(01 : THE TRAIN RIDE)

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     TESSA WAS PETRIFIED. IN HINDSIGHT, this word choice was probably poor when you remember the teenager had sobbed over her best friend's unresponsive body less than six months ago after Ginny Weasley — accidentally — unleashed a basilisk on the magical school. In the simplest of terms, Tessa was bloody scared. Of course, it wasn't unusual for Tessa to be scared — she hated heights, loud noises and blood made her queasy — but acknowledging that she lived in a perpetual state of fear didn't change how her heart was beating like a hummingbird's as she stepped aboard the Hogwarts Express.

The girl was entering her fifth year, which was significant for several reasons — she would be taking her O.W.L exams and she was going to be turning sixteen soon. Well, soon was debatable given Tessa was an August baby, but something about fifth year made her feel like anything was possible. She didn't feel like a kid anymore. Over the summer, she had started to babysit for some muggle neighbours and explored the wonders of make-up with the extra cash. It's not like she was never interested in such things before, but something Cedric had said haunted her throughout the break.

"Tessa," Cedric had breathed out, wiping sweat from his forehead as he ran into her arms. "I'm so glad you're here. I mean, you're always here. You're so reliable, of course you would be here, but I need a friend like you now."

That was after Hufflepuff had lost the final Quidditch game of the season. He had been devastated and wanted a 'reliable' friend — however, Tessa suspected this was a nicer way of saying predictable and confided as much in her other friend. When Rosie stumbled her way through a murmur of dissent, it dawned on Tessa that she was rather boring. Good grades, good heart, but she didn't want to remembered for being . . . good. In comparison to her Gryffindor parents, her life paled when she so desperately wanted to experience the same kind of thrills and memories they did.

     "Prefect?" an all too familiar voice gasped. "Get out! I'm too embarrassed to be seen with you. You aren't allowed in our carriage."

     "Let him in, Ro." Tessa rolled her eyes and watched as Rosie tried to lock Cedric out of their compartment.

     Rosie huffed. "It's lucky that you're cute, Diggory."

    Whilst the boy in question let out a rather unattractive snort at the comment, Tessa found herself starry-eyed. Despite being best friends since they were sorted together, Tessa still got butterflies around Cedric Diggory. In fact, butterflies weren't sufficient enough to describe what she felt. It was like someone had unleashed a stampede of hippogriffs in her stomach every time they made eye contact. Her hopeless crush was — in part — made her realise that she needed to liven up her teenage years. After all, Hogwarts was meant to be the best times of her life.

     "I like your hair," commented Rosie as she plopped into the seat opposite her friend. "Wait, are you wearing lipgloss too?"

    Running her hand through her hair, Tessa smiled. It was a little shorter than she was used to, but she liked it. "I fancied a change," she said. "It doesn't look . . . bad, right? I tried to follow some steps in this muggle magazine, but —"

     "It's nice," Cedric complimented, offering her a chocolate frog in the process.

     Her smile wavered. Nice wasn't exactly what she was going for. "Thanks, Ced," she settled on and pocketed the chocolate frog for later. "Congratulations on being chosen for prefect. I'm sure you'll do Helga proud."

     For what seemed like an impossible length of time, but was actually only a minute, the two stared at each other. Tessa tried not to melt into a puddle under his intense stare because she loathed to make things weird between them. Before anything else, they were friends. Sure, she daydreamed about growing old with Cedric and raising their children in a small cottage beside a lake, but she would rather die than lose him because she couldn't keep her heart in check.

     "So," drawled Rosie, "can I join in this little staring contest or can we talk about the elephant in the room?"

     Breaking the tension, Cedric laughed. "You're not that fat, Ro-Ro."

    Rosie's eye twitched at the nickname and raised her middle finger at him. Their dynamic had always been a strange one — Rosie and Cedric bickered whilst Tessa failed to play peacekeeper every time. Their arguments were always good natured and it gave Cedric an excuse to be a little less perfect. Over the years, Tessa had watched as Amos' expectations weighed her friend down like rocks in his pockets. Most people only saw him as the 'Golden Boy' rather than someone who bantered with his friends and had a strange addiction to muggle gobstoppers.

     "You really know how to charm the knickers off a witch, huh?" As Tessa attempted to hide her blush, Rosie continued, "But I was talking about Sirius Black. I thought Tessa might be freaking out."

The brunette froze. "Sirius Black," she echoed. "Why would I be freaking out about Sirius Black? I haven't heard that name in years."

"Oh, I — we — always forget you don't get the Prophet."

When both her parents died, she was only three and her only living relatives were her mum's grandparents. They were lovely people, but both Deidre and Elliot Thompson were muggles, so she was raised as such and rarely made contact with anything magical whilst living with them. However, the two always made sure she knew her heritage and recounted the stories they knew of her parents in their youth. The two were quite amazed by magic, but they never wanted Tessa to be disillusioned and see magic as something she could fall back on. Both of her grandparents were believers in working to get what you want and she honestly liked the magic detox between school terms. Except when she missed important wizarding news, clearly.

