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'Did you actually just compare me to a soul-sucking, happiness-draining, torturous dark creature?'
Taking a deep breath, glancing behind her for one final view of the platform, she stepped onto the oh-so familiar Hogwarts Express.
Being completely honest, it was a bitter-sweet experience, returning to Hogwarts. Of course, she'd miss her Mother and Father dearly, but a strange excitement came with returning to school, and in some ways, returning home.
Absent-mindedly, she tucked a loose strand of her wavy, sun-kissed hair behind her ear before making her way down the corridor to their usual compartment. By 'their', she of course meant her and her best friends', Lily Evans, Marlene Mckinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Alice Fortescue. It had unofficially been their compartment since first year, where they first founded their life-long friendship.
"Christy!" Lily exclaimed, leaping from her seat engulfing Christina in a hug as she slid open the carriage door.
"Missed you too Lils!" she chuckled. "No-one else here yet?"
"I expect Dorcas and Marlene will be along soon, Dor spent the last week of the holidays with the Mckinnons, did you know?" Lily asked, pulling them both over the window seats.
"Oh yeah, Marley mentioned it in a lett- Alice!" just as she began explaining it to Lily, the door of the compartment slid open yet again, revealing a small, kind-faced girl, with cropped mousy brown hair.
"Hey guys!" she replied, sliding into the seat beside Lily.
"Oh Alice! Your hair! It's lovely!" Lily gushed, twirling Alice's recently cut hair between her fingers.
"You think so? I wasn't sure at first." she furrowed her brow slightly.
"It really suits you." Christy assured.
"Definitely!" Suddenly, Marlene appeared in the doorway, Dorcas slightly to her left.
"Marley, Dor!" Alice grinned, patting the seat beside herself. Marlene gratefully accepted, while Dorcas took the seat beside Christina.
"I've missed you guys so much!" Dorcas sighed, slinging a lazy arm around the blonde's shoulder. " 'specially you Al, it's a shame you couldn't visit, was Paris nice?"
"Oh it was lovely! Seriously!" she replied, eyes twinkling with excitement at the sheer memory. Christy lived that about Alice, she had this adorable appreciation for France. She would spend hours upon hours doodling little Eiffel towers, enchanting them the glow or dance across the page.
"What about you Christy, get up to anything over the holidays?" she questioned.
"Nothing much, just-" she began before being interrupted by a certain, black haired marauder, leaning lazily against the door frame, a smirk dancing across his features.
"-just daydreaming about her one-true love, weren't you Teeny." he flourished his hand, giving a mock bow, not long before being tackled into a bone-crushing hug.
"Siri!" Christy cried, smothering him. Too happy to be annoyed at the insufferable nickname he insisted on calling her.
"How are you?! What about the others? Is Rem okay? Was your summer good? Oh god was it bad? Am I being really insensitive?!" She rambled.
"Calm down Teeny! I'm fine, everyone's fine!" Sirius exclaimed, chuckling at his best friend's concern. She sighed, smiling softly.
"Sorry to interrupt this delightful moment." Lily mocked, "But I need to talk to you lot, just the girls." she looked pointedly at Sirius.
"I think that's my cue to leave." he nodded his head at the others curtly before turning to leave, but just as he stepped into the corridor, he glanced back at Christina, shooting her one of his signature winks, and headed away.
"What was that about?" Marlene smirked.
"Oh nothing, you know what he's like." Christy slumped back down into her seat next to Dorcas, rolling her eyes.
"Anyway, like I said, I need to talk to you guys." Lily said, lowering her tone significantly.
"Silencing charm?" Alice asked.
"Please."
A few moments later, once the charm was casted, all eyes were on Lily expectantly. Taking a deep breath she looked up from where her eyes rested on the floor.
"My parents.... they didn't want me to..... to come back to Hogwarts." she hesitated between phrases, but earned a few light gasps from her friends.
"What? They can't be serious!" Christina exclaimed.
