Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
"Lily!" Treasure shouted, causing many people to turn around and stare at her. Well, of course they would - in an attempt to make her trip by magic carpet as authentic as possible, Treasure had dressed herself in numerous scarves, lined her eyes with dark black kohl, and had even gone so far as to steal her mother's bangle bracelets from her jewelry box. Everyone else was either in their plain robes for everyday, or business attire. Treasure almost looked as out of place as she would on a Muggle street. She ignored the odd and exasperated looks, however, and pushed back her hair impatiently. Grabbing her black book bag she hurried over to her red-haired best friend, and grinned at a bewildered looking bellboy to follow with her trunk and Snow's birdcage. Those had been sent mere minutes ago by Floo powder.
"Oh, Treasure I missed you so much!" Lily exclaimed, throwing her arms around Treasure. Then, holding her friend at arms length, Lily asked, "What are you wearing?"
Treasure grinned. "It was my first magic carpet ride. I wanted the full experience," she explained. She smirked when she saw Petunia hanging back behind Mr. and Mrs. Evans, a look of disbelief on her face and disgust curling her lip.
"Pleased to see you again, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Evans," Treasure said, holding out her hand to shake. Mr. Evans was tall and a bit thin, with a shock of red hair and bright blue eyes. "It's good to see you too, young lady. I hope you've been staying out of trouble?" he said, shaking her hand.
"On my honor, sir!" Treasure said, saluting. She grinned at the amused look with which he appraised her apparel and turned to smile at Mrs. Evans.
"Oh, hello dear I'm so glad to see you've arrived all right! I hope you'll enjoy staying with us," the petite blonde woman said, taking Treasure's hand. Treasure certainly saw where Lily got her eyes from: Mrs. Evans had deep green eyes.
"Oh, Mrs. Evans, I'm sure I'll love staying with you. Thank you so much!" Treasure said happily. Looking behind Mr. Evans she could see Petunia, Lily's twin, who was glaring at her with much dislike. Treasure felt a smirk tug at her lips. "Hello, Petunia!" she said brightly. "Do you have any idea how happy I am to see you again? Lily's told me quite a lot about you, you know. I hear you've got a boyfriend, now?" Treasure said, and Lily bit her tongue to keep from laughing. Lily's sister was one hundred percent Muggle, and unreasonably terrified of any bit of magic Lily so much as spoke about. In all probability, Petunia thought that Treasure was extending a magical threat towards her boyfriend. The blond girl bristled angrily and turned her nose up in the air, not gracing Treasure with an answer.
Petunia was tall and thin, like her father. She had dirty blonde hair that she kept back in a perfect ponytail, blue eyes also like her father, and quite a long neck which might have been elegant had she not been holding herself so tensely. If she hadn't been scowling so intently, she might have been pretty but Treasure doubted whether Petunia even had another facial expression in reserve. While Mr. And Mrs. Evans were smiling at their red-haired daughter proudly, Petunia looked positively furious.
"Oh, let her alone, Treasure," Lily whispered, as her parents and Petunia turned to walk out of the port. Treasure linked arms with her best friend, too content to start pushing Petunia's buttons right away.
"And what was that you wrote about me, how did you so eloquently put it, gallivanting with Sirius?" Treasure snorted in a very un-ladylike way.
"Oh, don't tell me you are off by yourself all the times you decide not to go to class," Lily said. They were in Lily's room after having just finished cleaning the table after dinner. Lily was helping Treasure finish up her Transfiguration essay.
Treasure rolled her eyes. "Well, actually, I was," she said indignantly.
"Oh really?" Lily asked suspiciously. "Then what ever did you do?"
"Sometimes I went up to the Common Room and read, or slept. Most times I went ot the forest. Sometimes I just walked about the castle trying to find secret exits and such, or to give the Caretaker a heart attack…and sometimes I went into Hogsmeade and bought candy. Didn't you even wonder why I never ran out of Every Flavor Beans, or Chocolate Frogs?" Treasure answered, scribbling down another sentence.
"I don't know why you skived off, classes aren't bad at all," Lily said thoughtfully.
"I didn't cut out that much…only once or twice a month," she said. Lily raised an eyebrow. "What! It's true. And it was only Potions!" Treasure said defensively. Lily chuckled.
"Treasure, Potions is your worst class. Maybe the reason that it's your worst class is because you barely show up."
"Maybe its because Professor Slughorn is a bloody b--" Treasure started to say, but the door opened and in the doorway stood Mrs. Evans. "--ad teacher," Treasure finished lamely.
Mrs. Evans smiled, "Time for bed, dears, even though you can sleep late tomorrow but you must keep up your health! You'll be going back to school in two days, you don't want to look haggard do you?"
