"Remember to use the lavender potion if you have any more headaches, sweetheart." Narcissa Malfoy smoothed down Carina's blonde hair in what Carina knew to be a loving gesture, though to an outsider the movement may have looked rather detached. "And keep close to the Rosiers. I heard their son is interested in you and they're an important family to connect with."
Carina resisted letting out an undignified snort. "Adam Rosier can barely spell his own name, Mother. I should hope any romantic prospects I have are of higher intelligence."
Narcissa nodded her assent, a smile tugging at her typically severe lips as she surveyed her eldest child. "Yes, as a prefect this year you can most certainly be more picky. Any of the boys in your year should be lucky to have you."
Draco rolled his eyes from behind their mother's back and in turn Carina narrowed hers in warning.
"Whatever, as long as you keep me out of detention now that you're a prefect, that's all that matters," he said, looking gleeful at what Carina was sure he thought was the prospect of harassing Harry Potter and his friends with no repercussions. Personally, Carina didn't particularly care one way or the other about Potter while believing Draco was a bit obsessed. She wasn't about to say anything of the sort in front of her family however.
"Carina will surely succeed in her prefect duties just as you, Draco, will succeed in quidditch, I'm sure," Lucius Malfoy spoke up. "Both of you will uphold the Malfoy name as always."
"Potter and the Gryffindors don't stand a chance this year in quidditch," Draco said, looking smug.
"Yes, well the train is about to leave so we should probably board now," Carina said impatiently. She could see her friends assembling in a compartment through the window and was eager to join them.
After a kiss on the cheek to her mother and a nod to her father, Carina dragged her much too heavy trunk up the steps and into the compartment her friends were in.
"Carie!" Sadie Warrington, Carina's best friend, greeted her cheerfully. "How was your summer?"
"We were wondering if you were going to miss the train with how late it was getting," Talia said cheekily, rising to help Carina with her trunk. "Thought that Draco would want to outdo Harry Potter's entrance from last year."
Carina rolled her eyes but laughed. "That certainly does sounds like something Draco would do, but rest assured I would never be dragged into his stupid plotting."
"Oh, you made prefect," Lyric, their fourth roommate, noted after spotting the badge pinned on the front of Carina's robes. "Congratulations! Though we always knew it would be you, of course."
"Thanks!" Carina smiled warmly at her friends. Though they had all spent a week at Talia's house back in June, it had been a while since she'd seen them. "Speaking of prefect duties though, I'm supposed to go to a prefect meeting now. Hopefully it doesn't last too long."
She stepped out of the compartment with a frown, not quite sure which way the prefect's compartment was. Hearing boisterous yells a few doors down, she decided to go and ask if anyone there knew where she could go.
"Fred, George, I demand that you treat me with the respect I deserve now that I'm Head Boy!"
Peering into the compartment, she saw Percy Weasley yelling at his younger brothers who sat with identical expressions of mock seriousness and their friend Lee Jordan who appeared to be having a difficult time holding back his laughter.
"I really don't understand the fuss, Perce," one twin (Fred, perhaps? Carina thought) said innocently.
"Yeah, we just thought you might want to liven up the presentation," the other said.
"Sneaking fireworks into my bag to go off in the prefect meeting is NOT how to 'liven up the presentation,'" he said furiously, seemingly about to launch into another lecture.
"We're sorry, Percy. Truly." Fred got up and gave his elder brother a large hug. Carina doubted his sincerity though when she saw him wink at George behind Percy's back and the other twin placed several dungbombs into Percy's bag.
Carina couldn't help but let out a laugh. Immediately everyone turned to look at her in varying degrees of surprise and distrust.
"Is there a problem, Malfoy?" Percy Weasley turned around so Carina could finally see the Head Boy badge pinned on his robes. Except instead of 'Head Boy' it read 'Humongous Bighead.' Carina choked on a laugh, quickly turned it into a cough.
"I was just, ah, wondering where the prefect meeting is," she said, unable to prevent a giggle from escaping as she caught the mischievous eye of George Weasley who looked both surprised and delighted at her reaction to his brother's badge. His twin was similarly not expecting her laughter but remained suspicious, eyeing her with skepticism.
"Ah yes, I was just headed there myself so you may follow me. I am the Head Boy, this year, obviously," he said pompously. "You and your brother would do well to remember to respect the badge."
"Oh, of course." Carina couldn't help the sarcasm that bled through her tone but Percy didn't seem to notice as he packed up his things and headed towards the prefect meeting location.
Once at the meeting, Carina was rather dismayed to see her Slytherin counterpart was Rowan Montague. Really, she thought disgruntled, were there no other options among the Slytherin fifth years? From what she knew of Montague, he seemed to communicate exclusively in grunts. She was sure to be doing the heavy lifting of their duties.
