The Lion and his Eagle

The scarlet train came to a halt at Hogsmeade station, students dressed in black robes with different colour ties and house crests scurried their way out . Liyah stepped out of the train, the cold air hitting her face as soon as she stood on the platform .

"First years this way!" bellowed Hagrid , "First years hurry up this way."

"Hello Hagrid." beamed Liyah . "How are you?"

"Hello Liyah , great to see you, I'm alright just got to keep these first years in line." He pointed towards the huddle of First-year students "Steady now!"

Liyah waved goodbye to Hagrid as she carried on walking to the self-pulling carriages . She sat down on the cold dark seat as she sighed heavily , taking in the atmosphere , just then a blonde haired Hufflepuff came running to the carriage.

"Wait for meeee!" screamed the girl as she reached the carriage, she was a short blonde haired girl with pink streaks in her hair which changed depending on her mood . "Liyah!"

"Rosie!" Liyah cried happily , flinging her arms towards her and embracing a hug . Rosie or Eros Hemmingway was a pureblood Hufflepuff , being named after the Greek god of love it was no surprise that her presence would bring nothing but pure happiness and love , she was Liyah's first friend when she arrived at Hogwarts four years ago and the two have been close every since .

"How are you? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." Liyah asked, departing from the hug .

"I'm great and duh I haven't seen you since May, that was five months ago." Rosie commented. "How are you by the way?" is she really....

"Yup." sighed Liyah, once again Liyah was reminded her friend was no longer missing but dead .The summer felt long and agonising, yes she did have fun but having everyone around her asking about Cara and lets not forget the funeral , to Liyah that felt like the worst moment of her life , never in a million years did she think she would go to her friends funeral , the police had told her and her other friends that she had drowned in the river near St Peters Park, the police closed the case as a suicide, but that can't be true , surely if she was feeling a certain way she would mention it or leave signs , what if it wasn't a suicide , Liyah had spent the entire summer looking at suicide cases and Cara's case profile and so did Spencer and Hanna , Liyah craved justice more than anything , she wanted the truth. Spencer and Hanna wanted the truth , everyone connected to Cara wanted the truth -

"Sup ladies!"

It was Michael Kent , a dark haired , green eyed Slytherin who was also a friend of Liyah's . Michael came from a noble pureblood family however their status didn't mean that they treated others as if they were less. To Liyah , Michael was the embodiment of a true Slytherin , cunning and determined but also fair and kind and ready to fight for those in need, the only issue was the popular Slytherins or the 'prejudiced serpents' Liyah calls them were the ones who were in the centre of everything, leaving the Slytherins who did mind their own business and treat everyone with respect left in the shadows something which Liyah thought was unfair and just downright cruel. Michael climbed onto the carriage and sat down beside Rosie who had offered him a liquorice wand which he took with an instant .

"Cheers Rosie." Said Michael munching on the liquorice wand. The self-pulling carriages had started moving and off they went through the rocky hills and forest clearings .

"So what were you girls talking about?" Michael asked as he finished his sweet .

"Liyah's muggle friend. "Rosie answered . "Y'know the one that-

"Who was found dead in a river." Michael responded coldly, his expression turning stiff as he glanced at Liyah who was looking even more uncomfortable.

"Rosie." Michael spoke up . "How many times have I told you not to ask questions about sensitive subjects , especially involving a person's death."

"I'm sorry but I just wanted to know how she was feeling, that's all." replied Rosie who looked even more guilty than a child who had stolen a sweet . Liyah smiled at both her friends, it was nice to know people actually cared about how she was feeling , after all she had spent years being with people who never truly cared how she felt nor even say 'How are you?' when greeting her, but she could never admit that , never.

Liyah glanced upwards, and there it was , the beauty itself - Hogwarts Castle , Liyah felt a sense of joy and comfort flush through her entire body , the carriages were moving higher and higher up the steep hills until they dropped down again to go into the grounds of Hogwarts .

