January 13th, 1996. Monday.
The first day back from Christmas break was just as chaotic as the last day of term. The morning began in Gryffindor Tower where the girls' dorm - like every other dorm in Hogwarts - was full of children sleeping in from break and then hurrying to change.
"Tess, move!" Alisson screamed, shoving her friend away as she went to dig through her trunk for a fresh tie.
Tess was, however, otherwise occupied. She was already dressed in her button-up white shirt, Gryffindor vest, tie, grey skirt, and knee-socks for the day. However, presently, Selena watched her friend desperately trying to catch a little, baby brown owl that was flying around the room.
She'd gotten her pet for Christmas and ever since the thing had been causing trouble.
Renee had stopped telling the story about how she blew up her grandfather's blender "that one time" to try and smack down the owl with a book. Tess swatted at Renee angrily, jumping up to stand on Alisson's bed, standing precariously on her tiptoes. The owl hooted sharply, soaring around the wooden tops of the five canopy beds. Tess' brown eyes were wide, fray strands of hair falling out of the bun she'd done.
"Get that owl out of here before I explode its little feathers off!" Alisson screamed as she tightened her tie and fixed her collar.
Selena was sitting on her bed, out of the way of all the craziness, pulling on her black stockings. Elizabeth calmly read a book on her bed, ready for the day with the soft scarlet-and-white bedsheets all made up.
"Come on, Spice, please stop knocking down the posters!" Tess said as she waved her hands around where the owl had knocked down her poster of the Moose Jaw Meteorites, her favorite Quidditch team.
"What was that charm that Professor Flitwick taught us last year?" Selena yelled as Alisson jerked on her raven robes with a scowl. "Oh! Imm- Immobula- Immobulus!" Without another word, she grabbed her wand off of her nightstand where Crescent was perched, watching with hopeful eyes for the tiny owl to land near him.
"Immobulus!" Selena said clearly, pointing her wand at the owl. The wand glowed a sudden blue. And then the dorm became quiet.
Spice froze in midair, her wings open for another flap. Tess sighed in relief, reaching up and cradling her pet. She stepped gingerly from Alisson's bed over to her own, stopping at her trunk. The cage on top of the trunk was where Spice had escaped that morning, taking flight so quickly Tess hadn't been able to catch her. Tess put Spice into her cage before the spell wore off and the owl started hooting in her tiny voice.
"If it ever gets out again, I'll take it down to the kitchen and roast it on a spit!" Alisson growled, putting her brown hair up.
Elizabeth sighed, placing a bookmark between the creamy pages of her novel. She tucked the blue book into her schoolbag. "Well that was an exciting start for term."
"We have Potions first," Renee said, slipping on her usual gold bracelet. This earned a collective groan from the other Third Years before all of them got their bags and headed down the stairs where a very talkative crowd of Gryffindor's was mulling around. The Common Room was bustling with students preparing for the first day back, some groggily rubbing their eyes or discussing what they'd done over the holiday.
"Really, I don't know if fairy wings go in the Girding Potion, or if that's doxy eggs," Tess said as the five girls all crawled through the portrait hole, beginning their descent down to the Dungeons as they waited their turn for the staircases to move. They walked past a very loud group of Hufflepuffs, none of the girls able to answer Tess' question. Which did nothing to quell Selena's nerves for the first day back in Potions.
Elizabeth scowled when they passed some Slytherin boys who were dropping fruitcake onto a confused group of Ravenclaws below. "Slytheridiots."
"Name-calling isn't nice," Tess told Elizabeth, shaking her head in disapproval. Elizabeth didn't bother to look at their friend.
Selena watched as Maryana Callahan talked with one of the boys who she recognized as Ray Macalaster. The light-olive-skinned girl smiled up at the older boy, twirling her hair around a finger. She smiled flirtatiously at Ray, blinking her bright green eyes innocently.
Ray noticed the Third Years passing by. His expression took on a condescending frown. He leaned against the stair banister, turning to them. "Morning, Gryffindorks," he said as they passed, absolutely ignoring Maryana who stopped twisting the piece of her wavy hair to glare at the group of girls. Her eyes glinted when she saw Renee.
