Author: Lady Laughing Owl
Category: General, Drama
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Summary: Ravenclaw Julie Fawcett reminisces on her last year at Hogwarts. As she works through the rigors of 7th year, she also struggles to integrate two very different worlds.
* * *
Julie shifted her weight onto her right arm, staring in a comfortably listless way at the endless hills rolling swiftly by. An opened Charms text lay forgotten on the seat next to her, exuding the crisp smell of a new book. She'd managed to read the entire obfuscatory prologue before abandoning her studies to the pleasures of boredom. The chance to do nothing without feeling guilty didn't come to her often, after all. At school, there was never a time when some project wasn't lurking around the corner - during her vacations, she felt almost obligated to spend the little time she had doing productively fun things - playing sports, going out, catching up on her Muggle reading. But on the train - there was nothing to do but to sit back and enjoy the ride. And that's what she intended on doing.
The cheerful burble of conversation drifted in from the next compartment; she could identify some of the voices - Fred and George Weasley, Ernie MacMillan, Cho Chang. She knew she could join them whenever she liked - it wasn't as if she was an outcast, after all - but her compartment was pleasantly cool and quiet, the only sound coming from the steady hum of magical air-conditioning. The only other occupants were a couple of timid first years, looking too cowed by her presence to even say a word. If she talked to them, she could probably have eased most of their fears, but the sky was too blue for speech, the clouds too ethereal. She drifted back into a satisfyingly somnolent state.
Life has a habit of disrupting those who have reached a certain level of happiness - and indeed, it was just at that moment that the door slid open. Julie barely glanced upwards.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the prefect's section, Anthony?"
The boy she was addressing had the courtesy to look slightly discomfited - he scratched an elbow and grinned. "I was. But we're nearly there, and I'm supposed to greet all the first years -"
"I'm not a first year."
"And tell everyone to get their robes on -"
"I already did."
"And Katie Bell wants me to tell you that she wants all the stuff you borrowed from her back."
"Fine, Goldstein. Now will you get out!" This last line was addressed to a closing door - he'd already sensed that she was in no mood for a conversation and disappeared, leaving her deprived of the righteous sense that comes out of yelling at someone for no apparent reason. Sighing, she stuffed her Charms book back into her suitcase and maneuvered herself into a slightly more upright position, as the motion of the train started to slow to a gentle halt.