Author's Note: Thanks to Maxine for the only Review I got. This chapter was finished quite quickly. I am in the right mood for writing now. The weather is cold, the outside world dark. It is weekend and I just have a creative overload. So enjoy it as long as it is.

Another thing. Maxine asked me to mail her when a new chapter is online. If anybody else would like to be contacted just write it on the review page. Until then: Enjoy!

Coldness

Rose didn't know how long she had been sitting here on the floor. Hours ago she stopped having tears to cry. She actually wanted to write a letter to her Mum on the train, but she just couldn't do it now. She didn't want her to be worried. Rose knew she wasn't able to write a letter now without letting the grief speak through word in it. The last hour she had spent looking out of the window counting the fields with sheep on.

She was just at 74, when the train suddenly stopped, in the middle of its track. She felt that something was wrong. There was an iciness in the air around her, like she had never felt before.

First she had regarded it as an illusion produced by her own inner coldness, but soon it got more intense a feeling of utter helplessness.

This can't be right, she thought shivering and got up. Rose pulled her cloak tighter and threw a glance through the glass door in the compartment. Everybody in there was asleep. It seemed normal at first, but a closer look on their faces confirmed Rose' worries. Everybody seemed to wear a look of shock and fear.

Rose' started panicking. Played with the thought of going in and waking them, but dismissed it a second later. She didn't want to give them another cause to bully her. Well, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. Rose pulled herself together and carefully went in the direction of what seemed the origin of the coldness. Suddenly the dim lights began to flicker and then expired entirely.

From the cabins screams and shocked whispers reached Rose' ear. She would love to go in one of them, just to not be alone. But she was too curious. Rose remembered a spell her mother taught her once when she had to climb into the second cellar, where there were no lights, to find a neighbours' kitten that got astray down there.

"Lumos!" she whispered. A light shot from the top of her wand and lit the corridor. There! All the iciness came out of that compartment. She couldn't look in it, as the light of her wand reflected at the glass door. Rose breathed in deeply and opened the door. She gasped. A tall cloak figure stood there bowed over somebody, who seemed to be a student. Two others sat screaming in shock on the seats. Rose froze. The figure turned around and now she could clearly see. It had no face. She wanted to run, but she couldn't, wanted to scream but she couldn't. This thing came nearer to her and nearer and suddenly the rigour dissolved. Rose could flee. She didn't know what broke the spell she had been under but the one second her will to live returned she used to escape.

Trembling she went back in the direction of her trunk. The world around her seemed unreal, like a dream. She tripped over something. Pulled herself up again. Stumbled a few more metres and nearly fell again. But this time she could get hold on something. She looked what it was and was shocked, as it was a small man smiling friendly at her. He was wearing an old cloak and was too old to be student. He didn't look like a teacher either. Embarrassed Rose let go of him and stuttered "Sorry." before everything started to turn around her and then she just saw black.

The creaking noise of the brakes woke her up ungently. Scarlet had just had a horrible dream of coldness and fear, of being alone and helpless in cruel darkness. Never mind. She stretched her body and yawned sleepily. Where was she? Then it dawned her. The Hogwarts Express. And they were braking. That could only mean they just arrived.

The others were still fast asleep. She shook them awake then looked out of the window. It was dark night outside already. The small train station lay peacefully there. Soon everything would be crowded with excited students.

Oh no, she didn't wear her school robes yet. Quickly she opened her trunk and sighed. It was so impossible to find anything in it. She started digging her cloth out.

Typical. The thing she searched for was always on the very ground of her trunk. Scarlet got hold of a sleeve and pulled her uniform out. It wasn't exactly ironed. So what? Enthusiastic she put on her new robes.

Sara gaped, then she too realised. They were in Hogwarts. Letting out a scream of joy she started putting on her uniform.

Now everybody, including the boys, was sitting in the compartment nervously waiting for some teacher to give the sign to leave the train.

