The Hogwarts Express
"Come on! Hurry Sanya! It'll be leaving soon!"
"I know, I know!" We were boarding the Hogwarts train, with just seconds to spare. As it started rolling down the tracks, we stumbled into the compartment with Sirius's friends. I stared at all the familiar/unfamiliar faces. Remus, James, Peter. Also there was one cat, and two owls. What with that and the luggage, it made for a very crowded space.
"Hello, everyone. This is Sanya. Don't you remember the letter I sent you? About the summonings?" Slowly the confused faces disappeared, to be replaced with slightly less confused faces, nodding. "Good. Budge over. Come on, Sanya, sit. So I'm going to be teaching her during the evening and I'll be exempt from all homework. Isn't that cool?"
"Yeah, it is. Say, Sirius, how come you get all the pretty ones?" That was Remus. I blushed and James sighed, glancing out at the hallway where Lily was passing by.
"Come on, Sanya, sit down." Sirius implored, and I sat.
It's so sad, I thought Here they are, without a care in the world, and before they're 40 two of them will be dead and one will be with the dark side. Remus Lupin will be all alone, a werewolf. But what about me? There's no mention of me in the books. What will happen to me, and to the others so they forget? The future is unpredictable, no matter how many Seers there are. Life for them now is perfect, life in 20 years will be living Hell.
In one of Sirius's attempts to be polite and include me in the conversation, he accidentally let slip something he obviously shouldn't have.
"Don't worry so much about going to Hogwarts. No matter what House you're in, there's good people. Except in Slytherin. And Dumbledore will protect you from –" He broke off, looking guilty. "Never mind that."
I gave him a curious look, but only said, "Okay."
I didn't have a lot to do during the rest of the ride. After a while, Sirius remembered I was there and he introduced me to 'his friend' Lily and some of her friends. He must not know any fourth-years. I realized. Or else he'd probably leave me with them.
Since Lily and her friends were the excepting sort of people, I found myself actually talking to the group of girls, answering and asking questions.
Lily started off. "What House do you think you'll be in?"
"I don't know. I might be in Ravenclaw, but I would like Gryffindor too." I was really wondering about that. If I'm in Ravenclaw, I wouldn't as much time to spend winning over Sirius and the Marauders. But I am smart, and I'm not that brave. I thought. Well, we'll see.
"What are your new subjects?" It was Alice (who married Frank Longbottom), this time.
"Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Ancient Runes."
"I'm in Arithmancy, too. Hey, how many books do you need to have if you're going to do 4 years of learning magic in just one actual year?" A little nagging voice in the back of my head told me I shouldn't elaborate on the magicked book.
"Oh, I got a customized book. Dumbledore wrote to the owner of Flourish and Blotts for me. You know, I'm a little surprised at all the fuss, just for me. Oh well. Please tell me about Hogwarts. I want to know everything."
And so went the rest of the ride, with questions switching back and forth between us.