
'SLYTHERIN!'
'Foties, Hathy!'
She hurried forward and sat on the stool. I could see her fingers twisting in her lap, and I knew that she must be feeling very nervous.
'GRYFFINDOR!'
As people clapped and cheered (or in the case of Snape, pulled the widest and most malicious sneer possible) the new Gryffindor, I stood up and waved to her.
"Come and sit down!" I yelled to her.
She looked up, saw me and smiled, then hurried over.
"That was frightening!" she admitted, with a laugh, and a toss of her head. "I thought for a moment it was going to put me in Slytherin."
"Really?" I asked. "You don't really seem the type for Slytherin."
"Well the hat said that because I'm very ambitious and because my parents had been in
Slytherin I would do very well there, but I just wanted to go with you guys!"
I was just about to reply with something really insane like 'That was so great!' when Zzendern, Murfo was made a Hufflepuff and sorting ended. Dumbledore stood up, and we were obliged to stop talking.
"I have a few notices to give out," He said, his blue eyes twinkling "but as I know that you'd much rather be fed first so, tuck in!"
At his last two words the dishes and plates filled up with delicious looking food.
"Wow!" Hathy had time to say, before diving in and taking two helpings of everything.
"Hungry are you?" Asked James looking at her sideways. "I thought that Sirius was a huge scoffbag, but he looks like a butterfly compared to you!"
Well, that started an eating contest between Sirius and Hathy about how many pieces of treacle tart they could eat until the end of the feast. Hathy said that she was an expert at eating especially sweet things!
"Ah, I once ate 65 pieces of Galactoburico in one day!" she sighed, dreamily looking through a window at the other side of the hall. "That's a sweet sticky and gorgeous Greek thing" She explained, seeing our puzzled looks. "Huh! I was bouncing off the walls all day because Galactoburico makes me go hyper, hyper, hyper, hyper, hyper, HYPER! I was bouncing off the walls all day, and then throwing up all night!"
"Wild life!" said Sirius between bites of Treacle Tart.
"Yep!" said Hathy, licking the Treacle from her fingers.
I think that between them they finished the Gryfindor supply of Treacle Tart and they had to go over to the Slytherin table to beg for some more. There we encountered Hathy's sister, Melissa. I didn't like her at all.
"What are you doing?" She had hissed, looking at her sister's Treacle covered robes and a few bits of Pastry stuck in her hair. "You haven't even been here 24 hours, and you're already degrading the name of Foties!"
"Ah, shut up Melissa, you great big windbag!" said Hathy sticking her tongue out at her.
"But mother will not be at all pleased with your conduct Hatheribane."
"Stop calling me that and I'll do exactly what I please and mother's not gonna find out is she?" said Hathy angrily.
"Yes she will! I'll tell her!"
"Well that was subtle Mel!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Well stop calling me Hatheribane!"
Well, to cut a long story short, Hathy got so fed up with her that she cursed her with a hex that made her hands turn into a pair of flippers. Ignoring the cries that followed her, she walked back to the Gryffindor table, carefully balancing a huge plate full of treacle tart.
"Ah, Sisterly love!" she sighed, putting down the plate and sitting back down on the vacated seat. Then the contest continued.
I think that by the time the feast was finished they had consumed between them about 200 pieces! Hathy won, although narrowly, and Sirius bowed to her superior pie eating skills.
"Ahem. I have a few notices to give out now." Dumbledore said, looking down on them from the high table. "The forbidden forest is out of bounds as is the village of Hogsmeade to all under third year. I'd also like to welcome a new teacher to our ranks this year, Professor Varieme as our new Defence against Dark Arts teacher."
Everyone applauded politely, apart from Hathy that is. She seemed to be stifling a giggle.
"What's the matter with you Hathy?" asked Lily, looking at her in a puzzled sort of way.
"Do you, any of you, know Greek?" she asked, trying desperately to stop laughing.
"No." said James obviously wondering what this had to do with anything.
"Well, Varieme means um-a word in Greek." She muttered, still shacking with suppressed laughter.
"Yeah? What does it mean?"
"Um, Hehehe, it mean's 'I'm bored'!" That was the last straw for Hathy. She exploded with laughter and so did we all. Everyone turned to look at us, but we just couldn't stop laughing. Eventually we were relatively calm, and McGonagall asked icily "what seems to be so funny? Perhaps you would like to share it with us?"
