Chapter 2 : The Feast.

Lily put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Hannah looked truly terrified at the sight of the lengedary winged, skinless horses. She glanced away. I followed her look and saw the Four Inseperables coming our way. I silently begged to go away. We didn't need four – okay three, no, two – prats coming to boast.

'I'm sorry. I can't tell you why. I should've just pretended that nothing was there. I – they – during the summer – at my cousins…' Hannah was talking nonsense, so Lily took her in her arms, trying to confort her. Hannah's sobs gradually died away, and we got into the carriage. To my relief, the Inseperables went into the carriage behind us, probably encouraged by Lily's glares.

The Thestrals rode up to the castle silently. The moon was barely visible because of the clouds, though it wasn't raining.

'Doesn't it look just great ?' Anne said, nodding towards the castle. I smiled at her, realising she was trying to change the conversation a little.

'Yeah, it just as wonderful as in first year… Imagine, we've only got two years left…' I stated. It seemed Shona had also caught on.

'I think we should study less this year !' When we all looked at her funny, she added :

'What ? It's our before last year, next year we have exams… Personnaly I think we should challenge the Inseperables… Think of all the fun we could have !' I had to agree whole-heartedly to this. Why waste an exam-free year ?

The carriages slowly pulled in next to the Hogwart's Entrance. I gazed up at the huge door, wondering who on earth could have built it. We jumped down from their seats and stood, waiting for McGonagall to open the door. Or some one.

Finally, Professor Kettleburn turned up, pushing the doors with all his might. He beckoned to us and we followed him to the Great Hall. After several minutes, the tiny first years came, looking scared. I couldn't blame them. Sirius was pretending to kill James.

The sorting passed, uneventful. My sister unfortunatly went into Hufflepuff. The first years ALL looked like annoying little squirts, ready to make trouble. After ever single student was sitting at his or her house table, Dumbledore stood up.

'My friends, welcome ! Welcome back to those who have been here before. I know those are the ones who are most impatient for me to finish-'

'Too true,' muttered Sirius.

'-for reasons that will be obvious in a moment. I would first of all like you welcome our new teacher, Professor Beijum, who will be occupying the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

A polite round of applause was heard. Professor Beijum was short, so short it took me a while to realise he was standing up. He looked Asian, but still wore Europeen clothes. He sat back down again, and Dumbledore continued his speech.

'I must remind you again, that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden –' I could have sworn I saw McGonagall roll her eyes. '-as is Hogsmead to the younger students and those who have not aquiered permission.' He glanced towards Sirius, and I felt really sorry for him. Not that he didn't sneak out everytime anyway. 'Now for some news. This year, the school staff have decided to organise a Winter Ball, not unlike the Yule Ball for those who have heard of it. The heads of houses will choose two students from each House to organise it together. This will be a moment of peace between ennemies, love between friends and serenty between Houses.' He paused and decided to finish up. 'That will be all for now. Tuck in !' Mountains of food appeared on the table, to the amusement of the first years and relief to the others. James and Sirius immeadiatly started grabbing anything and everything, piling as much as possible onto their plates, then shoving into their mouths. Remus was watching them, disusted by his friends, putting down his fork of mashed potatoe.

'Honestly, doesn't Mrs Potter know how to cook ? Was there a famin in your house ? What ?' James shrugged.

'M Mum dothent cok like dish. Ith hokey bu' no' dish goo'.' James mangaged to say. Sirius nodded enthusiastically, not actually being able to open his mouth without food falling out of it. Remus glanced at me and rolled his eyes. I giggled at all of them. They were such dorks sometimes, but they could also be pretty sweet.

'Hey Jam- Prongsie !' I called across the table, his eyes practially popping out of their sockets when I called him that, ' When's Quidditch start again ?' James was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with me and a Chaser as well. He swollowed loudly and answered almost immeadiatly. If James liked anything as much as Lily, it was Quidditch.

'We need a new Seeker. I thought tryouts on Wednesday night, if everyone's free.'

'How on earth do you know that ?' I wondered, marvelled at the Captain – player information relay.

''Cause I'm the new captain, that's why. Didn't I say ?' James answered. I was surprised, but then again, James was the best player on the team. I could tell he had been dying for someone to ask him.

'Hey, well done ! Are you going to keep the same team as last year ?' I asked, suddenly worried.

'Don't worry. You could play for England !' Sirius stated, making my heart jump. Why were my cheeks so hot, so suddenly ? I managed to grin back at him, saying :

'Thanks.'

