The following morning, at breakfast, the owls were coming to deliver mail to each student. Many parents were writing to their students as they had heard about what had happened on the Hogwarts Express two days ago. I wasn't at all surprised when Dorfingryff landed right next to my plate, holding his leg out to me. There was a letter attached to it and the letter had my name as well as Ainsley's and Corey's written on it in Mum's distinctive handwriting. I couldn't help but notice that it was thick and definitely had to contain more than one roll of parchment.

"Ainsley!" I craned my neck to look over at the Hufflepuff table. I called from across the Great Hall, but she didn't hear me. "AINSLEY!"

Finally, the small brunette turned around to look at me. I beckoned for her to come over to the Gryffindor table and she got up, making her way over to me. I called Corey over as well, who was only a few seats over. They both came to sit next to me, Remus and Sirius moving over to make room.

"Did you guys think to write to our parents, telling them what happened on the train?" I asked tentatively, staring apprehensively at the unopened letter in my hands.

"Why would I? I don't even know what happened! I was asleep when the Death Eaters came," said Ainsley, shrugging indifferently. "I'm actually still not entirely sure what happened."

"Corey?"

"Er... no," he said.

"Ugh, me neither," I said, gritting my teeth. "I forgot. Oops. I can't believe I didn't tell Mum and Dad what happened..."

"Is that why she wrote us a novel?" Corey asked, grimacing as he picked up the thick envelope and weighed it in his hands. "Yikes, it may take me a couple of days to read this. At least it isn't a Howler, though... That would be way worse."

Ainsley sighed. "Do I have to see this?" she asked. "It'll just be Mum freaking out andー" She made to get up, but I yanked her back down into the seat by her robes.

I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. Just as I had thought, it was several pages long. It was clearly written extremely frantically as the ink was smudged and nearly illegible (though I was still able to decipher what she had written). Basically, it was my mother rambling on and on about why I hadn't told her what happened, asking if Ainsley, Corey and I were all right and demanding to know details about whether it was true that no one had been hurt. According to her, the school had alerted the parents of every child that attended Hogwarts about the events of that night.

All around me, others were getting similar letters from worried parents. Remus and Peter both got letters. James got one from his parents as well, which was addressed to both him and Sirius.

"I wonder why they're all finding out now..." James wondered aloud, but as if in response to his thoughts, another owl plopped down in front of him with the Daily Prophet. "Ah, that would explain a lot. I assume it's all written in here."

He grabbed the Daily Prophet from the owl and dropped some coins into the pouch the owl had, letting it fly off. He flattened it out in front of him, glaring at the front page, which had a moving picture of the Dark Mark in the sky: the same one I had seen on that night.

"My mum also said that the school alerted all of our parents about what happened," I told James as Corey immediately jumped up immediately and stood behind James, reading the Daily Prophet over his shoulder. Sirius, sitting across from him, attempted to turn it towards him, but James smacked his hand away.

"Hey, what's it say, anyway?" Remus asked.

"Nothing much, it just says that there were Death Eaters that attacked the Hogwarts Express on September first, blah blah blah... Oh, hey, it mentions us," James said nonchalantly.

"What?" Peter asked incredulously, trying to snatch the newspaper away from James.

"OK, well, it doesn't mention us per se... but it talks about the fact that a bunch of students fought the Death Eaters off the train."

"Did they catch them afterwards?" Ainsley asked, concerned.

"I'm afraid not," James replied tersely. "The spell your sister used on them must've worn off before anyone from the Ministry could catch them... The article claims they probably Disapparated."

"That's a shame, I would've loved for my dear cousin to end up in Azkaban," Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Your cousin?!" Corey yelled, backing away.

"Yeah, Corey, I'm related to a bunch of Death Eaters," Sirius said, waving it off. "Bianca set one of them on fire on the train."

My brother snorted.

