How the Other Half Lives

A dignified older woman stood a few doors away from the compartment outside of which the action was taking place. She appeared to be in her fifties, with graying brown hair falling to her shoulders and bifocals resting on her nose. Her blood red robes combined with the menacing expression on her face to give her the appearance of the devil incarnate.

The students in the hallway froze.

With a flick of her wrist, Quincy and Mariah's wands flew out of their hands and directly to her. She pocketed them and strode purposefully to the students. "You," she grabbed Quincy's ear, "and you," she took Mariah's shoulder in her other hand. "What in the name of Merlin do you think you are doing?"

The two seventh years, in a rush to get their side of the story told, spoke simultaneously. A few of the student observers began to add their opinions as well.

"Silence!" the woman's voice carried the force of a curse as all talking ceased. "You first, Mr. Head Boy," she prodded his badge with her wand. "And nobody else will speak." She glared at all of the students within sight.

Quincy stood as tall as he could with his ear still in the grasp of the shorter woman and tried to look dignified as he spoke. "This girl," he gestured at the first year, still on the floor, "came into the prefects' compartment. I was just doing my duty as Head Boy and showing her to another compartment."

"You..." Mariah began, but was silenced by a glare from the woman.

"I don't believe you," she poked his badge again with her wand and then released him. As he grimaced and rubbed his red ear, she turned to Mariah and tightened her grip on the girl's shoulder. "Now you talk."

"I heard screaming from the hallway, so I came outside. He and his gang of future Death Eaters were terrorizing the first year. All I did was ask him to stop." The woman glared at Mariah as well and swatted her over the top of the head with her wand, but released her shoulder.

"I don't believe you either," she growled. "But, Rachel appears to be fine," the first year blushed, "So I'll not do much to you. Thirty points from each of your houses." With that, she turned and strode back the way she came.

"Um, ma'am?" Quincy called. The woman stopped but did not turn around. "My wand?" She turned slightly and fixed both Quincy and Mariah with a withering smile.

"You'll get them back at your first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. If you behave yourselves until then." And she was gone.

"Unbelievable!" Quincy glared at Mariah. "This is all your fault, you know! How am I supposed to get by without my wand?"

"Poor baby, boo hoo. You may have noticed I don't have my wand either. And how is it my fault? You were the one chasing the first year down the hall!" Mariah stepped closer to Quincy.

He stepped closer to her as well, placing them almost nose-to-nose. "And you were the one who stuck your nose where it didn't belong. No one was in trouble until you came along." Then he waved his hand toward the first year, "Why do you care about her anyway? Probably just a mudblood."

At this, Mariah raised her hand to slap him, but was quickly pulled away. Lindsay and Padma each took one of her arms and hauled her back into their compartment. Lavender helped the first year off the floor and brought her into the compartment with the rest of the girls. She slammed the door shut behind her.

"I can't believe him!" Mariah glowered from her seat, hunched up between Lindsay and Padma. Connie squeezed back in beside Padma and the other four girls sat down across from them.

"How he, or any Slytherin, got to be Head Boy is beyond me," Parvati muttered. "Are you sure you're okay, Rachel, is it?" She looked to the small girl beside her.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you, all of you."

"Did you know that woman out there?" Connie asked. "Who was she? She's got a worse temper than Mariah, and I didn't think that was possible!"

"That was Mrs. Figg," Rachel answered quietly. "New Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year."

"What's she doing on the train? Professors never come in on the train!"

"Well, Professor Lupin did, in third year," Parvati responded. The girls looked at her. "What, Harry and his friends sat with him then. I'm in their house, I hear things."

"I'm in their house, too. I didn't hear that. All I heard about that train ride was Harry fainting." Lavender smirked at Parvati. "Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to speak badly about your boyfriend."

Parvati blushed. "He's not my boyfriend! One dance at one Ball does not make him my boyfriend!"

"But you wouldn't mind if he was, would you, sis?" Padma grinned.

"Can we just stop this?" Parvati moaned. "We were talking about the psychotic woman on the train. Can we get back to that?"

Padma raised her hands in surrender while Lavender went quietly back to her nail polish. She pulled out her wand and used a quick spell to remove the paint she had smeared across her hand. Finally, Mariah, who was beginning to calm down, spoke.

"So why was she on the train?"

"To protect us from You-Know-Who, I expect," Lindsay began. "Think about, what better way to attack Hogwarts than to board the train and be brought directly there. Or he could just kill us all. This Mrs. Figg is our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who better to protect us?"

"Enough of this serious talk," Lena butted in. "Almost all we've discussed since we've been on this train has been You-Know-Who. And I know it's important, but come on, let's have fun." She reached into her bag and pulled out two magazines. "When I was in Diagon Alley, I got the latest issue of Teen Witch. There's a new hair charm I'm dying to try. Plus," she showed off the other magazine, Quidditch Weekly, "There's a section on the top 20 best looking Quidditch players in England. With full color photographs!"

All of the girls, even young Rachel, leaned forward and pulled the magazine open to the first player listed, Markus Welsh, a rookie beater for the Ballycastle Bats.

Most of the remainder of the daylong train ride was spent ogling the moving pictures and fighting happily about which player was the best looking. When the witch selling snacks came by, the girls pooled their money to get some of everything and munched away happily at their candies.

Before long, the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade station and a booming voice instructed the students to leave their belongings on board. Lena stuffed her magazines back into her robe pocket and the girls hurried off the train with Rachel bringing up the rear.

The older girls were about to hurry off and find carriages when Lavender stopped and looked back towards Rachel, standing alone and looking nervous. "It's okay, Rachel, just go with Hagrid, he takes the first years across."

"No, but where is he?" Rachel asked. The girls looked down the platform. The half-giant was, indeed, nowhere to be found. Connie stepped closer and was just about to find a prefect to help Rachel when a movement caught her eye.

"Firs' years over here!" Hagrid stepped from out of nowhere onto the platform. Rachel smiled.

"Thanks for everything," she turned and dashed over to where the first year students were collecting.

"I wonder where he was," Padma spoke, as they followed the crowd of students towards the horseless carriages.

"Just late, I suppose," Connie responded. "I know all about that. We better hurry, the carriages are about to leave."

Most of the carriages were filling up, but the girls were able to find themselves seats in a few. Padma grinned at her sister and flashed her a quick thumbs up as Parvati and Lavender climbed into a carriage that Harry Potter and a few other Gryffindors were sitting in.

Just after Lena closed the door on the carriage she and Connie seated themselves in, it lurched forward and the students began the final part of their journey to school.

To be continued...