ElvenPads--I'm baaaaaaaaaack! Sorry I took so long! Tests, exams, no Fridays...how does Hermione do it?

Review plz! (By the way, more stories to come)

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The train whistle blew again, the last call for us to leave the train. "C'mon, Patch!" Artemis laughed as she grabbed my hand. As my fingers brushed the silver on her glove, reality came crashing back. For three whole minutes, I thought I had a friend. But as soon as she found out, she'd ditch me just like all the rest. Just as she pushed and shoved and pushed some more through the crowd of people, I pushed the thought out of my mind. We finally reached a very large man yelling, "Firs' years, this way! Firs' years, this way!"

"Whoa," Artemis and I said in unison.

"Well, hell-o!" The man boomed. "Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of Keys an' Grounds at Hogwarts." He extended a hand that looked as big as a garbage can lid. "Shy, eh? Oh, well. This way," he waved. We were brought to a series of boats on the lake. Artemis leaped in one so she could save me a spot. "Oi, James! Look who it is! Remus!" A boy exclaimed. I then recognized James and Sirius.

I really thought I heard Artemis growl.

"Remus," James said. "How are you, my friend?"

"Fine," I said, unsure of why James was acting this way.

"Good."

"Very good."

"Splendid."

"Brilliant."

"Excellent."

"Spiffing." James and Sirius went back and forth with adverbs while Artemis hummed quietly to herself. As we began to drift across the lake, I swore I saw something move in the water; when I told Artemis, she said I was just hungry.

"You're seein' things," she snapped.

"Alright, alright! What's got your wand in a knot?"

"Them," Artemis said, jabbing her thumb at the still-adverbial Sirius and James.

"First-rate!"

"Admirable!

"Superb!" The two were apparently having an adverbial contest...for they were yelling so loud, children from other boats began to stare.

"Terrific!"

"Wonderful!"

"First class!"

"Supreme!"

"Superlative," I said. James and Sirius looked at me and smiled. "Remus got big words," Sirus giggled.

Again, I sincerely thought I heard a growl from Artemis.

"Give us another!" James said this so enthusiastically, his glasses went astray from his nose.

"Unparralled," I said. "Unsurpassed."

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," Artemis said, just a wee bit amused.

"Oooh," James and Sirius said in unison. "Remmie's girlfriend got bigger words," Sirius said.

"Oh, for the love of Mike, I'm eleven! He's not my boyfriend!" Then she looked at me and added softly, "But, he is my friend." Sirius and James, like the immature people they were, became disinterested; and they went back to their adverbs.

"My...friend?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "My friend."

"Um, not to be rude, but I really don't think we're friends." God, I hated to say that. Truth be told, though, we weren't. We knew each other for all of an hour. I didn't think that counted as friendship.

"Really? Why?" She dind't sound hurt. Just curious.

"Well, see, it's kind of, um--"

"TREMENDOUS!" Sirius burst out, scaring Artemis and myself so much, she fell out of the boat! She quickly regained herself, however; and soon, she sat next to me, shivering like a drowned rat.

"REMARKABLE!" James yelled even louder than Sirius.

"SHUT UP!" I looked at Artemis incredulously. "Put a whine in my voice and call me 'Hank Williams' if you two aren't the most annoying, sorry, infuriating people on God's green earth!"

"Who's Hank Williams?" Sirius asked. I coughed out "Uh-uh," and Sirius shut up.

Artemis began humming to herself, which I later learned she did to drown out the world.

"Mental," James mumbled.

"Mad," Sirius returned.

They were doing it again.

"Crazy."

"'Round the twist!"

"Off her nut!"

"A few bagels short of a bushel!"

"One shenanigan shy of sleeping with the squid," a woman said. When we looked--Sirius, James, Artemis, and myself--we saw an old woman. She had perfectly rectangular glasses, and her lips were pursed in a stern, "Don't-make-me-tell-you-again" sort of look. She was Scottish, obviously, for she wore tartan robes. Her bun was hidden by the tall. pointed hat she wore. "Are we at Hogwarts?" James inquired of the woman.

"You are. Come in, please."

And as we stepped out of those boats and up to those golden castle doors, I began the most wonderful, romantic, exhilaratingly depressing years of my life.

And I loved it.