For the third time that morning Allegra was awoken to the piercing sound of her mother screeching at her from the bottom of the stairs.
She was certain that every Allegra in the country had been woken by this noise, yet still she remained in bed. It wasn't because she was tired; in all honesty she was ready to get out of bed. It was only because she knew that once she got up it would be the last time until Christmas that she would sleep in this bed.
With a great sigh she heaved herself off the bed and crossed over to her wardrobe. She pulled open the doors and peered inside, trying to focus her energy on finding a decent outfit for school.
Luckily she didn't have to make her way down to London to get the train, so she had quite a while before she had to leave for the bus. Although she'd much rather floo there, or something equally as effortless. There was something in arriving at school just before everyone else knowing that you didn't stink of train fumes. Lily said that it was her down to a tee.
After staring at her vast quantities clothing she decided that there wouldn't be many people milling around the streets of Kilrainey, Dumlairnoch or even Hogsmeade, so she would be ok in her ever so hideous uniform.
Now that she had made the tough clothing decisions she re assessed her trunk on the floor. Half full, with its contents spilling across the room, her trunk resembled some sort of bombsite. There was a strange blue stain on the silk lining of the lid, which Allegra was sure had something to do with Sirius Black, a pile of old notes from Remus and Lily. And something that seemed to resemble a turnip, shrivelled at the bottom next to a pile of dirty socks. She was pretty sure that had turned up after an intense Herbology lesson in fifth year. So there was definitely no reason for it to still be in there now she was starting seventh year.
Allegra knelt on the floor and grabbed the pile of clean washing her mother had left on the chair next to her. She sorted through the washing, pulling out what she'd need to wear that day, and piling everything she didn't want to take back on the chair. She then pulled out the weird turnip thing and threw it into the bin. The turnip was soon followed by some old divination notes, a letter about the Hogwarts Christmas Ball 1975 and a broken quill. She then began to pile everything she had removed back into the trunk, placing her clothes neatly in one corner, covered by her towel so that they wouldn't get dirty. Finally she forced one last sock in, before closing the lid and checking around the room for anything she may have forgotten.
By this time the clock had reached half 11. Already her friends had been in each others company for half an hour, and she was still trying to work out if it was worth taking her black pleated mini, especially as it was now fashionable to wear the tartan style school skirts. She decided yes just as her mum pushed open her door.
"Ah good you're all packed. Your Aunt Minerva just sent an owl asking if you wanted to go in early for lunch or if you wanted to go in for six as planned and just have a snack when you get there."
"Six, but I don't need a snack, its bad enough trying to fit that entire feast in my stomach as it is."
Her mum nodded and cast a beady eye over her room. Just as she turned to leave she gave an involuntary cough, which was then followed by a coughing fit. Allegra hurried over to her mum's side, holding her up and passing her a glass of water from the desk.
"Mum are you alright? That's like the third time it's happened this week. Plus dad says it happened all the time when I was at school. You know the healer said to take it slow."
Allegra was worried for her mum. Bearing ten children had had its toll on Constance Carahornneand she had begun to get sicker and sicker. The coughing fits were just a small part of her weak health. The healers could find no other explanation other than it was possibly hereditary and definitely life threatening. It scared Allegra when she had found out, but it had been five years now and it appeared that Constance was slowly regaining her health.
"Don't you worry about me Allegra, just you worry about the tough year you have ahead of you. NEWTs, plus you have to make sure you keep that gorgeous man. Blokes like Remus don't come around very often. He is a proper gentleman, and he'll see you right. I know it can be hard to be in such a long term relationship when you're this young, but you will be happy for it when all your other friends are single and desperate."
"Not Lily, she wrote to me this summer to tell me that she was now with James Potter. I mean come on! Its bad enough I have to see him and Sirius when they're with Remus, and now I have to put up with him draped all over my best mate."
She felt bad allowing her mum to change the subject so easily, but she knew how much her mum loved talking about love and relationships. Having married off seven of her ten children, she was now working on the three youngest. Petra and Katrina, twins, had left Hogwarts that June and were now enjoying the freedom of a full time job. Both had moved out as soon as they stepped foot outside the school gates, leaving Allegra as the only child still at home, and moved on to bigger and better things. Both were still single, but it was only a matter of time.
