Remain Calm~ R.Black

Chapter Seven

September 1st, 1977- Year Six

After the hardest summer of Ronnie's life, and all the PTSD that she carried with her, it was now time for Hogwarts and she felt as ready as she could have felt. Mia and Monty were so caring over the summer, letting the two Lupin siblings work at their own pace of accepting their parents' passing and the love and home that the Potters provided for them. Before Mia and Monty knew it, the Lupin siblings were finally accepting Mia and Monty to care for them as parents should.

They had held a beautiful funeral for Lyall, probably better than he had deserved and the Lupin siblings stood staring at the grave stones of their parents as their friends stood around them like a little barricade to the real world, trying to protect and shield them for as long as possible.

Ronnie now stood on the train platform, already saying goodbye to Mia and Monty as Alice stood by her side, holding Ronnies hand as they stared at the Hogwarts express, waiting to board.

"Are you ready?" Alice asked her as she slowly nodded, "I'm right here Ronnie, I'm your person and I'm right here. I promise." Alice gently reminded, knowing Ronnie needed to hear how her best friend wouldn't be leaving her side anytime soon.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Ronnie nodded, letting Alice pull her on the train before her foot slipped out from under her, causing her to let go of Alice's hand as she fell backwards, feeling two arms go around her waist as they caught her.

"Decided you didn't want to get on the train?" A voice teased her, helping her get back on her feet as her face grew red, "Yeah, sorry about that." Ronnie quietly said, going to look at who caught her and growing surprised to find out it was Regulus Black, Sirius' little brother.

"Oh, don't be a tosspot, that's mini moony so leave her alone. Let's go." Sirius said, wrapping an arm around Ronnies back to pull her away from the younger Slytherin, not noticing how Regulus had smirked at her.

"I was actually about to introduce myself-" Regulus had started before Remus and James boarded the train beside him, "No need, she knows who you are and she's not interested." Remus shrugged as James let out a holler of laughter as they left Regulus standing alone.

/

An hour later, Ronnie sat in the prefects compartment as she let James and Lily talk for ages, going over the redheads expectations of the prefects for the school year as James nodded along encouragingly.

Ronnie only tuned back in when she heard the last bits of the head girl's speech, suddenly making her regret being a prefect all over again.

"Due to recent safety concerns, every prefect needs to be partnered up with someone else in their year." Lily stated as Alecto's eyebrows raised, challenging the muggle-born.

"What Evan's? Scared of a little bump in the night?" The sixth year Slytherin prefect taunted as Lily shook her head.

"Never been one to cower away from noises in the night." Lily confirmed, showing she wasn't afraid of the girl.

"That's good to hear... I know how challenging it might be to be a mud-blood at Hogwarts this year." Alecto did a sickly sweet smile at the redhead, desperately trying to get a reaction from her.

"But you would know a lot about creeping around at night, wouldn't you Carrow?" Ronnie started to say as everyone turned to look at the small girl sitting beside Frank in the back.

"What's that supposed to mean Lupin?" Alecto growled out, standing up to seem more intimidating, knowing she had at least 7 inches of height on the girl.

"It means why don't you lift your left sleeve?" Ronnie challenged right back, standing up to make eye contact with her across the room, "You seem to know how challenging it will be for muggle-borns, is that because you'll be the bump in the night?"