the lucky one, sirius black

03

chapter three

MURPHY COULDN'T KEEP her heavy eyes open as she felt the train leave the station, it rattled loudly as it travelled along the tracks but it wasn't as loud as the excited students who were running up and down the carriages searching for their friends.

Murphy sat in a compartment on her own with the back of her head resting against the window which also rattled as the train moved - but she was so tired she was able to block it out, she wanted to sleep for the entire eight hour journey to Hogwarts. Her head was spinning but she couldn't tell whether it was from being so sleep deprived, whether it was from the heat, or from shouting and trying to rush James and Sirius to get ready ten minutes before they had to leave or from her menace of a brother apparating her across the country whilst he was still half asleep. She vowed to never let anyone apparate her anywhere ever again, it wasn't an experience she would like to repeat. It was a miracle that she didn't get splinched or end up in Aberystwyth.

After no one passed by her compartment in a few minutes, she decided it would be a good time to try and fall asleep. Within the first five minutes of boarding, six different groups of students paraded into the compartment thinking it was empty, the look on Murphy's tired face drove them straight back out with a swift eruption of apologies. Usually, she wouldn't mind having to share a compartment with anyone else, but she couldn't bear to have to listen to people talking for the entire train ride. She was certain if she had to listen to any bickering conversations her head would quite literally implode.

She shut her eyes and sighed, she was sitting with her back to the window and her legs spread flat across the length of the seat and the soles of her shoes touching the other side. She was relieved that her mother wasn't there to tell her to keep her feet off of the furniture. Murphy really wasn't in the mood to care about manners. Her mouth tasted like cardboard and all she could think about was how she couldn't wait until Christmas so she could return home and be with her parents. She had finally gotten comfortable on the severely uncomfortable seat, so she didn't want to move forward to grab her bottle of water from her bag. She could feel the heat of the sun burning the back of her head, her dark hair absorbing it like a sponge.Euphemia

After three minutes of silence whilst Murphy felt herself drop off to sleep, an eerie squeak coming from the compartment door startled her as it slid open. Murphy let her eyes open, narrowing them as soon as she locked eyes with the tall intruder, his face miserable as he invited himself to sit on the opposite seat, his black, unnervingly elegant luggage floated in behind him.

Murphy's throat creaked as she opened her mouth, the accidental noise made her cringe but she quickly shook it off and continued to glare across the compartment.

"Are you okay?" was all she said, "I'm tired."

"I need to hide." Regulus Black said simply, his hands resting on his knees and his back perfectly straight. "I'll be quiet," he added as he noticed that Murphy's face failed to soften.

"You can't hide in here," Murphy said sternly as she sat up, her knees now bent but her feet still on the seat. Regulus' hair was slightly shorter than how it was at the end of his fifth year, his dark curls sat neatly against his pale forehead and covered the tops of his red ears.

She yawned, her ears popped and the sound of the train completely distorted. "Why do you need to hide, anyway?" She asked, her voice sounding muffled in her head.

Regulus made no moves to leave the compartment, instead, he made himself comfortable and tapped his fingers against his thigh. He was already wearing his uniform, a silver prefect badge was pinned onto his robe and glistened in the sunlight - it cast white kaleidoscope reflections around the compartment as the sunlight hit it.