A/N: Yay I have a plot! It used to be pointless, before I decided to add a prologue.
Warning – I'm writing a story (non-fanfiction) in first person and present tense, so if I slip that's why. I've done it a lot so far but I'm trying to catch my mistakes.
Disclaimer: HP belongs to J.K. Rowling; I hope you all know that without me telling you.
It was the last night of the school year. The next morning everyone would go home for the summer. Marilyn Eastrin was in the Dining Hall at Durmstrang Institute, waiting for dinner to start. The Hall was a big room filled with rows of long tables made of dark wood, too formal-looking in her opinion. She was sitting at the end like she always did, with her whole two friends. She wasn't very popular because most of the people in Durmstrang seemed like idiots to her. A lot of them liked the Dark Arts, and Marilyn hated it. Her friends were Tracy Brown and Amy Cazrie. Tracy would get hyper but still have some sense, while Amy was full of insane plots. Amy was always getting them into trouble and Tracy would get them out of it. Marilyn was sort of in the middle, with some plots but good excuses. She was quieter than her friends. Amy looked like her personality, with her bright, laughing blue eyes and very wavy brown hair. Tracy had straight black hair and dark brown eyes. Marilyn had dark brown hair that looked black, but she wished it was pure black. Her eyes were a very pale blue color.
"Promise to write tons over the summer," Amy said. It was tradition to promise, even though they all knew they would write anyway.
"I promise," Marilyn agreed.
"I'll write so many letters you won't have space to store them," laughed Tracy.
The headmaster said his speech and then dinner started. There was silence as the three friends stuffed their faces, being very hungry. The food was really good, but it wasn't exactly a happy dinner. Anything at Durmstrang had gloom hanging over it, at least to Marilyn.
She didn't like quietness, so she asked, "Do either of you have any plans for the summer?"
They shrugged, and Tracy answered, "No. We should all get together or something, though."
Amy's eyes started glittering, and Marilyn could tell she was thinking up a new way to get them into trouble. "Yeah, we could visit Diagon Alley during the day and when we're there--"
She was cut off by a scream. "What was that?" everyone around them was asking. Marilyn and Tracy looked around curiously and worriedly, but Amy actually jumped out of her seat. "What's the matter?" Tracy asked in alarm. "It's probably just someone playing a trick."
"No, it's not," she said. Her face was white. Marilyn thought she was overreacting till she explained, "That might be Laurie." Laurie was Amy's sister. "She stayed behind in the dorm to finish packing." She started to run out of the Hall, but a teacher stopped her. Amy was replying, but she couldn't be heard from the table over the noise. She came rushing back and sat down, still jumpy. "They won't let me go look for her! It's 'cause they don't want me to get into danger or something. They say other teachers are looking for whoever screamed, but I wish they'd let me go too, just to see if Laurie's alright." She kept looking over in the direction of the scream. "That's not a prank. The teachers wouldn't be this careful if it was, and they'd know soon enough. And no one can keep up a good act that long." There had been a few more yells since the first one.
"Do you think it's You-Kn--" Tracy started to say, but Marilyn interrupted her.
"Shut up!" she said quietly. "Do you really want to upset her even more?" She nodded in Amy's direction.
But Amy had already heard. She was even paler, and she gasped loudly. "What if he's here? Laurie can't fight him, and the teachers won't be able to either."
The headmaster said very loudly over the talking, "All students go back to your dormitories. Students in Dormitory Number Nine will stay here. Teachers go to Dormitory Number Nine, and have your wands ready."
These words frightened Amy even more. "Laurie's in Dorm Nine! I knew it, he's here." She would have kept muttering nervously if Marilyn and Tracy hadn't dragged her back to their dormitory, the eighth. All the dormitories were spread out over the school, so they weren't very near the ninth. They couldn't hear the yells anymore, either because of the distance or something causing them to stop.
"Let's go to the dorm," Amy persisted. Tracy opened her mouth to argue, but Amy continued, "Please. I really need to know what's happening. Maybe it's not You-Know-Who, which means we probably wouldn't get hurt." She was usually an optimist about danger.
Tracy choked on her pumpkin juice (almost everyone had carried their still-full plates and goblets with them and was nervously finishing eating). "Yeah, if it's some dangerous creature, we'll be perfectly safe."
