CHAPTER 3 – Into the Castle
Four boys were sitting in their compartment. One had an unruly mass of black hair, and glasses. The boy next to him had light blond hair, and many freckles. Across from the blond boy, sat the third boy, who also had blond hair, but was a little shorter than the rest of them. And next to him, was the fourth boy, who had longer, black hair. He was standing on the seat, trying to push his trunk onto the shelf above him.
"Sirius. Let me do it, I'm taller." The freckled boy said. He stood up and walked over to him.
"No! I told you I can do it!" He said, still struggling to push the box in.
"Frank, leave him be. If he hurts himself, it'll be all his fault." The boy with the messy hair said, sniggering.
"Stop it guys!" Sirius shouted, turning away from the trunk to yell at them. The trunk slid out from the shelf, and hit him in the back of the head, knocking him over.
Thethree boys still unharmed looked down at Sirius. The smaller blond boy started to laugh.
"Shut it Peter." Sirius said, sitting up. "I'm FINE."
The boy with messy hair stood up, and put Sirius' trunk back on the shelf.
"James! I could have done it!" He shouted, clearly annoyed.
"Siri—" James started, but was cut off. The door of the compartment had just slid open.
"Hey guys." Said the boy who was walking into the compartment. He was pale and thin, with light brown hair.
"Remus!" Frank said happily
"How was the prefect meeting?" James asked.
"Not bad actually. We have a new student actually. Not counting the first years. She's in our year. One of the Smythes." Remus said, raising an eyebrow. The boys were silent for a moment. Sirius stopped looking annoyed.
"So…" Frank said, "The Smythes are back in town."
"What?" Rachel said, bewildered. "I don't understand…"
"Your parents were magical too. Didn't you know that?" Lily said slowly.
"No! They never told me anything! I ran away to come here. Why wouldn't they tell me that?"
"Your parents left the magical world, a few years after they left school… I thought everyone knew that." Lily said.
"Well apparently not seeing as how I have lived a good 15 years of my life as a normal person, and this has been some big secret that the world has tried to cover up." Rachel said angrily.
"Well not the world, per se…" Alice added
"What?" Rachel asked, turning to Alice.
'Well the muggles haven't."
"Muggles?"
"Non magical people." Alice informed her.
"Ok so not the world… but a whole lot of people!" Rachel said throwing her hands up.
Just then the compartment door opened again.
"Look who's in here." a male voice drawled.
"I don't remember inviting you in Potter." Lily said icily.
"Well we aren't here to see you, Evans. We want to meet the new girl." Another male voice said. He pushed the compartment door open all the way.
It was Sirius Black, along with James, Remus, Frank, and Peter. The group walked in.
"Alice." Frank said
"Frank." She replied.
"So this is the new girl." James said, looking at Rachel. He held out his hand. "I'm James Potter."
Sirius stepped forward. "Sirius Black." He said, shaking her hand.
"Remus Lupin"
"He's prefect this year." Sirius said.
"I'm Frank Longbottom" Frank said shaking Rachel's hand.
"I'm Peter Pettigrew." The last boy said.
She shook all of their hands, and said hello.
"I'm Rachel Smythe." She said, "Peter, my father's name is Peter as well."
"Awful common name, it is." Sirius said. "He hates it, we hate it. You'll hate it too. That's why we call him Geraldo."
Peter opened his mouth in protest. "But—"
"Yes that's right Geraldo, we know you just love your new name." Sirius said clapping him on the shoulder. Rachel started to laugh.
"Ooo what's this?" Sirius said picking up Rachel's viola.
But before she could answer him, he had opened the clasps on the case.
Her viola fell out, and crashed to the floor, breaking into pieces.
Rachel stared at the broken pieces that were once her viola.
"You IDIOT!" she shouted, bending down to pick up the pieces. "You broke my viola!"
"Er—" Sirius stammered, "I'm sorry. Um, what's a viola?"
"Its like a violin, only bigger. " She reached up and yanked the case out of his arms. "I don't know why I ever felt the need to bring this thing." She was hastily shoving the splinters of wood into the case.
Sirius bent down and started to help her.
