My Best Friend Ana / Marauders Era

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The castle was like a brightly lit painting that filled Tom's heart with warmth and an overwhelming sense of home. That's what it felt like to walk down the stone floors and smile at paintings as he passed on his way to the great hall for the returning feast. He had caught sight of the first years back at Hogsmeade train station and he wondered if he ever looked that small before.

Donna had laughed when he spoke his thoughts aloud and she dived into the story of freckle-faced, dirty blond hair, "baby" Tom before puberty with his high voice and a forgotten shyness. Russ was doubled over laughing with fond memories of their group of friends back in the day, as he said.

It was only the three of them for the entire journey. They knew that Marty would be in with the prefects and the Ravenclaw head girl, but that left three of their friends missing and Tom still hadn't seen any of them. Donna and Russ were walking behind him, with Russ' arm tightly wrapped around her whilst she told him a very riveting story that happened during summer.

Russ was barely listening, he was more focused on his arm around her.

Tom was too far deep in his memories of the place, a twinge of nostalgia waving over him with something too warm to be sadness. He could remember falling victim to the pranks the Marauders (as they called themselves) played, but he laughed with the boys after it and even got them back occasionally if he really prepared himself to think of something good. Not just anyone could pull off a prank on the marauders, and the few times he did he had to get all of his friends involved to even stand a chance.

He wondered how they hadn't been expelled yet, but the boys were good people regardless of what anyone said.

"Marty!" the familiar voice of Jack Elway bounced through the corridor and Tom stopped in his tracks, eyes scanning over the heads of students to see if he could find her. He was nearing the end of the corridor when he heard the sound of her voice and hurried round to see if there were any sight of the girl.

He didn't expect to see her pushed right against the wall, eyes closed, repeatedly shouting for their friend Marty as though her life depended on it, "Jack...Merlin are you alright?"

Amused was a very good word to describe how Tom felt at the sight of the girl, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him, "Tom!"

"Alright, Jack?" he laughed, wrapping his arm around her tightly, "good summer?"

"It wasn't bad," she grinned, "I looked everywhere on the train for you - well...I did at first, but then I got bored and just found a compartment with Marty and Joel."

"I'm glad to see I'm one of your top priorities," Tom scoffed, "you looked like you were going to cry a minute ago."

"Fucking first years Tom, I swear!" she was incorrect with her statement, but Tom knew what she meant. Jack had a tendency to relate to anyone that seemed more than a few years younger than her to a first year if they got on her nerves. She didn't understand the constant need for the screaming when the students greeted each other in the hallway, especially early in the morning when she was running late for class.

Now, though, she had almost been trampled by a group of second years that had found the other half of their friend group and she had been one second off being caught in the middle of it. She wasn't a confrontational person, and Tom knew for a fact she'd never dare to speak to the mini-devils, but that didn't stop her from ranting about them to her friends.

Tom couldn't deny that he agreed.

"I see you're in a great first day back mood," Tom snorted, pulling her along. Whilst Jack was in the middle of ranting about the second years and greeting both Donna and Russ (whilst asking if they had fucked yet, much to Donna's embarrassment...as well as Russ' because they definitely had not) Tom looked out for Marty and Joel. He hadn't the faintest idea of where the two were, but they couldn't have gone far.