CHAPTER TWO
↳ train rides and sorting ceremonys !

JOSEPHINE WALKED ALONG THE SMALL CORRIDOR OF MANY FULL compartments as Sirius and James strolled infront of her bickering back and forth about something Josi couldn't understand. The brunette had to stop several times and peek through a couple of small compartment windows until she had finally found Lily and Marlene sitting in a big compartment together.

Meanwhile Sirius and James had went off to find Peter and Remus, leaving the brunette to herself. As the boys made their way down the hallway towards their usual compartment she could hear Sirius muttering something about his mother, 'being a evil dragon', before the two were out of her reach.

The girl exhaled deeply, stopped infront of the compartment and quickly pushed the door open, which made both of the teenage girls who sat inside jump up in excitement. They immediately rushed over to her and brought Josi into a big group hug before they immediately started rambling.

Lily sat down again as she eyed the brunette with a wide smile, "Josi, how was your summer?"

"We missed you so much!", Marlene dragged her into the compartment as she sat down on her opposite. "Wow, look at that, you got even prettier over the summer!"

"Guys let me breath!", Josi chuckled at them while she sat down in the empty seat on the other side. The two girls let out an amused chuckle as they leaned back in their seats.

The train slowly continued north and the three girls fell into a long conversation about their summer. Marlene was telling the girls about her beautiful Holliday in Italy and that she had met a really nice girl, which made Josephine happy 'cause Marlene got a pretty bad crush on Dorcas Meadowes since their fourth year helloween party.

Josi was actually pretty sure that Dorcas liked Marlene as well, it was honestly pretty obvious but Marlene was too afraid of loosing the girls friendship, so she just kept her feelings to herself.

Just when Lily started to complain about the fact that her sister, Petunia got even more evil over the last year, Alice opened the Compartment door.

"Hello lady's, had a nice Summer?", the small brunette questioned them immediately, smiling as she entered the compartment. Her wavy brown hair hung into her face and her chocolate brown eyes had a happy expression as she settled down besides Josephine.

Josi automatically placed her long legs over Alice lap and handed the brunette a chocolate frog from her package as she gazed at the rest of her friends.

"Okay my turn!", she exclaimed as she bit into a chocolate frog. "This was probably the worst summer I ever had! James is becoming more and more obsessed with Quidditch, I honestly think, he might even love it more than dear Lilypad over there, but- when I think about it, he talked pretty often about you too", Josephine started to complain while throwing both of her hands into the air. She shook her head in annoyance as she gave Lily a look, who just made a disgusted face.

The brunette played Quidditch herself and was even on the Gryffindor Quidditch team together with James, Marlene and Sirius, but she wasn't obsessed with it like her twin brother. -Her position was Seeker while James was the Captain and Chaser like Marlene. And Sirius was the Beater of the Gryffindor team together with Gideon Prewett.

Suddenly the compartment door swung open again making the girls heads snap towards it. Four heads were slowly stuck into the Compartment and Josephine immediately recognized the messy brown hair of her brother. "What do you want James?", she asked him annoyed but her brother ignored her completely as he slowly entered the compartment.

"What is with my dear Lilypad?", James questioned as he slided down next to Lily. The readhead gave him an annoyed look as he tried to place his arm around her shoulder. Lily immediately slapped his arm away and slided more towards Marlene, who chuckled amused.

Peter sat down shyly in between the window and Josi while Sirius casually grabbed Josi's legs and pulled them up to slide in between Alice and her. Remus let himself fall down on the opposite of Alice and at some point started a passionated conversation with her over the newest book of "FANTASTIC BEASTS AMD WHERE TO FIND THEM."

Josephine turned towards Peter as much as she could with her legs still on Sirius lap. "Pete, how was your summer?", she asked the teenage boy while she messed up his blond hair.

- Peter Pettigrew was actually the shy one out of the Marauders, he never spoke much, observed most of the time but if you got to know him better he was a very kind person.

"My mum and Dad were with me in Spain and after that I visited Remus. It was pretty cool, but of course, I missed all of you", he answered her enthusiastic with a small smile on his face.

"That sounds really nice Peter", she smiled as she exhaled deeply looking out of the windows, thinking about her boring holidays, "I always wanted to go to Spain."