"But, really, mate, my family is utterly messed up," Sirius stated. "They're mostly Slytherin Death Eaters. Mostly. There are a few good ones still..."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Potter, give me that thing, would you?" a loud voice demanded suddenly.

I whipped around in time to see Marlene snatching the Daily Prophet out of James's grasp without waiting for an answer.

"Hey!" James yelped, but he stopped quickly as Lily picked the newspaper up herself and read it over with Marlene and Alice.

Mary Macdonald made her way over to them. "Can I see that?" she asked.

James's newspaper made its way halfway across the Gryffindor table, travelling from the hands of Mary Macdonald to Cal Lars; then to Kate Moore, one of the Gryffindor Chasers; and finally to Sarina Blythe, the Quidditch commentator.

"Can't you people get your own Daily Prophet?" James snapped angrily, finally snatching it away from the seventh-year Quidditch commentator.

***

After writing back to Mum's letter (I had to do it since there was no way either of my siblings would remember to), I set off to class with the Marauders. We all went to Transfiguration together, then I had a free period during which Sirius dragged Peter to Astronomy with him.

"Before you all take your seats," Professor Slughorn said once Potions class had started after lunch, "I would like to attempt something new."

I exchanged a confused glance with Remus.

"I have decided to assign the seating for this year—" he started, but his voice was drowned out by a mix of protests, groans and sighs of defeat.

James and Sirius clung onto each other defiantly.

"Now, now, this is not the reaction I had been hoping for!" Slughorn said, shaking his head. "I would like for all of you to attempt working with different people rather than with those in your usual crowd. There has been too much separation between the houses, so I have tried as best I could to place you next to someone of a different house than you. That way, you will all learn to work with new people for the group assignments."

"This will not go well," Remus muttered next to me, glancing back at James and Sirius, whose arms were wound tightly around each other.

Slughorn pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket and unfolded it.

"Since there are precisely seventeen students in this class, only one will be sitting alone..." The old professor made his way over to the first pair of desks at the very front of the room. "Here we have Mr Black and Mr Stebbins."

"No!" Sirius wailed.

James let go of him and walked over to Professor Slughorn. "Professor, sir, perhaps we can work something out? How about I switch with dear Stebbins over there, and in return I can supply you with as much of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion as you so desire..." He wiggled his eyebrows, putting his arm around the man. "My father did invent it, after all."

"Potter, what in the world would a balding man do with such a potion?" Slughorn asked, running his hand over his hair. "Black, please take your seat. You may wave at your friend from across the room, should you miss him within the next hour or so."

Sirius grumbled as he settled into the seat beside Stebbins. Slughorn continued seating people. As the list of people left for me to sit next to slowly dwindled down, I found myself continuously glancing nervously at James and Remus, hoping I wouldn't end up next to Mulciber or Avery.

"I apologize, Mr Lupin, but I am afraid that you will have to sit alone over here," Slughorn said solemnly, pointing to a desk at the end of the first row.

Remus, however, looked extremely pleased as he settled into his chair, smirking to himself.

Moving on to the next row, I waited and waited until my name was finally called. "Miss Reynolds over here with Mr Potter."

I sighed in relief, glancing at James, who grinned happily at me.

I made my way over to the desk I was supposed to be sitting at. As I passed by Remus, I kicked the leg of his chair and leaned over to whisper, "Lucky git."

His smirk only deepened as he shrugged.

I sat down next to James, feeling immense relief. Directly in front of us were Frank and a Hufflepuff girl.

"And here we'll have Miss Evans and Mr Avery," Slughorn's voice floated towards us.

James and I immediately whipped around, fearful, watching what would happen. Poor Lily was stuck sitting next to a Slytherin who not only judged her for being a Muggle-born, but was also really close with Severus Snape, the boy who used to be her best friend.

Lily begrudgingly sat down in her assigned seat, scooting the farthest away from the chair next to her as she could. She exchanged an annoyed glance with Alice, who was happily seated next to a Ravenclaw girl who wouldn't be a bother to her.

