Chapter 11 Hogwarts Express
In the train Ron, Hermione and her managed to find themselves an empty compartment near the end of the train. Even though Ginny met several of her friends in the corridor, she joined them, preferring to spend some more time in their company.
After storing their trunks above their seats, Holly and Hermione quickly changed into their school robes, since they were expected to meet in the prefect's compartment just in some minutes, where they would receive their first instructions from this year's headboy and headgirl.
Just when they were about to leave, Neville opened the door and slid inside.
"Hey everyone, do you have an empty seat for me to take?"
Hermione showed him which seats were available and he went over to put his trunk on the rack, breathing heavily at its weight.
Holly then greeted Neville and hugged him, since he had grown quite a bit over the summer she had to stand on her tiptoes in order to reach his shoulders. All the others greeted Neville as well and he finally sat down next to Ginny.
All of them chatted for a few minutes, exchanging details about their holidays, then it really was time for her and Hermione to leave. Whilst walking, Holly pinned her prefect's badge to the left side of her robes, just above her heart, as she'd seen all the other prefects wear them over the years.
When they arrived at their destination, most of the others had already gathered inside. Holly saw her colleagues Ernie Macmillian and Hannah Abbott had been made Hufflepuff's fifth-year prefects and to her surprise, Ravenclaw's turned out to be two boys, whom she knew as well: Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot.
Only the Slytherins hadn't shown up yet, to nobody's surprise. At least, Holly thought, that didn't make Hermione and herself the last ones to arrive.
Several minutes passed without the Slytherins turning up, so the new headgirl, a Ravenclaw Holly didn't know the name of even though she knew her face began speaking:
"Well, let's better get started, I will handle the new Slytherin prefects later.
First, I'd like to introduce myself to those, who might not know me. My name is Daisy Haworth, 7th year Ravenclaw and now this year's headgirl."
She looked over to the boy sitting behind her. Holly hadn't been able to see who it was until now and was surprised to see one of her fellow Gryffindors, Kenneth Towler, who was in Fred and George's year. Smiling in her direction, he stood up and waved slightly.
"Hey everyone. I'm Kenneth Towler, your new headboy."
After his short introduction he sat back down again, and let Daisy do all the talking.
She explained all the rules prefects had to stick to as well as all the privileges that came with their new position. Some of the sixth- and seven-year prefects rolled their eyes every now and then, as there nothing of it was news to them.
Before everyone was released for their first inspection tours through the train, Draco Malfoy knocked open the compartment door and strolled inside, followed by none other than that bitch Pansy Parkinson.
Slytherins had decided to make their appearance, after all.
Daisy stared at the two angrily while finishing her last sentence, ignoring Malfoy and Parkinson as good as she could:
"As you can see, this year Dumbledore changed the rule that prefects always have to be a girl and a boy. He explained to us that he thinks it's fairer this way, as he now can make sure only the best will be able to regain this position, regardless of their gender. Therefore, this year's Ravenclaw prefects are both boys and Gryffindor's are girls.
Well, I think that's everything for now, you are dismissed."
When everyone stood up to leave Kenneth added:
"Not you two, Malfoy, Parkinson."
Holly saw Malfoy's sour expression at those words, while he froze in his movement and slowly turned back to face Kenneth. It took all Holly's strength to keep a straight face, and Hermione and her quickly hurried out into the corridor before breaking into a laugh.
The two girls had been scheduled for the first inspection tour, so they didn't go back to her friends for now. While strolling through the corridors Holly noticed many people growing silent when she passed them. Some started whispering as soon as they saw her, others simply stared at her, mouths dropped open.
Hermione did most of their job, scolding students here and there when needed, threatening some already with detention. Holly shook her head, impressed by her best friend's sternness. Term hadn't even started yet.
She was glad when their tour was over, and she could head back to her friends. Even though Dumbledore had tried to keep most of the information about the happenings at the graveyard and Voldemort's return a secret, judging by some of the student's reaction at her sight, at least some of it must have spread nonetheless.
Maybe they all thought Cedric's death hadn't been an accident after all and now (just like Holly herself) blamed her for their favourite Hufflepuff's demise.
Without a warning, Hermione pulled her to a halt. Her best friend's big, hazel eyes were right in front of her. Holly frowned, not knowing what had gotten into the other girl.
"Stop this dragon's shit, Holly", she whispered sternly.
All Holly could do was pulling her eyebrows up in question.
"The blaming yourself for something that's not your fault at all! You are not the one who killed Cedric!"
Holly felt tears watering up in her eyes and blinked them away.
