The Next Generation and the Followers of Darkness

Back at the compartment where the Gryffindor boys were talking, they were playing exploding snap. James had found them and smiled as Melody walked in. She grinned back as she stood in the doorway, craning her neck to look up and down the corridor. Despite her promise two hours earlier, Amelia was no where to be seen.

"Has Amelia been here recently?" she asked, dreading the possible answer. If Melody had been late and missed her sister, Amelia would definitely be in a worse mood once they reached Hogwarts.

"No," Oliver said. She was glad to see that he was smiling again even as they spoke of their older sister. "I think she's avoiding us."

Taking the empty seat nearest the door, Melody let out a sigh. In a way she was relieved that her sister was too busy to have lunch with her. Amelia would have been quite intense after the issue with Oliver. Although she was typically kind-hearted, Amelia could become unpleasant after an altercation. Of course, sometimes she was just downright rude. Melody felt a twinge of guilt at that thought. She loved her sister no matter what.

Twenty minutes later, Melody was positive that Amelia wouldn't be coming by. The food trolley had stopped in the corridor and the boys had ended up buying some pumpkin pasties, licorice wands, Chocolate Frogs, and even Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Currently, they were throwing the beans to each other, trying to catch them in their mouths. James tossed a brown one at Oliver. The latter boy caught it and chewed, a disgusted expression crossing his face.

"What the hell is that? Oh, that is not chocolate!" he said, spitting the half-chewed bean into an empty wrapper. "That tasted like shite!"

"Well, the box says 'Every Flavor,'" James chuckled. The five of them burst into laughter. Melody smiled a bit.

She was now brooding on the events and meetings that had occurred since she boarded the train. James bumping into her stuck out, as well as the introductions of the Gryffindor boys — Hayden, Richard, and Luke. She had hit it off right away with Rose and Albus, who she would go back to later. But one person had the most curious effect on her.

That Scorpius boy had seemed so desperate to make friends as he was thrown from that compartment, but as soon as he was approached by someone, his hostility flared up. She wanted to understand. After the conversation in the corridor, they had just stated their names before going separate ways. Melody wanted to know why he was being rejected — and why he insisted on meeting people on his own terms. Still, the simple exchange of names seemed to have been significant.

The sound of someone doing magic tore her from her thoughts. While she had grown up seeing her parents doing magic around the house, watching it now was intriguing. She couldn't wait to learn what these boys knew. Or pretended to know.

Luke had pulled out his wand. He pointed it at a pasty that had fallen, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" with a small flick of the wrist.

Instantly, the pasty lifted into the air and he proceeded to make it zoom about the compartment. Melody watched it for a moment, then looked past the boys, out the window. It was raining slightly now and tiny raindrops fell upon the glass. The mountains in the distance were hidden by the grey clouds.

The flying pasty hit her square in the nose suddenly.

"Ow!" she cried.

Luke gasped, turning bright red and lowering his wand. The pasty fell into her lap. But he smiled as Melody began to laugh.

"It's all right," she said. "But isn't that just a basic levitation charm? You must've learned more complicated magic than that since your first year!"

"Of course, we have!" Hayden argued. "We just — uh . . . haven't retained it all . . ."

"Prove it," said Melody. She picked up the pasty from her lap and took off the wrapper. Eating it in silence, she watched intently as the boys attempted to transfigure Richard's toad, Oscar, into a snuff box in turn. It wasn't going very well.

But as she watched the boys doing magic — granted it was quite pathetic for them being third years — Melody had a sudden idea.

"Will you teach me how to perform the levitation charm?" she asked. It was most likely she would fail; still, it couldn't hurt to try. "I know I've never done magic before but . . ."

She trailed off, grinning at the boys.

"Sure," said James. "I'll teach you."

"All right."

Melody hopped to her feet, leapt onto the seat below the luggage rack, and reached into her trunk, feeling around for her wand. Her hand finally closed around the eleven inch piece of pine wood. Lux had woken up and watched curiously from her cage. Plopping down between James and Oliver, she realized how quickly the Gryffindor boys had accepted her as one of them. Now she desperately hoped to be in their House.

"I'm just curious," Richard said. "What type of core is in your wand?"

"Dragon heartstring," replied Melody.

"Interesting," Hayden chimed in. "Wands with that core tend to produce the most flamboyant spells and learn much quicker than wands with phoenix tail feather or unicorn tail hair in them. My own wand contains a dragon heartstring," he added proudly.

"Oh, stop making the rest of us feel stupid," Oliver teased. "Just because you study wandlore doesn't make you any better than us. Arse."

