Ft. Hogwarts Carriages
Lily's POV
The next morning the teens, under the noses of the adults, held a meeting in my favourite room; the Black Family-Tree. I stood leaning against the tapestry, my hand over the blackened face of Sirius. He had told us he didn't mind the fact his face was blacked out, he made his decision to run away from home to the Potter's. Mrs Weasley was busy in the kitchen preparing meals for the large household, Sirius and Mr Weasley were either in the Study or out doing a job for the Order.
Ginny entered the room, signalling everything was all clear for the meeting to start. "Lily, may I start by saying, you're scary when you want something," George noted.
Harry chuckled, glancing at me. "No kidding. But where did all that come from? That was amazing what you said last night."
I shrugged, not really thinking it was a big deal. "I'm sick of them treating us like we're kids. Did we not escape the Dark Lord, then tell everyone of his return and all we get in thanks is not being told what the person who's trying to kill us is up to?"
They all had looks on their faces that said 'good point'. "Well, what they told us last night didn't really tell us much we didn't know already," Em said.
I nodded in agreement. "Apart from this weapon."
"Yeah, what do you think it is?" Ron asked, turning to Hermione.
She stared at the ground, a hard look of thinking on her face, before sighing. "I honestly have no clue. It sounds like it might be more powerful than the Killing Curse and there isn't much worse than that, apart from the Dementor's Kiss maybe."
"But that's too easy." Harry shut her down. "Voldemort already had the Dementors on his side last time, which doesn't add much comfort when it comes to the security of criminals in Azkaban."
A few people shivered. "No, I agree, has to be something else. Do you suppose Dumbledore's guarding it?" Fred suggested.
"Guard?" Harry and I glanced at each other. "We've heard a few snippets of them talking about guard duty, suppose they do know where it is."
There was a silence consisting of deep thought. "So." Harry cleared his throat. "How were everyone's holidays?"
I tried not to roll my eyes. We go from talking about the fate of our world to personal issues? "Great." The twins grin. "We've been experimenting with Doxy venom for our Skiving Snackboxes."
"What are Skiving Snackboxes?" Em asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Different sweets that will make you ill, not serious or anything, but gets you out of class whenever you want." George grinned, causing her to shake her head. I've noticed them sharing smiles ever since the Weasley's arrived and wondered desperately how their situation was going.
"Don't say anything to mom though." Fred warned. "We put in an ad at the Daily Prophet last week for premises since mom doesn't read it anymore because of all the lies about you two and Dumbledore. Thanks, by the way, we couldn't have done any of this without you two."
"Yeah." George smirked. "Thanks for casually handing us two thousand galleons of prize money."
Harry shrugged. "Not like we needed those winnings anyway."
Suddenly the door opened again, cutting all conversation short, a filthy old head poking in. "Kreacher." I greeted.
He shuffled in, leaving the door open. "Mistress Potter. Kreacher is wondering if mistress be wanting some tea and biscuits."
I raised an eyebrow. "What about for all my friends?"
The ancient, hunched House-Elf eyed the group suspiciously, muttering not very subtly, "Mudbloods and blood traitors for friends. How my mistress will shriek at my keeping company with the unnatural sort."
I cleared my throat, noticing Ron and Ginny ready to explode on the rude house-elf, Hermione giving him a sympathetic look. Oh no, she hasn't moved on from S.P.E.W has she? "Kreacher, insulting of said friends will not result in my telling you where your mistress is."
He tried to give off a surprised expression but failed miserably. Clearly, he didn't attend the acting school for horrible house-elves. "Mistress Potter is my mistress, no one else, especially not Mistress Black."
"Tea and biscuits won't be necessary, thank you for the offer. Now run along." Hermione looked like she was about to protest, but I silenced her with a look and watched Kreacher shuffle back out of the room.
"Don't treat him like that!" She snapped, causing everyone to groan. I almost laughed, almost.
"He's a house-elf Hermione, sworn to serve the Ancient and Noble House of Black."
"So why does he call you his mistress and not Emmaline?"
I smirked. "Because I'm the one that hid the portrait."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Emmaline's POV
Hesitantly, I knocked on the door of the Study, interrupting whatever my father was doing in here. When there was a faint 'come in', I pushed open the door to find him standing in front of the empty fireplace, staring at a photograph on the mantlepiece.
"Emmaline, come in, I'd like to show you something."
I walked up beside him, looking at the picture, it was of a younger Sirius and my mom, holding a giggling baby. The pair looked so happy, staring at each other then at me in their arms, before James and Lily Potter entered the frame, giving them hugs and looking down at me. Someone outside of the frame must have been holding the twins because they were born before I was.
"This is the last photo your mother and I took together...it was the happiest time of my life having you Em."