Hathy tried to answer.
"It was-" she began, but that brought on another attack of the giggles, and she dissolved into a giggling wreck.
"Miss Foties, please would you come up here?" asked McGonagall. "We're all waiting to find out this joke that's so funny that the Feast must stop for it."
Hathy stood up, and as she did so, she gave us all a wink. Then she clomped up to the High Table in her scuffed shoes with the laces undone.
"So, what was it?" asked McGonagall.
Hathy stood in front of the teachers, trying to paste a serious expression on her face.
"Well, we were laughing at how many pieces of Treacle Tart me and Sirius ate just now, and James said he betted that me and Sirius would be throwing up all night, and then he actually betted with Lily that we would!" she lied perfectly. James and Sirius's eyes nearly bulged out of their heads. She was a brilliant actress, and not only that, she had actually managed to make up a plausible story!
"Well." Said McGonagall. "That does not let you run riot in the Great Hall. Five points from Gryffindor, and be grateful it isn't more. Now off with you all."
Hathy joined us in the crowd of people thronging to get out of the Great Hall.
"So where do we go now?" she asked us.
"This way!" said James, and started to walk up the marble steps leading to the Gryffindor Common Room, but Sirius grabbed the back of his robes.
"I'm thinking of taking the other way to the Gryffindor Common Room!" He said, his black eyes widening in mischief.
Peter, Lily, Keelia and me all groaned loudly.
James, however, looked at Sirius properly.
"Oh yeah? And would that way have anything to do with the Slytherin Common room?"
"Maybe."
"I'm in!"
~*~
Well, all I have to say about that incident is that in the morning several Slytherins woke up with flippers in stead of hands, some with the pointed beards of Fauns, some with bright yellow halos stuck on their heads.need I continue? All in all, it was not a very happy group of Slytherins who were in the Hospital Wing the next morning when we casually looked in.
A/N: So what did ya all think? PLEASE tell me! I want this story to be really good. Well, I actually know cos I've already written up to chapter 7! On paper though, so you'll have to wait while I type it in! Please review, as this is my first big novel on Fanfiction!
Disclaimer: I only own Hathy, Keelia and Melissa, and if my insane brain (hey! That rhymes!) thinks up any other new characters, then I guess they're mine too!
A/N: I've put that James Potter plays the position of Chaser on the Team, because the marvelous JK *bows to the local shrine* said that James played Chaser, and that Chris Columbus got it wrong in the film!
Die for You. Chapter 1: The brown-haired Goddess of Pranks
You know, I can still hear her voice, see her face, look into her eyes.I dream about her sometimes, she's there, telling me that it was all a mistake, that she didn't die.then I wake up. And then I cry. For a long time. Over and over again the emotions keep on coming, I feel pain ,rage, guilt. The pain of knowing that the only girl I truly loved is gone, the rage against the monster who did this, the guilt for me. Because if it wasn't for me she would still be alive. If it wasn't for me she's still be alive. I know that she would forgive me, and shrug it off, saying that if she was crazy enough to die for her boyfriend then I should lock her up in a madhouse, not mope around, or some sort of joke. But that makes me hurt more inside.I don't speak of it often, not even to Sirius, the last of my friends. A few months ago when he was staying at my house 'lying low' he asked me if I ever thought of her. I hadn't answered. If you read on you will discover a tale of a love that burns so brightly that it cannot be snuffed out, even when she is gone...
~*~
"Hey Moony!" Sirius called over to me on the Platform. It was the beginning of our 7th and final year at Hogwarts, and we were reaching the end of 7 years terrorising the students and teachers alike. Sirius dashed over to where I was standing waiting for a large group of proud parents to move.
"Look what I, ehem, found, in my basement!" he held up five pairs of pink earmuffs, twice as fluffy as usual and looking absolutely revolting. "I fixed them up a little, and here are the results!"
"Err, you've found some old earmuffs?" I asked, feeling bemused, and wondering if this was one of his jokes, which he was notorious for.
"Old earmuffs?!" gasped Sirius in askance. "These are Nouthiavasis!"
"Err, which are?"
Sirius seemed exasperated at my lack of knowledge. "These-are-earmuffs-that- let-you-listen-to-peoples-thoughts!" He said, speaking very slowly and clearly, as though talking to a three-year-old.
I felt my jaw drop.
