The year was done.

The first years had received their marks back from their exams – they all passed, with good marks as well. Lizzie did a lot better than she had been expecting considering how much she struggled at the beginning of the year.

Neville had just managed to pass, despite a low mark in Potions, and Hermione had naturally come top of the year. Draco had been pretty annoyed about that, having come second himself.

Their trunks were now packed, and Lizzie had helped Neville find his toad, Trevor, for a final time (nobody was surprised that he'd gone missing once more).

As they queued in the entrance hall to travel back to Hogsmeade Station by carriage or boat (depending on what year they were in) notes were handed out by their Heads of Houses. The notes explained that they were not to use magic over the holidays.

"Yet they always request that we practise if we can," Dexter had muttered, glaring at the note.

"People with magic parents can, it's less likely to get picked up," Cedric explained, rolling his eyes. "But they don't want us to discriminate against muggle-borns."

"I'm okay with not practising," Justin said. "I'm already fed up of the homework we've got to do."

"You're fed up, I'm going to have Ernie reminding me that it needs doing," Lizzie said, just loud enough for Justin to hear.

"You'll be fine, or at least you'll survive," Justin winked at her.

"Are you going to come see us at all this summer?" Ernie asked Justin, oblivious to what he and Lizzie had just been talking about.

"If you'll have me, that would be great."

"You should definitely come just for the day or something at least, will your parents be okay with it?" Lizzie asked.

"I imagine so, they're not overly chuffed I've had to come here but I think they don't yet understand magic and stuff."

"Didn't it get explained?"

"Well yeah, but as far as they care all it means is I'm not going to Eton."

Lizzie frowned at him, "you've never told us this before."

"What's Eton?" Ernie asked, sounding confused.

"It's never come up, and a posh school for smart kids."

"So why were you going there," Lizzie quipped.

"Because I'm posh," Justin said, smiling.

"First years! Please follow me!" Hagrid called over the crowd.

"See you on the train," Hannah said, kissing Mark.

"See you in a bit," Lizzie waved to the fourth years.

"See you!"

The first years made their way down to the lake, following Hagrid, and clambered into the boats. Again, as they did at the very beginning of the year, the boats glided smoothly across the lake, with neither the students or Hagrid needed to do anything to help them on their journey.

"We don't use the boats after this year, do we?" Susan asked, turning to face Lizzie, Hannah, and Justin, whom she was sharing a boat with.

"No," Hannah answered, shaking her head. "There are carriages."

"It's quite a nice way to get to the castle."

Lizzie hummed in agreement. It really was a very peaceful journey, and the views (now they could see them as it wasn't dark) really were spectacular.

"I said we'd share a compartment with the Mark and his friends," Hannah said.

Lizzie glanced at her; she was playing with the sleeve of her robe, apparently nervous about telling them this.

"Okay, if there'll be room for us all," Justin said.

"Will there be enough room?" Lizzie wondered.

"I don't know, I hadn't thought about that," Hannah said honestly.

"There'll be 10 of us, I think that would probably be too many," Justin scrunched up his face.

"Couldn't we just go in two carriages that are opposite each other and keep the doors open?" Susan asked, looking at each of her friends in turn.

They were silent for a moment, thinking this over.

"I think that would work," Lizzie agreed.

"Are they not sick of us yet?" Justin asked. "I mean, I know you're with Mark so they're unlikely to get sick of you, and Lizzie you're close to Cedric, but the rest of us?"

Hannah rolled her eyes, "no, they're not."

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure," Hannah smiled. "They find you amusing."

They were lucky enough that the compartment the fourth years had found did have an empty compartment opposite it. The first years hoisted their trunks into the luggage rack in this one before settling down into the seats.

Once the train pulled away from the station, Dexter stuck his head in and asked if anyone wanted a game of exploding snap.

"I'll join," Justin said, moving into the opposite compartment.

"I'm going to go see Mark," Hannah said, following Justin.

"Hey guys," Jack had come into their compartment. "I can't be bothered to play for now."

He settled on the seat next to Susan and opened that day's Daily Prophet.

"You know what I'm looking forward to?" Zacharias said.

Lizzie looked at him over the top of the book she was reading, "what?"

"We'll have to get a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher next year, it'll be interesting to see what they're like."

"How long was Quirrell here for?" Susan asked Jack.

"Just the year, we've had a different teacher every year."

"Seriously?" Ernie asked, understandably shocked by the news.

"There's a reason they say the job's cursed. I don't think anyone had lasted that long before we came to Hogwarts either."

"Any idea why?" Lizzie asked, her curiosity piqued.

