I found Alice first at King's Station. Words weren't needed, just by the brightness of her eyes, I knew that summer had gone well for her. Suddenly, long arms embraced me from behind.
"Ray!" Marlene greeted me cheerfully, grinning brightly at Alice as well.
Dorcas found us not long after with those sharp eyes of hers.
"Where's Lily?" Alice asked and we looked all over for her until- "There she is!" Dorcas spotted her.
We started to walk over to her when suddenly I realized an unexpected and uncomfortable fact: that Lily was screaming at another girl who somewhat resembled her, except she seemed far more stern and frail and had brown hair. Lily's hair was falling loose from her ponytail, her face was a blotchy red, and she looked quite unlike herself. I flung my arms out, stopping the other girls from racing over to Lily.
The stern, frail girl spat a vicious word at Lily- I could read her lips- "Freak!" before turning on her heel and flouncing off. Lily burst into tears on the spot.
The four of us started to run towards her simultaneously, but stopped short when Severus appeared from the crowd and began to comfort Lily, wiping her tears away.
"Oh," Dorcas said simply.
Marlene looked torn between confusion and revulsion.
"Let's get on the train and save her a spot," Alice said softly. I pulled Marlene along into a compartment onto the train.
The Welcoming Feast was delicious and the atmosphere buzzed with happiness and excitement as friends saw each other again. I missed Jamie already, but I quite enjoyed the company of Marlene, Dorcas, Lily, and Alice. Besides, I wasn't anxious this year since I didn't have to be Sorted.
"Welcome!" Dumbledore greeted us with open arms on the podium before introducing the first years.
While the A's were being Sorted, I caught up with Marlene, asking her how her summer had been.
But then the name, "Black, Regulus" caught my attention.
A boy who very much resembled Sirius, with long locks of dark hair and quite a bit of height, but minus the confident strut, walked up to the Sorting Hat. He seemed to eye it very hesitantly before placing it on his head.
I carefully peeked over at Sirius and although he tried to appear disinterested, his eyes were ablaze with a strange fire and under the table, his hands were clenched into fists.
Finally- the verdict: "SLYTHERIN!"
Sirius remained composed but his shoulders sagged and it was with stormy grey eyes and a clenched jaw that he watched his younger brother walk over to the Slytherin table and sit between Yaxley and Snape.
Unaware that I was watching Sirius, I was startled when his brooding eyes suddenly met mine. Feeling extremely self-conscious, I coughed and looked away.
When I chanced a glance later, he was staring morosely at the table, as depressed as I'd ever seen him. I felt a pang of pity in my heart, but looked away before he caught me staring at him again.
But Sirius Black never brooded for long.
James and Sirius started a prank war the second week back from break, challenging each other to become the better prankster.
The pranks spread far and wide as James cast a spell on the chicken for dinner at the Slytherin table to jump up and dance a little jig as it sang loudly that Slytherins were prats. Professor Slughorn was not pleased though I rather think Professor McGonagall had to smother a cheeky smile before loudly berating James and knocking off a couple house points for "disrespect".
"But it was a textbook example of that Animation Spell you taught us yesterday!" James Potter retorted indignantly and I had the impression that Professor McGonagall had to smother another affectionate grin for the messy-haired, arrogant boy in front of her.
Sirius pranked a very pretty fourth year Hufflepuff, Anna Lee, by slipping a short-lasting Love Potion into her morning pumpkin juice, and basking in her attention all morning- and then the effects wore off and he was promptly slapped across the face. His haughty smirk was only replaced by a properly abashed face when she went so far as to threaten to hex his manhood off.
James, much to the vexation of Lily, then pranked Snape with a Permanent Sticking Charm so that he couldn't leave his Potions seat in time to get to Transfiguration. In fact, he ended up carrying the seat attached to his bottom all the way to class, where Professor McGonagall counter cursed it. Lily gave James a nasty glare, Marlene gave him a secret thumbs up.
Sirius, then, unbeknownst to us, set his sights on Marlene. When Marlene innocently picked up his pumpkin juice in the morning, it sloshed over the rim of the cup into her lap.
"Dorcas!" Marlene complained, "You elbowed me…"
"I did not!" Dorcas said indignantly, "I didn't even touch you."
Marlene picked up the cup again and this time the juice was still, but when she attempted to drink it, it avoided her lips and instead dripped down onto her shirt.
Dorcas' eyes narrowed and flickered over to Sirius and James when suddenly the juice straight jumped from the cup and splashes Marlene full in the face, leaving her soaking wet.
Sirius guffawed.
"SIRIUS BLACK!" Marlene screeched, "You absolute idiot!"
James laughed loudly while Sirius smirked at his side. Remus Lupin cracked the smallest smile while managing to look apologetic. On the other hand, Peter Pettigrew applauded Sirius' use of magic adoringly.
"I'm completely soaked with pumpkin juice!" Marlene shouted angrily. "And I just showered!
"What, is showering a big deal for you?" Sirius chortled, "Once a year event, is it? That explains the stink."
"YOU ARROGANT DOG!" Marlene yelled, her voice becoming more and more high-pitched.
"Thanks, love," Sirius replied. "As a prankster, reactions like yours are singing praise to my ears."
"Could I have your attention, please?" Professor McGonagall called us to attention, "Right. Now, today, we will be transforming animals into water goblets. Like so." She stood in an upright posture and held out her wand, facing a toucan, "Tap one. Tap two. Tap three. Fera Verto."
We watched in awe as a light spray of golden mist erupted from her wand, a slight swooshing noise could be heard, and the toucan had transformed into a rather handsome goblet.
"And to revert. Tap one. Tap two. And Three, a flick! Fera Reverta!" And a small circle of white light was cast by her wand, and the goblet and reverted to a toucan, who immediately yelped at the state of his feathers and began to comb himself with his beak.
Zayne and I were given a small kitten to practice to.
"Zayne, we can't mess up this time. It's a living creature." I told him, slightly nervous.
"A cute one at that," Zayne said, petting its tiny head and making me smile.
"Okay," I said, "I'll go first. Tap three times, right?"
"Yeah."
Tap. Tap. Tap. Focusing as hard as I could, I said firmly, "Fera Verto!"
Miraculously, a light spray of golden mist erupted from my wand, a slight swooshing noise could be heard, and the kitten transformed into a small white goblet, with moonstone jewels. I looked up at Zayne, incredulous.
"Did I actually-?" I started to ask, but then my goblet mewed.
"Of course," I said, "Right. There's no way in hell I could have actually gotten something on my first try."
Zayne was trying not to laugh as he patted my shoulder consolingly.
It took me about four tries to revert it back, and it was Zayne's turn.
He tapped three times and nearly shouted, "Fera Verto!"
A light spray of silver mist erupted from his wand, and we found ourselves looking at a goblet with a curious tail.
"Well," he shrugged, "no mewing."
"And no explosion, which, is quite the success," I reminded him.
He smiled and tap. Tap. Flick! "Fera Reverta!"
The kitten was back, totally normal.
"Man, you're adorable," Zayne said, putting his head down on the desk to look at the kitten. He reached out and stroked its back.
Suddenly the kitten mewed again- and fire shot out of its mouth, setting Zayne's eyebrows aflame. I hurriedly slapped his face full-on with a sheet of parchment, beating out the fire. When I finished, Zayne's eyes were frozen wide open. The students besides us burst out in shocked laughter.
"Mr. Finnigan!" McGonagall shouted, exasperated, as curls of smoke from Zayne's singed eyebrows rose towards the ceiling.
