I'm free. That's all I could say. The summer holidays were over and I ran onto to the train without saying goodbye to my mother. Hugh, I said goodbye to him before we left the house.

I was free. After two months of torture. I was free. As the train started moving, I leaned against a compartment door and sighed deeply. I won't be going back for another few months. Hopefully not ever though. I wanted to ask Marlene if I could stay over at her house but then Hugh, who knows what my parents would do to him if I left.

The state I was in, was not one to smile about. I had tried to comb my hair, I had tried to cover my cuts and bruises but I had too many. Including my burnt arm, which I had tried to heal but failed miserably. To make it worse, I was rather thin as I had not eaten in days.

I sighed and walked down the train as it started to move. I looked in each compartment, trying to find Marlene, Alice and Lily or even the Marauders. I had to explain I got their letters four days ago, because my parents had been hiding them.

"Fall!!" I jumped and turned around. It was Sirius, who was grinning like he always was. Inside the compartment were the rest of the Marauders, who by the looks of it, had just finished greeting each other.

"Sirius! Bloody hell. Hey!" I forced a smile and walked inside of the compartment. "How are you guys?"

"Couldn't be better." Peter stated and smiled.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked, looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine." I said quickly.

"You're skinny." Sirius stated.

I gave him a look and said. "Thanks. So how was your holidays?"

"It was good, how was your's?" James asked quickly.

"Fine." I sat beside him and sighed. They all raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You don't look 'fine'." Sirius stated.

"Well I am. So what did you guys do? Play Quidditch? Read books? Eat chocolate?" I added, looking at Remus who had just opened a chocolate bar.

"Yeah we did. What did you do?" Peter said again.

"I didn't do much. Your summer sounds much more better than mine so let's talk about that-"

"You didn't answer any of our letters." Remus stated, frowning. I sighed.

"Look-"

"And why is there a bruise on your cheek?" Sirius touched the bruise make me wince.

"Ow..."

"And why are you so thin?" Peter added.

"And you're wearing a long sleeve shirt in Summer!" James said and grabbed my arm, looking at the sleeves on my shirt.

"I always wear long sleeve shirts!!" I exclaimed, pulling my arm away from him. "Look-" The trolley lady opened the door and I yelled. "FOOD!!"

They jumped and looked at me weirdly. "What?"

"Food! Chocolate and sweets and lollies and Fudge and all that delicious stuff..." I stared at the food hungrily as my stomach rumbled. The Marauders frowned at me like I had gone insane.

"Anything from the trolley dears?" The trolley lady asked.

"We'll take everything." I said quickly.

"No we won't." James said.

"Yes we will." I grabbed my bag and started counting the amount of galleons I had.

"No we won't, but we will get-"

"Yes we will."

"No we won't."

"Actually no we won't." I said, holding only six galleons in my hand. James gave me a look that said, 'told you so, you bloody idiot'. "What? You can serve them first. I can wait..." I said to the Trolley Lady and pointed at Peter and Remus. She nodded and turned to them. Peter started listing the things he wanted.

Remus leaned forward and looked at me. "Izzy, when was the last time you ate?"

I tore my eyes away from the food and looked at him. "What?"

"The last time you ate. When was that?"

"Um... last-"

"Did you want anything?" The Trolley Lady finally asked me.

"Yes!" I answered. "Three Chocolate Frogs, a packet of Droobles, a packet of Fizzing Whizbees, Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and a Sugar Quill - actually make that two Sugar Quills." She nodded and handed me all the sweets. I smiled and handed her the money. "Thank you!" She nodded and walked off. The Marauders looked at all the sweets in my hand.

"You're going to go from skinny to fat." James stated, I rolled my eyes and took a bite out of a Sugar Quill.

"What? I'm hungry."

"Yeah when was the last time you ate?" Sirius asked, frowning at all the food. I looked at him and thought for a minute.

"Um... last-"

"Night?"

"Yeah let's go with that..."

They looked at me suspiciously and nodded slowly.

I frowned and took another bite of the Sugar Quill. "What?"

"Last night was the last time you ate?" James repeated.

