Unstoppable
The stress of the OWLs is over, at last, and sixth year is an empty road for the Gryffindor sixth years to drive on. Sure, there are rumours about strange things happening outside Hogwarts, but that wouldn't affect them, would it? They were supposed to be unstoppable.
Follow the people who came before Harry Potter, and see how they cope with, well, everything that's thrown at them.
By the way, I'm absolutely aware that this particular type of fanfic is well trodden territory, but I thought I'd give it a crack myself as it's a fairly straightforward context in which I can write my first piece. Hope you enjoy :)
gredandforge909
Chapter 1: The Train Ride
In which our brave heroes are introduced, Hestia begins her hatred of the system, Peter goes through a rigorous, and entirely accidental, fitness programme, Sirius finds himself in an embarrassing situation on the floor, and Lily has her first tantrum of the year.
Hestia Jones' long black hair swung in front of her like a thick pendulum as she struggled to drag her trunk down Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. The trunk was swollen, with books bulging out of the top. Hestia stopped, huffed, and irritably pushed her hair out of her face before continuing to drag her school equipment down the platform. The hair fell back down in front of her face.
"I'll show her how many bloody books I can drag to school," she muttered angrily. "What does she think? Of course I can bloody well take eight NEWTs. Stupid fucking McGonagall." She continued hissing and cursing her way down the platform, her hair now firmly stuck in front of her eyes. It was incredible that she could see at all, and, indeed, heads were turned towards this cursing, hissing, blind individual dragging her heaving luggage down the platform.
The gleaming, red express train belched a cloud of smoke out into the station, and, for a while, Hestia and all the other individuals and families on the platform were submerged in the train's fog. When it eventually disappeared, Hestia had finally reached the end of the train, and was, with great effort, trying to lift her belongings onto said express train. She continued her vain endeavours for several minutes until a smaller teenager, blond hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, hurried up to her from the crowd and helped her lift the offending item onto the last carriage of the Hogwarts Express with ease.
Peter Pettigrew turned to his classmate, grinning, and said, "That taught that stupid trunk a lesson. 'Ow many bleedin' books you got in–", but Hestia had already puffed her cheeks out huffily and turned on her heel to storm back down the carriage to find a compartment. It would have been quite a cold dismissal, but she tripped over a stray bag on the floor, and narrowly avoided falling to the ground, so the effect was somewhat ruined. Peter, just to make sure she wasn't hurt, made to race off after her, but was held back by a hand on his shoulder.
Sirius Black, looking as unruffled as always, flicked his shaggy mane of hair out of his eyes, and tossed his mate a casual smile, his grey eyes filled with humour. "What's the world come to, my fine friend? You play the part of knight in shining armour and just get the cold glare." He snorted, and said, "Come on, let's find us a compartment. I can't be arsed to wait for Smoko."
Peter returned the grin. "What 'bout Moony? D'you have no int'rest where little Remy is?"
"Being a perfect prefect, isn't he?" Sirius sounded derisive, as he did whenever the topic of Remus Lupin's prefectship cropped up in conversation. "Anyway, I want you to tell me about your holiday, Petey Boy."
"I saw you yesterday, you mug, din't I? You need yer memory checked out, mate."
"Hey, yesterday was a long time ago," said Sirius in a mock-hurt voice. "Anyway, I needed my beauty sleep last night, and you know how that makes me forget things. I need not tell you how spectacular I'm looking today. The female population of this fine establishment will be swooning." He finished with a twirl of his robes as if to illustrate this fact.
Peter fake-swooned, and his knees buckled as he fell onto the floor.
"Don't worry; I'll give you the kiss of life," said Sirius in a high-pitched voice, springing dramatically towards Peter and beginning to bend over him.
