| Rose |

She could feel the holes burning the side of her head, even five minutes later.

The two of them hadn't said anything to each other after she had pulled Grace out of the compartment, smoking hair and all.

"Bloody hell, did you see her eyes –?"

"–Did she even use her wand –?"

"–All of our fireworks. Gone. We're going to have to start from –"

The slamming of the compartment doors behind them had cut off whatever Lee and the Weasley twins were saying. Rose rolled her eyes. What did they have to complain about? Their hair hadn't gone up in flames.

She looked through someone's compartment window as they passed. The sun was starting to go down outside, shadows overlapping each other. The sunset was beautiful, especially with the barren landscape. Rose took a moment to appreciate it. She couldn't remember the last time she had witnessed a sunset. Or a sunrise, for that matter. It was just the beginning of one, where the oranges and yellows and reds all blurred; where the sun wasn't so powerful that you could actually make out its silhouette; where everything came together so perfectly, she couldn't help but feel right.

Rose looked at the fading sun and let it chase out the remaining darkness within her.

She felt calm, all the anger that had suddenly appeared in the compartment bubbled away. She couldn't help but feel that maybe (now that she wasn't in a red haze) she had gone a little overboard back there.

That actually seemed to happen a lot –her going a little crazy. She tried to think back to when it first happened, when she first noticed that her elastic band of emotions was tighter, when she first snapped. It couldn't have been but a few months ago, when she and Grace had turned fifteen. That's when everything started for her.

Someone cleared their throat. Rose looked up to find the eyes that had been staring at her since leaving the compartment. They both stopped in the middle of the corridor. There weren't many people around where they were; only a few midgets huddled together down the hallway and a couple making out.

Grace raised one eyebrow. Rose rolled her eyes. Grace narrowed hers. Rose crossed her arms. Grace looked on. Rose looked away.

"Ok fine! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you back there. I didn't mean to ruin their work or, like, I don't know –"

"Freak out a little? Go crazy? Cause a huge wind storm and suck everything up in a matter of seconds just because your hair got singed a little bit?"

"That's not fair, you know I like my hair the way it is." Rose pouted. "And it got freaking burned off, not 'singed a little.'"

"Yes well, you overreacted."

Rose sighed. She hated fighting with her sister, so she conceded defeat instead. "Ok, so maybe I did a little. But it's not like they were doing anything useful! If I hadn't stepped in we all would have died."

Grace rolled her eyes with a grudging smile. "Whatever. But you need to apologize to them." She waved a stern finger at her sister. Rose sighed again, but nodded. "Good. For the record, I'm kinda glad you went psycho or else my hair would have ended up looking as ugly as yours."

"At least mines not smoking," Rose laughed, pulling out her wand to stop Grace's resemblance to a fire pit.

They were nearing the end of the train now. So far there had been no compartment marked 'Prefects' or whatever would be on it, only a bunch of nervous looking eleven year olds, some very severe looking people in green and a whole bunch of compartments laughing and making a lot of noise.

"We were never that short," Grace stated, pressing up against the wall of the corridor so a midget first year could run through.

"I think each generation is getting progressively smaller." Rose responded. "Except, I don't think we can say anything. It's a good thing our hair is so big. It definitely makes up for the inches we lack."

"And it's full of secrets." Grace wiggled her eyebrows jokingly, running past her sister. Rose couldn't help but think how right she was as she took off after her. They giggled and stumbled on until they finally found it. It was on their right, the blinds drawn so no one could see in. It was a bigger compartment than the rest on the train, and was indeed marked 'PREFECTS' with the Hogwarts crest stamped underneath.

The sisters looked at each other. "Should we knock or something?" asked Grace.

Rose shrugged and took the initiative. She stepped forward and knocked timidly three times, kind of hoping no one would answer so she wouldn't have to socialize with more people.

