Within moments the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione had joined them. Harry and Mr Weasley led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty. They load the trunks onto it, stowed Hedwig, Mezzaluna and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, then went back outside to say goodbye to Mr and Mrs Weasley.

Mrs Weasley kisses all her children, then Hermione, then Harry (who got an extra hug) and finally, Ellice.

"Do take care, Ellice." She commands the young girl, "If you need anything at all just owl us. You'll do fine." She says stroking Ellice's hair. Then she opened her enormous handbag and said, "I've made you all sandwiches. Here you are Ron ... no, they're not corned beef ... Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are, dear..."

"Harry, Ellice," Says Mr Weasley quietly, "Come over here a moment." He jerks his head towards a pillar, and the twins follow him behind it, leaving the others crowd around Mrs Weasley. "There's something I've got to tell you before you leave-" Says Mr Weasley in a tense voice.

"It's all right, Mr Weasley," Harry interrupts, "We already know." Ellice keeps her expression neutral, following Harry's lead, because she, for one, knew absolutely nothing.

"You know? How could you know?" Asks the kind man with a shocked voice.

"I- er- I heard you and Mrs Weasley talking last night. I couldn't help hearing," Harry quickly adds. "Sorry-"

"That's not the way I'd have chosen for you to find out," Mr Weasley said, looking anxious.

"No- honestly, it's okay. This way you haven't broken your word to Fudge and we know what's going on." Harry placates.

"You must be very scared-"

"I'm not," Harry interrupts, while Ellice watches silently. "Really. I'm not trying to be a hero, but seriously, Sirius Black can't be worse than Voldemort, can he?" That statement set off alarm bells in Ellice's head. She made a mental note to wack her brother later- just because one psychotic murderer killed less than another, doesn't mean you stop fearing them.

Mr Weasley continued to warn them not to go looking for Black, not letting them get on the train until both had promised- despite Mrs Weasley's frantic calls. Steam was billowing from the train; it started to move. The twins ran to the compartment door and Ron threw it open, standing back to let them on. They leaned out of the window, waving to Mr and Mrs Weasley until the train turned a corner and blocked them from view.

"You better tell me what it is I know, Harry." Ellice glares at her brother.

In response he mutters to Ron and Hermione, "I need to talk to you in private."

"Go away, Ginny." Ron commands, while Ellice continues to glare at her own brother.

"Oh, that's nice," Says Ginny huffily, and she stalks off.

The four teenagers set off down the corridor, until they find a compartment with only one occupant, a sleeping adult man, in tatty robes.

"Who do you reckon he is?" Ron hisses, as they sit down.

"Professor R.J. Lupin." Whispers Hermione at once.

"How'd you know that?" The ginger boy exclaims.

"It on his case." Hermione replies, her tone feeling like an eye roll.

"Wonder what he teaches?" Questions Ron.

"That's obvious," Hermione does roll her eyes this time, "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Ron glance over their new Professor, "Well, I hope he's up to it. He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he?"

"This is great and all," Ellice interrupts the idle chatter, "But will you explain now, please?" She looks at her brother impatiently.

So, Harry explained all about Mr and Mrs Weasley's argument and the warning Mr Weasley had just given them. When he'd finished Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth; but Ellice? She just look mildly annoyed.

Hermione lowered her hands to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you two? You'll have to be really, careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry..."

"I don't go looking for trouble," says Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds me."

Ellice snorts at that comment. "I'm going for a walk." She excuses herself before the conversation continues.

Ellice spent much time leaning half out a corridor window, chain smoking puffs of tobacco.

"You take the 'puff' part of Hufflepuff a bit too seriously, don't you think?" Anthony's New York twang drawls as he strolls up next to her.

Ellice raises her eyebrows at him, "That was terrible." She scolds mockingly.

Anthony snorts, taking out his own cigarette and also leaning out the window, "How long you been here?"

Ellice offers him a lighter. She shrugs, "I don't know. Since about an hour after the train left."

Anthony chuckled, "Then I'd guess whoever you were with is worried about you." She hums questioningly. "You've been out here for several hours." His revelation startles her out of her reverie.

"Shit." She mutters, dropping her cigarette out the window, "I gotta go. See you later."

He raises his eyebrows, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." She confirms as she begins to walk away, "After all, you're my only friend." Her laugh echoes back to him as she struts down the hall. With a smile as a greeting Ellice slips back into her brother's compartment, silently watching out of the window.

