Semper

23

"You sure about this Padfoot?"

James and Remus exchanged a worried glance as they looked at a grinning Sirius and Aurora. Peter was beside the young werewolf, munching on a chocolate frog the girl had given him before they boarded the train.

"It's never been done before y'know?" Sirius said as the five lurched a bit, feeling the Hogwarts Express start to move.

"This is our last chance to do this Moony, we got to do it now." Aurora said, grinning (like a beautiful madman, according to Remus, yet a madman nonetheless) as she turned to open the window.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" The five suddenly looked back, eyes wide as they stared at the trolley witch surprised.

"I'll have two sugar quills please." Aurora jumped up as she grabbed a few sickles to give her.

"Not that she needs the sugar, she's crazy enough already." Remus mumbled as both him and James sniggered.

Soon the trolley witch was gone, as Aurora had one sugar quill in her mouth as she slowly put her head out of the window, feeling the strong winds whip at her face as she quickly pulled her head back in. "Yeah, a moving magical train. No biggie." She said, high-fiving Sirius as James' eyes widened.

"You're talking about jumping out of a moving magical train and its no biggie?" He all but shrieked as Sirius sniggered.

"Calm down Prongs, your inner Euphemia is showing." He said as James ignored it, but the other four giggled , knowing it was true.

"My inner wha- fine. You want to jump out of the window, go on. I won't stop you!" he huffed as he sat down, but judging from her face, Remus knew that Aurora knew what to say to get him up as he inwardly groaned.

"You accepted the dare back in second year, didn't you? You cant chicken out in the seventh year Prongs!" Sirius said as Aurora nodded.

"What would my dear sister say, when her boyfriend can't live up to his words?" She continued as both exchanged a winning grin.

Bingo.

James narrowed his eyes at her, standing up as he marched towards the open window. Sirius and Aurora fist-bumped as Remus groaned, swiping his hand on his face tiredly as James makes to climb out, almost all of his body was out when he looked back at the other four. "What you waiting for lads? Chickened out yet?" With that he completely disappeared as Sirius laughed, climbing out of the window next and then Peter.

Then only Aurora and Remus were left. Since their kiss back at Aurora's home, they haven't spoken much, let alone about the kiss. So safe to say, things were awkward to say the least. "You can go first." Remus offered as he backed off a bit as Aurora raised an eyebrow in question.

"Fine." She mumbled as she climbed out, standing on top of the train as she felt Remus climb out behind her as she looked at a smirking James and Sirius.

"Took your time didn't you?" Sirius said as Aurora and Remus narrowed their eyes at him.

"Shut up Snuffles." They both said at the same time as they looked at each other , cheeks red as James and Sirius guffawed.

After a minute of silent as the five felt the winds hit them from all angles, Remus sighed as he looked around. "From my calculations-" He started but James interrupted him. "Wait, you knew about this Moony and you didn't tell me?" He gaped as Remus gave him an apologetic smile.

"These two filled me in when you went to do your rounds early with Lily, and I knew they would somehow rope you in, and they already got Peter in – why do you think Rora gave him the Chocolate frog?- so I just gave in and went along with it." He explained as Sirius scoffed.

"Oh please mate, as if you didn't want to jump off the train yourself." He said as Remus stopped for a minute, and shrugged knowing its true as all five laughed.

"Anyways, as I was saying before , from my calculations we should soon be approaching the viaduct and then it will be a short hike to a rugged building which is under construction for something. It's big and isolated so we won't have problem reaching there." He said as all of them nodded.

"The water will be an extremely useful backup if our cushioning charms don't work, which they will because we got myself and James as the charms experts." Aurora said as Peter looked behind the group and saw someone unexpected.

"Uh guys." He started but no one listened as they continued discussing the schematics of when to jump, "Guys the Trolley witch." He tried again as James looked at where he was pointing to and indeed, the Trolley Witch was coming their way.

"Wormtail I just gave you my last chocolate frog why-" Aurora stopped as she too saw the Witch approaching them, an uncommonly deadly look in her eyes as they narrowed at the five.

"Anything from the Trolleys dear? Pumpkin Pasty, Chocolate Frog, Cauldron Cake?" She nonchalantly asked as the five shook their heads almost simultaneously. "People don't know much about me, they buy my Cauldron Cakes – but they never really notice me. I don't remember the last time someone asked me my name." She continued as Sirius exchanged a look with Peter beside him.

"What is your name?" James asked as the Witch shrugged.

"I don't know. I've forgotten. All I can tell you is that when the Hogwarts Express first came to be – Ottaline Gambol herself offered me this job."

"That's a long time . Mustn't it get lonely?" Peter asked the trolley witch said nothing, as she slowly took out a chocolate frog from her pocket.

"These hands have made over five million Chocolate frogs. I've got quite good at them. But what people haven't noticed about my Chocolate Frogs is how easily they can transform into something else..." She said as she threw the frog at the group, as it exploded mere feet away from them as all five shrieked and jumped back.

"Okay I digress, this is a bad idea." Sirius said as all five took tentative steps back as Remus shot him a look.

"You don't say Sirius!" He said as the witch threw another Frog at them, this time closer to Aurora as she shrieked and almost instinctively Remus stepped towards her, but stopped as he noticed a weird fog emitting all around them.

"No one has ever gotten off this train before it reaches it's destination NO ONE!" He faintly heard the Trolley witch say as he looked at the said witch, as his eyes widened when he noticed her hands transfigure into sharp spikes.

"So please, retake your seats for the remainder of your journey." Was all he heard as she went down the floor, succumbing into a deep slumber.

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