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
"But-"
At that moment the whistle blew, startling us both, and the train started to inch out of the station. Sirius, finding us both in danger of being left behind on the platform, grabbed one end of my trunk and shoved his way through the gossiping parents, which I had been too polite to do, ignoring their scandalised looks, and ran for it. I did likewise. I saw James hanging out of the window precariously, desperately waving at us to hurry up. We reached the door just in time. Sirius threw my trunk violently in, narrowly missing James, then we both jumped in. We both hit something very solid. The good news: we missed the trunk. The bad news: we hit James. We landed in a tangled mass of bodies, arms and legs in the corridor. James was first up. Laughing desperately, he helped untangle Sirius from me.
"I thought the plan to skip school was later on in the year, Sirius." He said, still laughing.
"I know!" said Sirius, grinning. "But I just couldn't help myself!"
Laughing, we made our unorganised way to the compartment that James had managed to get for us. Three people were sitting there. Peter, Lily and Keelia, a blonde haired wispy Gryffindor 5th year, who was Sirius's girlfriend. She stood up in relief when she saw us.
"There you are!" she said, smiling. "Where on earth did you get to?"
Sirius suddenly looked very mock-sorrowful. "Well Keelia, I've been very evil today. First I tried to stop Remus from getting to school, then I attempted to murder James."
"Liar." Said Keelia affectionately, and they laughed together.
"So tell us about those fashion accessories you have there, Padfoot!" said James, pointing to the pink earmuffs that lay on the seat, conspicuous in all their ugly glory. "Did I hear rightly when I heard you say that they can actually make you listen to peoples thoughts?"
"Yep, they certainly can!' said Sirius cheerfully.
"Yeah right!" I snorted.
Sirius put on a greatly hurt expression.
"Ok then, I'll prove it to you."
He picked up one of the pairs of earmuffs and snapped them over his ears.
"Ok then Moony, think of something." He instructed me.
"Erm." I said, bewildered. What should I think about? Quidditch of course! I began to visualise a Quidditch match, Gryffindor VS Slytherin.in my imagination James scored a goal with the Quaffle (he was a Chaser) and Sirius, a beater, got hit in the face by a Bludger.
"Very funny!" said Sirius darkly. (A/N: black-dark! Geddit? Oh never mind.)
He took off the earmuffs, and then said, grimacing in over-dramatic anger, "You were thinking about James scoring a goal against Slytherin, and me getting beaten up by a Bludger!"
I said nothing. My open mouth told them everything.
"What?" asked four voices.
"So can we-"
"That means-"
"This is gonna help us-"
"Wow!"
Naturally the journey was a very noisy one. Lunch came and went, and the talk turned to what we had done over the summer. Sirius had burnt down half his kitchen when he had tried to cook some dinner for his Mum. James had bewitched some old basketballs to bounce as high as a two-story house, and then sent them down the road to the Muggles who lived next door to him. Peter had been to the States for a holiday, ended up being tricked onto going on a roller-coaster and had been violently sick afterwards. Lily had been to Hawaii with her Muggle parents and her sister. Keelia, who would have never in her wildest dreams done anything wicked, had been to Ireland with her Auntie. I had stayed in Italy with my parents for two weeks. We were discussing the best method to blow up a kitchen and then re-decorate it in five minuets when there was a commotion outside. Angry cries and shouts reverberated down the corridor, and there came the sound of hurried footsteps. All at once the compartment door flew open, and a girl darted in. "Sorry about this!' she said breathlessly. Her voice was a peculiar mix of accents, sometimes a Yorkshire accent, sometimes one that was unmistakably forren.
"Do you think I could possibly wait here a bit? They're verrrrry angry with me out there!"
"Yeah, I suppose." Said James, looking at her with his eyebrows raised. "What are they after you for?"
"We-e-e-e-ll." She began uncomfortably. "I set off a few Stink Pellets out there in the corridor 'cause of some stuck-up idiot! He had sooo slimy hair!" she broke off, and laughed at the slimy-haired boy.
She went and sat down in the seat next to Keelia, opposite me. All the others started asking her questions-except me. I was too busy looking at her. She had long, brow hair, long enough for her to just about sit on, and sparkling brown eyes, with just a tinge of red in the depths. They were the sort of eyes that looked into you and through you, the sort of eyes that were full of warmth, and full of secrets. She seemed to vibrate with mayhem, friendship, intelligence and laughter.
