Mina had managed to find her way onto the train without knocking over any first years or tripping over her own two feet, which was an improvement from the last few years. She was even able to spot a cabin with Fred and George with relative ease. As she looked in, she was able to see the light falling down onto Fred, making bits of his hair turn amber in the sun.
Sliding the door open, she hung awkwardly in the doorway for a second. Fred looked up and smiled at her, and she left her worries at the door. They were cool now. Why wouldn't she be allowed to sit in a cabin with her friends?
She flashed him a smile back, before she took the seat opposite him and pulled a book onto her lap. He had gone back to what he was doing, no doubt scrawling products all over a paper. Her eyes hovered over him for a moment. Should she say something? She thumbed the cover of her book for a moment before she threw caution to the wind.
"How are you guy's doing? You know, after..."
She trailed off. She didn't need to finish her sentence, didn't even want to, as the looks on their faces were enough.
"Well, we came home and Mum fussed over all of us for the better part of a day," Fred started, an easy smile on his face.
"We haven't seen attention like that since we were leaving for Hogwarts as first years," George added.
"And even then that was a wreak because Percy, Charlie, and Bill were all hounding us to be in Gryffindor," Fred gave his brother a smile at the memory, before turning back to Mina. "What about you?"
"Well," she drawled out, her thumb nervously gliding over the cover of her book, not quite meeting his eyes. "I just barely managed to convince my Uncle to not mention it to my parents. If they knew what happened I'd be put in a muggle school before I could even say 'Merlin'." She looked at him for a moment, before looking back down at her book. "If anything else happens though, I'm not sure I can convince him to not tell them."
Fred reached across to her and took her hand, burying it beneath both of his. He was so close that their knees were bumping, and he leant forward towards her as he spoke.
"I'm here for you if you need it."
He smiled and Mina weakly reciprocated it as she squeezed his hand. George was polite enough to not acknowledge what was happening, and instead appeared interested in a herbology textbook.
He made her feel warm, like the sun had just wormed its way into her chest.
Mina opened her mouth to speak, but the door opened. Lee Jordan stood in the opening giving the two a weird look. Mina tore herself away from Fred, not at all being too suspicious, and managed to great him with a cool air. "Hey, Lee." Which would've been effective if he hadn't of just since her frantically take her hand out of Fred's and throw it into her lap.
"Hey Mina," Lee said with a tone that said he thought what happened was weird, but he wasn't going to bring it up. He took a seat on the same bench she was sitting on, but across from George, who had managed to get himself up against the corner by the door in an effort to give Mina and Fred some alone time.
"How's your sister doing?"
"Great, she just got a job at St. Mungo's," he gave her a proud smile.
"Woah, Lee. that's crazy. That's gotta be so exciting?" The door opened. Angelina. Mina did her best to look at Lee, and not the way how she took the seat next to Fred, coming way too close to him for her comfort.
"Yeah, Mum went around to all the neighbors making sure they knew that her daughter was a talented healer. She even went-"
"Mina." Angelina interrupted Lee mid sentence. "Spill the beans."
Her excited tone made her even more confused. She cast a look to both Lee and Fred, who looked equally confused as she felt. Even George lifted an eyebrow from his book that he hadn't turned, showing he was interested but he was going to stay out of whatever.
"Spill the? Angelina, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Angelina leaned back in her seat, and crossed her legs at the knee. She leaned just slightly into Fred as she spoke and Mina willed her blood not to boil. "Why, your boyfriend, of course."
There was an immediate temperature change in the cabin. Mina both couldn't breath and felt her blood going cold, and considered for a moment that maybe she alone was the reason for the complete forty degree shift in the room. She glanced at Fred, who was frozen, and another look to George showed he had become real invested in his book too quickly. Lee appeared to be the only one interested in what Angelina was asking.
"He's not... why Angelina, I'm right in the middle of a conversation with my good friend Lee about how his sister got into St. Mungo's. Right Lee?" She looked to him, practically begging with her eyes for him to tell Angelina that they were in fact in the middle of a conversation. But luck didn't appear to be on her side.
"Actually I'm pretty interested to hear about that." He cast a quick look to Fred, as if he somehow had anything to do with it, and Mina cursed him in her head. How could he leave her out to dry like that?
