Seventh year. According to the majority of Hogwarts, seventh year was the year that a student should just keep his head down, pass his NEWTs, and escape. It was a year of waiting; there was very little more that a student could learn in seventh year that he didn't already know or wouldn't learn on his own otherwise. The biggest challenge, short of actually deciding what you wanted to do with your life, was getting sufficient scores on the NEWT exams to accomplish it.

And that was what Jared Stone was doing. He was comfortably settled in one of the middle compartments of the Hogwarts Express, bound for Hogwarts, brushing up on some seventh-year Charms work. He was seventeen, and therefore allowed to use magic outside of school boundaries, and he was jumping at the opportunity. Animation spells were difficult, and--

Someone sat down next to him and another wand came into view. He pulled his own back and looked up from the paper butterfly he'd conjured. It fluttered around his face, trailing brilliant green and silver sparks that lit up the air between himself and a face he knew as well as his own.

"Anemone, really," he sighed at his sister, poking at the butterfly with his wand. The sparks changed from green and silver to blue and bronze. He grinned the slightest bit. "My butterfly, my house colors."

"Spoilsport," Anemone replied. She poked at the butterfly again, changing the sparks back before cancelling the animation spell. She was also seventeen and able to use magic at will. She tucked her wand up her sleeve again and stood up. "Just came to check on you. I should get back before your housemates think I hexed you or something."

Jared just rolled his eyes a bit and waved a hand. Anemone smiled at him and left the compartment to go find some of her own housemates.

Sugar should never be allowed to be given out to overly excited tween when they were in confined spaces. At the very least you should be allowed to kick the highly annoying ones off the moving train. As a group of third year hufflepuff's pushed passed the dark haired seventh year Morgan gave serious thought to just how much trouble he would get in for using Petrificus Totalus on one of the little brats. Probably too much, though the site of McGonagall's face could be worth it. Letting them past with nothing more then his well practiced sneer the seventeen year old continued to make his way back to his usual compartment.

Cleo owed him big for leaving the safety the compartment just to bring her that stupid list she had forgotten in her bag. Of course being friends with one of the prefect did have it's uses most of the time. there were still other people she could have asked. Running a hand through his shaggy hair her pushed open the door of the compartment to be attacked by several small birds and the high pitched sound of Lain screaming, " Olivier Vane those were my study guides for the NEWTs." causing him to step back in shock.


At the front of the train around the same time that the ones notes now birds had escaped out an open window the green eyed Gryffindor sat curled up on her seat as a group of her female housemates gossiped around her. Lighting the tip of her wand she moved it through the air as if it was a sparkler eyes following the glowing end. "So Roon mind telling us how this years going to turn out?" Looking up at the giggling girls. Rooney merely let the light fade from her wand and shrugged, " I want it to be a surprise." Though she knew she'd cave and use crystal-gazing to get a peek. There were very few in her year that took Divination as serious as she did. " That's no fun. Come get your cards out, do a reading for us." Giving into the pleading faces of her housemates the recently turned seventeen year old witch slipped out of her seat and reached for her bag over head. She kept her tarot cards in a hand carved wooden box with a trick lock to it. "Alohomora." tapping her wand against the side of the box the peg slid out of place and she let the card fall into her waiting hand. "Who wants to go first?" Joke on her they might but her reading and predictions were always right.

Old books was a smell that was both familiar and exciting. The crinkle of pages as they were being turned could drown out all other noise as inked words danced across the eyes.It in this way that Sebastian saw books.The keepers of their history and the keys to their future.In all great and powerful leaders one could find the building block to the ones that would come after them, even those who had failed A great leader, a great wizard, was what all on the train aspired to be.Few he knew would had what it took to reach that goal. Shifting in his seat he went back to focusing on the thick book he had been reading.

It was a detailed account of what had happened during Voldemort's rise to power those many years ago. Far more detailed then anything they had been given to read in school. he had found it at the end of last year and needed to add it to his collection. He had known, though it was never spoken of, that a branch of his family had been followers as had most pureblood families at the time. A great uncle if he recalled the history right.

Anemone wandered about the train for a little while. She, unlike her brother, didn't really like to sit still for too long, and she preferred to be out amongst the people on the train. It was easier to pick up on gossip and such that way, and to keep one step ahead of everyone else. Even though she was mostly dressed in Muggle clothes still, as per her father's preference, she was still wearing her uniform vest and tie with her jeans. She liked the look, personally, even though the green-striped tie meant everyone knew her House placement. She didn't care.

She paused when she passed a half-open door and heard a few girls from inside. Readings? Did anyone actually take Divination after third year? Apparently so, she decided as she looked inside. She was a little intrigued, and knocked on the doorframe.

"Room for one more?" she asked carefully.