There was a shuffle on the other side, a mumbled voice, a thwack, a yelp, and then the door opened. Except, unlike the other compartments' doors that slid open, this one was like an actual door. An actual door that swung open. An actual door that swung open into the corridor and hit Rose.

She cursed loudly as she fell to the floor, clutching her throbbing cheek. Grace was already there, fussing over her, asking if she were ok and hauling her back to her feet. Rose had her eyes screwed up in pain as she grumbled and cursed out anything that came to her head.

"What the fuck kind of person designs a train where the doors open into the fucking hallway that is the size of a fucking matchbox? People have to stand here! This is a fucking hazard. First my fucking head catches on fire now I get hit by a door? Fuck this fucking place..." and on and on it went. Grace frantically tried to calm down her sister and check her cheek but Rose had a hand firmly clamped to it and swatted away her hand whenever it came too close.

The calming effect the setting sun had had on her had long ago disappeared. Her frustration at – well everything, was coming back, and this was just the cherry on top. She was pretty sure there would be some kind of mark on her cheek, so that would be fun. And the person who opened the door was just standing there. Did they not care that they had just hit someone?

Suddenly her anger was directed at that person, and she planned to give them one hell of a time. The black of her eyelids gave way to the bright fluorescent lights, much too bright at a time like this where her cheek was still humming in pain and she was fighting hard to keep control. She blinked –black light black light black – and then there was grey.

Grey.

And then that was all she could see.

The thrumming beat of her anger quickly steeled under the cold that hid beneath those eyes. Cold that seemed to sharpen the grey, turning it almost blue, imperceptibly so. Cold that froze the burning heat of both her pain and fury until there was nothing. Cold that tamed her.

"The meeting's almost over." And then there was a slam.

Rose shook herself mentally. Because what the fuck. "Well that was fucking rude," she managed to mumble before the pain came back full force. "Oww," she whined, rubbing her hand over the prominent bump on her cheekbone. That just made it hurt more.

"Let me look at it." Grace grabbed her head and tilted it so her neck hurt too. "Well... you've definitely looked better. And you've definitely looked worse. I think it'll bruise."

"Thanks for your medically-trained opinion," Rose sighed and looked around. People's eyes were trained on her, probably because of her screaming at the door. She gave them a withering glare –one of her least vicious ones –and they shrank away just like that. She smirked. "Does it make me look badass though?"

Grace laughed a little and studied her. "Maybe a little. But I think your attitude alone is good enough for that." Rose just stuck out her tongue.

The Prefects door opened again, though the twins had made sure to stand away from it this time, a hoard of people emerging. The guy who opened the door on her (pale, blond hair, tall and cold) knocked into her shoulder as he passed. Rose jostled into her sister. "Excuse you," she said. He merely glared at her, eyes flitting for a second over her bruising cheek before being on his way, tossing a clearly sarcastic "Welcome to Hogwarts" over his shoulder as he went.

"Dick," the girls muttered simultaneously, ducking into the compartment. A boy and a girl were still there, jotting things down in a book. Well, the girl was at least. The boy was making it snow with his wand, but ceased immediately when he saw the twins. He was attractive, floppy dirty blond hair, dimples and a wide smile that matched his shoulders. He nudged the girl (also blonde, but much paler) and smiled encouragingly.

"Hello there!"

"Hi," Grace drew the word out lightly, eyeing the boy with a smirk.

The girl closed the book roughly, the snap of it echoing in the compartment. She looked ferociously at Grace for a second before her features smoothed. "Can we help you?" she asked a little coldly. Grace looked a little alarmed by the hostility of this girl, but Rose understood almost right away. The boy seemed to be delighted by the girl's reaction to them, and looked at her with a goofy smile that made his dimples pop even more.

"I'm Ashton Irwin, Head Boy this year and this lovely lady is Bryana Holly, Head Girl," the boy said, brushing off some snow that still lay on his yellow tie and offering a hand to shake. Bryana looked at Ashton and rolled her eyes, a small pleased smile on her lips, though when her eyes darted back to the twins, they were still frosty.

