Camaraderie


A sixteen year old, round faced girl sat in a classroom, alone. She folded her hands together as she glanced around the room, waiting for the Professor to re-enter and give her the lecture she knew was coming. The room was filled with posters made by other students for a very unique project for their English class. Hers was the most beautiful of them, depicting and explaining the story of Zeus, a Greek God they had been learning about. She did not care that she had received the best grade on the project, nor that hers was even given a place of honour in the center of all the posters. She only cared that she was currently being prevented from going back home, all for a situation that she couldn't fully explain to her teacher without getting into any real trouble. She knew what she would have to do, but had decided to try an alternative way, for she was too tired for the plan her parents had suggested to her. Finally, her teacher entered the room.

"Alice," she said as she sat down opposite her, each now facing the teacher's desk.

"Professor Rawlins," Alice replied, a little hesitantly.

"Do you know why I'd like to speak with you?" Professor Rawlins asked her, in the somewhat tough way that teachers often used.

"Not fully, Ma'am," Alice lied, "Unless it really is because I've been sick."

"Well…in a way…that is exactly it."

"Am I in trouble for it?"

"Not exactly, dear, I'd just like to…I'd just like to ask you a few questions."

Alice prevented herself from letting out a heaving sigh as she politely straightened up, now resting her joined hands onto the desk in front of her. She decided to continue lying for a while, just in case it ended up working, but knew she would have to stop is her Professor began to ask too many questions. It didn't matter much: Alice had learned to lie at a very young age, and was very good at creating stories that were so elaborate that they almost had to be true. Of course, most of the time, they weren't. She looked up, giving Rawlins permission to ask her questions.

"Well…the first thing I'd like to know is…what were you sick with yesterday?"

"I wasn't feeling well…I had a bit of a fever, and didn't want to chance coming to school."

"But…Alice…did your parents know about this?"

"Yes Ma'am. In fact, they encouraged my not coming."

"Have your parents ever given thought to the idea of you…boarding with the other girls?"

Alice looked down, hiding her eyes. "Well…they have…but we don't have enough money to afford boarding. Besides, we live so close to the school that it doesn't matter much. They just need to drive me in." Her teacher sighed, tilting her head a little to the side. Her expression was one that was quite serious, but also calm.

"Alice, you do realize how much school you have been missing this year, yes?"

"Oh, of course I do. But it's alright…I take all my assignments home, or have somebody bring them to me. You know that I've never missed a due date."

"Who takes them home to you?"

"Why…my friends."

Rawlins frowned. "Alice, that was one thing I wanted to speak with you about. Now…I'm afraid…that you don't seem to have many friends."

"Well, I don't really have much time for many friends. Still, I've made a fair amount of acquaintances. They're always very nice and helpful about what I've missed."

"Yes, and you always get your homework done. Impressive, considering that you seem to hardly ever be at home. When people ask you where you go at nights, you tell them that are out somewhere, and that's why you could not visit with them. So, Alice, where do you so often go to?"

Alice lifted her head, brave enough for her next lie. "Well, my parents take me out a lot. We go and visit our family. That's another reason I don't board with the girls - when you're boarding, you can only go so far away from the school, and some of our relatives are quite far out.

"And you can visit them and return in only one afternoon?"

"Well, we usually come home quite late."

"Alice, I don't believe you."

Alice frowned. She had hoped that her lies would work in preventing what she usually did when teachers began to figure out that she was not, in any way, a regular young girl. Still, this time, Alice was upset. She was tired of this: the lying, the wasting of her energy, and she had tried to do things a different way. Perhaps she could, this time, gain someone's trust rather than creating it. Unfortunately, this hadn't worked.

"I know you don't, Professor. But please, you just don't understand-"

"I'd like you to tell me the truth…right now." She paused. "Alice-"

Alice stood up, stopping Professor Rawlins from continuing. Her teacher watched as she backed away from the desk and moved towards the door of the room. Rawlins did not object to Alice's actions until the student turned around and looked back at her, a sad look on her face.

"Obliviate."

--

"Alice, stop complaining and get your broomstick," Susan Ashby told her daughter as she walked down their steep staircase. "We need to get to Leeds by seven, and you've already made us late."

"Mum, you know that wasn't my fault-"

"That doesn't change anything. We're still going to be late, and on a full moon!"

Alice reluctantly approached the closet, taking out her own broom, which had been charmed by her father to look normal, but move incredibly swiftly. After retrieving the device, she reached for her invisibility cloak, draping over her shoulders for now. Closing the closet door, she found her mother in the basement, who was telling her father, John, that it was time to leave. Alice watched them from the top of the stairs, waiting. Her mother, noticing this, calmly making her way to Alice.

"Look, we've discussed this many times. We do not want you going to Hogwarts."

"But why not?" Alice's voice sounded soft, though hurt.

"There are people there…that aren't like us. That could harm you."

"Those people are our family-"

"-They are not!" Susan furrowed her brow angrily at this as John made his way up the stairs to join the two.

"What's this?" he asked, though Alice was sure he knew.

"I want to go to Hogwarts," she had said this many times before, although this time her tone was harsher than usual. John's faced became one of angry surprise, and he walked away, telling her simply:

"No. That will not happen."

