As Lottie Lochyer walked in front of a compartment, quickly following behind her Head Boy brother Dominic, both of them looking for the trolley lady, some kind of projectile filled with a liquid came flying out of the opened compartment door and hit Lottie squarely in the side of her head, splattering water all over her long blond hair and soaking her brand new robes.
The splash and the following scream of his younger sister most have caused Dominic to turn around, only to see Lottie flicking the suspicious liquid off of her robes.
"You weren't supposed to duck!" called the culprit from inside said compartment.
A very furious Lottie turned, and saw four boys who were obviously First Years, one with curly black hair and smoky grey eyes, the guilty party, a slightly pudgy boy with mousy brown hair laying perfectly on his head and watery blue eyes, the boy the liquid-filled bomb was aimed at, another with unruly black hair and hazel eyes outlined with bottle-cap glasses, and the fourth had sandy blonde hair with blue-green eyes. Out of the three boys, the one with blonde hair – who was sitting beside the window with his feet up on the seat and his face in his book – looked the most out of place.
"How dare you!" screamed Lottie. "How dare you throw ... whatever that was at me! You, you insignificant little bleeder, you owe me new robes, new shoes, and you better dry me off, or so help me Merlin, I will curse you until your balls fall off, then I'll make you eat them!" Dominic, who from the looks of it was about to tell off the delinquent as well, tried to hold back his laughter.
The boy in question just chuckled. "I will most certainly not dry you off. And first of all, the balloon wasn't meant for you." He pointed to the cowering watery eyed boy. "It was meant for Peter."
Lottie just laughed cruelly and crossed her arms. "And, per chance, what are your names?"
"Well, I'm Sirius Black, that's James Potter, the one skulking in fear is Peter Pettigrew, and the bloke reading Hogwarts, A History is Remus Lupin," explained Grey Eyes.
"Well, Sirius Black," Lottie added more malice into her voice as she spoke the next words, "you'd better dry me off, or I'll curse you right off this train."
Sirius grabbed his wand from the chair beside Potter. "Bring it. Wait, I didn't catch your name either."
As she took her wand from her sleeve and held it firmly in her hand, she said, "Lottie Lochyer. And, since you got me so wet, I'll return the favour." With that, she yelled, "Aguamenti!" A pale blue streaming jet of water burst from the tip of her wand, drenching everyone in the compartment.
"Lottie!" yelled Dominic. "You're going to get in trouble!" The Head Boy tried to drag his sister forcefully away from the angry boy, but the ever-resistant Lottie pulled back and sent another spell before Sirius could even recognize what had happened.
"Alarte Ascendare!" But the spell didn't miss it's intended target—Black—and instead hit poor Peter Pettigrew.
With a squeal, he was rocketed up into the air. A millisecond later there was a rather loud bang, followed quickly by the sound of a body smashing against the carpeted floor of the compartment.
"Oh, you're going to pay for that one, Lochyer!" Black ran out of the doors and, ignoring the heads sticking out of neighbouring compartments and Lottie's brother standing right behind her, pointed his wand at his target and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" But Lottie hit the floor, and the spell came in contact with Dominic, who flew backwards down the hall and landed with a sickening crash against the back of the car, slumping down to the floor, obviously unconscious.
Freezing Charm. A blast of cold air flew from her wand, but Black blocked it and sent it flying over it's caster's head.
"Rictusempra!" This time, the curse actually hit it's target, and instantaneously, Lottie erupted in fit of deep belly laughs, with the force of which she nearly fell to her knees on the ground.
Sirius just smirked. This only made Lottie more angry than she already was, so she continued to laugh uncontrollably and used Black's distraction to her advantage. Hair Loss Charm. A blast swam from her wand and hit Black. Just as it did, every piece of lustrous black hair fell from his head and onto the floor of the train.