Grace and Bryana held the stare for a second longer than normal, so Rose decided she had to intervene. "Rose Taylor," she shook his large hand and smiled shyly. "This is my sister, Grace," she nudged the girl beside her, who immediately stopped glaring and plastered a huge smile on her face.

Rose took Bryana's hand in hers, a small, apologetic smile on her lips. "Lovely to meet the both of you," Rose said, even though she could feel the dislike rolling off Bryana in huge waves. Their mother was always a stickler for politeness.

"Yes well, what can we do for you?" Bryana said, covering up her tone with her smile.

Grace produced the letter from the Headmaster and gave it to Ashton, flirty smile never leaving her face despite the dirty look she was receiving from the Head Girl. Bryana tore it from Ashton's hands and read through it quickly before shoving it back into his chest. He found this quite humorous.

"Basically, the only thing you need to decide on is if you want to go with the first years on the boats or on the carriages with the rest of the school. Then, you will go into the Great Hall and get sorted into your house," Bryana regarded them for a second, before adding rather rudely, "You do know the houses, don't you?"

"Of course we do. We aren't stupid," responded Grace in the same tone.

"Then you should know that I am in Ravenclaw," she gestured to the blue on her robes, "The House of the intelligent. I should hope to not see you there." There was a nasty smile on her face as Bryana and Grace had yet another stare down. Rose and Ashton made eye contact, both looking quite distressed at where the situation had gone.

"Ok, well I vote we go on the boat ride because those are always fun. Guess we'll see you guys later. Nice meeting you!" Rose hurriedly pulled Grace out of the compartment before the two girls could start throwing curses.

"The nerve of that girl!" Grace exploded as soon as they started towards their end of the train. "I never even did a thing to her and she was so rude! And what was with that, insinuating that we weren't smart enough to get into Ravenclaw. Fuck that bitch. I hope I get sorted into that house just to piss her off. I can't imagine what the other people in this school are like if she's the best that they could come up with for Head Girl."

"Well," Rose started slowly, "you did somewhat provoke her..."

"What? I did no such thing! The only thing I said was hi! Does she not like that word?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "You're so dumb sometimes. You were totally trying to undress Ashton with your eyes."

Grace blinked. "Yes. So? He was hot."

Rose felt that her eyes would get permanently stuck with the amount of times she rolled them because of her sister. "Could you not tell there was something going on between the two of them? If they aren't together now, I say that they will be very soon. And to her, it seemed like you were trying to go for her man."

Grace looked at Rose for a second and thought back to Bryana and Ashton. "I can see it," she said thoughtfully. "And I guess I can't be too mad at her then because I would definitely do the same to any bitch that even looked at my guy."

Rose giggled. "You would do more than glare at them, that's for sure." Grace gave a wicked smile.

She looked into compartments as they passed, mostly because there wasn't much else to look at in a small hallway on a train. Many were filled with smaller kids, practicing their magic and playing exploding snap. Some were gorging themselves on candy, wrappers strewn all about the compartment. She momentarily thought of who had to clean such a huge train. That would probably suck.

One particular compartment caught her attention. There were around six people within, but no one was speaking. They all seemed very bored as they stared out the window. It puzzled her. You would think that after having gone a summer without seeing each other, they would all want to laugh and have fun, but no. They seemed on the verge of sleep.

Abruptly, one of them turned as the twins passed. Rose looked towards the sudden movement, and then wished she hadn't. Grey met green, for the second time that day. They both just stared at each other as the sisters walked by. At the last second Rose realized who it was she was staring at and hardened her gaze into a nasty glare, turning her head so she could no longer see him and giving him a great view of the bruise he put on her cheek. Asshole.

"I wonder what that green shit on the windows is," Grace said, pointing towards the weird goo stuff on the compartment window two down. They both slowed , looking curiously at the stuff as they neared. Whatever it was, it looked really gross.