For a moment silence fell over the compartment and the only things they all could hear were James poor flirt attempts and Lily's annoyed sights in the backround. It slowly started to annoy Josephine as well and she just wanted to say something but suddenly an arm wrapped around her shoulder making the girl stop in her movements.

The brunette eyed the arm that hung over her shoulder curious and then she let her gaze slowly wander around the compartment before it stopped by Sirius who talked to Remus not acknowledging her.

Josephine cleared her throat awkwardly as she grabbed Sirius hand with two fingers and pushed it back towards him.

Sirius had his typical smirk on his face as he looked straight forward while leaning further towards her, his shoulder brushing against her's.

Josephine scoffed as Sirius leaned his head closer to her, he wanted to whisper something into her ear but before he could do that she grabbed his face with one hand and pushed him back harshly. Peter and Marlene started laughing hardly as Sirius looked at her confused.

Josephine flinched in surprise as suddenly Lily begann screaming from her opposite. "James Potter! You arrogance is bigger than the giant squid! You are a mean, childish boy and I never will go on a date with you!"

"But Lilypad- ", James started pleading with big eyes only to be interrupted by Remus who suddenly realized that he and Lily were late to their Prefect Meeting and jumped onto his feet.

"OI, I totally forgot! Lily, we have to go to the Prefect Meeting", he reminded the girl quickly as he looked at the watch that sat on his wrist. Lily abruptly stood up as well and quickly made her way past the pale boy out of the Compartment, but not before she shot James one last glare.

Remus shrugged at him and gave James a hopeful smile, "See you guys! And with that he quickly followed after Lily down the small hallway.

Josephine smiled it as she eyed her twin brother who sat on her opposite the girl realized that James looked rather upsed. So the brunette sighed and at last decided to try and cheer him up. Marleen had noticed that as well and slided a bit towards him as she whispered, "Uh- James, I'm sure she will come around. I mean, you guys are practically made for each other, she just can't see it right now, but she will."

Josi nooded her head hectically as she looked at Marlene thankful and then back at James, "Yes, exactly my. I'm one hundred percent sure that one day she will fall madly in love with you." She grabbed her twins hand and gave it an assuring squeeze.

"I don't know, I've been trying for so long-", James started to complain, but Josi interrupted him immediately, "So, keep trying! Don't give up on her!"

"Yeah man, I didn't listen to you the last five years whining about her only to give up now", Sirius spoke up from where he sat, looking at his mate.

Josephine's head snapped towards him as James muttered something about that he was right and that he would still try. Josi smiled lightly as she mouthed a quiet 'thank you', towards the long haired boy who just nodded at her.

- The rest of the train ride was pretty peaceful, James and Marlene played a few rounds of exploding snape, while Peter was watching them, chuckling a few times. Alice had excused herself after a while ago to see where Frank was.

Meanwhile Josephine had taken out her newest book and started reading it while Sirius laid on the seats besides her, his head next to her while he watched the girl closely.

Josi honestly didn't knew why the boy did that, they had never been very close and had never talked that much. To her, Sirius was just her twins best friend, who was a complete lady's man and could be a first class jerk, but she didn't knew that she was definetly a lot more to him.

It was extremely difficult for Josi to concentrate on reading when she constantly felt Sirius burning gaze on her. The brunette tried at least for ten minutes to read one scentence over and over again. - Eventually she gave up and let out a deep sighed, "You should take a picture it will last longer."

She closed her book as Sirius just grinned at the girls scentence and responded in a dramatically tone while he threw his hands into the air, "No, I can't because no camera in the world can capture your beauty, love".

"Stop being cheesy, Black! And stop calling me love!", she replied immediately looking him directly into his grey eyes as she laid her book besides her.

"Yeah, Sirius! Stop flirting with my twin!", James shouted from his seat next to Marlene and threw a bag Bertie bott beans at him. But Sirius just caughed them casually and opened the bag of sweets.

"Shove off, Prongs", he muttered as Peter suddenly stood up from his seat and gasped. "Guys we are there, I can already see Hogwarts!", the boy exclaimed loudly as he pointed out of the big window.

Josi immediately shot up as well making Sirius rolled his eyes as he ate another one of the sweets. "Blimey! Marlene, we still have to change into our roaps."

