Updated and revised as of 29th December 2020 - if you haven't reread the last two chapters please do, they've been improved and updated since 2017.

Chapter 2: Sweeties

1st September 1994

"No, we aren't waiting for Cho," Draco said, determinedly not looking anywhere near any Muggles, as if they might corrupt him. "Straight to the Platform-"

Selene laughed, glancing over to where a large diesel train was pulling into Platform Nine. "You can't tell me you're not even a little bit interested," she teased, with a grin. "Just a little?"

"By Salazar, must I always mind you?" the boy sniggered, ignoring the girl's fascination with the Muggle trains. "You're supposed to be the older one..."

"Shut up, Draco," the girl glared - somewhat playfully - at her brother. She glanced across to where a large familiar group of redheads were waiting, and Selene scanned them quickly, trying to ignore the suspicious glances from the youngest son and the two identical twins, who, along with Harry Potter, were watching Draco with outright hostility.

"Ready to go yet?" Draco said, blissfully ignorant of their audience. "Or are you going to try and chat up a Muggle?"

Selene shot Draco a stern look, and shook her head cautiously, worried in case that her parents were watching them somehow, as they inevitably were.

Even though they had officially left the two of them alone fifteen minutes ago.

"Of course I am," she said, deadpan, pulling Draco back to let the Weasley family (plus the two extras) through the barrier first. "Muggles are the only decent shags I've ever had."

"Why are we letting them through first?" Draco glared, giving his sister an insulted glance. "They're Blood Traitors. If only father could see you now."

"Because it's polite," Selene snapped, taking his hand. "And don't call people that. It's a term we should be above. Just like Mudblood, and you know that."

They were getting some very nasty looks from the redheaded family, especially from the youngest - Ron - who was glaring at Draco like he'd eaten his Puffskein. Harry Potter didn't seem very pleased to see him either, honestly, although Selene could hardly blame him, judging by the intense rivalry he always seemed to have with her younger brother.

The Weasley matriarch, on the other hand, evidently not recognising either of them, gave Selene a bright smile. "Thank you, dear," she said cheerfully, and Selene gave Draco's hand a meaningful squeeze. "You know what it's like… Seven children, it's such a hassle."

Selene nodded politely, smiling back as the woman began to bark instructions at her brood, pairing them all off and instructing them to go through. Selene pulled Draco's arm back, just in case, and waited patiently, feeding her owl a couple of treats, ignoring the sharp nips on her fingers.

It took a while, but finally all the family were through, the mother with another final bright smile and sentiment of thanks, and she finally let go of her brother.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Draco just scoffed, pushing himself and his trolley through the barrier, Selene following suit a few seconds later.

"Selene!" Cho grinned, running over to her friend the second she saw her. "You're late!"

Selene checked her watch and laughed, shaking her head. "So," she began, pulling her trunk off the trolley and moving her owl off the top. "Fifteen minutes before is late now?"

"You said you'd be here at least thirty minutes before, in your letter!" Cho complained, grabbing the other side of Selene's trunk and helping her friend shift it onto the train. "I should know better than to trust you, you liar!"

"Mother wanted to make sure we were okay," Selene explained, summarising the fifteen minute hugging session that her mother insisted upon (not that Selene was complaining) in as little words as she could. "And I had to make sure that Draco had packed everything as well. You know how brothers are."

Cho just rolled her eyes, gesturing to the trunk - now lying right in the middle of the corridor - and looking meaningfully at her friend. "We might need to shift this," she said, raising one eyebrow.

"Allow me, ladies," Roger Davies cut in from behind them, giving Selene and Cho a winning smile and pulling himself up onto the train in front of them, picking up the trunk in one fell swoop and moving it into an empty carriage.

Roger was a Chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, along with Cho, and fancied himself quite the playboy. The problem with this was that his enormous ego was well-earned, as he had dated half the Ravenclaw girls - which, unfortunately, had included Selene, some time ago. Even now, he still did occasional favours for her, for reasons she didn't quite understand but accepted all the same. Or maybe that was just to inflate his ego even further.

"Thanks Roger," Cho called, grinning sideways at Selene. She never lost an opportunity to play the field either. "So, what did you do over the summer?"

