Chapter 30
Meredith and Patricia jostled their way onto platform nine and three quarters pushing through a huge crowd of people.
"Is it just me, or is it more crowded than usual?" Patricia said, trying to maneuver her trunk through a crowd of extremely short first years.
"Trevor!" a short plump boy dashed past Meredith nearly sending her cart toppling.
"It's not just you," Meredith said pushing her hair out of her face.
"Meredith, Patricia!" Oliver called to them as he pushed through the crowd.
"Quite mad out here," Oliver said brushing some dust off his robes.
"Hello, all," Percy said as he joined them. "Nearly eleven, we better get on board. Meredith, the prefects are supposed to meet the head boy and girl in the front cabin for instructions."
"Oh, okay," Meredith said. She turned to Patricia and Oliver.
"We'll come find you later," she said. Her friends nodded and they boarded the train. Not really knowing where they were supposed to be going, Meredith opted to follow Percy. He led her to the front of the train and into a compartment that was only slightly larger than the regular compartments. Two seventh years whom Meredith recognized as Henry MacKenzie of Hufflepuff and Imogen Wilkes of Ravenclaw.
"I guess they're our new head boy and girl," Meredith said softly to Percy who was eyeing the badge pinned to MacKenzie's robes with a hungry look in his eye.
"Good morning," Wilkes greeted them once all eight prefects were assembled. "And congratulations to all of you on being selected to be prefects. As I am sure you know the Hogwarts teachers depend on prefects to help maintain order around the school. As prefects you will be expected to set a good example for your fellow students. As such any prefect caught breaking rules will be dealt with most severely." Imogen Wilkes was like a 17 year old version of Professor McGonagall Meredith thought with a sigh.
"Now as prefects you will be permitted to give detentions and take away house points. However," Wilkes held up a finger. "Points can only be taken from a prefects own house and all detentions must be cleared with a teacher." There were a few groans that fell silent at Wilkes dark look.
"Now," MacKenzie said passing around pieces of parchment," these are the passwords to your house commonrooms. You will be informed when it changes by either Imogen or myself. Now one of the perks of being prefects is of course the prefects bathroom. Located on the fifth floor, fourth door on the left of the portrait of Boris the Bewildered. The password to get in is Pine Fresh. Now because this bathroom is used by all prefects, boys and girls, as well as the Quidditch captains, it is recommended that you get together to make a schedule when you will be able to use it. Now, before joining the rest of your fellow students, please do a sweep of the train and make sure that everyone is in a compartment and that no one is getting into trouble. That will be all." Recognizing themselves to be dismissed the prefects departed the cabin and stepped out into the hall. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs scattered and the Slytherins, looking at though they didn't care much ducked into a cabin.
"Why how dare they!" Percy said indignantly. "We are supposed to be patrolling the train. They should be stripped of their badges!"
"Calm down," Meredith said. "Let's just do a sweep of the corridors and then find Patricia and Oliver." Percy turned down one corridor grumbling about 'gross insubordination'. Meredith shook her head and turned down the other corridor. There wasn't much going on really. She told off a few third years for roughhousing in the halls, threatened a fourth year Slytherin with detention for picking on a first year, found the boy who'd nearly knocked her over on the platform searching for his escaped toad assisted by a girl with bushy brown hair. She turned down a row and came upon three first year boys. Two were very large and one small with pale blonde hair. They were coming out of a compartment the largest of them holding his bleeding hand.
"Potter!" the small pale boy huffed. "Famous Harry Potter. Nothing but a filthy mudblood lover if you ask me." The word 'mudblood' hit a sore note in Meredith's mind. There was something familiar about the pale boy. She glared as the plump boy from before, now with toad in hand, tried to get by them and was shoved into a wall by one of the pale boy's friends. She put her hands firmly on her hips and approached the three.
"What do you think you are doing?" she addressed them. They turned and glared at her. The plump boy scampered away. The pale boy glared at her. The other two it seemed were waiting for the pale one to tell them what to do.
"What's it to you," he snapped haughtily glancing at the patch on her school robes.
"I'm a prefect," Meredith said firmly. "And just who are you?"
"The name's Draco Malfoy and you better just stay out of my way. No Gryffindor is gonna tell me what to do. I'm going to be a Slytherin just like my father." Malfoy, Meredith thought her blood boiling. She'd only been a child when she'd met this boy's father but the memory of the cruel foul man whose son it seemed was following in his footsteps.
"I've met your father, Malfoy and I don't particularly care for the man. But I will tell you if you don't seriously adjust that attitude you're going to wind up in detention before you're eve sorted into your house."
"Oh and just who's gonna put him there Loopy? You?" Meredith's hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"Stay out of it Flint," she snapped.
"Looked to me like you were trying to push Malfoy around. Can't have that Loopy." Oh great these two were friends. Just what she needed. She scowled at Flint and his cronies. Her hand twitched toward her wand but she resisted grabbing it and cursing Flint into oblivion.
"I think it's time we taught Loopy here how to respect her betters don't you think boys," Flint said to his friends. They chuckled and cracked their knuckles menacingly.
"You can't possibly mean yourself, Flint," Oliver said suddenly appearing at Meredith's shoulder. The muscles in Meredith's stomach relaxed as Percy and Patricia joined them. Flint shot a dirty look at Oliver.