Allegra, however, was in what seemed to be a very long term relationship with Remus Lupin. They had been together since the Christmas Ball of 1975 and, despite Sirius' constant attempts to sabotage the relationship, were still together.
She frowned at the thought of having to see Sirius again, before letting her mum complain about the length of her hair as she left the room. Allegra shut the door and threw herself onto her bed, still dressed in her pyjamas.
She lay there, for about ten minutes, staring at the ceiling, savouring the comfort of the mattress beneath her. Hogwarts was good for many things, education, food, possibly meeting men. However it was terrible for comfortable mattresses. Although Allegra had heard a rumour that the boys had it better, comfier beds and all that rubbish.
Finally, deciding it would be nice to pop to the shops and grab some sweets and a magazine to entertain her later whilst she waited for an hour for everyone else to get to school, she slid off the bed and grabbed a clean pair of jeans and her yellow smock top from the wardrobe.
Slipping her wedges on, she left her bedroom for the silence that was the main house. Being a weekday, her Dad was at work. He was some big shot in the publishing world, possibly the owner of several publications, both muggle and magical. But Allegra never remembered those sorts of details, so long as there was food on the table and gold in her personal account. Not that she was shallow. It was just that Allegra regarded certain material possessions as important, like food, and shoes. She hoped there was nothing wrong with being content with her situation in life. At least her father was mostly well off by his own actions. Not that her family didn't help. Unfortunately Charles Carahornne was the youngest of twelve children, and so didn't inherit as much as his other siblings. Only the house and a set amount of gold per year had been left to him.
When Allegra reached the ground floor she was almost knocked from her feet by a small child rushing at her from the sitting room. Allegra found herself gripping her niece Charlotte by the arms, trying to prevent her from falling over. The three year old giggled and lifted her arms to be picked up. Currently the little girl was going through a strange phase of not talking to people, it was safe to say that it was driving her mother up the wall.
Allegra picked her up and glanced over her head into the living room. There sat next to her mum was a very pregnant Maria. Allegra grinned at her sister before crossing the hall into the room and depositing the child onto the rug next to her twin brother.
"Hey Maria. You really do resemble a whale these days, Petra was not exaggerating when she told me."
"Thanks, I guess. It is a shame you're heading back to school today, I was just dropping the kids off for the next few weeks. I have to go into hospital."
"Why? What's wrong? Why isn't Thomas looking after them?"
"Whoa too many questions! Because they need somewhere to stay, because it's nearly my due date and because he has to work more than mum and dad."
Allegra nodded, not really understanding what she was agreeing with.
"Don't look so phased by it all. Your sister Edith is coming tonight to stay with her two anyway."
"I hope that when I have kids the whole family doesn't trek half way across the world to be there at 'the magical moment'"
"Germany isn't half way across the world. Why are you complaining anyway? In a few hours you'll be back at school and you won't have to worry about all the kids until I have baby Susannah."
"I'm loving how confident you are that it's a girl. Anyway I'm off to the shops, anyone want anything? Chocolate? Vodka?"
Maria looked as if she was contemplating sneaking a drink as Constance shook her head. Allegra took Maria's pause as a no and escaped out of the front door.
The sun was shining as she followed the well tread, but very short path from her house to the little post office stood at the edge of the village square. Across the square Allegra could see the local primary school. It appeared to be lunch time, judging from the children playing in the yard. Allegra could see her nephews playing in their little groups dotted around the playground.
She waved at the eldest, Jack, before ducking into the post office. Once inside she headed straight for the sweet stand, grabbed two bars of chocolate and crossed over to the magazines. She stood for about two minutes, debating between two magazines, before grabbing one and joining the small queue forming at the till.
"Hello Allegra, how's your Maria doing? Saw her dropping off the kids at school today."
"Fine, she's going into hospital today, something about being due."
"That's nice dear. Well I'll see you soon; have fun at that lovely school of yours."
Allegra nodded at the post mistress, before leaving slightly quicker than she had actually entered the shop. There was one thing about growing up in a tiny village, everyone knew the extremely boring details of each inhabitants lives. She had always thought there was nothing worse than being stuck in any of the shopkeepers company for longer than necessary, as they always asked the same repetitive questions.