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me comfortably into his side, me winding my arms round his waist. Tears were silently falling over both our cheeks and we ebbed into silence. "You know, mom kept a photo of you and her, it must have been when you guys graduated because you're both in school uniform and there are witches hats everywhere."
He grinned, the memory forming in his head. "Oh yes, that's the farewell feast of our seventh year, did you ever see me lean in to talk to her? That was me asking her to marry me."
I whipped my head round to see him watching me with glassy eyes. "No wonder she never told me about it, she'd just burst into tears. She loved you so much, dad."
He smiled sadly. "And I loved her. There never was anyone else for me, the minute I laid eyes on her the first day of school, sitting beside James on the train, I knew I'd never need anyone else. Regardless, I treated her horribly for the next five years, wasn't until I got my head out of my butt that I realised I might lose her."
"Did other boys like mom?"
He threw his head back laughing. "Of course they bloody did, your mother was something else. She had a fiery, loyal and good-humoured personality, but she was also very beautiful, much like you. I had to fight off Frank Longbottom, Conan McLaggen, even at one point Peter Pettigrew and I always thought she and Remus were secretly eyeing each other off, how wrong I was, turns out I was the only one for her."
"So she said yes then?"
"Mmh?"
"When you asked her to marry you? She didn't embarrass you in front of the entire school?"
He laughed and it filled up the room. "Oh she said yes alright. How do you think you're here?"
"No, stop! That's enough!" This only caused him to laugh again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily's POV
Sirius walked us to Kings Cross station and through the barrier to the bustling platform of 9 and 3/4. We left our trunks with the guard and turned towards him. "Now, before you go, I wanted you two to have this." He handed me an old, faded picture. "The original Order of the Phoenix. Frank and Alice Longbottom" he pointed to a smiling couple.
"Neville's parents." Emmaline summed.
"They suffered a fate worse than death if you ask me. It's been 14 years. And still a day doesn't go by, I don't miss your parents." Harry and I looked closely at the picture of our parents, our father hugging mom, Sirius standing beside him.
"Do you really think there's going to be a war, Sirius?" I asked, looking up at him with pure desperation.
"It feels like it did before." He nodded. "I suppose you're the young ones now."
We both smiled at him and he hugged us but stopped us once again from boarding the train. "You take care now Lily, don't get into too much trouble." He winked at me before kissing me on the forehead.
I shook my head, turning towards Remus to give him a farewell hug and Tonks appeared embracing me too. "It was nice to meet you all."
We waved goodbye and finally managed to get on the train. Hermione and Ron had found us our usual compartment empty and we all clambered in. Harry let me curl up on the seat, my head in his lap so I could sleep. He soon fell asleep too, but woke with a jolt, making me wake. I groaned before sitting up, causing the other three to giggle.
"So, who do you think the new DADA professor is?" Harry inquired.
Mione shrugged. "It's lucky Dumbledore's found one at all, with everything that's going on."
The train ride didn't last for very long after that and I stepped out onto the platform, Fred instantly by my side, causing me to stumble in surprise.
"How was your trip?" He asked smugly.
I threw him a glare. "Good."
"Stay away from her! You just stay away from her!" We looked ahead to see Harry being held back by Ron, to stop him from attacking Draco.
Said asshole had an amused look on his face, but it vanished when his eyes drifted up to meet mine. Something shined on the breast pocket of his robes; a Prefect badge, I almost smiled and wanted to run over and hug him in congratulations, but no. Everything on the platform seemed to stop, the other fours heads twisting round to look at me. The Slytherins I once called my friends; Blaise, Amelia, Crabbe and Goyle gave me woeful smiles, Prefect Pansy Parkinson only smirked triumphantly, which Draco saw and he turned away, the others following.
The platform itself seemed to let out a breath. The others waited for us to catch up and we walked off the platform, coming to stand in front of the carriages that would take us to the castle. Cho Chang, Harry's crush sat in the one in front as it left. She gave a small wave to Harry, as he stared after her with a smile.
I felt something brush the back of my neck and turned around to see a black looking horse, though it also resembled a dragon, hooked up to a carriage. It had cloudy grey eyes, bones sticking out from its scrawny body. Harry turned too and we carefully stepped around the creature. "What is it?"
The others followed our gazes. "What is what?"
"That thing pulling the carriage." Harry gestured in front of him.
Hermione looked at us as we carefully moved away from the creature. It also had wings, I noticed, neatly tucked into its body. "Nothing's pulling the carriage, Harry. It's pulling itself like always."
Harry and I looked from the creature to each other and back again, thinking we must be crazy.
