See first page for disclaimer and other information.
Chapter II: Back to Hogwarts
The scarlet steam engine whistled twice, the sound echoing loudly, and Alisha felt her heart race in excitement. The summer holidays had been far too long for her liking, as they always were. Of course, she and her friends always communicated via owl, but it was hardly enough to drag her through the two-month vacation she had to spend with her two awful, uncaring parents.
It was three years later from that fateful day in Diagon Alley, and a 13-year-old Alisha Everwhirl sat, grin broad, across from her best friend, 13-year-old Serena Coalchard. They smiled at each other, and as the train began to move, the grin on Alisha's face grew wider still.
"I missed you so much!" she exclaimed. How true it was; despite the fact that they had known everything that went on in each other's lives over the summer (courtesy of their owl post correspondence), actually seeing and talking to her best friend was a luxury Alisha could hardly live without.
Serena laughed. "I missed you, too!" she replied, and it only took a moment for her to pull the other girl into a tight hug, releasing her quickly but reluctantly. For a moment, they just sat, staring at each other, grinning broadly. Alisha found herself jolted backwards into her seat as the train started to move, and laughed a little as she saw Serena, who was opposite her, lurch forward. And slowly, the conversation began.
As the train began to pick up speed, Alisha reached for the window. "It's hot," she said, unlatching it and pulling it open. Her hair swayed in the breeze and she smiled in satisfaction. It was a bright, sunny morning and the sky was as blue as ever. Unfortunately, a day-long train trip was what Alisha would have to endure and she wasn't exactly excited about it.
About a half hour later, the elderly, white-haired woman with the trolley came by. As usual, she asked, in her squeaky little voice, "anything off the trolley, dears?" And as usual, both girls exchanged glances as broad grins split their faces.
Immediately, both girls' hands reached for their pockets and pulled out their change purses. They both fished around, pulling out enough money to split the cost, then said in unison, "we'll take the lot!"
The woman blinked in surprise for a moment, then laughed. "How many of each would you like?" she asked, hesitating as she gazed at the coins in their hands.
"Let's see…" Alisha began.
"One bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans," Serena began, sliding five Knuts over to the woman, who handed her the requested item.
"Six Chocolate Frogs," Alisha continued, handing the woman the required price and accepting the item she had asked for.
"Twelve Licorice Wands," Serena requested, and once again, she gave the woman the money, then took the sweets (this became their routine).
"Two Acid Pops," Alisha said, and the exchange was made.
"Four Cauldron Cakes," Serena said.
"Ten Sugar Quills," Alisha continued.
"Two Pumpkin Pasties," Serena requested.
"And, um, let's see…" Alisha began, and the girls continued to list their desires until the correct quantity of every sweet on the trolley had been mentioned and paid for.
The woman smiled as she took the large sum of money and placed it in her own change purse. "Thank you," she said, fingering it fondly before closing the door to their compartment as she left.
Both girls laughed. Since their first train ride, they had always taken everything on the trolley and after two whole years of it, it wasn't about to change. "Do you think we'll actually be able to eat all this?" Alisha asked with a laugh as she started dividing the candy in half.
Serena shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. By Halloween we'll be ready to stock up again once we get to Hogsmeade!"
Alisha grinned and felt excitement bubble up inside of her. "Oh, that's right! Hogsmeade this year! I can't believe I forgot!"
Since they had first learned of the village, both girls had talked eagerly of what they would do when they were old enough to visit the village.
Serena gaped. "What do you mean you forgot? We've been talking about Hogsmeade since the first year!" She suddenly lowered her voice and continued, "Are you up for sneaking out some time?"
Alisha laughed, but a flicker of fear was notable in her eyes. "Well…I dunno…"
"Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure?"
She laughed again and sighed, relenting. Serena had always been the daring one and the rebel. She, on the other hand, Alisha had always been the quiet, rule-abiding, intelligent one. That was probably why she had ended up in Ravenclaw while Serena had found her place in Gryffindor.