Finishing up the first reading Rooney smiled at the brown haired Hufflepuff girl who had joined their group somewhere around the begging of the train ride. Her year was going to be fairly normal till right before Christmas break when she would have a surprising love experience. Most of the reading she had done for the girls were similar.It was of course their seventh year. The biggest concern they would all have was what to do next. It was something that had bugged her for a while too.What did she want to do after Hogwarts. Shifting in her seat she gathered up the cards to reshuffle them. The knock on the door made her jump in her seat, Gryffindor she maybe but could still be caught off guard. And the Slytherin girl standing in the doorway definitely caught her off guard. " Uh sure."

The girls in front of her shifted over making room for the blonde. Suddenly self-conscience in her muggle clothing Rooney tucked her tight clad legs under her seat a little more. She hadn't changed out of her brown skirt and loose pink sweater yet. Handing the cards to the girl she pushed any doubt away and focused solely on the cards being passed." I need you to shuffle these for me."

Anemone blinked, but sat down and took the deck of cards. She only had a passing interest in Divination, herself, and had never bothered learning how to read cards. She still had her beginner's deck from third year, of course, but she never used it anymore. She barely passed the class with an 'Acceptable.' Quickly, she shuffled the cards (ignoring how they were getting the least bit warm in her hands) and then handed them back. Absently, she picked at a stray thread on her jeans that had come free of the embroidered peacock feathers on the pocket.

"I'm no good at Divination," she said after a moment of awkward silence. She knew why there was silence, as well: she was a Slytherin, after all, and her house had never had the best of reputations. "Give me Charms any day."

She took the cards back glancing up at the girl when she felt the heat coming off of the deck. It was normal for the cards to be a little warm after being handled, it was magic after all, but her deck normally just got to room temperature when she did readings for her school mates. Swallowing she moved her eyes back down to the table as she began setting up a slightly more complicated reading layout. If they were that warm then there was something important in this reading.As she laid the cards out her friends seemed to have loosened up to a Slytherin in the compartment with them. Anne, a fellow seventh year Gryffindor , laughed at something the Slytherin must have said- Rooney wasn't paying any attention to the conversation. "Well our Roon here is our own personal seer." there was laughter from the other girls but she had already started flipping the cards over and reading them.

A chill had started to creep up her back with every exposed card. alone they meant nothing but all together and in this flow.Looking up at the Slytherin, whose name she should probably ask,she quickly licked her lips. " I'm done."

Anemone's attention was drawn back to the Gryffindor girl quickly, but the words sounded a little strained. It instantly set her a little on edge.

"'Done' as in finished setting the spread, or 'done' as in 'no more'?" she asked cautiously. The girl's skin had gone pale, Anemone noticed, and it wasn't that healthy 'I'm naturally this color' pale that was coming back into style. Absently, Anemone tucked a bit of hair behind her ear, revealing the sparkling emerald studs her parents had given her for her birthday. Her father had thought it was amusing to give her and Jared gifts that reflected their House colors. She glanced down at the cards on the improvised table. She only vaguely remembered their meanings, but she did see one or two that made her pause.

She was tempted to say done as in no more and just pack up her cards and go back to playing with her wand. The future was dark for this girl darker then any of the other readings she had done." Done as in ready to translate the cards." Taking a deep breathe Rooney pointed looked back down at the card, the chill had seeped into her spine and she was trying not to shiver. "There is a darkness looming in your future, closer then you think. Old rivals will become needed allies and those you thought to trust will show you their true intentions. Death will touch you many times.I...I'm done. No more." She had been as honest as she could be. but the spin tingling feeling had worked it's way up to her throat. It was an almost tangible hand around her throat.

Resting her back against the seat she looked around at the faces of the girls in the compartment with her. Most had looks of disbelief,others were looking at her with concern. Finally she brought her eyes to the Slytherin girl she had done the reading for.

As the girl spoke, Anemone's face settled into the carefully neutral mask she'd cultivated through her time in Slytherin house. It was the mask that all Slytherins had to build to keep their real feelings carefully hidden, feelings that students from other houses could potentially use against them. It was habit by now to slip behind that mask whenever Anemone was feeling uncomfortable with something, and that reading had made her feel very uncomfortable.

"I... see," she said evenly. She almost wanted to pull a move she'd learned from her pureblood housemates and lift an eyebrow, look down her nose, and archly demand to know why she was being screwed with, or else. But that wasn't an appropriate reaction here, she knew. She couldn't help but feel, however, that maybe she was being screwed with, because she was a Slytherin. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened to a Slytherin student, and it wouldn't be the last. She glanced briefly at the other girls, trying to gauge their expressions.

Sliding her hand over the table she gathered up all of the cards with practiced ease and shuffled them back into the deck. Her normal readings were harmless, predicting a break up or how someone would do on their OWLS, or how many Gryffindor's they would be getting that year. Little things. Placing her cards back into their box she locked in up and set the box on her lap. Pale hands gripped the sanded wooden box.Rooney looked away from the girl choosing instead to lower her gaze to the corner of the window. It felt like she had just told someone their love one had died. She could definitely cut out healer as an option for her future.

