As I awoke the next morning, I couldn't help but feeling the strangest pit in my stomach. Everything that went down last night happened all so fast I barely had time to process it before I fell asleep.
This whole week was a fever dream.
So many unusual things had happened to me over the course of a week, I didn't even know where to begin. Although this was the case, George Weasley remained on my mind all morning, as I got ready to leave for King's Cross Station. I shook the thought of him out of my head almost instantly—I had more important things to worry about.
Thinking of important things I needed to worry about, I looked at the old grandfather clock that stood in my room—it was already half past ten, and I hadn't left yet. Although it would only take about ten minutes to get to King's Cross via the Underground, I hated being late, and when it came to Platform 9 , being late wasn't an option.
As I exited my room and began to walk down the staircase, trunk in hand, I half expected to see familiar faces; however, there weren't. I don't exactly know what I was expecting, but I couldn't help feeling lonely at the thought of everyone gone.
Don't make a fool out of yourself Calista, you barely know them, I thought to myself.
As I quickly made my way towards the checkout counter and dropped my key off to the man behind the desk, I grabbed one of the mugs that were stacked together, holding it out to the black kettle, watching it pour coffee into it. Although it was still quite hot, I downed it in nearly one shot, burning the back of my throat on its way down.
As I headed towards the exit of The Leaky Cauldron, I looked back for a quick second, thinking about how I'd be back here in another year. Although I was always excited to be here, for some reason, this time round, I couldn't help but become conscious of the fact that it would be spent alone— again, like every other year.
As the automatic doors of the tube suddenly opened, I quickly made my way through the station, now looking at the large clock that hung above one of the platforms—it was now just ten minutes before eleven, thankfully I would have just enough time.
As I walked towards platforms 9 and 10, I suddenly stopped on the spot. Standing in between the platforms were Potter, Granger, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and their two youngest—but no one else. All six of them then vanished as they ran through the brick platform.
Making my way towards the brick column along with my trunk, which was now on a trolley, I sped at it with full velocity—only to open my eyes seconds later and see a maroon steam train with piles of thick gray smoke coming out of its engine.
Remembering how little time I had, I headed for one of the train doors closest to me, handing off my trunk to the train porter. I quickly climbed in, now peering down the long corridors of the train, which were now packed with students trying to get to their compartments. Unlike all the other houses who mingled amongst each other and shared compartments, the Slytherins liked to be kept with their own kind—every year claiming all the compartments at the end of the train.
As I made my way towards the end of the train, I passed by many students already in their robes—I had stuffed mine into my drawstring bag to change into later on the train. Passing by the various students sticking their heads out the windows, waving goodbye to their families, I couldn't help but feel like I had been missing out on something my whole life.
Now subconsciously looking into each compartment as I walked by them, I soon realized what I was doing, and snapped out of it.
I had now come to notice a man—not a student, who sat in the corner of a compartment, with his head tucked into his robes, sleeping.
A teacher? On the Hogwarts Express?
I had never seen one come along with the students before. Because there were twenty-four prefects each year, as well as one head boy and girl to supervise the rest of us, there wasn't a reason to have teachers aboard.
Now having made my way to the last section of compartments, I began to see many more familiar faces.
I turned to face a young, pale boy with blonde hair, being scolded by the Head Boy—another one of the Weasleys, for trying to shove a first year into one of the storage closets.
"My father will hear about this." Malfoy stated rather boldly.
"As will your Head of House if you don't listen to me." This seemed to make the kid shut up, as him and his two friends made their way back into their respective compartments.
This particular Weasley I had trouble placing to be related to his twin brothers. Although the twins were long and thin, they appeared to be rather toned, especially compared to their gangly looking brother.
That didn't mean the two of them didn't annoy me—especially the way George had handled me last night.
I walked past him, now facing a small group of Slytherins in one of the compartments. Therese Falcon, Jordanna Twigs, Dawn Mulberry and Autumn Night were the closest thing I could call friends. I never saw the three of them outside the walls of Hogwarts; however, they were the ones I spent most of my time with during class and free period.
"Hey guys," I said as I walked into the compartment, sitting down nearest the window, slightly stumbling as the train now began to move.
"Hey Calista." Therese said rather boredly—the others looking up at me and giving me small smiles.
They were all rather dull to be perfectly honest, but I'd take any company over none.
"So, did you hear? Autumn said she heard the older prefects talking about how she's been chosen to be one of them this year." Dawn chimed in to fill the silence.