"No," the girls chorused.
Mrs. Evans smiled and flicked out the light. "Good night girls," she said. Lily listened to make sure her mother had gone downstairs, then turned to Treasure.
"I'm not part of the Slug Club, remember, Lils?" Treasure said. Lily shrugged. As Professor Slughorn's favorite student, Lily couldn't possibly see the problem Treasure had with him. She, Lily, quite enjoyed Potions and even the little dinner parties that Professor Slughorn held for all of the more gifted Potions students. She didn't seem to catch on that the parties weren't so much for the more talented students as they were for the more well-connected students - and Lily was the only Muggle-born invited. It was a sort of favoritism that Treasure didn't care for one bit, and Slughorn's rather ingratiating attitude toward the members of the Slug Club rather sickened her.
"Perhaps if you didn't decide that you'd rather attempt to make up your own potions from scratch, you would have more success," Lily teased.
"Perhaps if you didn't spend all your time going over the notable attributes of lacewing flies and bezoars with Snivellus, I wouldn't have to amuse myself by creating my own potions!" Treasure retorted.
"Don't call him that! You sound like Potter!" Lily said testily. Treasure bit her lip to keep from snapping back that James Potter was a great sight better company than Severus Snape, with his sick fascination with the Dark Arts. She didn't want to start a fight with Lily, especially not before school started again. And even more than that, she didn't want Lily to know that she was jealous and worried that Snape might be closer to her than she, Treasure, was. Ridiculous, Treasure thought to herself.
"So are you sure that's all you did? You were always by yourself?" Lily asked tentatively, trying to ease the rather awkward silence. Treasure squirmed uncomfortably. "What?" Lily asked.
"Well, once I dueled with that absolute cow, Bellatrix Black. Snooty little wretch - she was cutting class too and going on about how you were a…you know. About how your parents are Muggles. It was because you sent those fire salamanders up her robes in Care of Magical Creatures, remember?"
was an accident!" Lily said defensively. Treasure rolled her eyes.So I hexed her. Nearly took her nose off too," Treasure continued proudly.Lily gasped. "Oh you shouldn't have, Treasure! You could have gotten into so much trouble!" she said.
Treasure shrugged, "So I would've gotten detention and maybe lost some points for Gryffindor. But little Bella would have been in more trouble for carting around all the answers to the Transfiguration test that McGonagall was threatening us with…If McGonagall found out, I'm sure she would have let Og string her up by her ankles in the Great Hall." Og was the caretaker of Hogwarts Castle. He was pretty much magically inept - he wasn't exactly a Squib, but a relatively talented third year could have easily held her own against the man in a duel. What Og lacked in talent, however, he made up in sour temperament. He was known for pushing the boundaries when it came to student punishments for breaking the rules and anyone who crossed him once wasn't eager to do so again.
Lily laughed. "So whatever became of those answers, anyway?"
"Took 'em, memorized 'em, and burned 'em," Treasure said promptly.
Lily threw a pillow at her best friend and rolled over to go to sleep. She wasn't really expecting anything different.
The next two days passed surprisingly quickly, and soon Lily and Treasure were waving good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Petunia glaring nastily at them as they boarded the train. Treasure blew Petunia a kiss just to see the look of complete disgust on Lily's sister. Lily laughed. "You really ought to stop teasing her," she said, and darted off to the Prefects' cabin for a few moments as was required.
Treasure sighed happily, sitting down in the empty car that they had all to themselves and waiting for Lily's return. "I am so happy to be back here," she said when her redheaded friend entered, looking irritated. Treasure took out her wand. "I finally get to use this baby again…I was wandsick all summer," she said, flicking her wand and grinning when Gryffindor red and gold sparks shot out of it.
"But I thought you were allowed to practice magic in America?" Lily took out her wand as well and waved it, making multicolored bubbles bloom from the tip. They decided to brush up on old spells to pass the time on the train. Treasure explained that in America, underage witches and wizards are allowed to do magic during the holidays, provided that an adult was in the room. Break the law, and there were serious consequences. Treasure wouldn't be considered of age until she turned eighteen.
"And my parents were never home," she griped, disgruntled. "They always had some gala or another to go to." Treasure's father was an architect, and he specialized in creating design schemes for buildings that could coexist with the Muggle world. It was a flourishing field, and the Belles were reaping the benefits - which is why Treasure was often left to amuse herself alone. Since all her friends were across the ocean, there wasn't much for Treasure to do in Muggle Manhattan. Lily patted her friend's hand gently, and the two resumed their wand waving in silence.
"Oh, how quaint," a cold voice drawled from behind them. Treasure turned around and narrowed her eyes.