The year before, Renee had accidentally burned off most of Maryana's hair in Transfiguration class. Her hair had been fixed after the mishap, back to its shoulder length, but the Slytherin girl clearly hadn't let it go.
Renee looked particularly uncomfortable, stepping a little closer to Selena. The dark-haired witch gave Renee an assuring smile, linking arms with her. Maryana wouldn't jinx or hex Renee with all of them around.
"We're not the ones dropping cake onto other students," Elizabeth said crisply, sweeping down the top of the marble staircase.
"Fine. We'll throw it at you," Ray said, tossing a piece of the cake at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth simply picked the piece of food out of her bleach-blonde hair before pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You'll be tardy to class." With that, she walked down the rest of the steps, not even watching for her friends.
Selena watched as Ray glared at her friend, rolled his grey eyes, and popped a piece of the dessert into his mouth before he and his friends (and Maryana) resumed with their prank.
Ray had been rude their first year at Hogwarts, but made a point of apologizing later afterwards. However, it seemed that ever since the Daily Prophet's smear campaign against Harry Potter had begun, and with Umbridge making all the changes to Hogwarts she was, the Slytherins were getting more hostile.
Selena's heart sank a little.
Everyone was seemingly becoming more and more divided. Even people in other Houses had been cruel to Harry for claiming that He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named was back. Even Gryffindors, too. Selena felt Renee tugging her down the steps to Potions, but her mind was suddenly back at the Start-of-Term Feast from 1 September. The Sorting Hat's song.
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Hogwarts was becoming more and more divided.
Selena swallowed, shoving the thoughts away. She had a term to start.
January 14th, 1996. Tuesday.
Breakfast
Renee slapped a copy of the Daily Prophet on the Gryffindor table, making Selena and Tess jump.
"We're all gonna' die," Renee blurted, eyes wide.
Tess gave her a look that clearly labeled Renee as mad. "Good morning to you, too."
Renee sighed, rolling her eyes. "Good morning, mum." She clumsily threw a leg over the wooden bench, sitting next to Selena. "Look!"
Selena swallowed her mouthful of cereal, glancing over at the newspaper. The front page was covered with ten photographs. Inside the boxes, nine wizards poked at the frame, some glaring from the page instead. Selena frowned, watching the magical pictures move, noticing a witch amongst them as well. Under the boxes, names identified the people.
When Selena leaned closer, she noticed the words by the names.
Lists of crimes.
"Did they round up a group of criminals?" she mumbled to no one in particular. Her eyes scanned one of the portrait details.
Augustus Rookwood, it read, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic Secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Realization dawned on Selena as she finally looked up and read the headline:
MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN
MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT"
FOR OLD DEATH EATERS
Her blood ran cold.
She froze, suddenly losing her appetite. Tess blanched as she read the many crimes of the prisoners.
"See?" Renee asked, gulping. "They're going to go for the Ministry first? Aren't they?"
"Dumbledore said this would happen," Tess said stonily, staring at the paper. "He told them and they didn't listen. Now look."
Selena began to read the text, her eyes skimming over one of the paragraphs, part of a quote from Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic:
"We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached."
Anne. Selena glanced over to where her cousin and Fred Weasley were arguing over which pudding was better (Anne said Yorkshire pudding, but Fred disagreed and said that rice pudding was superior.) She held onto the table to keep from visibly shaking. Peering at the last picture of the only woman amongst the criminals, she read the name.
Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.
The woman had shiny, black hair and a strong jaw, slender lips and hooded eyes only enhancing her beauty. The longer Selena stared at the picture, the woman tilting her head, reaching over to tap on the picture frame, the more a disturbing thought occurred to her. This woman clearly resembled Sirius Black, her cousin. But not only that, she looked like Selena's father.
Selena knew her father was the much-younger brother of Sirius Black, though he wasn't aware she knew.
But seeing this picture only reinforced its truth. Selena was related to this woman, just as Anne was.
