Titania loved the start of school. Seeing her friends combined with distance from Sirius, and she found she often didn't mind the mounds of school work. In fact, Titania had always rather liked the direction and purpose that came with each class.

And so it was with a smile that she walked the length of the train as it chugged out of the station, making her way towards the prefects' carriage.

She was already dreaming of her four poster bed, of the green and silver common room so alike and yet so different from Grimmauld Place, of the great hall, when-

"Oof!"

Titania found herself on the ground. Across from her was a girl in Ravenclaw robes, red lipstick smudged and blonde hair frizzing.

"Sorry!" the girl - who Titania now recognised to be Marlene McKinnon - said. She stood up and offered a hand.

Titania already felt stupid enough, sitting there on the ground without getting a blood-traitor's help. She declined with a tense smile, and got up on her own.

Brushing off and straightening her robes, Titaninia turned on her heal and strode in the direction she had been headed.

This continued for a few steps, before she realised she heard McKinnon's steps clicking on the floor behind her.

"Can I help you with something?" Titania demanded, good mood gone, whirling around to face the other fifth year.

The previously smiling girl scowled. "Look, Black, I've been perfectly pleasant. Don't take whatever it is out on me." McKinnon's voice had a sort of quiet steel, the kind Titania knew not to underestimate.

That didn't mean she wa going to yield, though. Blacks didn't back down. "Are you following me?"

McKinnon sighed. "I'm a prefect, too," she gestured to the gleaming badge on her chest, identical to Titania's own. "I'm going to the same place."

"Oh." Titania wasn't sure what to say. "Well then. Feel free to keep walking."

She abruptly turned and continued stalking down the train, Marlene McKinnon's muttered "Why thank you for the permission." following Titania as she went.

~0~0~0~

When she finally reached the prefect's carriage, Titania realised that almost everyone was already there. She scanned her fellow fifth years. Evan Rosier, a boy with brown hair in the sort of effortlessly-messy-to-the-point-of-needing-obvious-effort style, was the other Slytherin fifth year prefect. Marlene McKinnon, as she already knew, and an olive skinned boy who Titania recognised by sight but couldn't place a name to were there for Ravenclaw. She vaguely recognised one of the Hufflepuffs as an Abbott, but honestly thought she had never seen the girl beside him in her life. Who really caught her attention, though, were the Gryffindors.

Remus Lupin and Lily Evans. Titania wished desperately that this was some cruel joke. The only way it could have gotten any worse was if Sirius himself were to be named prefect. Or Potter. Okay, so maybe it wasn't as horrible as it could be, but it was still in very poor taste, Titania thought. She would be forced to work with these people. People who almost certainly detested her as much as she did them.

Just then Evans made eye contact, and Titania realised she had been staring. Stupid. Anything to do with her brother and she lost her mind. It was pathetic, and not at all what she should be doing. Not if she wanted to be as worthy of her house as her twin wasn't.

There was a dignified throat clearing, and Titania saw her cousin Narcissa standing at the front of the carriage, wearing a Head Girl badge. "If you would all take your seats, the meeting is about to begin."

Everyone listened, Titania moving to sit beside Evan Rosier. He nodded a greeting, to which she responded with a polite smile. She and Rosier had been pushed together at a multitude of social functions, but they had never spoken beyond simple pleasantries. Which was just as well, since Titania wasn't overly fond of conversations with people she wasn't close to. Sometimes she didn't even enjoy conversations with people she was close to. But it might be hard not to get to know him, what with being prefects together. Titania was considering this, Would they need to become friends? Was she expected to act as if she liked him? when her thoughts were interrupted.

"Alright," said the Head Boy, Frank Longbottom, "First things first, we need to go over the school rules."

Titania had already read the rule book, and thought this recap was unnecessary. But still she tried to listen, just in case she missed something important.

"It's like he thinks we're a bunch of first-years," whispered Rosier from her left, breaking her out of her thoughts. Despite herself, Titania's mind had begun to wander.

