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As Elspeth anticipated, within fifteen minutes of the train ride to Hogwarts, the two girls had fallen asleep. They were leaning against each other sound asleep as the Hogwarts Express carried on through the landscape. While they had gotten in trouble and they were suffering from the lack of sleep earlier, the party had been worth it. Elspeth loved the 70's atmosphere, she would be the first to admit if it anyone asked. Comparable to the previous decades, things were changing as her mother called it, the second wave of feminism was coming in. Not so much for the Wizarding World, but the muggle world around them was changing too.
The music was changing and the wizarding world seemed to be coinciding with the muggle world, sharing in some of the cultural trends. Although to some families, mainly the old fashion purebloods, it was a terrible thing. They wanted magic folk to steer clear of muggle culture but it was impossible. Muggle-born students were sharing things with their friends during school, it was how Elspeth had first learned of The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. Many of the wizarding bands took inspiration from the muggle music and it was like an invasion of change. Some were ready for it and others not so much.
Elspeth and Penelope were among those that embraced it, trying on bell bottoms for the first time and laughing about how they flared out at the bottom. They would listen to the music at Penelope's house as Elspeth's parents weren't exactly fond of the music but she was free to listen to it when they weren't around. She could tell that her parents were worried about her and her take to her little rebellious acts as of late. They were a bit more on the stern side when it came to things and they were hoping that Elspeth would start to take matters seriously as she grew older.
She was fifteen and as she had told her father earlier, it was a crucial year with her O.W.Ls. It would determine whether or not she would be able to take the N.E.W.T level classes. They were crucial to her continuing on as an Auror. Of course, no one had ever asked her if she wanted to become an Auror, it was just expected of her to follow in her parents' footsteps because it was the way of the Hayes family. Fortunately, it was something that Elspeth took interest in and she liked the idea of becoming an Auror but not just any Auror, she wanted to be a Hit Witch.
It was still being an Auror but they were highly trained and highly skilled to go after the most dangerous criminals. Elspeth wanted to be signed up for that thrill ride, but she had yet to inform her parents about that tiny tidbit of information. It was probably for the best, it would be quite the surprise for them.
From an early age, Caelan and Sorcha had taken to make sure their daughter was well-rounded in her education, taking to starting magical lessons when she was only around five years old. Of course, she didn't have a wand to perform anything but she was able to sit down with her parents' old textbooks and learning about respecting the laws and ways of magic. But then she learned that some of the laws didn't apply to her family. For generations, the Hayes family had figured out a way to outsmart the Ministry with being able to be untraceable. She didn't understand it right away, she just assumed that it meant that they were really good at not attracting attention to themselves.
But as Elspeth made friends and ventured to their homes, she learned that there was something different between their homes, regardless if they were muggles or not. There were no photographs in their home, there were family portraits and such, but no photographs. She was only seven when she made the connection and asked her mother about it.
"We don't photograph well," her mother told her with a small smile, offering no more of an explanation. When she brought it up to Penelope later on, the girl brought up the idea of Elspeth's family being vampires but that wasn't true. Turns out it was all part of the Hayes family line, they were untraceable, photographic evidence included. Elspeth would learn all the secrets of her family when it was her time to join them in the ranks of the family business.
While the two girls were napping peacefully, an "unknown" idiot thought it would be a brilliant to take advantage of the situation and prank them. Penelope had just adjusted herself to use Elspeth's shoulder as a pillow, which caused Elspeth to stir slightly. Her eyes fluttered open but only for a couple of seconds. But it was enough to catch sight of another pair of eyes looking back at her. She screeched and instinctively kicked her leg out, kicking the boy in the face.
Penelope woke up with a scream of her own as she heard someone else cry out in pain. She thought it was Elspeth but as she sat up, she could see James Potter on the floor, his hands over his face. There was the sight of blood trickling down and seeping through his fingers and there was glass on the floor of the compartment.
"What the hell happened?" Sirius arrived at the compartment door, with a mortified look on his face as he noticed James on the ground. He looked to Elspeth, who still had her foot in the air, ready to strike again. "What did you do?"
"Me?" Elspeth glared at him. "What the hell was he doing in our compartment?! Being some sort of pervert while we were sleeping?"
"Oh, don't flatter yourselves!" James cried out, his voice slightly muffled from his hands. "I was planting stink pellets under your seat."
"I don't regret kicking you in the face now, but I do regret not kicking you twice."
Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew arrived shortly after, looking in at the scene. "James, what did you do?" Remus asked him immediately. James turned to him with a bewildered expression.
