Of Mudbloods And Sex
( A/N: NOTE: PLEASE READ CHAPTER SIX BEFORE THIS CHAPTER. I have edited some things in the original version of chapter six, and i have added the ending of their training, because that's what alot of you wanted.
Now. As you can guess... this chapter starts with their arrival at King's Cross. I know alot of you have been anticipating this (ahem) and... well. here's the update. chapter eight is already underway, and i hope to update in less than a week. this time for sure - i'm so BORED all of the time.
a special thank you to my now partner and beta of this story.
enjoy. )
Chapter Seven - Stowaways and Rabid Rabbits
King's Cross, ten-fifty in the morning. The morning crowds were here, jostling each other between platforms as trains' whistles sounded through the air. Three families, looking nonchalant, made their way over to the pillar that stood between platform nine and ten. Upon closer inspection, one could hear the sound of protests and reassurances coming from the three teenagers that stood with their families.
"It'll be all right, Mum!" Lily exclaimed in exasperation.
"Yeah, Mum, we can show ourselves to the train all right!" Kirst reassured her parents.
"We're in seventh year, for heaven's sake!" Ro pleaded with her mother. "And Lily is Head Girl! That proves that she's responsible, and I'm sure if you don't believe I can take care of myself, Lily will look after me!"
"Yes, Mum! Listen to Ro!" Kirst pleaded. "Lily can take care of us! We're seventeen! We can at least get ourselves on the train in time!"
Kirst's father looked down at her sternly. "All right," he said slowly. Kirst beamed and hugged her father. "But make sure you get on the train! Now hurry up, you only have five minutes!"
The girls hugged their families quickly before taking hold of their respective trolleys.
"We'll see you at Christmas!" Lily called back as the three of them went through the magical barrier together. A bright red train – the Hogwarts Express – stood waiting at the platform. A sign that hung on the wall proudly carried the number nine and three-quarters.
"Finally, we're here!" Kirst exclaimed, looking excitedly around the corner. "All right," she said, taking charge. "We have to make sure that everyone's on the train before we make a move for it."
"Tell me again why we have to sneak on and risk missing the train?" Lily asked, as they peered around a corner to where the train was. A few stragglers were starting to get on – the clock on the wall above read two minutes to eleven.
"Because," Kirst explained exasperatedly, "we want to make a big entrance in the Great Hall when we arrive. We're the last to get on, the last to get off, and the last to enter the Great Hall. Understood? Now let's go, we only have about half a minute!"
They sprang into action. Ro quickly cast a Notice-Me-Not on all three of them – if anyone looked their way, their gaze would wander off, and the person would forget that they had ever seen three figures rushing towards the leaving train. Lily used Wingardium Leviosa on their trunks, and they ran towards the train.
Kirst hurried up to open the door just as the train started to move. She got on and held the door open for Lily and Ro. Just as the train started to really move, Lily and Ro jumped inside, the former carefully levitating their trunks into the carriage. Ro latched the door closed and they all sighed in relief. Part One of their plan had been successful.
"Now, to find an empty compartment before the spell wears off," Ro muttered. She knew her spell had not had a lot of power behind it, because they had been in a hurry. The three of them dragged their trunks as they checked in every compartment. The spell was just about to wear off when they finally found an empty compartment – a rarity. They hurried inside before latching the door closed. Ro cast another Notice-Me-Not on the door's small window, similar to the one that she charmed the three of them with.
"Phew!" All three sighed, as they collapsed into chairs. Lily tiredly levitated their trunks onto the racks above their seats, leaning back in her chair.
"That was a close one," Ro said, checking that her charm on the door would hold, at least for a while. She knew she was going to have to renew it every half an hour or so – she had made sure that the charm would stick longer than the spell that she had placed on the three of them, though. "I could feel the spell slipping away!"
"Well, good thing that this compartment's empty, though," Kirst said, looking around. "I was actually afraid that we'd end up having to barricade ourselves in one of the bathrooms. That would have been horrible – the stench in those toilets! I wonder why this compartment's empty?"