"Why can't it? Why can't I learn-?"

"-We are teaching you everything you need to know-"

"But what can I do with it?" Alice followed her father annoyingly. "I need a certificate that says I've graduated. You need to go to school to be an Auror, and I'm going to that school!"

"We've sorted it out with the Ministry. You will get a certificate from our teachings. I will not have you at that school with those - those people," Susan told her, opening that back door. But by now Alice was very angry. She looked at the door, closing it, her mother shocked.

"There aren't all bad Purebloods there. The Potter boy is there - and two of the Weasley boys, along with two Prewitts. And- isn't there a Longbottom boy there, too?"

"As well as the Blacks."

"Sirius Black isn't one of the bad ones-"

"-The rest are."

"Well…I avoid them, then." Alice was back to speaking softly. Her father approached her.

"Look, Alice, those people will make you think that you are better than others, just because of your blood. Either that or they'll mock you for being a blood traitor." He sighed. "You know all this - being a witch doesn't mean that-"

"-I know!" she cried, exasperated. "It doesn't make me better than the muggles, but it still makes me a witch! I need a…a right education for that."

"You'd leave your friends here behind?" her mother asked.

"What friends?" Alice retorted. "The people here are nice, accepting, but they're not my friends. I'm not home long enough for them to be."

"But if you go to Hogwarts, you know that you still won't have much time-"

"-But at least I'll be able to talk to people. I don't want to lie to people anymore. Don't…perhaps the companionship will do me well."

Susan pointed at the door, opening it again. "We'll discuss this later." Alice followed her parents outside, flinging herself over her broomstick into the dark night.

--

"Padfoot…Padfoot, get up!" James Potter yelled at his friend, who was lying flat on his stomach in the guest bed of the Potter's home. Sirius Black squinted his eyes together, making his face look wrinkly and furrowed. Finally opening his eyes, he looked up at his friend, who looked ready to slap him. "Sirius (Sirius huffed at the use of his real name), you have about an hour to eat, pack and get dressed."
"In that order?" Sirius asked with a yawn, leaning forward to clutch his knees. James rolled his eyes, having already gotten dressed. James had a tendency to wake up before anybody else in the house and get ready within half an hour. Sirius joked that the only reason for it was to make him miserable, but was still thankful for the fact that he was able to stay in the Potter's home, not wanting to remain with his own family. He flung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, reaching at the nearby dresser for a robe. James turned from him, making a jokingly rude gesture with his middle finger, and left the room.

After getting dressed and magicking all of his belongings into a large suitcase, Sirius marched down the stairs for breakfast with the Potters. He sat at the table across from James, who had waited to eat his food. Mrs. Potter poured Sirius some juice before sitting down, and he dug in, laughing with his friend about what would happen that year at school. It was, after all, their final year at Hogwarts.

"Remus, Frank and Peter are going to be in the third compartment," James handed Sirius a letter Remus had written them early that morning. Sirius read it quickly, noting the fact that their nicknames were used in this letter. He gave it back to James, who took it carefully, not wanting his parents to see those nicknames.

"They'd better not any of those girls in this year," he said as he chewed on a piece of bacon, Mrs. Potter eying him in a disgusted manner. "That Tilak girl is going to drive me completely insane one day."

"I've already had that pleasure," James sighed, remembering the Yule Ball, when he took Parvati Tilak on the loudest date of his life.

The boys continued chatting for the next twenty minutes, until Mr. Potter decided it best that they leave early if they want their compartment to not be filled with the seventh year Griffindor girls. The boys grabbed their suitcases and owls, and then ran downstairs to the fireplace, where they Floo-ed to the Platform.

--

Five boys sat in a small compartment on the Hogwarts Express: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Frank Longbottom. The boys waited patiently for the ride to begin, all of them having reached the Platform quite early, excited for the beginning of their final year at Hogwarts. They talked excitedly about the happenings of their summers and what sorts of havoc they would reek at the school before their graduation, many of their plans involving Slytherin, Severus Snape.
"For all we know," Remus warned, "We'll barely see him this year. We hardly did last year," Remus referred to their separated classes.

"Yeah, but we can't just let him get on our nerves without a bit of a fight," James replied, laughing loudly. Remus smiles, and then glanced at the window of the compartment door. A girl seemed to be looking inside the compartment carefully, as if she was scouting for a place to sit. Sirius, who was next to the sliding door, opened it. Now, all five boys could clearly see this girl, but only for a short time. She was short, with a rounded face that was framed by curly, reddish brown hair. Her frame was fairly slim, but not terribly so, and her eyes were brown.

"Oh…I'm sorry. Excuse me," she whispered nervously, and walked away quickly. Peter bent around the doorway to watch her leave. He looked back at the others after closing the door.

"She can't be a first year?" he questioned, and they all shook their heads.

"I've never seen her though…that's strange," Remus decided. "What house do you suppose she's in?"

"I have no idea…not ours, at least," Frank said. "At least I know that."

"Funny…" Remus trailed off, and then turned to face the group as the train began to move. "I hope she finds a seat." He continued: "None of you know her?"