"They've either not wanted to return or couldn't for whatever reason from the sounds of it."

"And yet Snape has never been offered the job," Ernie commented.

"What?" Lizzie didn't understand the comment.

"Snape's always wanted to teach that rather than Potions, or that's what I heard anyway?" Ernie looked at Jack for support.

"It's true," Jack confirmed. "He's a good Potions master – an awful teacher but he's excellent at Potions – but he's always wanted to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Why won't Dumbledore let him?" Zacharias asked.

"No idea, he used to be a death eater so it obviously the rumour is that it's because of that."

"What?!" all four of the first years exclaimed.

"Our teacher used to be a death eater!" Zacharias shrieked, his voice rising to an unusually high pitch.

"You didn't know?"

"Oh yeah, these are the faces of people in the know," Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"I always figured it was common knowledge."

"Our parents don't tend to discuss things like that with us," Ernie explained.

"Same here," Susan said.

"And me," Zacharias agreed.

"He switched sides towards the end of the war and became an informant, worked for Dumbledore to tell him what Voldemort was doing."

"But surely he would have been tried as a death eater after it all ended?" Susan asked. "My auntie works for the Ministry, we don't talk about the war much but I know all the death eaters were tried and most sent to Azkaban."

"Dumbledore was a witness for him. He said that we wouldn't have been able to defeat Voldemort if Snape hadn't helped."

"We didn't defeat him though," Lizzie was still confused. "Harry Potter did."

"His power was weakening, we were managing to catch more people or something." Jack shrugged, "all I know is that Dumbledore gave such a convincing argument that Snape wasn't found guilty, and that Dumbledore trusts him enough to keep him at Hogwarts."

"Just not in his ideal job role," Ernie said, running his fingers through his hair.

"No," Jack agreed with him.

Lizzie leaned back in her seat, that was certainly an interesting bit of information.

After that bombshell, the rest of the journey passed rather peacefully. There were a couple more compartment switches as different games and topics of conversation were brought up.

It was just after one of these – Ernie and Zacharias had started another debate so Mark, Dexter, Jack, and Hannah had all moved into one compartment to watch this – that Draco had stopped by.

"Elizabeth? You free for a chat?"

Lizzie looked round at him, a smile spreading across her face. "Of course," she put her book down on her seat and followed him out of the compartment.

"I'm in a compartment about 7 down, is it okay if we go there?"

"Is Pansy in there?"

Draco grinned, "no."

"Then that's fine."

He laughed at set off down the train, leading her into the compartment he was sharing with Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise.

"Hey Lizzie," Blaise said, glancing up from the chess board in front of him.

"Hey Blaise, who are you playing chess with?" Lizzie asked, looking at Crabbe and Goyle who were the other end of the compartment and, to be honest, looking like they were asleep.

"Draco, but he wanted to chat to you so told me I needed to wait."

"Oh, okay," Lizzie said down next to Blaise, so she could look at Draco. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to say sorry for not being able to invite you to my family's ball in person," Draco explained, looking at the board rather than at Lizzie. She guessed he was probably ashamed that he had to apologise.

Lizzie, however, waved the apology away. "Don't worry about it, Blaise explained it and I completely understand. I'd rather Blaise had to invite me with a letter from you rather than have to deal with Pansy."

Blaise scoffed at her name, "I don't know how you managed to get her to leave you alone this train ride."

Draco scowled, "I told her I'd come visit her once I was done discussing important family business."

"She's going to come looking for you eventually, you know," Lizzie said.

"I know, but I want to avoid it for as long as possible."

Blaise and Lizzie laughed.

"The poor boy has no idea," Blaise stage-whispered to Lizzie.

"No idea about what?" Draco snapped.

"About how obsessed she is with you," Lizzie rolled her eyes. "She hates me just because we're friends."

"No, she hates you because Draco actually values you and your opinion and cares about you," Blaise nudged her in the ribs.

"Well I can't help it if I'm simply better to be around than her," Lizzie said flicking her hair to the side.

"Blaise, can you have your go please," Draco said through gritted teeth.

Blaise winked at Lizzie, making her laugh, before turning his attention back to the board in front of him.

Lizzie looked back at Draco, who was scowling pretty badly.

After a few seconds, his eyes flickered up to meet hers. She gave him a smile, and his scowl melted away, being replaced with a smile to return hers.

"Will you write to me this summer still?" He asked. Lizzie thought she saw a slight look of desperation come into his eyes.

"Of course, I will" she reassured him. "Although you'll need to write to me first as you've got the owl."

Draco smiled at her, "I'll do it as soon as I get home."

