A/N- Harry Potter AU with a SwanQueen endgame. There's some slight Daniel/Regina in the beginning but that'll end soon enough. Title is from this quote-

"Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.

These, our bodies, possessed by light.

Tell me we'll never get used to it."

From Richard Siken's 'Boot Theory'


Emma Swan was slumped down in her seat on the Hogwarts Express across from Mary Margaret who looked like an excited puppy. Every time a new voice would echo down the corridor, the small brunette would perk up and poke her head out of the compartment. When it happened for the eighth time, Emma rolled her eyes and let out a pointed groan, "For the love of Merlin's left ass cheek, you've got to stop jumping each time you hear someone out there!"

The brunette blushed at being called out, "I'm sorry Emma, it's just been so long since I've seen David. You can't blame me for being a little excited."

Emma deflated a bit, "No, you're right. Sorry."

Mary Margaret reached out and laid her hand on her friend's knee with a smile. Emma knew it was meant to be a comforting gesture, but to her it just felt patronizing. It said 'don't worry one day you'll find your person too'. It made Emma want to punch something.

She was saved from this line of thought when a newcomer slid into their compartment and the seat beside her.

"Listen up, ground rules for this train ride are no loud noises, no bright lights, no gross smells, if I fall asleep don't wake me until we're there." Ruby Lucas proclaimed. She slumped down in her seat, pushed her sunglasses up her nose, and pulled her beanie down further.

Emma smirked knowingly, "Rough night there Rubes?"

"The night was great, it was the morning that was rough." Ruby laughed back.

Mary Margaret for her part simply rolled her eyes, they were sixth years at this point, and she knew better than to try and scold the other brunette for the way she spends her school breaks.

The whistle sounded in two short bursts and Mary Margaret's head whipped to peek out the window and it was Ruby's turn to make fun of the shorter girl, "Keep your panties on, Mn'M. I'm sure lover boy will make it onto the train in time."

Mary Margaret was just opening her mouth to lay into the girl when their compartment door slid open to reveal a windswept David Nolan. He had his broomstick in one hand, and a small cat in the other. Mary Margaret leapt to her feet and jumped into his already over laden arms, pressing a kiss to his lips.

Emma and Ruby made appropriate gagging sounds at their two friends before Ruby leant over to the blonde, "How long have they been apart?"

"Two weeks." Emma replied. She and Mary Margaret had exchanged owls for most of the summer, and she knew that the couple had spent most of it together between their two houses except for the final couple of weeks.

"Gross." Ruby grimaced.

"Yup."

The couple finally broke apart for air, and David stowed his broomstick in an overhead compartment, "Hey Old Man, are you too good to put your broom under the train like the rest of us?" Ruby teased, the nickname came from David being a year ahead of the girls.

The three of them all knew of how superstitious David was with his Quidditch things, they all also knew that it was bound to get exponentially worse this year as he had been made the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Even now he had his shiny Captain badge pinned on his muggle sweater.

Emma interjected before he even had a chance to reply, "What's up with the kitten?"

"Oh, right." David said as though he'd forgotten he was cradling it to his chest, "I found this little fella out in the hallway meowing like he was lost so I figured I'd grab him so he doesn't get stepped on and look for his owner once we get going."

Mary Margaret cooed at the little bundle of fur while Emma and Ruby shared a look, typical David to the rescue. They both snapped around at Mary Margaret's next comment, "Emma can take him and look for his owner when she has to do her rounds."

The blonde in question nearly growled, "What?"

"It makes more sense than having David going round poking his head in all the carriages."

Emma considered protesting, but she knew it was a lost cause.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't you be heading off to join the nerd patrol about now?" Ruby smirked.

At that point, Emma did growl and flick Ruby in the ear. Emma was one of the Gryffindor prefects, and as much as she hated to admit it, Ruby was right. She checked her watch, only three minutes left until she was due to meet with the rest of the prefects in the last carriage on the train to get acquainted and discuss their strategy for doing rounds of the train.

Emma hated the prospect already.

She sighed and stood up, holding out her hands for the cat.

"Be gentle with him." Mary Margaret said warningly.

"I think I can handle a kitten." Emma replied.

She was proven wrong as the cat hissed violently at her when she tried to tuck him into her arms. Ruby laughed while Emma gave the cat a glare and held him at arm's length all the way down to the final carriage.

When she arrived, she was greeted with a few familiar faces. She recognized Belle, one of the Ravenclaw prefects, and Robin Locksley one of the Slytherin prefects. Graham, the other Gryffindor prefect was there already too. It looked like the only ones still missing were the Head Boy and Girl, Emma was just opening her mouth to ask about who they were for the year when a familiar voice met her ears, "Nice cat, Swan."

The blonde whipped around to be greeted by the sight of a smirking Regina Mills. She was so caught off guard by the brunette, all she could manage to stammer out was, "It's not mine."

A carefully plucked eyebrow climbed upwards at that, "Whose cat is it?"

"I don't know." Emma said with all the dignity she could muster.

Regina opened her mouth as though she were going to say something further, but shut it, shaking her head dismissively, "Good morning everyone. For those of you who don't know, I am Regina Mills from Slytherin and I am the Head Girl this year."

The tall boy next to her piped in next, "I'm Daniel from Hufflepuff and I'm the Head Boy."

They spent a moment going around the carriage sharing houses and names until they made it back to Regina who nodded in satisfaction, "Alright, so I figure we can cover the train in pairs. Just remind the students of contraband items and make sure that first years are settling in well."

There was a general murmur of agreement and the prefects paired off and left the carriage. Emma watched Graham leave with Robin, and sent him a mild glare as she realized she would be patrolling with Regina.

