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┄┄ .•* 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝟐 *•. ┄┄

𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐥𝐲

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Back on the platform where the train still stood, Olivia Hale nervously glanced at it afraid it would explode or run itself off its tracks and take her little girl from her. She was about to lunge at the train and take her own seat in it when she heard loud voices from her side.

"How dare you talk to me like that?" a black-haired woman shrieked and Olivia raised an eyebrow at the way she was clearly and painfully digging her nails into the boy that stood in front of her.

Olivia recognized them as half of the family she and Annora had followed to find their way onto the Platform. If she remembered well, the son in the brute grasp was the older one.

"Walk away and let the boys get in the train," said a less shrieky voice, and Olivia turned to see an older woman, with soft blond hair that had begun turning white with age—other than that fact she didn't appear otherwise 'old'. She stood behind her own boy, a kid with glasses that looked at—who Olivia assumed was—his friend with a grimace. "You wouldn't dare to cause a scene in between a crowd would you Walburga?"

The way the blonde woman said the name was clearly distasteful and Olivia couldn't help but grin slightly at it. Walburga bristled and Olivia thought it best to try and intervene for the sake of the boys who were looking longingly at the train—though Olivia reckoned the boy with the messy hair and glasses was just waiting for his friend rather than not being able to get on the train.

She approached the four with a smile, "Good Morning, excuse the interruption of this lovely chat,"—the black-haired boy, who Olivia noted had weirdly grey eyes, snorted—"but the train is about to leave and I believe the boys are intended to board."

"An American Prefect?" The black-haired woman gasped at Olivia horrified and the latter grinned at her.

"You thought I was a prefect? Oh, my, and I thought I was beginning to look my age," she replied solemnly.

"Walburga, the girl is right," the blonde witch told the other with a smile on Olivia's way, "let the boys go. We can settle matters another time."

At the sight of Olivia raising an eyebrow at her daringly Walburga seemed to twitch her hand towards her wand but she did let go of her boy. Both boys immediately ran off—not before both kissing the blonde witch on the cheek and sending a smile Olivia's way.

"Walburga!" a voice of a man called from a few people over and without another word Walburga turned her nose up, glaring at Olivia as she turned to the man—who Olivia presumed to be her husband.

"Miss?"

Olivia turned with a warm smile to the blonde woman, "I'm Olivia, Olivia Hale. I'm sorry about interfering is just that... I just put my kid on the train and apparently felt the need to make two more board it before it left," she said just as the train started moving.

"Your kid?"

With a shrug of her shoulders, Olivia replied, "I'm a young mother."

"Quite young indeed." The woman then chuckled. "Young enough and American enough to make Walburga Black bristle at what shambles Hogwarts has come to. Of course, that is just her little mind trying hard to think."

Olivia let out a laugh and nodded, "Quite the character that woman. Reminds me of my mother-in-law. Awful woman."

"Oh, well, yes, I suppose you'd be married," the woman said as though rationalizing but frowned when Olivia's smile fell off her face.

"We were still trying to live up to some traditions, Edmund and I," she said with a small twitch of her lips, "Had to marry before little Annora was out of me or Merlin forbid we'd have been hunted down by his parents."

"Traditions sometimes are hard to waver."

Olivia nodded in agreement. "You never did mention your name."

"Oh, I apologize dear, I forgot. I'm Euphemia Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Hale."

Olivia winced at the title, she hadn't been called Mrs in forever, rarely ever actually, only when Edmund teased her. Her... husband... hadn't called her that since Annora was little.

"Potter as in James Potter?" Olivia asked with a grin at the woman while remembering Lily pacing around their flat fuming as she talked about the boy. Olivia and Annora had teased her the whole summer.

***

Speaking of the little witch, as the Hogwarts Train took charge just moments before Euphemia Potter and Olivia Hale began conversing, Annora had been ushered into the compartment Lily was standing in front of and went slightly red in the face when she saw three other girls smiling at her.

"Girls, this is Annora Hale," Lily smiled pointing at the girl in question. "Nora, this is Marlene McKinnon,"—Lily pointed at a blonde girl, that had her hair up in a ponytail and a dimpled smile,—"that's Dorcas Meadowes,"—Lily pointed to a brown-skinned girl, with curly hair that was pulled back from her face with a headband,—"and that's Alice Fortescue,"—Lily pointed at a girl by the window, with a few freckles over her nose, putting a stray piece of her short hair behind her ear.

"This is the sister you always wanted?" Marlene said cheekily with a grin and Annora snorted, covering it up with a cough.

"She is my sister," Lily scowled at Marlene, "Little Sister."

"I forgot your other sister existed," Marlene said with the same cheeky smile making whatever she said not credible.