Once she left the shop she turned off the road leading back to the house and followed a little path to the play park at the edge of the village. She reached the swings and plonked herself onto the seat. There was no point in returning home just yet. Her mother would be trying to compete with the little ones, whilst complaining to Maria about how she (Allegra) was yet to work out the benefits of rising with the sun.
Allegra swung lightly back and forth, keeping her feet on the ground. In a few hours she would have to set off for school and, despite the obvious benefit of seeing her friends, she would be stuck away from home for another year. At least it was her last year. Come September she'll be living the high life. Unfortunately she hadn't worked out what that high life will be. Seventeen and still without a life plan. Lily and Seraphina had lectured her about her inability to make decisions, reminding her that one day she wouldn't be able to depend on her parents for every choice in her life.
She realised the most she could hope for is that Remus proposes before she gets stuck without something to do.
The sun slipped behind some clouds, bringing Allegra out of her daydream. When she looked at her watch she saw that it was past two. She leaped up off the swings, grabbed her bag and ran back to the house.
When she let herself in the front door she was greeted with a disapproving glare from her mother and a chorus of hellos from the twins, who were now seated at the kitchen table drawing on a piece of blank parchment. Allegra grabbed a sandwich from the pile next to Charlotte and patted little Carolina on the head as she left the kitchen. She glanced back at her watch as she plonked herself in front of the fire, which thankfully was not lit. It was half two. Which meant she had three hours before she had to leave for school. There was only one choice for her. She set the alarm on the clock for five o'clock, lay down on the couch and closed her eyes.
She was in the middle of a graveyard, staring at what appeared to be a joint grave, judging by the two names. Suddenly her friends were all gathered around her, yet she couldn't talk to them. she looked down at her feet. There were four little babies sat on the floor. Then Lily opened her mouth, emitting a strange beeping sort of noise.
She woke with a start, staring at the clock, which now read five o'clock. She leaned over, slamming her hand down on the button and raising her arms in a stretch above her head. Yawning she stood up from the couch and looked in the mirror. She noted that her hair would benefit from a bobble, mascara could do with reapplication and she was pretty sure that she didn't draw the little red smiley face on her cheek. She rubbed it off, grimacing as her cheek became inflamed. With one last makeup check she ran upstairs to put her uniform on and grab her trunk. At the top stair she quickly remembered that it would be a good idea to send her owl back to school and find her cat Maxwell.
Finally, after shoving on her uniform and grabbing the little tabby from his hiding place behind the furnace, she gathered all her things and dumped them at the front door, just as her dad stepped in the door.
"Off are you? Be careful on the walk up. Theres been rumours in London that you know who has been lurking up near Hogwarts."
Allegra smiled at her father in a slightly off put way, before picking up the cat basket and the end of the trunk. Charles slid a shoulder bag over his daughters head and opened the door for her.
She stepped down, checking her pockets for her bus money, and set off down the road towards the bus stop.
Just as she reached the bench the bus came flying round the corner in a way that was possibly illegal. She climbed aboard, gaining evil glares from the driver as she dragged her trunk onto the bus. After throwing down the fare she shoved her trunk into the luggage compartment and grabbed the window seat at the front of the bus.
As the bus set off she stared at the village as it passed the window. She could accurately guess how long it would take to get to school from where they were, after all she had been riding on the same bus for many years, not just to school but to trips into Hogsmeade, or even to the town of Dumlairnoch, the nearest town to Kilrainey. The bus took a corner, bringing in to view the distant coast. From her position on the bus she could just see the shadow of Azkaban port. She knew that in ten minutes the bus would pass close to the little harbour, yet the muggles on board would see only a sign post claiming that there was a dangerous cliff just past the barrier.
It had been slightly scary growing up so close to the high security prison, with nothing to protect them from the chance that the dementors could get lost and appear in their village. The little cove closest to the harbour was nicknamed Misty cove, thanks to the permanent fog covering the settlement.
Thankfully the bus skirted the port without any bother from the creatures keeping watch over the prisoners. Allegra watched the mountains slip past as they headed back in land towards the town of Dumlairnoch. The town lay around half an hour away from the port, and the whole bus journey took around fifty minutes.
