The Beginning of the End

Effie quickly caught up to Harry and grabbed his arm. He turned around and looked at her, his jade colored eyes meeting her honey brown ones.

"What are you doing?!" She whispered harshly so that people wouldn't look at her as if she had sprouted three heads. He furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm going to go see what Malfoy's up to." He whispered back. Effie let go of his arm and crossed her own arms across her chest.

"I don't think you should do that, Harry. It's completely mental." She said, desperation crossing her soft face. Before Harry had the chance to respond, a man of average height and graying hair came up to the two of them. Effie raised an eyebrow and shifted her weight, a sign of discomfort.

"Harry, m'boy. How are you?" The man asked.

"I'm fantastic, sir. How are you?" Effie was completely confused at this point. She hadn't ever seen any adults on the train besides Professor Lupin.

"I'm more than fine. Harry, would you and your friend like to join me in my compartment? What is your name, dear?" The man asked, turning his attention to Effie.

"Effie Reynolds." Effie was warming up to him now that Harry seemed to know him pretty well.

"Ah, I know your parents. Outstanding Aurors if you ask me. I'm Horace Slughorn by the way." The three of them started walking back to Slughorn's compartment and Effie's mind was just reeling with questions. How did this man know her parents? Did he know that her mother abandoned her? What did he know about herself?

When they got to the compartment, Harry and Effie saw that there was a few other people inside. Effie seated herself next to Harry, not wanting to feel completely uncomfortable.

"Mr. Zambini, Mr. Belby, this is, of course you know already, Harry Potter and Effie Reynolds." Slughorn said. Belby gave a small wave and Blaise Zambini just looked at Effie and Harry. She knew that Blaise was friends with Draco, and Harry knew that too. She was definitely going to have to keep a better eye on him until they got to the school.

"Excuse me, sir. Uhm, how is it that you know my parents exactly?" Effie asked, the questions in her head getting too nagging to wait any longer. Slughorn smiled at her which she found slightly creepy.

"Daniel and Lena were some of my favorite students. Along with Harry's parents and some others." Effie nodded and bit her lip.

"Well, do you know about my mother?" She asked. It wasn't something that she really wanted to discuss but she didn't want him thinking that everything was okay. It would just prove disastrous in the end.

"Ah yes, I'm terribly sorry. Your mother was always a free spirit. Couldn't keep her held down anywhere." He said taking a bite of some weird flavored ice cream or whatever.

"Well, that would explain why Effie is like that." Harry said with a laugh. Effie smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder for a moment.

"My mum is in Romania, well, that's where she was when she wrote to me a few months ago. Who knows where she is now."

The rest of the conversation was between Slughorn, Harry, Blaise, and Belby. Effie didn't have much to say anymore at that point. This was one of her moments where she wanted to be left alone. See, Effie had two speeds, very fast or nothing at all. She was a lot like her mother in that sense.

She missed her mom, she didn't want to have a broken family but she got it anyway. It wasn't that Lena didn't love Daniel, she just wanted to travel and see the world and he didn't want to go with her. She left behind her child for something that she could have done before Effie was even thought of.

"Effie...Effie." She snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her name and looked to see Harry looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"It's time to go back." He said softly. She nodded and stood up, sliding the compartment door open. She immediately felt better when she stepped out. Almost like she was leaving the heaviness in the small room. When she got four compartments away from Ron and Hermione, she realized that Harry wasn't following her anymore. Her eyes widened and she quickly got back to her compartment.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked as soon as Effie sat down. Effie shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I went out to go look for him, met up with some Professor or whatever and then Harry took off. So I think he just wanted to be alone." She hated lying to her friends but it was better they didn't know. They would just freak out and Hermione would be all over Harry's shit telling him that he was being completely mental. Effie couldn't disagree with that. He was being completely mental.

Effie tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for him to come back. He had been gone for about 15 minutes now and she was starting to get worried. She wouldn't be so worried if he hadn't proven to get hurt every damn time he decides to be nosy.

"Effie, are you okay?" Ron asked, giving his friend a curious look. Effie looked up, ceasing all movement.

"Yeah, I'm just anxious to get to Hogwarts." Ron and Hermione didn't quite believe her but they dropped it. They knew Effie wasn't always open about things so they figured it might be one of her moments.

The train finally arrived at Hogwarts and students began filling the aisle. Effie grabbed her rucksack and walked out into the crowd with Hermione and Ron.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked looking aroun with a worried expression.

"He's probably already on the platform." Ron said pulling Hermione gently. Effie hoped that that's where he was so she followed. The night air, to her surprise, wasn't cold or hot. It was perfect, it was refreshing.

The luggage had already been taken up to the front gates of the school. Magic still blew Effie's mind even though she had been around it her whole life.

"I don't see him." Hermione said as they all piled into the carriage to take them up to the school. A sickening feeling settled into Effie's stomach. She knew something bad had happened and she was blaming herself. If only she had kept a closer eye on him. But at the same time, he had the invisibility cloak, how would she have known when he disappeared?

"I'm sure he's fine." Ron said trying to reassure the two girls.

"I hope so." Effie said quietly looking out the window of the carriage. This place was beautiful. The Black Lake, Hogsmeade, the castle, even the Forbidden Forest. It just had this sense of magic about it that made everyone feel right at home.

The carriages pulled up in front of the gates and everyone got out. Effie, Ron, and Hermione kept looking for Harry in the sea of students, which if you had any common sense, you would know that's not easy. Professor Flitwick was standing by the gates, taking down everyone's names. The security on the school had definitely doubled up. Students poured into the doors of the school, anxious to get buried in the wonderful feast.

Effie, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and all of their other friends in Gryffindor got settled into their house table. Soon after, the sorting ceremony began and then the sorting hat was going on with his song. Effie hardly payed attention to it. Her mind was elsewhere.

As the sorting hat was being taken away and the food appeared, Harry came walking into the Great Hall with Luna Lovegood. And of course, he was covered in blood, except this time it was his own. Effie breathed a sigh of relief and could actually start eating.

"Where were you? What happened to your face?" Hermione began bombarding him with questions as soon as he sat down but he just shook them off.

"Later." He said shortly, holding a cloth up to his nose. Effie had a feeling that was Draco's doing. Instead of saying anything though, she sent a glare to Harry and continued to eat.