Chapter 2: Be Careful
"Come on, come on!" I said rather irritably to the first-years in front of Lee and I, Lee surprisingly being the other prefect, since of course it couldn't have been Fred or George. The first-years shuffled forward shyly, neither one wanting to go first.
"Let's just go, they'll follow us eventually." Lee muttered to me, I agreed, so we both just kind of turned around and started walking. Chancing a glance behind me, I noticed that they all were in fact following along behind us, albeit a few feet back.
Fred and George swiftly joined us from the giant crowd of Gryffindors going up the main staircase. "Babysitting firsties?" Fred taunted, Lee rolled his eyes and punched Fred in the arm as we made the trek up the five flights of stairs, the first-years weren't falling behind yet though, so that was something.
"Shit." I said when we reached the portrait hole.
"You don't have the password do you Vern?" Lee sighed, putting his hand on his forehead. Fred snorted.
"No, I don't, but look here comes head boy Percy- oh." I said surprised, "That whole prefects meeting on the train and I didn't even realize that the head boy was Percy."
"You didn't realize?" George said, appearing shocked, "But he lorded it over our heads the whole summer!"
"Yes well if you haven't realized yet, I wasn't exactly at your house this summer, probably because you were in Egypt!" Ever since Fred, George and I became friends in first year, I had stayed over at their house the whole summer, as kind of another child, Mrs Weasley felt bad that I lived in an orphanage I guess, and always tried to make up for it, she was lovely though, so I didn't mind too much.
"Oh, right."
"The password is Fortuna Major!" Percy's shrill voice pierced through all the talk, so that even the Fat Lady heard him and swung open.
"Sweet." I said and led the first years into the common room. "So, girls to your left, guys to your right, you'll get schedules tomorrow morning, and don't make too much noise." None of them moved an inch, they all just looked up at me, blinking, I sighed, "Go!"
"Look at you, being all professional." Fred mocked, coming up beside me, as the first-years scurried off.
"Shut up Fred."
Percy bustled over to us, looking startlingly professional in his perfectly ironed Hogwarts robes and shiny head boy badge. "Congratulations on becoming prefect Veronica, I'm sure you'll do amicably."
I tried not to laugh as I smiled at Percy, "Thank you." was all I was able to push out before he was bustling away again.
"Wow, you even got Percy's approval." Fred grinned.
"I'm going upstairs, Alicia and Angelina are already up there." I said and walked past Fred, who just muttered a quick goodnight, before joining Lee and George, who were currently screwing around in the corner by the fire.
"Great to be back, isn't it Vern?" Angelina said as I walked into our room and threw myself on my bed, the one closest to the big bay window.
I just grunted into my pillow.
"I'll take that as a yes."
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The first day of school dawned clear and bright, and the great hall was filled with light as I sat down to eat my breakfast.
"Potions first huh?" Alicia said from beside me, pointing to her schedule.
"What?" I asked, wondering where McGonagall had gone so that I could get mine.
"Don't worry McGonagall gave me yours too." Alicia said and put mine on the table beside my plate.
"Oh, cool." I grinned at her.
"We got potions first, then defence against the dark arts, you have that too?" Alicia said, motioning to herself and Angelina.
"Yeah we probably all have it."
"Oh yeah, last year before we can stop taking potions." Alicia nodded, "What electives are you taking though?" She asked, looking over my shoulder at my schedule.
"Arithmancy and ancient runes." I replied, taking some bacon off the table.
"Yuck." she made a face and went back to looking at her own schedule, I laughed.
"I like it."
"And I don't need to."
"True."
"What is my favourite person, other than myself and about ten other people, doing this fine morning?" These words invaded my left ear as Fred slid onto the bench beside me.
"Good morning to you too."
"You know what you should do?" Fred said, reaching into his bag and pulling out the worn out piece of parchment that over the years, Fred, George, Lee and I had come to love.
I grinned, "Ooh, what do you want me to do now."