The rain thickened as the train sped further north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering grey, which gradually darkened until the lanterns flickered to life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, the wind roared, but Ellice noted, Professor Lupin still slept.

"We must be nearly there," Ron says, leaning forward to look past Professor Lupin at the now completely black window. The words had hardly left him when the train started to slow down. "Brilliant," He continues, getting up and walking carefully past Professor Lupin to try and see outside. "I'm starving, I want to get to the feast."

"We can't be there yet." Hermione frowns, checking her watch.

"So where we stopping?" Ron retorts. Ellice was gaining a sick feeling, worry building inside her.

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows. Harry, who was nearest the door, gets up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, he adds were sticking curiously out of their compartments. The train came to a stop to a stop with a jolt and distant thuds and bangs which indicated luggage had fallen from the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness. Anxiety weighed on Ellice's mind.

"What's going on?" Ron's fearful voice cuts through the darkness.

"Ouch!" Hermione gasps. "Ron, that was my foot!"

A body slides into the seat next to Ellice. "D'you think we've broken down?" Alerts her to the fact it is Harry.

"Dunno..." Ron hedges.

Ellice could make out the dim outline of Ron from where she sat. He wipes a patch spean on the window and peers out. "There's something moving out there, I think people are coming aboard." None of the young teenagers truly liked the idea of that. The fear clawing at them all made them jump when the compartment door suddenly openned.

A scuffle occurs and then Ellice sees a figure fallen on Harry's lap. "Sorry! D'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry-" !A male voice speaks.

"Hullo, Neville." Harry sighs, tugging the figure up.

"Harry?" The voice questions, "Is that you? What's happening?"

"No idea! Sit down-" A loud his interrupts her brother, quickly followed by a yelp of pain. If the situation weren't so tense Ellice might have laughed at the fact this Neville boy tries to sit on Crookshanks.

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," comes Hermione's voice. Ellice hears the door slide open again and then a thud and then two loud squeals of pain.

"Who's that?" Hermione asks.

"Who's that?" The disembodied voice reiterates.

"Ginny?" Hermione questions.

"Hermione?" The fiery ginger replies.

Soon arguing commences. Ellice rolls her eyes and tunes it out, in favour of trying to wake the one adult in the compartment. "Professor." She repeatedly urges, nudging the man. It seems to take forever for him to wake, but when he does his eyes snap open and alert.

"Quiet." His hoarse voice cuts through the children's squabbling. They all silenced. Ellice moves slightly away from the professor, allowing more personal space now that she had successfully awoken him.

A soft crackling noise and a shivering light full the compartment. Professor Lupin appears to be holding a handful of little flames. They illuminate his tired grey face, but his eyes stay alert and wary.

"Stay where you are," He says in the same hoarse voice, and he slowly rises to his feet, the small handful of fire held ahead of him. But the door slides slowly open before Lupin can reach it.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's ha do, is a cloaked figure that towers to the ceiling. Its face is completely hidden beneath its hood. A hand protrudes from the cloak and it is glistening greyish, slimy looking and stabbed, reminding Ellice of decaying death in murky water. The hand is only visibly for a split second. The thing beneath the hood begins to draw in a slow, long, rattling breath, as if sucking something in. The other occupants of the carriage go ridged, and Ellice panics as Harry falls from his seat. Ellice herself feels no change, although she is still greatful when the Professor successfully sends the shadow creature away.

Ellice stays back, allowing Ron and Hermione to crowd over Harry's unconscious form. A scowl graces her face once Ron resorts to slapping his face to wake him. Still, she is grateful when his eyes open.

Ron and Hermione heave him back onto a seat. "Are you okay?" Ron asks nervously. Ellice relaxes once he confirms he is. Ron continues to explain the events that occurred. Hermione went to comfort the sobbing Ginny.

"But didn't any of you - fall off your seats?" Asks Harry awkwardly.

"No," Says Ron, looking at Harry anxiously. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though." Ellice knew Ron worried for his sister, as he swallows heavily. "Ellice didn't seem to react at all, though." Ron seems to add as an after thought. Ellice internally groans.

"Did you feel it?" Harry looks at his sister.

"Yeah. I did." She confirms, and for once she isn't lying, because she did feel it. But that sensation was one she feels constantly, she didn't need any dementors to create it for her.

Professor Lupin returned from talking to the driver and chides the children for not eating their chocolate. "We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," He informs them, "Are you all right, Harry?" He checks cautiously.

