Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. I only do this for fun!
Forever
Chapter 1
I sat, looking out the train window, onto Platform 9 ¾. My trunk was packed, I was wearing my new Hogwarts robes, and I was all ready for my very first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'd already said goodbye to my own parents, but, as they'd had to rush off to work, I was left to watching other children say their goodbyes. Frankly, it was pretty boring, until one family arrived. They caught my notice the second they stepped on the platform, as it was pretty hard to miss seven flaming red heads. There were five boys and one girl, all accompanied by their mother, who, although short, looked like someone you wouldn't want to cross. The four oldest boys all had trunks, but the youngest two didn't look old enough to be going to Hogwarts yet.
"It seems odd without Bill here," one of the older boys remarked.
"Yes," his mother agreed, and then turned to two of her other sons, who had to be twins, for they looked exactly alike. "Now, I don't want one lick of trouble out of you two," she said menacingly. "You'll have to go seven years at this place, with the same teachers all the way through, so for goodness sake; please don't make a bad impression the moment you walk through the doors."
"Don't worry, Mother," said the twins' older brother. "I'll make sure they behave."
"Oh, no," said one of the twins. "With Percy on us-"
"We won't get away with anything," finished his twin.
"Because, I mean, we've always minded him so well at home," said the first boy, rolling his eyes.
"With Mum to back him up,"
"So without Mum-"
"We're out of luck."
The boy called Percy scowled. I giggled.
Their mother said, "I'm serious, boys."
"So are we," one of the twins muttered.
"Be quiet, now. One toe out of line, and I'll-"
But at that moment, her oldest son interrupted her, "Mum, the train is set to leave soon. We'd best get on."
"Oh, yes, dear, you're quite right," the woman said, as she began hugging and kissing her four school-age sons at random and even accidentally catching her youngest son, who protested loudly.
"Mummy," said the girl, tugging on her mother's sleeve, "Can't I please go?"
"I've told you, Ginny," said her mom, watching her four sons walk away. "You're too young."
The youngest boy rolled his eyes at his sister's question, but as he watched the train pull away, his eyes were filled with longing.
****
The red-haired twins chose seats in the compartment behind me along with a boy with dreadlocks, while their older brothers went farther back. I didn't pay much attention to them after that, because another first-year girl had taken the seat next to me. Her name was Alicia Spinnet, and she had shoulder-length dirty blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She talked very fast and loved Quidditch as much as I did. It was a lot of fun talking to her, but I should have been paying more attention to the compartment behind me, and, more specifically, three trouble-rousing boys.
Alicia and I were in the middle of discussing which school house we wanted to be placed in (we both hoped to be in Gryffindor), when a bucket of purple potion was dumped on us. We shrieked as our robes and faces, and my long hair, was covered a jelly-like potion. I heard laughter behind me, and turned to see the twins and the boy with dreadlocks. It seemed they'd sneaked into the doorway, and levitated the bucket above us. The three other girls who had occupied our compartment had just left to find the bathroom, which left us the sole occupants of the compartment, and, apparently, the perfect targets.
As I turned towards them, they started laughing even harder. I supposed I did look pretty funny, but I was too angry to even consider the humour in the situation. It was going to take forever to get the- Merlin, I didn't even know what it was- out of my long black plait. Soon, I'd have to be Sorted, and I couldn't help but think that the only place they'd put me in was back on the train. Then, with a smile that probably made me look as if I was completely crazy (and maybe I was), I thought of a way to get some of the Merlin-knows-what out of my hair a whole lot quicker.
One of the twins pulled himself together enough to tell me, "Look, we'll help you clean up, okay? We were just messing around with our potion ingredients, and Lee had some purple dye, and it was too gross not to use," he grinned. "You have to admit- you look pretty funny."
Now, I probably shouldn't have done what I did. I could have just gotten a prefect or something. Revenge probably wasn't the way to go on my first day of term, but I was too damn mad to do anything else. I grabbed the top of my braid, and hit each of them once across the chest- not that hard, but hard enough- splattering them with purple potion. They weren't nearly as messy as Alicia and me, but, again, it was enough. Immediately, they stopped laughing at me. Their expressions of sheer surprise made me want to giggle, but suddenly, I was regretting what I'd done. If I made enemies with these pranksters, they could make my life a living hell.
Fortunately, as I would learn later, the Weasley twins were always the first to laugh at themselves. Catching a glimpse of each other, they busted up. Relieved, I started chuckling, suddenly aware of how stupid we must all look. The boy with dreadlocks guffawed, and Alicia, as she made her way over to stand beside me, giggled.
One of the twins stuck out his hand. "Fred Weasley. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." I wiped my hand on my robes (I'd have to clean them anyway) and shook it.
For some reason, this made us all snigger more.
"I'm George," said the other red-head, "And this is Lee Jordan."
"I'm Alicia Spinnet," the girl beside me said, composing herself and giving the boys a little glare, which changed into a reluctant smile again when Fred complimented her hair, which had huge purple globs in it.
Trying to wipe some of it off, she asked, "Are you two twins?"
"Are we?" Fred said, feigning surprise.
"I hadn't realized," said George, pretending to frown as he studied his twin. "I reckon maybe we are."
"Thanks so much for that astute discovery," Fred told Alicia seriously. She laughed again.
"And our wonderful new stylist is…" George prompted me.
"I'm Angelina. Angelina Johnson," I said. "And the pleasure is all mine."
We ended up having to ask the twins' older brother Charlie to clean the purple glop off with magic because water wouldn't suffice. We made laughingstocks of ourselves by parading around the corridors in, as the twins said, "the newest fashions" trying to find Charlie. We all got yelled at by another Weasley brother, Percy, but in my mind, the whole horrifying episode was completely worth it. I'm sure my life would have been so much more boring if I hadn't become friends with the Weasley twins that day.