Cynthia Fawcett peered into the mirror in the bathroom of King's Cross Station critically. She scanned her appearance, trying to make sure it was identical to a photo of herself from last year. Holding up the photo to the mirror, she noticed her nose was not exactly the same shape. Screwing up her face as though in pain, she concentrated on the nose from the picture and it appeared upon her face. Now she matched the Cynthia of last year exactly. Not that she really thought anyone would notice a slight difference of appearance, but she couldn't be too careful. She didn't want anyone to know about her ability to change her appearance at will. Being a Metamorphamagus was a quite a rare gift, even among wizard kind and she preferred to keep it a secret. It was actually quite a feat, keeping her secret for all four of her years at Hogwarts. Then again, the only people who took much notice of her in school were her four dorm mates, so she supposed it wasn't that difficult to hide. Still, she took one last look at her appearance, making sure her eyes were the correct shade of brown and her light brown hair was exactly chin length. Satisfied, she left the bathroom quickly, as it was almost eleven o'clock and she had no intention of missing the train. She was in such a rush to leave the bathroom that she almost knocked over a tiny blonde girl waiting for her outside the door.
"Watch where you're going!" said Alyssa irritably. Alyssa was Cynthia's younger sister, about to enter her third year at Hogwarts.
"Sorry," muttered Cynthia, taking her younger sisters hand and steering her toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. They leaned quite casually against it and, taking a quick look around to make sure no one was watching, fell right through. They crossed the platform under the large wooden sign reading nine and three quarters to meet up with their mother and brother. Mrs. Fawcett was busy levitating Alyssa's truck onto the train but noticed her two daughters immediately.
"Girls! Where have you been?" she demanded. As Cynthia opened her mouth to answer , her mother continued, " Never mind that now! Help Daniel get his truck onto the train." Cynthia turned to her younger brother, who was struggling a little with the bulky trunk. She grabbed the other end of it, and they heaved it on easily. Kissing their mother goodbye, they trundled onto the train.
"C'mon Dan! Let's find Jenna and Billy!" Alyssa exclaimed, grabbing her twin brother's hand and attempting to drag him away.
But Dan stayed put, turning to Cynthia. "Are you going to be okay?" He looked at her intently with those clear blue eyes, full of concern.
"Yes, of course," Cynthia reassured him. "I'll be fine. I should probably find Kery and the girls." She hugged her brother tight, her sister as well, and went to find the compartment where her dorm mates were sitting. She found them fairly easily, and joined them in the compartment.
She sat down next to her best friend Kerydwyn who immediately began to gossip. "Did you see James Potter on the platform?" she gushed. "Still after that Lily Evans after she slapped him silly last year!" Kerydwyn knew everyone's business, and while she was an enormous gossip, she was the only one Cynthia trusted with her secret. She'd been Cynthia's friend since they were children, growing up in London. She had beautiful sea green eyes, and wore her black hair short, half up in tiny pigtails.
"Let the girl breathe for goodness sakes Kery," laughed Amelia, tossing her shocking pink hair over her shoulder. Amelia used potions to change her hair color almost weekly and Cynthia liked the way this particular shade looked with her violet eyes.
"Well," insisted Becky, "she has to know what's going on before we get to the school, doesn't she?" Becky had a very Ill-disguised crush on James, and loved to know everything he was up to. While her blonde curls and heart shaped face were an object of admiration for quite a few boys in their year, James Potter had eyes only for one.
"Are you sure you're concerned about Cynthia being up on the latest gossip,' Victoria giggled, "And not just looking for an excuse to talk about your beloved James?"
"I don't know what you mean," insisted Becky, trying to play dumb. Victoria especially loved to tease Becky about James. She was the belle of their year, and could've had any boy in the school without too much trouble. There was something about her straight sheet of waist-length, shiny, deep brown hair, hazel eyes, and tall slender figure that had the boys simply falling all over her, but Victoria never noticed any of them. She insisted that she had to keep her focus on school- not nonsense like dating- if she was ever going to be a successful Healer.
Cynthia rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. "We all know you're obsessed with
Potter, Becky, give it up."
At that moment, James Potter himself tumbled into their compartment, followed closely by his best friend and partner in crime Sirius Black. Becky may have fallen for James' messy shock of black hair and hazel eyes, hidden behind round glasses, but Cynthia had her own secret crush on Sirius. This was a secret she kept even from Kerydwyn, mostly because she didn't want to be mistaken for another of the tittering fan girls who gushed over him all the time. Sirius' hair was long and his eyes were grey, trimmed with long lashes. Most of the girls in their year preferred Sirius' rugged appearance to James' pretty boy look.
"Oh hello there ladies!" Sirius said, flicking his hair out of his eyes.