It was hard being in a different House from your best friend, there was no denying it. But sometimes Alisha thought that maybe it actually made them closer. It made the time they spent together so much more valuable. She smiled weakly. "I guess," she said slowly, "it'd be worth it after a trip to the Shrieking Shack, Honeydukes, Scrivenshaft's, Gladrags and the Three Broomsticks."
"And the Hog's Head!" Serena added, "don't forget that! We have to go there because it's our only shot at getting to try some Firewhiskey before we turn drinking age!"
Alisha snorted. "Very funny!" she snapped, but she couldn't suppress a giggle. Her mind slowly drifted back to when she had first met Serena, back at the Leaky Cauldron, and the old innkeeper who had yelled at them after assuming their only intention was to try and get a drink of the forbidden but infamous alcoholic beverage…
She jumped suddenly as the compartment door clicked open. "Oh," a cold, menacing voice snarled, "sorry. We were just checking to see if this compartment was empty."
Serena whipped around and glared at two tall girls with porcelain-like skin, auburn hair and emerald green eyes. "Get lost, jerks!" she snapped.
"Excuse me for trying to be polite!" snorted the other girl with a laugh.
They happened to be Prissy (Serena's worst enemy) and Cissy (Alisha's worst enemy), the DeSerpent twins. Alisha scowled.
"Shove it and leave!" she snapped, standing up so the twins wouldn't tower over her so menacingly. They were still, however, much taller than she was.
"Ooh, careful, Mudblood, you don't want to be rude to us! Don't forget, we wasted our manners on you!" snapped Cissy. Prissy laughed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her wand.
Serena scowled. "I—said—get—lost!" she hissed, standing up to face them properly.
Alisha felt the colour from her face drain as she collapsed into her seat with a dull thud. Mudblood… It was the worst thing they could call her and she still hadn't been able to accept the fact that they had more power over her just because of their parentage. She shakily withdrew her wand from her pocket and held it aloft, just as Prissy had done. "Don't call me that," she said weakly.
"Why not?" snarled Cissy, "what's wrong? Does the wittle Mudbwood and her fiwthy Muggwe pawents not wike being adwessed as the scum they are?" she said mockingly.
"Shut up!" Serena interjected firmly, seeing that Alisha was having trouble.
"Make me," Cissy growled, continuing on with her teasing and humiliation.
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Serena cried, rising to her feet and prodding Cissy with her wand.
Alisha's head shot up, watching the events unfold with interest. Serena had always had a bit more trouble restraining herself than Alisha had, so it was always Alisha that jumped in at the last minute, barely saving her from expulsion. She knew, however, that it was only a matter of time, before Serena wouldn't be able to contain herself any longer, and Alisha wouldn't be able to resist watching it happen. Perhaps today was that day… Despite this notion, a weak protest still escaped her mouth. "Get lost," she said, her voice scarcely more than a whisper.
Yet it was still enough for Serena to hear. She turned to her friend, nodded, and turned back to the twins. "Or else!" she growled.
"Or else what?" Cissy demanded, her voice merely a malicious whisper, though Alisha detected a flicker of fear in her eyes.
"OR ELSE I'LL TURN YOU INTO THE BLOODY RAT YOU ARE! NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Ren bellowed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Prissy said, in a don't-say-I-didn't-warn-you tone of voice.
Alisha rolled her eyes, glancing from one face to the other. It was so tempting to just stand by and watch it happen. She hated Cissy so much, she just wanted to punch her face in…and Prissy, too, she was horrible to Ren…
The tension was palpable. At last, unable to take this any longer, Alisha gently pushed Serena out of the way. "When I say," she began icily, "get lost, you'd better GET LOST!" With one final, almighty shove, she had thrown the twins out the compartment door and slammed it shut.
Leaning against the door, chest heaving, Alisha smiled weakly. "Thanks for standing up for me," she said slowly, allowing herself to sink into her plush, red seat like a stone. She reached for her wand and muttered a brief, "Colloportus!" Turning to Serena, she explained, "just in case."
Despite the fact that the spell could easily be countered, Alisha felt much safer when she was behind a locked door.
