Prefects' Compartment

A fourth year head girl. Had that ever happened before? They must really think she was good. The idea gave Liesl a funny feeling in her gut. A feeling like she didn't want to let whoever had decided she was good enough to be Head Girl down. Was this what pride felt like? But no, she knew what pride felt like. She'd been proud of who she was all her life. Hadn't she? Maybe she would put just a little bit more effort into her classes this year... just in case.

Well, at least she wouldn't match the badge. Liesl had been let out of St Mungos, but she had been told she would still have to go to the Hospital Wing each day for a potion to stop it coming back.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door to the prefect's compartment. Liesl had never been inside it before, but even the outside looked much nicer than the rest of the train. Instead of the plain blinds every other compartment wore, theirs had a stylish pinstripe number.

Gosh. That reminded her how she was the one who was supposed to be organising all the other prefects duties. She wondered who had got Head Boy and hoped it was someone older than her. But someone sane. Not anybody in Gryffindor.

How'd this even happen?

The boy questioned both sides of himself. The Vampire and the human. It made no sense, who'd chosen him to become a Prefect? Why'd they choose him exactly? One of them had to have the answers to these questions, but it seems that no one could answer him. The Vampire wouldn't even talk now. And the boy was just way to confused about the news to even be able to think straight.

Maybe it was a mistake?

The vampire finally called out. But he shook his head. That couldn't be it, how could someone make a mistake about that? They meant to choose him, but he still didn't get why. He shrugged the question off finally as he saw the door to the Prefect's compartment in front of him. He hesitated for a moment, still thinking that he should just turn away, but he knew he couldn't. He was a prefect now and he had act as such.

Then just go in and stop being an idiot in the hall.

The vampire scoffed and Ryo rolled his eyes. He opened the compartment door and found a younger girl already inside. He blinked a couple of times as he looked at her before clearing his throat and closing the compartment door behind him. He tried to smile gently at the girl and said, "Hey, I'm Ryo Hiroku. One of the Hufflepuff Prefects." and extended his hand to the girl.

It's always good to be nice to everyone.

Liesl nodded. Began rummaging in her bag. She'd need a piece of parchment and a quill to get everyone's names down. Might as well start as she meant go on, yes?

"Liesl Dolohov, Head Girl," she replied confidently, with a tap on the badge just in case he hadn't noticed it.

Why did she feel like a fraud when she really was Head Girl? Liesl had lied to hundreds of different people, about hundreds of different things, but she had never felt more like she was lying than she did right now.

Finally, finding what she was looking for (self inking quills were the best invention ever) she began to write down his name. Or not.

"Just write down your name and house on here, please."

"Alright, ha freaking ha," Keith said, pushing open the door and striding into the Prefect's carriage. He held out a golden badge with a large P imprinted on a blue background, along with a bronze eagle.

"Very funny," he continued, marching up to the older boy, who must've been in charge. Ryo, Keith thought his name was. Hufflepuff. Vampire. Odd combination. Was he a seventh year this time around? Keith couldn't quite remember.

"Obviously this is some kind of joke," Keith said, shoving his badge into Ryo's chest. "I opened it, we all had a good laugh, now I think I'm going to get on with my life so you can give this to the real Ravenclaw Prefect." He clapped his hands together and turned to leave. "Good meeting. Nice to see both of you."

"KEITH NICHOLAS COME BACK HERE!" Liesl screamed.

He may have had a point, what with the ...interesting reputations of everyone in this compartment so far... but damned if he was getting away with thinking Ryo was in charge.

"For your information, I am the one in charge here," she corrected him, flashing the badge. "I agree it's weird. Maybe the teachers are having a joke. But even if they are, I say we milk it for all it's worth, don't you?"

"KEITH NICHOLAS COME BACK HERE!"

Keith winced, reluctantly stopping his march out of the compartment and turning around to face Liesl.

"Hey Lees," he said, giving her a small wave. "I've got these things called ears," he continued, pointing to his ears, "and I'd really like to have use of them when I get older. So...please...did you see that I actually said please...don't shout? Maybe?" He grinned and held up his hands in a gesture of goodwill. "Alright, so you're the head girl. Apologies."

He groaned and flopped down onto one of the seats, rubbing at his eyes with his palms. "Maybe you're right. I'll just...I don't know, let you figure this thing out. Let someone else take charge. Might be a nice change of pace."

The badge was magic. Not the regular kind though. This was a more subtle kind of magic, the kind where people did what you told them, just because you could call rank on them.

Liesl was hooked.

"Okay," she said. "I don't know what I did to get my badge."

"I know you didn't do anything good to get yours," to Keith.

She looked curiously at Ryo. He was a Huffle; he could go either way.

"What about you?" she quizzed.

Ryo had only just taken the piece of parchment from Liesl and started to write down his name when a younger boy walked in and just suddenly shoved the prefect badge that was given to him into his chest. Ryo blinked at him and stared down at the badge before looking at Liesl.

A thought occurred to him as she began to talk to Keith, actually it was more that she began to scream at him. Was he the oldest out of all the prefects? He hoped there was at least one more seventh year there, he didn't want to be stuck there with a bunch of little kids.

His attention turned back to Liesl from his thoughts when she asked about his badge. He looked down at the badge on his shirt and he shrugged. "Dunno. I still think it was some kind of mistake." he said. He honestly couldn't think of anything good that he could've done to earn the badge.

"Huh."

Liesl wasn't surprised. This whole thing did seem a little too weird, even for Hogwarts.

"We-ell, it could be a joke," she began, "or it could just be that the professors are even more balmy than usual this year."

Although, there were only three of them in the usual prefect's compartment. If they really were prefects, where was everyone else?

"Anyway, you two are in my good books just by showing up on time," she went on, deciding to play up to her supposed status at least for the duration of the train ride.

"Maybe we should go find everyone else who got a badge. I know they know they're supposed to report to this compartment before they go hang out with their friends."

"I'd say it's just a joke." he muttered softly as he looked outside the window of the compartment. He only thought it was a joke because he was one of the prefects. Seriously, why would they allow him to be one? He sighed softly and looked at Liesl when she started talking about looking for the other prefects.

Smart.

The vampire thought sarcastically, and Ryo nearly growled at him. He sighed again, closing his eyes for a moment before looking at her again. "Just one question." he said. "How're we supposed to know who the others are?" he asked.

"I doubt they'd be wearing the badges in case one of us went looking for them. They probably aren't that stupid." he assumed that she knew, after all she was the Head Girl. But anything was possible, he supposed.