Chapter 7: Head over Heels
Maeve was lost. She had gone to look for Platform 9 ¾ like the ticket instructed, but it wasn't there. Just the barrier between platform 9 and 10. There's gotta be a trick, she thought. Absentmindedly, she slung off her backpack, gripped it by one handle and leaned against the barrier to think. She went tumbling, head over heals, backwards through the barrier. When she cleared her now curly brown hair (which she had claimed to Lord V. she dyed, and that her eyes were colored contacts, so he didn't catch on to her secret) out of her blue-green laughing eyes and blushed bright red as she looked up at a cute boy.
"Erm…are you ok?" he asked, offering her his hand to get up.
"Yeah, fine, thanks…" she said dusting herself off.
The boy had flaming red hair and a mess of freckles. Two taller boys, twins, who looked very much like the first boy, came up laughing to join them.
"Now THAT was graceful! Never been through the barrier before?" laughed one.
"I think that's the best entrance I've ever seen!" exclaimed the other.
"Fred, George, bugger off, don't be such assholes. Just because…" the boy stopped suddenly and stared at Maeve. She was laughing.
"Graceful? How did you know? I won the gracefullest award in grade school!" She flashed her grin at them as she picked up her backpack. "I'm Maeve, who're you all?"
The boy recovered from his shock quickly enough to reply, "I'm Ron Weasley, these are my brother's Fred and George. Erm…what year are you? You don't look like a 1st year…"
"Oh, that's because I'm not! God, no, wouldn't be a 1st year again if the entire army of piratical hitmen were after me! I'm a 5th year! An American exchange student, the first and only!" she said.
Ron nodded and then he waved his arms frantically and hollered, "Oy! Harry, Hermione! Over here!"
Two more kids joined the group. A girl with bushy brown hair and pretty brown eyes and a boy with a mess of black hair, glasses, sharp green eyes…and a lightning bolt scare. This was him; this was the boy she had risked everything to save! She fought to keep her jaw from dropping.
"Hey guys…this is Maeve, she's a year younger than us, from America. Maeve, this is Harry and Hermione."
"Nice to meet you both. You're 6th years, then? That's cool…so you can show me the ropes?" she laughed.
"Yeah, sure…hey, do you want to sit with us on the train?" asked Harry.
"Um…yeah, sure, if you don't mind, I don't want to intrude or anything, you probably haven't seen each other all summer…" she faded off, looking nervous.
"No, of course we don't mind! We could tell you about the school, and you can tell us where you come from…I've never been to America!" said the girl, Hermione.
And so she walked off with them to board the train. It felt good not to have to put on such a big act, she could at least be herself, for now anyways.