𝓔𝓵𝔂𝓼𝓲𝓪𝓷
Chapter 1 - Rainy Train Rides
-𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽-
(Y/N) POV
The rain hit the window, creating a path of water down the windowpane. It had been like this all day and seemed to have no chance of stopping anytime soon. The hills roll by as the train chugs down the tracks making its way towards Hogwarts.
"(Y/N), are you even paying attention" Charlotte says, waving her hand in front of my face.
I blink quickly, startled out of my trance. I look back to the carriage where all my friends were sitting. Ivy and Milo are chatting together in the corner. Amber, Jack and Ruby are playing an overly competitive game of exploding snap.
"Yeah, sorry." I say sheepishly, smiling back at Charlotte.
"You were half way over that hill in your head," She says laughing slightly "there is no way that you heard any of what I have said in the past five minutes."
I shake my head slightly, looking down in embarrassment.
"I know, sorry," I say turning to face her properly. "I'm listening properly now, what were you saying?"
"I was trying to talk to you about who our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher might be this year since Lockhart disappeared last year." She says, miming air quotes around the word 'disappeared'.
Professor Lockhart had seemingly disappeared from the wizarding world after going down to the Chamber of Secrets last year. No one had heard anything from him but we were all assured that he was safe and had left on his own accord to pursue other career options. Not that any of us really believed that.
"Honestly anyone would be better then Lockhart." I say, laughing slightly.
Charlotte hums in agreement, nodding her head slightly.
Suddenly there is a large bang from next to us. We turn to look over at the rest of our friends, just to see a frazzled looking Jack and Ruby and Amber laughing hysterically at him. Clearly he had just lost their game. We both join in the laughter and eventually so does Jack.
Settling down slightly we hear a tap on the door of our carriage and we all look up to the door to see the trolley lady. Milo quickly opens the door and we all get up one by one and ask for what we want.
"Can I have a chocolate frog, two sugar quills and some sherbet lemons please." I say smiling at the trolley witch, handing over the right amount of coins and sitting back down, joining the others, joining their conversation.
"Did you hear about Sirius Black?" Ruby asked in a hushed tone, as if the escaped prisoner could hear her if she talked to loud.
"Yeah, my dad almost barricaded me in my room to stop me from going out, like Sirius Black is going to jump out of the bushes and attack me randomly." Amber said rolling her eyes slightly.
"Same, I made the mistake of mentioning it to my parents and they almost didn't let me go back to school. Especially because of what happened last year" Charlotte said sadly looking over to Jack who looked back over at her sympathetically.
Both of Charlottes and Jacks parents are muggles. Last year when there was so much uproar about the Chamber of Secrets being opened by "the heir of Slytherin" Mattheo Riddle. A lot of the muggleborn students being threatened and a few even being petrified, both their parents were very worried about her. It took a lot of convincing to even get them to let them both return after the Easter holidays.
"I made sure to hide my copies of The Daily Prophet that mentioned him from my parents so I wouldn't have to explain everything to them." Jack said, popping some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into his mouth, grimacing slightly at the taste.
I nod, thinking back to the summer. I remember when my mum got the news that he has escaped. She is an Auror at the ministry and since she received the news she had been working overtime and hadn't been getting home until the early hours of the morning.
Before we could discuss it any further the train suddenly jolts harshly and comes to a stop. The lights flicker slightly before turning off completely. The carriage became freezing cold, ice forming on the windows.
We look around at each other, confusion and fear prominent on all of our faces.
There was silence for a second and then another jolt to the train. Milo and Amber scramble to the windows to look outside to see what was happening.
"It looks like there are people coming aboard." Amber said, looking back at us worriedly.
"What?" Ivy said, looking scared and on edge. She grabs the nearest person to her, which happens to be Ruby, digging her nails into her arm lightly.
I move to look past Milo, leaning slightly on him as I try to see through the fog outside and gathering on the windows. I squinted, trying to see past our reflection in the windows, there was nothing I could see.
As we each tried harder to see out of the window the lights over our heads flashed back on and the train jolted forward once again, sending us tumbling sideways onto the cushioned seats.
"Ow" I mumble, attempting to stand back up and avoid standing on my friends in the process.
I move towards the doors of the carriage to see if I could figure out what had happened. I push the doors open, looking at either side of the corridor spotting two ginger haired, very tall boys already sticking their heads out of their compartment.
I recognize them from the year above me, I couldn't exactly remember their names but I knew they were Weasleys.
"Excuse me?" I say, trying to get their attention. "Do you know why we stopped?"
They both turn to look at me, with pretty much the exact same expression of confusion on their face.
"Dementors," the one on the right said.
"Really?" Charlotte says, almost scaring the life out of me as she pops her head out from our carriage behind me.