The two girls quickly grabbed their roaps and made their way to the toilets, who were near the Slytherin compartments. As the two finally arrived they met Alice, who just exited the toilet, dressed in her red and black Gryffindor roaps.

Josi was the last one of them to change and while she put on her roaps the brunette thought about the warm Gryffindor common room in which she would be sitting in a few hours and the Great Hall with all the delicious food.

But this calm thoughts were interrupted by the scene that awaited the girl as she finally exited the toilet. As soon as the brunette had stept out into the hallway she spotted Bellatrix Black, Sirius's absolutely mad and sadistic cousin,together with Lucius Malfoy, an arrogant Slytherin prick, who urged Alice while Marlene stood protectively in front of her hissing something at the two.

As Josephine got closer she could hear Bellatrix spat at her friends, "Don't come near me again you dirty little half-bloods".

Josi could immediately feel the rising anger inside of her. She couldn't stand there and let Bellatrix insult Alice like that. "Black, Malfoy, do we have a problem here?", she asked them calmly while she approached the little group, the brunette looked at the two Slytherins' intensively.

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes at her and leand forward, her cold dark eyes stared into brunette's warm brown one's. "You should be careful who you surround yourself with Potter. We don't want people thinking you're a blood traitor like my filthy cousin, the same goes for you Mckinnon", she wispered while she bowed her head to look past Josi, directly at Marlene.

Josi snorted amused at the black haired Slytherin girl, "Rather a blood traitor than one of your pure blood fanatics!" She could see how anger and disgust made it's way onto Bellatrix face before Josephine grabbed Alice and Marlene by their arms and pulled them back into the compartment to gather their things and leave the train.

The last thing she heard was Malfoy as he called after her in a arrogant voice, "You better watch your back, Potter!"

As the girls finally exited the train, the big platform was not as full as normal, the usual crowd of students had already split up among the various carriages and we're ready to continue towards the castle.

The three Gryffindor girls could already see the boys, who were awaiting them patiently by the Carriages with Lily and Remus, form afar.

The group stopped their conversation as they spotted the worried facial expressions on the girls faces.

"You shouldn't have said that to Black and Malfoy, now you are definitely on their hit list", Alice mumbled while handing James and Sirius her trunk. The boys took it from her hands as they both furrowed her eyebrows at them.

Climbing in the Carriage with her trunk Josi hissed at her friend, "What should I've done, let them continue to call you a dirty half-blood? No, I don't think so!"

Peter, Remus, Sirius, James and Lily were already seated and looked at each other in confusion. Alice and Marlene just followed after Josephine into the carriage as it slowly started driving.

Josephine let herself fall onto a seat next to Alice as silence fell over the group again. Josephine played with her fingers, just listening to the wheels of the carriage roll over the thick stones that laid on the road.

After a short while Sirius was the first one who broke the silence, "You wanna tell us what happened?" He eyed the three girls on his opposite, who all looked up at him immediately.

Josi exhaled deeply as she answered him, "It was just Bellatrix and Malfoy. I dealt with it. No big deal."

"No big deal?", Marlene asked her loudly as she eyed her friend with wide eyes. "I'm surprised they didn't hex you right there", the blond stated as she leaned back in her seat.

"What happened?", James questiond now even more interested in the story. "Well, they were bullying Alice. I'm sure Marlene could've handled it by herself but I thought I help them."

"Malfoy is such a disgusting slimy git", Marlene fake gaged as her whole body shook in disgust.

Alice leaned her head onto Josie's shoulder, letting out a quiet breath while she stared onto the ground. "I can't wait for the chocolate pudding", the small brunette spoke up quietly, which caught Remus attention, "Now we are talking!"

The group of friends chuckled as Remus gave them a confused look. "What?"

AFTER A SHORT WHILE OF CHATTING AND LAUGHING THE carriages had finally arrived by Hogwarts. The group quickly jumped out of the black carriage and made their way towards the castle together with all the other students.

James and Sirius, who were both walking at the front were joking and laughing the whole time while Remus, who walked behind the two laughing boys had a conversation with Lily about the first years that would get sorted into Gryffindor.

