When Bryt woke up the next morning, heavy rainfall was pounding against the window over her head as if trying to lull her back to sleep. Mr. Weasley calling goodbye from the hallway and wishing everyone a good term finally pulled Bryt completely from her slumber. Still, it was difficult for Bryt to pull herself out of bed, feeling as if she had been woken up far too early and should go back to sleep.
Bryt, still feeling half-asleep, dressed in her usual cargos and sweater before combing quickly through her hair and tying in the scarf headband. Once Ginny and Hermione were both ready as well, the three girls made their way downstairs for breakfast to see everyone else was already downstairs.
As Bryt sat down and helped herself to a couple of pieces of toast, Bill and Charlie said they would come along to see everyone off at King's Cross. Percy, much to Bryt's relief, gave a false-sounding apology as he said he couldn't come.
"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment," he said, "Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me."
"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" George spoke up, "I reckon he'll know your name soon."
Bryt choked on her toast, which gained her a glare from Percy. Bryt so often got that look from him that she wondered if Percy was just unable to look at her any other way besides glaring.
It wasn't too long after that it was time for them to leave. Mrs. Weasley had called in taxies to take them to King's Cross and Bryt was standing in the rain with the hood of her jacket over her head as she watched the men try to shove trunks and owl cages into the back of the cabs. This proved difficult as Pigwidgeon was carrying on loudly and one of the men dropped Fred's trunk, which set off a bunch of fireworks. This, in turn, spooked Crookshanks, who was already edgy due to the rain, and the cat went climbing up the driver's leg.
The trip was no more pleasant. Cramped into the back of a cab with their trunks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Bryt also had to deal with a still-spooked Crookshanks, which led them to be covered with stinging scratches as they reached King's Cross.
Bryt was glad to finally be there. Mrs. Weasley refused to let Bryt try and carry her own trunk due to her injured ankle, so Bryt offered to huddle Crookshanks under her jacket and carry him across the street. Still, with the pounding rain, everyone was soaked by the time they got inside.
They were soon on the hidden platform nine and three-quarters, where Bryt insisted on looking for her brothers and sitting in a compartment with them.
"I promised them I would," Bryt said, getting help with pulling her trunk on the train.
Carrying Joey's and Pigwidgeon's cages while Ron pulled her trunk, as well as his, Bryt led the way until she found her brothers sitting in a compartment that was about halfway along the train.
"Bryt!" both boys hopped up, greeting their sister with a hug. Bryt noticed Merlin, Drew's black-and-white cat, was curled up at the end of one of the seats.
"I said I'd sit with you," Bryt said with a grin, "And I'll be right back. I'm gonna go say bye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie."
Bryt followed her friends back to one of the doors leading off the train, but she stayed in the doorway as the others hopped down.
"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," Charlie said with a grin as he hugged Ginny.
"Why?" Fred asked.
"You'll see. Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it...it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it', after all."
"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," Bill said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he gave the train a longing look.
"Why?" George asked this time.
"You're going to have an interesting year," Bill replied, "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it..."
"A bit of what?" Bryt and Ron chorused.
The whistle blew then and Mrs. Weasley began herding them towards the train. Bryt moved out of the way for everyone to get on.
"Thanks for having us to stay, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, leaning out the train window after she had climbed on.
"It was great," Bryt said and Harry agreed.
"Oh, it was my pleasure, dears," Mrs. Weasley replied, "I'd invite you for Christmas, but...well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with...one thing and another."
"Mum!" Ron said, "What d'you three know that we don't?"
"You'll find out this evening, I expect," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile, "It's going to be exciting—mind you, I'm very glad they changed the rules—"
"What rules?" came the chorused reply.
"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you...Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?"
"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred called as the train started off, "What rules are they changing?"
Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie only waved, then Disapparated before the train even made it to the turn.
Bryt groaned as she started back down the train at a limp.
"Whatever's happenin' at Christmas better be once-in-a-lifetime to get me to stay," she said.
"What?" Ron looked over at Bryt in surprise, "You're not going to stay for Christmas this year?"
