In The Dark

Chapter 1 - An Eventful Train Ride

"You don't want to sit with your old dad for the ride?" My father joked, looking very tired. We got to the train very early so it was quite empty.

"Just because you're teaching this year doesn't mean I want to hang out with you all the time." I teased, standing at his compartment door. "My friend's will be wanting to catch up."

"I suppose you see me enough at home." He laughed, to be honest I really didn't.. He was always working, sometimes he would even be gone for weeks at a time which is fine now but when I was little he found a house elf that needed work to take care of me most of the time.

"I don't understand why you had to work so much this week, you have a better income this year." I pouted. I wasn't too sure why but he liked to just take jobs as they came, instead of holding down a full time job. Although asking questions was never really something that I did, he worked so hard to support us so I felt that it was rude.

"Well if I didn't then I wouldn't be able to give you this, now would I?" He took some coins out of his pocket. "Treat yourself with some sweets."

"Stop overworking yourself, I don't need money for sweets." I smiled at his generosity. He was really the sweetest, I didn't even really consider him an absent father because he always made up for it with how loving he was. We were quite close so I really would like to spend more time with him.

"You need to enjoy the small things in life while you're young." He winked. "Now go see your friends." He shooed me away, putting his jacket over his head to catch some sleep.

I found an empty compartment and waited for someone to arrive. I found a book at a muggle second hand shop so I read it to pass time. I was hoping that Fred, George and Lee would find me first, because as much as I liked Angelina she always found a way to make me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Ally!" Angelina's voice called as the compartment door opened.

"Hey Angelina." I looked up from my book, smiling. "How was your break?"

"Oh, so good..." Angelina started. "My family went to Spain and it was beautiful there, you should really go one day." She crowed.

"Maybe in the future, that's so expensive." I laughed awkwardly.

"You didn't do anything?" She queried to which I shook my head.

"Nothing really, I just found a job delivering mail to a muggle neighbourhood for some extra spending money this year." I explained to her happily. "It was really fun!"

"Your dad still doesn't have a proper job?" She asked me, with some judgement in her question.

"He got a job teaching at Hogwarts this year." I smiled, ignoring her judgement. "So hopefully he gets paid a little more."

"Oh, that's exciting!" She exclaimed. "I've always wondered what your dad was like." I stayed and chatted for about half an hour and by that time it began raining a lot. Alicia came and sat with us during that time so I figured it was safe to go and find the boys without leaving Angelina alone.

"I might go find the boys, I'll see you at the feast." I grabbed my bags. "See you guys."

"You always leave us for them." Angelina pouted. "Tell Freddie to come and see me soon." Angelina and Fred had started to date at the end of last term, which I must admit did not sit well with me for some reason.

"Will do." I smiled, ignoring the first part of what she said.

"Perfect timing!" George exclaimed as I entered their compartment. "We were just planning our first big prank of the year."

"Who's it on?" I asked them, curiously.

"That git Malfoy." Lee grinned.

"Very fun." I smirked. "But I hope it doesn't involve me.. he's always flirting with me, it's gross."

"That's because you're the perfect match for him, almost white hair, grey eyes." Fred swooned. "You two would make such cute babies."

"Fred, I will vomit if you keep talking." My lips turned downwards and my nose scrunched up.

"Most of the guys at school are into you, just help us out here." George begged.

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrows. "Including you guys?"

"Ugh.. don't be ridiculous." He responded. "You're like our sister." Everyone nodded.

"That's true." I laughed. "But you know, siblings don't exploit each other."

"I don't know, I would for sure exploit Percy for the fun of it." Fred chuckled to which I replied by rolling my eyes.

"New plan then?" Lee laughed.

"What was the original plan?" I asked, curiously.

"You seducing Malfoy, bringing him to a broom cupboard that is filled with spiders." Lee explained, looking rather mischievous. "You would just have to push him in."

"That's pretty good.. but I could never seduce someone like Malfoy." I rolled my eyes. "For starters he's two years younger than me, it feels wrong."

"All you seem to do is look people in the eye." Fred shrugged. "It's not too hard."

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrows and stared him in the eye. "Like this?" He immediately got flustered and went red.

"Freddie, you remember you have a girlfriend, right?" George asked him and snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"She has super powers, I'm telling you." Fred panicked, Lee nodded in agreement.

"It's never worked on me." George shook his head. "You two are weak." Suddenly the train came to a halt.

"What's happening?" I grabbed onto Lee's arm since I was sitting next to him, maybe the storm did something to the train? It became so cold and the windows started to frost over. A black ghostly figure opened the door and I held onto Lee's arm tighter. I was terrified to be honest. It came close to my face and I could feel it's breath on my face. There was a flash of white and it was like it was blown away. I gasped for air.

"What was that?" Fred asked us. I wanted to cry. I felt so unhappy all of a sudden, I wanted to just crawl into a ball and sleep for a whole week.

"I don't know." I shivered.

"Nothing good by the looks of it." George shook his head. I got up and left to find my dad, he would know what that was. I was walking down the corridor and he quickly came out of his compartment. We weren't that far away from each other.

"Ally, are you alright? You look very pale." I shook my head.

"That thing tried to attack me." My voice quivered as I spoke. "What was it?"

"Attack you?" He nervously inspected my face.

"It felt like it was going to suck the life out of me or something." I explained. "Then a white light stopped it."

"Ah.. those were dementors from Azkaban, looking for Sirius Black." He stated.

"Why would they be on the train?" I questioned him.

"I'm going to speak to the train driver, here's some chocolate." He completely ignored my question while handing me chocolate then walked away from me. I went back into our compartment and sat down.

"So scary.." I started. "They were looking for Sirius Black."

"What would he be doing on a train full of students?" Fred asked me and I just shrugged in reply.

During the feast, Professor McGonagall introduced my dad. I clapped and smiled.

"Is that your dad?" George whispered to me. "Does that mean he'll be easy on us?"

"Nope, he said 'no special treatment'." I laughed. "So don't go easy on him."

"That's a promise we can keep." Fred grinned.