Charlotte's POV
Looking out the window of the Hogwarts express I contemplate my life and all the shitty decisions I've made that have lead me to this exact position. Here I am surrounded by Slytherin's very worst and somehow call these teens my very best friends. But hey when your last name's Zabini and your two older sisters were the school sluts, people expect certain things from you. My best friend Scorpius can relate to that. He's nothing like his father; sure they look almost exactly alike, lean, tall, platinum blond hair. But unlike his father, Scorpius isn't evil, he's just one confident bastard and when you have Draco Malfoy as a parent I'm guessing you sort of have to be. We met in the common room one night in first year, we'd both felt alone and judged and easily gravitated towards each other. We'd been best friends ever since. We both understand that who your family is, doesn't define who you are. I've never once judged him for his family and he's never once judged me for mine.
"Charlotte?" I glance over at Alec, our resident alcoholic who's always up for a good time. Alec's beer gut may keep the ladies away but he can drink any one of us under the table and has connections all through the school and always informs us about the best parties and the best gossip.
"When do you think we should spread the word about the welcome back Slytherin party we're hosting tonight?"
"Were having a party tonight?
"Of course we are, can't let those Gryffindor losers beat us as the biggest party house this year now can we." Of course this comes from Hayley who as I take my first good look at her since before the summer, has dyed the tips of her brown hair red. It looks good and gives her more of a hipster/baddass look, which I'm guessing is what she was going for.
Alec pipes up from the other side of the compartment, "Char I want everyone to hear about our party! And I mean everyone, like even first years who can't even go. You're always the best with this kind of stuff, when should we drop the news?"
"When everyone's almost done eating. That's the best time. People will be talking about it as they leave the Great Hall and everyone will overhear."
"That's perfect!" I can see Scorpius out of the corner of my head, nodding his head in agreement, guess he approves. I shift closer to him "where's Al, Scorp?"
I hear most of the conversations in our compartment die down, it seems I wasn't the only one wondering where our friend Albus Potter was right now.
"With his family." Is all Scorp says. Scorpius and Al are super close. Becoming friends as first years almost immediately. To the shock of almost the whole school, and definitely their parents, they have a true friendship and have a lot in common. As the only member of the Potter and Weasley clan in Slytherin, Al doesn't get the spend as much time with his family as the rest of them, so he tries to separate time to see them as much as he can. It still makes us uneasy when he's away from us, because we all know his family thinks we're a bunch of bad influences on him.
"You see him a lot this summer?" I ask. Scorp winces a little and shakes his head sadly. Will definitely need to find out more information about this.
On the other side of the compartment beside Alec are Hunter and Ash the couple of the group who are almost constantly attached at the hip. At this moment it's their mouths that are attached. Hunter completely fits the category tall, dark and handsome and with Ash's beautiful completion and gorgeous blond hair, they're perfect, I get nauseous just looking at them. We've all been friends for years and as 7th years, we'll run Slytherin this year. My excitement dies a little when I think of all the parties and all the smoking my friends will be interested in doing this year. As a non-smoker I'm forced to be the one sober friend as they get high all the time. And as someone who makes very poor decisions when drunk going to a million parties doesn't really interest me at the moment. While my two older sisters were very promiscuous and started sleeping around at a young age they were labeled sluts for their entire time at Hogwarts. And when I arrived people believed I'd be the same way, and I when people expect the worst from you, most of the time you just let them. But even though I've had my fair share of hook ups and mistakes. I've developed some serious trust issues. But who wouldn't when you see your sisters get used by guy after guy. And here I am in 7th year still a virgin and more lonely then ever. I look over at Scorpius, who's slept with almost every girl I know and wish things could be different.
The Trolley witch knocks on our compartment door and offers us sweets. I definitely have a galleon somewhere.
Scorpius's POV
Sitting around all my friends in the Great Hall brings me the greatest sense of comfort, being home with mom and dad is fine and everything, but being here, back at Hogwarts, well it's home. Putting my arm casually over Al's shoulder, I shove him playfully closer to his on and off again girlfriend Ana Krum. I think they're on right now, or maybe not, I can never remember.
"How was the train ride Al?" Alec asks over the loud hum of conversations going on around us. I laugh to myself at how obvious Alec's intentions are when it comes to asking Al questions, all he wants is possible gossip on Al's famous family.
"It was pretty boring, just the usual loud and obnoxious bunch that I've seen all summer," he shakes he head and looks at charlotte, "I can never get two words in, I'm sure you get that?" Charlotte shakes her head in agreement and everyone around us laughs. I always forget that Charlotte has two sisters that everyone knows, she's so different than them, and I can't understand how nobody sees that.
"What's Caroline doing this year?" Ana asks oblivious to Charlotte's discomfort.
"That's the one who graduated last year right?" Eric Goyle interjects into our conversation. Bloody hell I hate that guy.
Charlotte shakes her head in agreement and looks around our group nervously. "she met some French guy, while on our trip to France this summer and is travelling around Europe for a bit with him."
"Didn't she have any job offers when she graduated" Ana asks, again with the sister questions.
"Um, Caroline wasn't really into school."
"Yeah because she was into dick!" Hunter is such an idiot! Why would he say that? Everyone starts to laugh and I gently place my hand on Charlotte leg and give it a quick squeeze. She hates it when people talk about her sisters or compare her to them. She hates that they had horrible reputations and that because of them so does she. Even I know Charlotte's the opposite of a slut, and I would know with the amount of sluts I associate with.
"Okay guys everyone's almost done eating let's spread the news about the party: 11pm, Slytherin common room, 5th years and up, tell everyone."
As our friends start getting up and spreading the party details, I grab Charlotte's hand and start dragging her towards the dungeons.
"I don't know why you don't stand up for yourself"
"There's no point."
It's impossible to get through Charlotte's stubbornness. She's such a sweet and kind person I will never understand how we all became friends. But without her our little group would be incomplete.
"You talking to anyone?" I ask her, wondering which douchebag has caught her attention this time.
"Um, no."
"When was the last guy?"
"Last year."
"Wait, you haven't had any action all summer? How is that possible?"
"I'm so done getting to know guys and failing for them and having them think I'm lying when I tell them I'm a virgin. As soon as they find out I wont sleep with them, I find out what they really wanted from me and how they were using me all along. Then I become a tease and they end it with me. I'm done with it."
"Char I'm sorry." Damn what am I supposed to say to that. These are the time Char needs a close girl to talk to about this stuff, because I'm lost.
"C'mon let's go play wizards chess in the common room, and I can beat you for the 7th billionth time. " and as Charlotte smiles and laughs, I remember why I deal with all that girly emotional bullshit.