YEAR 3: Chapter 1: A Bad Start

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I thought this year maybe, just maybe, was going to be normal. But I was wrong. Of course. How did I ever think that I was going to have a normal time at school while Harry Potter was around? Not that it really mattered. Our lives were constantly in danger and my brother and I had in the meantime broken more schoolrules than we could ever think of. But it was so exciting. As someone who has had a boring life with a terrible mother, my life has gotten so much better. But when your holiday ends with a bad feeling, you know the year is going to be a lot more dangerous.

We didn't stay at Ron's this holiday. Mom told us she didn't wanted us to hang out with Harry. Why? I have no idea. Neville and I were, of course, furious, that we had to stay the entire summer at home. Because we didn't really had any other place to go. So I practiced spells again. And Apparition. Which was getting a lot easier. We did keep contact by sending my owl to Hermione, Harry and the Weasleys once in a while.

We luckily did manage to make our mother sign a paper for school, so we could go to Hogsmeade, a village nearby Hogwarts, in our free time.

My brother and I were glad when it was finally time to return to Hogwarts. When mom said goodbye to us at the station, she hesitated for a moment.
"A word of caution, children," she said, almost whispering. "Your mad father has broken out of Azkaban. He is very dangerous."
"Broken out?" I repeated. "But Azkaban is like, the greatest and most protected prison in the world!"
Neville looked a bit scared at me.
"Exactly," mom said. "That's why he's so dangerous. Do not get near him, do you understand?"
"Yes, mom," Neville and I said. My thoughts were rushing through my head. Wasn't he the nice man I had pictured after all? I had to admit to myself, he was known as a mass-murderer and a follower of Voldemort.

When we got on the train, I didn't see any of our friends yet, so Neville and I just sat somewhere. When the train finally started loading, two boys appeared at our cabin. I recognized one of them. The Hufflepuff Seeker.
"Can we sit here?" he asked.
"Sure," I said.
I stared out the window and tried not to pay attention to the boy. He was just talking to his friend, when he suddenly said: "Do you play Quidditch, too?"
I looked up and noticed he was talking to me.
"Oh, no, I kind of have a fear of heights. What about you? I think I saw you in the air one time."
"Yeah," he answered. "I'm a Seeker and Captain of the Hufflepuff team."
Little did he know I already knew that, but if I told him that, it would look like I was stalking him. I didn't. He wasn't unattractive, though. Girls were constantly staring at him, but he never seemed to pay attention.

"Aren't you the two kids related to Sirius Black?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm Jynx Black," I said with a light sigh. I was absolutely not in the mood for this conversation. "And yes, I know he escaped Azkaban."
"And I'm Neville," my brother said, trying to join the conversation that didn't exist.
"I'm Cedric Diggory."
I kind of smiled, and didn't really know how to react.
I did know that everyone was going to stare at Neville and me once we were at school. And I was not looking forward to it.

You could see that Neville and I were related, but we didn't exactly look like twins. Neville's face was more round, mine was longer, and I was skinny, unlike my brother. We both had dark hair, but Neville had green-grey eyes, like our father, and I had brown eyes, like... no one. I was by a few minutes older, but Neville started to grow taller than me.

After a while the train suddenly stopped and the lights failed. I sat right up.
"What's happening?" Neville asked. No one answered, because no one knew.
I looked out the window. It was dark outside, and the windows were misty. I wondered where our friends were. I hadn't seen them anywhere yet. Would this have anything to do with Harry? Because everytime something strange happened, it was mostly because of him.
"Wait here," I said with hesitation as I stood up.
"Jynx, stay here," Neville said.
"I'll be right back," I replied. Neville came after me anyway.

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