Too Little Too Late

Chapter 4 | Edited

The trip to Hogwarts was a short one for the seventh year Gryffindors. Soon enough they found themselves scrambling off the Hogwarts express to start their last ever beginning of the school year.

The trip had been spent, by the girls, talking about the upcoming school year, their hope for NEWTs and plans for what would happen after school - something not many witches or wizards were too keen to talk about amidst the upcoming (or ongoing, depending on who you talked to) war. Layla managed to push conversation far away from their summers whenever it strayed too near, scared that she would have to explain things that she wasn't quite sure she could yet.

The Gryffindor boy's conversation was very different. Their summers were being discussed at length, as well as possible pranks, ways to enrage their teenager-hating caretaker, Mr Filch, and ways which James Potter could woo Lily Evans.

Before the rest of the group could even stand up, Remus jumped to his feet, rushing out of the compartment and the train, yelling to his friends that he'd 'forgotten about something important' and that he'd 'see them later'.

"Moony's been acting odd lately, ain't he?" Sirius commented, wondering what could have been so important to his friend as to ditch the rest of them.

"Leave him be, he's under a lot of stress." James defended the werewolf.

"How? Term's not even started yet! That boy is too hard on himself." They all nodded, knowing their friend's tendencies to overwork himself to the point of exhaustion.

However, this was not the reason Remus Lupin jumped from his seat at the soonest opportunity. Remus had remembered a very important fact which he had learnt last year in Care of Magical Creatures (a subject which he excelled at, being a magical creature himself).

The carriages were pulled by Thestrals.

Just as he had though, the girls had gotten off the train quickly and were making their way towards the carriages. Layla, he noticed, hadn't looked up yet and therefore hadn't seen the Thestrals yet. He only needed to reach her before she looked up.

Five more steps...
I should call out, bring her attention to me so she doesn't look at them.

Four more steps...

Three more steps...
No, then she'd look up and see them first.

Two more steps...

The scream rung in the air.

Layla had looked up and seen the Thestrals pulling the carriages, something which she had never seen before. The horses, which looked as if they couldn't be held up by anything other than magic as they seemed, to Layla, to be black, rotten, moving, horse skeletons.

"What are they doing here? How is no one else panicking? What are  they?" She questioned her friends rapidly, eyes still fixed on the Thestrals.

"It's okay, Layla. It's okay." Remus soothed as he reached her. "They're Thestrals. I forgot about them so I couldn't uh warn you about them, but don't worry, you're safe."

As Layla reached around to hug her friend she found herself on the verge of tears, yet unsure why.

"Uhm what's going on?" Marlene interrupted, never quite being one for watching other people's 'moments'.