"True, we get about the same grades, but that's because I'm constrained in Gryffindor. If I were a Ravenclaw, I'd wipe the floor with you four!"

Everyone laughed. A prefect poked his head in, glaring about the compartment for a moment, as if he expected something mischievous to be going on. But his expression softened slightly at the sight of Richard.

"Oh, hey, Ed!" said Richard. "Don't worry, we're not blowing anything up in here."

"Don't call me 'Ed' anymore. I prefer to go by Edward now," said the boy from the platform. It was the dark-haired boy Amelia had been gazing at with stars in her eyes. Melody suppressed a grin.

"Well, 'Edward' — let us introduce you to Melody Smith, first year and future Gryffindor according to Luke."

"Pleasure to meet you." Edward's face lit up at the name Smith. "That would be great if you're in Gryffindor."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Melody said politely.

"So, what are you miscreants up to, if not making things explode?" said Edward, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

"Melody's going to master the levitation charm in a few moments," explained Luke as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "The Inner Eye tells me so . . ."

Edward burst out laughing.

"You're kidding me! Luke, you're taking Divination? Oh, I've got to be getting back to the front. See you all later!"

And Edward left the compartment, chuckling slightly. Luke glared after him.

"Divination sounded more interesting than Arithmancy —"

"Anyway," James cut in before Luke could start ranting, "for this charm, the wrist movement is a quick swish and flick, like this" — he demonstrated the movement — "and the words are 'Wingardium Leviosa.'"

Melody tried, aiming the spell at a Chocolate Frog pack on the floor. It didn't budge. Again and again she swished and flicked, but nothing happened. She was getting frustrated. Usually, she was good at things right away. If not, her temper rose with every failure.

Then, the Chocolate Frog rose off the floor a few inches before dropping back down again. Oliver, James, Luke, Richard, and Hayden cheered.

"Good job, Melody!"

"Hey, not bad."

"I knew you could do it!"

"Congratulations!"

"Well done."

She flushed pink, and after a few more tries, she had the Chocolate Frog flying about the compartment. But, once again, the door opened, and someone snatched the treat right out of the air. The boys' faces fell.

"What do you want, Almer?" Oliver said, his tone suddenly grave.

The boy was opening the Chocolate Frog slowly, a horrible grin on his face. He dark eyes looked around the compartment from Richard to Luke to Hayden to Oliver to James — passing over Melody's face, before going back to her.

"You must be Smith's pathetic little sister," Almer said, his dark brown hair framing his tan face. He stuffed the Chocolate Frog into his mouth, throwing the card to the side. Just by his contempt toward the Gryffindor boys, Melody could tell he was a Slytherin. She just narrowed her eyes at him.

He stepped into the compartment and all the boys tensed suddenly. But no one made a move to stop him as leaned closed to Melody, examining her face. She held his gaze.

"I've heard him talk about you," he said in barely a whisper. "You're much less . . . incredible than he described you. But he's always been one to exaggerate. Said you were amazing. What a lying arse. . . . And these friends of his are no better."

Melody glanced sideways at Oliver, who was staring at his shoes. The others were doing the same — diverting their eyes as Almer spoke.

They were scared of upsetting this boy. Almer was putting them down and they weren't reacting. It was the most unbelievable thing. How could one boy be able to control these five friends?

Melody wasn't about to put up with him.

"Get out," she muttered, meeting his gaze. For a moment, Almer seemed taken aback. Apparently, no one in this compartment had stood up to him before.

"Pardon?" said Almer, regaining his composure.

"Get out," Melody said, louder. She stood up. Almer took a step back. "Get out of this compartment, right now."

He scoffed at her.

"You can't tell me what to do! I'm a third year and you haven't even been Sorted yet."

"And I hope to be in Gryffindor, like my brother."

"You have no right to give me orders, Smith!"

"Get out," Melody said firmly.

With a huff of frustration, Almer turned back to the compartment door and sauntered out, glaring at Melody before disappearing down the corridor. She exhaled as soon as he was gone. Sitting back down, she saw the boys shocked expressions.

"What?" snapped Melody.

"You just stood up to Eadric Almer," Luke explains. "That must've took a lot of guts."

"Of course, it did," said Melody. "I've never done anything remotely like that before. I just couldn't believe how much power he had over you guys. It was mad!"

"He's like that with everyone," said James, rolling his eyes. "I really hate him."

"Everyone hates Almer," remarked Oliver, slouching in his seat. "The only people who don't are either Slytherin or those who do his bidding."

