Hey guys! I really appreciated the feedback, and look forward to more! I'm not promising a chapter out every day, but I've had these few written for a while, so here you go! I love reviews, and I totally love constructive criticism. Enjoy!
Brigit furrowed her brow at the task of trying to find a compartment. Being basically friendless, okay, completely friendless, proved to be irksome. She shuffled along, glancing every once in a while into a compartment to see various faces from curious eyes to death glares. Stumbling slightly over a misplaced trunk, Brigit quickly lost her footing, stubbing her toe painfully and, while letting out a shrill cry of pain, began to fall. She didn't have time to close her eyes before letting out a gasp of surprise when a pair of strong arms looped around her waist and set her upright. Sure, her trunk rolled down the hallway, but she was alive! She could hear Artemis hooting wildly at the sudden disturbance.
"Sirius?" Brigit peered at her savior with interest. He was tall and gorgeous, sure. His shining gray eyes smoldered as he flipped his shaggy brown hair over his shoulder. Setting her upright, Brigit made note of the fact that he continuously ran his fingers through his hair absentmindedly, more out of habit than anything else. It wasn't long enough to get in his eyes. The motion was not unlike that of his friend James, though James's was more of a conscious habit of looking as though he had just gotten off a broomstick. Where he got the idea that "hair from the air" was a good look, Brigit would never know.
"Hello again, beautiful," Sirius smirked sexily. "Have a nice fall?" Brigit couldn't help but roll her eyes at this pathetic line.
"No, thanks to you though. Thank you from saving me from my almost certain demise from the evil trunk of doom," Brigit winked and retrieved her trunk, quietly apologizing to her livid owl.
"Where are you off to? I can't imagine a beauty like you would have no friends to sit with," Sirius flirted shamelessly, and Brigit couldn't help but flirt back. He was pretty damn cute, after all.
"Oh, I've already had plenty of offers for seating arrangements," Brigit smirked slightly at his suddenly downcast expression, "but none of them interested me. Do you know where that Lily girl is? She was nice to me before, maybe I could impose on her some more." They started walking down the corridor, peeking into compartments looking for her redheaded friend.
"Speak of the devil," Lily chimed in from behind Brigit. "Hello, Lennie," Sirius looked confused while Brigit giggled at the Of Mice and Men reference, "did you get your farm yet?" They scooted into an empty compartment and struggled to place their trunks in the overhanging. Sirius followed them in and helped Lily lift her heavy trunk.
"Jesus, Evans. What the hell do you have in this thing? This thing feels like Flitwick's inside." Sirius complained, heaving the trunk onto the hanging net with a pant of effort.
"I, unlike you, dear Sirius, know how to read. So therefore, I have those things called "books". You may have heard of them, we use them to become intelligent and actually do something with our lives." Lily retorted, flipping her hair over her shoulder and sitting down. Brigit followed suit, throwing an owl treat at Artemis absentmindedly.
"Cheeky little thing, aren't you, Evans? I can see why Prongs has a thing for you." Sirius stuck his tongue out playfully. Lily turned that deep shade of tomato red again.
"Doth mine ears deceive-ith me?" Came a voice from the hallway. "Pads, what are you doing? We're trying to play exploding snap and you keep leavin' the game!" The boy called James Potter poked his head in the door.
"Sorry, Prongs. I'm coming," Brigit had a feeling that James was the only one who Sirius would listen to, headstrong as he was.
"'Bye, Evans. Miss me yet?" James taunted at Lily, who turned away with a soft "hmph!" Sirius laughed at James's expression of disbelief and the pair walked from the room.
"Thank god," Lily sighed. "So," she said, turning back around and facing Brigit, "tell me about yourself! Where are you changing schools from?"
"I used to go to a school in America. New York, to be exact." Lily's eyes widened in wonder.
"Really? How exciting!"
"You'd be surprised how exciting it isn't. It's the same as any other school. It might even be worse…it's a lot harder to hide a community of underage witches and wizards in a busy place like New York City. We have to be really careful, we're not allowed to go anywhere without supervision." Brigit explained. Lily wrinkled her nose.
"Small price to pay for living in an exciting city like that!" Lily smiled. "Why are you transferring?"
"My dad got transferred back to St. Mungo's. He's a healer. He had to move so we went with him. Parrrrr-tay." Brigit sighed sadly.
The two girls chatted and laughed most of the morning. When the lunch trolley came around, the plump witch was smiling when she came to Brigit's compartment.
"I've been told by some young gentlemen in the next compartment that, and these are their words, not mine, dearies, "if you want to eat lunch, you are to come to their compartment to dine with them." She winked at them. "But feel free to buy anything from me that you'd like, dears." Brigit sighed.
"Thank you, ma'am. We'll go to their compartment," Lily looked up, livid.
