"Wake up Belle!" My cousin Nymphadora Tonks said shaking my shoulders.
"No, go away and let me sleep, dammit!" I grumbled as I tried to go to sleep again.
"No! You know the train leaves at eleven, and by the way it's ten o'clock." She said quite casually. My eyes shot open and I quickly checked the time on the wall clock. Apparently she was correct. I sprinted downstairs still in my pajamas in a bit of a panic. Surprisingly not tripping or falling. I skidded into the kitchen and my eyes fell on the oven clock stating it was eight o'clock, and I wasn't late after all.
"NYMPHADORA TONKS! I WILL KILL YOU!" I yelled as I stormed over to the dining table and sat down, no chance of me going back to sleep now. A chuckle made me look up towards the doorway where my Aunt and Uncle were standing, still in their nightclothes too.
"Why're you killing my daughter this time?" Aunt Meda asked me, heading over to the pantry.
"She woke me up and told me it was ten?" It came out more of a question than a statement. Uncle Ted laughed as he sat down at the table opposite me.
A faint pop announced my mischievous cousin's arrival. With a grin on her face she pulled out a chair next to me and sat down.
"Mornin'!" She drawled.
"Dora, you know better than to mess with your cousin." Uncle Ted scolded her in a lighthearted matter.
"Why not? It's no longer her birthday." She muttered under her breath as she picked up the Daily Prophet.
Aunt Meda stepped away from the pantry and flicked her wand and four bowls of leftover cake and ice cream glided through the air and settled on the table, quickly followed by a set of spoons.
It was nine o'clock by the time we'd finished breakfast, what can I say, my family are suckers for junk food. Aunt Meda was the first to leave the room, however she returned shortly carrying a silver carry cage in one hand, and a paper bag in the other.
No way! They had not bought me a kitten, had they?
"Happy belated birthday!" She said as she set the cage and paper bag on the floor, unlatching the cage door and handing me the tiny kitten. It was mostly black with white paws and another white patch around her nose, she stared up at me with the most beautiful blue eyes. "She's unnamed as of yet!" Aunt Meda said.
I looked back at the kitten, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. That's it, that's her name!
"Hello Lucky." I whispered to her.
"Thank you, so much guys!" I said happily as I gently put Lucky back into her carry cage.
"You better go get ready now, we're leaving for the station at ten." Aunt Meda said.
I nodded as I picked up Lucky's cage and the paper bag full of cat food and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I settled Lucky down on the bed before I hurried to the bathroom to get ready. I took my customarily half hour shower before having to rush through everything else. My hair brush got stuck in the tangled mess that was my hair no less than 3 times. I put the bare minimum of makeup on so I'd look presentable for my first day of school this year, and not the horrid mess I was over the summer. Finally I packed away the last of my possessions into my trunk and checked on Lucky, who had fallen asleep in the far corner of her carrier.
When we arrived at the station it was bustling with muggles and wizard families failing at blending in. We had half an hour to go, but when we stepped onto the smoky platform it was already filled with families and pets.
I put my hand in my pocket and felt the prefect badge sitting there and I sighed. What was Dumbledore thinking making me the fifth year female Slytherin prefect? I really don't like my house, but apparently I belong, I mean I do, I have the qualities for the house, but I don't belong with the people in the house.
I turned to Aunt Meda and told her I'd be right back, I wanted to deposit my luggage before I said my farewells. The corridors were mostly empty, a few students were wandering, looking for friends or a compartment to sit in. I reached my friends usual compartment and placed my hand on the window, the glass heated up to my touch. I slid open the door and smiled as the walls of the compartment seemingly melted away to reveal the modifications we'd made in our third year, with permission from Professor Dumbledore of course.
I placed my trunk in one of the racks by the door and placed Lucky's cage on the coffee table. I made sure she'd be okay for a bit before I left, the walls of the compartment reappeared as I reopened the door, making it look indistinguishable from any other compartment on the train.
My family were not alone when I tracked them down again, they were with another family all with dark brown hair, the parents were talking to my aunt and uncle and Dora was talking to two boys my age who were holding hands. The boy closest to me spotted me exiting the train and waved in my direction whilst simultaneously nudging his boyfriend who in turn waved at me too.
"Anna!" The first boy, Andrew Cardinal called out excitedly as I got closer. Breaking free from Tom's grip to smother me in a bear hug.