"What do you want, Bellatrix?" she demanded coldly. The waiflike brunette grinned maliciously. It seemed that she had waited eagerly all summer to pick a fight with the Gryffindors again.
"Just wanted to see what an American moron and a Mudblood would be doing to pass the time. And I still owe you for that duel in the hallway, Belle," she said sourly.
"Watch your mouth. And - I'm sorry - you called that a duel? Because I thought it was me jinxing you until you slipped away like the cowardly snake you are, Black!" Treasure snapped.
Bellatrix's face paled angrily for a moment, but then she grinned. "I think its you who had better watch your mouth, after all you are talking to a Prefect," she said, pointing her wand at Treasure.
"Everyone knows you pure-bloods marry your cousins…with all that inbreeding, I suppose there's bound to be a day when you're the best option Slytherin's got for prefect."
"Shut up!" Bellatrix spat angrily. "My blood is purer than yours could ever hope to be!"
"I don't hope for pure blood at all! Only fools believe that a witch's blood makes the slightest difference!" Treasure snapped back.
"Oh, is this a fight?" a third voice said. It belonged to Sirius Black, who had sauntered in with James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. "We haven't even reach the castle yet and already you're causing trouble, Belle?" he continued. He sounded impressed. His lip curled when he saw his cousin, however, and his demeanor suddenly became icy.
"Oh great, now our car is full of four more idiots," Lily muttered.
Treasure laughed. "Oh, come on, Remus is not an idiot," she said, catching Lily's eye, and nodding her head in James's general direction. Lily scowled at her.
"Whoa, calm down Evans," James said.
Lily glared at him, "What do you want?" she asked. She had seen him secretly set fire to a first year's trunk, only to put out the bright blue flames moments later to the awe of the terrified first years. Lily thought scathingly that James probably fancied himself their hero now. James shrugged, ruffling his hair, and Lily's eyes narrowed even further.
"Nothing. But you're scowling hard enough to make one of the Valkyrie curl up in fright," he replied with a cheeky grin. Lily said nothing, but her right hand twitched toward her wand as if she was just itching to hex him. Sirius was looking between the two of them with a grin. He caught Treasure's eye, and she grinned back.
"Hey, Moony, who do you reckon would win this little duel?" Sirius said, as Treasure still had her one hand on her hip and her wand pointed towards Eva.
"Don't start, Sirius," Treasure warned.
"I think it would be Treasure here, she's got a lot of fire," Sirius continued in his infuriating drawl. He looked a Treasure in a way that made her face heat, which had never happened before. Practically since their Sorting, Treasure Belle and Sirius Black had had it in for each other, each one constantly trying to top the other when it came to practical jokes and trouble-making. Now, Treasure reflected, Sirius had changed a bit over one summer. He was always rather good-looking, but now he towered at least a head taller than her, and Treasure was no pixie. His hair was a bit longer than it had been last year, and his gray eyes twinkled mischievously but not without a certain amount of infuriating charm.
Treasure shook herself out of her thoughts and glared at him, embarrassed. "Yeah, I'll deal with her and then turn my wand on you," she said, but her lips twitched upwards in an unmistakable smile. Apparently she had decided that she liked the new attention he was paying her and didn't care if Sirius knew it.
"There wont be a bloody duel, because we are nearly at Hogwarts--" Lily said firmly.
"And little Bella here wouldn't fit in a teaspoon if there was one," Treasure said, glaring at the Slytherin.
Sirius barked a laugh.
"What are you fighting about anyway?" Remus asked mildly. Treasure lowered her wand and turned toward Remus.
"This cow came in here just to call Lily a --" she began saying but was knocked in the back with a spell that just glanced off her, but made her right arm seize up in pain as if were being burned. "Ow!" she yelled and turned around to see Eva leaving.
"Hey!" Sirius and James yelled, brandishing their wands.
"Oh, let her get away, stupid cow," Treasure said, getting up and rubbing her arm where she landed on it. She pulled her robes up and saw her skin turning into an angry plain of mottled red blisters. She bit her lip and prodded one with the tip of her wand, and bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, swearing under her breath at the pain.
Lily was shaking with anger. "That little…I'll get her, I really will," she fumed.
"Oh, calm down Lils, I'm fine. No harm done, really - just pull me some dittany out of your bag? Thanks. We're here anyway," Treasure said, angry that she'd let Bellatrix get the better of her and eager to change the subject..
"Yeah, Evans, don't worry about it," James said, ruffling his messy hair with another sly grin.
Lily glared at him again. "Don't talk to me, Potter, your were no help," she said, walking past him with an arm around Treasure.
"What is wrong with her?" James asked, and Sirius shrugged. His eyes were on Treasure as they walked away.