The actual meeting itself ended rather abruptly with the explosion of the dungbombs from Percy's bag. Though he and the Head Girl cleared away the smell after the first one, several more followed, suspiciously corresponding with Percy's use of the words 'honor', 'duty', 'respect', and 'Head Boy'. The room was quickly evacuated with the official meeting rescheduled for later.
Carina left the room coughing but with a large grin. Though the antics of the Weasley twins were often inane and childish, they were at least a welcome distraction from the monotony of classes and Percy Weasley's droning speeches. She suspected if they put half as much effort into their schoolwork as they did into their pranks, they would pass their OWLs with flying colors. The chances of that happening were practically zero though. Their lack of academic focus was just one of the reasons they were never going to reach the caliber of the Malfoys.
As she made her way back to her friends, a sudden chill seemed to sweep through the hallways of the train. Frost creeped up on the windows and Carina realized the sense of dread she felt in the pit of her stomach was building. She opened the door to the first compartment she saw and locked it behind her, hoping to escape whatever was causing her anxiety to rocket.
"What are you doing here again, Malfoy?"
She turned around to see Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins regarding her with the same wariness as before. Though their wands weren't actually drawn and pointed at her, she could see Fred Weasley's grip on his wand tighten from where he held it at his side.
"I was coming back from the prefect meeting and there was this…" she shrugged helplessly, unable to find the right words to describe what had occured in the hallway. "You didn't feel it?"
"Feel what?" Lee asked just as the train came to a shuddering halt and the lights went out. The trio exchanged looks with each other.
"Outside," George said in an uncharacteristically somber tone. "Something flew past the window."
The four of them peered outside to see large hooded figures swooping around the gray sky. The door to their compartment slammed open. One of the dark figures filled the doorway and Carina felt as though she couldn't breathe. A gasp came from her right but she couldn't turn her head to see who it was.
The laughter she had shared earlier with her friends and coming out of the prefect's meeting was sucked out of her as she began to recall her Aunt Bellatrix coming over to Malfoy Manor when she was a child and practicing the worst spells with her, her grandfather's punishments inflicted on herself and Draco when they would disobey…
With what felt like an enormous effort, Carina lifted her wand. "Pro-Protego!" she managed to get out. Her Shield Charm barely solidified and seemed to have no impact whatsoever on the figure.
The creature lingered for a few excruciatingly long minutes before leaving and the four students remained silent for several more. Carina's knees felt weak and if it weren't for George Weasley's grip on her arm, she knew she would have sunk to the floor.
"Cara!" Her brother burst into the compartment with his usual sidekicks, Crabbe and Goyle, all of them looking pale and terrified.
"It's ok, Draco," she said weakly. "It's moved on now. Are you ok?"
"I suppose…" Draco shuddered.
"Blimey," breathed out Fred Weasley. "What the bloody hell was that thing?"
"Dementors," Carina said in a shaky voice that she didn't recognize as her own. The others all looked just as shaken up as she felt, which made her feel marginally better.
"Well done, Ms. Malfoy. A shame we aren't at the castle yet or I would have awarded you points for the correct answer." A new person came into their compartment, making the small space even more cramped. Though surrounded by an air of great exhaustion, the older man nevertheless smiled kindly at them. From the pockets of his shabby robes, he withdrew a bar of chocolate. "Sit down and eat this. It'll help."
"Who are you?" Draco eyed the man with a sense of disdain.
"I'm not about to take anything from a stranger," Carina agreed, sharing a look with Draco that spoke of mutual distrust of the stranger.
"You must be the new Defense teacher, right?" George spoke up, his grip on her arm still unrelenting.
"Correct, Mr. Weasley. Remus Lupin, at your service. Though you'll be calling me Professor Lupin soon enough." The man smiled and handed George the chocolate. "Split it amongst yourselves. Trust me. Now if everyone here is alright, I'll be on my way to check on the other students. I look forward to seeing you all in class."
"He doesn't look as though he'll be able to defend us from a house elf much less from whatever that was," Draco scoffed, though still looking rather pale.
"Dementor," Carina reminded him with a shudder. "They guard Azkaban."
"What, like you could defend us?" Fred snorted at Draco before adopting a sickly sweet tone. "I'm sure that's why you came running for your sister, to defend her. Surely it wasn't to hide behind her, right little Draco?"
Draco scowled at Fred but didn't respond as George broke the chocolate bar into pieces with a large snap and passed them out.
