Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, this also applies to every chapter posted on this story.
Original A/N: Like Oh Em Gee. Yeah, I know, I have a serious problem with the delete button. I'm too delete-happy. Anyway, here's a re-do of Ashes to Ashes, which was a re-do of Holiday to Utah. Jeez, I suck.
New A/N: Alright, so truth be told, it's fourteen chapters later and I still have no idea where I'm going with this story. However, I thought I should re-write the first chapter seeing as how it doesn't do the rest of the story justice.
Long time readers: The story is the same, it's just better, and more well written.
New readers: Enjoy.
I sat in the compartment, half asleep due to our slumber party the night before. My friends and I had a habit of staying up the entire night on the last night of summer, resulting in a first day of school filled with exhaustion and sleep deprivation. I looked around the compartment. Gwyneth Garret, one of my best friends, and the one who was the original endorser of the all-nighter, was sound asleep where as I had some motion sickness. Katherine Kirkwood, possibly my closest best friend, sat across the compartment from me, her nose buried in a Muggle book. She was alert and awake, seeing as how she didn't think of herself as a subject to the all-nighter rules.
"Katherine," I whispered, "I feel sick."
"Me too, Liz," Demetria Didd, my third and last best friend, whispered back.
"It's that Potter boy," Kate said as she looked up from her book glared outside the compartment door where Potter was attempting to seem nonchalant, as if he weren't up to no good. If I knew Potter, which I like to assume I did, he was probably trying to set the train on fire.
"Not that—I think I'm going to throw up!"
"Oh," Kate said, losing interest and returning to her book.
"I'm going to go get something to settle my stomach," I said to the compartment, seeing as how it's residents had lost interest long ago. "Oh, and to change. We're almost at Hogwarts."
"Going somewhere, Eden?" asked an all too familiar voice immediately after my foot hit the ground of the hallway.
"Damn," I cursed under my breath, reprimanding myself for not waiting a moment or two to give Potter's minions a chance to follow him to wherever the hell he was off to. "Yes, not that it's any business of yours, Sirius Black." I whirled around to face him: the infamous Sirius Black. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest. I noticed that his jet black hair was longer than last year, now grazing the top-most part of his shoulders. His stormy gray eyes bore into my green ones, and unlike mine they wore an expression of amusement, where as mine wore one of annoyance. His mere presence intimidated me. He was the embodiment of perfection in the male specimen, if one ignored the requirement of brains, which so many often did.
"Oh come, come, Eden," he said with a heavy sigh. "There is no reason to be so hostile."
"I'm not being hostile," I said, turning to walk away. "I just have no time for the likes of you."
"On the contrary, Eden," I could hear the stupid smile in his voice, "you'll have loads of time to dawdle now that Diggory's finally dumped you." I turned around, wand ready and in hand.. but it was too late. The little critter had returned to whatever hole he had climbed out of. It's a wonder how fast gossip gets around when all means of communication are magical. I wondered if anyone had bothered mentioning that Diggory, the golden boy, had dumped me because I wouldn't have sex with him. Hmm... Probably not. Diggory was the school's idol. Or, err... one of them.
After getting a chocolate frog from the Food Trolley, I changed into my robes and returned back to the compartment just as the train pulled to a stop. Befire I knew it, we were in the Great Hall, listening to Dumbledore blabber about something or other of no importance to anyone but Filch.
"What do you suppose Dumbledore's blabbing about?" Asked Gwyneth Garret, the previously sleeping best friend. Together, we were the only four Ravenclaw girls in our year.
"I don't know," Demi yawned.
"He said something about the forest," Kate, ironically enough, said, looking up from her book. "And now he's talking about some of Filch's newest rules." See? I told you: Filch is crazy. "You don't have to pay close attention to know."
"This is true, why should we bore ourselves with the headmaster?" I laughed, causing a first year to look up at me with huge watery eyes and an open mouth. By the expression he gave me, you'd think I had killed his puppy. I sighed in frustration. "Were we that annoying as first years?"
"I hope not," Gwyn said, putting the subject aside with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, girls, any new goals for the upcoming year?"
"Outstanding's in all my classes," Kate said, looking up from her book.
"It shouldn't be hard," Demi snorted. "We are Ravenclaws."
"Bravery, and drive are fine," I said, looking to the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables in turn, "and whatever it is Hufflepuffs have to offer, but wit is the only thing of any value."
"To Ravenclaw," Demi toasted.
"To Ravenclaw," we all echoed, clinging our goblets of Pumpkin Juice together. Half an hour later, after all were fed and fat, Kate and I led the Ravenclaw table to the Commons, telling them all the newest password.
"Cave Inimicum," they all echoed after us, tattooing the year's first password into their brains. Kate and I were to patrol the halls later on in the night. Sometimes, I regretted being a Prefect. I was exhausted.
"Kate, my dear, it is safe to say that I hate you," I yawned a while later, sitting in my favorite chair by the fireplace.
"And why is that?" She asked, with absolutely no interest in her voice.
"I am thoroughly, utterly, and completely exhausted."
"You can stay if you like," she shrugged. "I can tell whoever who cares that you weren't feeling well."
"No, Katherine, I shan't miss my chance of patrolling these halls and keeping them out of the grasps of evil," I said, getting up. Okay, so maybe I can be a little over-dramatic sometimes.
We pushed out of the portrait hole and each walked to our separate hallways. Patrolling was almost an involuntary reaction this year. Repeating the action nightly last year had taught me to walk up and down the halls, either lost in thought, or free of all thought. I had gotten so used to it that it took no real brain function, only a bit of physical involvement which soon became an all too familiar pattern.
"Ah!" I shouted, as I ran into Peter Pettigrew after coming around one of the corners. "Ten points from Gryffindor," I yelped as my heart raced, more so because he had caused me panic with his rat-like features than because I truly cared that he was out of bed after hours.
The rest of the night went smoothly, and before I knew it, Kate and I were back in our Dormitory along with Gwyn and Demi. It felt nice to be home. Hogwarts had felt more like home ever since my first year. My mother had died, causing my father to enroll me in Salem's Summer Institute for Young Witches and Wizards. It was the best course of action since he was usually on business for the Ministry for days on end, what with you-know-who's rise to power. I fell asleep rather comfortably that night, completely unaware of the events that were to take place the next day.
Original A/N: Yikes. Short chapter! Sorry, I felt my inspiration completely leave and rather than butcher J. K. Rowling's work any further, I decided to stop right there. –sighs– Hope you like it!
A/N: Just a little something to tide you over until Chapter 15. Review.