Survivors Guilt - A HP Fan Fic

Chapter 4

By the time James and Remus reappeared, Sirius and Peter had disappeared to make mischief, they'd left a disapproving Hayley shaking her head behind. In their absense, Hayley had rifled through her trunk and extracted one of her beloved books, and was in the thick of the adventure. The sound of the door sliding open caused her to jump, looking up dhe saw an approving look in Remus' face, and an inquiring look on James'. 

"The boys said they were going to make trouble with the Slytherins and first years." Hayley said, returning to her book. 

"Typical." A female voice scoffed. Hayley looked up from her book again and peered behind the boys into the corridor and caught a glimpse of red hair. 

"Right, we'll go track them down." Remus said straightening up, and making to turn around. "Lily, here she is!" He called back already marching down the corridor, and dragging James with him. Lily sat down opposite Hayley.

"Hey." She greeted her acquaintance.

"Hi!" Hayley responded, putting her book down. Lily caught a glimpse of the title of the book.

"Oh, I love that one!" She exclaimed. The two girls then spent the remainder of the train ride discussing muggle books, never once noticing that the boys never returned, but James would every so often stop outside in the corridor, and peered in, checking in on them. 

***

It was dark by the time the train was slowing down to pull into the train station. Lily, who had seven years of experience sensed the subtle change in the speed and checked her watch. Time to get ready to unboard. 

"Hey, so we're coming up to Hogsmeade, I've got to go wrangle the first years and take them on the path to the boats, if you come with me, leave your luggage here, Trixie too, they'll be taken up separately, James said he and Sirius would meet up with us so Sirius can take you to the carriages, we'll meet you there." She said as she stood up. "We want to beat the crowds."

Hayley made sure that Trixie was secure in her cage, and followed Lily into the corridor. As they passed the compartments, they could see the students inside becoming increasingly fidgety, as the anticipation grew the closer they got to the station. Lily stopped by one of the doors in the carriage and they braced themselves for the stop. No matter how much they slowed, there was always the inevitable jolt when the final stop came on trains. As the jolt came, the boys came stumbling down the hallway, their steps hurried. Within seconds simultaneously, the boys reached them, and the hallway flooded with students clad in black robes. Lily opened the door with the ease of practiced movement, and they were swept away by the eddying tide of eager students. Sirius grabbed Hayley's arm, making sure they weren't seperated. The rush eased as they came upon a group of carriages. 

Hayley and Sirius claimed one of them, the silence of the carriage was calming to Hayley, who's heart was racing from being in such a large crowd. The dark tendrils of claustrophobia began to recede, she hadn't realised how much bigger crowds would be in a country with a larger population. 

"Thanks." She said once she'd gotten control of her breath. 

"No worries, James was worried you might get freaked out by the crowd, so he asked me to escort you." He responded, relaxing back into the seat with a much more casual air. 

"Yeah, I didn't realise how many people there would be." Hayley pushed her fringe back over her head, the gesture one she employed when she was stressed or anxious. 

"Hey guys!" A voice greeted from the doorway where Remus was climbing up into the carriage, followed by Peter. Hayley looked out of the window and noticed that most of the other carriages had already moved off, she scanned the thinning crowd for James and Lily, Lily's red hair caught her eye first, they were heading towards them from the far end of the platform. 

"It's a much smaller group of first years this year." James remarked as he settled in his seat beside Sirius. Lily closed the door behind her and quickly took her seat beside Hayley as the carriage jerked into motion. 

"I guess parents are scared to be separated from their children. Even though everyone knows that Hogwarts is the safest place under Dumbledore's protection." Remus chipped in. The others nodded. 

"Even my school in New Zealand was experiencing smaller enrollment." Hayley piped up, a little hesitant at first to add in her contribution to the conversation. But her fears were relieved when she was treated as an equal within the group. 

***

Hayley's mouth fell open as she stepped out of the carriage and fully beheld the castle that housed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was huge, and not only that, but it was stunning. She followed the group through the front doors and into the entrance hall. Her mouth never once closed. She drank in the sights, and made note of four large hourglasses with each of the four house names on them. The Great Hall was a sight to behold. It was larger than any school auditorium that Hayley had ever seen, and it appeared to be set up for a banquet. The staff sat at a long table at the front of the room, and students gathered around four extraordinarily large tables that were arranged in rows across the room. The ceiling didn't appear to exist, though she knew it was only an enchantment, she had heard about it enough times from her cousins. The room was lit with floating candles. She followed her friends wordlessly to one of the four long tables and took a seat between James and Lily. Around her students babbled away excitedly, reuniting with old friends and catching up on the latest gossip and news from the summer. 

Suddenly a hush swept across the hall, and all eyes were fixed on the huge doors that they had passed through not too long ago. A tall witch was carrying a three legged stool, on which was balanced the hat that had sorted Hayley into Gryffindor. She was leading a small army of children, this group was about the size of Hayley's old schools student population. When the group reached the front, she appeared to speak to the students, who gathered in a group, and placed down the stool, she then respectfully took a few steps away.

The hat made a sound as if it was clearing it's throat, if it had one. The whole school trained their eyes on it. And suddenly it began to sing loudly. It was the song Hayley had heard it singing when she had been sorted. The song took ten minutes. It was a very long winded song about the founding of the school, and had then gone on to commentate about the war. 

After the hat had fallen silent, the Sorting began. One by one each student sat on the stool, and were sorted into each of the houses. Hayley said a silent prayer in thanks that she hadn't been sorted in this manner. She would have stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the tiny first years. 

Hello! Thank you so much for reading the fourth instalment of Survivor's Guilt! I hope you enjoyed it, if you did, please give it a vote, and let me know what you liked in the comments down below. 

Thank you for you time,

Jade Lara