Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter or the Characters yada yada... Except for Casey and Emma.

Chapter One: Train Rides and Strippers

Casey Oakland brushed her long brown hair over her shoulder and followed Emma up the steps onto the Hogwarts Express, trunks in tow. They had been best friends ever since they could remember. Emma's mom knew Casey's mom from childhood, and was the only one who knew that the Oakland's were wizards. When Emma and her older brother started to show signs of magical talent, both the Oakland and the Wright families were ecstatic.

"Emma, you are walking too slowly!" Casey exclaimed.

"Sorry," Emma stifled a yawn. "I'm just so t-tired…"

"You had a whole summer to sleep late! Get a move on!"

"Well, I'm not used to waking up yet."

Casey rolled her eyes. "Get used to it, or you'll fail the term!"

"Yeah, yeah." Emma dismissed.

The girls made their way to an empty compartment, throwing their trunks on the luggage rack above the velvet benches.

"Casey?" A high voice asked, before re-opening the sliding compartment door to reveal a head of auburn hair.

"Lily!" Casey exclaimed, pulling the girl into a hug. Emma turned pointedly away from the girls and sat down in a rush.

"What's your problem, Wright?" Lily questioned Emma.

"Well, I was having a lovely day until you walked through that blasted door, Evans." Emma snapped.

"Em," Casey began.

"Oh, get over yourself!" Lily said with contempt before returning back to Casey. "We have prefect duties, so you can quit babysitting your little viper."

"That viper happens to be my best friend, Lily. Please don't talk about her like that." Casey defended Emma calmly. Lily turned to leave after giving Casey a halfhearted shrug. "She's right, you know. You should at least try to be a little more civil, Em."

"I will if she does."

Casey rolled her eyes. "You're being immature. Anyway, I really have to go. I can't believe I forgot!"

Emma laughed. "Aren't I normally the forgetful one?"

"Well, regrettably you've rubbed off on me. Man, I can't believe I'm friends with such a loser." Casey joked. "See you later. I'll stop by the compartment later on if I can."

"Okay, love you." Emma replied after handing Casey her trunks just in case she wasn't able to come back to the compartment before they left. "I wish we could just apparate to Hogwarts. I hate the train…" Emma remarked randomly.

"Love you too, and deal." Casey replied before sliding the compartment door shut behind her.

Emma sat back on the compartment's velvety seat and sighed. It was a long way to Hogwarts, and they hadn't even left the station left. This sucks. Emma thought to herself.

She pulled out a few well-worn books, among which was a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. The book fascinated Emma, but Casey always hated it. While Emma couldn't get enough of Holden Caulfield's messed-up perspective of life, Casey found him to be obnoxious, and found the book to be a complete utter waste of time.

Emma barely had enough time to finish the third sentence of the fifth chapter before three vexatious boys poured into the compartment.

"Oi, Wright, is it?" Potter asked arrogantly. "Mind you if we share this compartment?"

Before Emma could even open her mouth to protest, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew tossed their trunks onto the rack above the seats.

"Idiots," Emma muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Sirius asked, turning towards her.

Emma gulped. As fearless as she was, the boys intimidated "Nothing, Black." She rolled her eyes before returning to her novel.

James, Sirius, and Peter crowded together on the bench across from her, and she swung her legs up to rest across the bench seat.

"You know," Sirius began, glancing at Emma, "You're quite hostile, for a Ravenclaw."

Emma ignored him, trying to focus on Holden's problems rather than the three pains in her neck (well, largely only one at the moment) across the compartment from her.

Sirius snatched the book out of her hands. "Give me tha-"

"I've never seen this book before!" Sirius exclaimed. "What's it about?"

"A naïve boy, who quits boarding school, hires a prostitute just to 'talk,' goes to random bars to get drunk, runs away from a previous school teacher who tries to 'molest' him, becomes ill and ends up in a mental institution, all the while claiming it is his goal in life to keep children from losing their innocence." Emma breathed out.

Sirius gave her a quizzical look before opening up the book himself. He instantly started to laugh out loud. "James, look! He calls his brother a prostitute!" Sirius turned back to Emma. "Can I borrow this?"

"No you'll hate it. It will remind you too much of yourself. Give it back!"

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Once gathered in the prefect hall, a huge portion of the train devoted to prefect meetings, the Head Boy and Head Girl hushed the crowd of hormonal teenagers down to give them their instructions.

"As per usual," the Head Girl (a seventh-year Ravenclaw) began, "It is your job to monitor the other students and to keep them out of trouble."

"As there are no teachers or other adult supervisors," the Head Boy (also a seventh-year, but from Gryffindor) said, "You have full authority to give them detentions, take away house points, etc. A privilege that will be extended throughout the year, as long as you don't abuse it. There will be a schedule made for when you are to make rounds in the castle and with whom you will partner each time. Remember you must uphold the qualities that we value and be a role model for younger students."

