Chapter 2: The Beginning of Madness

Hi everyone!

First, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who followed and reviewed. It really means a lot.

Second, just to clear up any confusion, I'm going to go ahead and point out that for plot reasons, I had to skip Alyssa's first four years as Hogwarts. If I wrote everything that happened then, you'd die of boredom and close your laptops. However, I do plan to do a few flashbacks to her earlier school years.

If you recognize it, it's not mine.

"I knew you'd get that," Penelope Clearwater smiled as I walked into the prefects' compartment. She pointed to the blue and bronze badge on my robes. "Well done, 'Lyssa."

"You didn't do too badly either," I pointed out, gesturing to her Head Girl badge.

"All right, all right, settle down," Percy Weasley said loudly. I passed a hand over my mouth to hide a grin. "Now, then. Welcome, new prefects. You have been entrusted with great power. It is not to be abused."

With great power, I thought, comes great responsibility. I had to struggle to keep a straight face. I tuned out the rest of Percy's speech. And I thought the twins had been annoying. I wrinkled my nose at the thought of them. I hadn't actually had a real conversation with them since that incident before first year, but I couldn't exactly ignore them. They made themselves known.

"Miss Summers?" Percy's voice dragged me out of my thoughts. "You have some objection to your assignment?"

I realized that I was glaring at the floor and hurried to shake my head. Penelope was suppressing laughter.

"All right, then," Percy said pompously. "You and Mr. Matthews should start patrolling the corridors. You will be relieved of your duties in one hour."

I glanced over at Daniel Matthews, my fellow Ravenclaw prefect. He smiled hesitantly and gestured for me to leave the compartment ahead of him. Percy and Penelope followed us out.

"Penny," Percy said stiffly. "I wanted to ask you-"

"Ooh!" a voice behind me cut in. "Look, Freddie! He wants to ask her something!"

I turned around to see the Weasley twins leaning the walls on either side of the corridors. They were both smirking.

"What could it be?" the other twin wondered.

"He probably wants to know if she still feels like putting up with him this year. I mean, she's already spent a year in his company. That must've been pure torture."

"Oh, leave them alone!" I sighed exasperatedly.

The twins turned their attention to me, looking mildly surprised.

"Why would we do that?" one of them asked.

"Because you're annoying them," I scowled. "And me."

Before either of them had time to respond, Penelope elbowed me sharply in the ribs.

"I guess you don't know each other," she said, looking slightly nervous. "Fred and George, Alyssa Summers. Alyssa, Fred and George Weasley. Oh, and this is Daniel Matthews."

"I know who they are," I muttered, looking away from them.

Percy cleared his throat awkwardly. "Anyway, Penelope, would you be interested in meeting me in the library tomorrow night?"

"Sure," she grinned. "It's a date."

"Ooh! A date!" George (I think) cooed. "Isn't that adorable?"

"Oh, shut up," I snapped.

Both twins grinned at me.

"I think she's going to be a lot of fun," Fred (or George?) observed, eyes glinting down at me.

"Er...come on, Alyssa," Daniel said, taking me by the elbow. "Let's go."

I allowed myself to be led along, but I could hear the twins laughing behind me.

"Elena," I said, slamming her compartment door shut. "I am going to kill your friends."

"Which ones?" she asked, moving her feet off of the seat next to her so that I could sit.

"Fred and George Weasley."

"Ah," she nodded. "What'd they do?"

I sighed, tucking my feet up under me. "Do they have off switches?"

"If they do, they're not in places they display to the general public."

I snorted. "That's gross, 'Lena. They were hanging around outside the prefects' compartment and decided to pick on Percy and Penny."

"Let me guess," she sighed, chucking a Chocolate Frog at me. "You snapped at them."

"You know me so well. I'm going to kill them."

"Go ahead," she said carelessly. "Although, they are twice your size."

I huffed. "That's not very supportive."

Elena opened her mouth, but she was cut off as the compartment door slid open again. My friend Megan waved excitedly at us.

"Hi, 'Lyssa! Hi, 'Lena!"

"Hi, Megan," we said in unison.

"Good summer?" she asked, sitting across from me.

"Megan, we saw you two weeks ago," I reminded her. "When you stayed at my house."

She shrugged, grinning at us. Megan was our ray of sunshine. No matter how bad of a mood I was in, she would drag me out of it with her happy-go-lucky personality. If I didn't know how smart she was, I would've said she belonged in Hufflepuff, not Ravenclaw.

"Who do you think the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is?" she asked, accepting the piece of gum Elena offered her.

"I just hope he's a good teacher," I shrugged.

"Can't be any worse than Lockhart," Elena said with a shudder. "As long as he gets us through our O.W.L.s all right, it'll be fine."

Megan and I both grimaced at the mention of O.W.L.s. Dora had told me this would be the hardest year yet. I got a knot in my stomach just thinking about the exams.

"We're stopping," I realized suddenly, feeling the train start to slow down. I glanced down at my watch. We couldn't be at Hogwarts yet.

"I don't think-" The lights went out. The compartment door slid open again, slowly and ominously, to reveal a hooded figure. Instantly, it felt as though everything good had been sucked out of the world. Elena was trembling all over. Megan was staring at the creature in horror. My insides felt like they'd been frozen. I could remember terrible things, things I hadn't thought about in years.

Freak...

Just as quickly as it had come, the creature was gone. The lights came on again.

"What...w-was that?" Elena said, her teeth chattering.

"D-Dementor," Megan replied. "They g-guard Azkaban. What they're doing here..." She trailed off as a woman bustled into the compartment. I recognized her as the trolley witch.

"Poor little dears," she said sympathetically, handing us each a large slab of chocolate. "Those awful things must've given you all a fright. Eat, you'll feel better."

With a smile, she headed off again, no doubt to tend to the other students. I took a small bite of chocolate and sighed. Warmth spread from my head to my toes. The old memories faded. I gave my head a little shake to clear it.

"They were looking for something," I said, recalling the way the dementor seemed to glance around us, perhaps looking for a certain escaped prisoner.

"Or someone," Elena put in, echoing my thoughts as she broke off a piece of chocolate.

I nodded shakily.

"Sirius Black."