The Game

Chapter 1: Entrances and Impressions

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." -Confucius

Sara, that's me, cringed at the amount of people, all shape, sizes, smells and what I expected as being, enthusiasm? I thought my heart restarted slightly as a patter of nostalgia hit me. It had been 5 years since I had seen this many bodies in one place so carelessly happy and 6 years since I'd been sorted into Gryffindor. Daydreaming about having a life has long since left me feeling empty as I continued on my way along the platform to complete a job given to me. My palms started to sweat with anxiety as I stepped on the large red steam engine pulling a large trunk along at my heels was promptly put in a storage area by a wizard.

I clutched a smaller hand bag, containing some galleons, wand and my school robes. Trying and failing to look unnoticeable, meandered my way along the hallway that lead to various compartments hoping for an empty one. I needed to breath and relax but I was so nervous that the ability to do so momentarily left me. Why, I pleaded,am I the one stuck doing the dirty work. Needless to say, I am thoroughly irritated at this point.Even that freezing, shoddy room is better than being forced to do this. Frowning, the image of a light brown hair boy came to her mind. My little brother, Mathew, and I had been put in the custody of their horrid aunt the 5 years ago after their parents deaths.

A sigh escaped, I quickly entered a compartment that was empty. Good lord! If I'm this nervous already how in thename of everything good and right am Igoing to complete this task before I amforced to return. In all fairness, I wasn't a hurtful person, but if this is the only way to release my brother and I from the Parkinson family, so be it.

My head snapped up at the entrance of two girls close my own age.

"Oh!" the darker haired of the two took immediate notice. "Hey, sorry! May we join you? The other compartments are filling up pretty quickly." she squinted her eyes slightly at me along with the pretty red head beside her.

"I remember you! Didn't you transfer after our first year? Is your name Susan?" The red head asked through a questionable voice, wincing as if she herself knew it was wrong.

I kept my face still and tried not to be awkward. "Sara Sinclair," trying at a smile "of course you can sit here. I don't know many people well yet." Internally, I winced. Nice job not sounding like a social outcast. I scolded myself.

Bright smiles lit both of their faces, "My name is Lily Evans and this is Marlene McKinnon!" Marlene glanced the redhead, Lily.

Marlene sent a flip of dark hair over her shoulder and returned her attention back to me while promptly flopping herself on the bench across me. "Its nice to meet you.. again." she let out a small laugh. Lily sat in the seat beside me after placing her small bag in the storage above our heads and scowled at Marlene for her laziness at just plopping her own to the floor at her feet.

My feet shift slightly as I studied the two girls momentarily while Lily badgered Marlene for her untidiness that Lily had been exposed to over the years. Marlene was tall and slender with dark hair that almost looked black. Her eyes were a sharp clear blue that almost gave her a haughty look and her bottom lip was full that made her look almost as if she had a constant pout with a button nose. Lily was shorter than Marlene with beautiful, wavy, red hair, perfectly set green eyes, that rivaled my own best feature, with pale skin and an empowering yet soft feeling to her character. Feeling slight jealously at how beautiful both girls are, I looked at my own reflection in the window. Of course, I never felt ugly but also felt lacking so much in what these girls had. Suddenly, I felt uglier staring at my freckles versus their flawless skin. The tan I had acquired over the summer was light, eyes weren't as bright as they used to be and my hair constantly got in the way or tangled in places that normal people never had to deal with, like doors, jacket zippers or generally any where equally inconvenient. Letting out a small puff of air I turned from the window to find two set of eyes looking at her expectantly.

"Er…" pausing, "what was that?"

"Where did you transfer to after first year?" asked Marlene, eyes bright and kind.

"Oh," I paused before rehearsing the story I had drilled into me over the last two months. "My family and I moved to America. After my parents passed away my aunt moved me back here to complete my schooling." It wasn't a complete lie. We did move to the Americas and I also came back and finished my schooling here. It had only been a month however, after moving that my parents died mysteriously. And I had been doing schooling along with my brother, only it wasn't in a school but a molding, basement room to be hidden and conditioned from the outside world.

"America?" Lily looked on interested, "What was it like there?"

I gave a small smile, "I missed pumpkin juice something dreadful, in fact, all the food there is so different." It was one thing I remembered most about being in America.

"There you two are! Dor and I have been looking everywhere for you. Dor got into an argument with that toad, Malfoy, and it wasn't pretty." A short light brown haired girl entered the compartment followed closely by an extremely annoyed looking blond.

Lily's eyes flickered briefly in excitement before she settled in a disapproving face and Marlene released an excited grin.

"What did you do?" they both questioned in different tones.

"Nothing much," waved the blond while claiming a spot beside Marlene. "He is just learning what a slime ball he is by vomiting slugs." The other brunette made herself comfortable beside Lily after she shoved both bags beside my own.

"Are you two insane?" rebuked an irritated Lily. "You both know I am a prefect this year. I should give you both detention and we haven't even reached the school yet!"

"Aw, come on Lily. You know he deserved it!" the blonde brushed off turning to me and quirked an eyebrow to seeing me for the first time. Lily scowled at being brushed off so nonchalantly.

Lily opened her mouth to retort but the new brunette beat her to it by quickly introducing her self to me.