Thus, Hope Davies and Emma Thomas entered the carriage to the sight of Sirius sprawled over Peter on the floor, attempting to kiss him, while Peter resisted his advances. Hope gave a loud chuckle and rolled her eyes, while Emma looked mortified. Hope was a tall girl with dark skin and long, black hair that fell back onto her shoulders. She almost constantly had a twinkle of laughter in her large brown eyes – Sirius often compared her to the venerable headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, in this respect. The 'Sirius-patented Eye-Laughter Twinkle' was very much evident here as she took in the situation before her. Emma Thomas, on the other hand, a petite girl with a perfectly-shaped face and hair that draped itself down over her face delightfully, was horror-struck at the scene occurring between Sirius and Peter.
"Sirius, what the fuck are you doing?" Emma politely inquired, after she had regained the ability to speak.
Sirius immediately rolled off his companion and jumped to his feet in one elegant movement, dusting himself down, and not looking embarrassed in the slightest. "Don't blame me. It was Pete – he had me under the influence of. He's scary, trust me. Now, ladies, must dash," he finished, before adding, as he rushed out of the door, "Did you like the stylish roll and recovery, by the way?"
Peter followed quickly, completely red-faced.
"Shame about that, eh Emma? I know you had your eyes on him. But I suppose any hindrance caused by your targets' sexuality hasn't prevented you before."
Emma Thomas was left spluttering in the open doorway as her friend breezed past her to follow Sirius and Peter. A deep chuckle could be heard from the carriage she entered.
As the platform conductor gave a whistle to indicate that the Hogwarts Express was about to leave, one last figure burst, seemingly out of thin air, through the platform barrier. An unlit cigarette dangled limply from his mouth and he carried a trunk in his arms. He looked only half-dressed, with only one arm in his grey cardigan.
The glistening train began to move slowly out of the platform, and the doors slammed shut, but the hazel-eyed teen kept running at them. The forgotten cigarette fell out of his mouth, and the parents left on the platform looked on at his progress, shocked. He eventually reached the train and jumped onto an improbably small ledge, upon which he balanced himself as the train picked up speed and left the gaping parents behind.
The platform grew smaller and smaller until it was only slightly larger than a speck on the landscape, and the messy-haired teen still clung onto the edge of the train. Eventually, after several long minutes of this bizarre scene, the door was pulled open and James Potter collapsed gracelessly into the carriage, beneath the feet of another shaggy-haired young man.
"Still not perfected the unfashionably late arrival, then," said Sirius Black disdainfully, and he sauntered back to his compartment.
With his face pressed into the red, carpeted floor, James Potter breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He picked himself up and wandered past the various compartments until the end of the carriage (it would have to be someone else's job to close the door he had just entered the train through, of course), and finally feasted his eyes on two of his favourite people in the entire universe.
"Took your bleedin' time, you idiot. You nearly made me get up an' look fer you," said Peter Pettigrew.
"Glad I mean that much to you, Wormy." James joined in the verbal jousting, but looked slightly disappointed though at the lack of an awed response to his escapade.
"I know what you're thinking, Prongs, but the leap of faith would have been better if you hadn't needed me to bail you out as usual." Sirius looked his friend up and down, before adding, as an afterthought, "And I need to take marks off for losing your fag, mate. A man should never lose his fag," he added sagely.
"And the whole one-armed thing with the cardie don't really work, mate," said Peter critically.
The man known as Prongs looked annoyed with himself. "It was my bloody mum, making me eat a four-course bloody breakfast. I had it all planned out."
"Excuses, excuses, Prongsy. You always need a plan B. And, excuse me, I was with you for the whole bloody morning – so the whole 'home troubles' shit doesn't wash with me."
James Potter pulled a 'how could you betray me?' face, as Peter snorted loudly.
"Anyway, passing over that incident," began James, "What have I missed?"
"Don't ask," said Sirius, before Peter retold the story of the morning's events with extra detail.
"I never knew you had it in you, Pads. Coming out in front of Davies and Thomas too. Brave, very brave."
Sirius didn't look particularly bothered, it must be said, but the ribbing continued in this vein for quite a few minutes before the conversation, predictably, turned to Lily Evans.
