Soon enough, Auden found herself heading to King's Cross with the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione. While she was sad that the summer holidays were over, she actually couldn't wait to return to Hogwarts. She missed her classes, with the exception of History of Magic, and she actually missed her teachers too, with the exception of Professor Snape. She even missed Peeves, but only a little.
Clearly, Harry and Ron missed getting into trouble the most because the school year started out with the two of them getting blocked from Platform 9 ¾. Auden knew something was up straight away seeing as she had traveled to King's Cross with them and then hadn't been able to find them at all on the train. She and Hermione had checked every inch of the train and hadn't been able to find their friends anywhere. It was a bit troubling, really. Eventually, the two girls found themselves doubling back to find the twins.
"You haven't seen Harry and Ron anywhere, have you?" Auden asked, sliding open the door to the compartment Fred and George were sharing with Lee. Perhaps the little bit of faith inside her hoped that Harry and Ron were looking for her and Hermione and had passed Fred and George's compartment on the way.
"No, we thought they were with you," Fred said, shrugging. "They have to be here somewhere. They came to King's Cross with us."
"That's what I was thinking, too," Auden said, chewing on her bottom lip, "but they aren't on the train."
"We've checked every compartment," Hermione added as Auden nodded in agreement. She was thinking of anything that could have happened to her two friends and was coming up with nothing. It just didn't make sense.
"I wouldn't worry," Fred said. "They might even be using Harry's invisibility cloak. Did you think of that?"
"No," Auden said, blinking. "But why would they need it?"
"Maybe they're spying on Malfoy or something," Fred responded. "Now why don't you two come sit down."
"And make sure you shut the door," George added with a smirk. "You're letting in all the stress and letting out all the calmness."
Auden shared a look with Hermione before they both stepped into the compartment. Hermione took a seat next to Lee while Auden sat beside supposed it couldn't hurt. There wasn't any more of the train to search, anyway. And if Harry and Ron were using the cloak, they couldn't search the train a second time with their arms outstreched. They'd look odd and probably suspicious. Auden tried to convince herself that maybe Harry and Ron had used the cloak to spy on Malfoy. Maybe they wanted to figure out if he actually had sent Dobby to Harry's house after all. Still, their absence continued to bother her, nagging at a corner of her brain.
"You don't think anything bad happened to Harry and Ron, do you?" she asked Fred after a moment of silence. George and Lee were already engrossed in a game of Exploding Snap while Hermione was looking concerned at keeping her hair from catching fire as a result of the game.
"Auden," Fred said, half-laughing and taking a bite of a licorice wand, "I'm sure they're fine."
"You aren't worried?" Auden looked up at him in surprise. She knew Fred was extremely laid back, but when it came to his family, he usually wasn't.
"I don't think there's any reason to be," Fred shrugged. "Just relax. Have a Chocolate Frog." He waved one under her nose, but Auden didn't take it. "They're your favorite," Fred added. "Don't tell me you're turning it down."
Auden took the frog from Fred's hand and opened it. "Dumbledore," she said, looking at the card as she began munching on the candy. She tossed the card at Fred. "I have more Dumbledore cards than I know what to do with."
"And you think I don't?" Fred asked, tossing the card back at her.
"Hermione, do you want it?" Auden asked, turning to her friend. "You could start collecting."
Hermione shrugged as she finally averted her gaze from George and Lee's game and took the card. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."
Auden and Hermione spent the remainder of the ride with Fred, George and Lee. Auden expected Harry and Ron to come find them, but they never did. Auden tried to take her mind off of things by joining in a few games of Exploding Snap and helping the twins and Lee diminish their candy pile, but by the end of the train ride, her mind was right back on Harry and Ron.
"Can you just admit it now?" she asked Fred as they stepped off the train. "Harry and Ron aren't here."
"No, I will not admit it," Fred argued as they walked behind George and Lee towards the carriages. "They could be anywhere in this crowd."
"I beg to differ. They never caught up to us on the train."
"Why would they want to?" Fred teased. "It's you we're talking about here."
"Two of my best friends are missing, Fred Weasley." Auden poked him in the chest.
"What a fiery twelve year old you are," Fred muttered. "Come on, they'll turn up. I don't think anything would stop Harry from getting to school somehow. Something tells me he doesn't want to go back to the Dursley's house." He held out a hand to help Auden into a carriage.
