"OH MY GOSH WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE!! RUN, RUN, RUN! MOVE IT RISSA!" Lexi yelled as she jumped out of the taxi.
"I'M GOING! Now come on Danny!" Rissa shouted back, heaving her two over stuffed bags out of the cab.
Danny looked a her two sisters casually as if there was no crisis at all. Oblivious to her sisters heated glances and hurried movements she lifted her bag from the trunk and fell under the sheer weight of it, still not worried at all about the time. She called to her dog, Cat, and walked far behind her sisters onto platform ten. She glanced uneasily at the wall she was supposed to run through. "I am not running through a wall, I am not running through a wall," she whispered to herself even as she closed her eyes and ran full speed at the wall.
Just as Danny got through the wall the train began to leave. It was a magnificent train.. It looked old, but yet it also looked like it had never been used before, even though it had been used every year for the past century.
"Danny, we have to go. Now," Rissa looked back at her menacingly, as if daring her to object.
"No need to tell me twice, now Rissa, MOVE it!" Danny almost screamed as she sprinted past her sister.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Rissa yelled back at her, leaving her luggage on the tracks.
Soon Lexi was safely aboard the train. She glanced worriedly at her sisters. The train was beginning to pick up speed. She turned away from them at the sound of a muffled laughter behind her. She turned to see three good looking boys all trying to hide giggles. She didn't have time to study them as she saw her sisters about to leap on to the train out of the corner of her eye.
WHAM!
"Umph," grunted Danny as she set Cat down safely on the train. "No more chocolate chip cookies for you," she muttered to herself. They were safely aboard the back of the Hogwarts Express train. With a casual flick of her wand Rissa sent their bags, which were still on the tracks, zooming into the train.
As one the girls turned around to address the three boys laughing at them and as one their mouths dropped open and Rissa's face turned a flaming red.
One of the boys seemed pretty surprised to see them too and he almost choked on the pumpkin juice he had been drinking.
"Remus?" Lexi asked in a near whisper.
"You guys know each other?" The boy with black hair and hazel eyes looked at Remus, then at the girls, then back at Remus, silently asking for answers.
"Yep." Danny said perkily, already over her shock at seeing Remus on the train headed towards Hogwarts. "He's our landlord's nephew. Mr. Redford. He spent a week with us this summer."
"You're not supposed to be here!" Remus exclaimed.
Eight curious eyes (Rissa's were still fixed on anything but Remus) swiveled towards him and Remus blushed and made an excuse about having to use the loo and hurriedly left down the hall.
"Would you lovely ladies like to sit with us," James said pointing to a compartment after Remus had gone .
Smiling- well, at least two of them were smiling- the three girls took seats next to the boys.
Holding out her hand Lexi shook hands with the black haired boy and introduced herself and her two sisters and explained that they were transfer students from America entering their fifth year, and that they were sisters but not born from the same parents, so as to avoid any confusion.
The boy with black hair and hazel eyes introduced himself as James and the boy sitting next to him with jet black hair and large gray eyes introduced himself as Sirius and informed them that they were also fifth years.
"What house do you guys want to be in?" James looked at them curiously.
"I dunno. What houses are the best?" Rissa asked, deciding that she couldn't spend the next two hours staring at her shoes in embarrassed silence.
"Gryffindor!" Sirius exclaimed.
Just at that moment Remus opened the door and came in. "I brought cake!" He said cheerfully, and still avoiding Rissa's eyes. As soon as Remus presented his triple layered chocolate chocolate cake two pairs of eyes stared fixedly at it.
"CAKE!" Sirius and Danny screamed at the same time. It seems they had already found something in common. With much ergo they both dove into the cake as soon as Remus set it down.
"I love chocolate!" Danny squealed five minutes later.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Rissa automatically said. "And you better plan on forking over the last piece of cake."
"One. Piece. Left." Danny said with a hungry look on her face. She was already salivating at the thought of eating the warm milk chocolate icing enveloping the triple chocolate flour delicacy. She then noticed the other person staring at the slice of cake, Sirius. "I'll fight you for it."
"Thumb war" said Sirius with a face that could pass as serious.
"You're on" said Danny confidently.
"You guys suck" Rissa pouted.
"So what's Hogwarts like" Lexi asked James.
"I win!" interrupted Sirius triumphantly. He tore off half of the cake and voraciously consumed the chocolaty delight.
"No!" cried Danny in anguish, as she crossed her arms huffily and glared enviously at Sirius.
Thoroughly exasperated with Danny, Lexi took out a game of exploding snap. "Here," she said shoving the game into Danny's hands, "play with Sirius." Danny and Sirius quickly started a game, and became completely unaware of anything else.
"Do you or do you not want to know about Hogwarts?" James asked eager to tell them about Hogwarts.
"Yes!" Rissa looked at him pleadingly. "I do not want to go there without a clue about where we are."
James spent a good half an hour explaining to Lexi and Rissa about the generals of life at Hogwarts, while Danny and Sirius played a game of exploding snap. Remus, left out of both the game and the conversation, mused over the sudden reappearance of the three girls.
He took the time he had alone to analyze their contrasting characters. To Remus it appeared that Lexi was the social one and quick to anger, while Danny suffers from mood swings and self involvement, but is fun and daring. She skinned a perfect reflection of his best friend Sirius, but it seems they had recognized this even before he had. If Sirius is like Danny, and Lexi is like James then Rissa is like me, the mediator that holds the three together, Remus thought. His thoughts then turned to the last time he had seen Rissa and how she had fled from him embarrassment and their kiss. With a heavy heart he realized he should tell her that the kiss was nothing if he ever wanted her to look at him without blushing or feeling awkward.
Before Remus had the chance to think anymore, a ballistic from Sirius' game of exploding snap hurtled into his peripheral vision. His body ducked on reflex and his wand flew into his hand by the time he realized he wasn't under attack.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?!"
Sirius looked at Remus with an almost sincerely contrite expression, while everyone else just looked at Remus, shocked that he had lost his cool so easily.
"So... do I win?" Danny asked Sirius.
"Grr lets play again."
Remus shouldn't have been surprised that they had resumed what they were doing so quickly (even James had gone back to his lecture). After all it was just life at a school for wizards, and with that thought his last, he fell closed his eyes and lost all conscience after that.
As much as she wanted to, Rissa couldn't concentrate on anything that James said. Her thoughts kept returning to Remus and every now and again she would steal a glance at his sleeping form. She realized that she liked him. A lot. She had felt attracted to him during the week he was visiting his uncle, but she hadn't realize just how much she actually liked him. Throughout the trip she kept musing over that, unable to reach a consensus. Eventually her mind drifted back to their kiss and she remembered the feel of his lips on hers, and she finally reached a decision: tell him how she felt.