She shuddered. Anne continued her discussion with Fred, the couple bursting out laughing, Anne beaming. Selena closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Maybe this Lestrange woman didn't know Sirius had a daughter. Maybe she wouldn't care. Maybe she wouldn't know Selena's father, who had hidden well all these years.
"I know..." Tess said sadly, glancing over at Selena, her eyes sad. "Do you think they have any relation to Neville?"
Selena knitted her brows, confused about what Tess meant. She glanced at the picture again, reading the legend once more.
Convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.
"I'm hoping not," Renee mumbled, looking just as glum as Tess. "Poor Neville..."
Selena felt guilt snake through her. If these were people related to Neville, this must've been affecting him just as much. Probably much more. Selena glanced up at the Head Table as the teachers read the paper and ate their breakfast. Headmaster Dumbledore was talking with Professor McGonagall, their expressions grim.
A wave of nausea swept over Selena. Without thinking, she stood up suddenly, this time alarming Renee and Tess, who were both already on edge.
"Where are you going?" Renee asked her curiously.
"I forgot my Herbology notes in the dorm. Be back in a second," Selena lied, turning and walking from the Great Hall as the sounds of forks and plates clanking on the polished tables faded.
What will Anne say? she thought. No doubt she'll talk to Harry about this. Oh, this is terrible. This is dreadful.
She turned around a corner, not quite sure where she was going. Glancing up, her thoughts took a sharp turn.
Up ahead, a familiar boy in Gryffindor robes stood, holding a camera.
"Colin!" she called excitedly, her heart fluttering automatically over the panic from moments ago.
"Hm?" The blond Fourth Year looked up, smiling when he saw Selena running up a short flight of steps to him. "Hello, Selena."
"What are those?" Selena asked curiously, her blue eyes floating to the pictures he held in his free hand. It was a welcome distraction from the pictures on the page of the Daily Prophet she couldn't shake.
"Some photos I've taken. I got them developed over the holiday," Colin said, handing them to her. "What do you think? I can't just pick one favorite, you know?"
Selena gladly took it, feeling that little ball of warmth in her stomach that being around Colin caused. Lots of the pictures were of Hogwarts, just the castle, or Harry Potter appeared in a couple. Quidditch was also popular, action shots featuring players whizzing by on their brooms, the snitch fluttering into one picture before flying away in a golden blur. The rest of the photos were of his friends like Ginny Weasley.
In one, she smiled at the camera with another girl who Selena quickly recognized as Luna Lovegood. In another she was laughing, smiling at the camera with her hair blowing around in the wind outside. In another she was laughing again, pushing the camera away. Finally, she was smiling so perfectly, the sun glowing behind her head, brown eyes glittering.
"These are very nice photographs. You should show them to Luna or Ginny," Selena said kindly, her smile fading as she saw the sweet look in Colin's eyes when she handed him the photos back.
Colin blushed. "I did. Ginny said that she thinks they're brilliant."
Selena nodded, suddenly wanting the conversation to be over. The high from earlier was gone, and now the panic was creeping back. She waved politely. "I'd better get back. Bye, Colin."
The boy waved back to her while Selena returned to the Gryffindor table.
"Sel..." Renee whispered to her. "What's wrong? Where are your Herbology notes? Do we even have Herbology today?
Selena shook her head, forcing a smile as she focused on her cereal again. "Don't worry, you're right. We don't. I just forgot."
As they continued to chatter, Selena felt that ball in her stomach unravel as she realized that Colin didn't like her.
He already liked Ginny Weasley.
YAY! I really need to start introducing all those characters that I have saved up! Hopefully I'll get a new character in next chapter as well as continue with some old ones.
Damon, probably. Also Alexanda.
I'M EXCITED TO WRITE THE PATRONOUS SCENE!
What did you think about Elizabeth standing up to Ray? I'M PROUD OF OUR LIZ! Haha. She shouldn't call people mean names, though.
Well thank you for all of my reviewers! I hope to see them again! I love you guys SOOOO much!
Thanks to:
CharmedMillie
I Am Gwen Daughter Of Arcus
Kurono-Angel
I love hearing from you all!
PLEASE REVIEW! Thanks for reading!
Love you! Bye!
~Loveableheart