After passing more little villages, and watching as the passengers drifted on and off the bus, Allegra finally stood up as the bus pulled up outside the Dog and Goose pub in the outskirts of Dumlairnoch. She grabbed her trunk, thankfully lighter after her mother had charmed it, and stepped off the bus. She pulled the trunk off towards a small copse of trees just left of the row of shops.
She wandered down the little path through the woods, hoping that no one from the town, or even anyone untoward, followed her as she approached a locked gate. It was at this gate she stopped, checked around her, before walking straight through the gate. On the other side she set off down the lane, heading up into the village of Hogsmeade.
She passed the Hogs Head, skirting a group of gossiping witches as she followed the main road, turning onto the Hogwarts path as she reached the end of the high street.
This journey was the downside to living so close to school. She had only got the train once, when she had stayed in London with her Great Uncle Frank for her third year. Despite having to sit on a train for too long, it was preferable to the long bus journey and the mind numbing walk from the bus stop up to school.
By the time she reached the front doors the sun had set. It was about seven by the time she had dumped her trunk in the Gryffindor bedroom and brushed her hair into a neat ponytail. She walked the empty corridors back to the great hall, where the teachers were all gathered at the high table. She waved at her Aunt Minerva before selecting a seat in the middle of the Gryffindor table. On the other side of the hall, at the Ravenclaw table, sat another local student. The third year boy lived in Hogsmeade village, and seemed to shun the company of anyone who wasn't a Ravenclaw.
Allegra opened one of the magazines she had brought from her bag upstairs and flicked though it without really reading it. The clock seemed to be ticking at the slowest pace in the world. She was tempted to put her head down onto the table, thinking that she could grab a few minutes sleep. Luckily she was saved from an unfortunate mid snooze drool situation by the doors being flung open by the crowds of students flowing into the hall. They were chattering about their summer and the small bit of gossip that had arisen from the long train journey. A few second years waved to her as they took their seats nearer to the high table. Allegra raised herself slightly off her seat just as the large group of seventh year Gryffindors piled in through the doors.
"LILY!" Allegra jumped up from the seat and rushed forward, hugging her best friend as she reached the end of the Gryffindor table.
"Leggy! God I've missed you! I so wished you could have been on the train, it was well fun. Alice thought that Serahad nicked her hair brush and so they had this massive argument, which ended with James picking Alice up, whilst Sirius grabbed Sera and they both got locked in a spare compartment. Two hours later they emerged best of friends again and Angelica pronounced them the silliest pair she had ever met. Which of course set Sirius off."
Allegra smiled and laughed at the appropriate parts, before following Lily back to her seat.
Once she sat down she turned to her left, where the empty seat had been filled by a young man who was currently arguing with another boy about whether or not it was appropriate to post anti-Snivellus posters all over the corridors of the train.
"Honestly, do you really think it makes you look better than him by carrying on this childish campaign?"
"I am so sorry, Carahornne, but no one asked for the opinion of Snivellus' number one fan."
"Oh buzz off Black, I'm not the one who is trying to destroy someone's life just because they don't fit into their strict rules for popularity."
"No, you just think that bitching about other girls behind their backs will allow you to get way ahead of them in the future."
"Could you two stop it? Sirius, you are one of my best friends, but sometimes you can take it too far. Allegra, you would do well not to rise to Sirius' stupid taunts." Remus shook his head at the pair before turning his attention to McGonagall, who had just led the line of first years into the hall.
After a rather intense and boring sorting, from which Gryffindor gained ten students, one of whom looked like he'd rather go back to muggle school, Dumbledore stood and clapped his hands. At that the table filled with food and across the hall students began grabbing at the great piles of food.
Allegra raised her eyebrows at Lily and Seraphina as the four boys to the left of them began fighting over each other trying to reach different plates. Allegra grabbed a chicken leg, a small pile of vegetables and one little pork pie and began to eat at a reasonable rate. Lily giggled as James accidentally dropped a bowl of mashed potato over Peters head, who began to apologise to James for getting in his way.
Finally, after a course change and a great speech from Dumbledore regarding the forest and Quidditch tryouts, the students rose. Allegra slipped a hand through Remus' arm and followed the group of friends from the hall, up the marble staircase and into the common room, where the seventh years grabbed the best chairs in the room and settled down for a long chat and in Sirius' case, a short nap.