Serena smiled weakly. "What are friends for?" she said kindly.
A shaky smile tugged at Alisha's lips, and she sighed. "Those two…" she grumbled.
Serena nodded sympathetically. "They're awful, aren't they?" Awful, they both knew, was being kind. It was an absolute understatement. But Serena was fortunate enough to be a Half-Blood, and so, unlike Alisha, she was never called a Mudblood. Of course, being a Half-Blood wasn't much better, except that Serena's father had been one of the greatest sorcerers of all time. He had been a pureblood, but he had married a Muggle.
Unfortunately, at the age of eight, Serena lost her father. He died at the hand of Lord Voldemort himself, being a great friend of Harry Potter's, and it had been that final blow he had delivered that had cost him his life. Thankfully, that final blow had also been the end of the Dark Lord. He had bellowed out a spell of his own invention, "Collocorpus!" It was designed to glue the person at which it was directed, to the person nearest them. That had been him. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against the Dark Lord when he was stuck to him, considering that he was one of the only people who knew the counter-curse, and Voldemort was not among them. One of the ways to becoming detached, however, was to kill the person; Lord Voldemort, he knew, would show no mercy, and he had been right. Two words and a blinding green flash later, and Lord Voldemort was free once again. But it had been the distraction that had saved Harry Potter from what would have otherwise been certain defeat. He took his chance, disarming his opponent, then bellowing the first and only Unforgiveable curse he would ever use in his entire life.
And then, it was all over. Voldemort had been slain, the wizarding world was safe once again. Eventually, Aurors everywhere relaxed and retired as they caught all of the Death Eaters, and the magical community plunged into peace once again.
But, Alisha thought, it wasn't a gain for everyone. In the case of Serena, it had been as much a loss as a win. Peace, but at a terrible cost. She stared at her friend with sympathy written all over her face. Serena missed her dad so much; she had gotten along much better with her father than she had with her mother.
Serena's smile quickly faded. "Something wrong?" she asked.
"No," Alisha said softly, her gaze falling to the floor, "nothing's wrong…not at all…so anyway, about Hogsmeade…" It was a frantic attempt to change the subject, but it worked. The fact was that a loss like Serena's could not be forgotten. But her sole request to Alisha—once she had finally admitted it, of course—was for her best friend not to treat her any differently. Alisha had tried, yet the task had proved tricky. As if that wasn't enough, Serena always seemed to be able to tell whenever her mind so much as touched on the subject.
It was around noon when Alisha's stomach growled hungrily. She blushed, muttered a brief, "sorry," then remembered where she was. At her Muggle home, something like that would have been inexcusable. But with Serena, they lived for fun. They were just a little rebellious (despite Alisha's guilty conscience), and Serena's attitude towards the rules was, "so what if I'm not supposed to do that? You only live once!" Alisha was always at her side, always her sidekick, as long as they didn't get caught. And aside from the occassional lecture from a professor, they hadn't been.
So when she looked up at Serena and caught sight of a mischevious grin on her face, and a greedy glint in her eye, she knew right away what she was thinking.
Both girls exchanged one glance, then delved into the pile of sweets.
"Start with the Bertie Bott's?" Alisha asked.
Serena nodded. "Pass 'em over!"
They had always done this, since their first year. The first thing they ate were the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and it was always a dare game. Each girl would take a turn, closing her eyes and reaching into the pile. The first bean they pulled out from the sack was the one they would have to eat. At first, they mostly got good ones, but they eventually got to the really gross ones—such as bogie, vomit and earwax.
"You going first, then?" Alisha asked, as she obliged her friend's request.
Serena gave a shrug, and then nodded. She closed her eyes and reached deep into the bag. As she started to pull her hand out of the bag, out came… a bright green bean with forest green stripes…
"Darn it! Just grass!" Serena muttered as she popped it into her mouth and passed the bag to her friend.
Alisha did the same, but her hand closed over a yellow-white bean with bright yellow spots. "Mmm!" she exclaimed as she slipped it into her mouth. "Buttered popcorn!"
