Finding Her Way | Sirius Black

3. The Hogwarts Express

"Not lost, are you?" A tall boy with curly black hair said, and Ellie turned around. He strolled towards her, annoyingly confident, his grey eyes studying her brown ones.

"Why do you want to know?" She asked, absorbing every inch of his cocky figure.

"You're attracting a lot of attention, you understand that right?" The boy said, a hint of amusement lighting up his stormy eyes.

"Who are you?" Ellie said, the phrase a little firmer than she meant it to be. Her hold on her trunk tightened as her knuckles turned white, and her eyes betrayed a look of slight fear, which was quickly covered by determination.

"Why do you want to know?" He retorted, mimicking Ellie's earlier statement. "I'm Sirius Black, and we'd better hurry or we'll miss the Hogwarts Express." He gestured to the large clock on the wall and continued, "It leaves in five minutes."

"How do you-" Ellie started, but was cut off by Sirius before she could finish the question.

"You're carrying and owl and your trunk has a Chudley Cannons sticker on it." Sirius commented. "I happen to prefer the Bulgarians, but to each her own."

Ellie flushed slightly and looked down at her trunk. She did stick out like a sore thumb, but something about his introduction bothered her.

"Black..." She said, and he looked up at her searchingly, "You're a pure-"

He cut her off testily, saying, "Let's go." His demeanor had shifted subtly, and his eyes had clouded over as he studied her. At her words he spun around and began to sprint toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and Ellie immediately thought he was running away from her in fright.

"Sirius!" Ellie yelled, looking at him worriedly, "Sirius, you're going to crash!"

That did it. As soon as she said that, the whole of Kings Cross station stopped and gaped at her. Some old lady waiting patiently by platform seven was muttering something about animal abuse. Well, Ellie thought huffily looking down at her owl, she doesn't deal with Iggy every day. Iggy's name was a long story. She glanced down at the back of her hand and saw the triangular scar, then saw the brothers, crossing the stream, finding their way. She saw the youngest take the cloak and hide, and she looked at Iggy, short for Ignotus, Ignotus Peveril, and smiled slightly.

She was quickly shaken out of her thoughts by Sirius, who grabbed her hand and whispered in her ear, "Way to go blondie. That was our way on the train. Now shut up and follow my lead. Better nod for effect." Ellie nodded blankly and confusedly but understood when he led her through the crowd saying, "It's okay, my sister gets really upset when I do things that might result in an injury. She's very protective of me!" He nudged Ellie and gave her a pointed glance. She nodded and smiled at the crowd of people who had huddled around them, and they cleared a path.

Everyone laughed. Ellie ran after Sirius. Not that she had a choice, as his grip on her hand was tight and unyielding, but she had a strange gut feeling. She trusted him, although she had only known him for about three minutes. She found herself following him blindly, into the barrier. She braved herself for the impact, knew she was going to crash, yet was going too fast to stop!

The impact never came. She kept on running. She opened her eyes and they were met with the scarlet and gold colors of the Hogwarts Express. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at her hand. Sirius was no longer holding it, and she rubbed it gently, lost in thought. She snapped her head up, cursing herself for the brief moments of weakness, and looked around for Sirius, but he was not there, and she could not see over the sea of heads. She fought her way through the hordes of parents waving goodbye to their children. The train was starting to move! Frustrated, she tried to apparate onto the train but couldn't do it. She finally ended up in view of the final compartment and saw a hand outstretched. She grabbed it.

"Thanks..." Ellie started, but stopped talking when she realized who her rescuer was.

"Sirius." She finished, trailing off a bit. "Hey," she started again, "you never answered my question, about being a Bla-"

"I've got to go," He cut her off again, and something in his eyes had changed again. What was going on?Ellie thought. He seemed to realize that he had been harsh with her, so his voice softened, and he said, "Try not to get into more trouble blondie, I know you've only just got here." He said. He gave her a smile, then, seemingly realizing what that entailed, gave her a mischievous grin instead. He ran off and Ellie was left alone, breathless from running onto the train and lugging a heavy trunk through the narrow spaces between compartments and confused that Sirius Black had known she was new to Hogwarts.

Ellie had almost reached the middle of the train, still with no luck in finding Sirius or any other place to sit, when one of the wheels of her trunk caught in her pant leg, and she toppled to the ground. Grumbling, she sat up, pulling her blonde hair behind her face and trying to roll the wheel of the trunk from her leg, with little luck. The compartment door to her left slid open and a girl with fiery hair ran out and almost screamed.

"Are you okay?" She said. Her voice was soft and sweet, and she knelt beside Ellie and tried to untangle Ellie's pants. Ellie smiled gratefully at the girl and stood up with her.

"Hi!" Ellie said brightly, taking a closer look at the girl. She did, like Ellie had noticed earlier, have bright red hair, accompanied by several freckles lining her cheekbones and bright green eyes that were crinkled at the end from smiling.

"Hi!" She responded.

"Thanks for helping me." Ellie started, "Do you mind if I sit with you on the way there?"

"Not at all!" The girl replied happily. "I'd be glad to have company. I'm Lily. Lily Evans. What year are you in, by the way?" She asked.

Ellie felt a slow heat rise in her face, "Well, actually, I'm a fifth year too." She mumbled.

"Me too!!" Lily exclaimed, her face brightening even more, only to be replaced by a confused looked that, instead of dulling her unique features, sharpened them, making her look even more beautiful. "I'm a fifth year too. Why haven't I seen you around the castle? Are you in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw or Slytherin then?"

From this, Ellie gathered that Lily must be in Gryffindor, and answered, "Oh, well, I came from homeschooling, and I've only just started here. I'm Ellie Green." She said all of this in a very fast voice with her head down.

"Green..." Lily said thoughtfully, using the exact same searching look as Ellie had when she recognized Sirius Black's name. Ellie inwardly groaned. Now she'd done it. Lily wouldn't want to be her friend anymore, not now she knew Ellie's parentage, especially because she was a Gryffindor.

"Before you say anything," Ellie started, "I may be a pureblood and may have famously dark parents but I really am nothing like them." Ellie looked at Lily nervously, suddenly afraid of losing the spitfire across the seat.

Lily laughed. "I knew you weren't, I can tell. I'm really good at reading people. That's how I became friends with Alice here." She gestured to the door, and a brown-haired girl entered, looking quite flustered.

"Hi!" Alice said, and Ellie repeated the salutation. They all began to talk, then, Alice asked, "What house do you hope to be in?" Ellie gathered that she must be a Gryffindor too. Alice was very pretty, she looked as though she came right from a catalogue. She had shoulder length brown hair that was parted at the side and kept meticulously in place by a red and gold felt covered headband, a modest red skirt that reached the bottom of her thigh, and a navy collared shirt.

"Gryffindor," said Ellie, not only to please the two, but because she had read about Dumbledore and Godric, and that one seemed like the best to her.

Lily and Alice flashed smiles and her and Alice sat down, putting her legs lazily up on the seat beside Ellie. Ellie smiled back at her new friends. It's a funny thing about friends. Once you start talking you can't seem to stop. And that's exactly how Ellie felt all the way to Hogwarts. Finally, massaging a stich in her side from laughing so hard, Lily gasped and pointed to the window.

"Hogwarts, we're here!"

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