Mulling over what to say to the girl, was sorry the proper response for telling someone that death was going to be a big part in their future. " Oh don't get so serious all of a sudden Roon." Anne said laughing it off, though there was a under tone of discomfort to her laugh. The other girls soon followed claiming it was just one of her weird little readings and nothing more. If it wasn't for the lessening of the tense atmosphere she would have been offended. Her readings weren't weird.


After Lain had waged war on Olivier Morgan decided that it probably wasn't too safe to stick around. Instead he went searching for Anemone since he hadn't seen her yet. Normally she was either with her brother or in the compartment he was just retreating from. Making sure to stop in a few compartments he knew to be housing other Slytherin girls and getting no word on the blonde he figured he'd venture into Ravenclaw territory. Not that it was so bad. He got along fairly well with the male twin. They had had a class together back in their third year,the first one that Anemone wasn't into play buffer. The separation of the houses wasn't as bad as it had been in the years past so he didn't get as many looks for showing off his house colors and knocking on closed doors.

Anemone gave a curt nod as the other girls started scrambling to assure her that the reading meant nothing. She knew it was just that, too: scrambling. None of them had expected the Gryffindor girl to say what she did, and Anemone knew without a doubt that it wasn't 'nothing.' Not all divination was bollocks, she knew, and this just felt genuine. And that's why it set her so much on edge.

"Well," she said cautiously, standing up and dusting herself off, "thank you, regardless. I suppose I should go and see what my housemates are up to." One hand went surreptitiously to slightly adjust her tie, reminding both herself and them that she was a Slytherin. As much as she might have wanted, she wasn't one of these girls.

Jared looked up when there was a knock on the door of his compartment. It was unusual enough to get his attention: in the Ravenclaw 'territory' of the train, students didn't really flit from car to car like in the Gryffindor or Hufflepuff areas; most Ravenclaws were brushing up on their studies.

"It's open," he called.

As the door shut there was an audible sigh of relief amongst the other girls.Rooney however stayed staring at the very corner of the window thinking over the reading. The shock of delivering bad news had worn off fairly quickly and now her mind was spinning trying to connect dots in the reading that hadn't made any sense to her initially. She didn't want to leave any stone unturned considering it was the girls future and all. Rooney knew she hadn't miss read the cards but they could have alternate meanings. It just didn't feel like that was the case. Pushing the whole matter to the back of her mind, at least until she could talk to Professor Firenze about it. Instead she tried to focus on the conversation that had filled the silence in the compartment.



Pushing open the door dark eyes scanned the compartment and he was surprise to find it housing only one of the Stone twins. Closing the door behind him Morgan dropped into the seat across from the blond Ravenclaw."Hey." It was so quiet, even the Slytherin's had their moments of loud commotion. "Any clue where that sister of yours had gotten off to?"
Anemone was the linking factor between the two boys and though Jared was someone Morgan would consider a friend he didn't see the boy much unless his sister was around.

"Not for a little while now," Jared replied, setting his book down for the moment. "She said she was off looking for her own kind." He quirked a bit of a grin at the tease. He knew Morgan had a bit of a 'thing' for Anemone; at least, he had for a while. Jared wasn't sure if that was still the case, but it really didn't matter. Anemone could take care of herself, at this point. "Maybe she got distracted on her way to Slytherin country. It's happened before." He shrugged.

A smile pulled at his lips at the tease his body language relaxed as he leaned against the back of the seat."Probably tormenting first years." he doubted it of course since that was more his past time and only on the train ride there. Had to disillusion them some how. Stretching his legs out he glanced down at the book Jared had been reading." Studying for the NEWTs?" He himself needed to hash out all of the details of his study plan. Of course it would involve Anemone helping him with his charms. He had at first been attached to his housemate because of her looks.Then again he wasn't sure there had been many males in Slytherin who hadn't at some point noticed the girl. Since he realized the only way to date her was to get to know her he had started hanging around the girl more. By third year he considered her a friend and he had decided that all feelings for her needed to stop. Random girls seemed to help, even if his "whoring around" - her words- tended to get him lectured.

"Yeah," Jared replied, flipping a couple of pages in the textbook. "Charms. Of all the subjects I could be bad at, it had to be the one my sister is best at. Just figures." He shrugged. "Though I'll be helping her with Potions, so it all works out, I guess." He looked at Morgan. "What about you? Just wandering around, or actively looking for Anemone?" Jared knew Morgan wanted to only think of Anemone as a friend, but sometimes other feelings slipped through. Lucky for Morgan, Jared knew that Anemone could do much worse, and didn't object. Of course, Jared didn't like seeing Morgan with a new girl every week, either, but that was just because it made it that much harder to figure out who was fair game and who wasn't.

