A/N: Yeah, chapter two. Within a few days of each other, too.
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Chapter 2
The redhead, Lily, flanked closely by the Marauders and then Elisha, made it to the front of the train, staring out the large windshield blankly.
"I don't see anything," Elisha said skeptically, approaching the window until her nose nearly brushed the glass surface, eyes searching the still dark and very stormy view.
"Neither do I." Remus walked over too, squinting into the gray scenery.
"If we can't see it, how can we be expected to help take-"
A silent black cloth flew and proceeded to cover the front of the train, moving like a living creature.
Remus and Elisha, startled, stumbled clumsily backwards, eyes not moving from the black mass.
"What's that?" Elisha asked, trying to keep the stutter from her voice.
"Just someone's cloak, I guess, and the wind playing with it," said Sirius offhandedly, walking towards the train's exit. "Come on, maybe outside we can actually see something."
James followed him, with a look on his face like he was looking forward to some action, but the telltale firm grip on his wand showed that almost hesitant bit of him that wasn't. Lily spared him a worried look that he hadn't noticed.
Elisha traded looks with Remus, neither of which moving to join the two now moving to open the door, wands poised.
"What's in your head?" shouted Lily suddenly.
James turned round to look at her and gave her a smile. "It's only a bit of fun; who says it's even dangerous?"
"If Hagrid is still out there by now, it has to be." Lily was livid now, a defense mechanism so as not to show she was scared for him.
"Hagrid's out there? He's usually good with magical beasts," Elisha said, getting to her feet. She still hadn't changed into her robes – her brown cowboy boots were new and calling for a little adventure to break them in.
"If he's still out there he'll need our help!" Sirius countered, his patience for this argument slipping quickly.
Lily glared at him.
Then, making a move that shocked them all, she walked over. "Then I'm going, too. After all, I am Head Girl."
James smiled unabashedly, moving to exit as the door opened slowly.
Elisha cantered over and took a deep breath, setting her nerves at ease as best she could.
Remus frowned, looking out the window with no real hope of being able to see out, and then also made his way over, standing behind a still slightly shaking Elisha, fingering his wand in his pocket.
Peter looked from Remus to James and Sirius and back, and then gave a weak groan. "Aw, now I have to go."
This lightened the mood slightly, and Elisha's demeanor changed – she seemed just as gung-ho as Sirius and James were.
"I'm going first," Sirius said, "Just in case it actually is dangerous out there."
"No way!" James protested with a half-smile, "You'll take all the fun!"
"I won't do anything but look to make sure it's not too bad, Prongs!"
"Let me go first, Padfoot, please!" James was crazy to impress Lily now that she was finally warming up to him.
Seeing her window of opportunity, Elisha ran past them and jumped out of the train.
She landed in her feet, boots sinking into the mud.
Trying to ignore the fact that she wasn't properly dressed to weather this kind of storm - a jean skirt, stockings, and a coat weren't exactly resilient - Elisha looked round only to find that it was no easier to see from out here.
Rain poured viciously down, and the air was humid and thick, despite the cold of the water, and the dark clouds thundering and booming above blocked out the hopes of a bright sky.
She could hear shouts and low, guttural growling somewhere near her, and she began to run towards it, hopeful that it was Hagrid and hopefully alone.
A vein of lightning streaked across the sky and came up from the ground near her, followed by a loud and rumbling clap of thunder.
She jumped backward to land in someone's arms.
"You all right?" asked the figure against her neck, and Elisha recognized the voice as Sirius's.
"Yeah, never better," she said acerbically, regaining her balance and walking again, now hiding her trepidation as there were people to impress.
Sirius, James, Lily, and Remus followed after her at a quick pace, until all of them were more or less beside her.
Peter tottered along at the back, watery blue eyes darting all around him as if there were beasts of all kinds ready to pounce on him.
"I see some shapes over there." Remus had the best sight of all of them, due in part to his lycanthropy. The others could only see the streaks of lightning above their heads.
"Oh wonderful," muttered Peter sarcastically.
"Lead the way, Moony," Sirius said with a grand theatrical flourish of his hand. Ignoring the gesture, he walked ahead of them all, moving towards the black shapes, one very huge and much like a moving mountain, and the other shapeless, almost fluttering.
"Hagrid!" James shouted when they got close enough to see that the moving mountain was indeed the groundskeeper.
The other shape seemed to have disappeared somewhere.
"No, no, no! You lot get back on the train!" Hagrid's face appeared out of the gloom, flushed and looking slightly out of breath.
"Hagrid, what happened?" Sirius asked.
"Quick, get back on the train! I'll take care o' this!"
"We're here to help!" Remus protested, eyes still scanning around them, wary of that missing shape.
"Yeh can't! Now go before yeh-"
Before Hagrid could finish his sentence, Peter let out a muffled scream from behind them all.
"Where is he?"
"Lumos!" Remus led the way, blazing the trail with the quickly doused and then re-lit tip of his wand.
"There he is!" Lily cried, pointing her now illuminated wand at a moving mass of black on the ground, with three of Peter's extremities poking out from underneath it.