"Like I said, it's what I heard Dawn. You ought to listen better." Autumn said looking at Dawn, simultaneously rolling her eyes and looking at her new manicure. "So Calista, what did you do over the summer then?" Autumn's focus now seemed to be to be anywhere else, as she twirled her long platinum hair in her fingers.
"Oh, not much really. My parents were away the entire summer—you know, working overseas, Healing," I said, lying through my teeth. I had become quite good at faking my blood status.
"Right. Well, my parents actually got me an internship at the Ministry this summer—in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of course. I even met the Minister on a few occasions." She remarked, in a rather boastful way.
She always did enjoy talking about herself, especially her family's wealth.
Just as I was done completing my thoughts, a tall figure leaned up against the open door to our compartment.
Adrian Pucey
"Ladies." He smiled devilishly, keeping his gaze solely on me whilst brushing his fingers through his dark hair that went just past his ears.
Two of his Slytherin friends now stood behind him—Harrison Silverthorn and Spencer Crow.
"Adrian." I said, dimly, not keeping eye contact with him.
"Mind if I uh...have a word?" He said, his expression now changing to a kinder demeanor—although I wasn't quite sure I was buying it.
The tension all started when Adrian and I started seeing each other at the end of last school year— keeping it on the more 'casual side' as Adrian liked to call it. We kept things very hidden, as neither of us wanted the attention that came along with things like this. To be honest, I began to feel quite used at a certain point. We would mostly only see each other during the later parts of the day, he barely talked to me when others were around—except when there was Quidditch practice, and most of the time we spent together was spent snogging. On top of that, I hadn't heard from him once over the summer, leaving me desperate all throughout summer holiday.
"Fine." I said, rather coldly as I got up from my seat and began to head out of the compartment to the relatively empty corridors.
As he placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me to someplace private, I couldn't help but feel a shiver down my spine—a good one though. As we reached a quiet part of the train's corridors, where there was no one in site, Adrian forcefully pressed me up against one of the doors of an empty compartment.
"I missed you." He said, a desperate moan escaping his mouth as his lips roughly pressed against mine.
His large hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing slightly, making me squirm under his hold. I quickly reached for them to loosen his grip—but this action only made him more eager, as his tongue now began to tease my bottom lip.
Removing his hands from my neck, he now placed them at the hem of my shirt, slowly creeping them upwards until he reached my breasts. Now that his lips left my own to venture out to my neck, I managed to utter, "I thought you ended this, us."
As he now began to massage my breasts over my bra, placing sloppy, wet kisses over my neck, I let out a small, but audible moan. My legs pressed together slightly, so as to get some temporary relief.
"Let's not talk about that right now, alright?" His fingers now pressed deep into the skin of my waist—surely leaving marks by tomorrow. As his actions now became more desperate, he began to press himself up against me, grinding his hips into mine, so that I could now feel him growing hard against my leg.
"Ahh...fuck." He moaned into my neck, his voice now sounding shaky and desperate.
As he released his tight grip on my waist, he quickly reached for the compartment door I had just been pressed up against, and opened it.
"Get in" He demanded, as he gave me a slight shove into the booth.
As I stood there, anticipating what would happen next, Adrian closed the sliding doors shut, and began to pull down the drapes.
Although things had gotten quite heated between us last year—for me anyways, we really hadn't done anything past snogging and groping, although I was fairly certain he had quite more experience than me. From looking at the hard-on beneath his trousers, as well as the desperate look in his eyes, I was quite sure about what was to happen. As he began to back me up into the window at the end of the small compartment, I couldn't help but feel my heart begin to race.
This had all happened so fast, that I hadn't even properly processed everything up until now. Although I had begun to feel a wetness coming from my panties, I couldn't help but feel conflicted. Up until this point, Adrian showed no concern for my feelings; however, the thought of pleasing him just made me even more wet.
"Get on your knees." He demanded, shoving me by my shoulders downwards as I hit the floor. As I stood on my knees with my legs tucked underneath, back pressed against the wall, Adrian began to undo his belt, further pushing me into the wall so that I had no choice but to look up at him with my wide eyes.
"Fuck, don't tease me like that." He said, unzipping his trousers and letting them fall down to his ankles.
Before pulling down his boxers, he grabbed my face in one hand and ran his thumb across my lips, as I batted my eyelashes up at him, as to tease him. He released the hand that held my jaw, and without warning, let out a small strike to the side of my face, making me gasp with shock.
"I said don't fucking tease me like that."
