The light rumble of the train made Clarissa glad that she had taken her potion that morning and hoped it would last through the entire journey. She and James walked hand in hand down the narrow corridor looking for a familiar head of black curls. When they checked the Marauder's usual compartment and found it occupied by others, James reached into his pockets to pull out a small mirror, similar to the one Clarissa owned.
"Pads! Where are you guys seated?" James called into the mirror.
Intrigued to see how the mirror actually works, she leaned in closer to James who turned the mirror so it faced her slightly as well. She could see Sirius' face pop up in the device and his voice emitted from it.
"We found a compartment just four down from our usual. Evans and Marls are here too!"
The thought of seeing the actual Lily Potter—well right now it's Evans— was nerve-racking. The supposed love of James Potter would be sharing a compartment with them. James must've noticed Clarissa tighten her hold on him because he squeezed her hand back and kissed her forehead, which admittedly calmed her down a touch. As they walked further down the corridor, Clarissa could hear the boisterous voice of Sirius, retelling one of the adventures they had that summer to their friends.
From where the couple stood, Clarissa could see three people whom she never thought she'd ever get to meet. Of the three there was only one male; he had sandy brown hair with faint, almost white, scars on his face. He was thin and lanky, shoulders hunched inwards as if to keep himself as small as possible. That was Remus Lupin, she was sure of it. The remaining of the trio were two beautiful girls. One was a redhead with the brightest green eyes she's ever seen, and the other was a blonde with eyes as blue as the clear sky. They were Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon respectively.
As if their magic sensed that they were being watched, Lily and Marlene looked away from where Sirius sat and made eye contact with the brunette. Clarissa felt loved when she saw how her supposed friends light up at the sight of her. The two girls waved excitedly and beckoned for her and James to come into the compartment. A slight tug from James caused her to follow his footsteps towards the compartment. He slid the door open and let Clarissa in first, giving her an encouraging smile.
The Ravenclaw girl entered the compartment and received multiple greetings at once. The two ladies that were seated immediately stood up to give her a warm hug. Clarissa hesitantly returned the action. Once she was free from the hold of the two girls, she looked over their shoulders and blue-green eyes darted back and forth from warm brown ones and watery blue ones. A dizzy spell overtook her from the memories that infiltrated her head and she had to take a step back into James to not collapse.
Worriedly, James guided her to sit and let her rest her head on his shoulder. Clarissa buried her face into his neck, eyes shut as she tried to bear through the pain in her head. James could feel her heavy pants against his neck, upset that he can't do much to help besides comfort her.
"What's wrong with Clara?" Peter Pettigrew asked, a bit too loudly for Clarissa's liking, causing her to whimper.
James shot a glare at his friend, shushing him. She heard a whisper of an apology from the plump boy. It took a few more minutes for the pain to go away and for her breathing to normalize. Clarissa slowly lifted her head from James' shoulder, and he cast her a concerned look and he wasn't the only one worried for her. Everyone in the compartment was shooting her looks of concern.
She gave a weak smile, "I'm fine, just dizzy is all. I've been experiencing lots of dizzy spells lately and I didn't get much sleep last night."
All but James and Sirius seemed to believe her answer. To make up for causing her more pain by talking loudly, Peter offered to get her some tea from the trolley lady. Clarissa thanked him, not even aware that the trolley sold tea.
"What's in the parcel Clar?" Remus Lupin changing the subject, pointing towards the forgotten item in her hands.
Thankful for the change in topic, she told them it was from Della for all of them. Everyone's eyes seemed to light up and urged her to open the package. Carefully untying the ribbon, Clarissa opened the box to reveal all sorts of treats from her house elf. She passed them around, telling Remus to save some of the chocolate cookies for Peter who was also as obsessed with chocolate as the teenage werewolf. Clarissa informed her redheaded friend of the lavender scones she saw in the parcel and the girl made a quick grab for them.
The friends shared the treats with each other as well as the drinks Peter bought for them. To pass the time, they talked about what went on during the summer for them. Clarissa enjoyed the presence of everyone in their compartment. Although she didn't get the memories back of her time with Lily and Marlene as she did for Remus and Peter, she seemed to understand the little references they made about their home life.