"So," said James coolly. "Anyone seen Evans and her lot around?"
This was enough to set Sirius off into shameless and somewhat peculiar hysterics, but Peter was sympathetic to his friend. The norm was for James to pass off his infatuation with Lily as very little, and, generally, Peter and Remus tried to go along with this act, and pretend that James' obsession with the redhead wasn't so transparent to absolutely everyone that even had passing contact with him. Sirius, of course, would have none of that, and kept the Lily Evans card up his sleeve for any embarrassing situations he happened to be in. Nothing, of course, could be possibly more embarrassing than James' daily attempts to woo his fair maiden – all of them so far had been repulsed – so Sirius usually avoided any humiliation that his own antics may have inadvertently caused him.
Peter said pointedly, "No, but I've seen Jones, Davies and Thomas, and she wasn't with them, so she must be alone somewhere."
Again, Sirius was having none of it. "She's probably getting off with Moony in a candlelit compartment – little Remy hasn't been found yet, so I think that's the only remaining possibility."
It was a completely innocuous comment, but a light seemed to click in James. Sadly for all present in the compartment, the light wasn't a particularly pleasant colour.
Three seconds later, Sirius was folded up against the seat, sporting what was fast becoming a brilliant black eye, and James was looking murderous. "I'll kill him." He turned and charged recklessly out of the compartment.
"What the bloody 'ell d'you 'ave to say that for, Pads?" Peter raced off after his friend, hoping to save Remus from whatever horrific fate James had in mind for him.
Remus Lupin, also known as Moony, was completely unsuspecting of the whirlwind of anger that was currently racing down the train towards him. He was, typically, hidden away in the corner of the Prefects' Compartment, and staring gloomily out of the foggy window, not listening to the incessant droning of Head Boy Marcus Jamieson. Sat next to him was Lily Evans, who was, contrary to her classmate, rapt with attention towards the orders of the Head Boy for the year.
"...and it is crucially important that you act as peacemakers this year. The tension between houses has grown in the past year, and this must stop, so we have to act maturely this year." Jamieson finished his speech impressively, and looked around at his team of prefects, revelling in the silence that he had caused. However, the silence was shattered, annoyingly for the Head Boy, by two figures hurtling through the door of the compartment and bowling each other over.
Seemingly unaware of his surroundings, one of the new arrivals sat up and said exasperatedly, "He din't mean it, you prat. Whatchoo thinkin' of, runnin' off like that. You lost yer fuckin' brain cell, or summin? I'm fuckin' knackered now."
"Language, Pettigrew. You've already trespassed on a Prefects' Compartment, and you don't need any more trouble," said the Head Girl, Amélie Reglé, although she looked amused at the behaviour of Messrs Pettigrew and Potter. Marcus Jamieson, on the other hand, was seething.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor, and the two of you are in detention. Now get out!"
James ignored him completely and turned to face his friend, Remus Lupin. "See, he's sitting next to her. I bloody well knew it!" James stood up. "Lupin, get the fuck away from Evans, or I'll smash your face in," he said stupidly.
Remus looked positively bewildered at this turn of events, but was saved from having to say anything by Lily rising from her place, and she looked even more furious than James and the Head Boy put together, lines of anger etched into her face. She spoke coolly, though. "What is it that you're accusing Mr. Lupin of, Potter?"
"He...h-h-he," stuttered James (Lily Evans was the only known human being to have this effect on James). "He was feeling you up, wasn't he, the dirty sod?" Although James's bravery in this situation was unquestionable, it didn't do much to help him.
To say that Lily Evans exploded would be an understatement.
A/N: Thanks very, very much for reading this far. I'll probably end up editing bits and pieces of this chapter, because the ending was pretty awful, but I was too caught up in my delight at having written a whole chapter :) Feel free to tear to pieces as much of this as possible, and I'll try to improve my writing as the story goes on. Thanks, gredandforge909