"Is that Ginny and Hermione?" Grace asked, looking through the minimal clear bits on the window to see a bushy head and long, red hair. "We should go talk to them!" Grace exclaimed, always up for making friends.

Rose fretted. "Do we have to?" she whined. "I don't think they like me very much," she said, thinking back to Kings' Cross Station where they were all saying who knows what about her.

"Oh shutup, you'll be fine," Grace scoffed and knocked on the door. "Just don't cause another wind tunnel."

The door slid open, an awkward, buck-toothed boy behind it. " –you just have to use the spell scourgify and it will all come off," Ginny was saying, siphoning the green stuff off of the windows. Looking around the compartment, everybody was covered in the slime, though none of them looked as displeased as the black haired bespectacled boy, struggling to hold onto a toad.

"What in the world happened here?" Rose couldn't help but ask. She was much too curious to think of the fact that she didn't know more than half of these people.

"Oh hey guys!" Ginny said, smiling in welcome. "Neville was just showing us the defensive mechanism his new plant has, and it got a little, er, messy." The boy who opened the door for them looked a little sheepish as he sat down, cradling a plant in his arms.

Rose aided Ginny in cleaning the compartment, and it was un-slimed in a matter of seconds. Ginny nodded in thanks, offering the twins seats beside her. Grace sat immediately beside her, smiling at Hermione. Rose turned to close the door behind them before taking her own seat beside her sister, but a sharp gasp made her pause.

"What happened to your cheek?" Ginny exclaimed, staring at the very significant bruise on Rose's cheekbone.

Rose's expression darkened immediately. Her intensely deep green eyes glittered dangerously at the thought of that pale-assed bastard and the shadow of the bruise across her cheek seemed to grow more prominent. The three boys in the compartment all shared looks, as this was the first time they'd ever seen her. And she was positively frightening.

"It looks as though perhaps the wrackspurts have gotten to you," a dreamy voice piped up. Rose immediately looked at the small blonde girl who spoke. She looked rather odd, with a weird pair of glasses on her eyes, wand behind her ear and an upside down magazine. She was so strange in fact that Rose had to focus on her for a couple of seconds, long enough to calm down and her eyes to lose that slight dangerous edge.

"Some dumbass hit her with a door," stated Grace with a glare when she realized Rose wasn't saying anything.

"So it was you who was yelling outside the compartment then. You have a good pair of lungs on you," whistled a tall red-haired boy, Prefect's badge glinting in the light. His hair was the same shade as Ginny's, so Rose could only assume that this was yet another brother of hers. In fact, looking at him and the raven-haired boy next to him, she realized that they were the two from the platform; the ones who ran into the wall.

"We thought you two died," Rose blurted out at the same time the dark-haired boy said, "Who did it?"

She could feel the entire compartment looking at her in confusion and had to resist the urge to face palm. Her face burned as she tried to explain, with no help whatsoever from a laughing Grace. "At the platform. We saw the two of you, uh, running straight for the, um, wall, and I thought you were going to die." They were still staring at her. "You didn't though! So that's a good thing." She laughed awkwardly to herself and hoped that someone would do something so she wouldn't have to go find her own wall to crash into.

"Okay," the boy said, drawing out the word and looking at her weirdly. "So who hit you with the door?"

"Oh," interjected Hermione, "it was –"

"Malfoy," the dark-haired boy hissed, glaring at something over Rose's shoulder. The compartment door slid open once again, and in the doorway stood a very familiar little bitch.

"Potter," the boy sneered, looking around.

"Oh please," Rose groaned in both annoyance and anger. "Are you following me?"

"Please," he scoffed, looking rather put out at the question, "Who even are you?"

"What do you want Malfoy?" Potter stood up. They were about the same height, though Rose couldn't tell whose hair was higher; Malfoy's with all of his gel or Potter's with his untidy bed-head look.

"Manners, Potter. Wouldn't want to get a detention, would we?" smirked Malfoy. The two apes beside him laughed loudly. She didn't understand how they could all fit in this tiny compartment, especially with the size of Malfoy's sidekicks.