"Yeah..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Now stop looking at me like that! It's not like I haven't eaten in four days!" 

"You haven't eaten in four days?" Peter said softly. I sighed.

"I didn't say that I said, last night. Geez get your ears checked or something."

They glanced at each other and sighed. I sighed and continued eating. Sirius looked at me and his eyes widened.

"Isabel." He said and gripped my burnt, but badly healed arm tightly. I winced in pain. "What's this?"

"Ow, ow ow ow... Sirius let go of me." I gasped quietly. He let go of me slowly but gripped my hand instead. "Sirius-"

"Did you fall into a fire or something?" Remus slapped his forehead loudly and groaned quietly. "What did I do Moony?"

"Fall into a fire or something? Fall? Really Sirius??"

Sirius laughed slightly and sighed. "I didn't notice." I managed a small smile and sighed, trying to pull my hand away from him.

"Liar." I muttered. He rolled his eyes.

"But seriously-" The other three groaned loudly again. "Okay! I'm trying to be serious for once-"

"Okay just stop." James stated. Sirius sighed.

"You guys suck."

"Oh deer..." James said, under his breath. Suddenly two books were thrown at him. Remus and I glanced at each other and grinned. "Ow!"

"Wait! I like that book!" I yelled and climbed over James. I grabbed my Never Let Me Go book and sighed. "I'm sorry."

"You are dearly forgiven-"

"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to my book."

James frowned and rolled his eyes, then leaned on the seat. "Fine then. Be like that. You're no longer forgiven-"

"Oh deer, Izzy threw her book." Remus raised his chocolate bar threateningly at Peter. "Okay! I'm sorry I didn't say anything!" Remus nodded in approval and took a bite of the chocolate instead. Peter sighed with relief and moved away from him as far as possible.

"Now, what happened to your arm?" Sirius asked me, pulling my sleeve up to reveal my burnt arm. Their eyes widened.

"Sirius let go of me."

"But what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Your arm is burnt. I know I'm stupid-"

"You just realised that?"

"I'm trying to be nice to you for once! Anyway-"

"I'm thankful-"

"Now can you shut up."

"What if I don't want to?" I asked, trying to get his attention away from my arm.

"Well isn't that rude-"

"You act like a care, Footsie."

The other three Marauders froze and looked at me with wide eyes.

"James. Oi! James!! Why are you grinning?!" Sirius asked dramatically.

James shrugged. "I'm not grinning. It's called a smirk-"

"I know what it's called!"

"Footsie..."

Sirius stared at James for a minute then said. "I feel betrayed..."

"Anyway back to the topic." Remus started. "Isabel, what happened to your arm?"

"No, let's talk about annoying nicknames-"

Remus glared at me furiously, knowing what I was going to say.

"Wolfie."

Remus groaned with annoyance and glared at me as I smiled innocently. If looks could kill, I would've been dead.

"What happened to your arm?" Remus asked again, and you could tell he was trying not to explode or throw something at me.

"Ah, you know this happened then that happened. Point is I don't want to tell you." I stated. They groaned.

"Your arm is burnt! It's burnt!" James exclaimed.

"Um... so?"

"So what happened?! Your arm is freaking burnt!!"

"Wow! I had no idea considering it's my arm!" I yelled sarcastically while getting slightly annoyed.

"How though?!"

"Did you think that maybe I don't want to tell you?!" I shouted and stood up, glaring at the four of them. "I burnt my arm and it doesn't matter so stop questioning because I don't want to tell nosy people like you!!"

I stormed out of the compartment and sighed. I walked off and looked through the rest of the compartments, trying to find the girls.

Someone grabbed my arm, the burnt one, and I swung around, raising my fist and almost punching the person.

"Easy now Izzy." Remus said, eyeing my fist. "What is it with you and almost punching me?"

"I don't know- Ow! Remus!" I tried pulling my arm away from him. He let go of my burnt arm and looked at it with wide eyes.

"Sorry, that was your burnt arm?"

"Yes! And I am not telling you how I burnt it!"

"I won't tell the other three."

"No!"