"Hey, it's better than him," said Amy, sounding offended. Still she went on trying to convince them. "If he was here, the teachers would have told us. They know there're some people here who want to get into danger just for excitement."
"Like you?" Tracy interrupted, meaning on normal days of course, since this time wouldn't be for excitement. Marilyn wasn't saying anything, partly because it wasn't her sister in danger and partly because she privately agreed with Amy but didn't want to offend Tracy by taking sides.
Amy still wasn't giving up. She probably never would. "Come on, let's just go see. We know how to Stun and do some curses. We're not totally defenseless."
"I'll come," Marilyn finally said, not looking at Tracy.
"Fine, gang up on me," Tracy growled. Normally she wouldn't get this angry, even though she did get in some bad fights with Amy. She was nervous, and nervousness made her crabby. She was planning on sitting stubbornly in her chair and hoping the others wouldn't go without her. Then she saw that they were already halfway to the door. She groaned and followed, calling after them, "By the way, there'll be teachers all over the Ninth Dorm. We'll definitely get caught and in even more trouble than normal since they've warned us it's dangerous there."
Marilyn turned right around to face her. She was reddening with anger by now. "You care about rules and getting detentions when Amy's sister is almost certainly in danger?" she asked in disbelief. Before Tracy could answer back she spun around and ran to catch up with Amy. Tracy hesitated then followed.
They came to the entrance of the Ninth Dorm and saw nothing. As they had gotten closer they could hear the shouts, bangs, and thuds. Now, peeking in the door, they could also hear the whoosh of curses flying through the air. No one was in the main room, but there were tons of side rooms branching off. They hurried across the room to one of these and paused again. Here the fight was going on.
Witches and wizards in black robes and masks were sending green light at the teachers, who had to use every spell known to them to defend themselves. Amy was looking around like crazy but didn't see Laurie anywhere. She led her two friends quickly past the fight to another side room. It was the same. They searched four more (some with fighting, some deserted) before Amy whispered tensely, "There's Laurie!"
Laurie was on the floor by the wall, either Stunned or unconscious from curses. This room was empty except for her. Amy ran over before Marilyn and Tracy could stop her. She pulled out her wand and was about to say the countercurse for Stunning when a jet of green light shot towards her back. Marilyn quickly said, "Protego," as she lifted her own wand. The green ricocheted off and hit the wall, leaving a small crater. She joined Amy so her Shield Charms could protect both of them easier. Tracy looked torn but joined after a small pause.
No more green light came towards them. Either it had been a misaimed curse or whoever had sent it had gotten distracted. Amy had time now to help Laurie. She whispered the spell, not wanting to give themselves away. Laurie twitched a little but didn't wake up. Amy looked about to panic, and Marilyn, noticing this, tried to calm her down. "She'll be okay as long as no more spells hit her. She's alive because she twitched, and the teachers will be able to help her. Don't worry. Let's just keep any curses away from her."
Amy nodded and faced away from Laurie to watch for curses. Marilyn and Tracy were also watching. Now some of the fighting had moved out into the main room. It was really creepy to watch the fight and know that at any time someone might see them and send the green light, which Marilyn strongly suspected was Avada Kedavra. She had heard about it and knew there was no way to block it. But the one curse had bounced off the Shield Charm, and Avada Kedavra wouldn't. Maybe it was some new type of curse. The Death Eaters were always coming up with new ways of killing people.
Suddenly everything changed. The masked people were Disapparating with popping noises. The teachers, though worn out, looked relieved. Soon all the masked guys were gone. Teachers walked around all over, checking for anyone who was hurt.
"Cazrie! Eastrin! Brown!"
They all jumped. A teacher was standing right in front of them, looking furious. "You were told to go back to your dormitories! None of you are in this one, and even if you were you would be in the Hall. What do you think you're doing? You could have easily been killed!"
Amy didn't look at all ashamed. Instead, she said, "I knew my sister Laurie stayed in this dorm and hadn't come to dinner, so I had to see if she was okay." She looked back at Laurie, still on the ground. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"
"No. She will go to the hospital wing with everyone else who has been hurt badly, like you could have been," she answered, still looking just as angry. "Are you all okay?" she demanded.
