52 ~ Not Alone This Time

The true victim of this chapter was the owl's dignity

Remus' POV:

     The Hogwarts Express rattled across the tracks. The landscape of Scotland passed by us. Snow lay everywhere and it was deep winter. The windows of the train compartment were fogged up and outside everything was white.     I sat in the seat by the window facing against the direction of travel and had just woken from my nap. Two days ago had been the full moon and I was still tired, even though I already felt better.     The last few days had been eventful, which could be seen from Padfoot's expression. Ever since the last Hogsmeade weekend he had been looking at me knowingly, as had all my other friends. A few days before Hogsmeade, Sara Harmon had asked whether I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with her, and although I had briefly considered saying no, in the end I had agreed.     I could not have known, however, that she would ambush and kiss me. Though I had not exactly minded, even if she seemed too impulsive to me. She also talked a great deal, yet as Padfoot had established right at the beginning, she seemed to like me.

Or does she simply find me interesting because we are known as the Marauders through our pranks?

     I did not know, nor what I wanted from her. Yes, we had kissed, but I did not feel as though we were on the same wavelength.          "Ooh, sweets!" Prongs cheered. Indeed, the sweets trolley was rolling towards us.     Immediately we gathered around the compartment door and we seemed to have chosen the compartment beside the girls. Consequently they came out of their compartment as well, because they too wanted to buy sweets.          "Well then, Evans," Prongs already began and casually ran a hand through his hair, "something sweet for a sweet girl?"     After those words one could recognise a venomous expression upon Lily's face, because James would not let it rest.          "You know," he continued and leaned against the train wall whilst Padfoot bought sweets, "the other day in Hogsmeade would've been perfect for a date, wouldn't it? Like with you, Fortescue, and that Longbottom, right?"     "You're annoying, Potter," Lily complained and crossed her arms over her chest, then provocatively stepped towards Prongs. As his friend I knew that inwardly he was not as calm as one might think.          "Careful, Evans, or mistletoe might suddenly appear in the train and we'll have to kiss."     "Then I'll unfortunately have to throw up."          "Don't worry, I'll hold your hair back," Prongs replied calmly and grinned at the redhead, then winked at her. In the following moment Lily's emotions were very easy to read, because her eyebrows drew together and her face turned red, in the negative sense.     "You're far too pushy!" she hissed, but the bespectacled boy had an answer for that as well: "Don't you girls like it when boys make the first move? Why pushy then?"     "Because I don't want anything from you, understood?!"          "No, because I think we'd fit together perfectly, Evans, you know."     "No, I don't know! ARGH!!!" came her response and once again Prongs had managed to make Lily Evans lose it.     Afterwards she stormed into her compartment and whispered her order to Meadowes. James shrugged his shoulders and also went into his compartment. I followed and Padfoot had finished with the purchases. Inside the compartment I found a dejected Prongs, who opened a Chocolate Frog with a sigh.     "It's harder than I expected," he explained, then looked at his card from the sweet with a childish expression. I sat down opposite him. Wormtail also gave me chocolate.          "Evans is difficult to get as well," Sirius voiced his opinion.     I had to agree with him, because whether anything more would ever happen between James and Lily, only the future could know, even if it seemed very unlikely.

But at least he doesn't give up.

     For that reason we encouraged Prongs further, though besides Lily there were many girls who wanted something from him. Alongside Padfoot, Prongs was also popular with the girls, even if he only wanted Lily. For the moment, however, things were simply the way they were, and with those thoughts we devoted ourselves to our sweets, then it was home for Christmas. I was already looking forward to being back at Hogwarts after the holidays.

Phil's POV:

     "I'm hungry," Elizabeth whinged beside me. I looked up and at that moment we were on our way to the Great Hall.          "We're literally about to eat anyway," I laughed because of that, but the girl beside me was unconvinced.     "I'm only happy once I've got good food in front of me." she rubbed her stomach to underline her words.          Thankfully we reached the Great Hall at exactly that moment, and as during every Christmas holiday, the four House tables were gone. In the middle stood one large table and Dumbledore was present. Beside him already sat a student who looked like a first year. A few house-elves wandered through the hall.     "We've got house-elves at home as well," Elizabeth said whilst looking at the creatures with large ears and eyes.     The dark-haired girl said nothing more to the beings, however, because her expression said it all. Her family did not seem to think much of house-elves, even if Elizabeth had been very nice to them during the last meals. Tomorrow was Christmas and Elizabeth seemed to be staying at Hogwarts during the holidays for the first time.

I still don't know why exactly she's staying at Hogwarts.

     Yet I judged Elizabeth to be the sort of person who only told someone something once she actually wanted to. I was the same.          For that reason, and because Elizabeth had never pushed me into anything, I accepted her staying during the Christmas holidays without questions. I was also glad not to be alone at Hogwarts, because during the summer holidays I would be again.     I did not think further about it, however, because we reached the table. Dumbledore spotted us the next moment. He gestured towards the empty chair beside him, which I had to take. Elizabeth, meanwhile, looked at the wise wizard as though he could see inside her head.     I even believed Dumbledore could do that. Not that he could read minds, but through his immense life experience he seemed able to judge people well.     "Ah, Miss Aquila and Miss Lestrange," the wizard greeted kindly and I had noticed that Dumbledore addressed me formally in the presence of others. Therefore I did the same.