With that said, he pulled down his boxers to reveal his length. I looked at it with wide eyes, not expecting it to be this big. Although I had no experience with these things, I knew from the wide smirk Adrian gave, that this was not the first time he garnered a similar reaction.
He looked down at me, slowly beginning to stroke his erection with one hand, the other, now grabbing a fistful of my hair and guiding my head towards his length. As my lips parted slightly, he didn't waste his time putting himself into my mouth. As he now grabbed my hair even more firmly in his hand, he began to move my head back and forth up his cock, making me take as much of him in my mouth as I could.
"Fuckk…" He groaned, still bobbing my head up and down his shaft, each movement becoming faster and sloppier.
As my hands rested against my knees while I continued to take his length, I decided to take it upon myself to put them to use. As I reached for his throbbing cock, Adrian swiftly smacked my hand out of the way, not wanting me to take any form of control.
"Put them behind your back." He ordered, as I quickly complied and placed both hands around my backside—the wall I had been leaning against now confining them.
As his thrusts became deeper and much more intense, drool now began to drip from both my mouth and his pulsating cock.
"Fuck—oh god—keep looking at me." He now had both of his hands placed on the back of my head, forcing me to deepthroat his entire length.
As I began to gag on his dick, loud noises emanated from my mouth as I choked violently, my eyes now watering from the feeling of his length ramming into the back of my throat. He continued with his deep thrusts, slowly beginning to lose control, as he now had his eyes shut with his head leaned back.
"Ah, fuck—oh god—I'm about to cum." He said, now looking back into my eyes. "I'm going to make you swallow it so we don't leave a mess."
With his last few violent thrusts, he let a long, deep grunt.
"Fuck—ohh, god...swallow it." As his cum finally released into my mouth, he held my head in place so that his cock still remained all the way down my throat—and kept it there until I could no longer take it.
Releasing his grip on my head as I pushed away from his thighs, I let out a loud gasp for air, the remainder of his cum dripping down my mouth, wiping it away with the sleeve of my shirt.
As I remained seated on my knees, out of breath, Adrian began to get dressed, now sliding his belt buckle back into the loops of his trousers.
"That was great Warrington—I didn't expect that from you." He gave me a wide smirk as he tucked his button up into his pants.
Warrington—he still couldn't even call me by my first name.
My heart sunk at this, as I had hoped that doing something like this for him would have changed his mind about me.
"Yeah." I said, letting out a disappointing smile, him not even noticing as he opened the sliding doors to the compartment, peering out to see if anyone was around.
"Well, we should definitely do this again. It'll be easier once we're in the Castle and there's more places to go." I nodded at this, still sitting on the floor.
"Anyways, I'm going to go. I'll see you around then." He said, walking out the compartment doors, not even looking at me to say goodbye.
Sitting there on my own for a few more minutes, I finally decided to get up off the floor and head back to where I had been sitting earlier.
Opening the door to where the four girls still sat, I quickly reached for my bag and muttered to them, "Going to go change into my school robes...I'll be back." None of them really paid much attention to what I just said.
As I headed to the lavatories that were situated closest to the Slytherin compartments, I couldn't help but notice a long line of about seven or eight girls—I rolled my eyes.
I'll just have to go to the other end of the train
Approaching the other end of the train, were many Gryffindor students going to and from different compartments, joking around with their friends, laughs echoing throughout the corridors.
The other end of the train had been quite different than this, I thought.
As I reached the inside of the lavatory, looking around for a few moments to make sure no one was around, I let out a small cry.
No matter how good I was at covering up my constant loneliness, this particular situation stung. Regardless of how much energy I spent trying to build relationships, whether it be friends or with guys I fancied, I always came out of the situation looking like the fool.
Promising myself I wouldn't let Adrian—or anyone for that matter, treat me like I didn't have feelings, I quickly wiped away the tears from my now pink face.
As I began to splash water onto my face, properly cleaning up the mess that had been made there not long ago, two voices emerged into the lavatory.
"I just don't understand why he's always in such a cranky mood."
"You've got to admit, Lee and the twins do constantly irritate him."
"You've got me there Andy." The two girls—who I remembered as being on Gryffindor's Quidditch team, as well as being in the same year as me, finally looked up, noticing I was there.
For a moment, I had forgotten my face was still slightly pink, as well as my eyes being puffy, from crying only just moments ago.
They must have been taken slightly aback by the fact that Slytherins never came down here, as well as my current disheveled state, because they both stood with rather blank expressions.