"You're asking that?! I'm the one with the bloody face!"
"Serves you right!" Elspeth told him, "sneaking in here while we're trying to sleep."
"Were you two..cuddled together?" Sirius asked with a smile. It was Penelope's turn to roll her eyes and kick the boys out of the compartment. They all seemed to put up some sort of protest and resistance until Penelope had pushed them out fully.
"And stay out! The lot of you!" She slammed the compartment door closed before turning back to Elspeth, only to see the girl with a smile on her face. "A bunch of idiots...why are you smiling?"
"Sorry," Elspeth said shaking her head and removing the smile from her lips. "Flashbacks to the party last night...snogging...envisioning a certain someone-"
"Will you get your hormones in check," Penelope told her. "Besides I don't think you scored any points to get yourself closer to snogging him, after all, you just kicked his best friend in the face. Would you kiss a boy who kicked me in the face?"
"Before or after you attempted to plant stink pell-"
"Elspeth!"
"Joking, only joking!"
Although Penelope didn't seem very convinced, shaking her head at the girl with a roll of her eyes. She could still see the slight hint of a smile tugging at the corner of Elspeth's mouth, probably going back to her daydream. Like a good majority of the female population at the castle, Elspeth had fallen into the trap of swooning over one of the four boys at some point. But Penelope couldn't condemn her friend for it at all, in fact, it was one of the things that Penelope was slightly envious of, knowing that Elspeth had that sort of confidence. She could easily kiss a boy if she felt like it while Penelope usually took to squealing and running off to show her affections.
However as Elspeth opened her mouth, it seemed the girl's thoughts had not gone back to envisioning her snogging one of the boys, she had different matters to concern herself over.
"I wonder if the Trolley Lady has come by yet?"
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Arriving at the Hogsmeade Station during the night, lanterns were lit, only they were barely of any use as the rain had fallen over the land. Heavy drops fell, already causing large puddles as the students climbed out of the train dressed in their robes. Within a matter of seconds, Elspeth was soaked, believing she looked like a drowning rat. Her hair clung to the sides of her face, her glasses were covered and she could hardly see a thing. She pulled her wand from her sleeve as Penelope stepped out.
"Paraplulous!" Elspeth called the incantation out that her mother had shown her. She watched with a bright smile as a bluish light emitted from her wand, taking to create a semi-transparent brolly. Penelope quickly ducked under it, already wet herself from the rainstorm.
"Once Hogwarts is over, I'm moving somewhere where it doesn't rain," Penelope shuddered. "I hate the rain!"
"I heard Algeria is quite dry," Elspeth told her as the girls made their way over to the horseless-drawn carriages. "Although you would probably burn to a crisp out there. You burn easily, so where there is little cloud coverage, you're going to be in big trouble."
"I don't care, I just don't want to deal with rain. It feels like it's been raining since I was born. That's fifteen years of rain, El!"
"Eh, I'm not complaining, it's a free drink for me," She pulled their shield from the rain to stick her tongue out and catch the drops of rain in her mouth. "It's like the Gods are hitting on me, you know, buying me all sorts of drinks."
"I hate you," Penelope said before pushing the girl's wand back up to block out the rain. "Let's just get into the carriage before one of the Gods takes you away for a late night rendezvous."
"As long as they pay for dinner first-"
"El!"
They climbed into a carriage where some older students were already seated and tucked themselves into a corner to get out of the rain. The carriage ride was bumpy on the way up to the castle from rain creating new holes along the dirt path. Elspeth slipped her wand back up her sleeve to avoid poking herself in the eye with it as she looked out the window of the carriage. She smiled to herself, glad to be back at the castle where she always enjoyed herself. Not to say that she didn't enjoy herself while she was at home, but her parents were quieter people and she always felt like she had to tone herself down quite a bit or she would get into trouble.
Not that she didn't find herself in trouble when she was at the castle, but that was normally due to showing up to her classes late because she decided to sleep in. McGonagall always gave her a hard time for it, telling her that she couldn't expect to hold any job if she continued to show up late. But even though she showed up late to class, even McGonagall couldn't deny that the girl was a decent student when it came to her academics. She could get the work done, even if she did neglect to do things until the last minute.
Penelope always laughed at the idea that the Sorting Hat had considered Elspeth for Hufflepuff in the beginning. Of course, she was loyal but when it came to hardworking, Elspeth always wanted to find the easiest way out. Unfortunately, it led the girls to be sorted into different houses. Elspeth being sorted into the house where the rest of her family had been sorted into for decades.
She was a walking oxymoron, a rebelling conformist.