A snarl from above their heads made them jump.
"What was that?"
Something white and fluffy dropped from the luggage rack above Kirst, who screamed, as did her friends.
The rabbit paced around Kirst's lap for a bit before settling down and making a nice bed for itself.
"Aww," Kirst said. "It's so adorable!" She reached out a hand to stroke it.
As soon as a finger touched its head, the rabbit snarled again and jumped up, biting Kirst's finger.
Kirst screamed. "Get it off! Get it off!" she shrieked, trying to shake the rabbit off her finger. She opened the compartment door and with one last fling, the rabbit detached from her finger and hopped down the corridor.
Kirst returned to her seat, looking shaken and nursing her finger.
"That's why no one's in this compartment," said Lily.
Kirst glared at her. "Shut up. I might have rabies now, and it's all your fault."
"Why is it my fault?"
Kirst glared at her again and proceeded to ignore both Lily and Ro.
Some way down the corridor, four familiar figures were laughing their heads off. They had faintly heard the high-pitched shriek and seen the rabid rabbit bound down the hall and away, sending them into a fit of laughter.
"Oh, oh," Sirius Black gasped out between his guffaws. "I wish I could've seen the look on their faces!"
"Yeah!" Peter agreed quickly, still laughing his high-pitched, squeaking laugh. It seemed that this year Peter was going to be following close behind Sirius, rather than James.
James straightened up, still shaking.
"Who was sitting in that compartment?" he wondered out loud, watching his friends amusedly. "And how did you get by that rabbit, Sirius?"
"The Magical Menagerie was happy to be rid of it," Sirius explained, sitting up and grinning at his best friend. "Seems that it's had a rabid temper ever since it had arrived with the rest of the rabbits! It attacked every single one – they had to get a new cage for it!"
Remus chuckled along with them. Although he hadn't been open to the idea in the beginning – since when had he ever agreed with one of their pranks? – Sirius had convinced him that a little healing spell would have healed whoever had been bitten.
"And if you're so worried," Sirius said, before he shoved the rabbit inside the compartment, "you can go find the person who got bitten after the rabbit's run away, all right? Besides, this rabbit doesn't bite hard enough the break the skin anyway. It's bitten me over ten times since I picked it up yesterday."
Now Remus couldn't help but laugh along with his friends. It seemed that the person inside was fine – they hadn't run off to the Prefects' carriage for help, after all.
Remus suddenly realised that he and James needed to get to the Prefects' Carriage.
"James," Remus said loudly to get his attention, putting his latest book away.
"Yeah, Remus?" James leaned back in his seat casually, looking inquisitively at Remus with the same smile he always seemed to have on his face every minute of the day.
"We've got to get to the Prefects' compartment, remember?"
"Oh, right. We'll see you both later, okay?" James and Remus stood up as Sirius looked at them in confusion.
"Wait, why do you have to go with Remus to the Prefects' Carriage anyway?"
"Padfoot! I can't believe you forgot!" Peter squeaked, looking at James with shining eyes.
"What?" Sirius asked stupidly, looking between Peter, James, and Remus. Remus just kept shaking his head.
James bent down so he was eye to eye with Sirius.
"Remember the owl I sent you a few weeks ago?" James asked, grinning.
"Uh, which one? You send me one almost everyday! I knew you loved me, but not that much. I'm sorry, James, but we can never be together. All the single ladies out there are calling for me! Can't you hear them right now? Sirius… Sirius…"
"Sirius! Shut up and listen!" James laughed. "Who are the only people allowed in the Prefects' compartment?"
"Uh, Prefects. I'm not stupid, you know."
"I wholeheartedly disagree, my friend, but think some more. Prefects aren't the only people who are allowed in."
Sirius scrunched his nose, apparently in deep thought. James waited patiently as Remus anxiously checked his watch.
"James, we've got to go. We're already five minutes late!"
"Remus, just wait a minute. If we're late already, why does it matter? Come on, Padfoot… a big, juicy bone if you can get it…"
Sirius perked up at that, and a few seconds later started shouting.
