CHAPTER TWO
RACHEL
"Moony, don't you have to sit at the prefects compartment?" James asked.
"It's optional," Remus replied.
Sirius scooted closer to James and looked at the empty seat beside him, then at me. "Wanna sit here, love?" he drawled with that sideways grin on his face. I frowned.
"No, I'm fine." I muttered, pulling out my book. Remus stared at it, squinting. I closed it shut so he could see the title. He smiled.
"You're reading that?" he asked. I shrugged.
"I've read pretty much everything." I replied.
"Have you read the first series?" he asked.
"Who hasn't?" I answered with a smile.
"A lot of people, actually. In fact, almost everyone I know has only read the second and third series," Remus replied, "Unbelievable. You wouldn't understand any of it if you haven't read the first series." Sirius grinned at our conversation and muttered, "Never met a hot nerd." I was liking that guy less and less.
"What part are you at?" Remus asked.
"I'm at the part where you find out he's a werewolf," I answered. "I think Brianna Walkins wrote that part real well." Remus looked down.
"Yeah, that part's really good," he said, "I like how insane she made him. Makes the whole story sort of make sense." Sirius and James looked at him for a second, exchanged a look that I couldn't quite read, then, when Remus gave them an angry glare, they resumed their jokes. Meanwhile, Peter was staring out the window dreamily, humming "Old McDonald."
Remus and I chatted for a while, though Remus didn't seem as into it as he did before, and he kept shooting looks at Sirius and James.
Soon, the train began to slow down, and soon enough, students were filing out of the train. The Marauders and I followed.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!" I heard a familiar voice boom. Turning around, I saw Hagrid, with his bushy beard and huge stature, leading the first years over to the lake. I smiled as I saw the carriages with the threstrals, packed with students.
Of course, I couldn't see the threstrals. I had learned about them last year in Care of Magical Creatures, though, and Alice could see them, because she saw her baby cousin drown in their lake.
I filed into a carriage with the Marauders and another Gryffindor. She said her name was Molly, and I remembered seeing her a few times in the common room and such. She had bright red hair and warm brown eyes. She was nice, but didn't seem very interested in the Marauders. I didn't blame her. They didn't seem as cool as they let on.
When the carriages stopped, we marched out with the rest of the school to the Great Hall, where the aroma of warm mashed potatoes and steak-and-kidney pie filled the room.
"I hope the Sorting doesn't take long," Sirius said, "I'm hungry." He kept on trying to walk by me, or give me his jacket, or something. Remus gave me an apologetic look as Sirius slipped beside me at the Gryffindor table. I got a lot of looks, some envious, some menacing, and some just surprised. Alice raised an eyebrow at Sirius and I when she veered off to the left to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Once all of us were seated, Professor Dumbledore stood. The chatting in the hall silenced as he began to speak.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I hope you all enjoy it here! Filch has asked me to remind you that magic between classes is banned, as is communicating with the house elves." he paused, and a few Hufflepuffs giggled. Last year, the Hufflepuffs enjoyed going down to the kitchens to chat with the house elves – and steal food.
"Now, by all means, I understand how hungry you all must be after a long ride from London. I will not jabber any longer. Let the Sorting begin!" Dumbledore announced. I always marveled at his ability to catch people's attention. You'd think that people would brush him off and call him crazy because of his age, but actually, his age seemed to be the reason why people respected him so much.
"Anduth, Mark!" Professor McGonagall yelled. A chubby boy with dark hair shuffled onto the stool and shoved the hat on his head.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat screeched. The boy blushed and went off to the applauding Hufflepuffs.
"Bethreys, Anna!"(to all you demigods out there; eat blue food) McGonagall announced. A girl with blond waves marched to the stool and gave the hat a interested look before placing it gently onto her head. After a few moments, the hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!" And Anna marched over to the Ravenclaw table.
After what seemed like hours, Professor McGonagall finally shouted, "Zeppyson, Andrew!" The hat barked, "SLYTHERIN!" And food appeared on the plates in the hall.
I stuffed my face with turkey, then potatoes, then the apple pie. I concentrated so much on eating that I didn't say a word the rest of the feast. I gulped down my pumpkin juice, and looked up to see Remus smiling at me, eyebrows raised.
"Were you hungry?" he asked teasingly.
"You go without breakfast and lunch, and see how you feel!" I replied. He laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh, just a warm laugh.
"I go without meals more than you'd think." he said. I widened my eyes.
"How do you survive?" I asked. Remus shrugged.
"I guess I'm not a big food fan." he answered. After a while, Dumbledore stood and the hall silenced once again.
"Well, now that you are all full, I suggest the prefects lead all their students to their common rooms to find warm beds. I bid you all good night." he said. The prefects stood, along with Remus, and they led the first years to their common rooms, the older students following.
"I'll see you in class tomorrow," Sirius said once we got to the common room. I tried not to scream.
"Yeah. Night." I said, running up the stairs and almost tripping. I didn't understand why so many girls liked Sirius. Sure, he was handsome, but he reminded me of a dog in some ways: he would drool over any girl halfway pretty, and the way his hair hung over his head reminded me of a dog.
When I got to the girls' dormitories, I found my bed at the end of the room. I saw Molly, the girl I met on the carriage, sitting on the bed beside me.
"Looks like we're roommates." she said.
"Yup," I said, digging in my suitcase for my sweats. I pulled them out, tugged them on, and hopped into bed.
Dreams visited. As always.
I was in the library. Remus was there, and he was reading at the same table as me. Every once in a while, we'd look up from our books and talk and laugh. We kept up like that for what seemed like a half an hour or so, but Madam Pince came and shooed us out. We laughed and ran through the empty halls over to the common rooms and plopped on the couch and resumed studying there.
I think it was the next day. I was in the library again, only then I was by myself. I think I was waiting for someone. I kept looking over at the door expectantly. I kept on waiting, until Madam Pince screeched at me and I walked out, by myself this time. Filch's cat saw me, and even though I was running as fast as I could, Filch caught up with me. He gave me detention for a week.
I woke up, breathing hard as if I had just sprinted across the halls to get away from Filch in real life. I wiped a tear out of my eye. Quit crying, Rachel, I thought, you're being stupid.
I wish it wasn't real. I wish I didn't have the cursed power I had. But I knew.
This dream was real.