"So what's your name and what house are you in?" James was asking her. "I don't think I've seen you around before."
"No, you won't have." The girl said, shaking her head emphatically. "I've transferred from a foren school, Verstehe, and so I don't know what house I'll be in!"
"I think I've heard of Verstehe." Said Lily thoughtfully. "Isn't it that one in Greece?"
"Yeah, it is" she replied. "I'm from Greece actually because my Dad's from there."
"But then how do you know such good English?" blurted out Peter in amazement. Everyone turned to look at him and he blushed.
"My Mum's from England, and although my Dad's from Greece I was born here, and I grew up on the North Yorkshire moors." She replied.
"Wow!" Said Keelia. "I've visited up there!"
After that there was no stopping them. They were deep in talk about the best picnic spots along the river Swale when the door burst open, and Snape marched in, arrogantly pushing aside one of our trunks from the middle of the floor. My insides went cold. The last time I had seen him was at the full moon when Sirius had told him how to get under the Whomping Willow-and get to me. I now lived in terror of what Snape might tell the whole school. And now, what he was about to flout in this cabin. Sirius, James and Peter already knew, but if he told Keelia and Lily, not to mention the brown- haired girl would hate me.
"Well, well, well." Snape sneered, looking round at us all unpleasantly. "What have we here? The freak and his friends perhaps?"
Sirius stood up. His face was as black as his name. "Just say that one more time Snape!"
Snape laughed derisively.
"What's to stop me? I can say a lot more than that, in fact I can betray your little secret to the whole school if I wish!"
James stood up as well; one of his hands wrapped round a Pumpkin Pasty so hard his knuckles turned white.
"You filth!" he said hotly. "You can't tell the whole school, Dumbledore will expel you for sure!"
"Oh yes?" Snape smirked. "Not if he didn't know who told. And anyway, it would be too late then; the whole school would know about the Freak and his pathetic frie-"
"Hey, stop talking like that!" Yelled the girl
"Oh yes?" said Snape, looking at her with a sneer firmly fixed on his face. "And who is this?"
"My name is my own and I don't do favours for idiots." Said Hathy sarcastically.
"Oh yes?" asked Snape, smirking. "I take it you're from Yorkshire from you common accent, and that you're a Mudblood, as they basically all are up there."
Was it me, or were the girls eyes beginning to glow with a red light? I rose up in alarm, but only me and Snape had noticed her eyes. Snape took a step back, then paused to look back at us all sourly, before turning on his heel and marching back out of the room.
The girl walked to the door and slammed the door shut contemptuously.
"Slimy little git." She muttered to herself.
"You never said a truer word!" said Sirius, looking at her with new found respect.
"Yeah, I probably haven't!" she laughed. Her eyes were back to normal now, brown with that red tinge that I had never seen in anybody else's eyes.
"My name's Sirius Black." Said Sirius.
"And I'm James Potter."
"Remus Lupin."
"Peter Pettigrew."
"Lily Evans."
"Keelia Eisihos."
"I'm Hathy Foties." Said the girl, beaming round at us as she introduced herself.
"So how old are you, Hathy?" asked James, offering her a Cauldron Cake.
"Thanks." She said, taking it. "I'm 16 at the moment, but I'm going to be in 7th year."
"That's great!" I yelled. Everyone looked at me, and I felt myself blush. "Well, we're in 7th year as well." I said, embarrassed, and looking down at the floor.
"That's cool!" said Hathy enthusiastically, smiling at me. I could fell myself blushing for a different reason.
"So.tell me about Hogwarts." She said. "Is it true that there are hundreds of House-elfs in the kitchens, and that every house has a ghost?"
We began to talk about Hogwarts, and of course we asked her which house she wanted to be in.
"Well, my parents were in Slytherin, and so they're hoping that I'll get there as well."
"Your parents were in Slytherin?" asked Sirius in amazement.
"Yeah, but I don't think I will be, as I'm the exact opposite of my parents.hehehehe (here she gave a wicked giggle) why? What's wrong with Slytherin?"
"We-e-e-ell." We all said together.
"They're- they're not very nice." said James, obviously trying to find the right words.
"They're a bit-"
"Evil." Put in Sirius promptly.
"Oooooh!" said Hathy, grinning. "Then I think I've just found a whole load of new victims!"
"What, you like playing pranks on people?" asked James and Sirius together.