"Yes."
"Yeah."
"Yep."
"Good. Then go back to your dormitories." She saw them about to ask questions. "Now." They shut their mouths and left.
The next morning at breakfast, the headmaster stood up. Everyone went much quieter than usual, anxious to hear what happened. "Last night, You-Know-Who and some Death Eaters were here." Whispering filled the Hall. "You-Know-Who left before we got there, but we have been told he was here. Only the Death Eaters remained when the teachers arrived. Soon after, they Disapparated. None are left now. No one was killed, and only a few people were seriously injured. They are currently in the hospital wing and will stay there until they're fully recovered. Most will be able to go home with the rest of you." He paused. "However, there are concerns that You-Know-Who will return. Until we can know if he will or not, Durmstrang will close." There was even louder whispering as all the students wondered where they would go next year. The answer came a moment later: "All students will transfer to other schools for young witches and wizards. They will be sending out acceptance letters over the summer to everyone they consider a good addition to their school." He finished up by assuring them that everyone would be accepted to a school, and then breakfast started.
"I hope we're all accepted to the same school," Marilyn said sadly. She didn't like the idea of having to make all new friends and never seeing her old ones.
"Fat chance," Amy grumbled. Since the last night she had been acting depressed, with good reason.
Tracy sighed. "At least we can still write…"
"Yeah, that'll help a lot. Stupid letters the whole year long," Amy snapped. A few seconds later she said softly, "Sorry."
"That's okay," Tracy said, understanding that Amy would be in a bad mood for a while.
"Right when we get our acceptance letters we should tell each other," Marilyn suggested. She was replied by nods.
They finished breakfast in gloomy silence. It was then time to go. They got their trunks and went outside with everyone else. As usual, a dark ship was waiting for them, floating on a lake in the school grounds. There was chaos as people tried to find their friends. Marilyn, Tracy, and Amy went to the back. A suction-like noise announced the beginning of the trip home. Water came up past the windows as they sank, and soon they were beneath the light and couldn't see outside.
The trip seemed even longer than normal because they weren't doing any pranks. Normally they would, but they thought this wasn't exactly the time.
After what seemed like ages, light returned outside the windows. In a few minutes the water went down too, and they could see the surface of this new lake and the surroundings. There was a huge, bright green field, with small bushes and trees dotting it. The grass swayed in the calm wind. The sky was gray, and small raindrops were falling, getting gradually bigger and faster. Soon it was a downpour.
The ship stopped rising and there was a thud as a ramp was lowered onto the shore. Marilyn didn't want to leave, but she had to. She went up with Amy and Tracy to open air. They walked slowly down the ramp and stepped off onto the grass. Marilyn stopped before they reached where their parents were waiting to take them home.
"See you guys," she said glumly.
"See you," Tracy repeated.
"Bye," said Amy, in the saddest voice of all of them. She was obviously dreading retuning home without her sister. Laurie was still in the hospital wing, and her parents would have to come get her when she was better.
Marilyn walked off to where her parents were waiting. She greeted them with a worse mood than usual.
A month later, Marilyn was still waiting for her letter. Both Tracy and Amy had already been accepted to schools, Tracy to one in Spain and Amy to one in France. (In Amy's letter she had said Laurie had come home by then and was just fine.) Marilyn wasn't sure where to hope she was accepted to.
One morning, a letter was left on the table. It was addressed to her. She opened it quickly.
Dear Miss Eastrin,
You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Term begins on September 1. A list of the books and equipment you will need is included in this letter. Please send your answer by owl July 31 or earlier.
Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy headmistress
A/N: The school Amy is accepted to in France isn't Beauxbatons. I made it up. My excuse is that it's less well-known than Beauxbatons. Hey have you seen that pronunciation guide that says to say it BO-ba-ton or something? Hehe. Oh yeah, and I also changed the letter just cause I don't feel like copying it exactly. I used the same stuff though.
Wow when I was proofreading this it sounds exactly like Harry, Ron, and Hermione (MarilynHarry, AmyRon, TracyHermione). :(. I promise I didn't mean to, and hopefully it doesn't sound like that to everyone. Next chapter sometime, once I fix it to match the prologue.