Incendio

The newest Hogwarts Gazette meeting on the train to Hogwarts was the smallest they'd ever had. They were down a few members, Daphne had chosen not to return since her row with Colin. Marietta was of course permanently banned from the group. It was only Neville, Ginny, Ernie, Colin and Samantha. They would desperately need to have auditions. They were going to make up for the last very dismal year. The best part of the meeting was when it was voted that Artie would become the unofficial mascot.

Samantha was rather over romance since dealing with the complications of breaking up with Lee. Watching Ginny and Dean canoodle was not at the top of her favorite activities, so she chose not to follow them to a compartment.

"You can find somewhere with me if you'd like Sam." Neville offered and Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. There couldn't even be an inkling of romance if she went and sat with Neville. She respected his bravery and enjoyed his friendship, but there was a nice safety in knowing she wouldn't have to spend the ride watching him snog some girlfriend.

She followed him and found a compartment with Luna and Harry. Luna embraced Samantha in a hug of epic proportions and Harry mildly waved at her.

"I've missed you." Luna exclaimed.

"I missed you too." Samantha insisted before Luna motioned to Artie who was perched on Samantha's shoulder.

"Who's this?"

"She's Artie, the new mascot of the Hogwarts Gazette." Neville answered with pride.

"Is she from Fred and George's shop? I saw that Lee works there." Luna asked.

Samantha felt a jab in her heart as she said it out loud, "Yeah, Lee gave her to me."

"Your article in the quibbler sold quite a few copies." Luna changed subjects. "We're really on the upswing."

"I know, your dad wrote to me. Let's not talk shop though, I want to hear about your summer with the Crumple-Horned Snorkaks." Samantha crossed her legs beneath her. She actually did, they had gone to Sweden and it was always interesting to hear about people's travels.

At that moment Neville dropped Trevor and the little toad hopped beneath the seat. He crawled around on the compartment floor and confirmed her romance theory.

"It was quite an adventure. I'll tell you more another time. Harry said he isn't doing D.A. this year." Luna announced.

Samantha looked up at Harry, "You are kidding right? I learned more in D.A. than I ever did in Defense Against The Dark Arts."

"Well, there's no point now that we've gotten rid of Umbridge." Harry shrugged nervously.

Neville bumped his head on the bottom of the seat and sat up with his toad, "I liked the D.A. I learned loads."

"I enjoyed the meetings." Luna revealed. "It was like having friends."

"Come join the Gazette with us." Neville suggested. "You can too Harry if you want."

"Oh I'm rotten at writing." Harry chuckled.

"I've read your writing, it is ghastly. You really should just keep the D.A. going." Samantha interjected, the moment she and her mum were ready for an attack, Harry's words had gone through her head.

Neville's toad escaped again, he was crawling around and looking for Trevor again.

A group of fourth year girls had congregated outside of their compartment. A girl Samantha recognized as Romilda Vane came in and asked Harry if he wanted to sit with them. "If you are looking for better company."

"These are my friends." Harry replied back.

The girls looked confused before leaving.

"People expect you to have cooler friends than us." Luna remarked with incredible honesty.

"You are cool." Harry looked like someone had slapped him in the face. "None of them was at the Ministry. They didn't fight with me."

"They also didn't destroy the Transfiguration classroom as a diversion either." Neville interjected for Samantha.

Samantha shrugged. "Eh, totally not the same level. I didn't go to the Ministry or fight actual Death Eaters. I also didn't take an unforgivable curse, so I will happily fall into the non-cool category." Samantha remembered Luna telling her about it all and she had been shocked by Neville's bravery. She noticed slightly that Neville's cheeks had turned pink.

"Well, we didn't fight You-Know-Who. Harry was brilliant of course." Neville interjected. "You should hear my gran talk about what Harry did."

They continued on their talks eventually settling on the matter of their NEWT level classes.

"Are you planning to take potions?" Harry asked Samantha.

"Goodness no. I think we all knew that one though. I got an Acceptable which is the best score I've ever had in potions." Samantha laughed.

"I got a Dreadful." Neville looked embarrassed. "I thought Gran would murder me."

"At least we won't be stuck as partners anymore." Samantha commented back. "Bit like blind leading the blind."

Neville laughed but looked disappointed.

Hermione and Ron eventually joined them after their Prefect duty had ended.

They were all complaining about Malfoy and his fondness for certain rude hand gestures when a third-year student poked in her head.

"I'm supposed to deliver these to Neville Longbottom, Samantha Fyre and Harry Pott-tter." The little girl handed them the envelope before running away.

Miss Fyre,

I would be delighted if you would join me and a few of your fellow students for a spot of lunch in compartment C.