"Welcome home." beamed Rosie as she turned to face the other two , Rosie was right , Hogwarts was home , Hogwarts is home . The black self-pulling carriages soon stopped , Liyah , Rosie and Michael made their way out of the carriage and into the grounds of Hogwarts , following a bunch of eager students , older and younger, towards the Great Hall . The tables were laid with gold cutlery and goblets , the ceiling was filled with shooting stars, along with a beautiful look of the night sky, the rest of the students were filling up the tables of there designated houses , Liyah waved goodbye to Rosie and Michael , who had both disappeared to their own house tables . Liyah tiptoed to the Ravenclaw table, taking a seat near Penelope Clearwater , James Swinton and Jacquie Kwan .

"Hi Liyah!" beamed Penelope , a Muggleborn who was also in Liyah's year and in her classes, Penelope was always fond of Liyah , she had something the other girls in the 'popular' group didn't have - being true to herself . Liyah also admired Penelope, she had long gorgeous blonde hair which was always kept really neat , rosy cheeks along with hazel eyes. They also had the same interest as they had Astronomy and Ancient Runes together. Something both Liyah and Penelope cherished deeply as being the top in their year people would assume there would be a rivalry but it was totally the opposite , more like a mutual understanding .

"How was your summer?" she asked happily,

"Good , you?" Liyah responded coolly

"It was alright ." replied Penelope in the same tone . James chimed in a second later .

"Alright Sharp , Clearwater , Kwan." all three responded with nods with Jacquie replying with "Alright." in the same manner James did . James chuckled as the rest of the houses fell silent as the sorting began .

The sorting went tremendously , each of the four of the houses cheering as a new first year joined their houses , the sorting ended with Professor Dumbledore standing up to make his yearly speech .

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts , I hope you all had a brilliant and well rested summer but now it is time for a new academic year , new challenges and tons of learning . Now , before we get on with our delicious feast I have a few announcements to make." Professor Dumbledore scanned the room with his twinkly eyes before he started speaking .

"First I'd like to welcome our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher - Professor Arkensaw . The whole hall had broken out in applause , Professor Arkensaw stood up and waved , he was tall but a cold man who to Liyah seemed as if he rarely or never smiled at all. He sat back in his chair and the hall had grown quiet again .

"Second , this will only apply to fourth year Ravenclaws , Professor Flitwick and I are glad to announce The Fourth Year Annual Challenge or 'The Challenge' for short. Students from fourth year will be picked at random and every month will be given a task or quest to complete , once completed you will receive an enchanted star , the winner of the challenge is determined by the one who figures out the true use and meaning of the stars as well as the 'challenge' as a whole , Professor Flitwick will give more information soon, good luck to those participating remember 'Stars don't disappear, they keep blazing even when the night is over'.

All the students around Liyah were all whispering excitedly suddenly a shoulder nudged Liyah, it was Penelope

"We're both definitely doing the challenge , I heard professor Flitwick mostly picks his top students."

"That's amazing!" Liyah replied excitedly , if she was picked she'd be able to do exciting task and quest every month for the whole year something she longed for the entire summer ,something new , something refreshing , something to keep her preoccupied from her studies but knowing Flitwick it be something to stimulate their creativity or gaining knowledge .

"Last but not least" said Professor Dumbledore, "The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for all students unless you want to die the most painful death , you have been warned."

"Now." Professor Dumbledore concluded "Let the feast begin.."

The tables were filled with a range of different foods , from roast chicken to sandwiches , mash potatoes , roast potatoes , stuffing, vegetables of all kinds and lets not forget gravy , Liyah grabbed a second helping of mashed potatoes while listening to James Swinton's story of how he went swimming in the Coral Reef and nearly got eaten by a shark , Liyah giggled at the thought of Swinton swimming for his life while Penelope argued with James saying how sharks don't normally go after humans , to which James responded with "If sharks don't eat humans, why did i get chased by one?"

Over on the Gryffindor table, Oliver Wood and Percy Weasley were listening to Lee Jordan, who was rambling about how the quidditch match between the Chudley Cannons and the Holyhead Harpies went .