"Well, I can't say I believe that," Annora said with a grimace. "Believe me, if I could I would forget Petunia."

Lily huffed and slapped Annora beside the hair, making the blonde gape and turn to her with an incredulous expression.

"Sit," Lily said pointing at an empty sit in between Alice and herself and Annora (after saluting) complied.

"So, you're a first-year, right'" Dorcas asked her and Annora nodded. "What house do you want to be in?"

"No idea," said Annora with a shrug of her shoulders. "From what Lily told me, I think I'll fit in Gryffindor or Slytherin. Maybe Hufflepuff. Maybe Ravenclaw."

"So all of them?" Marlene asked in amusement and Annora shrugged.

"You don't care which you get?" Alice asked, speaking up for the first time, a frown on her face.

"Nah, unless it's the yellow one, it clashes with my hair," said Annora. "Should I care?"

"No."

"Yes!"

The first answer was given by both Alice and Lily. The second answer was from Marlene and Dorcas.

"We'll see," Annora shrugged as she took a licorice wand from the pile Marlene was passing around.

"If you're confident you'll either be in our house or Slytherin, it doesn't matter," Lily said with a smile. "Sev is in Slytherin. You can hang out with him."

Annora promptly scoffed. "First, I'll make friends, Lils," she said and Lily rolled her eyes as the other girls snickered. "Second," Annora began with a grimace, "Well, I—Uh. Anyway. . . ."

"Oh no," Lily groaned running a hand through her face, much to her friends' amusement. "What did you do?"

"Technically, I didn't do anything," Annora said putting her hands up. "But Sev may or may not deeply dislike me now."

"What did you do?"

This time it wasn't Lily who asked, but Dorcas and Marlene who were on the edge of their sits, far too entertained by Lily's annoyance. Annora bit her lip.

"Again, I didn't do anything," she told them, "Petunia did."

"What did you tell Tuney?" Lily asked, knowing full well where this was going.

"What didn't I tell Tuney is the question," said Annora drifting the conversation away. "For example, I didn't tell her you broke her favorite mug. I didn't tell her that her friend looked like a cow. I didn't tell her she looked like a cow—"

"Nora!" Lily hissed in exasperation. "What did you tell her?"

"Yeah," Marlene said excitedly, thoroughly enjoying how annoyed Lily was. "What?"

"I may or may not have told her that," Annora took a deep breath, "Sev was in love with you."

"What?!"

"And because she's Petunia, and she doesn't really like me or Sev. . . .—she might have told your parents."

"And?" Dorcas asked eagerly.

"And. . . .They may have—Uh—well—"

"What, Nora?" Lily asked sharply.

"Well, they don't really like him—"

"—can't blame them," Dorcas muttered and Lily glared at her.

"They like him," the redhead said sternly. "They just think Nora is a better friend."

"As you should," Annora scoffed and Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Snape is now under the stern eye of your father and Joe—"

"Joe?" Lily asked confused. Annora nodded.

"—And about every middle-aged and above woman in our town," Annora added and Lily went red. "You know how Joe is. . . ."

"I hate you," Lily groaned, sinking into her seat, her face in her hands as Dorcas and Marlene couldn't keep themselves from laughing. Alice was smiling sympathetically at Lily.

"You love me, Liliana," Annora scoffed. "Besides, no one's boycotting the guy. They just care about you and want you to not be with him."

"But—Annora—I don't even know half the people in our town," Lily said, her voice muffled by her hands.

"Sure you do," said Annora with a roll of her eyes. "They love going to Page's. Do you want me to name them?"

Lily's hand fell from her face as her eyes bulged through her skull—as much as she loved Annora, which she did, once she started talking it was hard to make her shut up, and Lily would not listen to a rant about the people from their town. Dorcas and Marlene shared sly smiles and Alice was shaking her head in amusement, mirth in her eyes.

"I for one would love to know them," Marlene said with a nod, her lips twitching up. Annora smirked at her as she caught on with the game.

"I for one would love to name them," said Annora, and Lily groaned in exasperation. Annora cleared her throat, raising her hands to begin to list people off.

"There's Joanne, she's the old lady who lives a couple of blocks away from you, Lils! And somehow I know she has cats, because—well, she looks like a cat lady—and every time she enters the cafe, it's like she brought them all with her, what with the smell.

"There's Mrs. Wells—I never know her name—she's a widow, her husband died when Fernanda—the woman that lives in the apartment building next to mine—accidentally dropped a heavy book on his head from her balcony—he got a concussion and that scare plus his heart disease caused his fatal heart attack. I thought you might know this story—everybody does—it happened a few years before we moved in—Fernanda wasn't charged or anything, because he technically died of a heart attack and she was keen on saying her cat was guilty.