He let out another suffocated scream from underneath the smothering cloak.
"I can't breath!" the stifled voice yelled as best it could with the half inch-thick length of moving cloth asphyxiating him.
"Wormtail!" James shouted, unsure if he was being heard, "Hold on, Peter!"
"It's a lethifold!" Hagrid shouted from behind them.
Remus perused his memories for any information on lethifolds.
"Lethifolds resemble a length of black cloth-"
Peter let out another loud cry, hands clawing at where his face was, underneath the shroud.
"Suffocates its prey and eats them-"
Almost as if he'd heard him, Peter screamed and began to roll around until he was on his stomach, trying to wrestle it off him.
"Can only be subdued by the…" He shouted quickly over the roar of the storm and Peter's shrieks: "Subdue it with the Patronus Charm! Everyone!"
Peter rolled around so that the lethifold faced upwards, leaving it bare to their spells.
"Expecto Patronus!" they all shouted in tandem, and suddenly the scene was overcome with white.
Smoke-like wisps of white surged toward the lethifold and it recoiled and began to flutter away clumsily, catching on ragged rocks that paved the hill around which the tracks were built.
Everyone was panting softly by the time it was completely out of sight, Peter especially.
Lily and Elisha kneeled beside him on either side, with the Marauders giving him distance to breathe.
"Are you alright, Peter?" Lily asked, staring at his red face warily.
He groaned in response, sucking in breaths deeply, looking like he was enjoying every gasp and gulp.
Elisha watched him concernedly, brushing off speckles of mud from his sleeve and hand.
Now she felt terrible for being so nasty about his interest in her sisters.
You certainly know how to pick 'em, don't you, twit? Be mean to the boy that suffers the near-death experience!
Hagrid moved between them, picking the chubby boy up and holding him under his arm firmly. "I'll take 'im from here, now you lot go back to the train, would yeh?"
Elisha and Lily nodded compliantly, then got to their feet and started towards the remaining Marauders.
"That was so scary," Lily whispered.
Elisha knew what she meant – she'd seen adventures like these on stage, but suddenly they seemed to pale in comparison.
This was pure, unbridled fear – it had taken all of her not to bolt in the other direction and make for Hogwarts herself, and she wasn't even the one it had attacked.
The sight of Peter writhing around on the ground, struggling against the lethifold to breathe, was not one that would leave her anytime soon.
"You alright?" Sirius asked as he held out his hand to help her up the step to the train.
"Yeah," she said unconvincingly, taking the hand shakily and feeling lightheaded, as he heaved her up, "Never better."
---
Elisha wasn't really up for the Sorting Ceremony that night.
She was planning to go through with it to see Sebastian and Claire, but a newfound headache pulsing malignantly behind her forehead seemed to think otherwise.
It was a shame, really, because she hadn't seen either of them since before summer, and she had been saving the compartment for them before she had discovered just whose compartment it was, before she'd forgotten them in all the events following that had caused the damn migraine.
"Professor McGonagall?" she asked as every student excluding the first years were walking into the castle, to the woman standing rigidly at the large doors, awaiting the first years. "Something happened on the train-"
"Yes, I know," she replied, "I was informed of the adventure by the Head Girl on the orders of Hagrid. I can imagine you're not willing to endure a jaunty little song and approximately a hundred screams of 'Gryffindor' tonight?"
Elisha sheepishly shook her head; blonde locks dancing cheekily over her face to hide the blush.
"Ah, Mssrs Potter, Black, and Lupin have also decided themselves unfit for tonight's proceedings. They've chosen to go to the Hospital Wing to accompany their friend, Peter Pettigrew, and have agreed not to leave there until a student is sent to collect them." There was a mixture of tenors in her voice, like she was proud that they were going to stay with their friend, or skeptical that they would indeed remain where they said they would. "Will you join them, or do you wish to wait in the common room?"
Just as Elisha was readying herself to say 'Hospital Wing', Professor McGonagall added something.
"Oh, Mister and Miss Verne are both in the common room," said the stately old woman, looking down her glasses at Elisha.
"Why?" It had slipped out before she could stop herself.
"It's not for me to say, Miss Lind," she said firmly, attention tearing away slightly to shout the odd warning or punishment.
"So, which will it be?"
"Erm, the common room, please," she said.
"Very well, but your dinner will be sent with the rest to the Hospital Wing, so you'll have to walk there if you wish to eat. It should arrive there at 8 o' clock. Until then, stay in the common room."
Elisha nodded, starting towards the staircases.
---
"Elisha!" Claire shouted, running up to her with a smile.
"Hey, Claire," Elisha greeted in return, awaiting a violent hug from the female, volatile half of the twins.
Sebastian came up from behind her. "Don't hog all the Ellie, Claire."
"You shut up!" she said in response, hugging her tighter.
Elisha smiled weakly at the sweet, inhibited sort of look the other twin was giving her. "Hey, Seb," she said with a smile.
"Hey, Ellie." His grin was wide and his teeth were slightly crooked but very white.
Claire's brown hair was beginning to get in her face. "Gerroff, I can't breathe!" Elisha shouted for mercy.
