Mary Mcdonald

I looked out the window, daydreaming as the heavy rain poured down, making me feel nice and cozy in the warm train. I looked around my compartment: The girls were either pouring over magazines like Witch Weekly or sleeping. Lily was still at her head's meeting. If Dumbledore made me headgirl, I would definitely refuse, that's way too much responsibility I'm not ready for. Sure, it has its perks, I mean Lily has told me all about the wonderful bathrooms and the baths with thousands of jets. What she doesn't know is that Amos Diggory has been telling me the passwords since he became prefect in 5th year. The only girls who actually had a shot at becoming headgirl this year were Lily and Marlene. I'm happy that Lily's got it, but I know for a fact that Marlene really wanted to become headgirl too. I gaze up at my closest friend, the one I've known since the first day of Hogwarts and she smiles back, looking up from Tanya's essay she's proofreading. I can't but remember how everything began, how this group came together.

Marlene and I met in the train:

I was marching confidently, looking through a few compartments, trying to find my set of future best friends. My brother had told me that the people you sat next to in the train usually became your best friends. I was confident it would not take long to make friends here, even as a first year, I wasn't scared. I finally found a compartment with two girls and a boy:

One had pale skin and dark curly hair I immediately became jealous of. One was Marlene, who had sleek blond hair pulled back into a ponytail reading a book about Quidditch. The boy was pale, had light brown hair that was almost gray. He honestly looked quite peaky and very, very nervous. People who got stressed in situations like this always confused me, everything always turns out fine and they've just wasted hours of their lives stressing and they'll have gray hair earlier! Anyway, I sat down beside the girl that I would soon know to be Marlene and introduced myself brightly:

"Hey guys, my name's Mary! What are yours?"

The girl with amazing black hair looked up and said:

"Uh… Hi. My Mum said I had specific people to sit next to on the train… Are you guys Preston Nott, Druella Black and Narcissa? Druella is my cousin, the last time I saw her was years ago. Do you guys know where my sister Narcissa is? She was supposed to show me where to go" she babbled

Since I had discovered I was a witch only a few days ago, I was surprised to see Marlene stiffen. Did she know something about those people I didn't?

"So what's your name?" I asked tentatively to the girl with awesome hair

"Bellatrix. Bellatrix Black." She answered

She then asked us what our names were. When she heard Marlene's last name, Mckinnon, she nodded appreciatively but when she heard mine and Remus's she wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"What's your blood status?" she asked us.

"Ummmm… Well my parents are muggles." I said, suddenly nervous.

"I'm a half blood." said Remus wearily

"My Mum says I shouldn't talk to people like you guys." she retorted

I wasn't shocked, I knew from my parents how the Black family worked. It was just surprising to see someone my age say something mean like that.

"Hey, you shouldn't be saying that, we're not any better than them." I replied, thinking about

Bellatrix was about to respond when a 5th year opened our compartment. He was tall, intimidating and had sleek, shoulder length, almost white blonde hair. I automatically knew who he was. He was a Malfoy. My parents had told me to stay away from them. Luckily, he didn't pay any attention to me and called:

"Bellatrix, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be talking to this filth! Now get over here, I have some people you'd like to meet."

Bellatrix rose from her seat and joined Malfoy, casting a last, fleeting glance at me. I looked away. After the pair left, Marlene narrowed her eyes.

"Looks like some people only care about your blood status here. Don't worry guys, it doesn't matter to most people. You're probably better at magic than them." she said firmly.

I was ecstatic when I was sorted into Gryffindor, I wasn't smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, not nice enough to be in Hufflepuff and being in Slytherin would have been a nightmare! In my dormitory there was Tanya, Alice and Lily. Lily had been upset because she wasn't in the same house as her friend Severus. I had seen him in the Great Hall and knew already he was shady. The next day we all went down to breakfast together, on our path to becoming best friends.

I smiled at the memory. Despite what some people say, I can be pretty sensitive. I rummaged through my trunk to find the new robes I had bought when I fell on something that made me cringe. Ugh. I can't believe I had forgotten to take out this picture. It was a picture of my ex who cheated on me last year. His name was Benjamin Baker. I ripped it up. Alice saw me and guessed who was in this teared-up picture. We spent some time happily abusing Benjamin when Lily came exploding in.