Some days, it is just gruelling to be a part of the Longbottom family. Granted, we aren't so wide spread as the Weasley family with multiple cousins but I do have four other siblings.
Whatever reason my mum had for giving birth to 5 kids must have been a good one. I watched those videos that are mandatory in sex-ed classes and birth is not the magically process everyone says it is, it looks like it hurts. A lot. That's why Granny Weasley is one of my heroes, giving birth to 7 children. That and she killed the sociopath known to many as Bellatrix Le Strange.
Anyways, my parents had 5 children. There are the twins, Franklin and Alice, who are 3 years older than me. Franklin is older than Alice by 16 minutes and is the kid who looks the most like dad; Alice is the female version and the only brunette daughter they have. Hazel is my other older sister by 2 years and has mum's dirty blonde hair and dad's dark brown eyes. Then there is Christian, the baby of the family. He's a year younger than me with dad's chocolate looks but mums light blue peepers. We all looked pretty much the same and because we were born so close to each other, we had a fairly good relationship. Unless, it's the start of school.
"Ari! Have you seen my purple lacy top?" Hazel demanded, hands on hips in a good impersonation of mum. I almost feel the urge to answer her politely when I remember it's only Hazel; but since I'm a nice sister, I answer her nicely anyway.
"No, have you tried asking Ali? Purple is more her colour, I'm a blue kind of girl." Hazel glared at me before marching out of our shared room and down the hall to yell at Alice, who's in the bathroom.
"Ari, can you help me? I can't get Norman into his cage." Christian asked hesitantly, knocking politely on the door. I ignore the urge to squeal at the adorableness that is my younger brother.
"Why can't Frankie help you?" Christian went a bit pink and mumbled something about accidently turning all of Franklin's shirts and socks pink. Taking pity on the poor boy, I went and help him put his owl in the cage and was rewarded for my good deed by being pecked. I always knew Norman never liked me.
Glaring, I walked back over to my room already plotting the multitude of way I was going to kill that stupid bird. I was plotting Norman's demise so much; I didn't notice that I walked into a war zone.
"What did you do with my shirt?" Hazel yelled at our older sister. Alice continued packing her Hogwarts bag like she wasn't about 3 seconds away from death. I'm going to miss her when Hazel kills her from impatience or thievery.
"Absolutely nothing. I haven't seen your shirt." Alice replied calmly, closing her trunk. "Maybe you should try looking under you bed. I swear that's where everything ends up." Hazel gave her a suspicious look but followed her advice. I watched entranced as her hand disappeared under her bed and re-appeared with her shirt.
"Now, you have your shirt. Hurry and finish packing up. I don't want to be late." Alice ordered, making her way out of our room. I kept staring at Hazel's bed in wonder, only nodding politely to our older sister.
"Hazel, your bed is scary." I whispered, edging away from it.
"I know." She muttered back, also edging away from the bed. Once we were by the door, Hazel kindly levitated our trunks to us and we bolted, not bothering to turn off the light or close the door to our room. Rushing down the stairs, we entered into the Leaky Cauldron and placed our luggage on a nearby table.
Ever since I could remember, we had lived at the Leaky Cauldron. Mum was the owner and we all lived in the flat above the bar. Since there was only so much room, all the girls shared and Franklin and Christian shared. We only had one bathroom, which made morning an epic battle of wits; stamina and patience. Christian usually won surprisingly. Probably had to do with mum waking him up so he could have the hot water, the perks of being the baby in the family.
Another perk was that since he was the baby of the family, it meant he didn't get in trouble as much. It sounds kinda stupid, but as the baby, the rest of us felt the need to protect him and usually tried to take the blame for stuff he did. Alice once got grounded for 2 weeks because she told mum that she was the one who broke Great-Aunt Maggies vase; Christian had actually been playing with a quaffle and broke it. Mum wasn't too impressed wither way.
Mum is also not impressed when we are late, she hates lateness. It's one of the reasons why we always left for Kings Cross so early. It wasn't so bad because most of the families who were heavily involved in the Second Great War did this, just to avoid the media. I had thought that we would have been leaving slightly later because mum had a late night at the pub but unfortunately, mum's habit has also rubbed off on Franklin and Alice. Since this was their last year, they basically rushed us more than ever, even without the help of mum.
It wasn't long before everyone was downstairs and ready to go. Due to mum's previously stated reason, she had opted to sleep in and not wish us goodbye. It's okay though, we left her a note.
Anyways, we all crowded around the fireplace, arguing about the order we would be leaving in when flooing to Kings Cross Station (The ministry put in a secret room to make getting there easier) After watching Hazel and Christian floo together and Alice leaving straight after to keep an eye on them, I immediately felt Franklin push me in.
I barely had a chance to turn and give him a piece of my mind about how bad it was to man-handle a girl when he threw in the floo powder and forced me to leave. It seems like today my brother felt the extreme need to be a wanker. Stupid git.