"Awe, it was amazing!" cried Lee who had Oliver listening intensely as he grabbed a second helping of potatoes . "The Harpies completely wiped out the Cannons , sure the Cannons have a great Seeker but being beaten 350-150 was clearly a surprise for them , the Harpies do have amazing Chasers, my cousin definitely has a crush on one of them , she kept on swooning when ever he'd fly near us."

"Puddlemere did great too." commented Oliver as Jordan finished his story about his Chaser obsessed cousin. "I just wish the finals were in August instead of September, that way I could watch it in person."

"Ohh, pack it in Oliver." blurted Jordan as he hit Oliver on the head .

"Yeah Ol give it a rest." answered Jackson , who was sitting beside Lee . "You'll find out if they have won in the papers tomorrow."

" I know." grunted Oliver "It's just not the same."

Oliver glanced up from his table, the other three boys immersed in their own conversations, sitting on the the table opposite was Liyah Sharp, Liyah hadn't notice Oliver starring as she was laughing at the girl next to her who had frosting on her upper lip which made it look like a white moustache , the two girls giggled uncontrollably as Liyah helped wiping off the frosting , Oliver smiled , he couldn't help it, seeing Liyah happy made him happy . Oliver had watched her every move , the way she flipped her hair to her side as it got in the way , the way her smile became bigger as she accepted to share a blonde girl's pudding , how her eyes sparkled when she took a bite of the pudding. Liyah however was too busy enjoying herself to even notice the brown haired Gryffindor staring at her, she was having too much fun listening to everyone's hilarious stories , she was happy, which she hadn't felt in a long time. Jacquie and Penelope had asked her what her summer was like , she told them how she spent some time with her Beauxbatons friends and how they spent nearly everyday outside in central London while also spending time with her family but , what she didn't mention was how she spent majority of the summer crying herself to sleep at the thought of her friend Cara, going to her funeral , spending nearly every waking moment either researching or reading about similar cases because she felt as if something wasn't right about her friends death , how she was consumed over the fact it was her responsibility to figure out the truth. But she couldn't tell them that , not now , not ever , not when everyone is cheerful and -

"Yo Sharp, don't be alarmed but Abrams and her minions are staring at you." pointed James who had finished his pudding , Liyah looked over to her right , a few seats away three girls , one blonde and two brunettes were whispering to each other as if they didn't stare right into Liyah's soul thirty seconds ago , Liyah rolled her eyes and pushed away her plate, too full to get a second helping of pudding .

"Y'know, you really should consider asking Flitwick to move dorms." whispered James loud enough for the group to hear. "Seriously , it's not great going to sleep every night knowing that your roommates despise you."

"He's right." agreed Penelope, taking a sip and putting down her goblet of pumpkin juice. "It's been two years and you're still dorming with them, I'm sure the house elves wouldn't mind if we had an extra person in our dorm." said Penelope gesturing her hand towards Jacquie Kwan , who nodded her head vigorously.

"I don't know." sighed Liyah flipping her hair towards her side. "Sure they may despise me but they haven't done anything too bad yet and even if I did ask for a new dorm placement it would be useless , everywhere else is full."

The rest of the hall had started to clear away, the Ravenclaw group made their way up the moving staircases, slightly passing the Gryffindors going in the opposite direction , Oliver and his friends had made their way up the stairs and were waiting while the enchanted staircase was making a U-turn to the Fat Lady portrait, Oliver looked behind him to see the Ravenclaws making their way to their tower and for the second time Oliver yet again focused on one particular brown haired Ravenclaw - Liyah Sharp.

From his birds eye view he could see Liyah better then he did in the Great Hall , she had opened up her robe, her blue and silver tie being the centrepiece of her plain white shirt, she wore a plain black skirt with a matching pair of intricate stockings, along with a pair of grey knee length boots . The blond haired girl clearly looked as she was complimenting her, Liyah looked flustered ,tucking her hair behind her ear and thanking the girl she was walking with , that must be a friend of hers, I'm glad at least a few people treat her kindly he thought , not like the other girls Katie was telling him while on the train , how could anyone be so mean and conceited . The portrait door flung open and Oliver climbed through the hole entering his common room .