Trying to break the silence, as well as get out of here as fast as possible, I quickly got into one of the stalls to change into my robes.
As I could make out a few whispers, I eventually heard the two leave.
Before exiting the lavatory, I quickly looked into one of the mirrors, flattening my hair down as it appeared to be tousled.
As I began to make my way back down the corridors, a sudden halt to the train, as well as sudden screams, made me jolt in fear.
As the screams continued, the lights began to flicker. A cold air surrounded my body, as well as the rest of the train, as it left a frost covering the windows.
"Everyone, get back in your compartments immediately—c'mon don't stand around—I'm Head Boy you know." The Weasley I had just seen earlier, now turned to face me.
"Don't just stand there, get in." He said pointing to the compartment I stood next to, its glass window covered in frost so that I could barely make out the shadows that sat behind it.
"But this isn't even my compartment. I'm sitting all the way down the corridor."
The boy gave me a glare, opening the door to the compartment anyways, impatiently waiting for me to get in.
As I rolled my eyes with my arms crossed, I made my way into the booth, the doors shutting behind me as he walked away.
As I turned around to see who I was now stuck with, six faces looked up at me, all with different expressions.
Practically the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team
At this point I was no longer surprised with how my luck played out.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." The phrase came from none other than Wood.
One of the girls I had seen in the lavatory before, sat next to him, and smacked his arm playfully.
"Don't be rude Oli." She attempted to whisper, although we were all now confined in such a small space, I don't know why she even tried.
I had purposefully avoided making eye contact with one person in particular up until this point—George of course.
As I turned to him, having the desire to sneak a glance for whatever reason, I caught him already staring at me, quickly looking down at the floor once I caught him.
"Uh...anyways" Lee had been the only one to notice our glances, and attempted to break the tension.
However, all our thoughts were suddenly put on pause, as the flickering lights died out completely, now leaving us in utter darkness.
"What's going on?" The other girl who I had seen earlier now spoke, looking at Fred, who had now placed his hand on her thigh to reassure her.
For a quick second, I saw something flash by the window. In an attempt to feed my curiosity, I walked towards the window to have a better look, as it was now extremely dark. As I took a step forward however, my foot got caught on someone's limb—George had his long legs sprawled out in front of him. With my reflexes not being fast enough, I nearly crashed forward into the window; however, George's long arms caught me by my hips, pulling me in quickly before nearly having my head make contact with the window.
"You need to start watching where you're going. You'll get yourself injured one of these days if you don't." No one had seemed to notice our interaction—except Fred, who cocked his eyebrow as he stared at his twin's hands which had now moved to my waist. I pushed his hands off immediately, turning back to the window to see what the others were now chatting about now.
"I swear, I'm not lying. It was a Dementor." Lee was now attempting to convince his friends.
"What would a Dementor possibly be doing out here? Shouldn't they be back guarding Azkaban?" Andy asked with confusion—who's name I just learned from the others.
"I reckon they're probably watching out for Black." Angelina—who's name I also just picked up, stated.
"Black? What business would he have all the way out here?" Wood exclaimed.
To kill Harry Potter, I thought to myself as I remembered the conversation he and Mr. Weasley had just yesterday.
I looked out the window once more to see if Lee really had been telling the truth.
The sky—which only minutes ago was bright, now had dark clouds completely covering it. Although quite dark out, I still managed to see the floating gray beings that now surrounded the train. As I quickly backed away in fright, the lights now chose to come back on, and seconds later, a voice from out of what seemed to be nowhere spoke—what I recognized to be the Amplifying charm.
It has come to our attention that only minutes ago, Dementors boarded the train. Please do not be afraid. We have taken care of the situation and will be back to moving in just a few moments. However, we do ask that you remain seated in your compartments until we arrive at the school later this evening. The Prefects will continue to monitor the corridors so as to make sure students do not leave.
I sighed loudly out this, as did the others—except George, who now looked down at the ground in order to contain the small smile his lips began to form.
"Oh that's just bloody brilliant now, isn't it? I was going to gather the others so we could start talking about this year's strategy." Wood now exclaimed, the agitation in his voice only growing.
"Oh no! When will we ever get the time to do that—Oh wait, that's right...we have Quidditch practice every other day Oliver." Fred said in a sarcastic tone, teasing him as usual.