"I have to admit, even my parents weren't too keen on me coming back, with everything going on, I mean." Alice added.
"But, it's Hogwarts! There's no safer place!" Christy argued.
"That's what my parents said, in my opinion, we're all far more protected at Hogwarts." Dorcas said. "Besides, with Dumbledore around, You-know-who wouldn't dream of attacking us."
As much as she wanted to kid herself, Christy couldn't deny that more and more attacks had been reported in the Daily Prophet recently. Hell, even killings! Voldemort and his followers had only been growing more powerful, it was simply a matter of time until he strikes
big-time.
Truthfully, Christina had pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, facing reality was just too frightening. You see, her Mother was a muggle, and her Father was a ministry official, specialising in the department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. He was renowned for saving 13 muggles from a house fire just 7 months ago. And with everything 'going on' her entire family has been on edge.
"Well, that's what made them finally see sense." Lily concluded.
The rest of the journey was filled with light hearted chatter, and a few visitors. James Potter, who was attempting (yet failing miserably) to woo Lily, had dropped by, sharing a few of his disastrous pick-up lines.
'Are you a dementor? Because you take my breath away.'
'Did you actually just compare me to a soul-sucking, happiness-draining, torturous dark creature?'
'I...er...um...'
Frank Longbottom briefly popped his head in to say hi to his girlfriend of two months, Alice.
But other than that, the trip was wildly uneventful. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the Marauders compartment.
"Hey, where did you go prongs?" Sirius asked, when James reappeared after around ten minutes of his mysterious departure.
"Just to see my dear, Lilypads." he replied, grabbing a handful of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans before grimacing at the taste.
"Honestly, i'm surprised that poor girl hasn't bloody well pitched herself off the astronomy tower, all the grief you've given her." Remus said, without tearing his eyes away from the page.
"Now, now Moony, listen here, hasn't James told you of his master plan to woo Lily Evans?" Sirius smirked.
"Well, if it's anything like the last one, trust me, I don't want to hear it."
"You want to hear it don't you Pete?" James asked, nudging Peter in the ribs. He momentarily paused from shovelling fudge into his mouth, nodded, then resumed.
But before he could begin his extraordinarily complex and unnecessarily long-winded explanation, the door was slammed open to reveal a tall, blonde haired slytherin, accompanied by two cronies, one with wildly frizzy black curls, and a deranged twinkle in her eye, and the other with, quite frankly, rather disgusting, greasy, black, shoulder length hair, and an abnormally large nose.
"Oh look what the cat dragged in." James spat.
"Prong Don't-" Sirius started.
"Oh shut it, you filthy little blood-traitor!" Bellatrix seethed, narrowing her eyes at James.
"Now Bella." Lucius whispered menacingly, "Don't worry, we're not here for you." he snapped his head towards Sirius "You father asked me to give you... a friendly reminder of our little chat back at Malfoy manor. And don't think for even a second that he won't follow through, but I believe you are already familiar with his.... reprimands, are you not?" he said, his tone as fake as his hair.
"I simply do not know what you're talking about, cousin." Sirius replied through gritted teeth, practically shaking with fury.
"I'll leave it up to your imagination then, come Bellatrix, Severus." and with that, he turned on his heel and stalked away.
"Ugh I hate that guy! Why does he have to talk in riddles, like, what does that even mean?" James yelled.
Sirius' blood boiled with pure hatred for his family, he clenched his shaking hands until his knuckles turned white.
"Siri..." Remus whispered, laying a gentle hand on his knee, only for it to be swatted away.
Sirius stood and left the carriage, but not before picking up Remus' book and hurling it across the compartment, landing on the floor with a dull thud.
Where he was going? He didn't know,
just.... away. To get some air, think things through. He slipped into an empty compartment, claiming the window seat and hugging his knees close to his chest. Why did everything have so be so complicated? He wanted to close his eyes and allow sleep to engulf him so badly, but he knew what that would entail, and it simply wasn't worth it.
