I TOOK OUT MY BOOK AGAIN, and went back to my reading.

"Don't you think people with short hair look better in beanies than people with long hair?" Mara asked me, admiring her reflection in the window. "I mean, unless they have really long hair."

I grunted in response. She looked at me, and then put the beanie on my head.

"You look like a hipster, with the thick-framed glasses and the beanie. A Hufflepuff hipster. I think you pull the look off." Then she took the beanie and put it back on herself.

The door opened a third time. A boy with blonde hair walked in. he closed the door behind him. Then, he quickly snatched the hat off Mara's head. The boy might've been fast, but Mara was faster. She swiftly took it back.

"Give it back!" the boy cried, frustrated. "It's mine!" so I had guessed correctly, when I assumed Mara had stolen it from him. They went back and forth with the hat a few times… Mara won. The boy let her have the hat, for now. He sat next to James.

"Hello, Frazzle," James greeted him. Frazzle was in Ravenclaw. His real name was Edwardthesparklybeast Bellathenotsosparklybeast. Who had cursed him with such a monstrosity of a name, he hadn't yet told me. He demanded if people didn't call him by his real name that they call him Frazzle, or risk him hacking into their computer and shutting it down without even physically touching it. Or, if they didn't have a computer, they would be plagued with a bat-bogey hex. I thought it was a bizarre nickname, to say the least, and I called him indigo, Indy, or Blue Senpai.

"Hi, James," he replied, eyeing his hat (safely on Mara's head once again).

"Greetings, Senpai," I told Indigo, not removing my eyes from my book ( in case you wondered, it was Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring).

"Hullo, Eileen Louise," Indigo replied irritably. He didn't exactly love to be called Blue Senpai. I couldn't be sure why; I've always thought it sounded kind of cool. Over time, Indy got used to the nickname, even told me he didn't mind it, but his first reaction to it was still one of mild annoyance.

"Has James asked you to the dance yet?" Indigo asked. At the time, I'd mentally brushed the question off as mere teasing; payback for using the nickname. Only later would Mara tell me about the slightly panicked, annoyed look James shot at Indy that I missed because it happened just before I set my book down yet again to glare at Indigo.

"Senpai, would you care to explain why so many seem to entertain the completely mental fantasy that the two of us share a romantic relationship? Because I don't remember personally ever doing anything that would suggest such a thing."

"Because everyone knows you're both secretly-not-so-secretly madly in love!" Mara cried.

"No we're—"I started to protest, but then another person entered the compartment. I wondered how many would fit in that space, and hoe many more would try to enter.

The girl that entered was our friend, Toni Wellington. She was in the third year, a year younger than us. She was in Slytherin house, had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a sort of punk personality, at times. Sometimes her friends (and ONLY her friends) called her Franny, because her middle name was Frances.

"Hey Franny," I told her.

"Hey. Scoot" she told Mara, and sat down next to me. "What was the commotion I heard? That's how I finally found you guys."

"Eileen denied her romantic relationship with James," Mara explained.

"It's not really denying if there's nothing to deny in the first place," I protested. "I was simply telling the truth."

"Don't you agree that they for sure have feelings for each other?" Mara asked Franny.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely," Franny replied. There was no hint of sarcasm in her voice; on the contrary, she sounded completely sincere. I cried out in protest.

"I was hoping you would see reason and help me! You are the most reasonable of us, after all!"

"Sorry," she said with a shrug, "but I don't want to deny something so glaringly obvious.

I growled in frustration, and rounded on Indigo. "You're awfully quiet. I don't suppose you would like to come to my aid and take my side?"

"I agree with Toni and Mare," Indigo said, "you guys flirt all the time." News to me, I thought darkly.

"WE DO NOT! What about you?!" I turned to James. I was getting desperate. Surely James agreed with me! We were only friends, and the feeling was mutual! The thought of being a couple revolted us both equally! ... Right? "You're not denying any of this when you know very well that there aren't any romantic feelings between us! Tell them!"

"Er… y-yeah, guys. Back off, you know it's not true."

I sank back into my seat, finally relieved. "See?" I concluded triumphantly. "I told you." I picked up my book again and continued reading, comfortably unaware of the silent argument between my four friends going on as I joined the party of the Nine Walkers on the hostile, snowy peak of Caradhras, far, far away. A merciless, biting, furious snowstorm battered us, and the hobbits were nearly buried in snow. I wondered, nervously, how we would ever get out of this one.