Notes at the end.

Chapter Two: Aboard the Hogwarts Express

"What about this one?"

"I'm not sitting with a bunch of first years, Jane."

"Fine. Look there's only a couple people –"

"That's Billy Collins! Move away from the window before he sees us! Go, go! This one's empty, quick!"

I shoved Jane into the second to last compartment on the train and closed the door quietly. Anxiously pressing my face against the window, I scanned the corridor.

"I don't think we were followed…"

"Lizzy, you're being a tad over-dramatic."

"I'm telling you, he can sense when we're near."

"Well, since we weren't followed, clearly you're wrong."

"Because I had us run before his senses could activate."

Jane deigned no reply, just continued shoving our trunks into the overhead compartments.

Once we were settled in and our trunks were stored, Thelia finally stopped squawking and went to sleep. I knew this period of peace was going to be short-lived. Mary had gone to the Prefects compartment as soon as the platform was out of sight, and Kitty and Lydia were off like a shot to find the compartment with the cutest boys in it. So Jane and I went off to find an empty one for ourselves, and it was quiet now, but the little menaces would be back soon enough.

I considered using this brief period of calm to get some reading done, since I was in the middle of a really suspenseful chapter (the heroine had just discovered the charm that would open the secret room), but Jane struck up a conversation about our new classes.

Talking to my sister was better than reading... even though I really wanted to know what's in that room.

"You're taking Transfiguration, right Lizzy?"

"Of course." I'm pretty sure it's gonna be plans for her murder.

"I think you have that with the Slytherins this year. But we'll have Charms together!"

"I think so too." Because I do not trust the dude who owns that mansion. He's up to something.

"I know you don't like Divination, but I wish you had taken the class this year, I'd feel much more confident if you were there with me."

"Robinson is such a phony, I don't know why you're so afraid of him, Jane." It's not like people have secret rooms for good reasons.

"He's so severe, I don't work well under pressure."

"You'll get an O just like you always do; don't worry Miss ten O.W.L.S." And all that talk of young women disappearing around the country, it has to be murder.

"But we're in N.E.W.T classes now! They're going to be much more difficult."

"I told you to take fewer classes." Unless that's too obvious? Maybe it's being purposely misleading.

"Maybe I should start studying now…"

"No, you – yes, that's a good idea! I'll read while you study!"

Turns out they were plans for murder, just not the heroine's. The dude who owns the mansion was under cover for the Auror division, and the secret room was full of tactical papers and plans for how to capture the Dark Wizard who had been using the Imperious Curse to lure women into elaborate deaths and the hero had just set off after a lead when the heroine discovered that it was a trap and now she's running after him and –

"Give it back!"

"No! Run, Kitty!"

"You little brats! Give it back!"

"Ugh!" I slammed my book shut and smacked my head with it. I could hear the voices of my sisters in the corridor, and I knew them too well to doubt that they'd be ruining our peace.

"Lizzy, don't hit yourself," Jane gently pried the book away from my hands before I could slam my head down on it again. Then the door to our compartment slid open so violently I'm surprised it didn't shatter, and the rest of the Bennet sisters came charging in.

"Jane! Lizzy! Mary is trying to murder us!" Lydia giggled as she and Kitty jumped up on the seats, practically falling on top of Jane. Mary jumped up after them, and Lydia held her fist up over her head.

"These two immature children stole my Prefect badge!" Mary's voice was approaching an extremely annoying whine, as she grabbed for the badge in vain.

Lydia had grown up fast, in looks and height, though not maturity. She was almost the tallest of all of us; only Jane was taller. Not that it's much of a feat, since we're rather short as a group, but her comparative height did come in handy in situations like this, and in her frequent attempts to look older than she was.

"I have no idea what she's talking about!" Lydia could barely get the words out, she was laughing so hard, and I drew my wand out of my pocket, half intending to curse her mouth shut, when Jane saw me and gave me that disapproving look.

I sighed loudly.

"Accio badge!"

The badge went flying out of Lydia's hand and into mine. I smiled triumphantly, thankful that Kitty and Lydia hadn't learned the summoning charm yet.

"No fair, Lizzy!" Lydia stomped her foot and hopped off the seat.

I gave Mary her badge back, and she took it haughtily.

"You aren't supposed to use magic outside Hogwarts, Lizzy."

"You're welcome, Mary!" I shouted, as she legitimately strutted out of the compartment with her nose in the air. Everybody knows that they don't enforce that stupid rule anymore.

Lydia and Kitty stayed a little longer, talking only to each other, but loudly enough to keep me from concentrating on anything else. Thankfully they left soon, once Kitty brought up that they hadn't seen some guy named Denny yet today, and they ran off to find him.