"No!" Rachel shouted, "No just go away. I don't want you messing it up anymore. I'll fix it later."
"Rachel…" Lily started.
"What?"
"You don't know any spells. How are you going to fix it?"
"With glue, just like everybody else does." Rachel said, standing up.
Sirius pulled out his wand, and pointed it at the pile of wood. "Reparo" He said. The pieces shook around, and came together to re-form her viola. In a few seconds, the instrument was as good as new.
"Sorry about that, really." Sirius apologized again.
"Erm, thanks I guess." Rachel said.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah…" Rachel answered.
"Why do you have so many bags?" Sirius asked.
Rachel groaned and put a hand on her brow. "I didn't know we needed trunks and such. Actually I had practically no time to do anything to get ready really. I just kinda threw stuff in bags and left."
"I take it you haven't been to Wizarding School." James said.
"Of course I haven't. Doesn't everybody know that? I mean you all know the story of what my parents did." Rachel said throwing her hands up.
"Rachel… don't get so upset," Alice, said, "I'm sure that you will get all caught up with you lessons and such."
"Yeah Rachel, I don't know anything either." Tonks said.
"Oi! Tonks! I didn't know you were starting this year!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Yup." She turned to Rachel, "he's my second cousin, once removed or something."
"I see…"
"Guys we have to get our robes on, or we are going to be late!" Lily said suddenly.
"Ahh! Ok go guys go!" Remus said quickly.
The boys started to leave the compartment. Sirius turned to Rachel.
"Again, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to break it or anything." He said.
"Yeah yeah, its ok. I don't know why I brought it anyway."
"Sirius! Lets go! The train already stopped!" James was standing in the doorway.
"See you…" he said quickly, and left.
"They are the biggest gits!" Lily exclaimed, pulling on her robes.
"That was the nicest I've seen Sirius in a while." Alice said.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked as she searched through her many bags, trying to find her robes.
"Well usually, we are in a full out war with each other." Lily explained.
A loud voice said "First years! This way!"
Tonks jumped up. "I have to go! Thanks for letting me share a compartment with you guys."
"No problem Tonks! See you at the sorting." Alice said as Tonks left.
"What do you mean 'full out war'? They seem nice enough." Rachel said.
"Wait till you cross one of their hexes. You'll change your mind pretty fast."
"Come on lets go! We are probably the only ones still on the train!" Lily said.
"But all our stuff—" Rachel said
"Just leave it, the house elves will get it."
"Er… ok…"
The girls managed to get off the train just before it started to pull away. They clambered into the last boat, and soon were on their way towards the castle.
"That's brilliant!" Rachel exclaimed, pointing to the castle.
Alice grinned. "Wait till you see it on the inside."
"Hey did you see if Alexa made it on the train?" Lily asked Alice.
"Umm no, I didn't. I think she would have found us if she did make it" Alice replied.
"Alexa is prefect this year too," Lily said, turning to Rachel. "Alexa shares a dorm with us. You probably will too, if you are sorted into our house. The girl who used to share with us was a seventh year, so she left last year."
"My old school had houses too. We had the houses for music, sports, arts, science and maths, English and history, and drama and dancing. I was in the music house." Rachel explained.
"Oh, we only have four houses. Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff. You'll see when we get there."
Soon the boat had slowed down, and the girls had reached the shore of the lake. A very angry looking woman was waiting on shore.
"That's Professor McGonagall." Alice said to Rachel. "I wonder what she's doing down here."
"Miss Smythe!" she called, walking swiftly over to her. "Miss Smythe, Where have you been? We need you to go with the first years to be sorted."
"I'm sorry I didn't know." Rachel apologized.
"It is no matter now, just follow me. Quickly now!"
"Bye guys!" Rachel said to Lily and Alice. She turned and followed Professor McGonagall.
A/N
Thanks BlackWiltedRose! I'm really glad you reviewed. This is my first fic ever and I'm not having much luck with it. This chapter was for you.
Smythe (pronounced smEYEth dictionary style ;)the final e is silent) is the surname of a very old Welsh family. The really old part is going to be important later on in the story.
Stay tuned for chapter four...
