Chapter Two

Lily did not rescue me until about an hour later. I could feel the minutes tick by like there was a clock in my head. I was acutely aware the entire time that Sirius Black was sitting right beside me and he smelled simply divine. I mean, come on … Sirius Black … No, no, I hated him. He tortured me … made my first four years of school at Hogwarts hell. No. It simply would not do for my crush to continue. I must put a decisive end to it; no more pining, no more secret hopes. I glanced over at him. He was grinning as he joked with James … hmm...maybe tomorrow.

I attempted to focus on my book, Through the Looking Glass, but must have read the same page twenty times or more; "The way Dinah washed her children's faces was this … and just now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten … But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon …" And when I got to the part where Alice is chastising the poor little black kitten, I realized I hadn't absorbed one word of the story leading up to that, and was forced to go back.

I was just hiding behind the book so I had a better excuse not to look at him other than gazing out of the window. After a while, I gave up concentrating, and began turning pages at random intervals to make it look like convincing. At one point, Sirius actually leaned over – leaned on me, really – and asked me what I was reading.

I showed him the cover. He mouthed the title and shrugged, straightening. "I've never heard of it."

"It's a Muggle book," I informed him curtly.

"Any good?"

I nodded, smoothing a stray curl behind my ear. He was looking at me strangely. Was there something on my face? I worried my lower lip in my paranoia, and he smirked at me, resuming his conversation with James.

I ducked behind my book again, and hastily wiped my face and smoothed my hair. Nothing appeared amiss, but I couldn't be sure. A few more times, Sirius and James attempted to engage me in conversation, but if there was one thing I was good at, it was ending a conversation. Short, uninteresting answers are the best.

Finally, the compartment door slid open, and Lily stood there, her emerald eyes sweeping the cabin. She appeared not even to acknowledge the boys, but found me immediately. Noting my expression, which I'm sure was nothing less than desperate; she was quick to settle herself between Sirius and me. Remus Lupin, a tall, thin and somewhat bedraggled boy, trailed in after her, but did not have time to sit down. "Moony!" Sirius cried, as James flushed a deep scarlet at the sight of Lily. Generally, he beamed at her, but now, he was glowering. Was he still sore about what Lily had said to him at the end of last year?

"Come on, guys," he said, gruffly, standing up and making quite a show of smoothing his jeans and jumper, "Let's go find the trolley." He gave me a fleeting smile before he darted out of the cabin, but did not look at Lily. Yes … evidently, he was still sore. The Marauders followed him out of the cabin, with "See you"s to Lily and I, and when the compartment door shut with a snap, Lily turned to me, gaping.

"What was that?" she demanded.

I shrugged, eyes wide. "I've no idea. Maybe you hurt his feelings, with what you said last year."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "That's ridiculous, Coraline. It was nothing he hasn't heard before."

I shrugged again. "He was just trying to defend you, Lil…I don't know; I thought it was kind of sweet…"

"He's not some sort of Knight in Shining Armor, Corrie. He's a pompous git."

I swiftly changed the subject. I was in no mood to listen to Lily rant and rave about how much she hated the fact that James Potter, a handsome, clever and mostly sweet boy, was in love with her. She didn't seem to realize that some people (like me) would actually enjoy having someone like James Potter (or Sirius Black) pining after them.

"How was your meeting?" I asked her, opening my arms to graciously accept my traitorous Lucy back into my arms.

"Oh, awesome," she said, rolling her eyes. "They've made a bunch of really annoying fifth years prefects. We were that annoying as fifth years?"

"Definitely not." We probably were. Especially with some of Lily and James's extremely vocal spats in the common room … or the Great Hall … or most of the hallways …

"Good." She groaned. "They're terrible, honestly; screeching and giggling the whole time." There was silence for a moment, and then she said, "I forgot to ask you; how did you do on your OWLs?"

I folded my lips in, and then shrugged. "I did well."

"Well, show me," she urged, and I climbed up onto the seat, and opened my trunk as far as the ceiling of the carriage would allow. It took me a few minutes to find the letter from Hogwarts I had gotten at the beginning of August, informing me of my grades in the OWL exams, because of my haphazard packing. When I finally found it, I flopped back down, bouncing in the seat. Lily had also pulled hers out (was she carrying it around in a pocket?), and held hers adjacent to mine.

I scanned my grades proudly again, listing them off to Lily. "I got O's in History of Magic, Arithmancy, Potions and Charms, E's in Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology and Ancient Runes, A's in Divination and Astronomy." Lily had gotten O's in everything (we had had the same exact schedule last year) except for Ancient Runes, Divination and History of Magic, in which she got E's, which meant that my History of Magic grade had beaten Lily's! I almost whooped out loud, but then it occurred to me that that might be a little insensitive. She was probably upset about all three of those E's, even though Divination was rubbish and Ancient Runes and History of Magic weren't the most interesting of subjects, and E was still a very respectable grade.

"So, are you continuing in everything, or …"

I shook my head. "Professor Wentz and Professor Lorray both want E's."