Potions, yeah he would probably end up studying that with Jared too. Though he wasn't too horrible at it he would still want the reassurance that he wasn't going to fail horribly. "Lain Quinn is tearing Olivier Vane a new one in our compartment." Lain was a beater for their quidditch team. Why anyone would provoke her was far beyond him. The girl was just scary. Had that not been the case he still would have ended up looking for his blonde housemate. it was the last time they would ride this train to start the school year. This was it. " Any plans for what your going to do after school?" It was the question that had been floating around any compartment with a seventh year inside. As it was every year.

"I'm thinking of taking an apprenticeship," Jared said after a moment. He wasn't surprised at the news about Lain and Oliver, everyone knew Oliver had a crush on her. "Earning a Mastery. I did some research over the summer, there are Potions masters out there willing to accept petitions for apprentices. I think my marks are high enough to at least get a second glance, especially once NEWTs are over. Once I have a certified Mastery in Potions, I might see about other work, maybe for the Ministry or something." He looked at Morgan. "You?"

Of course Jared would have everything figured out about what he wanted to do. He didn't doubt for a second that he was looking at a future potions master." Your marks are high enough that you'll get more then a passing look." As for his own future he wasn't so sure his marks would make the cut. Sure he had Jared and Anemone to help with what he didn't instantly pick up but..."I've been toying with the idea of becoming an Auror but you know how bloody hard that is." Toying was the wrong word. he had wanted to be one ever since his older cousin had made it through training and spent every holiday telling him everything he was allowed to.

"Your Defense scores are good, though," Jared commented. "And we can help you bump up your Potions and Charms scores. That's usually all they look for, is if you know your spells and potions." He nudged Morgan a bit. "We'll get you there. You'll be one amazing Auror, I know it." He grinned. "Though I admit, I want to get my Mastery in Potions partially to amuse my dad. He's a Muggle, and he's always amazed at such things. Once Anemone and I turned seventeen, we took turns charming and enchanting some things in the house to prove we could. Mom wasn't amused."

"Thanks. Safe to assume you already have a study schedule planned out?"Pressure from parents was probably something most seventh years could relate to. Laughing a little at the mention of Mr. Stone and the mental picture.Morgan coming from a family of wizards had never had someone in their family so fascinated with what he could do. " You know I don't think I've ever really met your parents." Other then the few times he had seen them at King's Cross. The times they spent together outside of school was when Morgan's parents wanted to have his friends over for a holiday meal. He never had an issues inviting the Stone's since his parents, unlike some other pureblood families, had no issue with muggles or halfbloods.

"Depends on the curriculum this year," Jared admitted. "Once I get a feel for the classes, I'll sketch something out." He always waited till the second week of classes before creating a study schedule. It was easier than making one and having to revise it later. "You've seen my parents at King's Cross," he pointed out after a moment. "Dad's always looking a bit stunned at everyone coming off the platform? Or going onto the platform?" He shrugged. "I can introduce you over the holidays, if you want." He grinned. "Or I could have Anemone introduce you."

The expression slid off of his face and was replaced with a mask of indifference. it was a popular skill hiding your emotions among the Slytherin upper class.Morgan got kind of defensive when his feeling for his housemate were brought up. Even jokingly by her own brother. " Either one is fine as long as I meet them." pulling himself out of his slouch on the seat he listened as people moved around just outside the compartment.It was definitely too quiet in Ravenclaw territory. " We should be there soon. Can you believe it's been seven years already?"

Jared could practically see the moment the mask of indifference slid into place. He'd spent the last seven years watching Anemone construct that same mask.

"The holidays, then," he said. "Promise. I'm sure my parents won't object to you spending a few days with us." He sighed slightly. "I almost don't want this year to be over. I'm going to miss Hogwarts." He looked at Morgan. "What about you?"

"It's like that year you spend waiting for your letter back when we were fall first years. I just want the year over with so I can more on."Tugging at this robe the flash of green made him think back to a time the great hall was a place like he had never seen before and an old hat cried out Slytherin. " I'll miss it." Though a nice quiet year studying wasn't how he wanted to leave Hogwarts.His face slipped into a half smile belaying the feelings of nostalgia as he thought back over his time at school.

"I will, too," Jared agreed. He grinned a bit. "Remember that time Anemone was practicing the blasting spell, and it backfired in her face?" He snickered. "She told me it took her all night to wash the soot out of her hair." He sighed a bit. "I'm going to miss school when this year is over." He paused when he heard familiar footsteps in the corridor. "And that sounds like my sister now."

Indeed, Anemone opened the door a moment later, and paused when she saw Morgan.

"What are you doing so far into Ravenclaw territory?" was the first thing out of her mouth as she looked at him.