"No!" screamed Black, rubbing his hand across his bald head. When he looked back to Lottie, his eyes were aglow with a fierce hatred. "You stupid little Amazon! Locomotor Mortis!" Lottie flattened her back against the metal wall just in time.
"Steleus!" Lottie yelled through her laughs.
As soon as the red light hit Black, he started to sneeze in a similar uncontrollable fashion as Lottie's laughs.
"Alright, alright, break it up!" called someone behind Lottie.
Three students – a girl and boy from Gryffindor, and another boy from Ravenclaw – pulled Sirius back towards the back of the train, the girl stopping to pick up his wand, while three more students – a girl from Hufflepuff, a boy from Hufflepuff, and another girl from Ravenclaw – pulled Lottie toward the opposite side. The Hufflepuff girl slid opened a compartment and pushed her into it, while the boy continued on to where Dominic was still unconscious and lifted him up using Wingardium Leviosa, and levitated him back to his compartment with the rest of his friends.
The Hufflepuff girl sat straight across from Lottie. "What's your name?"
She tried to stare at her through her still continued laughing. "Lottie."
"Hello Lottie, I'm Emma." She sat back her legs crossed. "Tell me exactly what happened."
"I ... kind of ... can't!"
"Oh, yes." Emma leaned ahead to retrieve her wand from under her cloak, and pointed it at Victoria. "Numaperos."
Her cheeks and throat hurt, though not as much as her pride. "I was just walking past the compartment, minding my own business, looking for the lady with the trolley ..." Lottie explained her side of the story to Emma, who, when she was finished, bit her lip.
"Alright then," she said. "So, when we get to Hogwarts, which probably will only be a few minutes, you'll follow Hagrid onto the boats across the Black Lake where you'll then be sorted into one of the four houses. I'm sorry to say, but you might probably get a detention. Because, after all, you did injure the Head Boy, and used spells on students when your not supposed to. But, since you weren't actually on Hogwarts grounds, I don't know if it'll count. We'll just have to wait and see."
Lottie had never been more angry in her entire life. Because of that arrogant little mummet, she would probably have detention on her first day of school. Since she would forever more be branded as a troublemaker, the teachers would probably be hard on her and expect her to be making trouble every place she went.
For the remaining half an hour on the train, Lottie saw nothing but red, and had fantasies of cutting Black's ears off and sewing them back on upside down. But she was pleased by the thought of him with a bald head.
When the train stopped and Lottie got up, Emma escorted her out, and down the stairs, where a tall man with long back hair and an equally long black beard wearing an old brown coat carrying a lantern was yelling, "Firs' Years, over here!" From the stories she'd heard about Hogwart, Lottie knew that that man must be Hagrid.
"Bye, Lottie!" yelled Emma as she skipped toward the crowd of cloak-clad students travelling to the carriages.
"C'mon,follow me—anymore Firs' years?" yelled Hagrid again. A bunch of frightened little children were slowly departing from the crowd at the platform towards the shore of the Lake, Lottie among them. "Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling they all followed Hagrid down a narrow path to the lake where the boats were docked. The entire group was deadly silent, something extremely uncommon for a bunch of 11 year olds.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend."
There was a loud "OOOOH!"
The narrow path suddenly opened onto the edge of the Black Lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry night, was Hogwarts castle with it's many towers and turrets, one of them surely Gryffindor Tower, where Lottie hoped to end up by the end of the night.
"No mor'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the rocky shore.
Victoria followed a blonde haired blue eyed girl into a boat, who grinned when Lottie sat down beside her. Soon after, a black haired boy and an brown haired girl sat behind them.
"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then—FORWARD!"
As the little fleet of boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, as smooth a glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto the rocks and pebbles.
Lottie stood next to the blonde-haired girl as Hagrid searched the boats when they were all vacated.