"You're Head Boy! I remember now! Hah! You owe me a bone now!"
"No, I don't," James said, straightening and laughing while Remus shook his head. "I didn't say I would give it to you. You should have known better than that, Padfoot. Find someone else with a big, juicy bone. We'll see you later."
Sirius pouted as the door to the compartment slid closed. He glanced to his side to see Peter's face an inch away from his own.
"So, Padfoot?" Peter said, a bit of spit landing on Sirius's cheek. "What are we going to do this year, huh? Huh?"
Sirius winced, wiping off the drool. He sighed and sunk back into his chair.
This was going to be a long fifteen minutes. James and Remus had better come back soon.
Meanwhile, Lily and her friends were laughing over the memories of last year.
"Oh, remember, Lily? The train ride?" Ro giggled.
"That seems like ages ago!" Lily said, grinning with triumph as she remembered how she had almost stranded the four boys at Hogwarts. The logical part of her mind told her they could have gone home by Floo or Portkey, but it was the principle of the thing.
"Yeah, well, you did really well! That was hilarious!"
"It was a bit mean," Ro pondered.
"They deserved it," Kirst said, frowning at her nails. "The only reason they're popular – at least Potter and Black, anyway – is because they're on the Quidditch team." Kirst scoffed.
"Well, what about Lupin and Pettigrew?"
"Pettigrew's useless. They only let him tag along because he worships the ground they walk on."
"So?"
"Don't tell me that's not a waste of oxygen." Kirst rolled her eyes, carefully perfecting her nails with a nail file.
"And Lupin?"
"Well…he likes them. Reason enough." Kirst examined her nails.
"You wouldn't like it if someone did that to you, would you?"
Kirst frowned at her. "You know, sometimes you have a really annoying sense of fair play."
Ro looked at her watch for a second.
"Hey, there are only two hours left until we get to Hogwarts! Wait… Lily!"
Lily looked up inquisitively. "Yes?"
"You missed your Head Girl meeting! It started hours ago!"
"Oh, that," Lily said dismissively, leaning back into her chair, sipping on some water. "Don't worry, I took care of it."
"How could you have 'taken care of it'? You were here the whole time!"
"Yes, but since Kirst insisted that we stay out of sight until we get to the Great Hall," Lily continued, glaring at the friend in question, "I decided that I would write up a list of things to go over, instructions, and let someone take over for this one meeting."
"Let someone take over?" Kirst asked, sitting up.
"Yes," Lily said, looking self-satisfied. "A girl by the name of…"
"...Diana Windsor! I'm standing in for Evans this meeting, so listen up!"
A tall girl freckles, and spectacles stood in front of the gathering of Prefects. Her brown hair tightly braided and posture absolutely straight, she did not look like she should be in a position of authority at all, but rather obsessively spell-checking her extra-credit essays. When the prefects heard that Evans was the new Head Girl, a few muttered to each other.
"It was obvious from the very beginning," a fifth-year Ravenclaw Prefect whispered to his female counterpart.
"Ugh, Evans. I cannot believe I'm going to have to deal with her for the rest of the year! Not to mention having to work under her," a Slytherin muttered to his fellow housemates.
"Quiet! I want this meeting to be as short as possible! I'm sure all of us have lives we want to get back to!"
The murmurings ceased as Diana cleared her throat.
"First, we're going to have to assign shifts for patrolling, at least until Christmas time. Then we'll switch; that way everyone will have an equal share of good patrolling times and bad ones," Diana continued, reading off a scroll of paper that had obviously come from the real Head Girl.
Suddenly the door to the carriage burst open, and James and Remus walked in. Several of the Slytherins glared at them, but a few of the girls in the compartment, including Diana herself, started to blush.
"H-Hi, James," Diana said shyly while all the Slytherins faked hurling at the back of the compartment and some of the girls stared.
"Oh, hey," James said, not recognizing the girl standing in front of him. I guess she's the new Head Girl, James thought, sighing mentally. Great. Just my luck to work with a girl who's going to be drooling all over me everytime we meet for Head duties. Not that it's not an ego-booster, but we're never going to get anything done…
Your point? the other voice in his head said drolly.