"Oh, and then, there's Jacinda. She's the one that smokes a lot, down by Spinner's End—You know, the one Sev is always complaining about? The one that usually his mom joins?" Annora asked as she continued ranting.

Dorcas and Marlene were nearly pissing themselves off laughing. Lily's face was as red as a tomato, as she took deep breaths not to lash out at Annora—not that the latter wasn't used to, Lily and she often fought but in the end, everything was fine, they were sisters.

"She's almost as good as Potter at annoying her," Marlene muttered to Dorcas.

The latter was in the middle of nodding, opening her mouth to respond when the door to the compartment swung open.

"Speaking of the devil. . . ." Dorcas muttered and Marlene snorted.

Annora frowned, going quiet as she looked at the two boys at the door. Both of them couldn't be older than the other girls. The one that stood in the front wore squared glasses, his hair was the epitome of messy jet-black hair, and he had a cocky grin on his face. The one that stood behind him, the same grin on his face, had striking grey eyes and handsome black hair—Annora recognized him as one of the boys she saw at the station, the oldest.

"Hey, Evans," the first boy said and Lily scrunched up her nose.

"But that's the difference," Dorcas whispered to Marlene who burst into a fit of giggles.

"Hello, ladies," the boy from the station said with a smirk and the girls in the compartment all said 'Hello' back.

Annora was starting to feel slightly out of place. Not knowing who the boys were.

"Who are you?" the specky boy asked, looking at Annora with a frown.

"Annora Hale," she said with a small polite smile and the boy nodded.

"I'm James Potter and that's Sirius Black," the boy introduced himself, and Annora's mouth opened in an 'o'.

Of course, she knew who James Potter was. From what Lily and Severus had told her he was a big bullying prat. In all honesty, Annora didn't find him so big. Actually, he wasn't even a head taller than her. And he didn't seem like a prat, but then again she didn't know him.

She turned to Lily, with her eyebrows raised in question and Lily nodded, her nose still scrunched up.

"What's happening?" asked the boy, Sirius, to the other girls as they watched both Annora and Lily talking with their eyes.

"They're doing that thing you and Potter do," Dorcas said with an amused smile.

"What thing?" Sirius questioned.

"That thing when you talk with your eyes and end up making fools out of yourselves," Marlene told them, and both James and Sirius scowled. "Except, they know each other, so they don't need their faces looking stupid to be able to understand themselves," Marlene added and Alice giggled.

"Right," Annora said standing up, "I think I might go find another compartment. See if I can make friends of my own. I'll be back for my outdated bag."

Everyone in the apartment frowned and Lily snorted with a nod.

"Fine, but be careful with Sev," Lily said with a pointed look making Annora burst into a fit of giggles.

The two boys looked at each other with curiosity.

"Lil, he's my height and scrawny."

"But he knows magic," Lily pointed out and Annora rolled her eyes.

"I know magic, quite well." At that Lily's eyes widened ever so slightly as she shook her head. Annora's grin grew wider. "I also know how to throw a mean punch," she said with a proud smile. "Remember that time, that kid from school took Petunia's pencil case and went home with a black eye?"

"That was you?" Lily gaped and Annora nodded proudly. "Petunia said he threw the pencil case in the air and let it fall on his face."

"Well, that's the story," Annora said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, Petunia doesn't like me anymore so I won't be repeating that any time soon."

"Alright, but really, try not to get him riled up," Lily asked and Annora sighed.

"Or do," Potter said with a grin, and Annora turned to him with a frown, "It's fun to spike a snake."

"Snakes bite," Annora said.

"Lions hunt," Black said arrogantly and Annora's lips twitched.

"Lionesses hunt actually," she told them, "lions just sit on their fat asses."

"Language, Nora," Lily scolded just as the two Gryffindors in front of the blonde girl gaped at her. Annora smiled as Marlene, Dorcas and Alice fell into a fit of giggles.

"It's arses, Hale," Black said as he recovered and plastered what she assumed was supposed to be a charming smirk on his face. "Lions sit on their fat arses."

"If the shoe fits," said Annora innocently and then turned to Lily. "Sev'll get over it. And so will the folks from our little town."

"Who," Dorcas started, sending Lily a teasing grin, "you have to tell us more about."

Annora laughed and said goodbye to the girls, she waited with an expectant look for the boys to move from her way. It took them a few seconds to realize what the young blonde curly-haired witch wanted and when they did they shuffled awkwardly to the side.

***

Finding first-years was harder than Annora expected. Mainly because there was only a chance in one out of seven that there would be a compartment with first-years every time she looked through the glass windows. Yet, finally, she passed a compartment she was sure had kids her age.