"Thank Merlin," I slumped back in my seat.

I did welcome their interruption for one reason, though; Mary's presence meant that the Prefect meeting had let out, which meant –

The compartment door slid open once more, but this time the person behind it was much more welcome.

"Charlotte!"

"Lizzy!"

"Hey, Charlotte!"

"Hi, Jane!"

"Jane!"

"Lizzy!" Jane laughed as I let go of Charlotte and went to hug her instead.

"You're not cute, Lizzy," Charlotte rolled her eyes playfully as she sat down.

She was already in her robes, her Prefect badge just as shiny as Mary's, but less new, and with a silver snake emblazoned on it instead of an eagle.

Charlotte Lucas, Keeper on the Slytherin Quidditch team and Prefect Extraordinaire, was my best friend besides Jane. Her short brown hair was magically dyed purple at the ends and pulled up into a ponytail. I called her a hipster when I wanted to get on her nerves, which was often. She wore thick-framed glasses and spiky earrings, and she said this wasn't enough reason for me to call her a hipster, and that I clearly did not understand what the term meant.

But if she doesn't want me to call her that, she shouldn't look so funny when she gets riled up.

"How was the Prefect meeting?" I asked once she had settled in.

"It was fine," Charlotte answered. "Is your mum still going on about that Bingley guy?"

"Lizzy, mum does not go on –"

"Yes, ugh, she wants us all the marry him in some sort of sister harem."

"Then you better hope she doesn't hear about this… He's a prefect."

"Noooooooooooo! Tell me he's not –"

"He's in seventh year."

"The bastard!"

"Lizzy!"

"And he's in Hufflepuff."

"Dammit, Lydia was right. Sorry, Jane."

(I generally try not to use cuss words in front of Jane, but I slip. A lot.)

"So, what's he like?" I asked eagerly, after I had finished silently cursing him for being exactly what my mother wanted him to be.

"Well, I had talked to him a couple times last year," Charlotte began. "But now that he's a big, important person I paid more attention, because I'm a shallow bitch."

I laughed, but Jane, who hated the idea of anyone thinking poorly of themselves, said, "It's natural to be curious."

"He's really cute," Charlotte continued. "And I hate to break it to you, Lizzy, but he's just Jane's type. Tall and thin, messy red hair, a crooked smile. He's like a Witch Weekly cover come to life. Super nice too."

"I hate him."

"Lizzy!"

"Well, I was hoping he would be a snaggle-toothed asshole, or a first year, so mum would shut up about him."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Lizzy, but he's just about the opposite. I figured he would be Head Boy, since he's so sociable and everyone seems to like him, but it was some guy named Darcy instead. He hardly ever spoke except to give instructions, and he left most of that to the Head Girl, anyway."

"Well, he sounds like a snob to me."

"Lizzy, you've never even met him."

"When Charlotte says he barely ever spoke, she's saying he's a prat."

"Am I?"

"Yes, I understand your language."

"Then why wouldn't she just come out and say it?"

"She doesn't want to ruin my fun."

"That's true."

"Anyway, back to the Bingley guy, what else have you got?"

"For someone who dislikes him so much, you seem very eager to talk about him."

"Oh, it's all in good fun, Jane. Go on, Char."

"That's really about it; we only talked for like thirty seconds. Oh, but he has two sisters! One of them is a new Slytherin Prefect, Caroline. The other one graduated last year. I tried to say hi to Caroline, but she was a total snob – sorry Lizzy, thought I'd save you the trouble –, she barely glanced at me. She spent most of her time staring at Darcy."

"I hope this doesn't get back to mum somehow," I lamented. "She'll become a borderline stalker and probably force Jane to throw herself at him or something."

Jane didn't bother to correct me. I've finally worn her down!

"It might be nice to get a boyfriend this year," Charlotte said, staring out the window in a manner I would almost have called wistfully, had I not known that Charlotte didn't engage in such flights of fancy. "Most girls in our year have already had at least two or three. Jane could have had like thirty last year, if she didn't keep turning them down."

"I didn't know them very well!"

"There probably wouldn't be much to know anyway, boys our age are all uniformly idiotic," I pronounced. "And having a boyfriend is not nearly as much fun as it looks. I tried it last year, only lasted a week before I realized what a hassle it is."

"That was one guy, Lizzy, you can't say all boys are bad just because you didn't like this one," Charlotte tried to reason.

"Nope, I think he's pretty representative of boyfriends as a whole," I said, only half-joking.

"He tried to talk to you seriously a couple of times and you broke up with him!" Charlotte laughed.

"We had different priorities."

"He wanted to do something besides make out every once in a while, and you didn't?"

"That's about right," I smirked. "Not my fault he was a sappy weirdo."