"I'm still worried," she answered stubbornly, folding her arms and standing her ground.
"Are you planning on walking to the castle?" Fred teased.
"No," she answered, finally taking his hand and letting him pull her into the carriage, "but something's wrong, Fred, I can feel it."
Fred reached down and grabbed her hand. "I command you to stop worrying," he said. He was being serious, but even still, his mouth was turning up in the corners.
"Fine," she sighed. "Clearly, it's no use talking to you about it. I don't know how you can always be so calm."
"It's a gift," Fred grinned, tugging on the ends of Auden's hair playfully. She smiled and rolled her eyes.
The carriages began to roll towards the castle and by the time the feast began, Harry and Ron were still nowhere in sight.
"They missed the entire Sorting," Hermione hissed to Auden as food appeared on the tables.
"And Ron's about to miss dinner. Now I know something's wrong," Auden added. It was only a partial joke and Hermione knew it.
"Should we say something to a teacher or a Prefect?" she asked, wringing her hands as Auden helped herself to some food if only to keep distracting herself.
"I don't know," she sighed.
"Maybe we should let Percy know," Hermione continued. "Maybe Fred and George aren't as concerned by their brother's absence, but Percy will take it seriously, and-"
"They usually are concerned, though, that's the thing," Auden said, picking at the food that was now on her plate instead of putting it in her mouth. "So...maybe it's worth just waiting until after dinner before mentioning anything to Percy. Maybe we can check the common room later to see if we can meet up with them there. Just in case, you know. Fred did have a point when he said Harry wouldn't let anything stop him from coming back to school. He wasn't even planning on letting Dobby's warning stop him. I feel like he would find a way to come to school somehow...but coming to school is easy. He'd just have to get on the train." She sighed again and rested her chin on her hand, knowing she was ranting, but she really couldn't figure it all out. It was infuriating.
Hermione sniffed and finally began helping herself to some dinner. "Alright, we'll check the common room after dinner, but if Harry and Ron aren't there or don't walk in within five minutes, I'm telling Percy."
"Deal," Auden agreed. But even with that settled, and as she returned to eating, she still felt that her appetite wasn't returned to normal.
As it turned out, Auden's bad feeling was right. Harry and Ron, after being mysteriously blocked from the platform, ended up flying Mr. Weasley's car to school, which almost landed them a nice expulsion. The two of them had been waiting outside the common room by the time Hermione and Auden got up there after finding out the password from a Prefect. Hermione had been positively furious with them. Auden was just excited to see them, but she had to admit, flying the car all the way to Hogwarts had been a bit much. Especially since they had crashed it into the Whomping Willow.
"What an entrance!" Fred congratulated the boys after they had entered the common room. "Definitely something George and I would have done." He stopped when he saw Auden glaring at him. "What?"
"It's not a good thing! They almost got expelled. They crashed your dad's car! Muggles saw them! Everything your mother was worried about actually happened to them this time."
Fred looked taken aback. Harry and Ron began slinking over to the boy's dormitory stairs. Clearly, they didn't want to continue talking about their entrance. Auden didn't blame them. She would've been embarrassed too.
Finally, she sighed and half smiled. "All that aside," she continued, "it was pretty cool, wasn't it? At least a little bit."
Fred grinned and pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead. "You had me worried for a second, there, Aud." She smirked and punched him gently in the shoulder.
"Lockhart makes me sick," Fred muttered the next night in the common room as he approached Auden, Ron and Harry by the fire.
"Why's that?" Auden asked, glancing up at him. She was playing Exploding Snap with Ron and beating him by a landslide. While he was good at chess, she was good at Exploding Snap. Her biggest competition had always been Fred, who had taught her how to play himself.
"He's so conceited!" George exclaimed, flopping down on the floor. "And all the girls are crazy about him." He rolled his eyes.
"Hermione's drawn hearts around his class in her schedule," Ron snorted, pretending to gag.
"Well, he is good looking," Auden began.
Fred, George and Ron stared at her. "Not you, too," Fred groaned.
"I'm not drooling over him, I promise," she giggled. "He does seem a little...off. I don't think he's a very good teacher, either. Our first class was a disaster to say the least."
"The pixies?" Fred asked. "Yeah, George, Lee and I were the ones who had to round them all up in our class. You'd think he'd learn to not let them out of their cage again. Idiot."
