Remus shook his head at his best friend and rolled his eyes at me but didn't say anything. I was sort of grateful for that, I couldn't gather my thoughts properly after that memory. Which was stupid because that wasn't even an overly bad one in my opinion. Certainly not compared to the crap I went through in my teens. So, we sat in silence for a few minutes, each to our own thoughts. Well, we did until my stomach rumbled. Loudly.

"Didn't we just eat?" Remus asked, amused.

I looked at the clock and shook my head. "That was ages ago. We haven't had lunch yet."

Remus looked vaguely surprised by the time. "Oh, it is time for lunch."

"Nothing for me," Sirius began then noticing the look on Remus' face. "Nothing big, I mean."

"Yes, I thought that's what you meant," Remus told him. "Sandwiches good?"

That was an easy agreement for the lot of us. And between the three of us, they didn't take too long to make though Remus refused to let Sirius put chocolate spread on his ham sandwiches - claimed it was a "travesty and waste of good chocolate". I sneakily handed the jar back to him when Remus was trying to find the butter. We decided to return to the living room to eat them, solely because Sirius wanted to "make his mother shriek in the afterlife".

"She does enough of that here," I complained but I followed him back in.

"So nof do ee oo wt sforted?" Sirius attempted to communicated with us through his sandwich, spraying crumbs everywhere.

I screwed up my nose in disgust and brushed them off me. There was still plenty of filth in the floor that they wouldn't do much harm. Remus looked disapprovingly at both of us.

"Really?" he asked with a sigh, only after carefully swallowing his final mouthful of sandwich and pointedly vanishing the crumbs of course.

"I'm not the slob," I complained.

"At the moment," Sirius said with a pointed look in my direction. "I've heard Kingsley speak of the horrors in your apartment."

"That was after three weeks of countless overtime hours," I complained. "I didn't have time to tidy."

"Even for guests?" Remus asked sceptically.

"Kingsley wasn't a guest. He side-alonged me home because I was dead on my feet."

That had been a horrific series of shifts last year. Neither man looked too convinced with my explanation. So, I did the mature, adult thing. I stuck my tongue out at them and made a pig snout. Everyone's response was always good for that trick. Even Remus' put-upon sigh.

"So, what were you trying to say, Sirius?" I asked, remembering what started our antics.

He gave me a blank look as he racked his memory, apparently coming to a blank. I looked at Remus who was giving Sirius a concerned look.

"Want me to continue? I haven't got to Hogwarts yet," I suggested to let Sirius save face.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger at me and causing his plate to tumble to the floor. "That's what I was asking!"

"You were going to ask about Hogwarts?" I asked slowly, surely that was that natural progression of my memories?

"Yes! I was asking if we were finally going to see you get sorted?"

"Yes, surely you can't have had anything else happen to you on the train ride?" Remus asked half-jokingly and half seriously.

"We-ell..."

1st September 1984

The train ride seemed to go by awful fast after that little incident. Before they knew it, the sky was starting to turn dark and the lights came on in the carriages. It was a bit of a weird look because it was duskier than properly dark.

They quickly became part of the crowds of students pouring out of the train, there were so many of them, not knowing where to go.

'Firs' years! Over here!" came a cheerful, gruff voice.

It sounded like it came from above her.

"Wow!" gasped James, pointing. "Look!"

Samantha and Dora followed his finger and gasped as well. The man shouting was a giant He chuckled at their faces.

"Me name's Hagrid," he told them kindly and directed them towards some boats before shouting for more first years.

It didn't take long for them all to be gathered together and then be ushered into a boat. Tonks looked at it dubiously as it rocked slightly when Samantha got into it.

"Don't end up in the water!" the girl teased her.

"There aren't any oars," Dora pointed out as she sat down.

"Maybe it's-" James began but he was cut off by Hagrid pulling out an umbrella?

Things were just getting weirder and weirder. Hagrid tapped the front of his boat (that he had to himself) and with a jerk forward they were off! Gliding across the water, the wind whipping around them. It was so cool!

"There's something moving under us!" a boy shrieked from a boat to the left of hers.

"Tha'll jus' be the Giant Squid," Hagrid said nonchalantly.

"There's a giant squid in the lake?" someone else demanded.

Personally, Dora thought that they emphasised the wrong word there...

"He won't do you no harm," Hagrid assured them. "'e's very friendly."

"Wicked," she heard the red-headed boy in the boat ahead of them, leaning over the back of the boat.

It tipped dangerously and someone tried to pull him back. The boy grinned at them as he yanked back.

"Hi, I'm Charlie Weasley," he greeted cheerfully, landing with a thump on his own boat.

"Hi," everyone on her boat waved back. Seemed like the polite thing to do anyway.

More screams came as something rose from the water. It was gruesome. It was slimy. It was ... a tentacle?

"Oh, look! It's waving!" Charlie said excitedly, almost jumping down as he waved back at the tentacle.

The tentacle stretched forward, as if it was looking for something, making everyone in that boat scream in terror - except for Charlie, of course.

"It wants to shake hands!" Charlie stated gleefully, leaning over the edge of the boat again with his own hand outstretched.

"Shake tentacles more like," Tonks whispered to her friends, making them chuckle nervously as they kept their wide eyes on the scene in front of them.

It all happened so fast; Charlie kept reaching put - leaning further and further out of the boat with only his feet I'm the boat - until gravity took over.

'SPLASH'

Everyone in Tonks' boat were hit by a spray of water he produced. She squealed along with everyone else, the water was cold. But where was the Weasley boy?

Hagrid seemed to be wondering that too as he also leaned towards the water. Dora felt some panic flood through her, the only adult couldn't fall in too!

She needn't have worried because, with deftness that belied his size, Hagrid reached into the water and yanked something out! It was Charlie Weasley! A half-drowned, red-faced, spluttering Charlie Weasley. Hagrid gave him a shake and unceremoniously threw his back into his own boat. His fellow passengers didn't look best pleased with him.

AN: Don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile for what fandom you want me to write next for! Thanks for reading!