Selene had no interest in what Roger Davies had done over the summer, so she turned away, looking back onto the Platform, picking out individuals with her eyes and recognising them. Vincent Crabbe was being kissed goodbye by his slightly trollish-looking mother, whilst her brother was talking to Theodore Nott - a deeply unpleasant individual with a perchance for nasty curses.

They all looked so... So happy. None of them were plastic, or transparent, or just robots pretending to care. Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably.

Normally her parents would be here, on the Platform as well, but her mother was taking a Portkey to Berlin for an important gathering of society women, and her father most likely had to meet with the Minister. Selene shivered at the thought - not only did Fudge give her the creeps, but after the World Cup she didn't even want to imagine what lies her father was feeding him. It had been a lucky escape as it was, as Arthur Weasley suspected Lucius from the outset, but luckily the Imperius Curse excuse was still working.

"Come on!" Cho called, startling Selene out of her daydream. "I have some fortune tellers I want to try on you!"

So, Selene turned away from the families kissing their children goodbye, the families that made the feeling stir in her stomach, and towards the Hogwarts Express, smiling quickly at Cho to disguise her earlier expression. It wasn't wholly fictional, her smile. Going to Hogwarts again always made her smile. But there was a hint of insincerity in it, a sprinkling of sadness as Selene climbed onto the train, trying not to wish for a mother that wasn't too busy organising society events to see her children off, and a father that didn't lie to live.

"May I join you ladies?" Roger asked, with a grin, and didn't wait for an answer as he pushed past Selene to hold the door to an empty carriage open for them. "It's the least I can do to be in the company of two such stunning individuals."

"I'm not going to sleep with you again Roger," Selene smirked, but flopped down onto one of the seats in the carriage all the same. "You can't butter me up that easily."

If Roger was disappointed, he managed to hide it, instead sighing and taking a seat opposite Selene, with Cho sitting to his left, up against the window. "So, ladies," he smiled indulgently at a couple of second year girls who were walking past the windows facing out into the carriage corridor. "What are you excited for this year?"

Cho brightened up at these words (she'd been waving a sad goodbye to her parents through the window), and sat up a little straighter in her seat. She self-consciously smoothed some of her hair down, and took a deep breath before saying; "Well, I was hoping that Cedric would ask me on a date this year!"

Selene chuckled, ignoring the glare from her friend in response. "Of course," she responded lightly, glancing out of the window as the Hogwarts Express pulled away from the station. "Who could ask for more than Diggory's cock?"

"Oi!" Cho pulled a face, and Roger laughed heartily. "It's not all about sex, you know! Some of us believe in love, too."

"Unless love's what comes out of Diggory's wand," Roger smirked, clapping a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Hey, hey, we're only teasing! I'm happy for you and Diggory, even if he is a bit of a wet sausage."

Cho's head was buried firmly in her hands now. "I'll hex you," she warned, although none of the other occupants of the carriage could take her words seriously.

"You're a Prefect now, Cho," Selene pointed out, flicking her wand at the curtains on the window to block out the outside world - and hopefully some of the first day back racket with it. "You can't just go around hexing people."

"Too true, Malfoy," Roger nodded, gesturing to his and Selene's matching Prefect badges on their robes. "Newest Ravenclaw Prefect, in fact."

Cho was the year behind Roger and Selene, in her fifth year at Hogwarts. How Selene had forged such a close friendship with the younger girl, being in different classes and having completely different electives, Selene wasn't sure. But it was a friendship that worked, maybe because opposites attract and Cho's outgoing, friendly, sometimes slightly ditzy personality clashed astonishingly with Selene's wish to keep herself to herself and not speak to anyone she didn't absolutely have to. Her friendship with Roger was one entirely fabricated by her fellow Prefect, and was borne from the idea at he still had a chance with her.

If Cho wasn't so enamoured with Cedric Diggory, Selene would have long since pushed Cho into Roger's arms full-time, but luck wasn't on her side with that particular plan.

"Anyway!" Roger grinned, getting to his feet. "I guess we'd better do a sweep of the corridors, Malfoy!"