Begrudgingly, she extracted herself from her friend with a smile almost exactly like Sebastian's.
"Heard about your sisters."
"Yeah, totally ace! I can't believe Lisa and Lola finally made it big!"
"Yeah, totally ace," Elisha echoed sarcastically.
Claire hadn't heard her. "We were planning to go to their show in Bristol, but things got complicated and we couldn't make it."
As she'd said it, those 'complicated things' shone up on her face to prove it had more underlying connections.
Elisha decided against asking just yet.
"Why are you in the common room? The Sorting Ceremony hasn't even started yet."
With a sigh like she wasn't going to enjoy it (however untrue that was), she rhapsodized to them of her little adventure, recalling in every detail and going into intricate particulars as a true child of the theatre.
"Are you serious?" Claire was breathless. Her green eyes shone with the enchantment of Elisha's two (exaggerated, in Claire's head) encounters with Sirius, ignoring the dislike for him she'd harbored since after they'd gone together in fifth year.
"You're kidding?" Seb was skeptical. His green eyes followed the curve of her ears, watching for any telltale blush to colour them.
"I'm totally telling the truth, guys!"
"I know, Elisha," said Sebastian to her unconvincingly, "But what would a lethifold be round here for? They live in tropical climates."
"Remus is probably wondering the same thing in the Hospital Wing."
"You planning to go there?" Claire asked.
Elisha nodded. "Of course, I have to eat, don't I?"
"Well, yeah, I could snap you like a twig," Claire said, voice taking on a serious tenor.
It was true – Elisha had quite lost her appetite since her sisters' half-playful verbal volleys had begun, when they'd gotten famous. Nowadays Elisha looked anemic.
"You haven't been eating right, have you, Ellie?" Sebastian's penetrating green eyes perused hers, eliminating any option of lying.
"I don't get hungry."
"You know, your boobs don't grow without the proper nutrition," Claire said matter-of-factly, holding up a tsk-tsk finger.
Elisha guarded her chest with her skinny arms. "They're not that small. Besides, I could always get plastic surgery."
"Dash those blinking film stars!" Sebastian shouted in false rage. "Trying to change young women of fragile psyches and shamefully miniscule chests!"
"Whaddya mean miniscule, you prat!" Elisha chased him, as he ran circles around the common room, staying just out of her reach.
"Get back here, you degenerate bastard! I'll show you for talking about my boobs!" She pounced and latched herself onto his back.
Sebastian stopped running, walking over to Claire. "She really has lost weight. It doesn't even hurt when she jumps on me anymore."
Elisha pounded on his back. "Shut up, Seb! I'm right here, you know!"
He dropped her, and she fell back onto the sofa on which Claire was already seated.
"So," Elisha began, trying to catch her breath, "Why are you guys here?"
Sebastian and Claire traded looks, then Claire swallowed hard.
"Ellie," she started shakily, "Ellie, something happened during the summer."
---
The Marauders sat silently around their sleeping friend.
A recent hush had befallen the group, all falling into their own thoughts, when Remus had asked aloud why a lethifold would be roaming round some British boondocks.
"Hey," said a quiet voice from the entrance to the wing.
They all looked up to see the girl they'd met earlier, Elisha, standing in the doorway with Sebastian Verne, another seventh year.
They'd only recognized him because his twin sister was the other beater on the Gryffindor team, and one of Sirius's past exploits – but certainly not one of his most fondly remembered break-ups.
The two looked almost exactly alike, except that Sebastian was leaner and more boyish and considerably less assertive than Claire.
"Hullo, Elisha," Sirius greeted with a charming smile.
"Is Peter alright now?" Elisha drew up a chair and motioned for Sebastian to do so as well.
She sat down quietly, eyes trained on Peter's sleeping face.
"Yes, Madame Pomfrey took care of him," said Remus gently, "He wasn't hurt very seriously – it was mostly mental. But he did have a few scratches from his fighting about."
Elisha nodded.
The silence resettled.
"Sebastian Verne, right? I know your sister," Sirius tried, giving a smile.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow, looking at the floor. "I know. And she certainly knows you."
Elisha covered her mouth, hiding the smile on her face.
It didn't seem appropriate to be laughing in the Hospital Wing.
A knock on the door brought them out of their awkwardness.
A little house elf appeared between the huge oaken doors, giving a bow so deep that the tip of his nose made consistent contact with the floor.
"Excuse me, sirs and madam, the food has arrived."
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A/N: Yeah, it wasn't too long, but it's an update. This took me all of a day to write, so go easy. I've been crazy to update anything at all, and since I got a considerable response for this one, here is chapter 2.
Welcome Back chapter 5 is in the works - I'm skirting rocky territory with that one, I feel a fight coming on - and Again and From Now On chapter 6 hasn't even been born yet, in all honesty. But it'll be up before I go back to school on the 8th.
Until next update, please review.
I think I'm going to do that 'no new chappie unless I've got X amount more reviews'.
So here it is: no new chappie unless I've got 5 more reviews (it's at 3 now, so I'll know)!