"Yep, I sure do!" answered Hathy, a mischievous grin on her face. "In fact, in my old school I earned the nickname 'The brown-haired goddess of pranks'
"Wow!"
After that (of course) the talk turned to various methods of annoying people, pranks and tricks.
Keelia, Lily and Peter, growing bored, started a game of exploding Snap.
It was getting dark outside the window, and suddenly the cards exploded in front of Peter, leaving him covered in soot, when we stopped talking.
"Cripes!" said Hathy, looking first at the dark countryside flashing past, and then down at her watch. "I'd better get back, my sister will probably think I've set of a hundred Dungbombs, and been caught!"
"You have a sister?" I asked her, interested.
"Yeah, worse luck." Said Hathy, suddenly looking gloomy. "She's a major pain-in-the-ass."
"Oh yeah?" I asked sympathetically. "Why's that?"
"She's a year younger than me, and she thinks she's God." She sighed. "Well, I'd better get back, she'll probably think that I've been expelled!"
With a nod and a wink she walked to the door, opened it with a quick heave, and then walked out.
Well, I spent the remainder of the journey staring out of the window, trying to see into the other carriages when the train went round a bend in the tracks.
The train arrived at the station and we all got out. I occupied myself trying to see Hathy on the crowded station among the sea of hats, but with no success.
"Firs' years, firs' years and the Foties here please, any more firs' years?" We followed the general direction, to where hundreds of carriages were waiting for us. We climbed inside, and it set off at once. Inside I was rather quiet, as my friends noticed.
"What's up with you, Moony?" asked James.
"Oh-nothing." I said casually.
"Old Moony's in lurve!" sniggered Sirius. "He's been like that ever since we met Hathy!"
"Padfoot, that is NOT true!" I said, laughing a bit as I said the lie."
"Yeah right!" said five voices.
~*~
"I am pleased to announce this year we have two new students transferring from another school. They will be in 6th and 7th year, but they will be Sorted as normal students." Said Dumbledore, smiling round at us all.
'Acorn, Zelder!"
'HUFFLEPUFF!"
'Afdon, Richard!"
'RAVENCLAW!"
'Bandon, Craig!'
'SLYTHERIN!
And so it continued.
But then, finally,
'Foties, Melissa!'
'SLYTHERIN!'
'Foties, Hathy!'
She hurried forward and sat on the stool. I could see her fingers twisting in her lap, and I knew that she must be feeling very nervous.
'GRYFFINDOR!'
As people clapped and cheered (or in the case of Snape, pulled the widest and most malicious sneer possible) the new Gryffindor, I stood up and waved to her.
"Come and sit down!" I yelled to her.
She looked up, saw me and smiled, then hurried over.
"That was frightening!" she admitted, with a laugh, and a toss of her head. "I thought for a moment it was going to put me in Slytherin."
"Really?" I asked. "You don't really seem the type for Slytherin."
"Well the hat said that because I'm very ambitious and because my parents had been in
Slytherin I would do very well there, but I just wanted to go with you guys!"
I was just about to reply with something really insane like 'That was so great!' when Zzendern, Murfo was made a Hufflepuff and sorting ended. Dumbledore stood up, and we were obliged to stop talking.
"I have a few notices to give out," He said, his blue eyes twinkling "but as I know that you'd much rather be fed first so, tuck in!"
At his last two words the dishes and plates filled up with delicious looking food.
"Wow!" Hathy had time to say, before diving in and taking two helpings of everything.
"Hungry are you?" Asked James looking at her sideways. "I thought that Sirius was a huge scoffbag, but he looks like a butterfly compared to you!"
Well, that started an eating contest between Sirius and Hathy about how many pieces of treacle tart they could eat until the end of the feast. Hathy said that she was an expert at eating especially sweet things!
"Ah, I once ate 65 pieces of Galactoburico in one day!" she sighed, dreamily looking through a window at the other side of the hall. "That's a sweet sticky and gorgeous Greek thing" She explained, seeing our puzzled looks. "Huh! I was bouncing off the walls all day because Galactoburico makes me go hyper, hyper, hyper, hyper, hyper, HYPER! I was bouncing off the walls all day, and then throwing up all night!"
"Wild life!" said Sirius between bites of Treacle Tart.
"Yep!" said Hathy, licking the Treacle from her fingers.
