Willow glared miserably at her parents as they slid from sight through the greying, vibrating glass. They looked strained and guilty as they waved at her.
Willow flopped into her seat as they completely disappeared, not knowing whether she'll even see them again.
Anissa looked at her, obviously concerned, over the top of her book, (The untitled love story,) Whilst Helena grappled with her cat, Nagini, as it ripped at the seat's lining.
Willow was terrified about attending Hogwarts, as it had indeed been taken over by Alecto and Amycus Carrow, rumoured death eaters. Willow's parents were in a tight situation. By not sending their child to Hogwarts, it would seem that they would not approve of the new regime going on there, and perhaps they would receive fatal attacks from magic is might activists. But if they did send Willow, she would be targeted by other students because of her rather worrying family background, and she would be at the mercy of a biased law system.
Willow's mother, Elnore Niflet, was a manager in the Department of Magical Law enforcement, trying to promote rights of centaurs. Willow's father was a free-lance journalist who wrote articles about whatever he wanted and sold them to newspapers.
But her father, Thaddeus gravestone, was a muggle- lover, a blood traitor. He had written an article all about the brotherhood that wizards and muggles should share just last week. Pure blood though Willow was, her parents were notorious for their Muggle-loving tendencies, and they were already unpopular with the magical community at large, so Willow did not know what lengths other students would go to target her.
Anissa and Helena were safe though, both of them had had perfectly mundane parents, who didn't argue with the ministry. In fact, Helena's parents were highly praising the new Ministry and their views on muggles. Anissa's parents were professors of Transfiguration at the Californian state university of Sorcery, so they were neutral about the whole muggles are good or bad dispute.
Willow was glad to get away from her naive parents, and their ignorant views on muggles, but she could not escape the reputation they had made for their family. She was doomed.
Helena looked up. "Willow, don't worry about it, I know the regime has changed, but I'm sure the students' attitudes haven't."
Willow sighed and replied, "A lot of people hated me before, but before they were kept in check by Dumbledore's way of running the school. And now some muggle-hating creeps have taken over they will be free to treat me as horribly as they want."
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad..." Helena began, as Anissa placed a marker in her book and closed it.
"Helena. I do wonder whether you read the news at all sometimes." Anissa glared at her while Helena averted her eyes, "Apparently the Carrows are going to be allowed to use unforgivable curses on us for punishments, according to the Magicismight bulletin. And Pius Thicknesse is letting it all pass without even making an informed investigation!" Anissa smooshed her book into her already over-crammed bag, "Mind you, I think that the minister for magic has been -"
"Ahem"
The three girls looked up into the face of a tall girl with lightening-white hair streaming over her blackened eyes. Sierra.
"You lot shouldn't be talking so openly about stuff like that, you know," She said, closing the door to their compartment and sitting down next to Willow.
"Sorry but I just keep forgetting why students here are for the Carrows' regime when it could put them in psychological, physical and possibly even MORTAL DANGER?"
"Shhhhh Keep your voice down!" Hissed Sierra as a pale, pointed-face boy mooched past the compartment.
" I like how he always looks so regal," Murmured Helena, eying the place he had just been, looking dazed.
"Yeah... And his hair... it's so blond..." sighed Willow, looking equally dreamy.
"Uh... HELLO?" Anissa's sharp voice cut through the musings of the two girls like a blunt saw through chocolate, "Remember what he did to Mandy Brocklehurst? She has never been the same since. He is such a pure-blood freak as well!"
Helena and Willow immediately looked ashamed.
Sierra chipped in, "I don't know why your wasting your life staring at that vampire wannabe, when there's Blaise Zabini about" She blushed suddenly, as if realizing that she was infact speaking aloud and not just in her head.
Evil smirks appeared on everyone's faces as Anissa said "You like Zabini?"
Sierra was now the shade of beetroot, and she glanced down at her feet, which were shuffling about as if to try and escape their owner's humiliation.
"Well dream on, half-blood," Scorned Helena, desperate to turn the goal post away from the fact that she liked Malfoy.