"I think I've seen her around, you know that? She's probably just a Ravenclaw bookworm or something." Sirius shrugged.

"It's too bad she didn't sit here," James joked. "She didn't seem quite as annoying as the rest of them."

"Oh, don't be so coy," Sirius kicked James, "You know you're just waiting for Lily Evans to plop herself down on your lap."

"Oh, not this again, Padfoot!"

The boys fought over whether or not Lily would ever go out with James for the duration of the ride.

--

Every year, before the big feast, the new first years were sorted into their respective houses. The five Griffindor boys sat together at the Griffindor table, cheering as ten new students (or as Sirius called them, victims) were added to their house. When all forty new students were sorted, they all began talking, expecting piles of food to magically appear on their tables. However, this did not happen. Instead, Dumbledore stood up at the Head Table. Remus noticed that Professor McGonagall had stood, most likely to retrieve something, but Remus questioned exactly what. Dumbledore spoke:
"To finish our Sorting Ceremony, we have a fairly interesting case. This young girl will be entering Hogwarts to attend her seventh year classes," he motioned towards McGonagall, who had entered, a girl following behind her nervously, but swiftly. The Griffindor boys immediately recognized her as the girl they had seen on the train. Whispering began, but Dumbledore quickly silenced it when he continued speaking. "Alice Ashby will now be sorted."

The whispers began again as Alice Ashby was led onto the small platform containing nothing but a chair and a Hat.

"She's just here for one year?"

"That's not fair!"

"Why didn't I think of that?"

"Maybe she's a transfer from another school…"

"She doesn't look French."

"Well, that explains why we didn't know her," James looked to his friends, who nodded.

Alice sat down softly and allowed Professor McGonagall to lightly place the Sorting Hat on her head. For some reason, this process was taking longer than it had for the previous first year students. Alice had a very still look on her face as the Hat seemed to speak silently to her. Finally, after grumbling something out loud that nobody in the Great Hall could comprehend, the Hat shouted:

"GRIFFINDOR!"

The Griffindor table exploding with cheering and applause as Alice approached it, appearing to not know exactly where she should sit. Lily Evans, whose room mates and her sat with James Potter and his friends now that they had all come to a truce, motioned her over to sit with them. Alice obediently did so, taking a seat between Lily and Holly Fergus, an Irish brunette. After listening to Dumbledore's quick announcements, the group turned to find a beautiful arrangement of food on their table. Lily wasted no time in introducing herself.

"My name is Lily Evans, and this is Holly Fergus-" Holly smiled, "-Parvati Tilak-" a dark skinned girl giggled brightly from across the table, "-and Elsbeth Towler," a girl with dark hair and glasses waved from the other side of Lily."

Alice grinned shyly. "Hey," she said shrugging a little, making them all laugh.

"That's alright - you'll learn our names soon enough, I'm sure."

"Alright," Alice nodded, still seeming content. James Potter, noting the new silence, swallowed his food to speak.

"I notice that you didn't bother introducing us men, Ms. Evans." Lily rolled her eyes.

"I notice that you lot can hardly be considered 'men.'"

"Perhaps I can prove it to you on the next Hogsmeade trip-"

"-And perhaps we won't have to hear about it," Remus cut in, changing the subject effectively. He turned to Alice pointing to each boy as he announced them. "I'm Remus Lupin; this is James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Frank Longbottom." Alice smiled at the boys politely.

"James and I are Head Boy and Girl this year," Lily told Alice, "So if need anything - like, need to know where something is or something - you can just ask us." Alice nodded. "Actually," Lily decided, looking at James, who was trying to set his place to look like Sirius' face, "Maybe you should just stick to asking me.

Alice laughed softly. Soon, Lily and James began fighting over who would do better in their Potions class that year. Alice simply watched the group, entertained by their antics, and surprised by how social they being with her. She knew that she must have seemed quite odd by their standards - her hardly speaking - but they seemed to enjoy her company well enough, and even tried to get her to speak more. It was one of the happiest Dinners Alice had ever had.

--

The students were sent to bed, classes starting only the next day. As the Griffindor girls were going up the steps to their dorms, Professor McGonagall stopped Alice to take her aside.
"Headmaster Dumbledore has spoken to you, I presume?" she asked Alice, who nodded.

"Yes, Professor," she said, "I'll be out soon enough…I'll just get my things set up upstairs first, if that's alright with you?"

"Of course, take your time," McGonagall smiled at Alice. "You know where I'll be?"

"Yes."

Alice the followed the girls - who had not noticed the conversation - up the stairs. Upon entering, Alice saw that all of her things had already been set out for her by the House Elves. The girls got ready very quickly and said goodnight to her, Lily telling her how excited she should be for classes the next day. Alice, not wanting to leave with them awake, waited until the rest of the girls were asleep before she left the dorm. Little did she know as she put on her warmest robe that Lily had woken up, and had followed her down the stairs to watch her leave through the all too agreeable Fat Lady. She decided not to dwell on it, and that Alice probably just had something important to do - perhaps a meeting about her classes.

Still, she would not forget to ask about the situation the next day…just in case.