The brunette girl looked her over before turning to leave, expecting Emma to follow, which she did. She trailed Regina through the train, letting her eyes track down the strong set of her shoulders to the practically painted on skinny jeans. It occurred to Emma that this was her first time in six years that she had seen the girl out of their school robes or a quidditch uniform.

Thinking back, Emma tried to recall the last conversation she had with the brunette and then when she remembered, she felt a smirk crawl across her face. It was after the championship quidditch match last year, Regina was a chaser for her house, and Emma a seeker for hers. Slytherin won.

It was an incredibly tough match, the aggression was driven on by the Slytherin chasers and beaters. The green clad players had widened the score gap beyond hope and taken out so many of the Gryffindor teams' starters that after hour six Emma caught the snitch to take her team out of their misery.

When the teams landed to shake hands, Emma had been unable to hold her temper any longer. She stormed over to Regina who she had watched personally take out three Gryffindor chasers, the brunette was distracted by her friend and fellow chaser, Kathryn. There was blood streaming down Regina's face from a cut near her hairline, and the blonde Slytherin was trying to get her cleaned up.

Emma took hold of Regina's shoulder and whirled her around, recoiling slightly when she saw just how injured Regina was. It didn't deter her, however, "That was a cheap game, Mills."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Maybe if your team played fair for once-"

Regina cut her tirade off with a dismissive smirk, "Look Swan, I get it. It was a rough match and you're disappointed. There were a lot of dirty plays from both sides, I won't deny that. But I will not tolerate accusations of cheating."

Emma floundered for a response. She was mad and she wanted a fight, not this controlled lecture. But with a final huff she stormed away, it was just one in a series of interactions between herself and the brunette that left her feeling foolish.

She was brought out of her musings with that same smirk, "Looking at something, Swan?"

Emma realized that she had zoned out while checking out Regina's ass, she blushed and tried to come up with a response, but the brunette didn't give her a chance, she swept into the next compartment.

Each carriage they visited went the same way, Regina would knock and enter, go over the list of contraband items, and Emma would pop her head in, wave the cat around, and ask if it belonged to anyone. Each time she struck out.

When they had covered all of the compartments that they were responsible for and Emma still hadn't found the owner of the cat, she looked down at the ball of fur with question in her eyes, "Now what do I do with it?"

Regina rolled her eyes, "I suppose you have a new pet." With that she walked, nay sauntered away back down the train to the compartment Emma knew held her gang of seventh year Slytherins.

The kitten scratched her lightly on the arm to get her attention and she scowled down at him, "I wasn't checking her out!"


Emma grouched throughout the entire welcome feast, the cat refused to go anywhere other than her lap which all of her friends took great amusement in. When finally the prefects were called to lead the first years back to the dormitories, she passed off the unhappy cat to Mary Margaret and dragged her feet to the entry way to meet Graham and the kids.

"Let's get this over with." Emma sighed lowly to the boy.

"That's not a very upbeat attitude for a prefect." A rough voice said, just over her shoulder.

Emma started, not having a clue how Regina had managed to get close enough to hear that and comment without the blonde noticing.

"I'm a little closer to beat up than up beat right now." She smiled, proud of her little play on words.

Regina spared her a withering glance before moving away to join the group of Slytherin first years and prefects.

"I thought that was clever." Emma grouches to her friend.

He chuckled at her and started leading the trek up to the tower. Along the way he pointed out important shortcuts, the library, and anything else he figured would be useful. Emma trailed along in the back making sure they didn't lose anyone.

She could easily spot the muggleborn kids. They drifted to the back of the pack, their eyes wide with excitement as they took in the animated portraits and moving stairways, they reminded her of herself in her first year. It softened her a bit.

That softening was undone a mere hour later as she and Graham met up with the rest of prefects and Head Boy and Girl in the main entrance. Regina had drawn up a detailed and color coded schedule for their nightly patrols. All ten of them had to work the first night as it was one of the most popular nights for people sneaking about the castle, but from there on it was just one night a week for each of them.

Regina handed round the schedules, "Any questions?"

Emma skimmed over her schedule, noting that she had been assigned to Tuesday nights with the male Hufflepuff prefect Archie, "Wait, Gryffindor normally has the late quidditch practice slot on Tuesdays."

Regina sighed as though Emma had personally decided upon this time to spite the brunette and ruin her perfect schedule, "What if you swap with Belle for Mondays?"

The Ravenclaw piped up at that, "I can't do Tuesday either, I help Madame Prince in the library."

"Robin?"

The boy shook his head, "Tuesdays are dueling club."

Regina sighed in mild exasperation, Daniel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I can swap with Emma, Gina."

The familiarity of the gesture combined with the nickname had Emma's eyebrows crawling up her forehead, "Thank you, Daniel but that won't work. Professor McGonagall wants students from different houses patrolling together so you can't take Tuesdays with Archie since you're both Hufflepuffs." She brought a hand up to her temple for a moment, "I'll redo the schedule, as for tomorrow night since quidditch isn't beginning for a couple weeks yet, Emma and Archie can still take care of the patrol."

There was a nod of agreement before everyone began splitting into two person teams to patrol together. Regina and Daniel together walked in the direction of Ravenclaw tower, Emma could have sworn she saw him brush his hand against hers when they rounded the corner.

She didn't want to acknowledge the flare of something that felt uncomfortably like jealously that passed through her at the action. She didn't have a thing for Regina Mills, that would be ridiculous.

Completely ridiculous.

It wasn't jealousy, it was distrust. Regina Mills was up to something, and Emma would figure it out.