Chapter 2
Mischief on the Train
There was a massive clatter and a series of small thumps outside the compartment door. Rachel and Angelina, who had been joined by their best friends and partners-in-crime Jackie and Cathleen, looked up from their Exploding Snap game.
"What in the name of Merlin was THAT?" exclaimed Angelina, blunt as ever.
Just as Rachel was sliding open the door she was knocked to the ground but a tall, dark mass of something.
"Why, hello ladies," slurred Sirius Weasley from the doorway, with a mischievous sparkle in his green eyes.
Cathleen blushed and giggled furiously. Angelina crossed her arms and rolled her deep brown eyes.
"Don't you give us any of that crap Weasley, or the prefect here," she motioned to Rachel, who was trying to detangle herself, "will give you detention."
"If it isn't the Goody-Goody Gang back from summer." He smoothly put in, glancing around the compartment.
"Ger……offfff……ME!" Rachel yelled, with a final push to the form atop her. Paul Lupin stood up, hair tousled and face as red as a tomato.
If there was one person Rachel did not want to see on her first day back at Hogwarts, it was Paul. He could get on her nerves faster than any one she knew, Peeves the Poltergeist included.
"Oh no," She groaned, "You're a prefect too?"
Paul glanced down at the shiny blue and silver badge on his chest as though seeing it for the first time.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" he retorted. With a roll of his eyes he stormed out of the compartment.
"Sorry about that ladies, me mates got his knickers all in a bunch. I'll sort him out shortly." Sirus bowed, (which caused an even larger eyeroll and an exasperated grunt from Angelina) and left.
"I cannot STAND that boy," Rachel thought to herself as she smoothed her robes and straightened her own prefect's badge.
Jackie seemed oblivious to this whole situation, sitting behind her issue of Teen Witch Weekly. It came as quite a shock when she suddenly remarked, "You're in love with Paul, aren't you Rachel?"
"WHAT?!" ejected Rachel, with the tiniest hint of a blush creeping into her cheeks. "Lupin?! PAUL LUPIN? SICK! I would rather be in Snape's N.E.W.T. class that love that toad."
Jackie seemed unfazed, however, and just shrugged her shoulders. Cathleen and Angelina shared an unspoken look of here-we-go-again and hurriedly pulled out the remaining Exploding Snap packs. It was going to be quite a sixth year….
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hogwarts Express grinded to a halt at Hogsmeade Station that evening. As the students exited the train, Rachel and the other prefects gathered up the first years and pointed them towards Hagrid, the gamekeeper. The rest of the ride had been rather uneventful, with the girls playing games and chatting about summer vacation, and Sirius and Paul jabbering about Quidditch and how all girls must be mad.
It was drizzling slightly, not uncommon for September, and Rachel shivered slightly despite her heavy robes. Lupin, standing nearby, offered her his cloak.
"Oh, right, like I'd take anything from you," Rachel remarked, and backed away. "You've probably jinxed it to give me boils or something."
"Look Rachel, about what happened on the train…." Paul began.
"Oh don't even try it Lupin!" Rachel remarked, and walked off. Paul stuck his tongue out at her receding back and looked around for Sirius.
"It really is a miracle that his father was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this school ever had," thought Rachel absently, as she followed her friends to the carriages. She had never had a chance to actually meet Professor Lupin, seeing as he retired the year before his son came to Hogwarts.
"Come on Rachel! It's freezing out here!" whined Angelina, who to Rachel's surprise was already sitting in the carriage, along with Jackie and Cathy, and their boyfriends Will and Henry from Hufflepuff. Rachel clambered in, pausing to unhook her poofy blonde hair from a hook on the door, and not noticing the brown haired boy staring at her over the bustling crowd.