Serena sighed. "How come you get all the luck!" she moaned, as she took the bag from her friend and reached her hand into the bag, looking away. As she pulled out a bright red bean, however, she shrugged. "Alas," she muttered, "Strawberry is one of my favourites. I eat my words!" and she popped it into her mouth.
Alisha laughed, pulled out an earwax flavoured one, and groaned. Earwax, she had learned, was oddly sweet. (A/N: For anyone who asks me how I know that, it's only because I once had a very weird classmate who liked to pick their ear and eat it. I can't remember who it was, but they told me. 0o I do NOT pick my ear! P Anyway…on with the story!) But it was also disgusting, and she didn't like it. Reluctantly, she dropped it in her mouth and swallowed it as quickly as possible. She then stood up and reached onto the luggage rack above her, turning to Serena.
"I should start the record!" she exclaimed. She carefully levitated her trunk off of the shelf, and set down on the floor in front of her. She quickly unlocked it, and delved around until she found what she was looking for: a small binder with a purple cover. On the front, she and Serena had stuck on various things—photos, Daily Prophet snippets, stickers from Muggle shops, and a few other things.
It was their scrapbook, and Alisha had been keeping it since their first year. Evidently, they took equal part in the work, but Alisha looked after it, for, as Serena had said, she wasn't exactly the most organized person in the world.
Alisha locked up her trunk after pulling out a set of multi-coloured Muggle pens, then levitated it back onto the rack.
The binder had seven dividers—one for each year. Alisha flipped to the third, which was coloured a purple that matched the front of the book (for each divider was a different colour) and flipped to the first blank page. Slowly, she started to write the date and title in neat, colourful, cursive script. She then took to printing each of the beans that they had tried so far. Her entry looked somewhat like this:
September 1, 2006On the train to Hogwarts: Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean Bravery Contest First Turn: Serena—Grass Second Turn: Alisha—Buttered Popcorn
Third Turn: Serena—Strawberry
Fourth Turn: Alisha—Earwax
She left lots of room for the rest of the game, and for the lists they always made at the end of the grossest flavours, tastiest flavours, and most interesting flavours, as well as a piece of the cut up bag. After they had finished the page, Alisha would put a page protector over it so that it wouldn't get damaged and they could save it and remember that day.
Grinning, Serena smiled at her. "Smart," she said, "I forgot all about it! My turn?"
With a nod from her friend, she had reached into the bag and pulled out a chalk white one. "Ooh," she said, frowning and thinking, "this could be almost anything…" As she slipped it into her mouth, she almost spit it out in disgust. "Aww! Paper!"
Alisha passed her the binder so that she could write the results of the fifth turn, then she doubled over laughing. "Paper? What kind of a flavour is that?" It must have been a new concoction; they had never encountered it before.
"Not funny!" Serena moaned, "I almost spit it out, it was gross!"
Clutching her stomach from laughing so hard, Alisha reached into the bag, taking the binder from her friend, and pulled out…
She raised an eyebrow, and could tell Serena had done the same. There, in the palm of her hand, was a transparent bean. And aside for the fact that it looked somewhat like glass, you wouldn't have been able to tell it was there. She turned to her friend, mouth agape.
"What," Serena began bluntly, staring at the bean, "the bloody hell," she continued, pausing for effect, "is that!"
Alisha laughed, shrugged, and did what she had to do. Taking a very deep breath, she closed her eyes, raised her hand to her mouth…and let the small candy drop, landing on her tongue. She closed her mouth and felt the solidness of the bean melt away, making way for cold, flavourless liquid.
"That's brilliant!" she exclaimed, "it's water!"
"Water?" Ren snorted. "Weird…"
Both paper and water made it onto the girls' list of the most interesting flavours. The contest persisted, and by around two in the afternoon, the bag was empty.
Alisha turned to her friend, grin broad. "Interesting game, that!" she exclaimed.
Serena nodded. "I would say it's our best yet!"