Lily shrugged. "Oh, yeah. Well, you don't need those, anyway."

"True." Neither of those subjects were requirements for becoming a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts or working in the Department of Mysteries. I supposed that Astronomy might come in useful if I were ever to get lost, but what was magic for, anyway, if it couldn't be used to get me out of trouble?

"Are you continuing with everything?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I've had enough of Divination. Crock of shit, honestly. And I'm debating dropping History of Magic or Astrology."

I was horrified at the idea of anyone dropping History of Magic; it was my favorite subject, but I realized that most people were definitely not on my side. Professor Binns had a knack for making a fascinating subject dreadfully boring. Luckily, my imagination could overrule Professor Binns' ghastly droning any time.

"I would drop Astrology, if I were you," I told her, and not only because I was selfish and didn't want to lose Lily in History of Magic, my seating and study partner in every subject for the past five years, "It's rather close to Divination, if you think about it."

Lily pursed her lips and nodded slowly, eyebrows contracted. "That's true." She shrugged. "I don't know; I'll give it some thought before classes on Monday." September the first landed on a Friday this year, which meant that we had an entirely free weekend before classes began.

Eventually, the trolley came by, and Lily and I bought a mound of sweets each, examined and traded Chocolate Frog Cards, and finally, we reclined in our seats, stuffed with sugar and me feeling rather queasy.

"I really shouldn't have eaten that last Pumpkin Pasty," I groaned, and Lily giggled, and then hiccoughed, which made me giggle, and then moan; my stomach was clearly in no mood for giggling.

We talked of nothing of importance until Remus poked his head in on us an hour or so later. Lily groaned; "Is it that time already?"

"I'm afraid so," he said with a sigh. Lily quickly helped me clear off the seat of our rubbish from the sweets, and Remus grinned at me when I glanced up at him. He looked much more appealing, and his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled.

"I'll be back," Lily told me, and I smiled and waved her off. Really, her doing rounds meant I could finally take my nap.

Unfortunately, just as I was settling down on the seat again with my stuffed dog, Shadow as my pillow, three girls filed into the compartment; Marlene McKinnon, Mary MacDonald and Alice Russell; mine and Lily's roommates in our Hogwarts Dormitory. There were three other Gryffindor girls in our year, Ardis Moyer, Barbara Schultz and Cassandra Hawkins (I liked to call them The ABC, as if they were some sort of three-headed monster), but Lily and I were lucky enough to have been placed with Marlene, Mary and Alice.

Marlene was a very tall girl, with a body that belied her young age. She should have been a model, but her life's ambition was to sit on the Wizengamot, like her Father and her Mother. I had no idea how one went about getting placed on the Wizengamot, but Marlene was convinced she had it all figured out. Her dark reddish-brown hair was wavy, just down to her shoulders, and she had stunning blue eyes and a radiant smile. The thing I didn't like about Marlene was that she was a pureblood, and was very, very proud of that fact. Not quite Slytherin/Death Eater proud, but she seemed to enjoy reinforcing everyone's knowledge of her family's deep-rooted power and wealth.

Alice was also a pureblood, but she was very down-to-earth. In fact, if you weren't close to Alice, you might never know she was a pureblood. She was quiet and unobtrusive, but fiercely loyal and very talented. She and Lily had that in common; they didn't have to try quite as hard as everyone else to get the grades that they did. She was short, but still a little taller than I was, with smooth dark blonde hair cropped into a cute little bob just below her ears, framing her round, rosy face perfectly. Her golden-brown eyes were large, bright and kind; quintessential puppy eyes. She wanted to be an Auror, like her Father.

Mary was a Muggle-born witch with dark brown hair that was very curly, and gray-green eyes, almost the exact color of sage. She had a soft, pretty face and was of average height. She was studious and shy – mostly because of the attack she had suffered last year at the hands of that terrible Slytherin Mulciber (he used the Cruciatus Curse on her, and then the Imperious Curse, attempting to force her to drown herself in the lake; he was stopped by Professor Dumbledore and subsequently expelled … I don't think You-Know-Who cares much if one of his Death Eaters has graduated, though). She had spent two weeks in the Hospital Wing, but refused to go home and hide, as she put it. I thought she was very brave for staying. She was rather traumatized by the experience though, not that anyone blamed her, and she was constantly looking over her shoulder.

"Coraline!" she called, and even though I desperately wanted to sleep, I was pleased to see the three of them. I sat up as she crowed, "Rise and shine!" Grinning at me, she plopped herself down in the seat opposite mine. She was in her Hogwarts uniform – which I realized I should probably get in to soon, since dusk was beginning to fall outside – and she seemed not to care that her skirt was somewhat too short, exposing a significant amount of her slender legs between the hem and her knee socks.

Alice sat down beside her and Mary sat down beside me, the former beaming and the latter looking particularly fatigued.

"All right, Coraline?" Alice asked, as I stifled a huge yawn in my shoulder.

"You look terrible," Marlene said, picking absently at a perfectly manicured fingernail.

"Thank you," I said snidely. "Just tired. I've been up since dawn."