"He was sweet, Lizzy," Jane protested.

"He was a pansy, Jane. Serves me right for dating a Hufflepuff," I winked at Jane, who just smiled indulgently.

It was just the three of us for a little while, but right after the trolley came around, and we bought more candy than we'd be able to eat in a week, our compartment door slid open again, and Victoire Weasley burst excitedly in like a manic pixie to give me a hug. She gave us all hugs, actually, even though she barely knew Jane and Charlotte.

"Lizzy! It's been too long!"

"Vicky!"

Vicky was the Gryffindor prefect from my year.; she's really the only one in my dorm that I'd consider a friend. I'm friendly enough with almost everyone in Gryffindor, I mean, but not very close. Vicky comes the closest. And it's no wonder I like her, she's basically the tall, temperamental, Gryffindor version of Jane. Her hair is red, and she has more freckles, but she considers everyone a friend, and is genuinely very nice to everyone. Unless she's mad.

But she was very smiley and friendly today, and after we finished the precursory "how was your summer?" conversation, she jumped into her purpose for being there.

"So, Lizzy, I just wanted to let you know – and you too, Jane, Charlotte – that we're going to be having that beginning of the year party again!"

She looked at us like we should greet this as the best news we'd had in years

"Er… Vicky, that didn't exactly go very well last year," Jane reminded her gently.

"It was a disaster," I threw in.

"Oh, but we're going to warn the professors about it this time, and we'll have it by the lake, that way if there's another fire it won't spread very far! And they put that out in like two seconds, I don't know why they made such a fuss about it. Come on, everyone else is excited!"

"A party would be lovely, I'm sure," Jane smiled happily. "It would be a nice way to kick off the new school year. Without the arson, hopefully."

"Don't worry, we're totally prepared this time! Anyway, Lizzy, the Gryffindors are going to host it again, since it was our idea, so I was hoping you would help set up? It's Saturday after dinner. And we really should make up for last year's. We really want this one to go well, so it can became an annual thing, with the Houses switching off hosting duties maybe! I think it would be really excellent for inter-house unity."

Man, she was really bucking for that Head Girl job next year. I didn't want to spend my Saturday afternoon stringing ribbons around the poor trees.

"Well –"

"I'll help!" Jane announced.

Dammit, Jane.

"I'll help too," I tried to sound more cheerful than I felt.

Vicky looked expectantly at Charlotte, but she determinedly studied her nails and acted like nothing was going on around her.

"Wonderful!" Vicky said after a second. "I knew you would! I already talked to the others in our year, they're going to help too, and some of the seventh years as well. Oh, and I already invited all the Prefects at the meeting –"

I gave Charlotte a questioning look, and she mouthed "I forgot."

"-And that Bingley boy is probably going to come!"

Jane nodded politely, Charlotte raised an unimpressed eyebrow, I groaned.

"Not you too, Vicky! Is he really that cute?"

"He's adorable, Lizzy. Very nice, and he's got such a cute smile. Nothing to my Teddy, of course."

And she got the same dreamy look on her face she always got when she mentioned her boyfriend. Before she could enter fantasyland, or wherever she went when she stared off into space like that, I asked her the first question that came to mind: "Do you like the new Head Boy? Charlotte says he's an asshole."

"Oh, no, I don't like him much," Vicky said dispassionately. "I don't really know him or anything, but he seemed very cold. Hardly said a word. Seems a little stuck-up. Shame, because he is so hot. Tall, dark and handsome, down to a T. Rich, too."

"Too bad about that stick up his ass," I said, but grinned at Jane, because I now had two opinions that backed up mine.

"Oh, don't get me started on his ass –"

"Ooookay, change of topic!" Jane interjected, blushing.

Besides one interruption from Charlotte's little sister Maria, who was looking for Kitty, the rest of the train ride passed uneventfully; as did the sorting, once we got to Hogwarts. The sorting and the end of year feasts are the only times the students are required to sit with their Houses, so I had to split from Charlotte and Jane when we entered the Great Hall.

Charlotte went to the Slytherin table (where Lydia and Kitty were already making as much noise as they could), which was on the opposite side of the Hall from me. But this didn't stop me from sticking my tongue out at Charlotte from across the room when her youngest brother was sorted into Gryffindor. The Headmaster, Professor Forster, gave his welcoming speech as usual, and then we all went off to our dorm rooms, where I fell asleep almost the second my head hit the pillow.


A/N: This chapter is shorter than the last, I was busy this week. But the next one should be coming next week. :)

One additional note: in a review, cutelilmochi asked: "Why does Mr. Bennet undermine his wife's only sincere moment with Lizzy?". Short answer is this line from the book: "... that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible." - Volume II, Chapter 19