Hey, this fortnightly update thing is actually working! :) btw, SKINS! Don't you people reckon JJ is just so cute? He's my favourite second gen character. Okay so enough with the random ramblings, on with the story...
As I hopped off the train, an arm swung around my shoulder and Louis grinned childishly at me.
"Hello, Lils," he said cheerily.
"Sup Louis," I said, with the silent 's' sound like they would in France. He rolled his eyes. Louis and I are what I like to call best-cousins. We both know what it's like to have two older siblings of the opposite gender. I mean, if there was just the one sibling of the opposite gender, there'd be a really close bond and all, but given that there's two, they can kind of both go off and have their fun together. Louis and I both find that annoying. He doesn't quite understand the over-protectiveness though, but he tries.
"How are those devilish brothers of yours then?" he asked.
"Wonderful," I said sarcastically. "James pretty much knows that I like-"
I stopped midsentence. Sure, Louis and I were close, but I couldn't tell him.
"D'you want me to just ask James and remind him so that he can tell the whole Weasley Clan?" teased Louis.
I knew he wouldn't though. If there was anyone who understood the importance of privacy, it was Louis. He'd once read Dominique's MMSes only to find out way too much about her than he'd wanted to. But his words had caused me to bite my lip.
"Louis, d'you reckon he'd tell anyone?" I queried nervously.
"What does he know?" asked Louis in a serious tone.
"Just that I MMS him."
"Nah, that's only enough for him to tease you, and besides, Big Jim's gonna forget it all pretty quickly. That big head of his is rather useless."
I smiled at his calling my eldest brother Big Jim. He'd been doing that mockingly since he was ten, much to Big Jim's annoyance. It reminded James that, when compared to his older cousins, he was rather young.
It was then that Corey decided to finally reply, taking the I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about approach with a wat dyu mean?
"Hey, Lils, I have to go," said Louis, eyeing a sixth-year girl I couldn't quite identify as she climbed into a carriage. "Sorry for being a twat," he said when he noticed I had followed his gaze.
"Just go," I said, rolling my eyes.
Once he was gone I sent Corey my reply, a simple nvm.
"Hey Lily!"
Emily and Viv bounded up to me and gave me a hug, asking me how my holidays were and all those informalities.
"C'mon, let's get a carriage," said Emily, and we put our arms around each other and set off drunkenly towards the invisible thestrals. None of us saw them, but after one of Corey and Al's pranks last year we pretty well knew they were there.
****
"C'mon, it's just a little further!" Al called, a little while ahead of us.
We were in the Forbidden Forest, and it was Halloween night, so of course we expected something.
"You know we're not going to get freaked," said Viv. "It's Halloween, you're going to get someone to jump out and scare us, blah blah blah."
"Stop being such a know-it-all," Scorpius said from beside me. "We just want to show you something."
Yeah right.
But, nevertheless, we followed him further into the forest, until we couldn't even see the beacon of light that was the full moon through the treetops.
"Do you guys wanna speed this up? I told Toby I'd be back soon," grumbled Emily.
"C'mon guys, lighten up," I said cheerily. "I brought chocolate frogs."
"Ooh gimme!"
As I reached my hand into the pockets of my hoodie, there was a rustling sound from just next to Viv. I heard her jump in fright, before she called out to Al and Scor.
"Yeah, you forgot we have wands."
She pulled out her wand and murmured "Lumos".
We all gazed around at the forest and found nothing. I furrowed my brows in confusion, a sinkhole beginning to form in my stomach.
"Al…"
"There's a clearing up ahead," said Scorpius excitedly. "C'mon, don't be such girls."
We followed him nervously into the clearing, becoming more and more nervous with every branch that was stepped on. Despite the substantial lighting emitted by the moon into the clearing, Viv didn't put away her wand.
There was a noise again – someone, or something, had stepped on twigs despite none of us five moving.
"Okay guys, very funny, who's under the Invisibility Cloak," said Emily, though there was a slight wavering in her voice.
Then a body brushed up against me, so emaciated, so skeletal, I shrieked.
"Okay, no one in our school's that thin," I murmured, very much afraid. "At least I hope not."
Apparently the body brushed up against Emily and Viv too, for soon I heard two sharp intakes of breath.
"Al!"
"Corey!"
"GUYS!"
Al and Corey couldn't control their laughter then, Al even rolling around on the floor like a baby. Us girls were still scared as heck, however, and huddled together.
"It's just a thestral," Corey had finally explained after he'd caught his breath. "Y'know, invisible skeletal horses. They pull the carriages, but you can only see them if you've seen someone die."
"I hate you guys," Emily groaned.
Viv, too, vented her frustration. But I was quiet for a moment, pondering.
"Corey, who've you seen die?" I asked quietly.
The smile on his face vanished and he played with the cuffs on his jacket.
"When I was nine, Mum got pregnant again. I was going to have a sister, and it was so exciting because I was always bored at home, all that single-child stuff, but then, after she was born, and we'd named her and everything, something went wrong and she died, just as they were rushing her to a different unit. Dad was carrying me along as we ran along with the hospital bed, so I saw…when her eyes closed for a last time."
There was silence for a moment, broken only by an owl hooting in the distance.
"Aw, Corey!"
I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, feeling the warmth of his body against mine.
"What was her name?" I asked as I let him go.
"Carina."
"That's a nice name," I said with a smile.
"Should we head back?" Al said gently after a few moments.
Scorpius nodded, though he did sniffle a bit.
"Cheer up, Scor," Al pressed. "Hey, I've got some Firewhiskey in my trunk, and seeing as goodie-two-shoes Robert is at the hospital wing, I say we have a little party, you me, Caleb and Jordan."
"Yeah, alright," said Corey, and his mood was somewhat less dejected, yet still not quite his normal self.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," I told Al as I pressed a chocolate frog into Corey's hand.
Okay that kinda ended suddenly but meh. Um, I have no idea what to call Scorpius in the narration. I mean it is Lily's narration so I was gonna do Corey but maybe it'd be better if I called him Scorpius? Well idk, you guys wanna tell me how I should refer to him? x