"I'm Alice Newton." The girl was short with big brown eyes and had a slight dusting of freckles across her pale face.

"Sara Sinclair" I supplied with a curious smile.

"Dorcas Meadowes" the blond supplied nonchalantly with a lazy smile and brown eyes glowing intelligently.

I was slightly taken aback by the four girls who all had different personalities and kindness. Were most people so warm and kind? I smiled and felt myself finally relax as we talked about sweets and everything books. Well, technically it was just Lily, Alice and I discussing books we enjoyed reading while Marlene and Dorcas took to playing a game of exploding snap. After, once being quite good, I asked to join in.

I stuck my pinky in my mouth and cursed myself for not being quicker to avoid the burn enough while Marlene cackled at her success. Lips pursed, I waited to see what Dorcas chose to play. We had somehow landed in a circle on the floor while Lily and Alice lounged horizontal on opposite benches reading. Smiling to myself, this must be how it feels to be careless and have friends. The sickening feeling of remembering the only reason I was here working its way into my stomach was abruptly interrupted with panic. As if I was doing something wrong and instantly flinching back when the door slammed open.

"Sinclair," sneered a particularly disgusting blond head while smirking. Malfoy, what do you want now? I thought to myself knowing I was safe at this particular moment although sure my face revealed how much I disliked him being here with his typical flankey's at his back. Dorcas growled at him and Marlene stood to her feet ready to pounce. Lily looked curiously to me while Alice looked thoroughly irritated at having said blond interrupting their peaceful bonding. "Just checking on my favorite cousin as I was making my patrolling rounds.

"In case you weren't aware, Malfoy, I am a prefect as well." Argued, having turned her dangerously green eyes back on him sparing me for the moment. "Sara is quite safe here." She said in a clear voice while eyeing him watchfully. I suddenly felt inadequate for not standing up for myself. I looked down and I could already feel the smirks on me from Malfoy, Dolohov, Parkinson and Goyle.

Just as suddenly the door slammed shut closed almost catching Malfoy's nose in it while the hall filled with a black smoke.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What?

Marlene and Dorcas started laughing whole heartedly and Alice chuckled. Lily fetched her wand and stopped in front of the door as if unsure of herself.

"Don't do it Lily!" Marlene begged her to not open the door while Dorcas tried to grab at her legs in her still seated position.

Lily promptly ignored her filling the compartment that smelled close to a room full of everything that anyone has eaten and been returned from the worst part of a persons body. Dungbombs! And a lot of them! My eyes watered, I covered my mouth and nose as I tried not to vomit all over. I quickly recovered my wand from my satchel through watery eyes.

"Ventus" I whispered, being sure to hold my magic back in order to keep from hurting anyone in the twister. Instead of the whirlwind a soft breeze was produced to push out the terrible smell. Typically, this is particularly hard and takes a lot of self control to alter spells in and of themselves.

Lily had disappeared and could be heard arguing with a boy who claimed to be only protecting her and if only she had stayed in the room she wouldn't smell the way she had growled about. The other three girls hauled themselves in the hallway as I poked my head out to see Malfoy and the others apparently cleared out on the appearance of dungbombs and the four boys at the end of the compartment section. Two had dark hair, ones hair curled slightly and paired with, bored, light eyes and the other had messy hair as if he was just blown in on the wind and glasses that covered sparkling caramel eyes. The other two had blond hair. The one with lighter hair of the two was shorter than the other three with extremely light blue eyes and the last was tallest and had a dusting of blond with dark eyes.

I squinted slightly trying to get a better look. The dark haired boy with light eyes flickered at us standing outside the compartment door and released a wide smile at the girls. Marlene visibly shifted popping one of her hips out as Alice just sighed bored and walked past me into the compartment, followed closely by Dorcas. I stood straight and turned inside, hearing a voice behind me speaking to Marlene.

"Hey Marls, introduce me to your new friend?"

Marlene shuffled and in an irritated voice told him to do his own work as she sauntered her way back into the room resuming her previous seat on the bench across from me and picked at her nails irritably. I stared out the window and Alice shifted beside me uncomfortably. Dorcas pushed her feet up on the bench across from herself, seated beside Marlene, effectively cutting off said boys entrance. "What's the magic word?" She smirked at him.

He winced and recited, "Dorcas is the best quidditch player on the team." There was a pause before her feet hit the floor. I looked away from the window through the corner of my eye to see two of the four boys had entered the small safe haven after said magic words were, grudgingly, uttered by a very handsome black haired boy sitting between Marlene and Dorcas. He had arms draped across the back of the seat while the other boy with brown eyes and blond hair sat beside Alice, smiled kindly at her introducing himself as Remus Lupin. I gave a small smile back as Alice, excitedly, told him my name. She looked briefly embarrassed of herself for a moment until I offered a reassuring smile to assure her I didn't mind.

"Sinclair?" the boy across from me questioned. My eyes moved over to him.

"Yes," I repeated nervously.

"You are the first year that transferred out."

My eyebrow raised, "yes," I answered slowly.

"I'm Sirius Black. Don't mind the name. I'm rarely that serious." whilst laughing at his own, tired, joke I leaned back in my seat to properly assess my assignment and rolled my eyes. Only fools laughed at their own jokes, I thought staring unwittingly at the striking boy across from me.