"You have to find Lee and George, I'm not sure where they'll be yet, and because you and Lee are prefects, you need to block off the hallway where Filch's office is at both ends, and then when George gives you the signal, run." I frowned.
"Is this going to make me late for class?"
"It shouldn't?" But when Fred said it, it sounded more like a question.
"If Snape gives me detention, you're taking polyjuice, and going in my place."
"Excellent."
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Turns out George was stealing things from Filch's office, mainly old stuff that he had confiscated before, I wasn't late to potions, though I did find standing in a corridor pretending no one could go down it boring. The next few weeks were flying past, and like usual, I was getting immersed in my studies about magic. Even though I had no idea what blood status I really was, I grew up thinking I was a muggle, so when I came to Hogwarts, the only thing I wanted to do was to learn about magic. It explained so many things from when I was little, and it was this new, better, world than the one I had been living in. I even thought it was safer sometimes, until one night in mid November.
"Vern! Alicia!" We were walking to the library after dinner to research moonstones, when I heard George's voice behind me.
"Veronica!" I called out to him, forever trying to get people to call me by my full name.
He rolled his eyes, "No time for that Vern! You guys have to see this!" George grabbed both of our arms and started pulling us up a nearby staircase.
"Hey!" Alicia said, and we both yanked our arms away, "Just tell us!"
George sighed, but stopped his mad dash, "It's the Fat Lady, she's gone."
"What?!"
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The news of the fat lady's portrait being destroyed by Sirius Black travelled fast, and before long, the whole school was having an impromptu sleepover in the great hall.
"Ms. Smith, may I have a word?" The stern voice of Professor McGonagall cut into my conversation with Angelina as we were both getting into our sleeping bags.
"Uh, sure Professor?" I said and got up, motioning to Angelina to not wait up for me.
We walked over to the edge of the hall, far out of the reach of prying student ears, McGonagall wasted no time in delivering some rather revolutionary news, "Ms. Smith, we believe for some reason, that you may be in danger."
"What." I deadpanned, not really understanding what was happening.
McGonagall frowned, "As you know, Sirius Black slashed the painting of the Fat Lady while attempting to get into Gryffindor tower," I nodded, wondering what that had to do with me, "Well the Fat Lady has recounted her story to us, and says that he was yelling about looking for people."
I interrupted her, "People? Who could he be looking for? Another thirteen people to murder?"
"No, we believe he was looking for you and Harry Potter."
I froze, not saying anything while this information went through my head, before exploding,"What do Harry and I even have to do with this?!"
"Keep your voice down Ms Smith!" I shut up.
"We think this because the Fat Lady remembers him holding up a picture that she recognized as you, and asking about where you were, and we have it on file that he may just be looking for Mr Potter in general."
I felt rather faint, "Oh that's nice, can I sit down?" With a flick of her wand, McGonagall made a chair appear out of nowhere, and I collapsed into it, "But- But why?" I asked, not understanding a thing that was happening, was this just a horrible dream? Why was Sirius Black looking for me? Where did he even get a picture of me to show? I wanted to know the answer to that question, "How did he get a picture of me?" McGonagall shrugged and shook her head.
"Since we don't have the picture, and just know that it was of your face, we can not determine where it came from." She looked sorry as she said this, "It's best if you get some rest Veronica, rest assured that Professor Dumbledore and I are doing all that we can to prevent this from happening again. Just be careful in the meantime." I nodded, for what else could I do. I got up, and walked away in a haze, when I laid down next to Angelina, she looked confused.
"Hey, what's up?" She asked, referring to what McGonagall just told me, I didn't think it wise to go spouting off that Sirius Black was looking for me, so I shrugged and lied.
"Oh, just an issue with my Hogsmeade Permission form." I said, pasting a small smile onto my face.
"Is it all good now?"
"Yeah, yeah it's fine." But no matter how hard I tried to think of something else, the maniac laughter of Sirius Black filled my dreams that night.
A/N: I actually love writing this.