"Oh, fuck off would you?" Grace said from beside her, clearly fed up with all of the anger today had produced. "But before you leave, is there anything you'd like to say to my sister here?"

Malfoy studied the two of them for a second. Rose had no doubt something sarcastic would come out of his mouth in two seconds, but pushed her head up a bit higher, showcasing her bruise.

"I already said welcome, didn't I? But it seems you do have something on your face. Right here," he pointed to his own cheekbone, smiling maliciously. "Might want to look out for oncoming doors in your future."

"You slimy son of a –" Rose had to be held down by both Grace and Ginny to avoid returning the favour to Malfoy. The air around them grew electric with the storm in her eyes. Malfoy cowered, staring into them.

"You best be watching yourselves. I'll be dogging your footsteps if you step out of line," he stared pointedly at Potter, smirking with his final words and retreating from the compartment.

Rose stopped struggling, heaving in her spot, trying to calm down. Everybody was silent, trying to gauge the reactions of both Rose and Potter. Finally, after a couple of deep breaths, Rose started laughing. She made the mistake of making eye contact with Grace, and then the two were in a fit of hysterics. The others in the compartment looked at the two of them oddly, but slowly joined in on their laughter. Soon, the room was filled with the rambunctious sound of giggles and laughing.

Rose stopped abruptly, a scowl lacing her face. "So who the fuck was that and is he always such a dick?"

"That," said Potter, sitting back down and sharing a look with Hermione, "was Draco Malfoy. The world's biggest prat."

"And his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle," added Ginny's brother.

"More like ugly and smelly," muttered Grace. Rose snorted. How true.

"Sorry to be rude, but we never got your names either. I'm Grace," she said, smiling nicely, "and this is my sister Rose."

Rose waved awkwardly and looked down, suddenly shy. These were the people who were talking about her on the platform, she didn't really know how to act around them.

"Right, er, that's Neville," Potter pointed to the boy with the plant, who gestured with it in greeting. "This is Ron," he clapped the shoulder of the red-headed boy who nodded, "and I'm Harry. Harry Potter." He looked as though he was waiting for some kind of impending doom.

"And that's Luna," Ginny added, gesturing to the blonde girl who kept reading her magazine.

"Nice to meet you all," Grace said. Rose smiled and nodded in agreement, looking at her fingernails. The toad that Harry had grasped in his hands when they first came in was hopping around their feet. There were a few owls overhead that hooted in their cages. Night had fallen finally, the moon hanging low in the sky. It shone dimly over the train, and with the glare of the lights from the compartment, Rose had to squint to see the trees outside. She wondered how much longer they had to go until they arrived, as she was very hungry. Those liquorice wands had not assuaged her for very long.

Grace was talking when Rose tuned back in. "–you know when we'll be arriving? I'm starving!"

"We're almost there. Normally we arrive around eight, and it is about... quarter after seven," said Hermione. Harry and Ron were mumbling to each other about something. Harry messed up the back of his head and pushed around his fringe, revealing something on his forehead.

"Dude!" Grace exclaimed, pointing to his head. "That's such a cool mark! Is it a scar? Or a birthmark? We have birthmarks on our hips; mine kind of looks like an eye if you look at it right and hers –"

"Mine kind of looks like a spark. Or a flower. We haven't really decided yet," piped up Rose in a small voice. She looked up from her hands to see that everyone was staring at them. The compartment was completely silent. The sisters looked at each other in confusion.

"He's... he's Harry Potter," Ron said slowly, looking at the twins like he just saw a three headed dog.

"Ya... we got that from the introduction and everything." Rose was bewildered. Why did that matter at this moment?

"Why are they looking at us like that?" whispered Grace.

"I don't know, what did we say?" Their whispers carried in the tense silence.

Harry cleared his throat. "You guys, you don't know. Do you."

"Uh... know what?"