She refocused her gaze on Longbottom, who was currently providing a recap of Hogsmeade trip rules. She gave her fellow Slytherin a smirk. "Maybe they just think we can't read."

With that, Titania looked around at the other prefects. Even the Hufflepuffs wore pained expressions. A sixth-year Gryffindor looked like he might have been sleeping.

"It was smart of Narcissa to make him ramble on like this," Rosier said. Titania looked at him sidelong, "Now Longbottom seems like an idiot, and people will prefer her."

Titania hadn't thought of this, and was impressed at her cousin, though a little annoyed she hadn't realised it herself. Narcissa had a way of always doing the right thing, causing Titania to often alternate between feeling admiration and inadequacy in her presence.

As Titania was ruminating on Narcissa's cleaver cunning, the Head Girl said, "Well, that concludes our meeting. Fifth years, Slytherin and Ravenclaw will patrol for the first half of the remainder of the trip. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, you can have the second half."

Together Titania and Evan Rosier stepped out of the carriage, and into the rest of the train. They walked along the aisle, the clunk clunk of the train echoing in Titania's ears.

Then they came across their first altercation. A small, probably second year Slytherin had drawn his wand on a third year Gryffindor. The pair of prefects stopped just out of the younger students' sight.

"Should we… wait until they actually do something?" she asked Rosier.

He shook his head, "I really don't think we should be giving our own house a detention. Not on our first day."

"Good poi-"

Just then, the second year boy started throwing up slugs; the Gryffindor and his friends eyes wide, as if they hadn't actually expected the hex to work. Titania was surprised as well. What kind of idiot challenges someone who can beat them that easily? she thought, The boy practically deserved it.

"Well," Titania muttered, "Problem solved," she stepped forward and turned to the offending Gryffindor. "Detention with McGonagall, tomorrow."

"But-"

"Not buts, you're the one who actually broke the rules," she made her expression imperious, "And complaining won't change my mind."

Rosier, who had been reluctantly helping the first year, said "Now scram before we make it double."

Grumbling, but evidently deciding not to risk it, the Gryffindors scrambled back into their compartment.

Titania turned and found the Slytherin boy looking up at the two prefects, smiling.

"There's nothing to smile about," she said coldly to the younger student, "Next time you go after a student, do it when you can win." This was a sentiment Titania had often been told herself. It was a terrible thing to bring shame by losing. Especially against someone below you.

The boy scampered off, looking about to cry. Titania scowled. That boy didn't deserve to be a Slytherin.

"Shall we continue?" Rosier said with a wry twist of his lips, and together they finished their shift.

~0~0~0~

Titania was having a hard time finding her friends. She knew they would be waiting in a compartment, but she had no idea which one. Pausing to think for a moment, after parting ways with Rosier at the end of their shift, she decided the best course of action would be to simply try them all.

Squaring her shoulders and focusing on keeping her face cold and disinterested, lest anyone realise how uncomfortable this all made her, Titania set about glancing into every compartment she passed, and opening ones that had their curtains closed.

She did this for what felt like hours, but was probably only fifteen minutes, when she happened across Sirius's compartment.

Because of course she couldn't even avoid him for one bloody train ride. He was everywhere. Like an outbreak of dragon pox.

"Titania," he said, looking too surprised to even seem aloof, "Why're you here?"

In the corner of her vision Titania caught James Potter giving her a death glare.

Ignoring her brother's friend, she said, "Just looking for someone."

Sirius had reigned in his surprise, and seemed at ease and unaffected once more. He smirked and asked, "Looking for your cronies?"

This made Titania blink. That what he thought of her friends? Quiet Vivian and friendly Maggie? If anyone had cronies, it was him. So she let out a laugh, the kind of mocking and yet still somehow dainty laugh that their mother used. It had a remarkable ability to make someone feel like they were an idiot. And so Titania had, embarrassingly enough, practiced it in secret when she was twelve. But it was now a perfect imitation.