"Can't hurt to try it," he said to Carina's look of skepticism. After a brief hesitation, she nodded to Draco and everyone bit into their pieces. Immediately as she tasted the sweetness, warmth filled her again and as she looked around, she could see everyone's shoulders release tension and the color coming back into their faces. Of course, the tranquil scene was only momentary before it was broken by a rather disgusting noise.
"For Merlin's sake, could you chew any louder?" Lee Jordan asked with a disgusted look at Crabbe.
"You eat like a starving coyote," George agreed.
Seeing the younger boys about to argue back, Carina quickly intervened, sending them back to get ready since they were nearing the castle.
"Hey, Malfoy," George called out as they were leaving. "Uh, just Carina," he amended once Draco and Carina both turned around.
"Go ahead," Carina told Draco before raising a questioning eyebrow at George. "Yes?"
He gave a sudden grin. "How did the prefect's meeting end up going?"
Carina's lips twitched as she remembered the dungbombs. "Postponed until a later date," she responded dryly. "Though I'm sure you couldn't guess the reason why."
"Shame," George said looking unrepentant as his twin and Lee exchanged excited looks at their prank working. "Though next time it would be nice to see Percy's face when it happens."
Carina paused as she stepped through the doorway. She wasn't going to consider helping a Weasley, was she? Though it would be against another Weasley… and she'd be helping herself of course by making the dull prefect meetings much more exciting and hopefully cut short.
"Tonight after dinner in the Great Hall," she called back to them. Fred straightened up, Lee looked concerned, and George just raised an eyebrow. "That's when the next prefect meeting is. In case you wanted to… welcome your brother to his new position."
"You seem strangely excited for your prefect meeting tonight," Lyric observed after the Sorting was done for that year. Her bright green eyes inquisitively looked over Carina, though not with any suspicion.
"Hmmm? Oh I suppose I just want to know what the job actually entails. It's not like we heard anything before Weasley was interrupted," Carina said airily, piling her plate with mashed potatoes. She paused and looked at where Draco and his friends were sitting farther down the Slytherin table. Crabbe really did have awful eating habits, she thought. With a wrinkle of her nose, she pushed her full plate away having lost her appetite.
Her eyes wandered over to the Gryffindor table where Fred was gesturing wildly to his surrounding friends, no doubt regaling them with some tall tale, while George was staring right at her, laughing openly at her disgust with Crabbe's ravenous eating. Carina flushed once she realized he was looking back at her and immediately narrowed her eyes at him. He didn't seem particularly frightened of her, though she noted with some satisfaction that he looked away and rejoined his friends' conversation.
"Well I know that the Weasley twins can't be why you're suddenly happy about your prefect meeting." Talia's sly voice broke through Carina's thoughts. "Since there's no way either one of them is a prefect. Unless you're enjoying the idea of giving them detentions for the rest of the year?"
"Not what I was thinking of, though the idea is certainly tempting," Carina grinned back, a bit embarrassed she'd been caught looking at the Gryffindors. "I'm fairly sure they're planning on sabotaging this meeting like they did on the train and it's always a laugh to see Percy Weasley flustered."
"Oh yeah, he probably can't handle not 'having his badge respected', especially by his own family." Talia imitated the Head Boy with startling accuracy, causing the four girls to fall into laughter. "Dumb as they are, those are always entertaining to have in class. As long as they focus their pranks on the teachers and not us." She gave a sudden scowl, her dark eyes flashing.
"Still not over the whole cauldron exploding thing of second year?" Lyric suggested.
"I'll never be over the cauldron exploding thing. I got two weeks of detention for it! Though I might forgive them if they focus their attentions on Binns this year."
"I'm almost hoping I fail my History of Magic OWL this year just so my parents don't make me continue taking it," Sadie said with a huff of frustration. "It's just so bloody boring!"
"It's no worse than Divination," Carina pointed out. "At least you can tune out Binns and he won't care. Trelawney expects us to actively participate."
At long last, dinner was over and the students slowly trickled out of the Great Hall back to their respective dormitories. Carina's friends left her with Sadie telling her with a giggle to recount the Weasley pranks at the prefect meeting in great detail when she returned.
The night didn't disappoint. Every other word the Head Boy tried to say came out as a chicken squawk. When Penelope Clearwater tried to fix it, Percy just grew large feathers while Penelope's wand turned into rubber.
"I suppose we'll have to reschedule this one as well," Penelope said loudly over the excited chatters of the prefects. "Everyone back to your rooms for tonight while I get Percy to the hospital wing."
As she rose from her seat, Carina saw two redheads out of the corner of her eye across the hall snickering to themselves. The two soon caught her eye, with Fred giving her a nod and George treating her to a jovial smile as they slipped out unseen. Carina returned to her dorm with a large grin as she thought of Percy Weasley as a giant chicken.