"I'd like to," Bryt replied, "But Mom wasn't happy at all about me spendin' the end of my summer at your place, Ron. I think the only reason she let me is 'cause my dad's gotten to be friends with your dad, and that Harry and Hermione were there too. But I think Mom'll skin me alive if I stay for Christmas without a bloody good reason."
They reached the compartment again and Bryt sat down between her brothers as Pigwidgeon started hooting even louder, much to Joey and Hedwig's annoyance. Ron grumbled and pulled something maroon and frilly from his trunk. Bryt blinked at it as Ron threw it over Pigwidgeon's cage, but she stopped herself from saying anything as she took a guess that they were Ron's dress robes. And that he had gotten them second-hand. Bryt knew how testy Ron was about his family's financial situation.
"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at Hogwarts," Ron said as he sat across from Bryt and her brothers, "At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what—"
"Shhh!" Hermione hissed, looking towards the open compartment door. Bryt tensed as she heard the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy come from the next compartment over.
"...Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore—the man's such a mudblood-lover—and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to a school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do..."
Hermione leaned over, closing the door as quietly as she could. Bryt gripped her pants legs tighter, glaring towards the door.
"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" Hermione asked, "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."
"What was that word he used, Bryt?" Drew looked up at Bryt, "That mud—"
"You ignore anyone who calls you that," Bryt said instantly, looking between her brothers, "It's somethin' really nasty for a Muggleborn like us, and I won't lie and say everyone's friendly. But if you ever hear that term, just ignore them."
"Or tell us and we'll curse the guy," Ron said.
"Ron, last time you cursed someone for that, you ended up burpin' slugs all afternoon," Bryt reminded her friend.
"Yeah, well..." Ron went pink around the ears, "I had a broken wand then, a curse would work this time."
"None of you will curse anyone!" Hermione said, horrified, "You could get in serious trouble!"
"Not if we get away with it," Ron and Bryt chorused. Harry started laughing and Hermione gave an annoyed huff.
"Some example you're setting for your brothers, Bryt," she said.
"Hey, my brothers know they can look up to me," Bryt replied, throwing her arms around her brothers' shoulders. Both went red and ducked away from her.
Bryt, Harry, Hermione, and Ron spent most of the morning describing the classes to Drew and Mike, with Bryt constantly having to reassure her brothers that Ron's comments about insane tests during the Sorting were false, describing that the Sorting was basically letting a hat sit on their head and put them in one of four Houses.
"But if you're in Slytherin, you might as well just ask to go back home," Ron said, and Bryt kicked him in the leg.
"You two won't be in Slytherin," Bryt said, glaring over at Ron, who was rubbing his knee, "That's the House for slimy gits. You two just don't qualify."
As the lunch trolley came, Harry offered to buy them all Cauldron Cakes, which they ate on as several of their classmates came by throughout the afternoon. This always made Drew uncomfortable, as he was the much shier of Bryt's younger brothers and didn't take too quickly to new people.
Seamus and Dean stopped by only briefly, Seamus still wearing his Ireland rosette, which was still weakly shouting the names of the Irish team players. Bryt introduced both of them to her brothers, and both wished them luck and gave hopes they'd be in Gryffindor.
Soon after Seamus and Dean left, Neville Longbottom showed up. Though not someone Bryt hung out with every day, Neville was still someone Bryt was still closer to than the rest of her classmates. He was a round-faced, very forgetful boy, and Bryt was often helping him out whenever she could.
After another round if introducing-the-brothers, Neville sat down with them and the conversation soon turned to the Quidditch World Cup. At this point, Hermione had pulled out her copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Four and hid her face behind it. Though while Bryt, Ron, and Harry retold the game almost play-for-play, Neville, Mike, and Drew all listened intently.
"Gran didn't want to go," Neville said with a sigh, "Wouldn't buy tickets. It sounded amazing though."
"It was," Ron said, "Look at this, Neville..."
Ron went digging through his trunk and soon pulled out the miniature figure of Viktor Krum that he had bought, handing it over to Neville.
"Oh wow," Neville said with a strong tone on envy. Bryt couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Over the past three years, so little ever seemed to go right for Neville, and it seemed that streak was going to keep continuing.
