{a/n Okay, yes, this story was posted before, but I took it down because I wanted to revamp it a little bit. Yes, the chapters are longer, better, and with fewer spelling/word errors. Note I said fewer. There probably are some still, but the part in the next chapter will say 'smiled' in stead of just smile. Thank you.}
Mistakes of the Past: Chapter 1
WelcomingThe red haired girl had been sleeping on her suitcase since at least 5:00 A.M., when the train station opened. She was a little on the short side, and pretty thin, but not quite anorexic like. She was positioned right between the 9th and 10th gates.
At around 10:00 a boy woke her up. It's a very startling thing to be woken up by someone staring at you straight in the face, and the girl nearly screamed. The boy, who had dark hair and shining blue eyes, laughed slightly.
"James, I'm going to kill you!" the girl said with clenched teeth. She hit him in the arm, playfully. "What are you doing here?"
"The same thing you are, Casey. I hope." James said with a grin. "I'm going to school here."
"You're mom actually let you come here?" Casey's eyes were wide. "That's so... shocking."
"Enough, Casey. I had originally thought that she was going to try to keep us apart. Didn't you say you were going to Salem?" James asked.
"Right, me, give up an opportunity to leave the country. Are you insane? Come on, I think we're allowed to get on the platform now." Casey got up, looked around, and walked through the bars between the two gates, with James following her.
The train wasn't there yet, but they were an hour early. They weren't the only ones, either. It was mostly families with young children that were there; kids who were starting their first year and were very attached to their parents. James and Casey sat down on the bench near the gate. Casey found a newspaper. On the cover was a picture of Sirius Black, with a headline that said, "Black still on the loose."
"Wow, they still haven't caught him?" Casey said, reading the article. "What's so hard?" The second comment was directed to one of the gate attendants.
He just shrugged. "You two are new in town, aren't you?" They both nodded. "You hear about what happened last year? He broke into the school. They caught him, and then he slipped through their fingers." He shook his head. "It's a shame to our government when they can't keep someone caught."
"Yes, well," another man said, "there haven't been any reports of some psycho killing anyone." Everyone that heard laughed, except for James. He just looked a bit thoughtful. "What are your names?"
"I'm Cassandra Davy, Casey for short," Casey told him with a smile. He smiled back.
"James," was all that James told him.
"What, no last name?" the man asked him, while Casey gave him a strange look.
"Conner." Just then the train rolled in. James and Casey hurried aboard with their belongings.
"James what the hell was that?" Casey asked when they were aboard. "Are you okay? You look a little angry."
"Casey, shut up or I'll make you shut up."
"Aw, does someone need a nap? Must be that whole jet lag, time change thing. Makes everyone cranky." Casey was joking, but with a frown on her face. James just glared. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
Eventually a group of three people wandered in, and sat down across from them. It was a red-haired boy, and black-haired boy and a brunette girl. The black haired boy pulled out a piece of parchment and they began to read it, huddled around. James and Casey decided to ignore the new group, since the group seemed to be ignoring them.
"So, James, really, why did your mom send you here? You obviously don't think it's safe here."
"How is it 'obvious'?" James said, with curiosity.
"You seem to be getting angry a lot more than you do at home. And you do seem to be in more danger than say, me." Casey gave a face of "you know I have a point there".
James just rolled his eyes. "You've been talking to me for less than a half an hour, how can you tell I'm angry a lot more?"
"James, I see you like 24-7. We live next door to each other." She looked across the compartment and saw that the other group was looking at them. "Yes?" she asked them. "What do you want?" The other kids just glanced at each other. "Oh, I see. You must all be mute." She looked at James. "Or foreign. They speak English here right?"
"We understand you," the messy, dark-haired boy said, finally.
"Barely," the other boy put in.
"Well, whatever. My name's Casey Davy. This," she pointed to James, "is James Black."
James glared and Casey, but she just ignored him. It was fun for her, at least.
"Nice to meet you," the girl told them. "I'm Hermione Granger. That," she pointed to the tall red-head, "is Ron Weasley."
"I'm Harry Potter," the other boy told them.
Part of Casey's mind said Oh really, while the other part was cracking up at an old joke between her and James. The joke was that early last year, in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, James had made a joke about their learning about Lord Voldemort. He had asked the teacher why they had to learn about "a European nutcase while in America." Their teacher had not been pleased, but it was still something to laugh about. Casey later told him that he was a "European nutcase" being that he was born in Europe.
Back on the train, Harry and co. were looking at them like they were crazy as they tried not to laugh out loud. "Sorry," Casey said with a smile, "inside joke."
"You're not from around here, are you," Ron asked suspiciously.
"Like, duh," Casey told him, doing her best valley girl impersonation.
Ron looked around. "Can I have a translator please? Somebody? Anybody?"
Exasperated, Casey through her hands up in the air. "I'm speaking English!" she exclaimed.
"No, I'm speaking English," Ron said, tapping his lips. "You're speaking something else."
"James, we speak English in 'Frisco, right? Or do we speak American?" Casey asked thoughtfully.
James shrugged and rubbed his temples. "Yes, we speak English. Stop yelling you're giving me a headache."
"So you're from America? Where in?" Hermione asked, cordially. She smiled.
"Yeah, California. San Francisco, actually." James responded. "And I assume you can understand me?" he asked Ron, dryly. Ron only shrugged.