Auden grinned. "But at least he has that winning smile, right?" She fluttered her eyelashes dreamily.
Fred rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah," he replied sarcastically.
Auden laughed and began shuffling the Exploding Snap cards. "Want to play?" she asked.
Fred and George both nodded. "Sure."
After talk of the flying car had died down, things went back to normal at Hogwarts and Auden thought that perhaps for once, things could stay that way. But then there was the first attack.
Harry had been hearing a strange voice for a few days, and one evening, Halloween to be exact, he followed it to a hallway outside of an out of order bathroom. Ron, Hermione, and Auden soon caught up with him.
"What are you looking at?" asked Ron. Then, they all gasped when they saw it.
Filch's cat was hanging from a lamp bracket, still and motionless, eyes wide. Later, everyone learned that she had been Petrified. As if this wasn't bad enough, there was a message written on the wall in what looked like blood. The message read "the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware."
The opening of the Chamber of Secrets led to many questions about what it was and for a while, it was the talk of the school. Hermione even asked Professor McGonagall about it during Transfiguration. Apparently, when Hogwarts was built, Salazar Slytherin had left a secret chamber containing a monster behind. Only the heir of Slytherin would be able to open the chamber and control the monster. The school had been searched many times and nothing was ever found, but Auden wondered if the legends could still somehow be true.
Then, something else came up that distracted Auden from the Chamber of Secrets: Quidditch tryouts.
"Are you trying out, Aud?" Fred asked one day at breakfast, a week before the tryouts. "You said you wanted to last year. I still think you should do it."
"I don't know. There's only one open spot, and probably lots of people trying out…." Auden trailed off and swirled her pumpkin juice around her glass, shrugging as she did so. She wondered if she were really good enough to make the team. To be honest, she would love to be able to spend more time with the twins and Harry. She also wouldn't mind getting to know the rest of the team either. Besides, she enjoyed Quidditch, both watching it and playing it, so she would've loved to play for the house team. And besides even that, Oliver Wood wasn't too hard on the eyes either. But that was kind of a petty reason to try out. It didn't actually count.
"Auden Renee Parker, look at me," Fred said in a mock scolding voice, tearing Auden out of her thoughts. When Auden looked up, he continued. "You'll never know if you don't try. Please do it…for me?" Fred made a pouting face. "I'd love to have you on the team. Honestly. I'm not just saying it because we're friends. You're a good player and have potential. You've been flying for just as long as anyone else either trying out or actually already on the team. Besides, you always play Chaser during the matches we have at home. You have experience and speaking as a third party observer, you have a shot."
"Well, when you put it that way…." Auden said, finally cracking a smile. "I'll do it."
"That's what I like to hear," Fred said, ruffling her hair. "George and I are going to head to class, but I'll catch you later. And with that, he was gone.
Auden sighed and closed her eyes for a second. What had she just gotten herself into? She appreciated Fred's encouragement, but what if she let herself get her hopes up and then didn't make the team. She'd already be upset enough as it was. But she supposed there would be other chances later on to try out once other members of the team had left. Trying to stay positive, she decided that maybe she could ask the twins to practice with her before the tryouts. She figured that even if her chances were already good, it couldn't hurt to improve them either.
A week later, Auden went down to the Quidditch pitch for tryouts. The original team was there, along with a crowd of prospective Chasers to fill Alicia's now vacant position. Oliver Wood was there as well, obviously, and he was holding a clipboard and looking very serious. Auden actually expected nothing less. She began twisting her ring around her finger as the tryouts began. Did she really have a chance of making the team?
"Auden, you're up," Oliver said, all too soon.
Auden mounted her broom, her hands shaking slightly and her stomach churning. She fought to keep her hands steady. Trembling hands wouldn't help her game a single bit.
"Knock 'em dead," Fred whispered, winking and clapping her on the shoulder as he passed.
Auden nodded weakly. When Oliver blew his whistle, she flew into the air. Angelina and Katie flew around her, tossing her the Quaffle while Oliver guarded the goals. Auden caught the Quaffle right away and zoomed towards Oliver. She scored four out of five goals Oliver told her to attempt, and then it was time for her to try a second time, but this time with Bludgers thrown into the mix.