Peter was strolling up the steps in complete silence next to Alice, too shy to speak to anyone who wasn't James, Remus, Sirius or Josi. Which Alice could completely understand, she was the same befor she attended Hogwarts, but with the help of the girls she got out of her shell and was much more confident now.

At the end of the group, Marlene and Josi walked next to each other and talked about what delicacies there would be in the Great Hall this year.
At least until Marlene decided to address the obviously. "Black is so whipped. He couldn't take his eyes off you since the boys came into our compartment."

Josi groaned annoyed as she rolled with her eyes, "Don't be silly, Marlene." The blonde looked at her friend, "If you didn't notice how he was staring at you the whole time, you are the most oblivious person I know, Jo", Marlene stated while she still walked next to her friend, throwing her hands dramatically into the air.

Of course Josi had noticed his stares, obviously she wasn't blind, but she just couldn't imagine that Sirius Black would be interested in her. He could have every girl he wanted, so why would he want her.

Josi just shrugged at the teenager besides her and continued her way to the castle as she eyed Sirius back curiously. Marlene decided to not push the brunette any further, the blond was sure that one day the Potter girl would realize the obvious and massive Crush the school heartbreaker had on her.

The many students wandered through the large halls of the castle as they walked past hundrets of paintings that gretted them happyly. After a while they all arrive by the Great Hall and the big wooden doors swung open revealing the four large house tables and the enchanted ceiling which immediately drew the attention of many students like every year.

The stars shown brightly in the dark sky and thousands of big white candles hovered over the heads of the student.

As Josephine let her gaze slowly wander around she spotted the teacher and their beloved headmaster sitting on the long teachers table smiling down at them.

The older students quickly settled down at their well-laid tables and immediately started chatting with each other.

Frank Longbottom had met the Gryffindor group on their way towards the hall and now sat next to Alice, holding her hand and quietly flirting with the brunette.

Josephine looked over the many heads of the students and at last spotted her old buddy Amos Diggory sitting at the Huffelpuf table, chatting with his group of handsome friends. Amos was a very popular boy in their year, he was very good-looking and the girls just loved him. Not as much as they loved Sirius but he was still attractive.

The brunette contiued to let her gaze wander through the great hall as she took a sip from her pumpkin juice. And in the crowd of Ravenclaws she spotted Xenophilius Lovegood sitting at his house tabel. The boy had been her Astronomy partner in third year and had probably saved her ass from failing the class.

He was a really cute but also strange boy, always talking about Nargles and Wrackspurts. Telling everybody that they should be careful because they would mess with your head. Total rubbish, if you asked Josephine but she was still fascinated by the boys special imagination.

He also has his own school newspaper "The Quibbler", in which he wrote about everything that came to his mind.

The teenager was torn from her thoughts by Dumbledore's loud and familiar voice that suddenly spoke up. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts, I hope you had a very restful summer! - As always, the Sorting Hat will now assigned the first years in their respective houses! But I do have to remember you that our forrest is forbidden for all students and so is the left corridor in the east tower, unless you want to die a very painful death."

The headmaster gave the students a wide smile and nodded at them before Professor Mcgonagall slowly stepped forward and began to read name after name.

"Is it weird that I now want to go into that east corridor even more?", Sirius asked the group as he looked at them all, making them scoff before they turned back to McGonnagell.

Josephine tapped her foot onto the stone floor as she watched one kid walk up to McGonnagell after the other.

After a little while the ground friends were so bored that Marlene, Sirius and James had began to guess in which house the first years would get sorted in, based on how they looked like. Surprise! they never guessed right.

"Arden Winchester!"

"He is definitely a Huffelpuf", Sirius whispered convinced as he eyed the small boy who sat on the wooden chair.

Josi turned her head and look at the little boy as she schook her head immediately. "Nah, I say he is a Ravenclaw", and just a split second later the sorting head shouted, "Ravenclaw!"

Josi had a triumphant look on her face as she smirked at the sight of Sirius and James face expressions. "How did you know?", the two boys both asked her in syncrony, but Josephine just shrugged at them. "I guess, I have good knowledge of human nature." Marlene giggled quietly to herself as they all looked back to McGonnagell.

But Dumbledore had already taken her place again and streched out his arms as she smiled at the crowd, "Let the feast beginn!"