"Yeah, our friend Dean saw them as they got on," the one on the left said, smiling at us mischievously.
"Then there was this white light and they just left." the twin on the right continues his brothers sentence.
"Wow," Charlotte said, looking at me from the side "the ministry must be taking the Sirius Black issue more serious than I thought."
The twin on the left hums in agreement, nodding slightly.
I smile at them and thank them for their help before leaning back into our carriage and sitting down, filling the others in on our findings.
An hour or so passed and we finally arrived at the train station. We had all changed into our our robes, our ties differing in colour.
We walk towards the carriages that were there to take us up to the castle. Milo and Amber broke off from the group, heading towards some of their friends from their respective houses, Amber being a Gryffindor and Milo being a Slytherin.
Charlotte, Ivy and I get into a carriage but before Jack and Ruby can join they spot some friends from their house and decide to ride with them to catch up. We wave goodbye and say we will see them at breakfast tomorrow.
The carriage ride to the castle seemed short and thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we had gotten off of the train. We talked and joked all the way there, happy to be back.
Students filed into the great hall, loudly talking and greeting their friends who they hadn't seen on the train. We made our way to our house table and sat down together.
The sorting commenced shortly with the new first years looking small and scared as always, hoping to be put in the house of their dreams. Some happy some disappointed but none the less they will all find their place in their houses.
Before the feast could begin, Professor Dumbledore stood up, raising his hands to shush the tables of students.
"Welcome, Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts."
"Now I'd like to say a few words before we all become to befuddled by our excellent feast. First, I am pleased to welcome Professor R.J Lupin who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor." Dumbledore says, motioning towards said professor.
The professor in question looked slightly rugged, with some scars that seamed to cover a portion of his face. The students applauded and he stood up, bowed slightly and gave a warm smile to the students and teachers a like before sitting back down.
"Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher for many years, has decided to retire in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. Fortunately, I am delighted to announce that his place will be taken by none other than our own Rubeus Hagrid."
Another round of applause broke out around the hall, most prominently from the Gryffindor table. The half giant rose from his chair, unceremoniously knocking some of the goblets from the table. Charlotte and I applauded along with the rest of our house as we both liked Hagrid and were looking forward to having him as out teacher.
"Finally, on a more disquieting note. At the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban. Until such a time as Sirius Black is captured. The dementors will be stationed at every entrance of the grounds. Now whilst I have been ensured 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 that gets in their way. Therefore I must warn each and every one of you, give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving. But you know happiness can be found in even the darkest of times," He says, waving his hand extinguishing on of the candles that sits near him.
"One must remembers to turn on the light." He says, dramatically lighting the candle once more with a wave of his hand.
There are more whispers that ripple around the Great Hall. Dumbledore finishes up, waving his hands as the food appears on the tables.
We ate happily, Charlotte and Ivy arguing about quidditch. Ivy says it's a waste of time, Charlotte is trying not to leap over the table and strangle her. I laugh at their antics but ultimately agree with Charlotte, more out of fear of being hexed by her if I didn't.
After dinner we made our way to our common room in the Ravenclaw tower. The bronze eagle knocker on the door sensing us there, asks the riddle for us to get in.
"What can break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?" The monotone voice of the eagle recites to us.
I think for a second before answering
"A promise." I say finally.
"Correct." The eagle says before the door opens.
We step into the circular room of our common room. All the candles are lit and the curtains are drawn across the large windows that line the tower. The tables and chairs are all covered in blue fabric, the carpet and ceiling covered in stars and the large marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw looming over everything.
It's pretty late at this point so me and Charlotte decide to head up to the dorms. Ivy decides to stay down in the common room for a while to catch up with some of her other friends. I wave at her quickly before following Charlotte up the stairs to our dorm.
Charlotte pushes open the heavy wooden door and quickly collapses onto her four poster bed.
"I could just fall asleep now." She says, her words slightly muffled by the mattress she had buried her head into.
I laugh slightly, shaking my head and making my way over to my own bed.
"Charlotte you have to unpack your trunk." I say opening my own trunk that had been placed at the end of my bed.
"I'll do it tomorrow." She whines, turning over to stare up at the ceiling.
"No you won't." I say looking over to her "You'll say you will and then you won't do it until next month when you can't find something to wear on the weekends."
"How dare you." She says, jokingly glaring at me, but she moves to start unpacking anyway.
Once we finish unpacking our clothes, school books and other supplies we needed for tomorrow, we got into our pajamas and got into bed. The thing I loved about the beds at Hogwarts is that they are always warm in the later months of the year. It's so nice and just makes me want to stay their forever.
I mumble a 'goodnight' to Charlotte as my eyes droop and I drift off into a comfortable sleep.
𝒜𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓈 𝒩𝑜𝓉𝑒
Honestly this is was longer than I thought it would be but I hope you like it :)