"Aw don't be so dismissive," Willow smiled consolingly at Sierra, who looked miserable "I mean, he thought that kebab-faced bubotuber Ginny was pretty, and she was a blood traitor. And if that piece of thrown-up Cockcroach cluster is his idea of pretty, then Sierra will definitely go out with him!"
Sierra blushed with embarrassment, but looked pleased, yet an awkward silence fell among them.
Thankfully, the lunch trolley arrived. The old lady carrying it looked exhausted with the weight of the sweets and delicacies that were mounted upon the wheels.
"Oooh!" Helena's face immediately lit up, and stood up to examine the various foods that were laying before her.
"Oh, could I please have some chocolate frogs please... yes about 7? Oh and could I have a couple of boxes of Bertie Bott's every flavored beans?" Willow also stood up to make the necessary exchanges with the lady as well.
When Helena had finally chosen what she wanted (a packet of droobles and some pumpkin pasties) they sat back down. Willow opened her flavored beans and started offering them round, whilst stuffing the chocolate frogs into her bag.
"What are you doing with those, Willow?" Anissa looked suspicous.
"Well, I've realized that there's quite a bit of profit to be made from these," Willow smirked as she zipped up her bag again, "Last year I saw that someone was asking for the Circe chocolate frog card on the Ravenclaw noticeboard, and they were offering to pay 5 galleons for it!"
"And I thought Ravenclaws were smart, you can buy eight for a galleon in Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade." Helena sneered, she was in Slytherin, and felt it her duty to show that her house was the best.
"Yes but think about it. They can't choose which cards to get, so they may end up spending 50 galleons, and never finding the card they want. It's an obsession you see, collection chocolate frog cards." Willow exchanged a significant glance with Sierra.
"What?" Helena looked from one to the other.
"Well basically, a girl in our dormitory kind of... went crazy. She lost one of the cards and burnt down her bed with her wand because she lost control. Flitwick told us not to mention it to anyone... but there we are. She went to St. Mungo's so they could stabilize her psychologically, and apparently she'll be coming back this term..."
"What was her name?" Anissa asked.
"Anna Miller. She wasn't very nice. She made Sierra's owl shrink to the size of a marble because of a debate they had on who was better - the Weird Sisters or the moaning myrtles." Willow looked grim
"Yeah.. her and that Nichol Autierie always used to go round together, being total cows to everyone."
"I remember when they followed me and Willow about telling us to shut up because we thought that Crabbe was ugly, and they were saying he was cute." Helena gazed dreamily at the ceiling, obviously reminiscing about the double attack she and Willow had performed, involving the slime-rolling hex and several well-aimed warty-break-out curses. Nichol's eyelids were never the same, and she couldn't insult anyone for two and a half months because every time she tried to speak her tongue began to roll up like a frightened worm.
Just then the compartment door slid noisily open, and a tall girl with golden streaked hair stood before them. "There you are!" She shouted, glaring at them. "You're supposed to be in the prefects' compartment!"
"Sorry Amy, we forgot..." Helena looked up apologetically as she picked herself off the floor; she's fallen off her seat in surprise.
They picked up their things and trooped to the prefect's compartment, which was twice as big as the others so all the prefects could sit together. Zacharias Smith blushed strangely as Helena, Willow and Sierra rushed in, followed closely by Anissa and Amy.
They squeezed in opposite each other, waiting to endure the rants that were scheduled to come from the head boy and head girl, Draco Malfoy and Daphne GreenGrass.
Daphne swished her sheen of immaculate hair as she pronounced that each of the late comers would lose ten points, and that they would get the last choice of duty stations on the rotor. Luckily their wasn't enough time for a big speech from Daphne about lateness, as they were going to arrive in a few hours and everyone still hasn't changed into their robes.
The five of them were going to be monitoring the Great hall and the entrance to the school. (Amy had decided to sign onto the same station as them, even though she wasn't a late comer.)
Anissa muttered to Willow, who was the nearest, "Prefects have never had to monitor the entrance hall before..."
"But with this new regime, I would think that a lot of students are going to want to escape." Willow replied darkly, eying Daphne closely as she handed out the rotor lists.