"As a previous American muggle President said, 'with great power, comes great responsibility.'"

"Good luck and stay responsible! Pick a partner today and make your rounds." The Head Boy dismissed the prefects.

In the scramble to be paired with friends, a mean looking Slytherin and a shy looking Gryffindor were left without a partner. The Slytherin looked at the Gryffindor with contempt and joined a pair of Slytherins rather than be forced to walk around with a Gryffindor.

Lily called to the tall boy whom she knew to be her male counterpart of her year. "Remus, come here and do rounds with me and Casey."

Remus happily obliged. He was rather fond of Lily since she was a bookworm just like himself and they had had several study sessions together when Remus couldn't stand to be around the shenanigans in which his best friends were always partaking. He held his hand out to Casey, having never officially met her, "I'm Remus Lupin."

"Casey Oakland."

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"Wright, this book is going nowhere! Where are all the fight scenes? And there isn't even magic?! What kind of book is this?!" Sirius exclaimed after actually reading the first few chapters of Emma's book. "When does the prostitute come in? I want to just skip to that chapter!"

Emma rolled her eyes at him as the compartment door slid open to reveal a very tired looking Casey followed by Lily and Remus.

James Potter immediately stiffened as the redhead came into view. It was common knowledge that he was infatuated with her and would stop at nothing to make her his girlfriend. Lily on the other hand preferred to ignore his antics.

"Moony, have you been walking around with these two beautiful women all this time, and didn't even think to invite us?!" Sirius feigned hurt. "We've been putting up with self pretentious Wright over here who thinks her books aren't good enough for the rest of us."

"It's not my fault you didn't even like the Muggle classic," Emma said calmly from her seat.

"So that's why there's no magic!"

"Merlin, you're stupid, Black."

"Oh the pain! I can't take it! Everywhere I turn I'm being stabbed by people I thought were friends." Sirius cried out in the horror of the situation.

"Black, we aren't friends. I don't recall inviting you in here." Emma said bluntly.

"Anyways," Casey said as she moved Emma's legs to sit, "We had to deal with an entire car being destroyed by fourth years. So you didn't miss anything worth attending, Black."

"I know we also participate in the whole Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry, but destroying an entire car in battle is just completely outrageous!" Remus sighed as he slumped onto the seat to the right of Emma.

"Oh yes because the 'jokes' you Marauders play on them are so harmless," Lily snapped as she moved to take the seat next to Casey. Miraculously the four of them all fit, while the three boys across from them seemed a bit squished.

"Merlin, how are we all fitting?!" Emma said as she looked at her bench mates. "Lupin, you're SO thin! You really ought to eat more!"

"He eats non-stop!" James practically shouted.

"I just run a lot," Remus said looking Emma in the eye.

"Are you sure that's it? You seem to be sick a lot. Besides, running wouldn't keep anyone that skinny." Emma accused.

Remus laughed. "I suppose that's true, too."

Emma turned away from Remus and brushed her short blonde hair back and picked up the other book she happened to bring, Brave New World. It was difficult to concentrate, and she swore she saw Sirius shoot Casey glances with longing in his eyes. After a few minutes, Sirius caught Emma catching him staring at Casey. Emma raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well, what's THAT book about?" He asked hurriedly, trying to distract both himself and Emma.

"Oh you'll like this one." Emma replied. Casey and Lily laughed, being the only ones who got Emma's joke.

"Good one, Wright." Lily laughed. Emma smiled at her for the first time in a long time.

"Oh that's not fair!" Sirius complained. "Now I'll have to read it just to understand what you're all laughing at!"

"Be my guest." Emma practically threw the book at him.

"You aren't very ladylike." Sirius whimpered.

"Well you're no gentleman." Casey stated. "Emma is who she is. Deal with it."

"I'm trying." Sirius said. "She's just so difficult!"

"We all are from time to time." Lily said dryly. "Especially Emma."

"You four should change into our robes; I can see Hogwarts from here." Remus stated from his window seat, addressing his friends and Emma.

The four of them grabbed their robes from their trunks to change. While Emma, James, and Peter left the compartment to find a bathroom stall, Sirius decided to just change in the compartment, much to Lily and Casey's abhorrence.

"Black! Put your shirt back on and find somewhere else to change!" Casey shouted.

"You know you want to watch me." He whispered into her ear suggestively.

Casey pushed him away. "Git."

After putting up a large fuss, Sirius finally left the compartment to change.

A/N: Well that was fun. Can't wait to hear what you think. -M

And that's how you open a story, boys and girls. More awesomeness to come! -K