Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, this also applies to every chapter posted on this story.
Author's Note (A/N): I first wrote this story in 2008. I planned to continue it with a sequel in 2009, but was derailed after the passing of my father. I recently reread the stories (after receiving an email about someone adding it to their favorites) and have decided to revisit this world. I have graduated college and am working in my field, and could currently use a bit of escapism. I don't know if this site is still active, but I hope that it is, and I hope that people are still interested in my voice. I still get reviews from this story and its sequel inboxed to me to this day, and hope to you all justice.
I sat uncomfortably in the compartment, half asleep due to our slumber party the night before. My friends and I had a habit of staying up all night the last night of summer, as one last big hurrah. This inevitably lasted in a first day of school made even more miserable due to the exhaustion of sleep deprivation.
I looked around the train compartment. Gwyneth Garrett, one of my best friends and the inventor of the all-night-slumber-party was now sound asleep. Katherine Kirkwood, possibly my closest friend, sat across the compartment from me, her nose buried in a worn and torn Muggle book. She was wide-eyed and bushy tailed, seeing as how she didn't think of herself as subject to the all-nighter rules.
"Katherine," I whispered. "I don't feel well."
"Me neither, Liz," whispered back Demetria Didd, my third and last best friend.
"It's that Potter boy,' Kate said as she looked up from her book and glared out of the compartment door where Potter was attempting to seem nonchalant, as if he weren't constantly and consistently up to no good. If I knew Potter (which I like to think I did), he was probably trying to set the train on fire.
"No, not that-I think I'm going to throw up," I said. "The motion sickness is finally getting to me."
"Oh." With that, both Kate and Demetria lost all interest.
"I'm going to get something to settle my stomach," I said, more to the compartment than my friends. "Oh and to change into robes. We're almost at Hogwarts. Look alive, ladies."
As soon as my foot hit the ground of the hallway, I was greeted with an all too familiar voice.
"Going somewhere, Eden?"
"Blergh," I sighed internally, reprimanding myself for not waiting a minute or two to give Potter's minions a chance to follow him to whatever hole he had climbed out of. "Yes, not that it's any business of yours." I turned around to face him, the infamous Sirius Black.
He was leaning against the train wall, his arms crossed. I noticed that his jet black hair was longer than last year, now grazing the top most part of his shoulders. His stormy eyes bore into mine with a hint of amusement. His mere presence annoyed and intimidated me. He never spoke to me but to bother me, never looked at me but to laugh and yet I thought of him as the embodiment of perfection in the male specimen, if one ignored the requirement for brains (which let's be honest-many often did).
"Oh come, come, Eleanor," he said with a heavy sigh. "There is no need to be so hostile."
"I'm not being hostile, I just have no time for the likes of you," I said, completely ignoring that he had just called me by the wrong name. He had known me since first year. If he couldn't get it right in the six years since then, it was beyond me to try to correct him. I started walking away from him, vomit threatening to spew out of me at any second.
"On the contrary," I could hear the stupid smile in his voice. "you'll have loads of time to dawdle now that Diggory's finally dumped you."
I turned around, wand drawn and ready but it was too late. The beast had returned to its lair for now. Leave it to Sirius Black to not remember a girl's name, but know her up to the minute relationship status. It's a wonder how fast gossip gets around when all means of communication are magical. I wondered if anyone had bothered mentioning that Diggory, the golden boy, had dumped me because I wouldn't "advance our relationship further... you know, physically." Hmm, probably not-Diggory was the school's Quidditch star and I was just a bookish type.
After getting a chocolate from from the food trolley, I changed into my robes and returned back to the compartment just as the trained pulled to a stop. Before I knew it, we were in the Great Hall, listening to Dumbledore talk about something or other of no importance but to Filch, the school caretaker.
"What do you suppose Dumbledore is blabbing on about?" asked Gwyneth Garrett, the previously sleeping best friend. Gwyn, Demi, Kate and I made up the only four Ravenclaw girls in our year, and were forced into a friendship of sorts through our six years together.
"I don't know," Demi yawned.
"He said something about keeping out of the forest," Kate said, looking up from her book. She was ironically the most well-informed of the four of us. "He's telling us about some of Filch's newest set of rules." See? I told you-Filch is crazy.
"This is true," Gwyn laughed. "Why should we bore ourselves with the headmaster when we know the routine?" Her speech caused a first year to look up at her with huge watery eyes and an open mouth. By the expression he gave her, you would think she had killed his puppy. She sighed in frustration, "were we that annoying as first years?"
"I hope not," I laughed.
"Anyway, girls," Gwyn continued. "Any new goals for the upcoming year?"
"Outstanding's in all my classes," Kate said.
"It shouldn't be too hard," Demi snorted. "We are Ravenclaws."
"Bravery and drive are fine," I said, looking to the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables in turn, "and whatever it is that Hufflepuffs have to offer, but wit is the only thing of lasting value."
"To Ravenclaw," Demi toasted.
"To Ravenclaw," we all echoed, clinging our goblets of pumpkin juice together.
Half an hour later, after all were fed and fat, Kate and I led the Ravenclaw table to the commons, telling them the newest password.
"Cave Inimicum," they all echoced after us, tattooing the year's first password into their brains. Kate and I were to patrol the halls later on in the night for one hour directly after curfew. Nights like this, I regretted being a Prefect. I was exhausted.
"Kate, you can't make me go," I whined sometime later, sitting in my favorite chair by the fireplace. "I am thoroughly, utterly and completely exhausted."
"You can stay if you would like," she shrugged. "I can tell anyone that cares that you're not feeling well."
"No, my dear Katherine. I shan't miss my chance of patrolling these halls and keeping them out of the grasps of evil for another night," I said, getting up with a hefty sigh. Okay, so maybe I can be a little over-dramatic sometimes.
We pushed out of the portrait hole and each walked to our separate hallways. Patrolling was almost an involuntary reaction this year. Repeating the action nightly last year had taught me to walk up and down the halls either completely lost in thought or free of any. I had gotten so used to it that it took no real brain function, causing me to become completely lost in the physical aspect of the all too familiar pattern.
"Ah!" I screeched as I rounded a corner and ran into someone. "Ten points from Gryffindor," I yelped after recognizing the offender to be Peter Pettigrew, another of Potter's henchmen. I had deducted points more because he had caused me panic with his rat-like features than because I truly cared that he was out of bed after hours.
The rest of the night, however, went smoothly and before I knew it, Kate and I were back in our dormitory along wit Gwyn and Demi. It felt nice to be home again. Actually, Hogwarts had felt more like home ever since my first year there. My mother had died when I was young, causing my father to enroll me in Salem's Summer Institute for Young Witches and Wizards. It was the best he could do as he was usually on business trips for the Ministry of Magic for days on end, what with you-know-who's rise to power.
I fell asleep rather comfortably that night, completely unaware of the horrible events that were to take place the following day.
A/N: Thank you for reading if you have made it this far. If you're interested int he story, pelase go ahead and review so I know you're here. Seeing as how this story is a revamp, I expect new chapters to be rolled out rather quickly.