Selene groaned, and followed Davies in getting to her feet, shooting Cho an apologetic glance. "We'll come pick you up and take you to the Prefect's carriage on the way back," she promised, pausing in the doorway at Cho's lack of response. "...Cho?"

"Tell Cedric I said hi," Cho responded feebly, still not looking up from her lap. Still, the corners of her blush could be seen peeking out from between her hands.

Selene snickered, and left the carriage, closing the door behind her.

The corridors of the Hogwarts Express were mainly empty now, save for the few ragtag latecomers who were yet to find a carriage to sit in. Noticing Marietta Edgecombe among them (a fifth-year girl Selene heartily disliked but still pretended to get along with for Cho's sake), she pointed her in the direction of Cho's carriage, murmuring something about Cedric. Marietta nodded gratefully, batting her eyelashes at Roger as she passed the Prefects in her rush to meet up with her friend.

"Can't stand that girl," Selene said idly, as they passed a carriage full of excited first years. "How she ever got into Ravenclaw astounds me."

"Family tradition or whatnot," Davies pushed a hand through his hair and winked at a fourth-year girl, who subsequently turned bright red and ran off giggling. "Ah, darling, it's time you got back to your carriage!"

Selene whacked Roger with the back of her hand, rolling her eyes at his attitude towards the younger girls. "Cradle-snatcher," she hissed, stepping ahead of the other Prefect in their patrol. At least she was halfway capable of handling her Prefect duties without flirting with everyone, she thought, as she deftly confiscated a wrapped sweet from an unsuspecting Gryffindor. "What's this?" she asked sharply.

The Gryffindor student paused, stunned at her quick eye, and stumbled backwards, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to think of some kind of excuse. "Uh... um..." he spluttered, looking from Selene to Roger and then back again. "It's... It's a sweetie?"

Selene eyed the wrapping paper of the 'sweetie' turning it over in her hands. She didn't recognise the logo emblazoned on the packaging, but it seemed pretty homemade, and not done very well at that. "Who gave this to you?" she asked, trying to soften her tone somewhat. Scaring the younger students on the first day back wasn't something she tried to do. Although regulating her voice didn't seem to do much, as the student was still gaping and gulping like a Grindylow.

Roger grabbed the sweet from Selene, and tossed it back to the student with an eye roll of his own. "Go on," he smiled, waving the student past. "She's a little over-zealous is Malfoy."

"I am not," Selene glowered, looking down at the student in front of them. "Look," she spoke quieter this time, crouching down to meet the other student's gaze. "If you just tell me and Davies who gave you that sweet, you can go."

The student started gulping again, and Roger pulled Selene back by the sleeve of her robes. "You can go," he said, firmer this time. "You don't need to tell her."

"I just want to know, Davies!" Selene snapped, getting to her feet and glaring at the other Ravenclaw. "These could be dangerous!"

"They're just sweets, Malfoy," Davies laughed, gesturing for the younger student to finally go past them both. "Seriously, you can go!"

Selene huffed and pulled her wand out of her pocket, pointing it at the sweet that the other student was still holding in one clammy hand. "Revelio," she muttered, waving it over the sweet and watching closely.

Nothing happened. The student looked around awkwardly and finally scurried off in the direction the Prefects had come from, Roger laughed and Selene groaned, putting her wand back into her pocket. "I'd never seen those before," she said, by way of an explanation. "They look... Homemade."

"So a kid got sent off to school with homemade sweeties from his mum!" Roger took the lead now, brushing past Selene dismissively. The girl narrowed her eyes at his back, more ashamed by her actions than she would ever admit to anyone. "You've got such a stick up your arse, Malfoy. Sure you don't want me to take it out for you?"

"No!" It was a struggle to catch up with Roger, who was slightly taller than she was, but when Selene finally managed to meet his strides, she managed to gain control of her words and senses again. "I was just being cautious. Surely you don't want students to get hurt?"

"No, but I want students to have fun as well," Roger smirked, glancing into one of the carriages. "Ah! Weasleys, how was your summer?"

