Chapter 2: Exploding Snap
All three soon to be students stared at the door waiting, who would be looking for a seat in a compartment half an hour after the train had left? Michelle and Lily looked at each other for a moment; Remus peeked up over his book, hazel eyes almost sparkling with curiosity.
Whoever it was knocked again, a bit louder this time.
Lily took the initiative. "Who is it, you can come in you know?"
The door opened and a taller boy wearing jeans and a black sweater walked in. He had a kind face with nice, blue eyes and a few freckles strewn across his nose.
"Hello," he said. "By any chance you guys haven't seen a deck of Exploding Snap have you? I think I dropped mine back on the platform. I really hoped that someone had picked it up." He finished with a sad look.
"Sorry, I have a deck, but it's mine. I brought it from home." Michelle pulled out the rather tattered cards that she had put away only minutes ago.
"Hm… I put my name on the cover of the box, you know, I really wanted to play with some of my friend back in my compartment."
Something seemed to flutter across Remus' face for a split second, he placed a bookmarker at his page and carefully placed it on the seat beside him. Pulling his sleeves down a bit more as if to hide something, he stood up on the seat. Glancing embarrassedly back at the boy he mumbled, "Um… I think I may have found it, is your name Frank Longbottom?" Remus reached up to his trunk but found that it was just beyond his reach.
"Yes, it is." Frank said happily "I wrote my name on one side in green ink, I'm sure I did." He chucked a little, scratching his black hair and strode forewords. "Do you want some help with that mate?"
"Oh, um… yes please. I put the deck in my trunk…" Remus' cheeks reddened a bit but avoided anyone's gaze by staring at the floor and slowly getting off the seat. He pointed to a trunk between the other two. It was quite a bit more worn out than the ones next to it. The trunk was being held together by rope, for the buckles had broken long ago and they had not been bothered to be replaced.
Luckily, Frank was just tall enough to pull the trunk to the floor, it was quite heavy. Remus opened it and quickly took out a small pack of cards, which indeed had a scribbled "Frank Longbottom" along one edge.
"Here, sorry I had to bother you to come find them,"
"No trouble at all, in fact I really should apologize for taking you away from your book. Thank you for holding them for me, my mum would have been real upset if I had lost the deck that she only bought for me a few days ago, if there's someone you don't want to row with its her. Hey, what's your name anyway?" he held put his hand to shake Remus' smaller one.
"Remus Lupin, um…you're welcome, but I really didn't do anything," he murmured, looking away but shaking Frank's hand nonetheless.
Frank smiled and turned to go.
"I'm Frank Longbottom, a second year Griffindor, it was nice to meet you mate, and you, ladies. Farewell." He walked out of the compartment, turned around and gave a deep bow and rushed down the hall.
The silence was once again thick, though this time, more pleasantly so. Remus was watching the furiously red blush recede from Lily and Michelle's faces when he called them "ladies" and bowed. They girls gave each other a look and burst out laughing.
"What's funny?" Remus asked when their laughing died down some, tilting his head slightly.
Lily looked up at the boy, wiping her eyes, "I dunno, kind of just hit me funny. I found Mr. Longbottom entertaining, didn't you? She smiled as Remus sat beside her, not alone in his corner, she noticed. Maybe he just needed a few friends. "What's this Exploding Snap? You two appear to know what it is, but I haven't the foggiest what he was going on about. It sounded like a game. Is it?"
Michelle then went into a grand explanation on how to play, then had Remus help educate Lily on how to play Quidditch, because being a muggleborn, had no idea it even existed before that point. Some time in the afternoon the skies became dark, and shortly after the wind began to whip around the train, the rain started to fall. Quietly at first, then with increasing gusto as the lights flickered on in the hall.
Suddenly a voice came on that rang throughout the compartments,
"Would all students make sure that they have their proper robes on, the train will be arriving at Hogwarts in ten minutes time, thank you." The first years became nervous once more. Even Michelle, who's sister had told her all about the place was a little twitchy as her two companions changed into their robes.
When the train finally pulled into the station, there was a deafening racket as hundreds of witches and wizards piled out of the train and onto the platform. Michelle and Lily held hands as not to be separated by the jostling of the older students to get to the warmth and dryness of the coaches, clenched in Michelle's other hand was the sleeve of Remus' robes.
"Where do we go, Michelle, I can't see anything. I don't think that we go this way, Michelle don't we have to go to the carriages?" Lily cried anxiously over the noise of the rain and confusion. Their soaked hair dripped into their eyes and made it very difficult to see much farther than about a meter around them.
Suddenly a booming voice carried out over the students called, "Firs' years this way, firs' years, come on, to th' boats." A huge man stood, holding a lantern above the crowd and motioning for the smallest ones of the group to follow him. Lily looked to Remus and Michelle as if begging them to say they didn't have to go with him, but the two of them simply pulled her along towards the edge of a great lake where there were about eight small rowboats waiting for them.
"No more than four to a boat!" He called out once the rest of the first years had separated themselves from the diminishing crowd. Yet there was no need to find another eleven year old for their boat, there just wasn't that many of them.
As the tiny fleet of boats set off for the other side of the lake, Michelle, Lily and Remus huddled together, shivering and pulling their cloaks tighter. Remus' teeth chattered as he answered the look on Lily's face, "T-that was Hagrid, he's the keeper of the Hogwarts g-grounds, he's big but he's just about harmless, I've met him before, h-he's nice. Oh, bloody hell, look at the guys in front of us…"
Lily and Michelle followed Remus' pointed finger. The boys in the boat in front of them were horsing around, not fighting really, but the boy with black hair, longer than the other one's was looking in danger of falling out of the rocking boat. Michelle's face blanched as the last boy in the boat, a rather pudgy one with short, blond hair yelled, "look out!" and over he went with a splash into the black, abyss of water. Lily screamed, and Remus looked like he was in shock. The boy's head bobbed up and down, above and beneath the water, farther and farther away from his own boat. Within twelve seconds, he was right beside Michelle, Lily and Remus' boat. Somehow, they managed to pull him aboard without submerging their own. Once aboard, the boy shook his head and coughed into his fist a few times.
Michelle was the first to gain her voice, " How could you be so careless? What if you had drowned, I mean, gah- are you serious?" The boy looked up into her incredulous face and smiled charmingly,
"Yep, I'm Sirius, Sirius Black."
Hey! It's me! Haha James pushed Sirius out of the boat. Oh, by the way Disclaimer: none of the characters you recognize are mine. The only one I own is Michelle. Damnit.