She rolled her eyes, "you can leave it at least a couple of hours, catch up with your parents."

"My dad will just want to know why I didn't come top of the year," he grimaced. "Losing to a mud, sorry, a muggle-born like that, he won't be happy."

Lizzie pursed her lips.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth, it's just a force of habit."

"Doesn't mean you still need to do it."

"I am trying, I am."

The compartment fell into an uncomfortable silence. Blaise took his go at chess, the piece making a small noise as it connected with the board.

"I know you're trying," she sighed. "It just doesn't make it any easier to hear you refer to one of my friends like that."

"I understand," Draco nodded.

"And thank you for apologising. I accept it, but that doesn't mean it's okay for you to use that term."

"Thank you, I know."

Silence fell again, less awkward this time. Draco took his move in his chess game with Blaise, taking his knight.

"That's check mate, I think."

Blaise stared at the board.

"You're a dick."

"And you're a bad loser."

"And you're both idiots," Lizzie chuckled, rolling her eyes.

The boys grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes again. "I'm going to head back to my compartment," she said, standing.

"Do you want me to walk you back?" Draco asked, hurrying to get to his feet.

"No, that's fine, I think I'll manage."

Lizzie left the compartment, closing the door behind her, but not before she heard Blaise say "dude, you are so whipped."

Lizzie rolled her eyes and began to wake her way back along the train: back to her Hufflepuff friends.

The rest of the train journey passed relatively quickly, and all too soon it was time to change from their wizarding robes back into muggle clothes.

"Want to write to me over the summer?" Cedric asked Lizzie as he was helping her lift her trunk down in preparation for leaving the train.

"I would, but I don't have an owl."

"We really should ask for one," Ernie piped up. "I want to write to Justin but neither of us have an owl."

"Maybe we ask for one for our birthday?" Lizzie said, tucking a loose curl behind her ear.

Cedric watched the twins in amusement, "I've got an owl, I'll write to you."

"That would be great," Lizzie said smiling at him.

The train slowed to a stop, and the noise level rose as students began to say goodbye to their friends.

"So first years," Mark said, "what did you think of your first year?"

"It was long," Zacharias said.

Lizzie rolled her eyes, "it was eventful, do you remember that troll at Halloween."

There were general mutterings of agreement as everyone remembered when Quirrell had sprinted into the hall shouting about a troll in the dungeons.

"It's not normally like that, there's been more drama than normal this year," Mark said, as though making an excuse for Hogwarts.

"Yeah, normally it's just quidditch drama," Jack grinned.

"Cedric, are you going to come back on the team next year?" Dexter shoved him lightly. "We need someone to distract the girls on the other teams."

They all laughed and joined the slow-moving queue of students making their way off of the train.

"Maybe, I'm going to see what my parents say."

"Your dad would love it though, you'd be bringing Hufflepuff the only bit of glory we can get," Dexter rolled his eyes.

"True, it's my mum that's the tough one to convince."

"Why?" Justin asked.

"She's worried I could be hurt or injured."

"What position do you play?"

"Either chaser or seeker, I'd prefer seeker but that's the more dangerous one so," Cedric finished his sentence with a shrug of the shoulders.

Lizzie understood that, seekers were always more likely to be aimed at by the other team.

"Try and convince her this summer, please. At least you let you play chaser, Humpers is a 7th year so we're going to be trying out for one anyway," Jack pleaded. "And there were some really crap people trying out this year, don't make me play with someone like Dexter."

"I didn't even try out this year, I don't want to play quidditch," Dexter mock glared at him.

"Sure, sure, you just wish you were this good." Jack struck a pose.

Lizzie smiled to herself, whilst the boys weren't in her year, she had grown remarkably close to them over the course of the year. She would miss them this summer, it would be odd not having them around at any rate.

"Elizabeth! Ernest!"

Lizzie and Ernie turned towards the sound of their mother calling their names.

"Come along you two," she said, beckoning them over.

They turned to their friends, exchanging wishes of good summers and hugs.

"Try not to get into too much trouble," Cedric said, pulling her in for a hug.

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything," she grinned at him.

"Elizabeth!"

"Well, I've got to go."

"Have a good summer, I'll send you an owl at some point."

"Sounds good," she gave Cedric a final wave goodbye and made her way over to her mother.

"Where's father?" Ernie asked, looking around for him.

"He's hired a car from the Ministry to help with the trunks, he should be waiting with it now."

They made their way out of the station to get into the car that would take them back to their family home. Although, truly, Lizzie felt as though she had just left her actual home, miles and miles away in Scotland.