"You won't always have Woody and Weasel around to protect you Loopy. One of these days I'll get you alone and then…." Flint's voice was menacing and Meredith couldn't help but feel a bit queasy.
"Just get out of here Flint," she said through clenched teeth. Flint shot her one last dirty look before turning away.
"I hate that guy," Patricia said wrapping an arm around Meredith's shoulder.
"You all right?" Oliver asked looking concerned. Meredith placed a hand over her pounding heart and tried to steady her breathing. She didn't know what was wrong with her. Flint had always been a prat but he had never scared her like this. She shook off the sick feeling in her stomach. She did not want her friends to know how that git affected her.
"I'm fine," she said. "How did you know…"
"When I got to the cabin and you weren't there we got concerned and decided to come look for you," Percy explained as they made their way back to the cabin. Meredith sank onto a bench and leaned her head back.
"What was Flint going on about anyway?" Oliver asked. Meredith told them.
"My dad works with Lucius Malfoy at the Ministry," Percy said wrinkling his nose. "According to Dad the Malfoys were big supporters of You Know Who."
"The Malfoys supported Voldemort?" Meredith said. All three of her friends gasped. Meredith shook her head. She forgot sometimes that her friends had grown up in homes where Voldemort's name was not spoken.
"Sorry," she said. Percy shuddered,
"Yeah, they were right in his inner circle. Of course after You Know Who disappeared they were among those who claimed that You Know Who had put spells on them to force them to do his bidding. Dad doesn't believe it though. He says that if You Know Who were ever to return Lucius would rejoin him in a hot second."
"But You Know Who is gone isn't he?" Patricia said. "I mean he was defeated by Harry Potter years ago."
"No one really knows for sure what happened the night You Know Who attacked Harry Potter," Oliver said. "It's a big mystery."
"My dad doesn't believe him to be gone," Meredith said. "Weakened certainly. Stripped of his powers maybe, but completely finished?"
"Your dad was one of those who fought against You Know Who wasn't he Mere?" Percy asked. "I think I remember Mum telling me about this order of witches and wizards Dumbledore led in the war against You Know Who. My uncles Gideon and Fabian were in it." Meredith thought about the few stories her father had told her about the war against Voldemort. Her parents had fought with Dumbledore against him along with Harry Potter's parents.
"I don't know a lot about it really," she said. "Dad doesn't like to talk about it."
"My folks say the chances of You Know Who ever returning are next to nothing," Patricia said. "But they don't like to talk about it either."
"Well, let's hope that he is finished," Percy said. "Both my uncles were killed by You Know Who's supporters along with hundreds of others."
"Like my parents," Meredith said quietly remembering the sadness in her dad's eyes when he spoke of those he cared about that had been killed in the war. She squeezed her hands together tightly in her lap and silently prayed that whatever powerful magic little Harry Potter had within him that night, he had finished off Voldemort for good.
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"Harry Potter!"
"I saw him on the train!"
"The scar…"
The Great Hall was buzzing with talk of The Boy Who Lived. Meredith tapped her spoon impatiently. She was anxious for the sorting to be over and the feast to start. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger. She'd had very little breakfast that morning and the run in with Flint on the train had left her feeling ill and unable to eat on the train. Now she very much regretted refusing the pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs Patricia had tried to get her to eat. She sat straight as Professor McGonagall entered the Great Hall followed by the first years. Professor McGonagall took her place at the front where the Sorting Hat sat. Meredith studied the first years who where shifting nervously and smiled. She could well remember how she had felt her first year as she stood waiting to be sorted. And now here she was, a prefect of the house she had been sorted into.
"When I call your name you will come forward, put on the hat and sit on the stool." The first two girls Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones went to Hufflepuff. A boy named Terry Boot went to Ravenclaw. A girl with blonde hair named Lavender Brown was the first new Gryffindor. Everyone at the table clapped Fred and George cat-called until Percy shot them a stern look. A girl went to Slytherin and a boy to Hufflepuff. Seamus Finnigan was the next Gryffindor and then the bushy haired girl Meredith had met on the train whose name turned out to be Hermione Granger. Meredith chuckled as the girl practically ran to the stool. The next Gryffindor was the boy who had lost his toad on the train. His name was Neville Longbottom. The boy was bit clumsy. He tripped on his way to the stool and forgot to take off the hat and had to go back. Patricia snickered and Meredith elbowed her in the side. She gave Neville a smile as he sat down and the boy's ears turned bright pink.
"Harry Potter." The hall went silent. Meredith craned her neck to see the boy that the entire school had been muttering about. At first glance there did not seem to be anything extraordinary about him. A skinny boy with messy black hair and round glasses. He looked underfed and Meredith couldn't help but wonder what sort of treatment he had received at the hands of his aunt and uncle. She didn't know what she had expected. Perhaps a proud boy, a bit full of himself. But he was quite the opposite. Just as timid and uncertain as the rest of the first years. He sat stone still as McGonagall placed the sorting hat on his head. The hat took a long time deciding where to put Harry. The Great Hall was dead silent as the hat made up it's mind which house would have the honor of having the Boy Who Lived wear it's colors.
"GRYFFINDOR!" Meredith clapped along with her housemates as Fred and George shouted WE GOT POTTER. Percy shook hands with Harry and offered him the seat between himself and Meredith. Meredith gave Harry a smile.
"Welcome to Gryffindor," she said.