Selene groaned inwardly and slowed her pace, giving herself as much time as possible mentally to cope with the onslaught of annoyance that was about to happen. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Weasleys since the Quidditch World Cup (apart from the Platform, but that hardly counted), but she'd heard enough from her father that Arthur Weasley was making his life a living hell at the Ministry, and she wasn't about to go in and make friends with the carrot-tops anytime soon.

"Did we see you at the World Cup, Davies?" Selene recognised the voice that responded as belonging to one of the Weasley twins - she heard it enough in their Defence lessons, after all. "It was a great game!"

"Yes! Me and Chester went together," Roger grinned, turning to Selene as she walked up to his side. "Malfoy and I were just patrolling the corridors. Usual Prefect duties, you know the drill!"

Selene scowled, fixing her gaze on the occupants of the train carriage. Sure enough, two identical redheads were sat in there, along with two other people - Selene recognised them as the Gryffindor Chaser, Angelina Johnson (uptight, pain-in-the-arse) and Lee Jordan, whose Quidditch pundits made her want to tear her hair out. Not the best group of people in the world, and they clearly thought the same about her, judging by their glares and narrowed-eyed suspicion. One of the twins was gazing at her with one cocked eyebrow, as if he was trying to remember her from somewhere, whilst the other was just glaring. Johnson scoffed and turned to stare out the window, whilst Jordan was trying to hide something under his right leg.

"Jordan," Selene said shortly, pushing past Davies to stand properly in the doorframe. She held her hand out, making a beckoning motion with her fingers. "Hand it over."

"I don't have anything!" Jordan attempted to protest, but his words were offset by his determination to properly hide the contraband from the Prefect's view. He desperately tried to push whatever it was out of sight, but Selene just shook her head, and beckoned again.

"Do I really have to dock points before we've even got to Hogwarts?" she asked, raising an eyebrow coolly. "Jordan, hand it over and we'll hear no more of this."

Lee scowled, shooting a look at the twins sat across from him, but reluctantly pulled the object out from under his leg, placing it in Selene's hand. She glanced at it, and then snorted, holding it out towards Roger.

"It's another of those sweets," she noted, holding it outstretched in her palm. "W, W. That wouldn't be anything to do with Weasley now, would it?"

"Try it!" one of the twins piped up - the one that hadn't been glaring. "We made it ourselves, Angelina thought they were pretty tasty for a first try!"

"As if I'd fall for that," Selene rolled her eyes and pocketed it, ignoring the twin's crestfallen expression. "I wasn't born yesterday. Even if your silly friends would fall for that, I won't."

Roger fiddled with the collar of his robes, noticing the tension in the room and deciding not to comment on it. "Right!" he said cheerfully, in an effort to pull his fellow Ravenclaw away from the situation. "Now that's over and done with-"

"Oi, Davies!" Jordan spoke up again, something glinting in his eyes. "If Malfoy won't try it, why don't you?"

There was silence for a moment, as Selene tried not to strangle the Gryffindor boy and Roger thought the preposition over in his head. "Sure, why not," he said jovially, holding his hand out to be passed one by the twins. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Oh, they could poison you?" Selene bit back, crossing her arms and sitting down to watch her friend fall to a Weasley prank, making sure to sit as far away from the Weasleys as possible, as if their proximity might burn her. "No, go on. I'll just pull out my handy Bezoar."

"Lighten up Malfoy!" the angry twin (that was the only distinction that Selene could be bothered to make at this precise moment) said, gesturing for Davies to unwrap and consume the sweetie. "They're perfectly safe!"

"I fucking hope so," Selene said darkly, thinking of the student she'd stopped in the corridor. If it reacted badly to Davies, she wasn't sure if she could forgive herself. She knew something was up with the sweet, the kid seemed so anxious about being caught with it. At least, maybe now she'd have some idea of what they did, and would be able to catch the Weasleys on their act if they tried anything funny with them over the school year.

Roger unwrapped the paper and popped the toffee in his mouth whole, chewing a couple of times before swallowing. Selene sat, leaning forward in her seat slightly, waiting expectantly for something to happen. But nothing did.

"Oh," the twin closest to her said, sounding slightly surprised. "It seems we took a little bit too much out."

