I breathed in the crisp, night air as I- along with the other students years- crossed the dark grounds towards the carriages. September leaves crunched underneath my feet and I caught the faintest smell of the great feast to to come. My stomach growled. I headed to the nearest carriage, but then hesitated, looking at the dark, dead looking creature in front.
"Creepy how we can't seem them..." A voice breathed next to me. I grinned at the sudden appearance of Evangeline and she hugged me, her chestnut hair tickling my cheeks.
"Yeah," I said, feeling guilty that she thought I really couldn't see them, "Creepy."
I glanced at the place where the giant, winged horse stood. It's flesh barely clung to it's proturuding bones. It's eyes glowed red as rubies, looking round at me. The thesrtral snorted, and scuffed it's feet, impatient. The only way anyone could know for sure what a Thestral looked like was if they had seen somebody die. I shuddered, remembering a violent flash of light, screaming-
"It's so great to see you again," Evangeline said, interrupting my thoughts, to my gratitude, "Did you have a good summer? How's your aunt?"
"It was... decent." I laughed, "Yours?"
"Alright. I'm just glad to be back."
"You weren't on the train," I said. It wasn't a question.
She looked sheepish for a moment. "Was, but..." She trailed off and I sighed.
"You got into trouble again? Good God I thought you would've learned by now," I laughed but then asked, "Who did you curse?"
"Draco Malfoy," she said in an a-matter-of-fact tone, as we climbed into a carriage and began rolling towards the castle, "Kept messing with the first years, so I gave him an extra pair of ears! Had to sit with the prefects after that, though. It was so awkward when the lights went out like that..."
She paused.
"But tell me about what happened on the train?" Evangeline's question reminded me of the dementors and my stomach twisted. Already, so many people knew.
"It wasn't a big deal. Anybody would've done the same." I said, keeping my tone a little off-hand.
"But didn't you realize? They were only searching the train, not intending to hurt anyone. Except..." I looked at her face, with held an expression of curiosity, "They did go for someone. Heard it was Potter."
"They weren't looking to lock him up, were they?" I said, half laughing.
"Nah, that's why there so creepy in the first place. Never know if there gonna try to do you in, whether your a convict or a harmless little truffle."
I paused in my retort as the carriage came to a halt and in the next moment, I was milling through the tall, grand doors of the vast Hogwarts castle, heading towards the Great Hall to the awaiting feast.
"Who's so important that they need to literally stop the whole train to search?" I finally asked.
I couldn't think of anyone except...
"Sirius Black."
"Duh!" Evangeline confirmed, "It's all over the news. Even the muggles were warned about him."
"Talking about that lunatic?"
And that's when Edaniel Greenly showed himself, pushing through a few first years and grinning down at me with all the haughtiness of a rich fifteen-year-old boy. A green and silver prefect badge gleamed on the front of his robes.
"So what if we are?" Evangeline snapped. I knew she didn't like Edaniel much. Nor did I, really.
"Uh-uh," he waved a finger and gestured to the Prefect badge, as they we hadn't already noticed it, "No cheek. I've got authority."
"And I've got a wand that I'm going to shove-"
I pinched her hard, seeing the rising color in the boastful Edaniel's face. He recovered and then sneered not at Evangeline's remark, but me.
"I could see why your discussing that weirdo, anyway Fairclough," he said, "Seeing as your mother was one, anyway."
I felt my stomach twist, my blood boil. He was talking about my mother. My mudblood mother, to him.
"In fact, I'm wondering why your not all buddied up with that freak, Potter. Heard he had a run-in with the dementors as well..."
"You keep your mouth shut, you git," Evangeline spat, again defending me. I could see she was slowly getting a months worth of detentions.
"Just go," I hissed under my breath, and then stumbled into the Great Hall.
"Death Eater scum..." my friend hissed and then made a noise that sounded much like an angry cat.
"He's too goody-goody to be one..." I joked, trying to hide the fact that he'd hit a nerve in me.
My anger about Edaniel's remark soon faded into curiosity when I crossed the isle to take a seat with the other Gryffindors. People turned to look at me. They whispered. I caught bits and pieces of a few things:
"It's that girl from the train..."
"Was she the one that scared those dementors away from Harry Potter...?"
"She's only in her third year..."
On and on, it went. Why did people have to make such a huge deal of things?
"Settle down, settle down," came the kind, familiar voice of Albus Dumbledore. Everyone went silent and looked up to the podium at the old headmaster.
He began his speech with something out of the ordinary, speaking of dementors and Sirius Black, which gave all of the people around an excuse to glance my way. My eyes scanned the staff table and I looked away under the piercing gaze of Snape.
What's up with that creep? I thought, Probably trying to curse me or something...
"The dementors will not pursue students or disrupt our day-to-day activities," Dumbledore continued, staring out into the sea of students, "but just be warned: give them no excuse to harm you. They choose not to differentiate whom they're searching and who may get in their way."
Tailing these words was an ominous silence, to where I fumbled with the hem of my robes, out of nerves, but then the dank mood was lifted when the old professor declared, "Well that is all to be said. Tuck in."
This was met with the clanking and clinking of many plates and silverware. Around me, people chattered and talked about their holiday and I caught the tail end of a few ridiculing statements from Draco Malfoy. I looked around, seeing his target as Harry. Looked as though he was teasing him for something about fainting...
Many students were rehashing the events on the train or quoting lines from Dumbledore's speech. It was all spreading like wild fire.
I was happy to dig heartily into a plate of lamb chops, but my thoughts kept sticking to one subject, one name: Sirius Black.