Disclaimer: Only Steffie, Demeter and Hecate belong to me, Rebecca belongs to my sister, everyone else belongs to J.K.Rowling of course.

Chapter 4 : Rebecca and going to Hogwarts

The last weeks of summer went by quickly and Steffie spent them in her usual ways. Cleaning out rooms, talking to her father, talking to Harry and Ginny, cleaning out rooms, pulling pranks with the Weasley twins, occasionally talking to Remus, and have I mentioned cleaning out rooms?

Obviously, the last weeks of the holidays were quite boring.

But finally, the first day of September came, and Steffie would depart for her fifth year of magical education, her first year at Hogwarts. Thankfully, she already knew some people, Harry, Ron and Hermione would be in her year, although she didn't look forward to being in the same class with Hermione.

As it is, Steffie Black found herself at Platform 9¾ of Kings Cross Station, together with her parents (her father in his animagus-form, so he wouldn't be discovered), the Weasleys, Remus Lupin and a few Order members who had accompanied them too.

While saying goodbye to everyone, Steffie suddenly heard a voice over the crowd of people, squealing her name excitedly. Steffie froze momentarily; it had been 5 years since she had last heard that voice.

The next moment she spun around, only to be pulled in a tight hug.

After the other person had finally let go of her, she was able to see the girl, who was standing before her, bouncing up and down on her feet with excitement, grinning widely, with her light brown hair hanging loosely over her shoulders and her eyes sparkling merrily.

Steffie grinned back just as wide at seeing her childhood friend and cousin again.

"Rebecca, it's been soooo long." And with that, the girls hugged again.

When they had finally let go of each other, Steffie saw Harry looking at them oddly.

"Um, Steffie, who is this?"

Steffie grinned.

"Harry, this is my cousin and best friend, Rebecca Lupin, Becky, this is Harry Potter."

Harry stared at Rebecca. "Lupin, as in Remus Lupin?"

Rebecca smiled, "He's my uncle."

By then, Hermione, Ron and Ginny had joined them, and Hermione and Ron were also staring at Rebecca, but Ginny merely said, "Hey Rebecca, how was your summer?"

Now, everyone stared at Ginny.

Ron was the first to speak. "You know her? You never told us you knew professor Lupin's niece!"

Ginny grimaced at him. "You never asked me. Rebecca and I have been friends since first year, she is in my year and in Gryffindor, before you ask."

The next moment, they were joined by the adults. Steffie was greeted by her aunt Demeter, who was her mother's sister and Rebecca's mother, and had come with Rebecca. Rebecca greeted Remus and Hecate, and after a quick look around the crowd, she also shortly greeted Padfoot. Steffie realised then that Rebecca must know the truth too.

Soon it was time to say goodbye, Steffie hugged her parents and aunt Demeter, and said a quick goodbye to Remus and the Weasleys.

Then she linked arms with Rebecca, and they made their way towards the train, followed by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Fred and George.

While they were on the train to Hogwarts, Steffie spent most of her time catching up with Rebecca. They had last seen each other shortly before Steffie had started her first year at Beauxbatons, at the end of that summer, Rebecca and her mother had moved back to England. Many things had happened since then, and the girls chatted away about everything they could think of, sometimes joined in their conversation by Ginny or Harry.

All too soon, they arrived at Hogwarts, and Steffie would be sorted before the first years.

She pulled a face at seeing the old, battered Sorting Hat, but didn't complain.

An annoying voice sounded suddenly in her head.

"Ah, what have we here. It's been a long time since I have last had a Black here. And you're not just any Black, you are also definitely a LaRoche. The only other of that blood I've ever had, is your cousin Rebecca. But you are different, you have something special, but it might take some time before you find that gift."

Steffie rolled her eyes, the Hat was definitely annoying. "Just sort me already", she thought.

"Hmm, let me see, you certainly have a strong will, you are smart, but you prefer to use your intelligence for other stuff than learning. You want to prove yourself, and you have a lot of courage. Where to put you?"

Steffie sighed inwardly. "I would like to say that anything but Slytherin will do, but that would be a lie, just put me in Gryffindor, alright?"

For some reason, the Hat was laughing now. "You are definitely strong willed, although you might want to work on your behaviour, not everyone accept your straightforwardness. But if that is really what you want, then I'll put you into…"

"GRYFFINDOR!", the Sorting Hat yelled out loudly, after a long time.

Steffie jumped up and ran toward Rebecca, who was sitting next to Ginny and Harry and his friends, while the Gryffindor table started clapping, although it was a bit uncertainly.

Then, the first years were sorted and the beginning-of-the-year feast started.

Classes started early the next day, too early according to Steffie, and she reacted to this by being grumpy during all morning classes. This meant not only snide remarks towards her fellow classmates, but also to some teachers who dared to come across her.

By the end of the day, Steffie already earned a detention with Snape, for calling him 'professor Snivellus' to his face and telling him she thought it was his real name, because it's what her father calls him, much to the amusement of all the Gryffindors.

Steffie didn't care about detention; she had always had a lot of them, so she just said what was on her mind, naturally, many detentions would follow in the course of the year.

By the end of her first week, every student in every house knew her name. Unfortunately, somehow they also knew who her father was, and many of the students, but mostly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were afraid of her or just didn't trust her.

Of course, Steffie didn't really care what they thought about her. However, whenever someone stared at her for too long, or threw an insult towards her, she made sure they wouldn't try it again. Her favourite way to punish them, was by turning their hair or clothes into some humiliating colour or writing something equally humiliating on their face or back, making sure it would only wear off after a couple of days.

After a few months, most people had stopped the staring, except of course the Slytherins. The greater part of the population had even started to respect this bad-tempered, but otherwise bright and funny girl, except, again, the Slytherins, but like Steffie said herself, who cares about them, it's not like they have a brain of themselves to think.

One of the reasons she had started to become quite popular (although some students, mostly the younger ones, seemed to stay afraid of her), was her pranking ability. She often hung out with Fred and George and played pranks with them every so often. More then once, they were joined by Rebecca, because both girls were almost inseparable, and the two of them were soon known as pranksters, working with or without the Weasley twins.

Many teachers had shook their head upon seeing them together, wondering how a nice and innocent girl (or so they thought) like Rebecca could change so quickly under Steffie's influence. It was like professor McGonagall one day told Professor Dumbledore; having Steffie Black at Hogwarts made it almost feel like having the Marauders back there, this of course strengthened by the fact that she mostly seen in the company of Rebecca Lupin and Harry Potter.

Steffie also spent a lot of time with Harry, who had soon become one of her best friends. Unfortunately, Ron and Hermione still couldn't stand her.

Another thing that took a great part of Steffie's time, were boys. She had resumed her habit of dating, although with all the friends she had at Hogwarts, she didn't date as much as she had done at Beauxbatons. Nevertheless, by the time Christmas came along, she had already had three different boyfriends.

However, she had one rule in choosing her boyfriends that she would never break: never date a friend, because it could only cause damage their friendship. This was what she answered Ginny, when the girl had asked her why she never dated Harry, while it was obvious at one point that he had fancied her.

It was probably one of the only rules Steffie ever lived up to, but then again, this rule she had installed herself, the rules she did break, weren't her rules at all and thus, according to her logic, she didn't have to follow them.

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