"You see," Hayden began, "Almer comes from a pureblood family. He thinks he's entitled to rights others are denied — although some of those 'rights' are completely ridiculous —"

"— and one of those is having a small group of servants," said Richard. "Everyone below the third year doesn't want to be on his bad side, and those who wish to be repaid one day join his little group. They're from all four Houses."

"But why is everyone scared of him? What can he really do?" asked Melody.

"He's very persuasive when it comes to teachers," Oliver said. "Tips off the caretaker if you cross him. Mess with him, and he blames you for something in class."

"Or him and his followers arrange an accident to land you in the hospital wing," James said grimly. "You standing up to him is quite a pleasant surprise. He can't do anything to you now, but be careful when we get to Hogwarts."

"Speaking of Hogwarts," Richard said, "we should be almost there by now."

It was dark outside, and, as predicted, it was pouring rain.

"Have fun in the boats," Oliver joked, ruffling Melody's hair. She ran her fingers through it. Looking at her brother's watch, she realized how much time had passed since she had last seen Albus and Rose.

"I'm gonna go find my friends," she called over her shoulder as she dashed out of the compartment and down the corridor to the end of the train, stuffing her wand into her robes as she went.

But halfway there, she ran into someone else she knew.

Scorpius came out of a compartment, she waved to him and grinned a bit. Her expression faded as Eadric Almer came out behind him.

"Hello, Melody," Scorpius said.

"Hmm," she replied, shoving past him and running down the corridor, not looking back, her robes streaming out behind her.

Coming to a halt outside Albus and Rose's compartment, she knocked politely on the door. Someone yelled from within and Melody entered.

Her two friends were no longer alone. A tall boy with dark blond hair and blue eyes sat beside Albus, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Across from him was a girl with black hair, whose brown eyes darted about the compartment observantly, taking in everything.

"Oh, hello," the girl said with a wide grin. "Aubree Bremner."

Aubree held out her hand in greeting, and Melody took it. The boy she soon discovered was Pierson Hastings. Both were first years as well.

"They came in shortly after you left," Rose explained.

"So, is everyone ready?" said Pierson, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "I'm terrified."

"Don't be worried," Aubree reassured him. "It's not too bad at Hogwarts. I'm the first of the sisters to come, but my parents told me everything and I've read almost every book about the school I could get my hands on."

"Aspiring to be a Ravenclaw much?" Melody asked. She had taken a seat beside the girl. Just like with Rose and Albus, the five of them were instant friends.

"Of course," Aubree answered.

"You sound like my aunt Hermione," Albus chuckled. "She reads so much, information pours out of her."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with reading!" Rose said in defense of her mother.

"I never said there was."

"What House do you think you'll be in, Pierson?"

"I don't know, just not Slytherin I hope," said Pierson.

The train was slowing down and nerves were running high. The five first years sat in their compartment, chewing finger nails, tapping feet, and shaking uncontrollably. Finally, a voice said to leave all luggage on the train.

Melody, Albus, Rose, Aubree, and Pierson had their noses pressed against the glass as the train pulled into the station. It was so dark that they couldn't see a thing, but they also didn't want to miss a bit.

As soon as the train had completely stopped, the corridors flooded with students pouring onto the rain-soaked platform.

A huge man was towering above the students. Albus and Rose made their way toward him as soon as their feet hit the platform, and Melody, Aubree, and Pierson followed them, pulling their cloaks over their heads.

"Firs' years, this way! Firs' years!" Hagrid yelled through the downpour. "Hullo, Albus, Rose! How're yer mums an' dads?"

"They're great, Hagrid," Rose said from beneath her cloak.

Once all the first years were assembled in front of Hagrid, he led them away from the others, down a path toward a lake, according to Oliver. She saw her brother and friends and waved good-bye, but it was likely they couldn't see her. She also saw Amelia and Jeremy, but hid her face instead of greeting them. Her oldest sister had broken her lunch promise.

Melody suddenly found Scopius at her side.

"Hey," whispered Scorpius. "Excited?"

"Yep," Melody said with a hint of grin on her face. Despite her frustration with him, Scorpius was acting more kindly toward her after their initial meeting on the train.

None of the first years spoke as they walked down the muddy path, slipping and sliding all the way. Both sides were dark, and they followed Hagrid's enormous shadow closely. Every once and a while someone squeaked as they stumbled in the mud. But eventually, they rounded a corner and came to the edge of a vast lake. It was difficult to see through the rain, but across the lake, at the top of a high cliff, the first years got their first view of the spires and towers of Hogwarts.