"Speak for yourself!"
"You're going to make me go there by myself?!" Brigit looked at Lily, who seemed to be wavering.
"N-no…no, I guess not. Fine! But I'm not happy about it!" Lily conceded, frowning.
"Sure, sure," Brigit smirked, "not happy about it at all!"
The witch with the trolley rolled on to the next compartment, chuckling. Brigit stood and stretched, Lily eyeing her angrily. "Oh, c'mon Lils! It'll be fun! We can go make fun of them over lunch, then run back here and lock them out! They'll never stop if we don't just go over there."
Lily sighed. "You're right. Let's go."
To Lily's delight, both James and Sirius were absent from the compartment when they entered. An attractive boy was sitting in a corner, reading a textbook.
"Hey, Remus," Lily greeted him. The boy looked up, smiling. He said hello to Lily, and then made eye contact with Brigit.
Brigit felt like she was suddenly plunged deep under water, caught unawares. Something in those chocolate brown eyes and delicate features stirred up something in Brigit's throat. Behind those eyes, those gorgeous, desperate eyes laid a dark secret. Something Brigit knew all about.
"Brigit? Brigit!" Lily whacked her on the shoulder.
"Hmm?" Brigit sputtered, coming back to Earth.
"This is Remus Lupin, a fellow prefect and the best of the four marauders," Lily said, eyeing Brigit mysteriously. Remus stood slowly, reaching out his hand. Brigit took it, staring at him.
"Nice to meet you, Brigit," Remus said, smiling.
Brigit took his hand gently. "You as well, Remus." The compartment door slid shut with a soft thud. Within, Brigit spoke suddenly. "What's a marauder?"
"Merlin she's gorgeous," thought Remus, unable to hide his smile as he shook hands with Brigit. When they had locked eyes earlier, he had felt a tightening in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with motion sickness. He was extremely attracted to her from the moment she walked in with Lily, and was finding it very hard to focus on what Lily was saying. He attempted to not stare at Brigit, yet he slipped often. Unfortunately, James and Sirius stepped in not much later, ruining whatever kind of moment they may have had. He reluctantly turned his eyes away from the beauty to greet his friends.
"STOP!!" James exclaimed suddenly. "Oh please stop. I can't handle this. School hasn't even started yet! I demand to have the rest of my summer, damn it!" Brigit and Remus laughed in unison. Soprano and tenor bells chiming.
"If you insist, oh arrogant one," Brigit smirked and James looked outraged. Remus and her had been discussing their text books in depth, as both of them had read most of them before stepping foot on the train.
After her anticlimactic introduction to Remus, James and Sirius had joined them with lunch. A mousey boy had followed them in, practically drooling in anticipation. Something about the boy rubbed Brigit the wrong way. He was apparently quite fond of worshipping his friends, and there was an odd quality about him that Brigit couldn't put her finger on.
Shortly after lunch, Lily disappeared with a pretty girl she introduced as Alice, and a shy girl named Mary. Lily was eager for Brigit to join her, but Brigit seemed reluctant to, so Lily merely gave her the compartment number she would be in, and left Brigit to flirting with Sirius.
Remus, on the other hand, was desperate for Brigit to stay in his compartment. She and Sirius were flirting mercilessly, which made anger rise in the back of his throat, but he was happy just to have her near him. After a long while, the train finally slowed to a stop in the Hogsmeade station and they assembled their trunks and threw on their robes. Brigit left them then, straying off to join the first years in the boats with Hagrid, who she seemed in awe of.
The four boys hopped in a horseless carriage in anticipation for the coming feast. James was sitting next to Peter, across from Sirius and Remus.
"Merlin, that girl is something," Sirius was saying. Remus frowned at his friend.
"Who?" Remus lied, pretending to have no idea to whom Sirius was referring.
"Who do you think, Moony? Brigit! It seems this year will be considerably better than last with her around," Sirius smirked. Remus had the sudden urge to hit him. Being a fairly passive person, this feeling came as a surprise, and he quickly suppressed it.
"Don't you go making her another one of your conquests," Remus warned, "she deserves better than that, Pads," Sirius looked at his curiously.
"How would you know? I thought you only met her today on the train."
"Just because I have a sense of decency about women's feelings you've never possessed doesn't mean—"
"I have decency about women's feelings!"
"Yeah, right. Even if that was true, the thing hanging between your legs always manages to come first—"
"Would you two shut up?" James said suddenly. "We're here and I'm starving!" Remus and Sirius glared at each other for a minute and then laughed. Sirius bopped him over the head as they walked together into the stunning Great Hall. After they had sat down, Sirius looked sullen again.
"What's wrong, Padfoot?" Peter asked. Sirius looked at Remus.
"Do you really think I don't have a decency about women's feelings?"