A carriage had landed, slowly coming to a stop when it reached the outside of the wooden doors that were blocking the view of the Great Hall. Stepping out of the carriage and petting the black horses that had accompanied her through her journey, she pulled her yellow and green robes down and made her way towards the intimidating doors. She stopped just outside of them and sighed.

"Hogwarts, here I come," the girl spoke softly. She pushed the doors firmly, revealing the curious heads of students wearing different coloured robes looking her way. She skimmed her eyes over every table, taking note of the way certain faces were showing their expressions or ones that were expressionless. She nodded and stalked towards the teacher's podium and shook Dumbledore's hand before sitting on the unstable stool.

"Please welcome Helia Bloom to Hogwarts!" the deep voice of Dumbledore could be heard ringing throughout the room as claps erupted from everywhere. Those were the last things she could hear as a dusty hat was placed on her head, her eyesight faltering. She didn't have time to speak or think anything as all her memories flashed before her in a blink of an eye.

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouted, the brim ripping. The table in the middle was clapping loudly, some moving so Helia could sit next to them. She got up and walked over to four boys who were whistling and cheering. Over the noise, Helia shouted.

"Can I sit here?" by now everyone had sat down and watched as she sat next to the famous marauders, staring as she got patted on the back. "Get back to your knitting!" Helia managed to address the whole hall, them all immediately obeying and starting to whisper to the person next to them or someone who would listen to them.

Sirius Black was smirking under his breath as he took a sip out of his water goblet, shaking his head slightly, his black, shoulder-length hair being the perfect length to hide his features. He felt eyes boring into the back of his head, but he was used to it, in all honesty. Being the disappointment of the family often did that to you. He had a younger brother, Regulus Black. He was Sirius' spitting image, though neither of them would ever admit it.

Remus Lupin took another bite out of his pasta, failing to hide the look of curiosity that soared across his delicate features. He moved a lock of auburn hair out of his face and tried to read Helia, but got no result. Remus acknowledged her facial features, her name and expression drilling itself into his mind. He quickly straightened his red robes.

James Potter was smiling eagerly at the exchange student, examining her up and down quickly. He followed Sirius' actions, taking a drink from his goblet. He suddenly felt very meek in her presence, like he should be lucky to be breathing the same air as her. His brown hair fell over his glasses as he readjusted them to meet the girl's eyes. He nodded politely and looked away.

Peter Pettigrew kept his head down and ate, trying to avoid the gaze of Helia, immediately deeming she was scary and never to get on her wrong side. His blonde hair covered his eyes and quivering mouth perfectly as he swallowed another forkful of his dinner. He was trying to peer at James and Sirius so he could copy in their movements, but it seemed he couldn't lift his head without making eye contact with Helia.

"I'm Helia, Helia Blossom. I'm an exchange student," Helia introduced herself, holding her hand out confidently. Her aura exerted that she was not someone to be messed with, and she took advantage of that.

"Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew," Sirius introduced after a few seconds of silence, shaking her hand hesitantly.

"It's nice to meet you!" Helia suddenly slipped out of her cold demeanour as she deemed the four friends.

"So, what school did you come from?" James asked, shovelling another load of pasta into his mouth, his talking muffled as he chewed.

"Castelobruxo," Helia replied almost immediately, noticing the confused looks on their faces. "It's a Wizarding school in the Amazon rainforest?"

"We don't really know that much about the other schools," Remus stepped in, smiling lightly at the girl.

"Oh! Sorry, that's completely fine," Helia said deftly, stiffening slightly.

"You could tell us more?" Remus inquired, his dinner being pushed aside as he leaned his head in his hands.

"It's a school in the Amazon rainforest, like I just told you. It is mainly a golden temple, but a few select students go there and study. We excel in Herbology and Magizoology," Helia provided a quick and simple explanation for Remus who was listening intently to the girl. Despite not fully trusting her, he was very eager and interested to become friends with Helia.

"It sounds really cool!" Remus sounded ecstatic. James took another forkful of his food before it all vanished, the plates magically cleaning and the warm food being replaced by hand made deserts.

"Oh my Merlin," Helia gushed, reaching out for a pumpkin pastie and eating it, moaning as she took a bite.

The four watched in amusement as their new found friend ate deserts and joked about how this was very different from the environment she had been surrounded in her whole life, and made it a mission to make her feel welcome for the week she was here.

Helia, unaware of the distasteful looks she was getting from a particular green table, continued eating, chatting happily about the wonders of Great Britain. She was enthusiastically answering questions and joking around, laughing and you would've thought that they knew each other forever.

Over on the other side of the hall, Regulus Black was eyeing the new addition to his blood-traitor brother and his friends' gang of hooligans, snorting as Helia wiped a pastry crumb off the side of her lip. He snickered, whispering something to the boy sat next to him and he snickered back.

As much as the young Slytherin loved his brother, he was doing the best. He had always been taught family above friends, and wasn't about to abandon his life views anytime soon. His family was where his loyalties should, and he was sure forever would, lie. So when he knew about Sirius' mission to get disowned, despite his adoration for the elder, wishing Regulus secretly had the courage to stand up to his parents like that, he had formed a sort of personal vendetta against the grey-eyed boy, and so had Sirius.

The duo made sure they clashed in absolutely everything, to Quidditch to their familial views. Regulus was fully ready to be married off to a cousin or other, while Sirius wanted to marry a girl or boy out of love. What only seemed to anger Walburga and Orion Black even more that the heir to their Noble house was bisexual. Regulus had tried multiple times to convince them that it was no sin, he was strengthening the family bond, but he had no luck. Sometimes Sirius felt some sort of regret for acting the way he did, but it quickly vanished when he saw James walking side by side and laughing, fist bumping and exchanging prank ideas all the way.

Regulus and Sirius knew they were destined for bigger and better things.

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1.2k words

first chapter, what do y'all think?

vote! it really helps <3