She didn't use it very often, as she couldn't quite shake the doubt that, when Titania used it, it actually had the opposite intended effect. Sirius's face, though, said it was working perfectly. He almost looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Titania slammed the compartment door behind her, and resolved to laugh like that more often.

She searched for another five minutes, before finally finding the right compartment.

"Titania," Vivian Nott said with a smile, "I haven't seen you in ages."

Maggie said, more enthusiastically but with just as much warmth, "Titania! How was the prefect meeting?"

"Boring as anything, Maggie, but thanks for asking. And great to see you, too, Vivi." Titania sat down across from her friends, sighing in content. This was were she felt most comfortable, with only her closest friends and nothing to prove.

Then she noticed a cage sitting on top of expensive suede trunks. Inside was a beautiful grey owl, who hooted softly at Titania's entrance.

"Slate!" Titania stroked her bird's beak with two fingers. "How did you get my stuff? I thought I left them with Regulus."

"We ran into him earlier, " Vivian explained, elegantly tucking a strand of mousy brown hair behind an ear, "I thought you might want to have them when you finished the meeting."

"Thanks."

Vivian looked out the window, and there was a loaded silence. "I heard your father is being investigated," Titania began, broaching the hippogriff in the room, "Is everything okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

Maggie was now staring between her two friends, eyes wide, clearly not having heard the news.

"We'll be fine," Vivian said quietly. Titania noticed her friend's hands were clasped in her lap, knuckles white. Then Vivian's voice took on a hard quality, "But they shouldn't have done that. The Ministry. We shouldn't have to deal with that. They had no right, challenging the Notts. They won't get away with it." Vivian was kind and thoughtful, so much so that she was often mistaken for being weak. But she was fiercely protective of those she loved, and could turn from sweet to vicious in a heartbeat. Titania wasn't sure she had ever seen her friend so coldy vengeful as she was now, though.

After a moment Maggie reached over and squeezed Vivian's hand. She seemed just as much at a loss for what to say as Titania was.

Vivian smiled wanly and went back to gazing out the window, admiring the passing countryside with her artist's eye.

There was a silence, and Titania began rifling through her bag, looking for a book, any book. The first one she grabbed was well-worn, the emerald cover unlabeled and faded.

Sitting up in her seat, she began to read, feeling herself relax. The book was on all manner of etiquette, outlining the rules for every occasion. Titania had gotten it from her mother when she was eleven. She could clearly recall Walburga Black's voice proclaiming that Titania should memorize every inch of it, so as to "never be seduced by the rabble at Hogwarts."

Titania had read the book cover to cover countless times, and now ran a finger over the worn papers' edges. This will be a good year, she told herself, never mind what happens on the train.

~0~0~0~

Remarkably, the Welcome Feast had been uneventful, as had Titania's first class, Herbology with the Ravenclaws.

Still, Titania didn't know what to expect when she walked into her first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. The new professor was a middle aged woman with short, grey flecked cropped hair and wary eyes. Apparently she was a retired Auror. And a friend of Dumbledore's.

As with every DADA class they'd had previously, desks only seated two people. In their first year, though, Vivian had come up with a rotating seat system, and so Titania and her friends automatically moved to sit. Titania and Maggie were beside each other, with Vivian beside their dorm mate, Catherine Yaxley, at the desk just across the aisle.

They chatted for a few a minutes, debating whether the teacher would be as bad as their first year, or if she would actually be competent. Odds weren't high on the latter.

Perhaps a minute before the start of class, Sirius and his friends came prancing in, the last people to arrive.

Sirius's propensity for lateness was not a trait only shown at home, and so Titania was beyond feeling even a sliver of surprise. What did surprise her, though, was when he, along with Remus Lupin a step and a half behind, slid into the desk in front of Titania. A quick glance around the room revealed that there had been only two desks open, one of them in front of Titania's seat, one of them behind. She wondered if she should have taken Divination. Then, maybe, she would know why she was always stuck with Sirius. Because fate, Titania thought, hates me.