A short while into their conversation, Remus and Lily announced that they had to go to the Prefects compartment and would be back later on after patrolling, but not before shooting an odd glance at the still sitting brunette. Sirius and Marlene decided to go to an empty compartment to do a little more catching up, Clarissa rolling her eyes at them, reading between the lines. Peter also made an excuse to leave, saying he wanted to go see their other friends, leaving James and Clarissa alone in the compartment.
Clarissa snuggled into James' side, thankful for some alone time with him. Although she was getting along with everyone swimmingly, it was a bit overwhelming to interact with the people she used to only believe were fictional. The couple basked in the silence for a few more minutes, Clarissa feeling sleepier by the second.
In the end, James broke it by speaking to her softly, "Want to tell me what happened with you earlier?"
"It wasn't anything bad, it's just when I saw Remus and Peter, a gate flooded open with memories about them," She mumbled.
"All of your memories with them?" James clarified; a bit put out at how easily she recovered her memories about his friends but not with him.
Clarissa could hear the hurt in his voice, so she laced their fingers together to offer him some form of comfort.
"Oh honey, I know you think it's unfair, but you know I can't control it. Besides, I was hoping we can make new memories instead."
James smiled softly at her, a look of adoration in his eyes, and pressed a kiss on her head, "Of course we can make new memories, we have forever to do that together. I didn't mean to sound upset at you, love."
Clarissa snuggled deeper into James' hold, the slight rumble of the train and the quiet lull was the perfect combination to put the brunette to sleep. There wasn't much James could do while his girlfriend used him as a pillow, so he ended up taking a nap as well. His sleep was interrupted by Peter who came back to the compartment an hour later, thankfully Clarissa was still dozing off. The two marauders quietly played wizard's chess until the rest of their friends came back.
The sound of shattering stone and cussing woke Clarissa up from her slumber. The sun was much lower on the horizon which showed that she's been asleep for quite some time now. She saw someone sitting across from her through bleary eyes. Rubbing the sleep out of them, she could now clearly see that it was Peter. His brows were furrowed with a hand over his mouth concentrating hard on the game before him; a wizard's chess set was levitating between himself and James. Clarissa's slight movement caused both lads to turn their gaze away from their game to her.
"Hey Clara!" Greeted Peter with a sheepish smile, "Sorry, were we too loud?"
The brunette smiled and shook her head, "What time is it?"
James glanced at his wristwatch and told her it was a quarter past two in the afternoon. By her calculations, she's been asleep for almost three hours now. Clarissa sat up from her position and stretched her arms, a tad sore from staying in one position for so long.
"I'm sorry hon, I didn't mean to sleep on you for that long. Why don't you stretch your legs and get us some lunch? I'm a bit peckish," Clarissa apologized to James.
James shrugged off her apology and wanted to take the chance to do as she suggested but felt bad for leaving Peter in the middle of a game.
"Don't worry, I'll play for you. You're losing anyway," She assured him.
James looked insulted while Peter snickered under his breath. The hazel-eyed boy left the compartment with a scowl but winked at Clarissa to show that he wasn't actually upset. Clarissa took James' spot and sat in front of Peter to continue the game. She had to fight the urge to physically move the pieces rather than verbally saying the positions.
"So, where's the rest of the group?" Clarissa asked to fill the silence of the compartment.
"Oh, they were here earlier. Lily and Marlene went to say hi to Cassie and Em. Moony popped off to the loo and Pads is probably pranking the Slytherins. They'll be back soon," Peter told her as his knight killed one of her pawns.
Clarissa nodded, glad to hear that the others would be joining them shortly. She didn't know how to act around someone who doesn't know her predicament as of yet. Despite having all her memories of Peter back and seeing them play chess countless times, Clarissa was surprised at how good he was at the game. He had well thought out strategies and didn't just play the game with no objective as she did as a child. Clarissa could tell she was about to lose in a couple of moves when the door opened and broke her concentration.
"Well, hello sleeping beauty," Greeted Remus with a teasing grin as he entered the compartment.
"Hello yourself Mr. Big Bad Wolf," Clarissa responded with a smirk, "How was the meeting and patrolling?"
Peter grabbed the floating chess set and began to put it away, realizing the two of them won't be able to finish the game since their friends were going to start coming back. Remus sat in his original seat from earlier which was on the far side next to the window.
The teenage wolf shrugged his shoulders, "It was alright, not much was going on thankfully. We mostly discussed the patrolling schedule for school which took up most of our time."