"It's not that easy, Hermione.
You're right, I'm blaming myself for all that happened… Because it is my fault! If only I had done some things differently, maybe that would have prevented any of those events from happening. Voldemort… Cedric…. He was my friend, Hermione."
She bit her lip, single hot tears ran down her face now, she couldn't keep them back any longer.
At that sight, Hermione pulled her into a comforting hug.
"Listen now, Holly: It. Was. Not. Your. Fault. Get that in your head.
And please promise me you won't start listening to anything some of those morons back there might think or say about you! You are not to blame for anything and if they can't see that, they are even dumber than I thought."
Holly felt herself smile at those words. Hermione was the smartest person she knew, and it made her feel a little better knowing what her best friend really thought. If Hermione believed in what she just told her, maybe Holly could do that too.
Hermione loosened the hug and wiped the last of Holly's tears from her cheeks.
"Come on now, Miss Potter, we better get back to our friends now."
Back in the compartment Holly was surprised to see Ron, Ginny and Neville had been joined by Fred and George. There was only one empty seat left next to George and the girls squeezed themselves into it together. It was a tight fit but since both of them were slender enough they could manage somehow. Holly couldn't help her left shoulder from brushing against George's arm every now and then due to their seating arrangements and she felt heat building up in her body, increasing with every touch. She tried to concentrate on her other friends, blending the prickling sensation out.
Ron and Fred were playing a game of wizarding chess, Ron winning quite obviously. Holly often asked herself why someone as clever as Ron did so poorly at school. Of course, he wasn't what people would call a teacher's pet and he didn't really care about any of the subjects or his grades. At least, he had always managed to pass the end of term tests and never came off too badly so far.
Ginny sat next to Neville her eyes bright while listening to some kind of adventure he had gone to with his uncle during summer. The two had been at the yule ball together, as friends, but Holly secretly suspected them to be a little more than that.
Not that she could blame Ginny, Neville had started to grow into quite a handsome young man. And of course, he had the sweetest personality, always looking out for everyone He'd proved himself to be a good friend to Holly and the other all those years.
Outside, the landscape grew wilder and also greener. They couldn't be far away now. After another 30 minutes or so, the impressing silhouette of the old castle finally pulled into view. At that very moment, they sky grew darker whilst the sun went down behind the Scottish hills of the Highlands. Holly's heart jumped at the sight of it, finally feeling like coming home again.
Fred and George jumped up and hurried back to their compartment to get changed.
While the train pulled into the platform at Hogsmeade, Ginny and Neville were the first to get out, quickly followed by Ron and Hermione. Holly took hold of her trunk and Hedwig's cage and wanted to get out behind them, but the corridor in front of her compartment was now filled with students, so all she could do was wait for the steady stream of Hogwarts students to get out first.
Finally, the corridor was left a little less crowded and she went out, dragging her trunk behind her when she heard some noise coming from one of the compartments next to her. She slid the door open and there stood one of the twins, still dressed in muggle clothes but she couldn't tell which one, since she only saw the back of his head. He had been the source of the noise, yanking at his trunk that still sat on top of the rack. Apparently, it had gotten stuck somehow and he seemingly couldn't get it down.
"Need some help?" Holly asked in a joking tone.
The twin's head turned around, startled as he hadn't noticed someone coming in, so she could finally see which twin it was: George. He nodded, breathing heavily, signing her to come closer and help him.
"Yeah, please. That stupid piece of trash has gotten itself stuck and I can't move it for an inch. Of course, I was so stupid to leave my wand inside, so there is nothing I can do about it."
He hit his trunk with one fist in anger. His face was a little flushed from the effort of freeing his trunk and Holly weirdly thought it suited him.
Fumbling into the insides of her robes, she finally pulled out her wand. Without hesitation she pointed it at George's trunk:
"Accio trunk."
With a loud, crunching sound, it sprung free and landed smoothly at her feet on the floor of the compartment. George thanked her over and over again, smiling the biggest, lopsided grin she had ever seen on his face. He quickly opened the trunk's lid and got out his wand and a set of robes. Swiftly, he pulled them over his head on top of the t-shirt and jeans he was wearing.
"Come on now, Holly, we better hurry before everyone starts missing us!"
George touched her side, nodding towards the door. This time, his hand had unintentionally found one of her ticklish spots, and for some reason, the usual tingling felt even stronger because of that.
Trying to stop the feeling, she straightened her back and went out first, leaving George to follow her.
Next one will be juicy! ;)
Stay tuned
- A