He wasn't entirely sure what time it was when he heard it. 'It' of course, being a gentle knock on the glass of his little compartment. In fact, it was more of a tap than a knock, but that was beside the point. He looked up and couldn't help but smile at the tan, lightly freckled skin, and blonde wavy locks of his best friend. Despite what everyone said, that's all they were, and that's all they were ever going to be, and Sirius liked it that way.
His smile soon melted into a frown as he saw her puffy, red, eyes. Glassy with unshed tears.
"Christina?" Sirius asked gently, slightly taken aback by the use of her full name, she slid the door shut behind her, and came to sit beside him.
"Are you okay Siri? Where are the marauders?" She questioned, cocking her head to the right slightly.
"Me? Am I okay? I've always admired your kindness Teeny but for once in your life could you put yourself first?" he chuckled lightly, trying to ease the tension.
"Honestly it's nothing, now are you going to tell me what's wrong, or will I have to pry it out of you?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I'll tell if you will." he retorted.
"If everybody minded their own business, the world would go round a deal faster than it does." she quoted. But upon seeing his confused expression, continued, "'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'" she shook her head playfully at his ignorance.
"Fine, i'll tell." she rolled her eyes, "You first."
"Okay. Basically my father's spying on me from home, I finally thought i'd got rid of him for another year, but no. Turns out he's got my cousins and probably Reg working against me, reporting back to him like the little snakes they are." he sighed, defeated.
"There's something else...." she accused, Sirius had been her best friend since second year, he seriously thought he could get anything past her?
"Gee Taylor, do you actually know everything?"
"I have my moments." she smirked.
Taking a deep breath, 'Its now or never' he thought.
"Remember how I finally told you and James.... about.... what happens at home?" he said tentatively.
"Tell me they haven't hurt you again Siri" she almost growled.
"No more than usual Teeny, but it's not that. It's my father.... he.... he threatened me. Which I know sounds better than the actual curses and beatings, but in some ways it's worse. Way, way, worse. I don't know when it's coming, or what's coming for that matter. But now I know he's got people spying on me, he just needs an excuse, and then i'm done for. And... i'm scared Teeny. Real fucking scared. Agh, Merlin I sound so weak-"
But the rest of his words were cut short and Christy practically leapt on top of him, giving him the worlds most powerful hug.
"You are not weak Sirius, do you hear me? You are, in fact, the strongest person I know! You're so, so brave, going back to that dreadful place every summer. Never ever say that about yourself again, alright?" she exclaimed
"Alright." he promised
"I'm always here for you Siri, always. I'm going to find a way out of this for you, I promise." she swore, sticking out her pinky finger.
He hooked his own pinky around hers and smiled weakly.
"Now, a deal's a deal, Teeny. What's wrong?" he asked, composing himself once more.
"I just sound ridiculous now, blubbering about my stupid worries when you've got all that to deal with." she cried.
"Nonsense." Sirius shook his head, "What's up?"
"Oh, you know, i'm just worried, that's all. With all the killings and attacks and whatnot." she waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't lie to me Teeny."
She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, avoiding his gaze.
"Teeny..." he pressed.
"Right! Fine!" she snapped, "Sorry, I don't mean to snap. It's just.... where do I even start. My little sister, Jenifer, she's ten, not at Hogwarts yet. Over the summer, she got diagnosed with this muggle disease called Leukaemia. It's a type of cancer, i'm not sure whether you've heard of it, but it's pretty serious, she gets really ill from it, many people don't survive it." she paused, wiping her eyes, "And I just... I love her, so much, all my life i've been trying my utmost to protect her, but this, I can't protect her from. I'm totally useless." she said, breaking down into sobs.
"Oh Christina." Sirius wrapped his arms around her shaking form, rubbing her shoulders.
"It's going to be okay, your sister's a fighter, she'll be okay, I just know it." he whispered soothingly.
How long they sat there for was unknown, but what was clear, was that they, in that moment, had each other. No matter what the world threw at them, they would always have each other.
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