Only the Marauders know how I arrived at Hogwarts and why I call Dumbledore by his first name.      At the very beginning, however, the reason had been that I had known nothing about forms of politeness, and also that Dumbledore had merely been a strange old man to me.

     "A beautiful winter day, is it not, Miss Lestrange?" he continued asking once Elizabeth had sat down. Dumbledore took a loud slurp from his tea.          "Yes, erm, very refreshing, Sir..."     For some reason I noticed a faint smile upon Dumbledore's lips. Ever since the others had gone home on the Hogwarts Express, the Headmaster had been studying Elizabeth and me strangely. Unlike many others, however, he seemed to approve of our friendship.     "When I was your age at Hogwarts, I loved winter," he reminisced and I helped myself to food and poured tea for Elizabeth and myself, "A very long time ago now, yet I remember it as though it were yesterday, ha, ha!"     Elizabeth looked at him oddly as he stroked his beard with his free hand. As a Slytherin, she did not seem to have received the best impression of the old wizard from her parents, because she appeared confused as to why he treated her so kindly, even though Dumbledore was kind to everyone, provided one was kind to him as well.     "We used to have magnificent snowball fights back then and this year too the castle grounds look breathtaking once again."          "I prefer summer..." I muttered and ate a roast potato. I did not like winter because I had hated it as a wolf. There was little food and one was always cold or wet. I also associated winter with my first months at Hogwarts, when I had not been doing well.     So yes, I preferred summer more, because then one could be outside without freezing. I had nothing against the cold weather itself, however, because even during winter I often left the windows in the dormitory open, which was why I had already had one or two arguments with the girls.     "Yes, summer is lovely too," Dumbledore enthused, then we spoke a while longer, though the Headmaster had others he wished to talk to as well.

     And so the first part of the holidays passed. On Christmas morning presents appeared magically. I had given the girls my presents before they left.     Christmas morning felt strange to me, because most people celebrated that day with their families. I remembered from my childhood that we had celebrated Christmas, even if with few presents, but my father had always fetched a tree from the forest. My mother's second husband had not continued that tradition.     It did not feel right to think about the past, because I felt as though my life had only begun two years ago. In those two years so much had changed, and I had become a person whom I even partly liked. I no longer saw myself merely as a monster and the shy Phil.

I've become my own person.

     "What do you think?" I asked the owl in front of me, which I had received from my father. It occasionally sat in my dormitory, especially now during the holidays.     My Wiggentree also kept me company and I was looking forward to replanting it in spring. I was less looking forward to lessons, even if I was keeping up in all subjects except Charms.     "I have to go now," I explained to the brown owl in front of me, to whom I had still not given a name. To me it was an ordinary owl, yet it deserved a name.     "If only I knew what to call you," I said to the animal, "I suppose you'll have to be called Nougat."          The owl's feathers reminded me of chocolate.     "Don't look at me like that," I said to Nougat, who was male, "If you want a masculine name, then as an owl you'd first have to know what that concept means to you. But you don't, and you're small as well."     I turned away from Nougat. I looked at my bed, where my presents lay, and the girls had gifted me little things. I had received many sweets and from Dumbledore there were once again his strange sweets that always stood in a bowl upon his desk. I did not know whether he only gifted those strange sweets to me every year at Christmas, or to everyone who stayed at Hogwarts, because I had never asked any of the others. At least until now I had always been alone during the holidays, but this time that was different.     Therefore I quickly pulled on my coat and scarf, whereby the girls had given me lovely leather gloves. From Lily I had received a new Muggle book. It was one about fantasy.     Lily had told me that Muggles spent a great deal of time thinking about mythical creatures, which was partly explainable through the existence of the wizarding world. In any case, she had gifted me a book, which I would read during the next few days, but now I left my dormitory.     I walked down the stairs into the common room and approached the portrait.          "Oh, wait," I heard the Fat Lady's muffled voice from the other side, then the portrait sprang aside. Outside the common room I spotted Elizabeth, with whom I wanted to go for a walk until dinner.          "In any case, there are different sorts of glass," the Fat Lady wanted to continue speaking and Elizabeth seemed to be confronted with the portrait for the first time, which made sense, because as a Slytherin she never came as far as the Gryffindor common room.     "We're unfortunately in a terrible hurry," I therefore said, rescuing the Slytherin.     I turned her around by the shoulder and together we fled across the moving staircases. Afterwards I had to tell her about the Fat Lady and Elizabeth said that Gryffindors were becoming stranger and stranger to her. I knew, however, that she did not mean most things negatively.          So together we went about our plan, whereby naturally we speculated about possible pranks for the Marauders.     At that moment I had to think about the fact that at the beginning I had not known what my acquaintance with Elizabeth would become, yet I would already go as far as to call her a friend, even if not yet a best one.