Playing with the Bludgers was so much harder-which was naturally the point-but if anything, it only made Auden feel more determined. She tried to focus on scoring goals while also keeping her senses alert and be aware of any stray Bludgers, despite Fred and George beating them around with their bats. To her relief and glee, she once again scored four out of five goals. And just like that, her tryout was over and she was relatively pleased with herself.
"You were great, Aud," Fred told her as they landed. He gave her a hug and spun her around. "You didn't get panicked by the Bludgers at all."
"The others don't stand a chance against you. Really, they don't," George added, grabbing her in a hug as well.
"Oh, shut up, you're just saying that," Auden scoffed. She thought that the other potential Chasers she had seen so far had also done fairly well. It was going to be a tough decision for Oliver. In Auden's opinion, anyway.
"No, really, we wouldn't lie to you," said Fred, looking at her and smiling. "You were wonderful."
Auden blushed and looked away before sitting down on the grass. Fred and George joined her and the continued to watch the remainder of the tryouts.
"So Filch has been in a foul mood ever since Halloween," Fred piped up after a moment. "It's been two weeks of torture. He yells at people for almost everything, even if it's for something totally unfair."
"Like leaving a trail of Dungbombs from Gryffindor tower, to the great hall, to the Transfiguration classroom?" Auden asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes!" Fred exclaimed as Auden sighed. "You get it."
"I don't know, Fred, I'd say that's a pretty fair reason to get mad," she said with a tiny smile. She paused. "I don't know. I kind of feel bad for him." She sighed, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them.
"Why?" the twins asked simultaneously.
"Because...as annoying as he and Mrs. Norris are, well, he loves that cat. I think she's really his only friend."
Fred and George laughed and Auden glared at them.
"I'm serious," she said, "and I think it's sad."
"He's a grumpy old man with or without Mrs. Norris," Fred said, still chuckling.
Auden pursed her lips. She hated it when they laughed at her. It made her feel ridiculous. "Do you ever think what it must be like for him? He's a Squib, you know. Harry found paperwork for a Kwikspell course in his office on the first night back after he and Ron had been caught flying the car to school."
"Okay, so maybe he can't do magic and maybe he has no real friends, but he's grumpy," Fred said. "Just because his life isn't great doesn't give him the excuse to be mean to other people. You heard him on Halloween. He accused Harry of killing Mrs. Norris. We all know Harry wouldn't kill anyone and Mrs. Norris isn't even dead. He's crazy and irrational."
"Yeah, because he has it tough," Auden said. "I'm not saying he's nice. He's been pretty rude on a lot of occasions, but I never really thought about why until now. Imagine having this whole place dangled in front of you every day and know you can't truly be a part of it."
Fred and George were silent for a moment and Auden knew she had gotten through to them, at least somewhat. As much as they could convince her on certain points, she knew she could do the same. "Are George and I still allowed to prank him?" Fred finally asked. "You won't lecture us if we do?"
"No," Auden sighed, "I won't. I will admit that there are certain times where he deserves it."
Fred smiled. "Good, I'm glad you haven't completely lost your mind."
Auden looked at him and opened her mouth to respond, but she didn't get the chance because tryouts ended at that moment and Wood landed in front of her.
"Good news, Auden," he said, looking down at his clipboard. "You made the team."
"You've decided already?" she asked in surprise. "Tryouts literally just ended."
"I know. And I know what type of player I'm looking for. You're it. I've decided. It's done. I'll see you Monday night for practice. Don't be late." He broke into a grin and reached out a hand for her to shake. "Congratulations and welcome to the team," he said when she took it. With that, he turned and headed for the changing rooms.
"You did it!" Fred and George yelled, both hugging Auden so hard, she almost fell over.
When they let go, Fred reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out a small, roundish object, wrapped in foil. "This calls for a celebration," he said, giving it to Auden.
"A cupcake," she grinned after unwrapping it. It was slightly smushed, but she didn't care.
Fred reached over and scooped frosting onto his finger before smearing it on Auden's nose. "Welcome to the team," he said.
Auden just sighed with fake frustration. "One question," she said as they began walking back to the castle. "How did you know to bring the cupcake? You didn't know I'd make the team."
Fred looked at her and grinned. "If you didn't make the team, this was going to be a gift to cheer you up. Either way, I would have needed it."
"Thoughtful," Auden smiled, glancing at him. "I appreciate it, just so you know."
Fred nodded and ruffled her hair. "I know."