Studiously inspecting a small scratch in her wand, Titania still noticed Sirius and Lupin start laughing at something one of them had said. They didn't care that they'd almost been late. Sirius looked so at ease, so careless.

Soft soled shoes padded on the floor, breaking Titania out of her silent seething as she directed her gaze towards the professor.

Professor Pierce, if Titania remembered correctly, surveyed the class from her spot at the front of the room. "Good Morning, class. I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year, as you know." A pause. "Now, that simply won't do."

Titania turned to Maggie on her left, wondering if she had missed something. But Maggie looked just as mystified, brown eyes big.

"You and you," she pointed at two people on the inside of the first two rows, "Switch places."

The two students, a Gryffindor girl and a Slytherin boy, looked at Professor Pierce as if she'd lost her mind. It certainly seemed like it.

"Switch places," she ordered again, and started moving down the rows, wreaking havoc as she went. Eventually, though, everyone seemed to be obeying.

Then Professor Pierce reached the middle seats, and told Titania and Remus Lupin to switch. Sirius began to protest, "That's not a good idea. Ma'am."

Titania tried to hide her scowl. The new professor was not amused either. "Switch. Places," she glared at them each in turn to drive her point home, and Titania was abruptly reminded that the woman used to be an Auror.

Moving as slowly as humanly possible, Titania got up and grabbed her stuff. Remus Lupin sat down in her old seat, beside Maggie.

Titania perched beside her twin, carefully trying not to look towards her left. Her traitorous eyes glanced anyways, and found Sirius looking forward, where Professor Pierce was now back to the front of the room, with more determination than Titania had ever seen him show in a class.

"Well. I hope you learn to like your seatmates," she paused and offered a smile, "Because these will be your assigned seats for the rest of term."

The room was so quiet you could hear a quill drop.

~0~0~0~

That evening found Titania curled up in front of the common room fireplace, trying to drown out her thoughts in a herbology textbook. It wasn't working as well as she had hoped. Her brain still rife with worries, a combination of dread and something Titania couldn't quite place permeating every thought.

The old green sofa shifted, and a glance showed Regulus had sat down beside his sister.

"Reggie!" she smiled, "How were your classes?" At his half hearted shrug she looked around, "Where are your friends? Do you… want help with homework?"

Her little brother rolled his eyes. "Have you had DADA yet?"

"Oh. I have," Titania said, "I take it you have, too?"

Regulus flopped back onto the couch, head tilted to the ceiling. "Is your seating as bad as mine?"

Titania closed her book, all hope of reading gone. "I'm partnered with Sirius."

"But all you two do is fight and ignore each other," he said. Titania shot him a look. "Sorry. But you know, maybe this'll help you guys."

"Hmm, I seem to recall somebody telling me all summer that what Sirius and I needed was space."

Regulus shrugged, "Well, I can change my mind. My prescription is now for you two to work together." He nodded sagely.

With a snort Titania began to open her book again, then paused and said, "Wait. You said you're beside someone bad, too?"

"A Hufflepuff mudblood," he answered plainly, worrying at his lip.

"That won't look good for the family."

He blinked, then said firmly, "I didn't want to."

"I know," Titania answered, "It's just - mother and father won't be thrilled."

"Right," he sighed, "But it's not like I asked to sit with her. It'll be fine." Regulus sounded like he was trying to convince himself, wasn't sure how to respond, so she just squeezed her little brother's hand. He shot her a thankful smile, and together they stared into the fire, watching the flames dance and spark.

Thanks for reading! One thing I forgot to mention last time is that I've changed the timeline and ages a little bit (most notably Regulus is a year older, but there are a few others I changed too). What did you think? Please follow/favourite/review (thanks again to everyone who did last time, especially the reviewers, by the way) I'd love to know what you liked and where I could improve - and each review totally makes my day :)