"All righ', follow me"
They clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around a huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face, and Lottie knew from her older brothers' stories that Professor McGonagall was not someone's bad side you'd want to be on.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was huge, bigger than Lottie had ever imagined it to be. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Hundreds of voices could be heard from behind a great iron door to the right, but McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, and Lottie clung like glue to Blondie's side. To her dismay and delight, Black was standing with his friends from the train, a look of disdain on his face as he covered his bald head with the hood on his cloak.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, you triumphs will ear your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points it awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes turned to Black. "You, take your hood down."
"But Professor—'' he started.
"No but's," she said. "Take it down."
With pursed lips, he whipped his hood off of his head. Some kids giggled, while others just stared. Lottie had enough decency to look away and try to hide the giggles that she want so bad to let free.
McGonagall turned and left the chamber.
Everything was silent for a moment, until some kids in the back started talking, and then hushed whispers could be heard all over the place.
"What's your name?" Lottie asked Blondie.
She smiled warmly at her. "Marlene McKinnon. What's your's?"
Lottie smile matched her's. "Lottie Lochyer."
"Do you have any siblings in here already?"
She nodded. "Four older brothers that are here now, and two that are already graduated. How about you?"
Marlene shook her head. "No. But I do have two little brothers and a little sister."
A short pause, before Marlene asked, "What house do you hope you'll be in?"
"Gryffindor," Victoria answered. "You?"
She nodded. "Me too. My whole family have been in Gryffindor."
Victoria really wanted to get to know this girl, so she asked the first thing that came to her mind: "Do you play any Quidditch?"
Marlene shook her head. "Nah." She scoffed. "I get sick on a broom."
"Oh," said Lottie. "I like flying, I'm just not a big fan of Quidditch."
"Are your brothers?"
Victoria scoffed. "Are you kidding? One of my brothers that have graduated Hogwarts is Alexander Lochyer."
She gasped. "You mean, the star Chaser for Puddlemere United?" Lottie nodded. "He is so cute!"
Alright, now Lottie felt awkward. Sure, he was only her half-brother, but they were still siblings, and sisters should hear their new friends calling their brothers "cute."
But she was saved from more awkward conversation by McGonagall, who had finally returned to the chamber.
"Form a line," the professor told the first years, "and follow me."
Slowly the crowd of students stepped awkwardly towards the gathering line. Lottie stepped into the line behind a girl with fiery red hair and in front of Marlene. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Lottie could never have dreamed of such as place as the Great Hall. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.
Lottie plied her eyes away from the room to search the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. She saw the fraternal twins Dominic—now conscious—and Will at the front of the Gryffindor table with massive grins on their faces, had to crane her neck to look for Sebastian at the Hufflepuff table, but couldn't find Liam at all.
Professor McGonagall led the first years up to the teacher's table, so that they came to a halt in aline facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looking like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, resident Hogwarts ghosts shone misty silver. Lottie saw Nearly Headless Nick reclining in the air near the back of the Gryffindor table, and the Bloody Baron standing at attention on the wall nearest to the Slytherin table.
Remembering something Alexander had once said—"the ceiling in the Great Hall is bewitched to look like the sky outside''—Lottie glanced up at the ceiling and saw a replicated of what the night sky outside looked like—black nothingness accented with hundreds of little twinkling stars.
McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty, and Lottie instantly wondered how much lice and dandruff that thing had collected over the years.
McGonagall stepped forward holding a roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put the hat on to be sorted." She looked down at the list. "Avery, Bertram."
A boy with a flushed face and black hair stepped out of the line and sat on the chair. McGonagall placed the hat on his head, then—
"RAVENCLAW!"
The Ravenclaw table cheered as Bertram went over to sit with them.
"Avery, Matthew!" Cousins? Victoria thought. Brothers?
A boy who looked similar to Bertram but not enough to be brothers sat down on the stole. The hat was placed on his head, but didn't say anything for several minutes.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
With tears in his eyes, Matthew got up and shuttled to the cheering Hufflepuff with his head held low. Victoria felt bad for him—what if he really wanted to be Bertram? What if his parents didn't want him to be in Hufflepuff, and they would be disappointed?
