Chapter I
Finley St. James could hardly believe it was her last year at Hogwarts. She hadn't been made Head Girl like she had hoped, but she was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and that was enough for her.
Images from the insane win against Slytherin the past spring flashed behind her eyes and she had to snap herself out of the memory to unload her black cat, Potter, out from his cage and step onto the train. She named him after Harry Potter, of course. It had been ten years since he defeated Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts but it was still not uncommon to hear his name at least once a day in the wizarding world.
Finley had grown up in the wizarding world. In the apartment above Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, to be exact. Florean was her uncle on her mother's side and had raised her and her brother, Simon, until he was kidnapped and murdered ten years ago (she was seven) and Simon was left to raise Finley and take over the shop. Simon was ten years older than her and was in his seventh year at Hogwarts when the battle took place. He was one of the few Ravenclaws who stayed to fight and had lost his left leg in the process. Their parents were international Aurors based in Norway and had been missing since Finley was one. After her brother stopped receiving letters from them, he packed himself and her up, summoned the Knight Bus on accident, and asked to be taken to Uncle Florean's house. Everyone assumed the St. James' were dead and had come to accept this as fact. In the back of Finley's mind, however, she still believed they were alive and just had to keep quiet for some reason. She never told anyone this.
She always missed her brother while she was at Hogwarts and she felt a hot tear glide down her face at the thought of him running a hand through his long almost black hair like he always did when he was telling a story to a customer, which he did often. Simon was a very good storyteller, even if most of his stories were about embarrassing things Finley had done when she was little. She brushed the thought away and plastered a face of indifference on in time to slide the glass door open and glide into the compartment with her friends.
Her only real friends were her teammates. For a Gryffindor, she was pretty shy. She told herself she only had six friends because everyone was intimidated by her, (she was tall, confident, and not afraid to admit, quite pretty, with a great sense of humour) but she knew deep down that her personality was really just an acquired taste that few had the taste for.
But her teammates were great. There was Angus Smith and Barney Morrison who were the Beaters, Bryony, Clover, and Hazel Rothbard (sisters) who were the Chasers, Jocasta Fields who was the Seeker, and herself, Finley, who was the Keeper. Jocasta and Finley tended to stick together seeing as Bryony, Clover, and Hazel were sisters and Angus and Barney were the only male team members. Jocasta was the epitome of a seeker and the opposite of Finley. Short, perky, and outgoing, with long blonde hair. And boy did everyone love her. In fact, Finley suspected people only tolerated her half the time because she was best friends with Jo.
Jocasta's face lit up when she heard the door close and saw Finley standing there. The small blonde immediately popped out of her seat and bounced over to give Finley a squeeze of a hug around her waist.
"Fin!" Jocasta exclaimed as she released her grip, "I missed you so much!"
Finley sat down, "We wrote each other all summer, Jo." Jo's face fell half a millimeter, "But I missed you too!" Finley hastily added. Jo's face lit back up. She had missed her best friend. A lot, in fact. She followed Jo to the seat and Barney scooted over just enough for her to sit down. She reached over and put her hand on his knee, "Hey Barney!" she smiled. He blushed and mumbled, "Hi Finley." It was fun making Barney feel uncomfortable. He might have been 6'4" and made of pure muscle, with sandy brown curls that framed bright green eyes and a stone jaw, but he was about the closest thing to a puppy that one could bring to Hogwarts, and the only person Finley knew who was easier to make blush than herself. The team loved to exploit this fact.
"Careful, Fin! We still have a few hours before we need to change." Angus chimed in from across the aisle, "Wouldn't want Barn to be uncomfortable for that long." We chuckled and Barney blushed a deeper red. The group settled into a low roar of camaraderie, talking about their summers and possible pranks to play on the Slytherins this year. Finley joined in for a while but soon found herself drifting off to sleep, her head resting against the back of the seat, Potter the cat purring warmly in her lap, and let their chatter be the white noise that finally lulled her to sleep.