The Ravenclaw gang made it up to the common room entrance in Ravenclaw tower , instead of a portrait it was guarded by an eagle doorknob which would give students a riddle in order to enter rather than a password .

"Good evening Mr Doorknob!" said Liyah cheerfully.

"Ahh good evening Ms Sharp, Ms Clearwater , Ms Kwan, Oh and Mr Swinton , welcome back , good summer?"

"It was great!" beamed James. "What's the riddle today old bird.!"

"I always go up but I never go down- What am I ?"

"Hmm." hummed Liyah "I know its age!"

"Correct!" cried the doorknob , the shiny bronze eagle lifted its wings to reveal a door, the group thanked the eagle and tiptoed their way through , the common room was splashed in the colour of blue and gold and bronze ,it was the size of a large as a football pitch , the ceiling was decorated as the night sky , filled with constellations and planets , bookshelves were placed in every corner of the room , while some books were fluttering around like birds while most lay around the room , almost as if they were sleeping , in the centre was a massive bronze fireplace, which created a circular pitch for sofas and chair , blue and gold in colour of course .

" Hey, look." pointed James which caught the attention of the three girls. "That's Roger and Patrick , I better go see you girls tomorrow - Yo Rog , Pat, wait for me!" James sprinted to the boy side of the common room , running up the stairs with Roger Davies and Patrick Hoppermann . The girls climbed up to their dormitories, Ravenclaw Tower had the most set of stairs compared to the other houses but not all the staircases led to dorm rooms , by the time you reach the fifteenth staircase which had the seventh year dorms , the stairs would lead you all the way to the astronomy tower , where astronomy classes would be held and great place for late night star gazing. The girls made it to their dormitories , Penelope and Jacquie's dorm being opposite Liyah's , as she began to twist the doorknob, a voice called her name .

"Listen , if Abrams and her minions say or do anything," said Penelope softly. "you could always come to our dorm, we can squeeze in an extra bed somewhere, it can't be too hard."

Liyah giggled , it was funny trying to picture Pen , Jacquie and her other roommates fitting in a bed just for her, maybe it wouldn't be a bad decision to move dorms but she'd have to get permission somewhere .

"Thanks girls but I'll be fine , but if i don't come down for breakfast just know the first suspects are Abrams and her minions." replied Liyah jokingly , the other two giggled while Penelope unlocked their door and the two of them waved goodbye, disappearing into their room .

Liyah was left alone in the dark corridor , she twisted the doorknob and carefully opened the door but not too much , just enough for her to squeeze in . There, sitting on their beds laughing was Veronica Abrams , Clarissa Grenade and Diana Hampton, their laughter soon died down as they noticed Liyah tiptoeing to her side of the room , normally each dorm room would have all four beds in a circle shape but because the trio didn't consider Liyah 'worthy' enough to be their friend , her bed was placed next to the window, far away from the other girls with her trunk and other belongings being placed on the wooden table near her dresser rather than being at the front of her bed . Liyah ignored the other three and began taking out her pyjamas from her trunk and getting changed in the bathroom. Soon after she quickly made her way back to her side of the room , there she began to sort out her uniform for tomorrow and placed her clothes in her dresser while the other three were chatting amongst themselves. The chatter was quiet at first but soon it became louder and louder so loud that even Liyah couldn't help but listen to their conversation .

"Who would be friends with muggles?" commented Abrams sitting up from her bed. "I mean what do you even talk about the weather." The three of them laughed simultaneously , like hyenas laughing at humans at a zoo Liyah thought .

"Forget being friends with them." continued Abrams. "Imagine marrying one, that's even more of an insult ,imagine your family spent years perfecting the magical lineage and you ruin it all for what a muggle who doesn't even know what Hogwarts is. Pfft pathetic."