"Why are you here, Potter?" one of the Slytherin Prefects snapped.
"Why do you think I'm here?"
The sixth-year snorted. "You're going to set off a Dungbomb in the Prefects' compartment?" Several people looked alarmed at this pronouncement.
"Why, thank you for the excellent idea, but I'm afraid I don't have any Dungbombs on me!" James exclaimed. "How irresponsible of me. I should be setting an example too, as Head Boy."
Remus sighed.
The compartment exploded.
"Liar!" was the main war cry, but there were also scattered "Not you!"s and "Dumbledore wouldn't do this to us!"s and even a few "YESSS!"s.
James sidled to a chair near Diana and sat down, crossing his legs and placing two hands behind his head. "So," he said. "What've we got today?"
They meeting continued, adjourning after half an hour. Remus and James left quickly, making their way down the train, back towards Sirius and Peter.
"Hey, Moony," James said, looking over his shoulder at his friend. "Was it just me, or did that meeting take a really long time?"
"That was certainly the longest Prefect meeting I've ever been to," Remus admitted. "I guess we're going to have a really busy year." James shook his head.
"Great," he muttered, opening the door to the compartment. "A drooler and a perfectionist."
"Firs'-years this way!" a voice bellowed over Hogsmeade station. "Firs'-years!"
A huddle of small children nervously made their way over to the unnaturally tall man. Some of them stared up at him in undisguised fear and not a small amount of fascination.
"Righ'," said the man. "No more'n four ter a boat." He waved a hand at the small boats docked in front of them and got into one himself.
"I still think Professor Dumbledore should fire him," a fifth-year said, frowning at the scene. "Look, the first-years are all absolutely terrified of him!"
"You still are," her friend said.
"I am not. Shut up."
"Look, it's raining like anything and I would really like to stay dry. Can we continue this in the carriage?"
"Fine. HEY, ANYONE GOT ROOM TO SPARE FOR TWO MORE?"
"Over here!" a faint, indistinct voice said.
"Come on!" The two of them ran, pulling up their hoods and ducking to stay as dry as possible.
Down at the end compartment on the Hogwarts Express, three figures huddled together at the open door.
"I think that carriage's empty," Ro said hopefully, pointing to the very last carriage in the line.
"Let's go for it. We're going to be late. Can you imagine what it would be like to walk in this?" Kirst shuddered.
"RUN!" Lily yelled, making a break for it.
They finally made it on just as the line started moving, soaked and shivering. Ro closed the carriage door.
"We have absolutely fantastic luck today," Lily commented without a trace of sarcasm, casting a drying charm on herself.
Her friends stared at her in disbelief.
"No, really. We got an empty compartment and an empty carriage on the day we have to hide ourselves. Wouldn't you call that great luck?"
"We got drenched," Kirst snapped. "No, I would not. Now will you please dry us?"
Lily rolled her eyes, but complied. "Think of the first-years, Kirst. Think of the first-years."
Kirst waved a hand dismissively, then seemed to remember something. "Oh, is my makeup all right?" she cried, taking a small mirror out of her pocket and checking herself. Lily and Ro rolled their eyes at their friend's vainness.
"Well, we have to make a good entrance!" Kirst said defensively.
"Is the coast clear?"
"I think it is," Ro said in a normal voice.
Kirst shushed her. "Quiet!"
Lily rolled her eyes. She was going to get eye strain from all that eye-rolling, really.
"Okay, let's move," Kirst whispered, and they hurried as quietly as they could to the back of the line moving into the Great Hall, trying to look inconspicuous.
Two fourth-years stared at them. "What are you doing?" one of them asked.
"Shhh!" Kirst glared at her. "We're trying to be inconspicuous. Please go away. Pretend you didn't see us."
The fourth-years glanced at each other as if to say 'What a nut', but turned away obediently.
"Well, here goes," Lily said nervously as they neared the doors of the Great Hall.
( A/N: end. review? )