Avery, on the other hand, trudged over to his seat, looking like he had smelled something foul. He did not sit down, but instead glared at the seat next to Lily. He was muttering loudly to himself, and the words he said were perceived by everyone in the vicinity, though he didn't seem to care in the slightest. "Filthy Mudblood."

Upon hearing this, both Alice and James stood up from their seats abruptly, glaring murderously at him.

The entire class held their breath. Each and every person had paled visibly as they heard those words, and Lily had flinched but was pretending to be completely indifferent to his insult. Never before had any of us heard a student call another a Mudblood during class, especially in front of a teacher. Professor Slughorn gasped, placing his hand over his heart.

"Excuse me?" Slughorn yelled incredulously. "I will not have such words uttered in my classroom! I will not have such prejudice in this class, boy! GO SEE THE DEPUTY HEADMISTRESS—IMMEDIATELY!" He pointed to the door. I had never seen him so angry. "And detention after class for the rest of the week, Avery!" he called after the Slytherin boy, who had just walked out the door, his nose held high. "Ridiculous! Unacceptable! Never—never have I experienced such prejudice during a lesson before!"

James sank back into his seat next to me, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes. Seething, Slughorn bustled to the front of the classroom.

"I would only like to say that, should I hear such a word in my classroom ever again, that person will be dealt with by Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore. I will not tolerable this horrible prejudice in my classroom, nor will I stand by and watch students be called awful things by their peers... The very purpose of this assigned seating was to get you to learn to work with others, but that cannot be done if some of you continue to have this mindset towards Muggle-borns," Professor Slughorn enunciated, his walrus moustache twitching. "Each and every one of you attend this school for a reason, and none of you have greater magical abilities simply because both of your parents have magical blood."

He paused, taking a breath as his words were soaked in.

"Lily, my dear, I apologize," he said genuinely.

I finally looked at Lily, whose lips were set in a thin line, and whose green eyes were almost filled with anger. Her eyes softened, but her face remained tense as she said, "That's all right, Professor. I'm quite used to hearing those things from many of my peers—" she shot a glare in Snape's direction "—so it no longer shocks me." She focused her gaze on Slughorn once more. "Besides, all I've got to do is ignore it. I know that I have as much of a right to attend this school as anyone else here."

"That's the spirit," he said, slightly more cheerfully. He clearly hadn't picked up on what Lily had been hinting at about Snape. "If you would like, you may choose who you wish to sit next to. I will be moving Mr Avery if it makes you uncomfortable."

"Hey! Why does she get to choose who she sits next to?" James blurted out as Alice scurried over to occupy the empty seat beside Lily.

"Yeah, thanks James," I said flatly.

"No, I didn't mean it like that! You know I adore you!" he said dramatically to me, rushing forward to pull me into a bone-crushing hug.

I remained stiff as everyone in the class watched in amusement.

"James, let go of me."

"But you're so cuddly!"

"No... no, I'm really not."

"Fine," he said, releasing me.

Slughorn appeared confused as he clapped his hands together and said, "Yes, well... we shall begin!"

He began to teach what he had to teach, but seemed thoroughly distracted the entire time, probably because of what had happened with Avery. I kept glancing at the door, wondering if Avery would eventually come sauntering back into the dungeons, until it dawned on me how easy it would be for him to skip the rest of class. I wondered if he had even gone to see Professor McGonagall at all as he had been instructed to do, for that matter...

"Where's Mr Black?" Slughorn asked suddenly, his eyes fixed on the empty seat beside Stebbins.

"Right here, sir," Sirius's arrogant voice carried from the back of the room.

Everyone turned around, realizing that he had been sneaking into the empty seat beside Remus at the very back of the class. James and I chortled.

"Black," Slughorn tutted.

"Sorry," Sirius muttered, heading back to his assigned seat.