Chapter 1

River Taunton sat alone in her compartment on the Hogwarts Express, like she always did. But did she care? No. Being alone suited her perfectly.

The clock chimed eleven from the platform and River heard the stampede of other students to get onto the train, the banging of trunks and then the goodbyes and well-wishes called from the windows of other compartments. From her window she could see families waving to their children with big smiles on their faces. She peered through the throng and saw her father and older half-brother standing at the very back of the commotion, staring back at her. They didn't smile or wave. They turned away and River watched the back of their sleek, brown heads disappear through the barrier. She looked down at her feet, hands in her lap, ashamed for even bothering to expect any sign of affection from her so-called family.

River finally pulled herself together; after all, it had always been like this and always would be. There was no point in worrying herself about it. She stood up on her seat and reached into her trunk on the luggage rack, groping around for her magazine. She had to clear half her trunk out before finally finding it, and then placed everything back inside.

River sat back down, but before she had even opened her magazine, there was a knock on her compartment door.

She looked up. It was Peter Pettigrew, a Gryffindor, also in her Care Of Magical Creatures class. He slid open the compartment door and stood panting in the threshold.

"Er, do you mind if my friends and I sit with you? Everywhere else is full," he asked very shyly. River thought about it before answering. She knew who Pettigrew hung around with, and wondered whether she'd ever get the chance to read in peace. But it couldn't hurt to have a bit of company once in a while, could it?

Pettigrew had been watching her as she thought this and seemed to think that River didn't want him there.

"Oh, um, well… sorry to bother you," he apologised, but as he was about to leave, River called out to him.

"No! Wait! I don't mind! I was just… it's just that… I've never really… well, yeah," she resigned. "Go ahead." Pettigrew's anxious face turned into a smile and he turned back round and placed his trunk on the luggage rack. He sat down opposite River, next to the window. The Hogwarts Express had begun to move and clouds of billowing steam were fogging up their view of the outside world.

"My friends should be here in a minute," he said.

"Great," said River, trying to sound interested.

"Do you read Japanese, then?"

"What?" She looked up from her page. Pettigrew indicated at her magazine. He had noticed the Japanese text on the front of it, situated around the model pouting and blowing kisses to the onlooker. "Oh no, I'm all English. I just like looking at the clothes. I'm sort of into foreign fashion."

There was a loud clutter outside the compartment, and the door slid open for the second time. It was the trio that River had been dreading the arrival of. James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin with their trunks. They were all panting, but Potter and Black had triumphant looks on their faces, and River noticed that they had their wands out. Lupin was leaning against the door, clutching a stitch on his left side.

"I warned you two, but did you listen? No. We're really going to be in big - ," he started, but Black waved him off and sat down next to Pettigrew, giving River a quick glimpse before he did so.

"You worry too much. I think that was bloody brilliant."

Potter sat down a seat away from River without even appearing to notice she was there. He and Black had left their trunks in the middle of the floor, but Lupin was carefully stowing his away next to Pettigrew's and then picked up theirs and placed them on the luggage rack. Black thanked him, as Lupin sat down next to River, and she continued reading her magazine.

"Er, these are my friends," Pettigrew told her as Potter and Black launched into a detailed account of the Slytherins' they had just duelled with.

"Yeah, I know," she replied, watching the three over the top of her page. Black and Potter were still going on, but Lupin was staring at the foot of Pettigrew's seat. He then bent down and picked up a small piece of paper that was lying on the floor. With a jolt of shock, River realised that it was a cutting from a magazine that she had probably missed when picking up all her stuff to go back in her trunk.

For a second, she thought of diving at Lupin and snatching it off of him, but it was too late; he had already seen it and looked at River. But as he opened his mouth, Black asked:

"What's that you've got there, Remus?" and had pulled it out of his grip. As he stared at it, his eyes widening, Pettigrew and Potter leant over to look at it too. A large smirk spread across Potters face.

Everyone in the compartment was looking at River now.