𝑆𝐸𝐶𝑂𝑁𝐷 𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑁𝐶𝐸𝑆 // 𝐽𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑐

Chapter 2: Hogwarts

Wednesday 1st September 1976

The sound of the steam engine is like music to her ears, the hustle and bustle of families saying their first goodbyes to the new first years, the hugs of good friends that have been missing each other since before summer. Somehow, between all the chatting and the shouting, Nova feels at peace, comfortable, something she hadn't felt for a month or so.

Her parents did not walk her through into platform 9 3/4, and a part of her is glad at that because she wouldn't want to be seen with her parents for the reason that people will then think she is her parents. And Nova is anything but.

She doesn't even try to look for Regulus or any of her other friends, instead, she heads straight to the train with her trunk in her hands. She pushes past younger children, squeezes her way past the taller ones and mumbles excuse me's all the way through, in search for an empty carriage.

She is a prefect again this year, meaning they will have secluded and larger carriages at the back of the train, so she makes her way there, assuming Regulus too will be there as he has been appointed prefect this year. Regulus is a year believe below Nova, and starting his fifth year at Hogwarts.

The first year she attended Hogwarts she had to make nice with other people, and would sometimes talk to Sirius but he made his own friends rapidly and was glued to them for life — James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

Speak of the devil, there, standing by the door of the prefect's carriage is none other than Potter. She continues walking with her head held high and clears her throat once she gets in front of him.

"Excuse me." She says, more so looking at Remus, who is also a prefect.

Remus turns to face the girl, and again she is shocked with the height of this boy, once again taking another stretch over summer. Nova isn't small, she is about 5'7 which is above average for a girl, but she assumes she won't grow any taller now that she is sixteen.

"Hey Nova," Remus greets her. She had never had a problem with Remus, their acquaints who keep at a safe distance but always polite. She hadn't ever had a problem with James either, not personally anyway, but she wasn't speaking to Sirius considering he abandoned Regulus and since James was glued to his hip, she doesn't speak to James either. Besides, they are Gryffindors and she is a Slytherin, their paths are destined to split and end up in opposing teams, so it would be pointless to become friends now, only to fight against each other later.

"Hiya." She greets him back.

"Good summer?" James says, looking at Nova. She felt she wanted to be taller at this moment, to be able to look down on James, but unfortunately, he was just a few inches too tall.

She didn't look him in the eye when she responded bitterly, "yup."

She felt the two boys look at each other for a moment before letting her pass, Remus made a comment saying how he'll see her at the study group, she responded with a nod.

Quickly she found Regulus sitting in a carriage himself, sitting up with his back against the window as he picked at his nails.

"You should stop that, it's a bad habit," Nova said as she opened the doors, walking into the carriage.

"And you pestering me about it, is also a bad habit." He quipped back, glancing at the girl as she placed her trunk up on the shelf.