"Why are you going to Hogwarts then?" Harry asked. "I mean, London is a long way from California, if I'm correct."
"Our old school stopped being a school. Something about the owners. Casey, you would know something about that, wouldn't you?" James asked her. "Casey's mom was the co-owner of the school. Helped found it, I believe."
"James, why the hell would my mom tell me something like that? It's not like she actually talks to me about the past like your mom does."
"Casey, if you do not shut up I will hit you," James said through clenched teeth.
"And he hits hard, too," a little girl said from the doorway. She grinned and ran off in the direction she came in.
"Lilly, I'll kill you!" James screamed in her direction.
"That was his sister," Casey explained. "Isn't she cute?" Harry, Ron and Hermione smiled. James glared. "If you keep doing that, your face will freeze in that expression."
"You know, my mom keeps telling me that."
"Maybe you should listen to her."
"You keep talking about stuff we don't know about. Either stop or fill us in, because this is very interesting," Hermione was saying. "You two act like an old married couple."
Casey laughed. "We've know each other since we were born. Our mother's are friends. They were teachers at our old school, also."
"Really? I would be devastated if my mom was a teacher. What did they teach?" Hermione asked. Casey noticed she seemed to be doing most of the talking.
"My mom taught Defense Against the Dark Arts and Mrs. Davy taught Potions." A shiver passed through the other group of kids.
"What's wrong?" Casey asked.
"The potions teacher here is really nasty." Harry said simply. "Almost evil."
"That's too bad, I like potions." Casey looked disappointed.
"Well, actually, he's nice to the Slytherins. That reminds me, what houses are you guys in?" Ron asked them.
"My mom talked to the headmaster, and I guess James's did too," Casey said, looking at James. He nodded. "And they said to see them and be sorted before everyone else so that we don't have to be embarrassed, because we're so much older than the first years"
"That makes sense," Hermione agreed. James nodded.
"Oh, my mom also told me that a few other students had been accepted, like, um, Britlynne and Megan and Jassa. Britt's our age," Casey told the others, "and the other two are third year twins. And," she turned to James, "'Rus made it, too!"
"Oh dear god help us all," James muttered, "I get to be beaten to death by you, Lilly and your brother."
"I heard that. He's going to get to be sorted with everyone else; he's a first year."
"How cute, I always wished I had a brother," Hermione said.
"No, you don't" Ron and James said at the same time. They looked at each other, then looked away.
They talked for the rest of the train ride, getting to know about each other. It seemed to go by pretty quickly. When they arrived at the castle, Casey, James, Lilly, Britt, Megan and Jassa were separated from the main group and taken to a separate room to be sorted. Britt was the only one who was really nervous. James was first sorted, and he went to Gryffindor. So did Lilly, Casey, and Britt. Megan went to Ravenclaw and Jassa to Slytherin. They made it back to the Great Hall in time to watch the first years get sorted.
Casey sat next to Hermione at the table during the sorting. When her brother's name was called out, "Severus Davy!" she looked up at the teacher's table and saw that one of the teachers was looking at the little boy with a look that screamed hatred.
"Who's that?" she asked Hermione, pointing to the teacher.
"Severus Snape, the Potions teacher. Beware."
Casey nodded. "Well, I'll tell 'Rus to be careful around him. Though I doubt he'll listen. The only person he'll take warning from is our mom, and then only sometimes." She shrugged. "Whatever."
After the dinner (which Casey described as "English, but tasty"), Headmaster Dumbledore stood up to make a few announcements.
"As all of our returning students remember, at the end of last year we were down a DADA teacher. And now, technically, we still are." He smiled at the sea of confused looking faces. "We have hired a knew teacher, unfortunately, she will not be here until tomorrow morning." Everyone looked relived. "You will all meet her then. Now, to bed! You all have classes tomorrow, I believe."
Casey had trouble sleeping that night. She was afraid of something here; a bad feeling crept over her in the quiet dark. "Don't be silly," she whispered to herself, "Mom grew up here, and she survived. I can too." After much tossing and turning, she finally fell asleep.
During breakfast, they all got their schedules. The fourth years had Potions first, then DADA.
"Good," Britt said, "We get to be one of the first ones to meet the new teacher."
"Potions first is nothing to be excited about, you guys," Harry told her. "Professor Snape is a menace."
"Are you afraid of a teacher, Harry?" James asked him.
"No, I've just had some rather unpleasant experiences with him the last three years."
"Can we please change the subject?" a boy names Neville asked. He was very much so afraid of Snape.
"Sure. When are Quidditch tryouts? I'm interested in playing," Casey told them all.
"In a few weeks, but there are no empty positions," Harry told her.
"We'll see about that," Casey challenged. "Who's the captain for Gryffindor?"
"My older brothers, George and Fred. They're twins, and the team Beaters," Ron answered. He pointed them out at the other end of the table. "I guess you can talk to them later," he said as the bell ending breakfast rang. "Come on."
In Potions, they had a review test on something they had learned the year before. They only one who had visible trouble was Neville, but not a lot of trouble. The California students had no trouble at all.
When they walked into the DADA classroom, the teacher was not there yet. This worried some of the students that the teacher was not even at school yet. But they did not have to wait long. Soon, a youngish woman with curly brown hair entered. The California students recognized her right away. It was James' mom.
{a/n Okay, now that you read the new and improved chapter, why don't you tell me what you thought was so much better about it?}