Lady Stardust

02. The Hogwarts Express

"Hello, gentlemen. Miss me?" A deep theatrical voice rolled. Remus, the curly-haired boy blushed. Ariene looked at him curiously. She shifted her glance to the boy who entered the cabin. He was shorter than the others. He had long dark brown hair, deep, piercing blue eyes, and was much less "boyish" than the rest of them. He had to be at least a year older. He strolled in and sat down next to Remus. Remus's eyes widened and Ariene pressed her lips together to hide her smile. Remus obviously liked this confident dark-haired boy. Can you blame him, though?

"Why, hello." The boy said, turning to look at her. "I'm Sirius." He said, extending his hand. Ariene quickly shook it.

"Ariene Genet," She said. James coughed and Peter looked up.

"Genet?" Sirius confirmed in surprise. Ariene nodded. "Well, what the bloody hell are you doing on the Hogwarts Express?" He exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Ariene asked.

"Aren't your kind all required to attend Beauxbatons?" Sirius asked.

"Yes." She said, ignoring the amusement.

"So?" He asked.

"Well, you're obviously the clever one!" Ariene said with heavy sarcasm. That earned a loud snicker from Remus. Sirius gave him a dirty look.

"Thought it would be Glasses over there." She continued. That got Peter to laugh too. The corner of Sirius's mouth twitched but he remained composed.

"No, seriously. Why don't you go to Beauxbatons?" Sirius asked.

"Well, if we're being Sirius," Ariene said theatrically in a good imitation of him. She leaned back on her seat confidently. James snorted.

"Got kicked out." She admitted. James raised his eyebrows.

"You're bluffing." He said.

"Nope. Got expelled." Ariene said. They all looked impressed. Well, besides Peter, who looked rather nervous.

***

The five of them chatted for a while. While James was going on about quidditch, a sport that drove her family crazy, Ariene let a skinny white kitten out of her cat carrier. Remus, the curly-haired boy winced and shifted further away, right into Sirius, earning another blush. She pet her cat, Bowie, as James continued excitedly about being quidditch captain.

"Aw, she's cute." Sirius interrupted. James gave him a glum look, clearly annoyed the attention shifted.

"He." Ariene corrected.

"Ah. What's his name?" Sirius asked.

"Bowie." Ariene said.

"You're joking. As in David Bowie?" Remus said.

"There's only one," Ariene said, sighing. Remus looked at Sirius and smiled. They looked each other in the eyes for a second, and then Sirius turned back to her.

"He has two different colored eyes!" Sirius said, examining her new cat. Ariene nodded. "What's your favorite Bowie song?" He asked.

"Changes," Ariene said.

"You don't say much, do you?" Sirius asked, nonchalantly petting Bowie.

"Nope."

***

The train slowly pulled to a halt and people hustled to get off of it. She learned a lot about each of the boys. Peter seemed quite anxious and really liked James, Remus was a prefect. He left at the start of the train ride to join the other prefects so she didn't learn much about him. He was obviously head-over-heels for Sirius. Sirius was clearly oblivious. Sirius seemed to have family issues as well. She still wasn't sure. James was an overconfident boy but he was probably her favorite at the moment. They walked off the train and onto the grounds. They all went into the carriages except for Remus, who went with a redheaded girl to the prefect carriages.

"So what house are you in?" Peter asked.

"Oh, I don't know yet. What house are you guys in?" Ariene asked.

"Gryffindor." They all answered.

"I hope you're Gryffindor. Otherwise, we just spent the last 4 hours talking to an enemy." Peter said. James shoved his head.

"We're not first years anymore," James muttered.

"A lot of rivalries then?" Ariene asked. They nodded.

"Hm." She said. She really couldn't care less, as long as she was out of this school by Halloween.

***

When the carriages pulled to a stop at the front of the school. Hogwarts was nothing compared to the Beauxbatons Palace. Tons of sticky little first years were squirming around looking lost.

"Wow. How was the prefect ride?" James asked a smiling Remus.

"T'was fine."

"Did Lily talk about me at all?" James asked.

"Oh yeah. Loads." Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"Really?!" James practically squealed.

"No, you wanker." Remus said. Sirius sniggered. The five walked among the other students towards the school. When they got in there was already a line of tiny children going to the front of the hall.

"What are they doing? What's going on?" Ariene asked Remus.

"It's the sorting. You can probably sit with us while they get sorted." Remus said. They walked to an empty spot at the table. Ariene sat next to Remus.

"Why's she sitting with us?" Peter asked, panicked.

"Shut it, Pettigrew." Sirius snapped. Peter looked down at his empty plate, ears red.

"Peter has a point. We don't even know if she's a Gryffindor." James said.

"Not like it matters," Ariene muttered. Sirius raised an eyebrow with curiosity. He was the only one who heard.

***

She inspected her nails as the little kids got sorted. She barely paid attention, until Jilbris Flores walked over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Ariene Genet?" The old witch called. Ariene looked up immediately. Murmurs went through the crowd. She looked at the four boys sitting near her. They all looked surprised.

"Ariene Genet?" The witch repeated.

"There is no way that filthy old hat is going on top of my head." She whispered to Remus.

"That's your first thought!? Go!" He whispered back, shoving her. She got up and gracefully walked toward the front.

"There you are, dear. Please, sit." The witch said. Ariene sat on the dirty stool so many children sat on before her. There were more murmurs in the crowd. Someone catcalled and that earned a few chuckles. Ariene was mortified. She didn't let it show, of course.

"There we go," The witch said, putting the crusty, musty, old hat on Ariene's shiny brown hair. Ariene tried her best to hide her disgust.

"Blimey, what have we here? A Genet? In the Hogwarts Great Hall?" The hat purred. She shivered. Get on with it, Ariene thought, nervously smiling at the crowd.

"Yes, yes. Very unlike the rest of your family indeed. No doubt, Gryffindor!" The hat exclaimed. There were cheers from the Gryffindor table, especially where those four boys were sitting. Ariene didn't get the fuss. At least the horrendous hat would come off now. Whispers went through the professors' table at the front and Ariene turned to see a very distressed Dumbledore. She'd only seen him in person once, for a quick moment, before her mother closed the door to continue the application meeting.

"Very, very good dear," The old witch stammered, looking quite concerned. What was going on? Ariene walked back to the four boys, unsure, and the table cheered again.

"Well, you're a Gryffindor!" Sirius said with hopefulness in his voice. He definitely noticed the stressed looks at the professors' table. Ariene wondered what could've gone wrong.