Rosie was always one for ripping off the bandaid. "He escaped."

"He escaped Azkaban? Nobody escapes Azkaban. It's fortress, it's meant to be to impenetrable!" squeaked Tessa. Not even Cedric shuffling closer soothed her rampant nerves.

Reaching out to squeeze her friend's hand, Rosie added, "I thought Dumbledore or McGonagall or someone would have given you a heads up." The Hufflepuff shook her head. "He murdered your mum and your dad. You don't think he would . . .?"

"Rosie!" snapped Cedric, oddly serious compared to his previous banter with the dark haired girl. "Don't even suggest that. If Tessa was in any trouble, we would know. Dumbledore wouldn't want to scare her for no reason."

"It's fine, Ced." Tessa placed a hand on his arm, eager to anchor herself to reality and not let her true emotions show. "I'm not worried. Hogwarts is the safest place I can be if a murderer is on the loose."

"Are we talking about the same Hogwarts that had a troll in the dungeon, Voldemort sticking out the back of our teacher's head and a giant snake running through the drains in the last two years alone?" Cedric elbowed the girl and she whined. "Sorry! But, things are already changing. You must feel it too. Something is coming and I don't think it's something Dumbledore can save us from."

Gulping, Tessa tried to tease her friend, but the remark dissipated into the thick tension. "Okay, Trelawney."

"Merlin, she has chills. You've scared her half to death now." Cedric wrapped an arm around Tessa. "Come here."

Although she was giddy at his touch, she frowned. "No, it's just . . . really cold in here all of a sudden."

    "We aren't there already, are we?" Rosie peaked out the window as the train slowed.

    Like the villain waiting in the wings, a chilling figure draped in black floated into the compartment. Its breath rattled the carriage and Tessa suddenly felt every negative thought in her brain being dredged up. All her happiness had been sucked into a vacuum cleaner and stolen from her to the point it made her lightheaded.

     "Teresa! Teresa!" a voice yelled, their voice splitting with urgency. "I—I want to play a game, okay? You're going to hide."

     A new voice entered, shouting, "Confringo!"

     An explosion could be heard, melding with pained screams. When the soundscape quieted, manic laughter remained and bounced between the confines of Tessa's mind.

     Eventually, the dementor passed and a deafening silence blanketed the once happy compartment. Exhausted, Tessa slumped into Cedric and allowed him to run his fingers through her hair. He whispered soothing words into her ear until Percy Weasley knocked on, informing them that chocolate would warm the three of them right up. The Head Boy only waited another beat to remind Cedric that it was his turn to monitor the train.

    "Are you going to be okay? Maybe someone will swap with me."

The fact that she had the worst reaction out of the trio to the dementors was not lost on Tessa. It made her feel weak, so she shrugged off his kind gesture and nibbled on a chocolate frog. Tessa never pretended she was the best or the bravest of the bunch, but it was embarrassing that she turned into such a damsel in the face of a dementor. Cedric and Rosie? They were model students, calm and collected in the face of danger.

Although hesitant, Cedric left to do his rounds and Tessa waited until the lock clicked to turn to Rosie. "Did you feel it too? Like you would —"

"Never be happy again? Yeah."

"I—I don't want to feel like that ever again," she admitted. "I felt powerless and I can't help but wonder why it affected me so much. What if I'm not as happy as I could be, Ro? Some days, I feel like I'm floating through life, like I'm barely getting by."

Her friend stilled at the confession. "Do we not make you happy? I —"

"I like spending time with you — and Ced, of course — but I don't know if I'm happy. If that dementor sucked out my soul, I'm not sure I would have been any different. I always live in fear and my life tends to be dictated by a string of 'What Ifs?' and now I'm thinking . . . What if I don't want that anymore? What if I want to face a dementor without feeling like I wasted my life before they steal my final moments?"

     "That won't happen again. I won't let it."

     Tessa grimaced. "You can't promise that and I would never ask you to. What I am asking you is to help me . . . be a little less Tessa. I want to have fun and make some memories."

There was a pause as an understanding passed between the two of them. Rosie had known Tessa for almost five years now, she knew all of her quirks and her tendency to overthink everything. And maybe being pushed out of the her comfort zone was exactly what the girl needed.

Grinning, Rosie replied, "Well, I think that can be arranged rather easily." Her tone was bursting with excitement. "So, when do you want to bungee jump off the Astronomy Tower?"

"I was thinking we could start a little smaller." Knowing that Rosie would definitely do such a thing if she agreed, Tessa's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Maybe I could practice flying? I always wondered what it was like to play Quidditch . . ."

Thus, Tessa Pettigrew's Bravery Bucket List was born.

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A.N: Please let me know what you think of this and whether or not you would like me to continue! I'm really excited for this idea, so I hope people will read it. Fred will make an appearance in the next chapter.