Chapter 3: Making Friends and Making Foes
"Honestly," said a female voice, "you should have the sense to feed her something first. I would understand if it had just been Ron. But you, Harry, how could you?"
"What!" Exclaimed a voice which Janieve suspected was Ron's. "I did offer her food. But Fred and George just came and talked to her…" and his voice was drowned out as a bout of accusations flew, none of which distinguishable.
Janieve felt light headed. She was wide awake now, but her eyelids felt too heavy to open. "Cut it out!" she said loudly.
The silence punctured by her voice was almost immediate. And just as quickly, the noise picked up again as she heard quite a number of voices asking her if she was alright.
She sat up groggily and snapped her eyes open forcefully. "I'm fine."
"Have some juice," offered a bushy hair, browned eyed girl.
"Thanks," Janieve muttered and took the drink from her gratefully. It tasted like blackcurrant juice. Her vision cleared tremendously. "What happened?"
"You fainted," said the girl cleverly, "must be a lack of sugar in your bloodstream. By the way I'm Hermione Granger." Janieve returned the girl's beaming face with a slight smile.
"Ginny Weasley," said another strawberry blonde she had not noticed was there before. She was younger, but she bore the same mischievous grin as Fred and George.
She knew she should feel overwhelmed by the sudden intrusion of so many people hovering way too close to her. However, she felt perfectly comfortable in their company even though she barely knew them. Her 'friends' she had were all rich spoilt children of her parents' business associates. She doubted it would ever be possible to catch them displaying such warmth to another human being this lifetime, the warmth that she was experiencing right now.
They spent the remaining of the afternoon telling her about Hogwarts and explaining the different houses that will split all newcomers into a house that best suit their nature. She also had the honour of seeing Fred and George performing some simple spells and disapparating and apparating for her benefit. It was an eye-opener for her.
By evening, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Remus Lupin, a bubblegum pink haired girl named Nymphadora Tonks and a ghastly looking man with chunks of skin falling off his face, introduced as Mad-Eye Moody, was back. He was the scariest man Janieve had ever seen, with his scar worn face and an electric blue eyeball swinging around in all direction in one of his sockets. Throughout dinner, she avoided looking at him at all cost. However, she felt with an eerie sensation that he, on the other hand, had been staring at her throughout the meal. Mrs. Weasley had whipped out a delicious spread consisting of roasted ham, steak, baked potatoes and corn, and treacle tart for dessert.
"Janieve," said Mrs. Weasley, "I've already helped you bought your school supplies from Diagon Alley when I was shopping for Ron, Ginny and Harry's. However, it occurred to me that you would need to go down personally to select your wand. So, I was thinking maybe we would go down on Saturday? Arthur would be free to come along too, and then maybe we can have Ron, Harry and Hermione to accompany you."
"Yeah, sure," Janieve mumbled between mouthful of food.
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If she said she no longer grieved over the death of her parents and Will, she would be lying through her teeth. The fact was, Janieve still bawled herself to sleep every night, unknown to everyone. However, the day had been made endurable and sometime even, enjoyable by the company of her new friends. Fred and George had been the most successful at making her crack a genuine smile.
They had made a series of interesting inventions that they had intend to sell at their new joke shop. If truth be told, interesting would be an understatement to describe the hilarious and creative gadgets the twins managed to come up with.
There was the Ton-Tongue Toffee which Harry revealed, had caused his irksome cousin Dudley's tongue to grow to an enormous length of seven feet. There were also the Skiving Snack box and the Canary Cream. The twins had also forced the lot of them to try a few of their new creations like Bloated Belly Burst which is a candy that made them swell to ten times their size and then the air was let out of them with a loud 'burst'.
Saturday arrived at an alarming speed. Fred, George, and Ginny had decided to skip the Diagon Alley trip due to a case of bad flu bug, which Janieve suspected had something to do with the Skiving Snack box.
Janieve was given the treat of her life – Floo Network. They had used the Floo Network, a commonly use of transport for the Wizards and Witches to The Burrow, the Weasley's humble house near the Diagon Alley. The Floo Network was basically a tool that transports people from one fireplace to another fireplace. A little Floo powder plus a loud and clear shout of the desired destination would bring them to the fireplace of their desired location.
Hermione had disappeared upon their arrival at Diagon Alley, mumbling an excuse to go to the local book shop, Flourish and Blotts. The remaining five of them walked into Mr. Ollivander's wand shop.
"Here, here," said the enthusiastic shopkeeper, "first time?" he asked.
Janieve nodded meekly. The man picked up a wand and thrust it into her hands. And then he drew it back almost immediately. "No good," he muttered.
He began throwing her different coloured wands with different lengths and thickness and withdrawing them with an affirmative shake of his head. Finally, he handed her a white medium length wand which had gold, thread-like lines marring the otherwise snowy white rod.
"There you go," boomed the man, "ten inches, made from the horn fibres of a unicorn. Unicorns are pure-hearted magical creatures. Takes a wizard or witch of character to control this wand. Well done! That's twenty galleons, please." Mr. Ollivander stretched out his open palms towards her but all Janieve did was gape at him.
"Twenty galleons, there you go," said Arthur Weasley, thrusting twenty great gold coins towards the wand maker. The exited the shop and made their way towards Flourish and Blotts to look for Hermione.
"Wow! What a beautiful wand!" gushed Hermione when Janieve showed her wand to her.
"You bet it does," said Ron mournfully, "cost twenty galleons, that wand!"
"That's exactly how much the Weasley's house is worth isn't it?" said a nasty voice.
Janieve whirled around and came face to face with a ghoulish pale face with a sneer plastered on his face. His hair, if it could even be called hair, was white and slicked backwards like an unused mop.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry spat.
"Make me, Potter," said Malfoy with equal vehement.
They stared each other down for a long time, as if locked in an unspoken challenge for one to try fighting the other. But neither moved or said a thing.
"What's the matter?" said Mr. Weasley, who had caught up with them from behind.
"Nothing," said the Malfoy brat, "just having a little chat with your son, and his little mudblood friends."
Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley looked like they were going to hex Malfoy but Mrs. Weasley and Hermione held them back.
"Ron! Harry! Forget it! Ignore him!" Hermione pleaded.
"Arthur, no! Not an underage wizard and definitely not in front of such a crowd," shouted Mrs. Weasley. That seemed to calm him down considerably.
"He called her and Harry a… you know what he called them, Molly," he spluttered, when the girls had managed to pull the guys away from Malfoy.
"It's okay Mr. Weasley, I don't care. It's just a stupid name that doesn't hurt." Said Hermione quickly.
"Wait, I don't understand, what did he said?" Janieve asked, bewildered.
"A mudblood, he called Hermione and me a mudblood," Harry whispered quietly, so that Janieve had to strain her ears to hear him, "It's a very offending word to describe a wizard or witch with muggle parentage."
The group of them walked back to the Burrow with Ron swearing all the way back the jinxes he would put on Malfoy when he see him next. Janieve had taken an immediate dislike to this Malfoy character already.