"You're not going mad." Came a quiet voice, that somehow made us jump. A platinum blonde haired girl, with feathers and beads braided into it that brought out silvery blue-grey eyes, sat waiting patiently in the carriage. She painfully reminded me of Draco. "I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am."
I blinked, glancing at Harry again, this girl didn't seem very sane. Nonetheless, we all clambered onto the carriage, me slightly squished between Harry and Fred, Emmaline practically sitting on George's lap and Ron, Hermione and Lee Jordan sat either side of the mysterious girl. "Everyone, this is Luna Lovegood."
Luna blinked round at us all with curious eyes, stopping on me and I had to look away. "What an interesting necklace." Hermione commented, gritting her teeth.
"It's a charm actually, keeps away the Nargles." She leant towards me.
She seemed a dreamy sort of girl and let me tell you it was a long awkward ride to the castle, full of wacky facts about things we'd never heard about. Not bothering to change, I left my trunk in the Entrance Hall and walked into the Great Hall in high-heeled lace-up black boots, a tight denim skirt and a white tank top, which earned a few stares from the male population. The others were already seated and I parked myself between Ron and Emma.
Harry leaned over the table and hissed at me, "Lily, where are your robes?!"
"I didn't bother putting them on." I shrugged, looking into his shocked green eyes.
"Sirius told you not to get into any trouble and the same night your causing havoc."
I rolled my eyes. "Please, I'm out of uniform, so what? The world isn't going to end."
Looking over to our right, I noticed the huge gap Seamus left sitting as far away from Harry and I as possible. I rolled my eyes and tried to tune out Dumbledore, but that was proven extremely difficult. "Good evening, children. Now, we have two changes in staffing this year, Professor Grubbly-Plank will be taking Care of Magical Creatures, while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave. We also wish to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. And I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing the new professor good luck." No one clapped. "Now, as usual, our caretaker, Mr Filch has asked me to remind you–"
There was an irritatingly high-pitched 'ahem', cutting Dumbledore off and he turned as the new DADA professor rose to walk around the staff table. She was short, had a head of mousey brown hair and resembled a large toad. To make all that worse, she was covered head to toe in bright pink. "Thank you, headmaster, for those kind words of welcome and how lovely to see all your bright happy faces smiling up at me." I sure wasn't smiling. "I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends."
"That's likely." Fred, George and I muttered in unison, they were sitting on the other side of Em and they both turned and winked at me, in perfect unison of course, while the Toad flared her pig-like nostrils down at us.
"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be prohibited." She gave a little giggle, which was already getting on my nerves.
"What does it mean?" Emma turned round to face us.
Hermione sighed, gaining all of our attention. "It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Fred and George walked either side of Em and I into the common room, Harry strolling along behind us, as Hermione and Ron were off doing their new Prefect duties. The second we stepped in all chatter died down and fearful, accusing glances were sent our way. Slowly walking passed Seamus, the Daily Prophet in his hands read a new headline. 'Potters, Plotters?'
I rolled my eyes, Em taking my arm in hers and stepped up onto the stairs, the twins right behind us, but stopped as Harry spoke. "Dean, Seamus good holiday?"
Dean nodded, glancing at me for a split second, before looking back at Harry. "Alright, better than Seamus', anyway."
Seamus slammed the newspaper down on the coffee table and stood up walking towards Harry. I turned around, putting a hand on Fred's shoulder, trying to look over their heads to see. "Me mum didn't want me to come back this year."
"Why not?" Harry asked the million-dollar question.
"Ah, let me see, because of you two." The Irish boy accused, glancing up at me, the same time Dean did. "The Daily Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you two, and Dumbledore as well."
"What? Your mum believes them?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Nobody was there the night Cedric died."
"Well, then I guess you should read the Prophet then, like your stupid mother."
"Harry!" I corrected his rudeness.
"Don't you dare talk about my mother like that." Seamus advanced on him.
"I'll have a go at anyone who calls my sister and I liars."
"What's going on?" Ron asked walking through the portrait door.
"He's mad, is what's going on." He jabbed a finger at Harry. Fred and George stepped up onto the stairs, trying to get us away from the scene, but neither Em or I were moving. "Do you believe the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who."
"Voldemort." I emphasised, earning a glare from Seamus.
"Yeah, I do." Ron nodded, glancing around at everyone. "Has anyone else got a problem with Harry?"
No one met his gaze, all occupying themselves with something else to do. Harry and Ron barged passed us and turned left, going up to the boy dormitory. I glared out at everyone who watched on, they quickly turned back. I went up to my room and sat on my bed, the same one pressed up against the window, a floor up from last year. Parvati and Padma glared at me and walked out. Laying down, I rolled over to face the window, looking out at the thousands of twinkling stars and falling into a dreamless sleep. It doesn't feel like home anymore.
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