"Okay, fine. Don't tell me. I won't push it." Remus said and turned around. He started to walk off. I looked at him with confusion. That's not right... why are you not pushing? Remus, what's wrong with you?

I sighed. "Fine I'll tell you." Remus turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Also you left your book... again." He passed me my book and I snatched it off him. "Okay, now tell me what happened."

"Don't tell the others." Remus nodded and I sighed, looking at the floor. "A few days ago... actually four days ago, my brother Hugh came into my room and gave me pieces of paper and a book. The book, this book here, was from Zoe, it's a muggle book called Never Let Me Go... she got it for me for my birthday-"

"When's your birthday?" Remus asked, his eyes wide.

"April 11th."

"Uh-"

"I know, you didn't know so you didn't get me anything and I don't care." He sighed with relief. "Anyway, but the pieces of papers were... letters."

"Our letters?"

"Your letters. So my father was keeping them from me and I got mad... So I stormed out of my room, I had been locked in my room all summer, and I started yelling at my father, demanding why he hid my letters from me... Then..." I sighed shakily and looked at the floor.

"You don't have to continue anymore-"

"No no, I'm fine. Then my father, snatched my letters from me and threw them into the fire. I tried stopping him, but he threw me to the ground and my arm got burnt."

Remus stayed quiet for a moment then very gently he said, "can I see your arm?"

I looked at him and slowly showed him my burnt arm. He grabbed his wand and gently took my hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked cautiously.

"Now, I don't know if this will work or if it will hurt... but it's worth a shot so-" He pointed his wand at my arm.

"Wait," I said quickly and he looked up. "What are you doing? I thought we weren't allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts-"

"Well technically we aren't. But we're in the Hogwarts Express, heading to Hogwarts, so I guess it doesn't count. Besides, if you leave your arm like that - it's badly healed by the way and is most likely to get infected-"

"When did you start to sound all medical?" I raised an eyebrow at him. Remus sighed.

"Well you see... there was this really annoying girl I met last year and she seemed to know a lot about this stuff so she would heal my wounds and sometimes she would go on and on about why I should go to the Hospital Wing so my cuts don't get infected-"

"Really? Who is it - oh." I gave him a look making him laugh.

"Anyway-"

"Oh come on Wolfie, I feel stupid now." I muttered, he gave me an annoyed look.

"Do you want me to heal your arm or not?"

"Yes please. You better not explode my arm or something..."

He laughed slightly and held up his wand. He muttered a spell and a bright light covered my arm. I whimpered in pain and Remus looked at me with worry.

"Does it hurt?"

"I-I think- Ow! Remus-" My legs turned to lead and I fell, thankfully he caught me just in time.

"Hey, it's okay. Look." He pointed to my arm. I looked at my arm to see it was healed. I sighed with relief.

"Thank you."

Remus helped me stand up and said. "Don't mention it. I didn't realise it would hurt-"

"I know, but thank you."

He smiled. "You welcome. Now, I assume you're looking for the girls-"

"How do you know?"

"Well since James, Sirius and Peter were being idiots-"

"And you."

"And- wait what? No, I wasn't- okay whatever. Since we were all being idiots, you're probably looking for the girls to tell them what happened over the summer and to tell them you're fine."

I eyed him carefully. "How did you get all that?"

"Honestly, it was a guess." I laughed. "They're over there. The second compartment from here."

"Thanks Wolfie." I said and walked off before he could say anything. Remus sighed and shook his head before walking back to the Marauders' compartment.

I opened the compartment door and the three girls looked up.

"Isabel! Finally!"

"What happened?! How are you?!"

"Thank goodness you're alive! What took you so long?!"

I managed a small smile at the three of them. "I'm fine."

"Well what took you so long?" Marlene asked.

"I ran into the Marauders."

"Ah..." Lily mumbled, clearly disappointed.

"Lucky..." Marlene added, making Lily roll her eyes.

"Anyway, what happened? You don't look so good." Alice stated.

"Yeah... listen, I don't feel like talking about it. So..." I sat down beside Alice and sighed. They nodded in understanding and Marlene started asking me about, not my father, but Sirius Black, which didn't really surprise me.