Liyah's blood boiled , her eyes filling with rage, what Abrams was saying was definitely 'pathetic' how could anyone have this sort of mentality , nevertheless it was Liyah's duty to step in , picking up her last item of clothing, without even turning round Liyah spoke up-

"You do realise a lot of wand makers are muggles, right?" interjected Liyah , the three of them too stunned to speak , Abrams scoffed , breaking the awkward silence - "Sorry what?"

Liyah turned around swiftly with her heels, arms crossed against her chest. If they wanted to insult muggles or anyone for that matter , they're going to have to respond to her.

" I said , you do realise many wand makers are muggles." repeated Liyah, her tone more harsher than before. "The same people you were making fun of , they make the wands you practice magic with, you're treating them as if they're not humans , as if they're monsters- well guess what?" Liyah said coldly. "They have advanced way better than us wizards and witches and here you are making fun of them, besides there are a lot of students in this school who have one parent as a muggle or two , so not only are you insulting them , your also insulting the Muggleborn and Half-bloods in this school." The whole room was dead silent , Clarissa and Diana looked down at the floor, too scared to make eye contact . Liyah's speech completely shut them up . they had almost forgotten how opinionated Liyah was , in fact they had forgotten the most important piece of information - Liyah was a Half-blood .

Abrams stared at her angrily, Liyah thought she had forgotten how to blink until she started adjusting herself and her pillows, she then smirked, making Liyah confused.

"I guess you would know everything about muggles, after all your father did abandon you and where is your friend again?" She asked, tilting her head. "Oh yeah, she's dead." scoffed Abrams. "What's up, Sharp? , no snarky comeback, C'mon girls lights out , this depressed rat is making me tired." the minions nodded and Abrams flicked her wand , the room falling to darkness.

Liyah jumped to her bed , it wasn't even the first day back and Abrams has already made her 'public enemy number one' . Not only did she mention Cara but also her Muggle father , who had left her and her mother at the end of first year , her father had merely seen Liyah as 'his child' rather than ' his daughter' . From a young age, her father had insisted on doing a whole range of activities and extracurriculars from horse-riding , to tennis , martial arts , gymnastics , choir singing to playing a multitude of instruments like the piano and the violin, Liyah's favourite was the guitar however her father would tell her it wasn't 'classy' enough to play in the house to the point Liyah had to play it in secret , to make matters worse he would force all these activities and not appear to a single school or sporting event, yes she had her mother but her father was alive and well too , leaving Liyah wondering whether doing well academically and activity wise was worth it. "No grades should be lower than an A , anything lower and you might as well become a paralegal." Her father had endorsed this mentality since Liyah started school, being a top lawyer at his firm he made sure to provide the best education London could offer but it seemed that her father was more interested in the cases he was working on then going to his daughters music recitals or assemblies .

Liyah pulled her blanket towards her, wrapping herself up with the navy blue blanket that sat on her bed .She stared solemnly at the window . The moon gazing back at her as she reflected on her day , Liyah kept on replaying the scene with Oliver in the train , the way he smiled , the way he laughed when she was rambling about her encounter with Flint, the way he didn't feel uncomfortable when they held hands for awfully long time, his eyes Liyah thought were just too hard to forget , little did she know the same boy she was thinking about was also starring at the same moon .

Oliver tossed and turned , but he couldn't sleep , every time he tried to close his eyes all that could replay in his mind was his interaction with Liyah on the train , the scene in the Great Hall and finally when he saw her passing by the enchanted staircases , how could he forget , it was one of the most extraordinary moments of his life , besides the time he played Quidditch for the first time of course. Oliver glanced at his roommates next to him, Percy was sound asleep , Jackson was snoring loudly as usual and Carson Goldstein , another close friend of Oliver and had passed out the moment the boys entered the room so he was sound asleep too . Oliver shut his eyes , better start counting Quaffles he thought or he'd be a walking goblin by the morning .