A/N: Long time no see, huh? Lmao, jk, I updated within the week and I'm so proud of myself! I'm not gonna say anything though and jinx anything like last time. But this is my favorite chapter so far. Now that they're at Hogwarts, things are about to get started. As always, read and enjoy. And happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.
Thalia's POV
I could get the huge smile off my face as we drove up to the train station. It was the day that we'll be going to Hogwarts and to say that I'm excited is an understatement. We didn't do anything big on James's birthday because Peter couldn't come and Remus had to tend to his sick mother. But that was okay with James; we still had a huge dinner and everything. I held Beau close to my chest with one hand and pulled on my mother's wrist with the other. The guys were tending to the trunks and other luggage.
"C'mon," I pout, "You're being slow on purpose."
The others laughed. "Thalia, calm down, we'll get there soon." Mum said.
"Yeah, well, soon isn't soon enough." I grumble. Beau mewed and looked up at me with his big, light blue eyes. I smile at him and rub behind his ears.
"You two go ahead. We'll meet you there." Dad says, pulling my stuff with ease.
I squeal, grabbing Mum's hand and dragging her into the station. People were bustling about, giving me annoyed side glances. "Is that it?" I ask as we came to a halt under platforms nine and ten. Mum nods her head and before she could even blink, I run towards the platform. Nobody was around, strange enough, so I thought it was going to be fine. But it wasn't. Instead of going through the brick wall, like I was told many times, my face and body rams into it. I fall backwards, sprawling out on the dirty floor. Beau jumped from my arms and ran towards my mother.
"Thalia, honey, are you okay?" She rushes over to me with my kitty in her arms.
"Why didn't that work?" I groan, holding my face; there was blood but nothing too serious. My nose was probably not broken, just bruised.
"You ran through the wrong platform. Its that one." She points behind me. "Want to try that again?" I nod.
She helps me up and I take Beau back. I check him to see if he's hurt, which he's not, and we take it slow this time. As we approached the right barrier this time, I flinch a little but we walk straight through. My eyes open and I smile in delight. Kids of all ages were bustling about with either friends or family members, most of them had huge smiles like mine. A little ways away was a big, scarlet steam engine. The Hogwarts Express. I let out a long breath that I didn't I was holding and turned.
"Mum, this is amazing. Why didn't you let me come here in the first place?" I ask even though I know the answer.
She was going to say something but was cut off when James, Sirius, and Dad came through. "Let's get on the train. We've got five minutes." James says, not looking in my direction-because if he did then he would've freaked-and headed straight towards the train. He didn't even bother to say goodbye to Mum and Dad.
I turn to them, "Bye guys, I love you and already miss you." I gather them both into a hug, careful with Beau and kiss their cheeks. Sirius says goodbye, too and helps me with my things. He kept shooting glances at my nose but didn't say anything. We walked the length of the train and got into the very last compartment. James was seated in it possessively, his things already put up.
"Thanks for the help, Prongs." Sirius growls. I set Beau down on James's face and helped Sirius with the trunks. I sigh and sit down and beckoning Beau over. He jumps from James's face and onto my lap. Sirius plops down on James, causing him to sit up.
"What the bloody hell happened to your nose?" James all but screams. I stop my petting for Beau and look up at him. He looks borderline livid.
"Huh? Oh, I might have accidentally ran into the opposite platform." I mumbled, sinking down further into my seat. I glance up at them; James looked amused but didn't crack a smile. Sirius, however, burst into fits of laughter. I scowl at him and James hits the back of his head, making Sirius loose his balance and fall into the floor.
Just then the compartment door opens and a small, chubby boy walks in. His blond hair was all over the place and his blue eyes were almost transparent and watery. Peter Pettigrew. "Hey Peter." I say casually.
He barely spares me a glance, "Hey Thalia." Then he does a double take, "Thalia? What are you doing here?" His small eyes go wide with shock.
"Thalia? Thalia isn't here, Wormtail." James was quick to jump in. I shoot him a confused look to which he sends me a wink.
"She's right here, Prongs." Peter insists and walks closer to me. Beau hisses at him and claws at him. Peter flinches but doesn't back away. "Does Sirius know about her?"
"Know about who? Thalia? Yeah we met over the break but then she went back to Beauxbatons." Sirius says, obviously playing along.
This charade went on for another two hours with Peter occasionally asking I they saw me, try to surprise them. Beau never let his eyes waver from Peter, his yellow and black hair standing up on edge. That's when Remus walks in. "Hey Remmy!" I exclaim. His head snaps up to see me.
"Uh, Thalia?"
"Yup." I move my legs from the seat so he could sit down next to me.
"What are you doing here?" He asks. Beau, who I was petting, left my arms and walked delicately over to Remus.
"Well, I got-"
"See!" Peter exclaims, "Moony sees her too! I am not going crazy." His stubby finger pointed towards me.
"Don't point Peter." Remus scolds and pushes his hand down.
"What are you talking about, Wormtail?" Sirius feigns confusion.
"You've been acting weird for the whole train ride. Are you sure you're okay?" James furrows his brows and feels Peter's forehead. Peter knocks the hand and jumps up, causing beau to hiss and jump off Remus's lap and dash out of the compartment.
"Beau!"
"What's going on? Why is Thalia here?" Remus asks before I run out of the compartment and towards my kitty; his tail was halfway up the train. I groan and run after him.