"Birtwhistle, Jesse."
A brown-haired boy with a plump face and equally plump body ventured up to the stole, and barely a second after the hat touched his head, it's aged voice wheezed out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table clapped again as it gained a new member.
"Black, Sirius."
Lottie had to hold in her giggles as a very annoyed Black plopped himself down on the stole with his arms crossed on his chest. Like Jesse, barely a millisecond passed before the hat screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Even over the loud clapping of the Gryffindor table, the surprised gasps and whispers from the Slytherin table could be heard. Every—all of them—Black had been in Slytherin, and now one ... is in the house of it's founder's greatest enemy? That's sure to stir up some drama.
The worst part? Lottie really wanted to be in that house, and now she sort of wanted to be in any house except Gryffindor, all because of Black.
After Black came "Brimble, Andrew," who was another Hufflepuff, and "Carrow, Susan," Slytherin's first new addition. Fourteen more kids and after "Lupin, Remus" ( a Gryffindor ) McGonagall said, "Lochyer, Charlotte-Lynn."
Heart beating a thousand times a second, Lottie stepped forward and sat on the stole. The hat was dropped onto her head, and the world went dark.
It smells odd in here, she thought.
"Yes, yes, I know," said the hat. "Being a thousand years old will do that to you." It paused, thinking. "Hmm ... brave to the point of stupidity—'' Lottie couldn't argue, it was right, "—full of pride and sheer stubbornness, nasty temper, not a bad mind either. Kind and a traditionalist. Patience is a virtue you greatly lack, and also something you would do well to learn. Very loyal, and expect it from everyone else, as well. Better be ... GRYFFINDOR!"
With a mighty sigh, Lottie's frantic heart began to slow down. She squinted as the darkness of the hat was replaced with the brightness of the Great Hall, and McGonagall held the hat in her hands. She swaggered off down to the cheering Gryffindor table, where she sat beside Remus Lupin, who was across from Black.
Neither of them paid any attention to the rest of the sorting, as both were glaring at each other.
For the next six years, Lottie and Sirius did nothing but fight and curse at each other and send each other to the Hospital Wing. Pretty much each week at least one bed in the room was occupied by either Sirius or Lottie or sometimes both of them, if they had been in a duel and not just one of those one-curse-hits-it's-and-target-down-to-the-Hospita l-Wing.
Sirius just loved to torment Lottie. She got the funniest expression on her face when she was the victim of one of the Marauder's pranks, and she'd immediately come running to Sirius with her wand at the ready. But by far the most annoying thing Sirius Black had ever done to Lottie was to take all of her bras and panties and thongs and hang them up all over the common room, and even strung some around the courtyard and the Great Hall. He was in the Hospital Wing for an entire month for that little stunt.
So you can probably guess how stunned Lottie herself was as she was laying underneath Sirius in his bed as he stuck his tongue down her throat while groping her bare boobs.
He groaned as Lottie grinded their pelvises together. Sirius replaced his hands with his mouth and was sucking on her taunt nipples, Lottie bucking her chest against his mouth. Trying to concentrate, she managed to reach her hands down and unbutton Sirius's jeans, pushing then down his legs, leaving him in only his red boxers. When the pesky blue jeans reached his ankles, Sirius flung them somewhere in the room.
Sirius leaned over to his beside table to retrieve his wand and muttered the contraception incantation he knew off by heart. After all, he was the Hogwarts Playboy.
When they were down from their sexual highs, both breathing heavy and a thin layer of sweat on both of their bodies, the room smelling strongly of body fluids and perspiration, Lottie lay, uncovered, with her hands on her stomach, looking up at the ceiling, Sirius in a very similar position.
"I just had sex with Sirius Black," she declared to no one in particular.
"And I just had sex with Charlotte Lochyer," came Sirius's counter-comment.