And one of them, she recognized. It was Sirius's brother. The one she spotted in the station and exchanged a look with. Annora took a deep breath and pulled the door open.

"Can I sit?" she asked with a smile. "Everywhere else is full."

Both boys exchanged a look and shrugged. Annora took it as a sign to walk in and sat herself down opposite both of them. The boy from the station was really like his brother in looks, sharp features, black elegant hair, and steely gray eyes. But he looked skinnier—though, not in an unhealthy way—and shyer. The second boy had blond hair and pretty blue eyes, and he looked more confident than his friend.

"I'm Evan Rosier," the blond said as she took her seat. Annora's smile, though, faltered at his last addition, "pureblood."

"Regulus Black," the boy from the station said and then blushing awkwardly added, "same."

"Oh," Annora was only able to say as she eyed the boys wearily. "We're doing status exchange?"

Though Regulus seemed to sink a bit in his seat due to her piercing gaze, Evan didn't falter.

"Fine," said Annora with a strained smile. "Annora Hale. Half-blood. Is that good enough or are you prejudiced jerks?"

"That—That's good," Regulus said awkwardly, exchanging a look with Evan—the latter looked mildly amused by Annora, and was smiling at her.

"I like you," Evan said with a grin. "I think we'll get along."

Annora smiled sweetly. "Not if you're prejudiced jerks," she said and Evan chuckled while Regulus went red.

"What house will you be in?" Evan asked her and Annora raised her eyebrows.

"Why?" she countered. "Are you prejudiced about that too?"

"I have a brother in Gryffindor," Regulus said confidently and Annora smiled.

"I have a cousin in Hufflepuff," Evan added as if that explained everything.

"I don't know where I'll be in," Annora finally answered honestly, and the boys nodded. "What about you?"

"Slytherin," was both boys' immediate answer.

"Talk about being brainwashed. . . ." said Annora with a frown, remembering all those movies she had watched with her mother. Both boys ignored her last remark.

"But please don't be a lion," Evan said out of the blue and Annora frowned at him.

"Why not?"

"They have fleas," said Evan without skipping a beat, and Regulus and Annora burst into a fit of giggles. "And they're morons."

"Are not!" Annora countered and the blond raised an eyebrow at him. "I happen to know a pretty smart Gryffindor."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"Lily Evans," Annora answered, and both boys frowned.

"Evans isn't one of the sacred twenty-eight," Evan muttered to Regulus beside him, and the latter rolled his eyes.

"Obviously," he said. "She must be a muggleborn or half-blood."

"She's muggleborn," Annora said, raising her eyebrows, narrowing her eyes at them, and daring the two boys to speak one wrong word about her sister.

And much to her satisfaction, neither of them said anything on the matter.

And at some point, after a pretty awkward pause in their conversation, Regulus steered them away from the silence and they began chatting about more light-hearted topics. By the time the trolley lady came, the ice between them was completely melted and Evan spent a few galleons on sweets and pastries, then sharing them with Regulus and Annora.

Then, at some point nearing the end of the ride, their door slid open and a girl with pale blonde hair and steely grey eyes similar to Regulus's poked her head inside the compartment, smiling at the sight of Evan and Regulus.

"What're you doing here, Cissy?" Regulus frowned looking up at her from his card from the chocolate frog, with Morgana's face on it.

"I'm a prefect, Regulus," the girl said. "You should be changing into your robes soon. We're almost there."

"Uh—Cissa, this is Annora Hale," Evan said seeing as Annora was somewhat awkwardly sitting there. "Annora, this is Narcissa Black."

"How many Blacks are there?" Annora blurted out and Narcissa laughed lightly.

"We do take up a lot of space," she said with a smile. "It was nice to meet you, Annora."

"Same," replied Annora with an awkward wave as the girl slipped out of the compartment once more.

Annora turned to the two boys and told them she would go to another compartment and put on her robes. With a nod from them, she walked out of there and started making her way back to Lily and her friends' compartment—the two boys from before weren't there anymore. All four girls smiled at her, saying she was just in time as they were about to change into their robes.

Once the train stopped on its tracks, rattling slightly and staggering for a moment, they were fully dressed and more than ready to go.

Before walking out of the train, Lily pulled her aside in a hug. She told Annora because she was a first-year, she would have to go by boat to the castle. Lily knew Annora wasn't too fond of boats—she loved the water but she never did like boats, she got sick in boats, as they had found out during a fishing trip the Evans took her with.

Annora stepped out of the train—saying goodbye to the second-year Gryffindor girls—and snapped her head when she heard a booming and scruffy voice calling out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

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