"Beau, come here baby." I coo and crouch down. He's stopped and looked back at me. I give him a smile and reach my hands out, still calling for him. But then I loose my balance and fall forwards, scaring him into the open compartment beside him. "Beau, come back." I whine and get up off the floor.
"This yours?" I look inside the compartment to see a guy holding Beau. Beau was basically sitting on his shoulder, face buried in the guy's neck.
"Yes, thank you." I smile and take my kitten back. I look at him and furrow my eyebrows; he looks oddly familiar. "Have we met before?" I ask, resisting the urge to poke his face. His hair was black and trimmed short. His eyes were a dark gray and surrounded by thick, black eyelashes. Where have I seen someone like that?
"Sirius!" I exclaim when it finally hits me. "You look like Sirius Black."
"I hope so, considering he's my brother." He says, not seeming happy about it. I frown at him and sit down, pulling his hand so he'd do the same.
"Why so glum about it?" I ask.
"Family problems." Is all he says, "How do you know m brother? I've never seen you before."
"Oh, James Potter is my brother. Sirius came to my house over the break." I smile at him. "I'm Thalia, by the way."
"He's your brother? Why are you talking to me then?" He kind of shies away from me.
I roll my eyes, "Relax, James doesn't control my life."
"Oh, well, I'm Regulus." He gives me the tiniest of smiles and I smile back.
"Well, Reggie, I better get going. I'll see you around and you better not ignore me." I threaten him. He laughs and I smile brighter.
"Bye Thalia."
"Call me Thals." I call behind me before leaving.
Making my back down the corridor, I hear shouting. I hug Beau closer to my chest to make sure he doesn't run away and open the door to the compartment. There, I see a petite red head towering over James, who is sitting.
"You arrogant, toerag prat! Why do you-"
"Hey!" I yell at her. Her body stiffens and she slowly turns around, the others look at me. "Get out." I demand, my eyes no wavering from her determined green ones. This must be Lily Evans
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, you're excused." I say haughtily and step aside so she could walk out, but she doesn't move.
"Who do you think you are?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Thalia, your worst nightmare. You don't have to introduce yourself though, I know who you are. And that's not a good thing." I hiss, taking a step closer to her. I've dreamed about this day since James first cried over her. He was in first year and her Christmas present was sent back broken. "Look, I don't appreciate how you treat my brother and I know he's not innocent, but neither are you. You call him a bully, but have you ever stopped to look how you treat him? No, but it's going to stop now that I'm here. Got it? Good. Now get out." With every word I said, I took a step closer to her.
Lily mumbles something under her breath and walks out with a little confidence she had left. I smile smugly and look over to James. His face was a mixture of mad and awe and thankfulness. Sirius gives me a high-five from the floor, where he fell while laughing. Peter missed the whole thing and was asleep, while Remus stuck his nose deeper into his book.
"Did you explain to them?" I ask and retake my seat.
"Yeah." Sirius says. My eyes flitter towards James who was looking at me. I know he either wants to talk to me or hug me. Either one, we'll find out later. Judging from the sun, it's only two and we still got the rest of the day until we get to Hogwarts.
"Wake me up when we get there." I say, curling up into a ball, placing my head in Remus's lap and Beau next to my stomach to cuddle him. I close my eyes, but it still takes a while to fall asleep.
"She's cute." I hear Sirius say when I start to wake up.
"No." James was quick to reply.
"What? I was only saying." Sirius says.
"Yeah, and so was I." I hear a smack.
"That's the whole reason he hid her from you." Remus says. I hear him close his book and set it down.
"Really? Why?"
"She has trust issues. She has a dark past and I'm pretty sure she still has secrets from her old life that even I don't know about." I had to suppress a gasp. James has no idea how right he is.
"Do you think we should wake her? We're almost to Hogwarts." Remus asks, diverting the attention from my life.
"Yeah. Does anyone have a pillow?" James asks. I could practically feel Remus roll his eyes.
"Thalia." He says, gently shaking my shoulder.
"Yeah?" I mumble, nuzzling my face into his knee.
'Wake up, you dirty tramp! We're at Hogwarts!" Sirius screams at me. Without thinking, I throw my fist at him. It wasn't strong enough to break anything but it still hurt him.
"Oh, I'm sorry Sirius, are you okay?" I kneel beside him and cradle his face in my hands.
"Yeah, nothing's broken." He assures me, "It didn't even hurt."
I look at him skeptically. "So that's why there's tears in your eyes?"
"Totally, but hey, at least we match now, right?" He says gently touching my nose. I laugh at the thought. To be honest, I forgot about my nose; it stopped hurting when I got on the train. Behind us, James clears his throat. I sit back and look up at him innocently.
"We should change into our robes, we should be there shortly." I look out the window to find it dark. "We'll go change in the bathrooms and you can change here." They all grab their robes, along with mine. Before he leaves, James pulls the shade down so I'd have more privacy to change.
After five minutes, they came back changed and holding candy. "We got the trolly lady to give us more candy." Sirius says, plopping down beside me. He hands me a sugar quill and a chocolate frog.
"Thanks." Just then, the train halts, indicating that we're at Hogwarts. Excitement bubbles inside me and I couldn't help the grin that formed on my face. Finally, I'll be getting to go to the famous Hogwarts. And it's only a few minutes away.