"If you could quit flirting for five seconds, Padfoot, and help me out here?" James snapped. He had opened the compartment door just a couple inches and was peering out into the hall. "I see them!" The two boys poked their wands out into the hallway, and suddenly something in the hall hit the ground with a thud. They threw open the compartment door to reveal Severus Snape and Jasper Wilkes flat on the floor with tentacles sprouting from their ears.
Becky let out a high pitched giggle. "Good one, James!" He tossed his head and smiled at her, before slipping out of the compartment. Sirius gave the girls a winning smile, looking directly at Victoria, then followed James out.
"He wants you, Victoria!" Kerydwyn exclaimed. Cynthia had to agree; Sirius certainly did seem to be turning up the charm for Victoria. She was quite jealous.
"As if I'd date that jerk in a million years," Victoria dismissed the idea easily.
"He may be a jerk, but he is brilliant," Becky added, probably glad to be teasing Victoria for a change.
"Whatever. " Victoria shrugged her off. She hated talking about dates and boys. "We should probably get into our robes." The girls pulled on their Ravenclaw house robes, ready to start their term at school.
In the Great Hall, they joined the long House table of Ravenclaws. Cynthia scanned the hall quickly and found Sirius, sitting with James and his other two best friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew at the Gryffindor table. James was again trying to chat up Lily Evans, a gorgeous girl with long red hair and bright green eyes. Lily turned away from him, talking to her friends Mary MacDonald and Alice Burrows instead. He looked quite deflated, and Sirius just shrugged at him.
Dumbledore stood up at the front of the hall and the whole room went silent. "I have a few start of term announcements, before the feast begins! Professor Valencia will be our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher!" A fairly young looking witch stood up and waved. There was a murmur of applause throughout the hall for the newest teacher. "Also Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that the list of banned objects has grown to include biting teacups and pocket dungbomb slingshots. Finally, to our first years and some of our more delinquent students- the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all. Now, dig in!"
The feast appeared before their eyes, and everyone began to load up their plates. "Another Defense teacher!" Kerydwyn sounded disappointed. "I liked Professor Drake a lot! I hoped he would last!"
"Well, you know we can never keep a teacher for very long," laughed Cynthia. "Wonder what happened to Drake though?"
"His wife was killed by Death Eaters over the summer," said Victoria quietly. "It was in the Daily Prophet. Didn't you see it?"
"How dreadful!" Cynthia said sadly. Poor Professor Drake. This war was certainly wrecking everything.
The finished up the feast and went up to Ravenclaw Tower. Cynthia was exhausted, and went straight up to the fifth year girl's dormitory. Her belongings had already been brought up, and the room was quite comfortable. She fell forward into her four poster bed and fell asleep easily.
The next morning, Professor Flitwick was going up and down the house table to double-check that everyone had the proper OWL results for their chosen schedules. He stopped next to Cynthia and peered over her schedule. "Everything seems to be in order here, Miss Fawcett," he squeaked, handing her the sheet of paper. She looked it over carefully and then turned to Kerydwyn.
"Transfiguration and Charms! Not an easy morning, but at least I have a free period this afternoon. What about you?"she asked.
"Well, I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes!" Kerydwyn moaned. "I have class all day!"
Charms was her favorite class to take with Kerydwyn. It was so busy in there, they could have full conversations without anyone realizing what was going on and Kerydwyn always had a story to tell. They were spending the day reviewing some of the charms from last year and chatting about some of the boys in the class and how they'd changed over the summer.
"What about that Jacob Blishwick," gushed Kery. "He must've grown a foot and a half!"
"Yeah," agreed Cynthia. "He has gotten tall." She was watching Sirius out of the corner of her eye. He had leaned in close to Remus and was obviously talking to him about something that his friend found embarrassing. Remus went slightly pink and punched Sirius on the arm, shaking his head.
Kerydwyn was still chatting incessantly about boys. "And Owen Stebbins! I can't remember him being so talkative last year. All that extra confidence looks good on him, if you know what I mean!"
"Mmhmm," Cynthia mumbled, pretending she was following the flow of her friend's conversation. Just then, Becky leaned into them. She loved gossip almost as much as Kery did, and especially loved sizing up boys.
"What about that Sirius Black," she said. "He's always been gorgeous, but he looks better than ever this year." Cynthia started a little. Had Becky noticed her checking out Sirius? She hoped not. He was in a completely different league, and she didn't want to embarrass herself by letting it slip to anyone how much she liked him.
"So true, but that's been fairly constant," Kerydwyn added. "It's not like that's news. Sirius always gets hotter. It's a little unfair, really."
"Speaking of unfair, can you please just check out Marcus Thorne!" Cynthia tried to deflect the conversation.
"The boy just gets more and more awkward looking!" laughed Becky. The conversation didn't return to Sirius Black for the rest of the class, as her friends obviously thought he was old news. Flitwick gave them quite a load of homework for their first day back, and for once Cynthia was glad to hear her friends complaining about work instead of chattering.