Scarlet got up. Impatiently she looked through the glass door. The girl was not there anymore, just her abandoned trunk. For a second she feared that she had done something stupid. Just a second, then she dismissed the idea. The girl was probably on the toilet or already outside.

Scarlet sat down again, still shivering from her dream.

"Are you cold?" Andrew asked curiously.

"Yeah, why?"

"'Cause I am really cold, too. Did they turn off the heating?"

"If they did, I am really going to have a word with those bastards" Sara's voice came "I had the most horrible dreams…"

Scarlet gasped. "I had nightmares, too!"

"Me, too." Laurence looked puzzled, "What do you think it is?" he looked at Andrew questioningly

"I don't know, but this can't just be dismissed as a side effect of a defect heating system."

"Or first days nerves." Scarlet added thoughtfully.

Sara started panicking: "Gah, this is getting scary! I want out of this train."

"Don't Freak out!"

"Scarlet is right!" Laurence said calmly, "What ever it was, it is gone now. The cold we feel is just an echo!"

"Echo or not, I don't want to spend another minute in this cursed thing!" Sara stood up to leave the cabin but at the door she squeaked and turned around white-faced.

"What is it?" Laurence asked scared.

"That girl, she is gone. Just her trunk is left!"

Scarlet gasped. Oh no. She was responsible for this. Without another word she jumped up and dashed the door open. There she sat. As if nothing had been.

"Where were you?" Scarlet panted.

"When?" Rose asked innocently.

"Just now. Don't be stupid. You know when."

"Oh, just now. Away. Why?"

"Away? My arse. Do you think you're funny? You were hiding to scare us. Well, it didn't work."

"No actually" a voice came from beside Scarlet. She winced. "She was with me."

A small man in shabby robes stood next to her. A teacher? He did not look like one. The worn out cloth, the tousled hair, the carefree smirk, it all didn't fit to her picture of a teacher.

"Who are you?"

"You're new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Prof. Lupin. And you must be Scarlet."

He knew her name. So the girl had been squealing. No wonder, what should she have been expecting? Scarlet turned around to her furiously.

"Thank you very much, tattletale!"

"No, no, Ms. Black" Prof. Lupin intervened, "I heard about you from a different source. But what exactly should Ms. Bennett have told me?"

Scarlet scowled at Rose. Then she replied not leaving her eyes from the poor girl: "If Ms. Bennett thinks our little misunderstanding is worth mentioning, she will explain it to you herself. Good day."

With these words she turned around and entered the compartment again.

"What was that about?" Lupin asked curiously.

"Oh. We had a little fight about who pays for the sweets. Nothing big." he didn't look convinced but asked no more questions. Rose hated lying. But she really couldn't tell him she had been bullied. First the others would hate her even more and secondly he would know that she was a loser.

"Can we go to Hogwarts now?" Rose changed the topic. The Professor nodded.

"Could you help me, Ms. Bennett? Could you go in every cabin on in this direction and I take the rest? Just tell them to leave the train. Civilised."

"Sure." She went to start but then turned around again and said "And thank you for saving me today." she flushed red and quickly turned around. Opening the compartment door.

Scarlet had apparently told the others about their meeting from her point of view because everybody glanced at Rose angrily.

"You shall follow me out," she muttered quietly looking at the floor.

"Sorry?" Sara's voice came angrily, "We couldn't understand a word you were saying."

"You shall follow me out," Rose repeated a little bit louder.

"Who says that?" Scarlet asks with a cruelty in her voice Rose did not hear before, "your teacher boyfriend?"

"He is not my boyfriend." Rose screamed in rage. All the piled up frustration took her over. She didn't know what about Scarlet's last comment caused that. But it felt too good to stop. "Why can't you just leave me alone? If you don't like me then just ignore me, but your behaviour is just immature. Now do you want to leave this bloody train or not? Because I'm not going to wait here any longer."

Heavily breathing Rose swept out of the cabin followed by four perplex children. Where had that just come from? Wherever, she felt much, much better now.

A/N: So what did you think? In which house should Rose, Scary and the others come? Please Review.