The desserts suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Everybody started helping themselves to large portions, when the caretaker Argus Filch hopped through the doors and tried to sprint up to the teachers table. He whispered something to Dumbledore, making obvious attemps to not let any students hear. These attemps were completely useless, as Dumbledore stood up and adressed the whole school :

'Mr Filch has just informed me that several creatures have just broken into the castle. As these creatures can harm you, we would ask the prefects to lead their Houses up to the common room. Please take the food you would like to your common rooms and expect to be able to attend classes normally tomorrow morning.'

He sat down and Lily and Remus sprang up, shouting to the first years. There was a river of Gryffindors, and I found myself caught up on it, a piece of spongecake in my hand. I looked around for Anne, Hannah and Shona, and saw them craming as much food onto their plates as possible. I shook my head at them and made my way back up to the Gryffindor common room. I went through the portrait-hole only to be pushed by Peter, who was not looking where he was going, but instead listening to Sirius and James.

'-could be a Chimera –' Sirius broke off abrubtly as he saw me listening. He flashed a grin at me and I crawled through the portrait hole.

I sat down on the sofa next to the fire before anyone else could and stared deep into the fire's flames. I wondered what my sister was doing now…

To my great astonishment, Sirius sat down on my left and James on my right. I stared at them suspiciously… It wasn't like them.

'What. Do. You. Want.' I asked louder than I had intended.

'Well –' Said Sirius.

'-We were just wondering-' completed James.

' – If you knew where Lily and Remus were.'

I groaned, spotting the perfected art of speaking together. Please don't ask me how they do it, but it's a) amazing b) annoying and c) very disturbing. I sighed and realised I hadn't seen any of my friends so far. This worried me slightly but I pushed it to the back of my head, wanting to enjoy a conversation with James and Sirius. I've said it before, they may be full of trouble and arrogence, but they really are good fun and good people. Deep down. When it comes to Severus Snape, very deep down …

'I might. I might know a bit more if you stopped talking to me like that…' I said with an air of menace.

'Ok we'll –'

'-Stop it.' I scoweled and waited for them to stop grinning stupidly. I mentally took back all I had said earlier.

'Ok, tell us what you know and we'll be good boys.' James smiled as serenly as he could.

'Ok. Good boys. I know nothing.' I smirked at their obvious dissapointement. To my relief they stayed there.

'So… Basically –'

'-Your friends have vanished-'

'-you aren't drunk-'

'-or sick-'

'-but you still don't care.' Finished James. I was starteled at his words then I realised that they were quite true. I didn't think anything could happen to them.

'They're probably just stuffing their faces with cake. Anyway, I want to see if I can have a sane conversation with you two.' The way I said it made it sound like a dare.

And to my surprise, we had a perfectly normal conversation for over an hour. We talked about the new teacher, the monster that was now loose in the castle, a bit about Quidditch untill Sirius moaned at us to shut up and finally Lily.

'Come on Nellie, tell me what's wrong. Why doesn't she like me ?' James ran a hand distractedly through his already very messy hair.

'Well I don't know.' I swollowed, feeling guilty. James did love Lily, you could tell it just by the way he said her name. Oh I wished Sirius, or any good-looking guy, felt that way about me…

'Yes you do. Please tell him,' Sirius pleaded, 'or else he'll never get over him and I'll be stuck with a love-struck, heart-broken, soppy Prongsie for the rest of my days.'

'I honestly don't know… But try being a bit more normal. And a bit less of a jerk. And –'

'Okay, okay, I get the idea.' James snapped, but smiled all the same. I got the feeling he had already asked Shona, Hannah and Anne this – and gotten exactly the same advice.

I badly stiffled a yawn. James's love would have to wait till tomorrow. I said good-night and went up the stairs to the girls dormitory three by three.

When I finally reached the sixth room dormitory, I pushed the door open and realised I hadn't given my friends a thought since James and Sirius had mentioned.

The dormitory was quiet. I stood there, thinking, and then in a panic I went around ripping the curtains of all the four-poster beds open.

They were sitting on Shona's bed in a circle, giggling about something. When they saw my frightened face, they all fell about laughing. I inquiered politly to what they were saying.

'Oh. Well, er…' Anne started, looking ashamed and a little apologetic.

'We were talking about –' attempted Hannah… I was wondering what the fuss was about.

'Sirius…' said Lily after a while, 'and … you.' I opened my mouth to say something quite rude, but most (un)fortunatly Anne cut across me.

'I didn't tell them, I swear ! But to tell the truth, it's a little obvious.' Everyone burst out laughing, including me, though I flet kind of embaressed. I didn't sit there drooling at him … Did I ?

I decided to drop it. Shaking my eyes and rolling my head – no sorry, shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I clambered into bed.

Love can do strange things to you, I thought before pulling the sheets over me.