She grabbed her trunks and her zebra print backpack from the trunk of her father's 69 Mustang and slammed it shut behind her, eyes scanning the train station uneasily. She hated being late and they'd hit bad traffic on the drive in to the station. She was half afraid that her friends had all probably boarded the train back to Hogwarts already.
"Relax, lass." her father joked as her mother straightened her hair and sighed, hugged her, smiling. "If you get the least bit afraid and you want to come home, Sadie.. Just owl us." as her father nodded and said with a smile, "We'll get to you as soon as we can."
"I'll be fine you two.. We have this discussion every year on the first day back." Sadie said as she hugged her parents and breathed in one last huge breath of their cologne and perfume. Not that she wasn't thrilled to be going to Hogwarts, the exclusive magic school she attended, but she and her parents were extremely close.
After all, they hadn't had to be her parents and they'd taken her, raised her, loved her as their very own.
No, she had no clue who her real mother was, who her real father was, and she really hadn't ever worried all that much about it. And she probably ever wouldn't, as far as she was concerned. Why bother? Obviously, had her real parents wanted her, they'd have kept her.
"We'll see you at Christmas. Try not to get into too much trouble?" her mother and father said with teasing grins as she pouted a moment and then said "I suppose I could try." as she watched them driving away. Once she was satisfied they'd gone, she turned towards the station and slunk inside, eyes scanning the crowd for signs of any of her fellow Hufflepuff housemates or her other friends.
She'd just sighed and bit her lower lip, started to walk again when she walked straight into the back of a taller male. He turned to look at her and for a moment, she looked at him. "Sorry." Neville Longbottom muttered quietly as she smiled and shook her head, laughed it off and said calmly, "Not like you hurt me. Besides, I'm sort of the one who walked into you."
He nodded, studying her for a moment. She smiled and then after a few moments, she asked him quietly, " You're in Gryffindor, right?"
Neville nodded and she smiled as she said casually, "I thought you looked like one of the other students." making him nod. He asked quietly, "What about you?"
"Oh.. I'm in Hufflepuff." Sadie said as she twirled a caramel blondish brown strand of hair around her fingers, chewed her lower lip thoughtfully while looking up at him. "Do you have a name, or..." she asked, as he nodded and managed a barely audible "Neville Longbottom."
"Sadie Harper. It's.. It's nice to meet you, Neville." she said quietly as she caught sight of a friend of hers, waved at them. "I should get going." she muttered apologetically as she looked up at him a moment, smiled. Nodding, he said quietly, "I'll see you around school."
She skipped over to a large group of noisy and giggly girls around her own age (as tiny as she was Neville had it pegged as her being at least a 3rd year at best) talking animatedly, waving her hands a lot. He smiled a small smile and then made himself look away.
The Potters and the Weasleys in the world usually got all the pretty girls. Not blokes like him. She'd probably just made conversation to be nice just now.
Or she'd felt bad for him, everyone within earshot probably heard his grandmum chewing him out before she left the station. She did it a lot. He tried not to let it bother him.
But even as he dismissed her simple act of kindness as just that, he couldn't help but turn his head back in her direction, watch her and her friends gathered together in a large group still, but all bent in, whispering excitedly, obviously hiding something from the general sight of everyone else.
"Oi.. Harper! Longbottom's staring right at you, girl." one of her friends, Bridgette barked as she pivoted her head around just in time to catch herself getting lost in his gaze. She bit her lower lip and gave him a smile and wave before turning around.
"He's an older boy, they never go for girls like me." she muttered as her friend nudged her and shook her head saying bluntly, "And you're not going to do something about this huge crush on him this year either.. Are you?"
"Truthfully? I'd really rather not have him laughing his arse off at me." Sadie said as the girls groaned and her friend Kirby smirked and said with a hand on her hip and a mischevious grin, "Triple Dog Dare you.. This year, Sadie.. You have to find some way to let that boy know you've got it bad for him."
"Because he'll totally flip for me." Sadie joked as she sighed and then looked back over at him while he was occupied talking to his friends.
"You never know until you try.. Triple dog dare you. It's official, you cannot turn this dare down." her friend Kirby said as her other remaining friends nodded in agreement.
Neville felt intent staring and rubbed the back of his neck. He heard Seamus Finnigan chuckling and then felt Finnigan nudging him in the ribcage. He glared and rubbed his ribcage and then followed Seamus eyes.
"Wot? She was starin roight at yah, lad." Seamus teased as Dean studied Neville for a moment and said with a smirk, "Isn't she that girl you almost asked to the Yule Ball but you froze up and then ran off down the hallway before she turned round?"
Neville glared and nodded then said quietly, "Girls like that don't like boys like me."
"She was starin roight at yah, Longbottom." Seamus said as he chuckled and added, "Pretty lass."
"And?" Neville asked as he got the feeling his friends were up to something..
"We just think, mate, that if you like her, maybe you oughta tell her?" Dean asked, scratching his head as he looked up at the taller male. Neville shrugged and said quietly, "Won't matter.. She'll laugh her arse off."
"Won't know until yah try, lad." Seamus muttered as he watched Neville watching the giggling group of girls, mostly Hufflepuff, mostly younger girls. "She's only in 4th year, not like it's that far apart from yah, lad." Seamus insisted as Neville grumbled and said "We're going to be late." pointedly, nodding towars the train.
The girls ran past, he couldn't help but smile as he watched her shed the sandals she wore, run barefoot towards the secret platform entrance.
"I dare you, Longbottom.. This year, you have to do something about your whole crush on the girl." Dean said calmly as Seamus added "Double dare yah."
"Triple dare you." Dean said as Neville looked at them a moment, his hand in his hair, nervously biting his lip. "It's.. It's just not a good idea, okay?"
"If yah do somethin about 'er, I'll tell Lavvie I fancy 'er." Seamus said as he looked up at Neville, who for the moment still wasn't budging.