"Fine." Harry mutters in embarrassment.

Nobody talked much during the remainder of the journey, but eventually, the train pulled into Hogsmeade station. Ellice cuts off from Harry and his friends when she spotted Anthony's solitary form.

"Hey." She says as she joins him. "You good?"

Anthony turns to face her, as they walk to the carriages, "Yeah, you?"

"Yeah." She shrugs, climbing up onto an empty one. The pair talk idly on their way up to the castle.

Ellice follows Anthony into the castle, until they reach the Great Hall. He gestures for her to sit at the Hufflepuff table, and begrudgingly she does. Soon her peers are introducing themselves. Ellice, as the social butterfly she is, found herself quickly growing frustrated with them. At her lack of reciprocation, they quickly backed off, leaving her to sit in silence.

Ellice noticed warily as Ron enters the hall without Harry and Hermione. Her worries are eventually alleviated when bothered students join him after the sorting occurred. She listened uncaringly to Dumbledore's speech, although she did clap for Professor Lupin. Finally, the golden plates and goblets filled.

"You really know how to make friends." A voice comments from beside her. Dark hair and grey eyes peer at her, an amused smirk tugging at her lips.

"Who said I wanted to make friends?" She snorts in return.

"Then you're gonna be disappointed. Because you have now gained yourself a friend." He smiles genuinely. Despite herself, Ellice finds herself warming to him. "I'm Cedric." He grins. One of his (seemingly) many friends tries to gain his attention, but he politely waves them off, staying focused on Ellice instead.

"Ellice." She smiles. "Nice to meet ya."

"Potter?" He questions, his eyebrows drawn together adorably.

"Yep." She confirms, forcing cheerfulness into her voice.

"Cool." He nods. Cedric then notices the cigarette neatly tucked behind Ellice's ear. "You smoke?"

"Yeah," Ellice nods, "You?"

"Nah," He shrugs, "But this guy I know does?"

"Yeah? Who?" She asks mildly, moving the scattered food lazily around her plate.

"Uh, he's called Anthony." Cedric says, suddenly focused on eating his food. Ellice smirks lightly at the action but doesn't comment on it.

"Goldstein?" She checks, gaining a mildly shocked nod from the older boy, "Yeah, he's cool." She comments.

Their conversation was interrupted by Dumbledore giving the word for the students to head to bed. Cedric told his friends he'd catch up with them, instead deciding to walk with Ellice, explaining their route and what corridor led where. They got to know each other in this time; Ellice learnt Cedric is a fifth year and a prefect.

Cedric explained about their common room and how the entrance to the common room is located in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor (which she was very pleased to find out, although, he also explained not many people actually knew that is where the kitchen is), concealed behind a stack of barrels. In order to reveal the entrance, no password is required. Instead, you must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff', which will make the lid swing open, exposing a passageway that will lead to the basement when crawled through. However, if the wrong lid is tapped or the wrong rhythm is used, the intruder will be doused in vinegar and barred access. Ellice was not enticed by either the idea of crawling, nor getting cover in vinegar.

Still, she follows Cedric in. Ellice is in awe of the common room. It is round and earthy and low-ceilinged; it feels warm and sunny, and its circular windows have a view of rippling grass and dandelions. There is a lot of burnished copper about the place, and many plants, which either hang from the ceiling or sit on the sofas and chairs are upholstered in yellow and black, and the dormitories are reached through round doors in the walls of the common room (reminding Ellice oddly of hobbit holes, which then caused her to muse that stereotypical Hufflepuff traits are also very hobbitish).

"Thank you." She smiles at Cedric, "You didn't have to ditch your friends for me."

"You're my friend now, too, remember?" He grins in response, he then points to her which room is hers and they bid each other a fond goodnight.

Her roommates ignore her when she enters, still irritated over her coldness at dinner, Ellice didn't care though. She gazes around the beautiful room. Copper lamps cast a warm light over the four-posters, all of which are covered in patchwork quilts, and copper bed warmers hang on the walls, should anyone have cold feet. It felt overall homely (amusing Ellice in her continuous comparison to hobbits and their smials). One bed is free of a girl,but Ellice could see her luggage neatly all around. Grabbing out some pyjamas and her wash things, she heads into the bathroom.

Once she exits, she place her belongings away, before flopping into bed. With gossiping girls' idle chatter lulling her, she quickly falls into a steady sleep.