While the others continued to laugh at and irritate Wood, George had now made his brother and Angelina scooch over, so that there now remained a rather small space for one more to sit. He looked up at me and nodded his head towards the tight space, as his arms crossed over his chest. Seeing as I didn't have much choice, I obliged and sat down in the small space between the wall closest to the window, and George.
As his arms remained crossed—his biceps squished up against my small shoulders, I couldn't help but feel the smallest flutter in my stomach. Moving his arms out of the crossed position they were just in, he flexed his veiny hand, revealing a silver band placed on his right middle finger. As I watched through my peripheral vision, his chest rising up and down with each breath, I couldn't help but take in the same scent that came from him yesterday—firewood with a mix of cinnamon.
For whatever reason, his smell had become so intoxicating to me.
The last few hours of the journey had been anything but uneventful—something I wasn't quite used to, having always sat with the Slytherins.
Over the course of the ride, Fred and George had managed to set off mini fireworks in the compartment—with the disapproval from both Angelina and Andy, while Wood and Lee both challenged each other to a heated round of Wizard's Chess—Lee winning and Wood mumbling under his breath about him cheating.
Although I kept to myself most of the ride, Andy attempted on a few occasions to spark up a conversation about Quidditch to me—although Wood continued to butt in on us every chance he could get.
After a couple hours of chaos, the energy died out significantly, leaving everyone tired—including myself, as I drifted off into a deep sleep for the last hour of the train ride.
As I abruptly awoke to the sound of the Amplifying charm being used again, my head jolted up in shock, resulting in George letting out a small chuckle.
Attention students—we will be arriving at Hogsmeade Station in approximately five minutes. As always, students are expected to be in their school robes by now—if you have not done so, please do immediately. You may also begin to collect your belongings.
Taking that as my cue to leave, I stood up—the others having already begun to collect their bags from the overhead storage, and exited the compartment without anyone paying much attention, except for George, who had now lightly tapped on the back of my shoulder.
I turned around, already halfway through the door, looking at him to see what he wanted.
"Your bag." He stated, holding out my drawstring bag with his finger.
"Thanks." I said, reaching for my bag while looking at him directly in his eyes, him holding my gaze.
"See you around then." He gave me a friendly smile as I walked out, and headed back towards where I first boarded the train.
The Sorting Ceremony had been the same as always, with every House cheering loudly as a new student was sorted into their own.
As I sat around my four Slytherin companions, I chose to ignore the Hogwarts choir that began to melodically sing their song in front of the school, as did the rest of my friends.
"I can't believe you were stuck on the train for hours with some Gryffindors. That must've been awful." Autumn chimed in, turning towards me.
"Yeah, probably—I was asleep the whole time to be honest." I lied.
As I looked up from where I sat facing the Gryffindors—just one table next to us, I couldn't help but notice George sitting almost directly ahead of me at his respective table. Noticing my glances, he gave me a quick wink, and continued with the conversation he was having with his younger brother who sat across from him, along with Potter and Granger.
Looking down at my dinner plate to avoid any further embarrassment, the choir had finally ended their tune, receiving an applause from the rest of the room.
The Headmaster then made his way to the golden podium, beginning his speech.
"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts!" Dumbledore said, now obtaining the full focus of the room. "Now I'd like to say a few words before we all become too befuddled by our excellent feast. First, I'm pleased to welcome Professor R. J. Lupin, who's kindly considered to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Good luck Professor!" The Headmaster motioned to a man sitting down at the teachers table—the same man I had seen on the train earlier, now noticing the scars across his face.
My attention was now focused on Malfoy, who sat only a few students across from me, attempting to get the attention of Potter.
"Potter." Malfoy called out for Harry. "Potter!" He exclaimed, now having caught his attention, as Harry, now turned around in his seat to face him along with his friends who he sat with.
"Is it true you fainted? I mean, you actually fainted?" Draco asked Harry in a mocking way.
"Shove off Malfoy!" Ron said, glaring at him, while turning Harry to face around the other way.
"How'd he find out?" I heard Potter whisper to his friends.
When I reunited with my Slytherin friends after leaving the Gryffindor compartment, they had told me the rumours of Potter having supposedly fainted after an encounter with one of the Dementors.
Dumbledore began to finish off the rest of his speech, his tone in voice now changing to that of a much more serious one.
"Finally, on a more describing note, at the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the Dementors of Azkaban." Everyone began to whisper loudly amongst each other, wondering what this was all about.
"Until such a time Sirius Black is captured, the Dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day to day activities—a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures, they will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of the Dementor to be forgiving." I felt a small shiver at these words.
"But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."