So we're now in their second year at Hogwarts, and as they get older, more things will unfold, leading up to Alison's untimely death. I've already planned when she will die and set up the sequel, but I'm keeping my lips sealed about that. I'll be uploading two chapters today because they technically should be one but it was a little too long to be just one, so I split it. The next chapter is a direct continuation of this one. Happy reading! Same disclaimers as always (as you can tell, I'm getting really tired of having to write that I don't own Harry Potter or Pretty Little Liars!).
"I can't believe we're already second years," Emily Fields said in awe to the rest of the group as they all squeezed into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. "I feel like I just met you yesterday. All of you."
"Time flies when you're in good company. What can I say?" Alison smirked, flipping her long blond hair over her shoulder.
"Isn't your brother starting Hogwarts this year, Aria?" Spencer Hastings turned to the smallest girl in the group.
"Yup," Aria nodded as she mentally prepared herself for her brother's pre-teen angst.
"What house do you think he'll be in?" Spencer asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea," she admitted. "If I were to take a wild guess, maybe Gryffindor."
"We should all bet on it," Alison suggested with a sneaky, one-sided smile. "Five galleons he's in Slytherin."
"But you don't even know him!" protested Aria.
"I favor my own. You should know that by now," the lone Slytherin's eyes twinkled.
"What's he like?" Spencer asked. "If he's anything like you, then I say Ravenclaw."
"We couldn't be more different," Aria answered. "He's obsessed with Quidditch, he likes to fight, and he never shuts up."
"Fifteen galleons he's in Gryffindor," Spencer said firmly.
"I'm not going to bet," Emily said as Alison threw gave her a questioning look. "I think we should just wait and see."
"Well that's no fun. Where's that fun Emily I knew who willingly flew a ratty old broom for the first time without a care in the world?" Alison teased.
"Hey, I'm going out for Quidditch this year," Emily laughed. "Who's the boring one now?"
"You're going out for Quidditch, too?" Spencer's eyes lit up excitedly.
"I didn't know you were into Quidditch, Spence," Alison raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Trying to one-up Melissa?"
"Ali!" Spencer glared at her.
"It's true," she shrugged.
"I get enough crap from my parents getting compared to Melissa with everything I do, and I definitely don't need it from you," the pretty brunette fumed. "And I am not 'one-upping' Melissa. I'm doing this for myself."
"Really?" Alison's eyes narrowed. "Then prove it."
"Can we stop fighting, please?" Emily interrupted.
"Yeah," Hanna agreed. "If Spencer says she's not 'one-upping' Melissa, then I believe her. You should, too, Ali."
"Thank you," Spencer smiled at the chubby blonde.
"Finally you say something, Hanna," Alison turned her attention to the other blonde in the group. "You're shaping up quite nicely, aren't you?" She proceeded to scrutinize Hanna's significantly thinner body; her stomach no longer bulged out of her uniform, and she was able to securely fasten her robe as opposed to leaving it open.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aria looked at both of them confusedly.
"Nothing, Aria," the blonde Slytherin shook her head with a smile. "Don't worry about it."
Although they rode in the same carriage after getting off the train, the five girls separated to join their Houses once they got to the Great Hall. Hanna cheerfully greeted her Hufflepuff crew, Emily excitedly caught up with Toby at the Gryffindor table, Alison took a seat next to Draco Malfoy (her only Housemate that she was openly friendly with), and Spencer and Aria joined their Ravenclaw classmates.
"Aria!" Noel greeted her. "How was your summer?"
"Hi, Noel," Aria sat next to him while Spencer sat across from them. Now that her brief fascination with Noel was out in the open among the five of them, it didn't bother her as much when he was around. "It was good. How was yours?"
"It was alright," he shrugged. "My mum's been trying to get me to try out for Quidditch just because my brother Jackson plays for the Ravenclaw team. Sean tried to teach me how to play over the summer, but it didn't go so well. Keeping up with the professional teams is enough for me."
"Fair enough."
"So your brother's getting Sorted, I see?"
"Mhmm," Aria nodded. "I kinda hope he's not in Ravenclaw, though."
"Why? He seems cool."
"Well, you don't live with him," she pointed out. "It was a little better over the summer since he didn't get to see me much during the year, but usually he's an annoying little git."
"It's a younger brother thing," Noel assured her as he thought of his own relationship with his older brother before engaging in a heated argument with Terry Boot about whether the Chudley Cannons or Puddlemere United would be the top-seeded team by the end of the season.
Aria turned her attention to the Sorting just in time to watch her brother get sorted into Gryffindor. She breathed a sigh of relief, no longer worrying about his potential little brother antics had they been sorted into the same house.
"So I didn't know you liked Quidditch," she casually began a conversation with Spencer, deciding that she wanted to get to know her better. Aria considered Spencer to be her only relatively close female friend other than Alison. But if she were to choose, she would wholeheartedly take Spencer over Ali; Spencer was much kinder and easier to get along with, despite her fiercely competitive nature.
"It's not the first thing I tell people," Spencer answered honestly. "Especially not my parents. They want me to follow in my sister's footsteps – top of our class, become a Prefect, and eventually Head Girl – and think it's 'highly inappropriate' for girls to play Quidditch."
"What do they have to say about the girls on the Gryffindor team, then? And Cho Chang?"
"They don't say anything, since we don't talk about it at all," she shrugged. "I hope you believe me, though. I really am doing this for myself. Melissa doesn't like Quidditch, or any sport, really. She only pretends to, for Ian."
"Your sister doesn't sound like a very nice person," Aria commented, getting a worse impression of Spencer's sister with every story she told.
"She can be when she wants something," Spencer admitted. "But most of the time she's downright nasty."
"That's too bad. I've always wanted a sister."
"You can have mine," Spencer offered.
"It's okay," Aria shook her head before changing the subject. "Mike's going to be so upset when he finds out he can't play till next year."
"Maybe he can pull a Potter and rescue someone's Remembrall during his first flying lesson and earn a free pass onto the team," joked Spencer as the two girls snickered at her joke