She froze, all alone and in an awkward position.
"Well," she drew out, hoping that if it went on long enough everyone would forget what the topic was. She frantically searched her brain for what to say. Anything. Nothing. She'd settle for something, if only her brain would work. But then the door opened and an angel came in.
Anne. Oh, sweet sweet Anne, her dearest friend.
She looked at her with a hurried look. "Mina, some first year slammed his finger into the door and someone needs to take a look at it."
Mina was going to kiss Anne.
That was it. Anne had come and rescued her, although in the form of a bloody finger, she was still going to take it. She remained frozen in place for a moment, but when Anne tilted her head, she scrambled to grab her bag.
"Yep, well that's me. I've got to go guys. Enjoy your ride."
She wasn't even able to close the door before Angelina yelled after her. "We'll talk about this later."
Mina would sooner die before that, and pretended she couldn't hear her over the closed door. Frantically, she trailed after Anne, mentally preparing herself for the first year with an injury. After a bit of walking Anne stopped and gave her a grin. Mina gave her a confused look, as she peered into what appeared to be an empty cabin.
"Where's the first year?"
"Doesn't exist."
Anne's grin widened as Mina looked at her slack jawed. She was going through too many emotions at once, so fast she couldn't even name them all, but the one she landed on was relief.
"Oh Anne, I could kiss you," Mina went in for a hug, and Anne laughed as she held her.
"I'll pass on that," Anne pulled back, her grin matching Mina's. She opened the door, and as Mina walked in she was surprised to see Aidan and Alicia.
"You guys!" Mina said, her voice dripping in excitement as she moved to hug her friends. It had only been the summer, but it had felt like ages since she had seen them. "How are you doing?"
"Pretty great," Aidan said, smiling at Alicia as he put a hand on her knee.
"Aidan showed me a lot of bookstores in his town over the summer."
"Probably not the only thing he showed you," Anne whispered as she took the seat next to Mina. This earned her an elbow to the stomach, and if Aidan and Alicia were curious about the pained look on her face, they sure didn't voice their questions.
"So you guys spent the summer together?"
"Yeah, Aidan's parents are super sweet," Alicia said, a small smile at her lips, as Aidan found her hand.
They were super sweet.
Mina wasn't sure they were going to make it through the summer, but it was good to know she wouldn't have to spend this year helping them spend time together. She could spend time studying and in the hospital wing. And more importantly, on the quidditch pitch.
Yet, while she was overall ecstatic to know they were good, she couldn't help the small part of her that felt pity for herself, that she would never have something like that.
Ooof, ya'll I'm still not feeling too great so this chapter is what it is. At this point in the story I'm trying to juggle stuff that's coming up plot wise, and stuff I'm going to be changing once I'm done and can rewrite stuff. Much of the first couple chapters will be revised hella cause I didn't find my footing for a bit. Although the rewrite's not for a while since we're only in Goblet of Fire, but I think the other books are going to be a little faster than Prisoner of Azkaban and this one.
What do you guy's want to see coming up in the story? What should I add in? More time between certain characters? Certain plot points from the book? Or just some general angsty/ maybe cute stuff? Any tropes we want to explore?
What about in the rewrite? What would you like me to go back and touch on when I've finished this story? Anything I should add? Take out? I'll already be changing Angelina into an OC when I go back, so don't worry about that. (Anyone got any name suggestions for when she gets turned into an OC? I think I'd like to avoid 'A' names as there's already a bit of those bouncing around.)
Have you guy's gone back to school yet? I go back in two weeks (I should prob spend the time writing and stockpiling chapters), and I'm not looking forward to it. I've got a full load of classes and I'm on campus for what feels like forever, esp when I have to account for parking. And I'm there for like nine hours, four days a week. Although I can probably find time to write in a two hour break between two of my classes, I'm just really worried that I'll have too many assignments and this will get sidetracked. I'll keep you guys updated, and I'll try to find time to write because I'm worried about it. If I die from course work, you're all able to say 'I told you so' and I'll know to take less classes next semester.
My B ya'll shoutout to Lillian Smith for catching the fact that it's Aidan and not Ben, my brain really stopped working for a bit didn't it? Further proof that I'm allowed no more A names in the story lmao.