[CHAPTER ONE]
Aboard the Hogwarts express
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"YOU'LL OWL ME?"
Margaret Poole asked her daughter Emily as they stood on Platform 9¾, the steam from the waiting Hogwarts Express billowing around them.
"Yes, god Mum-" she was cut off when her mother squeezed her into a tight hug.
"I'll miss you loads, darling," she said, and Emily had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.
"I'll miss you too Mum," she said, keeping the exasperation from her voice.
She turned to her father, a tall, slim, man who smiled at her through a pair of spectacles. Although she got her long dark locks and face from her mother, she had inherited her father's light brown eyes and humorous, laid-back character.
"Don't do anything stupid poppet," he said, and Emily smiled.
"I can't guarantee not sending you a toilet seat maybe, but...." she trailed off, before giving her father a hug as he chuckled. The train whistled with urgency and Emily saw that the big iron plated clock hanging off indicated that it was 5 to 11.
To their side, Mrs. Poole seemed to have noticed as well and checked her watch nervously.
"You should get on the train, or you'll miss it," she said, and kissed her daughter on more time, "We'd love to see you off, sweets, but we really should be going, Daniel, we have a lunch with the Figglers at 12, and I still have to buy some things at Diagon Alley-"
"Alright, Alright we'll go darling," he said, nodding to his daughter, "See you at Christmas, plumpy," he said with a wink, before extending his arm to his wife. She took it, and with a last smile the Pooles disappeared with a faint crack.
Emily sighed as she dragged her trunk behind her and walked towards the train, stepping up the small set of metal steps and into the corridor with the glass compartment doors.
It was now 2 to 11, which meant most people were already sitting in their various compartments, and she passed few people on the way to the storage room. The storage rooms looked tiny from the outside but had been adjusted with undetectable extension charms, the crest of each house emblazoned upon the door.
The door of the Gryffindor room stood slightly ajar, and Emily could the vague outline of a couple kissing. It was only after opening the door and causing the two teenagers to fly apart that Emily recognized Ginny Weasley's fiery red hair.
"Em..Emily!" Dean Thomas stammered as the brunette smirked at the pair.
"Hello you two," she said, and Ginny rolled her eyes, "Enjoying ourselves?"
"Funny," said Ginny, crossing her arms, and Emily snickered.
"You ought to be careful, I could've sworn I saw Ron coming this way a minute ago," she said innocently, and Dean paled considerably.
"Nice summer?" she asked him casually, as she went to put her trunk down.
"Yeah...Quite nice," Dean replied, and Ginny caught Emily's eye, looking unimpressed, making Emily smile,
"I..uh- I'll see you later Gin, gotta sort some things out," Dean stammered, before hastily stepping out of the room and speed-walking down the corridor.
"What'd you do that for?" Ginny asked, arms crossed over her Holyhead Harpies sweater.
"Don't know what you mean," Emily smirked, and Ginny gave her a playful shove.
"You know he's terrified of my brothers already," she chided, and Emily laughed.
"He should be, you've got 6," she said, and they both laughed as they stepped into the corridor.
"Nice summer?" Ginny asked Emily, and she grimaced.
"Pretty dreadful actually," she muttered, "But thanks for your letters and the candy,"
Ginny smiled. She was quite beautiful, Emily thought.
"Reckon you needed a little something else than what they'd give in St. Mungo's. Dad said the food was dreadful when he was there," she said, and Emily nodded.
"You're a good friend," she smiled, giving her a hug.
"Well, I'd better go and find Dean before he pitches himself off the train," Ginny said, before saying goodbye and taking off.
Emily made her way down the corridor, peering into the compartments in an effort to find an empty one.
She knew most of her friends were sitting in the last carriage of the train, where there were no compartments and it was usually very noisy, but Emily had no desire to sit for 5 hours in a stuffy train carriage usually crowded with rowdy 4-5th years.
Finally, she stumbled across a compartment with only two people in it. She slid the door open, smiling at the round-faced boy and blonde girl.
"Do you mind terribly if I sit? Most other compartments are full," she said, and Neville Longbottom smiled at her.
"Course," he said, and she hoisted her backpack above her head onto the rack as the train started to move out of the station. She noticed there was a third backpack there as well, but had no time to read the initials on the front before the door slid open again.
"Em?" asked the stunned voice of Harry Potter, and Emily winced as she turned to face him.
"Uh.....Hi," she said, and he frowned.
"I thought you ought to still be at St. Mungo's?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"All better," she said feebly, "Surprise...."
When she saw the concern in his eyes, she let out a sigh.
"Harry," she said, "I'm fine, honest, don't worry so much,"
Harry looked down at his feet.
"How could you tell me not to worry?" he asked quietly, "If you hadn't taken that spell..."
Last year, Emily had stood alongside him when he formed Dumbledore's Army, and had joined him in the Department of Mysteries for the battle against the Death Eaters of You-Know-Who. Ultimately, she had taken a curse that would otherwise have hit Harry, a curse she spent the entirety of her summer recovering from at St. Mungo's.
"That was my choice," she said sternly, and he looked up at her, "It's not your business to worry about,"
He nodded carefully, and Luna interrupted the conversation, her voice a usual, dreamy tone.
"What did you score in your O.W.L's, Emily?" she asked, and Emily grimaced.
"Only O was in Potions and Defence against the Dark arts, I'm afraid," she said, "The rest were E's,"
"Still," Harry said mournfully, "You got the required marks in potions to be an Auror,"
They sat down opposite each other as the train rode out of London.
