2

Taylor

"As if you almost left without your wand…" I sighed, leaning against the pillar that read Platform 9 ¾ as Alyssa shrugged.

"It's not my fault! I woke up late." She defended.

"I know!" I laughed. "But knowing you, you probably had an hour to spare once you were done anyway."

"Did not." She huffed, crossing her arms.

I shook my head, chuckling as the sounds of other trains filled the platform.

"Do you have all your books?" She asked me, turning back.

"Yeah; Dad took me to get them all last week. Took forever, it did."

"I can imagine; Mum took me everywhere looking for one book. Turns out she was looking for some cook book involving beef stew."

"Yup, sounds like her." I nodded, missing the smell of that damned stew every time I walked into Alyssa's home. She'd always offer some to bring upstairs while we 'worked'.

"You staying on the Quidditch team?" Alyssa inquired, smiling slyly.

"But of course," I smiled back, narrowing my eyes sneakily. "Why? Worried I'll throw my bat at you?"

"Of course not," She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "But I hear Harry's staying on as Seeker. Bet you'll have lots of time to talk to him during practice and such." The words rolled off her tongue like poison, and I felt my cheeks go red.

"Yeah? Well I hear Malfoy likes to practice shirtless; tell me how he looks, won't you?" I replied coyly, trying to hide my blush.

"I - ! You - ! Shut up! He does not!" She shot, frowning at me, upset, before it lifted and was replaced by genuine curiosity. "Does he?"

"You'll have to tell me." I shrugged, laughing.

The train ride so far had been…uneventful.

We were sitting here, in our car, just the two of us. It was exciting of course, going to a new school and such, but the ride itself was fairly laid back. Until them.

"I can't wait!" Alyssa was saying giddily, "I'm gonna ZAP somebody!"

"No," I shook my head wearily. "You will NOT. I'd prefer to keep my head on my shoulders, thank you."

"You're no fun." She huffed, sticking her tongue out. I returned the gesture, and looked towards the door to our car. A flash of red walked by, and my eyes shot open.

W-was that…? Oh God…

"What's up?" Alyssa asked, quirking an eyebrow as I frowned at the door.

"…W…W…Weasley…" I stuttered, blinking several times and returning my gaze to my friend. "I think that was Ron…"

"Like, your cousin Ron?" Her expression turned to confusion as I chastised myself for not remembering that his entire family was magically oriented.

"Not quite; his grandfather was my grandmother's brother. He's a second cousin." I corrected, sighing. "They're all pureblood; all of his brothers are here too."

"Are they cute?" She giggled uncharacteristically, trying to make me uncomfortable.

"Sure; if you like fake vomit in your cereal and two pounds of slime in your shoes." I shrugged, earning a groan in protest and a sigh of surrender.

I chuckled and looked back to the door, intent on people watching. There still wasn't much at the moment in terms of humans, but the toad that hopped by and the boy that ran after it was entertaining enough for me.

After a few awkward minutes of silence, the voice of my second-cousin met my ears. It wasn't long before he was walking by the car again, and I quickly looked away in order to avoid attention.

Unsuccessfully, I might add.

"Taylor?"

"Bloody hell." I sighed.

"It is you!" Ron laughed, opening the car door and allowing himself in, along with his…friend.

He was about Ron's height, with green eyes and midnight hair. The nosepiece on his glasses was broken, and taped over multiple times.

His clothes weren't all that nice; the poor kid looked like he'd been locked in a closet his entire life. And yet, I still found myself wanting to know why.

I figured it was God trying to screw me over again. Damn him.

"Yeah, it's me." I nodded, taking a deep breath. "You remember Alyssa, right?"

"Um…" He looked over at her, his friend looking rather awkward in the doorway. "Oh yeah! You came to the Burrow once, right?"

"Yep, that was me." She smiled, offering them both a seat. Damn girl trying to smite me.

"Thanks," Ron grinned, sitting next to her as I inwardly groaned. "So, how's your Dad? I haven't seen you guys in like, three years!"

"My Dad's fine, back to work," I smiled, "And it's been seven months, Ron, not three years."

"Same thing!" He waved me off, suddenly remembering the boy now sitting next to me on the seat. "Oh! This is Harry; he almost didn't get his letter! They had to get the Groundskeeper to go find him!"

"Really? Well, hell, that would have sucked." Alyssa mused, crossing her arms.

"I'm just glad to be here; away from the Dursleys." Harry sighed, smiling.

"Dursley's?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"It's a long story." He frowned, almost as if he was in pain.

"It's a while yet to Hogwarts," I urged, smiling. "We have time."

"Tay! Alyssa!" I shook my head, the memories draining back into the depths of my mind as I came back to the present. Ron was waving at us, and I laughed as Alyssa and I walked over to him.

"Hey! How was your summer?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my cousin as he smiled, hugging my back.

"It was good; I wish you could have stayed longer though, I wanted to show you my superior wizards' chess skills."

"Ron, I win every time." I drawled, secretly thanking Alyssa for teaching me how to play the damned game in the first place.

"Technicalities," He replied, looking over to Alyssa as Salem mewed softly from her little kitty wicker basket. "What about you? Do anything exciting after you left the Burrow?"

"Slept, mostly." She answered, and I praised her honesty.

"I can imagine." He nodded, grinning again. "I missed you guys!" He brought us into a hug again and I could hear Molly laughing from behind him.

"Calm down, Ron; you'll choke the poor dears." He let go sheepishly, shrugging as his mother pushed him aside to hug us herself. "How are you girls? Got all your books I hope?"

"Of course." We smiled, not wanting to turn back to the horrible mess that was our luggage.

"Where's Athena?" George popped from nowhere, over my shoulder.

"Yeah, I don't see her crate." Fred appeared over my other, showing off his Weasley grin.

"She's with Harry; he kept her while I was in the Caribbean."

"For real this time." Alyssa chimed in, chuckling.

"Yeah, yeah, Taylor's a liar, I got it." I stuck my tongue out at her and she laughed at me, Salem still meowing away.

"The train's about to leave; better hurry up." Molly scolded as me and Alyssa grabbed our trunks, followed swiftly by Ron and his brothers. "Ginny's already on board; can't say I know where Harry is."

"He'll make it," George said.

"Always does." Fred added.

"He'd never miss a chance to get away from the Dursleys."

"Or a chance to see Taylor."

"Fred!" I cried, throwing one of my smaller, less fragile bags at him.

"Just saying!" He defended, picking up the bag and rubbing his head. "No need to assault me with projectiles!"

"Get on the bloody train!"

"YES MA'AM!"