Over the past three years, both girls had learned that Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans had no boundaries; no limits. There was always some weird new flavour they had never heard of before, and they just kept getting better and better.
Alisha paused, then reached into a side pocket of the binder and pulled out a page protector. "Oi," she said, "Ren, would you pass me that bag?"
Her friend nodded. They had finished agreeing on what the top ten most interesting flavours, tastiest flavours, and grossest flavours were—now it was time to save the bag as physical evidence. Alisha pulled out her wand and held it in front of her, aiming it carefully at the bag. "Diffindo!" she said firmly. She carefully guided the wand; soon they were left with a small square of the scarlet-coloured bag. In the center were the golden letters that spelled, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. She pulled one of the drawstrings out of the ruined bag, and arranged it skillfully around the square like a border. She then muttered, "Collosempra!" the incantation for the Permanent Sticking Charm (A/N: Not really, I just made up the incantation. Derives from the French term, "colle," which means, "glue," and the Latin term, "semper," meaning "always." If anyone knows the actual incantation, please let me know!), and glued it to the paper for good. Smiling, she murmured, "page one of a great year!" and slipped the paper into a page protector, putting it back in the binder.
Alisha then put the page back in the scrapbook and put all her materials away. They were left to sit, socialize, and indulge in the many sweets they had purchased.
Alisha immediately reached for a raspberry-filled Chocolate Cauldron, while Serena snatched up a Pumpkin Pasty. While Alisha savoured the flavours, Serena pointed to the Sugar Quills. "We have to save these," she said, "you really can fool the teachers with them; that's not an opportunity to pass up!"
Alisha furrowed her brow. "Oh, come on, Ren! You've got to try in school at least sometimes!"
Serena snorted, rolling her eyes. "Whatever," she muttered, but Alisha felt her heart sink as she caught what she was sure was a mutter of, "Little-Miss-Know-It-All. Just because I don't have brains that leak out of my ears and my eye sockets doesn't mean you can tell me what to do! Young prodigies…"
Indeed, Alisha thought, prodigies, eh? Since she had set foot in her first class, she had known that she was far more advanced than all the other students in her year. She had even found herself accidentally performing non-verbal spells over the summer between her first year and her second year. It had been quite an accident; she had just been remembering the incantation to a complicated charm, wand held aloft, when all of a sudden, she had performed it! Of course, that had caused some trouble not only with her parents, but with the Ministry as well, though all was soon worked out. Hogwarts was in no hurry to expel the girl who was always top in all of her classes, and her year.
But it had been clear to her that Serena was hiding something. Every time the subject of schoolwork came up, she would shrug, get embarrassed, and mutter, "I don't want to be smart!" For ages now, Alisha had figured out that her friend had kept something from her—a secret she was unwilling to reveal—that she had a hidden intelligence. For nothing stayed hidden from Alisha; not for long, anyway.
She had determined that Serena was not as advanced as her, for there were a few things she couldn't do. Among them, she couldn't write her own spells, something Alisha had just learned over the summer, and she hadn't mastered non-verbals; not yet, at any rate.
Serena's words played over in her mind like a tape recorder. She shoved them from her thoughts and rested her gaze on the floor. Sensing that something was wrong and feeling guilty, Serena said, "but it's OK if we eat some…I mean, we can stock up on our next trip to Hogsmeade!"
As the awkward silence was broken, both girls smiled and continued to talk; and soon, things were back to normal. By the time it was six in the evening, a considerable dent had been made in the pile of sweets. The remaining treats were divided up between the two of them, based on who wanted what and what was fair. The girls changed into their robes at six-thirty, by which time it was growing steadily darker and there was a slight drizzle outside (which caused Alisha to promptly close the window).
It was at seven-thirty that the train came to a halt at the Hogsmeade station. Alisha summed up the events of the day: her and Serena splitting the sweets, the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean Bravery Contest they'd had, an intrusion by Prissy and Cissy, lots of conversation and catching up… Indeed, she was sure it was nothing more than another train trip. And, she was sure, it was leading to nothing more than another year at Hogwarts. But that was where she was wrong.