"How was your summer?" Emily asked Harry, and he shook his head.
"Quite uneventful," he noted, "Spent the last week at the Burrow,"
"Sounds better than mine," she sighed, "My mother was hovering over me in and out of St. Mungo's,"
"I can't blame her," said Neville with a scoff, "You had almost bled out when the Order showed up, you could've easily died-"
"Yes but I didn't," she snapped, and a stunned silence fell over the compartment.
"Sorry," she apologized, feeling bad for losing her temper with Neville, "I'm just sick of hearing it,"
No one said anything, but thankfully the silence was interrupted by the compartment door sliding open.
"Where have you been?" asked the voice of Kate Garner, Emily's best friend, as she stepped into the compartment. Kate was a short girl, with curls of strawberry blonde hair billowing past her shoulder, "I've been looking for you everywhere,"
It was only then that Kate seemed to notice the other people in the compartment, and her green eyes slid over the faces of the three others' faces.
"Oh, hiya Harry, Neville, Loo- er...Luna," she said, correcting herself hastily.
"Hey Kate," Harry greeted her, and Neville just nodded uncomfortably at her.
In their 4th year, Neville had had a rather obsessive crush on Kate and had been severely hurt when she had attended the Yule Ball with Cormac McLaggen instead of with him.
"Kate, what are you wearing?" Emily asked with a frown, and her friend let out an exasperated sigh.
"Muggles don't wear robes, Emily," she tutted, before looking at her expectantly, "Well, are you coming or not? Vi says she wants to talk to the pair of us,"
"Right," she said with a smile, before grabbing her pack from the top, "I'll see you later, Harry?" she asked him, and he was startled for a second.
"Uh...yeah course," he stuttered out, noticing his cheeks tinged slightly red.
"Honestly," huffed Kate, as they stepped out of the compartment and out of earshot, "If you like him so much, you should just ask him-"
"Shush!" Emily said sharply, sounding more defensive than she'd like.
Kate raised her eyes to the sky, exasperated, as they made their way down the train corridor. They stopped in front of another compartment, where Emily spotted her other best friend, Violetta Rosier, sitting on the padded seats inside, waving her wand carelessly and making little purple flower petals materialize from thin air. The compartment floor was littered with them.
"Violets, how poetic," Kate snorted under her breath, before banging on the glass door.
"Stop that," she ordered, "Do you know how difficult it is to wash pollen out of clothes?"
Violetta rolled her eyes and put her wand away.
"Happy?" she asked, her voice muffled. Kate slid the door open and the two girls stepped inside.
Violetta was a beautiful girl, with skin the color of hot chocolate and brown hair to her shoulders. In contrast with her dark skin, her eyes were a vibrant, greenish blue, which made her appear almost otherworldly
"Hey Em," she muttered, and Emily smiled.
"Bad summer, then?" she asked Violetta, and she grunted.
"Parents have practically moved to the Canary Islands because Death Eaters keep showing up at our door. Mum almost refused to let me and Annabelle return to school,"
Emily frowned.
"Why would they be showing up at your door? You're pureblood," she said, as she sat down next to her, opening her knapsack.
"They're not happy about my parents refusing to get involved, so they're trying to recruit my brother and I, maybe even Annabelle," she said darkly, and Kate shook her head in a dismayed fashion.
"She's only 14," Emily said, shocked, before leaning back into the seat with a sigh, "It's getting worse,"
"You should see the way they talk about Muggleborns," Violetta said, "They spent half of summer trying to convince me that they were 'unworthy' of magic, it was complete bollocks,"
"Lots of people think like that," Kate said, acting nonplussed, as her eyes looked up at them from her magazine.
"Well I don't," Violetta said fiercely, "You of all people should know that,"
"And I'm grateful," Kate said, "Just don't go getting into trouble for it,"
"Since when are you worried about that? You've always said you don't care about being muggle-born," Emily noted.
"I don't, and I'm definitely not ashamed of it," Kate said, "But I care about you guys more than my pride,"
"Woah, genuine affection," Emily said, acting shocked, and Kate narrowed her eyes at her.
"Ha ha, very funny," she muttered, "Just don't go forgetting you still owe me money for those new shoes you spilled onion soup on last year," she wagged her finger at Emily, and Violetta laughed.
"I'd forgotten about that fiasco in the great hall," she said, and Emily turned pink.
"That was an accident, and no, it'd be hard to forget since you've reminded me in every single letter you posted to me this summer," Emily said, and Kate smirked as she pulled out something from her purse.
"Speaking of posting, look at what Violetta sent me over the summer,"
She held in her hand an envelope covered in what appeared to be an entire 90p package of postage stamps.
"I didn't know if 3 were enough," Violetta admitted sheepishly, "But in the end, I think I did it right," she said, as Emily roared with laughter.
"You think?" she said between hiccups of laughter, and Violetta rolled her eyes.
"Oh, it's not that funny," Violetta said, as Emily came back from her fit.
"You should've seen her when we were in London for the day," Kate muttered, "She stepped into at least 3 fireplaces,"
Apparently, to Emily, the thought of the shocked faces of Muggles as a robe-clad teenager stepped into their fireplaces was too much to bear because she exploded into another fit of laughter.
"Anything from the trolley?" came a voice from the door, and Violetta looked relieved for a change of topic.
"We'll have the lot,"