I think that between them they finished the Gryfindor supply of Treacle Tart and they had to go over to the Slytherin table to beg for some more. There we encountered Hathy's sister, Melissa. I didn't like her at all.
"What are you doing?" She had hissed, looking at her sister's Treacle covered robes and a few bits of Pastry stuck in her hair. "You haven't even been here 24 hours, and you're already degrading the name of Foties!"
"Ah, shut up Melissa, you great big windbag!" said Hathy sticking her tongue out at her.
"But mother will not be at all pleased with your conduct Hatheribane."
"Stop calling me that and I'll do exactly what I please and mother's not gonna find out is she?" said Hathy angrily.
"Yes she will! I'll tell her!"
"Well that was subtle Mel!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Well stop calling me Hatheribane!"
Well, to cut a long story short, Hathy got so fed up with her that she cursed her with a hex that made her hands turn into a pair of flippers. Ignoring the cries that followed her, she walked back to the Gryffindor table, carefully balancing a huge plate full of treacle tart.
"Ah, Sisterly love!" she sighed, putting down the plate and sitting back down on the vacated seat. Then the contest continued.
I think that by the time the feast was finished they had consumed between them about 200 pieces! Hathy won, although narrowly, and Sirius bowed to her superior pie eating skills.
"Ahem. I have a few notices to give out now." Dumbledore said, looking down on them from the high table. "The forbidden forest is out of bounds as is the village of Hogsmeade to all under third year. I'd also like to welcome a new teacher to our ranks this year, Professor Varieme as our new Defence against Dark Arts teacher."
Everyone applauded politely, apart from Hathy that is. She seemed to be stifling a giggle.
"What's the matter with you Hathy?" asked Lily, looking at her in a puzzled sort of way.
"Do you, any of you, know Greek?" she asked, trying desperately to stop laughing.
"No." said James obviously wondering what this had to do with anything.
"Well, Varieme means um-a word in Greek." She muttered, still shacking with suppressed laughter.
"Yeah? What does it mean?"
"Um, Hehehe, it mean's 'I'm bored'!" That was the last straw for Hathy. She exploded with laughter and so did we all. Everyone turned to look at us, but we just couldn't stop laughing. Eventually we were relatively calm, and McGonagall asked icily "what seems to be so funny? Perhaps you would like to share it with us?"
Hathy tried to answer.
"It was-" she began, but that brought on another attack of the giggles, and she dissolved into a giggling wreck.
"Miss Foties, please would you come up here?" asked McGonagall. "We're all waiting to find out this joke that's so funny that the Feast must stop for it."
Hathy stood up, and as she did so, she gave us all a wink. Then she clomped up to the High Table in her scuffed shoes with the laces undone.
"So, what was it?" asked McGonagall.
Hathy stood in front of the teachers, trying to paste a serious expression on her face.
"Well, we were laughing at how many pieces of Treacle Tart me and Sirius ate just now, and James said he betted that me and Sirius would be throwing up all night, and then he actually betted with Lily that we would!" she lied perfectly. James and Sirius's eyes nearly bulged out of their heads. She was a brilliant actress, and not only that, she had actually managed to make up a plausible story!
"Well." Said McGonagall. "That does not let you run riot in the Great Hall. Five points from Gryffindor, and be grateful it isn't more. Now off with you all."
Hathy joined us in the crowd of people thronging to get out of the Great Hall.
"So where do we go now?" she asked us.
"This way!" said James, and started to walk up the marble steps leading to the Gryffindor Common Room, but Sirius grabbed the back of his robes.
"I'm thinking of taking the other way to the Gryffindor Common Room!" He said, his black eyes widening in mischief.
Peter, Lily, Keelia and me all groaned loudly.
James, however, looked at Sirius properly.
"Oh yeah? And would that way have anything to do with the Slytherin Common room?"
"Maybe."
"I'm in!"
~*~
Well, all I have to say about that incident is that in the morning several Slytherins woke up with flippers in stead of hands, some with the pointed beards of Fauns, some with bright yellow halos stuck on their heads.need I continue? All in all, it was not a very happy group of Slytherins who were in the Hospital Wing the next morning when we casually looked in.
A/N: So what did ya all think? PLEASE tell me! I want this story to be really good. Well, I actually know cos I've already written up to chapter 7! On paper though, so you'll have to wait while I type it in! Please review, as this is my first big novel on Fanfiction!