Marlene grimaced, and Alice grinned at me. "Trouble packing, again?"

"Every year," I sighed.

"You should really work on that," Marlene said, and I glared playfully at her.

"How was your guys' summer?" I asked.

This was clearly the question Marlene had been waiting for; she cut neatly across Alice, who had opened her mouth to speak, gushing; "It was lovely! We went to France to visit my Aunt and Uncle there for a month – they live in La Rochelle, so we spent a lot of time on the beach. My Aunt took my sister and me to Paris for four days and we went shopping … oh, Corrie, you should see all of the amazing new clothes I got!" She placed her hands over her heart with a wistful sigh.

Alice rolled her eyes and shook her head, and I smiled. Alice was perfectly content in a pair of baggy jeans and a sweatshirt, kind of like me. Sure, every now and then we liked to get all gussied up, but for the most part we didn't bother. But, I might put on mascara once or twice a week, and I particularly adored buying new shoes.

"I really loved it. For a whole month, it was like You-Know-Who and this war didn't exist at all ... they're so completely unconcerned about it there..." she trailed off, and I couldn't help but wonder what that might be like, to not constantly have this war niggling at the back of your mind. "And then I spent the last two weeks of summer at Alice's," she finished. Alice and Marlene were second cousins or something of the sort; it was difficult to find two pureblood families in the UK that were not related by blood or marriage. Also, their parents worked together at the Ministry, and despite their differences, they were very good friends.

"How was your summer, Cor?" she asked.

"Good. I spent a few weeks with Lily, and my grandparents came for a visit."

"Fun, fun," Marlene said, still scrutinizing her fingernail.

I nodded. "And you guys?" I glanced between Alice and Mary, who each waited for the other to begin.

"I stayed at home," Alice growled, clearly sore about it. "My mum is so paranoid that none of us are allowed to go out at all."

"Well, she has a point, I suppose …" I said. My mum was protective, but not quite so much. We weren't allowed to be outside after dark, or to go wandering alone, but we were allowed to leave the house.

Alice scoffed; "Thank Merlin Marlene came and rescued me … I'd have gone bonkers otherwise."

I chuckled, and then looked to Mary for an account of her holiday. "I went to Ireland, to visit my Grandmother," said Mary.

"For the whole summer?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Well, most of it. Mum said I should get away for a bit, after…you know…"

"How was it?" I asked quickly.

Mary turned her sage-like eyes upon me, a small smile on her mouth. "It was alright. It rained a lot, and it was very beautiful, but it didn't really feel like getting away since Ireland is almost as affected as we are by You-Know-Who."

"How do you feel, anyway?"

She nodded slowly, worrying her cheek in her teeth. "Better. I'm starting to think that whatever will happen, will happen … and we can either live in fear or stand up to it. From now on, I've decided that I'm going to stand up to it."

Wow. Mary really was an astonishing person. I was very much the former; I lived in fear. As the daughter of a Muggle-born witch and a blood-traitor pureblood father, I wasn't exactly in You-Know-Who's good books. Granted, I hadn't been attacked and my family had never been threatened, but it still didn't stop me from worrying. With my father (one of the higher ups in Magical Law Enforcement, though not an Auror, and a vehement opponent of You-Know-Who's ways) so vulnerable in St. Mungo's, I kept myself prepared for news that he had suddenly and inexplicably died.

I grinned at Mary. "I'm really proud of you Mary," I said, and her eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course. After everything you went through last year, and you've come out on the other side ..." I shook my head, envying her strength.

"Thanks, Coraline," she said, beaming, and I squeezed her shoulder.

We talked of nothing in particular until Lily returned a short time later, Remus behind her. Mary turned towards the window; she and Remus had broken up last year (thinking back, Mary had certainly had a particularly terrible year...), and even though it had been a while ago now, she couldn't quite stand to look at him yet. She did not volunteer much information pertaining to their breaking up, but apparently Remus had been uncharacteristically rude when doing so.

"Hello, ladies," he said, softly, his eyes flicking to Mary briefly. Turning to Lily, he said, "I'll see you at the feast, Lily."

"See you, Remus," she said, and closed the door behind him. Looking at me, she arched a brow at me, pursing her mouth. "You should change; we'll be there soon."

"I will, I will…" I grumbled.

I probably waited until the last possible second to change; just as I finished, the train began to slow down. I pulled on my jacket, picked Lucy up off of the seat and followed Lily out of the compartment. I couldn't stop myself from grinning as we stepped onto the platform at Hogsmeade Station; there were all the familiar faces of the students I'd been going to school with for the past five years, the thunderous voice of the half-giant groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, gathering all of the first years. I was even glad to see the eerie horse-less carriages that would take us to the castle, but nothing could compare to how I felt at the sight of the castle itself; Hogwarts gleamed against the indigo sky, never quite obscured by shadow, and my spirits soared. As nerdy as it is, I loved my school.

A/N: So, this has been edited. As has the first chapter, so … ya. I think it's better, but if you don't please let me know! R&R - pretty, pretty please! Your feedback motivates me! xo.