"No harm done!" Davies said, grinning despite himself. "I'm just glab you dibn't... Oh shi-"

The twins jumped to their feet and hi-fived each other as Roger's tongue immediately began to swell, growing to immense proportions in just a few seconds. Soon it was drooping out of his mouth, about to drag on the floor before Selene could blink.

"Ton-tongue toffee!" the other twin, the one opposite Angelina, crowed, beaming widely at the display. "Give it just a few more moments and it should start shrinking."

Selene shook her head, giggling under her breath despite herself - although that was mostly at Roger's expense (at least, that was what she told herself). He looked honestly stupid, his tongue lolling and his eyes wide in shock and astonishment. If only she had a camera to hand to take a photo to show to all of his future conquests.

But it didn't stop. Lee Jordan's eyes widened in terror, and both Angelina and Selene leaped to their feet, the former to shake the twins ferociously and the latter to grab Roger. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" Selene found herself yelling, her voice several octaves higher than it usually was, and much louder than she usually allowed it to be. "WEASLEYS! TELL ME HOW TO REVERSE THIS!"

"Shrink it!" Jordan yelled back, over the din of Angelina's scolding and Roger's choking noises. He was suffocating on his own tongue - in any other circumstance, Selene would have been doubled over in laughter. "You know how to do that, right?"

"Of course I fucking do, Jordan," Selene snarled, grabbing her wand and yelling the incantation at Roger's still growing tongue. She waited with bated breath, wand still outstretched, until his tongue slowly, surely, began to shrink and retreat back into his mouth.

By the time the carriage quietened again, Selene was shaking, her hands trembling as she put her wand back into her pocket. She could hear that the twins were snickering now the danger was past, and Roger was cracking a smile despite his lucky escape.

"What the hell?" Selene whirled around, grabbing the nearest twin by the arm and yanking it harshly. "You could have killed him!"

"It was just a bit of fun, Malfoy," Roger said weakly from behind her, coughing into his sleeve. "They didn't know it would end like that-"

The twins' guilty faces told Selene all she needed to know. She glared, dropping the arm and walking back to the corridor in disgust. "Yes they did," she muttered, her hands still shaking in anger. "They knew it wasn't safe."

"We tested it on ourselves first," the twin Selene had grabbed said, trying to defend himself and his brother, but they were in too deep with the Ravenclaw girl now.

"Well that just proves you're even more moronic than I first thought!" she snapped, eyes narrowing as she assessed Roger Davies, who was still coughing. "Fifty- no, sixty Points from Gryffindor. Each!"

The twins spluttered, turning purple in their anger. "You can't do that!" one of them said in disbelief. "The competition hasn't even started yet!"

"And detention with Professor Snape," Selene snarled, grabbing Roger's arm. "You knew what you were doing. And you've been giving them out to the younger kids as well!"

To that, at least, the Weasley twins had the grace to look embarrassed and ashamed, even if they were still angry at their detentions and point losses.

Selene took a deep breath and turned to Roger, who wasn't contesting her choice of punishment (although that might have been because he still was bent over coughing and spluttering, trying to get his breath back properly). "We need to get you checked out," she said quietly, pulling him out into the corridor and slamming the carriage door shut behind them, until it rattled in the frame.

"What crawled up her ass and died?" Angelina rolled her eyes in the direction of the carriage door, fixating her friends with an exasperated glare. "You really just had to go and piss her off before school even started, didn't you?"

"We really didn't know Davies was going to react like that," the twins had calmed down a little now, although Fred was now huffing and glaring out of the window, focusing on a spot on the horizon. "We thought we'd sorted out the issues."

"Still," Angelina sighed, leaning back in her seat and gazing at the ceiling of the carriage. "Now we're down 120 Points."

"We'll get her back for that," Fred spoke up now, his voice even, although George knew that behind it he was still angry at the Malfoy girl. "She's gone too far this time."

"She's never done anything to you before mate!" Lee pointed out, unwrapping a chocolate frog and popping it into his mouth. "She normally leaves you guys alone!"

"Too late," George smirked, reaching over and clapping Fred on the shoulder. "She'd better get ready for some Weasley-flavoured revenge."