"You know I prefer Belle!" I growled as I untangled myself from my friend, only to be pulled into another large hug by Tom Edwards, my other friend.
"I know." Andy shrugged as he returned his attention to his partner.
Checking the time I found that we had ten minutes until the train departed. I said my goodbyes to my family, saying it to Dora had been hard, this was my first year without her as she'd graduated last semester. Eventually I boarded the train again, and started the trek to the prefect carriage, but not before giving Tom instructions to look after my cat.
Andy and I walked in comfortable silence towards what was probably going to be a very long and boring lecture. My insides were tearing themselves apart with anxiety as I wondered who on earth my fellow prefect could be. I glanced out the window and noticed we'd picked up so much speed that the houses closest to us were just blurs passing by.
I don't know what I'd expected the Prefect Carriage to be like, but it wasn't this. It was one large room as there weren't any compartments unlike the other carriages. On one wall was a refreshments table full of snacks and a variety of drinks. I suppose that was one perk of being a prefect. The two longer walls had booths set up along them so groups of prefects could sit and talk if they so liked. In the center of the carriage was a circle of chairs, twenty six chairs in fact. All but two were occupied, Andy and I quickly scrambled to take our places, very aware of the twenty four pairs of eyes watching us.
"Now that we're all here ..." This year's Head Boy began to adress us.
~*~
The prefect meeting only took 45 minutes, but it had felt like it had dragged on for hours. I had been pleasantly surprised that my fellow prefect was another of my friends Caleb Sanders. Now I was really confused as to the logic of why we were chosen to be part of the student leaders of our house. It made no sense.
Many of the prefects hung around in the carriage afterwards, but personally I didn't want to stick around. I was anxious to get back to my friends and my darling kitten. Mia Armstrong, another of my friends chosen to be a prefect, however one that made more sense as she was in Hufflepuff along with Andy, suggested we have a race to see who could get to our compartment first.
Cal won the race by milliseconds, Mia came a close second and Andy came last, by a long shot. We all laughed as we tumbled through the doors of the compartment and watched as the walls faded away to reveal our friends partying the train ride away behind the fake walls.
I jumped on Kayte's back as she went to take a sip of Butterbeer, and stole it from her taking a swig of it.
"Hey! That's mine!" She cried out as I took another swig of it.
"Mine now, besides, we all know you have a lot more where that comes from!" I retorted with a wink. Her dad owned an pub, and was usually our supplier.
I spotted my other best friend Oliver Wood sitting in the corner frowning over a notebook he had open in front of him. I skipped over to him, being careful not to spill the precious drink as I did so. He was so absorbed in the notebook that he didn't appear to notice me as I sat next to him. Only grabbing his attention when I put the bottle over the pages directly in front of him.
"Don't tell me you're going over our plans again?! We've gone over those tonnes of times, if there was any other way we can improve it we'd have figured it out by now!" I said as I watched him take a sip, before he gave the bottle back.
"I know, but I'm Captain now, I need to know it inside and out, I'm determined to get us to win this year!" He responded refocusing on the book. Sighing I quickly stole the book from him, knowing he needed a break.
"Come on man! Just enjoy the fact we're going back to school and join in the fun!" I told him as I locked it away in my trunk. "Come meet Lucky!"
~*~
By the time that the train pulled up in Hogsmeade, my group of friends had worn themselves out from all of the catching up from the summer, there was only so much one could put into a letter.
We joined the flow of students heading towards the carriages at one end of the platform and split into two groups. I shared mine with Kayte, Oliver, Andy and Tom. We spent the last portion of our journey to school catching up on gossip from the holidays. My breath was taken away by my first glimpse of the castle, no matter how many times I see it, it always elicits the same reaction. This place is my home.
Kayte and I rejoined Caleb, our fellow Slytherin as we entered the Great Hall, and together we made our way over to our house's table. We found a space at the end where the least people could bother us, though considering it was the beginning of the year, and that two of us are now prefects, we're less likely to be targets tonight.
As the usual pre-feast activities began, I allowed myself to zone out and let my mind wander. I was pondering how this year was going to turn out when my name was called out. I came back to earth suddenly and looked around for the source, my eyes fell on a small boy stepping up to the Sorting Hat and everything around me seemed to stop.
"Draco?"
Welcome to the reboot of this classic LlamaCat fanfiction, Happily A Disgrace. If you've enjoyed this story so far, please leave a vote and consider adding this story to your library to be notified when I upload new chapters.