Remus asked where James went, which Clarissa answered, though unsure what's taking him so long. Surely he couldn't still be looking for the trolley lady, it's been a good 20 minutes since he left. Once again, the doors to their compartment opened, this time Lily and Marlene entered.
"Hey, you're awake!" Marlene exclaimed, taking a seat beside her.
"How are you feeling now Clar?" Lily asked concernedly.
Clarissa smiled warmly at the two ladies, "I'm doing better thanks. I guess I just needed that nap, good thing James makes a great pillow."
"Speaking of your boyfriend, where is Potter?" Lily inquired.
Clarissa shrugged, "He went to get some lunch from the trolley lady, but it's been 20 minutes since then."
Lily rolled her eyes, "He's probably off causing havoc amongst the Slytherins with Black as we speak."
"I'll go look for them. I need to stretch my legs anyway."
Clarissa stood from her seat and exited the compartment. Quickly deciding to turn in the direction James went, the brunette set off to find her troublesome boyfriend and his–for all intents and purposes–boyfriend. It wasn't hard if she was being honest, she just had to follow the sound of cussing and screaming, and snickering if she listened hard enough. With an exasperated sigh, she hesitantly walked towards the loud commotion which was where the Slytherins usually sat (no surprises there). Clarissa side-stepped when a crowd of Slytherins came her way, faces all scrunched up in annoyance but mostly because of the horrid smell that was coming from their compartment. The smell wafted towards her and she couldn't help but plug her nose so she wouldn't smell it.
Amongst the thinning crowd, Clarissa spotted the tiniest of a glimmer in an empty space of the corridor. She starred at the space with her arms crossed.
"Dung bombs, really?" She asked aloud.
After a moment or so, James and Sirius appeared from underneath the cloak with sheepish smiles. Her boyfriend was carrying a basket of food, along with bottles of pumpkin juice and gillywater while Sirius folded the cloak in his arms.
"You two will probably be the first to get detentions before arriving at Hogwarts," Clarissa told the two boys as they made their way back to their compartment.
Sirius playfully swung his arm around her, "That's the plan Clar!"
"If we're being honest, that was pretty tame compared to our other ones," James informed her, dropping a kiss on her forehead to appease the brunette.
The trio entered the compartment together, Sirius boasting about their prank while Lily berated him. James passed around the food he got for everyone as well as the drinks. The group shared stories and their excitement for the upcoming school year as they ate and before they knew it, the sun had set on them. The girls briefly kicked out the Marauders in order to change into their robes, Marlene rolling her eyes at Sirius' suggestive look towards them through the glass door. Lily used to Sirius' antics merely rolled her eyes and flicked her wand and muttered a spell that frosted the glass so they wouldn't be spied upon. As Clarissa donned her Ravenclaw uniform, she ran her fingers over the house crest, a smile forming on her face. In just a few hours she'll finally be able to fulfill her dream of going to Hogwarts, it's still unbelievable to her! Once the girls finished changing, they switched places with the boys who were much quicker, due to the fact that they just threw on their uniforms without properly putting them on (besides Remus of course), leaving their ties hung loosely around their necks and their shirts untucked.
Time seemed to speed up the closer they got to Hogwarts and before they knew it, they arrived at Hogsmeade station. Clarissa could hear Hagrid's voice calling out for the first years while she was swept away with the crowd. The only reason she didn't get separated was because of James' tight grip on her hand. He led her towards the thestral-drawn carriage that would take them to the school. Clarissa expected to see an empty space at the front of the carriage, but to her surprise, she could see them. Perhaps it was because she could see them in real life than in a film that made the thestrals all the creepier. As far as she knew, she's never seen anyone die, but maybe it's because she already knew what they looked like from her own world which is why she could see them now. Clarissa glanced at her companions who seemed to be completely oblivious to the animals, so she figured she could mention it to James some other time.
The carriage ride to Hogwarts was quiet with only soft murmurs from Sirius and Marlene, and the occasional question from Peter to James on what kinds of desserts he thinks will be at the feast. Clarissa took the time to observe the environment, from the trees and the stars to the massive wall that borders Hogwarts. She was especially curious as to what Hogsmeade looks like seeing as she didn't get a chance to go to the Universal Studios' location of the place. From around the bend, she could see the massive castle which made her gasp in wonder.
James glanced at her and grinned, "Amazing isn't it?"
Clarissa continued to stare at the castle in awe not even looking at James to answer his question but nodded.
"Absolutely magical."