Gone Awry

Hogwarts. There it stood in front of them. Perjured on a high cliff on the other side of lake, the returning students were only able to see the dark silhouette in front of the brightly shining moon, from the distance. But that was enough to let a smile creep on their faces as they returned to their home.

Swiftly Ash turned to look at her friends and grinned at them excitedly. Happy that their friend seemed to be her 'normal' self again - you couldn't really describe her personality normal at all - they smiled back at her and made their way to the carriages.

However, what they didn't notice was, that her gaze had drifted of a bit to their left, where she had seen a platinum blond boy exit the train, tightly followed by a pug-faced girl and two massive bodies.

As she saw him, her heart skipped a beat in pain and she tried to pry her eyes of him. But something in his face made her stop.

His gaze was fixed on the castle in front of him, but unlike the rest of the student body, his eyes weren't filled with joy, his expression not that of excitement. Instead his eyes held sorrow and fear in them, his face was tense and strict. Letting her eyes wander over the boys body, she saw him rubbing his left arm carefully.

Frowning ever so slightly, Ash slowly bit her lower lip as she let her eyes wander towards her friends again. She had only started at him for a second, but it felt to her as if it had been a life time.

She saw it, and she knew that boy well enough to know that something was up. Something had happened during the holidays that had changed his life forever and something is about to happen before the year is over.

Whatever it was, only Draco knew about it...

"I'm starving," a voice suddenly interrupted her train of thought.

"Same here!" Ash groaned, pushing the sight of her ex-boyfriend to the back of her mind. "I could eat a whole horse right now!"

"Only a horse? I could eat a whole elephant right now!" Tracy stated with a smirk.

"Oh yeah? well I'm so hungry I could eat a whole horse and a elephant!" Ash countered.

Chase pulled a eyebrow up and started at Ash as if she had three heads. "Your weird. No one can eat a whole horse and an elephant."

Ash looked at her blond friend confused. "No one can eat a whole elephant, par sé."

"Course they can."

"Nope. I'm even a bit sceptical about eating a whole horse alone."

"I saw someone eat a elephant."

"But not a whole elephant, right?"

"Well... in the end there was no elephant left..."

"But he couldn't eat it in one meal, and probably he shared it with someone..." as Ash saw Chase open his mouth to argue back, she quickly added," also, being a giant doesn't count!"

Briskly Chase closed his mouth again and pouted. "Your stupid," he grumbled and turned away from her jokingly.

"Aww, isn't my little brother just cute?" Ash cooed grinning and pulling on his cheeks.

"Oww! Stop it! That hurts!" he cursed at her, while Ash just continued grinning, although she did let go of him.

"Oh, come on Chase. Don't be such a baby!"

"I'm not a baby!"

"You are in this group," Blaise chuckled lightly, reminding Chase that he was their junior by at least a year.

"By the way, when is your birthday?" Ash asked shocked that she hadn't bothered to ask earlier.

"... ummm... I thought I told you... My birthday is on September 1st."

Ash looked at her fellow beater baffled before laughing. "Haha! So - so your 11th birthday was on the day you came to Hogwarts?"

"Yeah..."

"Doesn't that mean that your ... the youngest in your grade?"

Sighing Chase nodded. "Wow... all those girls from sixth grade are paedophiles!" Ash joked grinning and hugged Chase when she saw his annoyed face. "Oh, don't pull that face, before it stays like that!"

"Imagine... one day younger and you would be a 5th year! So be happy!" Ash grinned at him. Suddenly the carriage they were in slowed down and stopped in front of the castle doors.

"WE'RE BACK!" she screamed as the carriage door opened magically and she jumped out, right into a puddle of mud.

"Good job, Ash!" Tracy laughed as she slowly got out of the wagon, skipping over the puddle, as did the other two Slytherins.

Ash looked at them in shock before she started laughing full heartedly herself. "This is sooooo typical!" she chuckled and walked out of the wet dirt that clung to her legs. Drying the dirt in her shoes and legs magically, she shrugged of the idea of changing before dinner and followed her laughing comrades into the Great Hall, where she was greeted by a warm and welcoming feeling.