"We saw him right up close, as well," Ron went on, "We were in the Top Box—"
"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley."
Bryt looked up to see the familiar narrow-faced, pale-blonde Malfoy. With him were his usual lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle, whom both seemed to have grown tremendously over the summer. Bryt thought if they kept it up, it wouldn't be too long before they'd be giving Hagrid a run for his money in size.
"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Harry said coldly.
Malfoy didn't seem to hear. He had looked up to Ron's dress robes dangling from Pigwidgeon's cage.
"Look at this!" Malfoy said, grabbing the robes and holding them up, a smirk crossing his face, "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean—they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety..."
Bryt gripped her hands into fits as Ron went a deep shade of red.
"Eat dung, Malfoy!" Ron snapped, snatching the robes away from him. Malfoy only laughed in response and Bryt pushed herself to her feet, wincing as she put weight on her injured foot.
"So..." Malfoy didn't seem to notice Bryt, as he was still looking at Ron, "Going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know...you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you won..."
Bryt shoved forward before anyone could stop her, swinging her fist upward and making contact hard with Malfoy's face. She was pleased to hear a sickening crack as Malfoy stumbled back, his hands over his face as he stared at Bryt, who glared back in turn.
"You'll pay for dat!" Malfoy said through his fingers, though he had turned and disappeared down the corridor, Crabbe and Goyle right behind.
"I hate that slimy, no-good git," Bryt growled, turning back around to see everyone staring at her with a shocked expression.
"Er...Ignore that, you two," Bryt said to her brothers as she sat back down between them, "You didn't just see me punch anyone, and Mom certainly doesn't need to know."
"Bryt!" Hermione was the first to find her voice, "What were you thinking?"
"That I needed to shut him up," Bryt said, "I don't need my brothers exposed to that git so early in their first year at Hogwarts."
"We won't end up in the same House as him, will we?" Mike asked cautiously.
"Of course not," Bryt answered instantly, "He's a Slytherin. You won't have anythin' to do with him."
"What was he talking about, though?" Harry asked, "About entering something?"
"Who knows?" Ron asked, squashing a Caldron Cake in his hands.
"It might not be anythin'," Bryt said, "He was probably makin' up some crap just to have an excuse to bug us."
"You'd think he'd have learned, though," Ron said, looking at Bryt, "I mean, how many times have you punched him before?"
Bryt shrugged, staring off out the window. Her mood improved very little over the rest of the trip, though mostly due to the fact that her anger was replaced by nerves. She just kept hoping that her brothers would end up in Gryffindor with her. Or if they weren't, that they would at least be in Ravenclaw so she could ask Terry to keep an eye on them.
'I wonder where Terry is,' Bryt thought, staring out at the rain. She had expected to see Terry stop by at some point on the train ride, to say hi and ask how she was doing. She couldn't exactly go looking for him with her ankle still healing, after all.
Terry didn't show up at all the entire ride, leaving Bryt disappointed. When her friends asked about Bryt's sour mood, she simply said (in undertone so her brothers didn't hear) that she was nervous about her brothers' Sorting. Bryt pulled on her Hogwarts robes, throwing her rain jacket over Joey's cage. Harry did the same with Hedwig and Hermione bundled Crookshanks in her own robes. Drew seemed reluctant to leave his cat in his carrier on the train, but Bryt reassured him that Merlin would be taken care of, and they all braved the pounding rain.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Hagrid's booming voice called from the end of the platform.
"See you two later," Bryt hugged her brothers one last time, wishing them luck, and hurrying them off to Hagrid for the traditional boat ride to the castle. Drew and Mike were very reluctant to part ways with Bryt, but they kept huddled together and moved towards Hagrid's looming figure, occasionally looking back towards Bryt.
"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," Hermione said as they made their way across the platform.
"Hermione, don't remind me," Bryt groaned, staring off at the group of first years huddling around Hagrid.
They soon made it to the thestral-drawn carriages, eager to get out of the rain. Shivering as the thestrals started off, Bryt was eager to get to the warmth of the castle and learn what Houses her brothers would be Sorted into.