Sincerely,

Professor H.E.F. Slughorn

"Who?" Samantha asked while scrunching her nose.

"New Teacher." Harry shrugged. "I expect we should go."

She followed Neville and Harry to compartment C where a bunch of other students had gathered around this new Professor. He was quite wide and quite bald. Samantha recognized Blaise Zabini, he was in her year and her brother's house. Her brother didn't like him much though, called him a git quite often. She recognized Cormac McLaggen, Lee had hated him. He was a Gryffindor a year behind Lee and had been consistently after Lee's job as commentator. McL said he would, "Bring a lacking class to the position." Samantha didn't have a personal opinion, but trusted Lee's for the most part.

She suspected one boy was Marcus Belby. Marietta had often complained of his eating habits and his ability to watch her every move. Samantha suspected he watched her less now that she had giant pimples scarring her face.

She noticed a face she was grateful to see. Ginny looked very confused but similarly relieved when she saw Samantha.

Samantha had barely heard anyone be introduced when Slughorn addressed her, "You must be Miss Fyre."

Samantha nodded before seating herself beside Ginny. The whole thing was essentially a big interview about people's families and their abilities. Samantha prayed she wouldn't be asked about her mother's side of the family, the Brenna's.

Samantha sat uncomfortably as the conversation came to her, "And you Miss Fyre, you are quite the author I hear. I read your article on Professor Umbridge in the Quibbler. I hope I will not find myself at the end of a bad review from you, I shall have to prove my merit." Professor Slughorn said jollily. "What do your parents do? I don't believe I've heard the surname of Fyre before."

"My mother owns Belle's Designs in Diagon Alley and my father works for a hardware company in London."

"You don't mean Belle Brenna do you?" He asked and Samantha nodded. "I have bought a few of her cloaks and robes. A real talent she has. I did not realize Belle Brenna had married." Samantha nodded uncomfortably. Neville gave a look as if he knew the last name, as did Zabini and McLaggen.

"Yes, only about twenty years ago." Samantha snipped back and Ginny chuckled a bit, but feigned it as choking on the pheasant sandwich she was eating.

"Well I remember your mother at school. Quite a talent for Transfiguration and Potions." Slughorn nodded. "I assume you have inherited her talent."

"For Transfiguration maybe, but my brother got the Potions talent." Samantha nodded and hoped he'd move on from her.

"I see. It takes quite a talent in Transfiguration to do journalism. Which is why Cuffe was tailor made for his position. Strong talent in Transfiguration he had." Slughorn commented and a thought popped into her mind. If her reputation with the Prophet had been ruined by Umbridge, this could be her opportunity to fix it.

"You know Cuffe?" Samantha asked, changing her attitude to feign interest.

Slughorn went on to ramble about his connections to the Prophet and several of its' current journalists.

Harry, Neville, Ginny and Samantha later all left the compartment to go change into their robes. Harry ducked out at one point throwing his invisibility cloak over his body.

"I suppose if it was about family for me, my brother would have been invited." Samantha admitted as they continued their journey through the train. Neville had been invited because of his family. Ginny had been caught hexing Zacharias Smith and Slughorn had been impressed. Harry was, well, Harry Potter, and he was famous all on his own.

Neville observed. "It sounds like he asked you because of your writing. Gran says you are an excellent writer for a youngster. See you are pretty cool Sam."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Still not the same level of cool Neville, but thank you."

"Slughorn probably just wanted a good review." Ginny chuckled. "He also doesn't want you to make his life a living hell."

Samantha smiled proudly. "Probably not."

"I didn't realize you were a Brenna, Sam." Neville mentioned. "I mean there's so many of them it's hard to keep track. Gran knows a few. I just didn't realize you were one."

"I'm not a Brenna, I'm a Fyre." Samantha admitted.

"Aren't the Brenna's that large family that refuses to send their children to Hogwarts because there are too many muggle borns or something?" Ginny asked. "They also got busted for illegally modifying Augury birds?"

"That's the one. My mother's side of the family is a bunch of cruel bigoted pure bloods, so I don't exactly like to claim them. My mum's the youngest of the twelve siblings. She was the last in the family to go to Hogwarts under the name. My aunts and uncles now refuse to send their children to Hogwarts They don't speak to us because of my dad. Granny Brenna sends us Galleons at Christmas and that's the most we hear from them."

"Why don't they like your dad?" Neville asked and Ginny laughed.

"He's a muggle." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"I forget sometimes that your dad is a muggle." Neville admitted with a smile.

"I forget sometimes too." Samantha laughed. 'He's got a magic all his own."