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Josie almost ran into someone with Marina tugging her along, turning to apologize until she met the eyes of Charlie Camson. "Hello Josie." She said, her face falling a bit slack as she looked the other girl over. The two had not seen each other since the pub that night of the World Cup, and the only comfort Josie had is that Charlie had escaped before her. "I'm glad to see you're safe." She said simply, leaning against the wall for balance as the train began to move. Josie turned to see Marina gone, rolling her eyes at her friend. "What are you doing out here? I never see you on the train." Josie asked, a bit confused. Charlie was always around the other Slytherin students, and was rarely by herself when in a setting such as this. "Malfoy was annoying me, so I'm going to get away from him and join my actual friends in another compartment. I was staying with my cousin but I've decided against it." Charlie said, her bracelets jingling as she pushed the hair that was falling from her bun out of her face. "I'm terribly sorry." Josie said, feeling a bit awkward hearing about such personal troubles from Charlie. "Don't worry about it, I just can't stand listening Malfoy go on about his father and how great he is for another second." Charlie laughed as she picked a piece of lint from her striped shirt, the slight folds where she had it tucked into the high waist of her grey jeans to her obvious distaste as she fussed with them.
"Telling everyone about your obsession with me Camson?" Josie turned to the voice behind her, finding Draco Malfoy and his friends sneering. She took this as her cue to leave, silently creeping past the younger Slytherin boys and waving to Charlie once she got past them. They barely noticed her. "Just how absolutely awful it is to listen to you worship your father like he's God." Charlie retorted, smiling at Josie slightly before turning to Malfoy. "My father is-" "A respected, high caliber, well known, ministry member who is so close to the minister they might as well share a bed, we know Malfoy. My mother works at the ministry too you know, you're not special." "Your mother works filing papers and keeping track of names." "At least people at the ministry actually like my mother."
Josie didn't hear much else before she was pulled into a compartment by Fred and George, both of which hugged her so tightly she might have snapped in two. It wasn't until they let go of her and stepped back that anyone said anything. "Told you." Marina said, satisfaction leaking from her words as the twins all but drug their eyes over Josie. "Bloody hell, you're right." George said with a grin, a whistle from Fred following as Josie turned as red as the sweater around her waist and hid her face in her hands. It wasn't until the twin's laughed and pulled her to sit down that Josie removed her hands and turned to look at the two of them. Her breath caught in her throat. She had forgotten how much they had grown over the summer, the tips of their hair brushing against their shoulders and any boyishness gone from their features. Now they were definitely young men, and the idea made Josie's stomach tense.
"Earth to Josie." Marina said with a laugh, waving her hand in front of Josie's face. "Welcome back love." Fred said as she looked away from staring at them and flushed furiously. Lee Jordan broke the silence, standing up suddenly and grabbing Marina's hand. "I'm hungry come on." He said as he tugged at her. "We just had lunch." Marina laughed, standing up despite her protest. "Lunch didn't include chocolate." Lee said with a smile, dragging her out of the door and sliding it shut behind her. Josie had no time to wonder what was going on. Immediately a hand was on her hip, her lips occupied before she could blink. Lips moved fiercely against hers, a leg pressing itself into the cushion between her own as her chest was pressed against another and her head tilted back until it hit the seat behind her. The strain on her neck was ignored as a tongue slipped between her lips and brushed against hers, her heart hammering in her chest as she reached out to grip his shirt.
He pulled away before she could knit her fingers in the fabric, her eyes barely opening and registering it was Fred in front of her before an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to straddle George's lap. His lips locked with hers as his hands pulled her body against his, kissing her deeply and nipping gently at her lip before brushing his tongue against the same place. His fingers dug into the small of her back as he kissed her, the smile on his lips pressing against her cheeks. He pulled away all too soon, leaving her panting and flushed. "Welcome back indeed." She said with a laugh, rolling off and placing herself back in her proper place before Marina and Lee came back in seconds later.
"Some rich Slytherin wiped out all of the trolley, we could only get a few things." Lee said, throwing a package of Coconut Ice to Josie and some Caldron Cakes to the twins before sitting down. "Are you gonna tell her how you almost blew up a muggle taxi." He said through a mouthful of chocolate. "You did WHAT?" Josie asked loudly, staring at the twins incredulously as they crumpled into laughter. "Our fireworks went off in the back of a taxi; we didn't do it on purpose." George laughed, ruffling her hair and slouching back into his seat. "Yeah, well your badass of a girlfriend told off her grandmother big time, and that was on purpose." Marina said with a grin, ignoring Josie's glare. "Really? What happened this time?" The five talked as the rain drummed outside, finally getting changed last minute before gathering their things and making their way towards the carriages.
The group ran into the castle, Josie's hair protected under her cloak from the pouring rain. Upon hearing McGonogall yelling up ahead, they quickly ran past the rest of the students to find their places at the table before it became too full. "Wonder who will teach Defense Against The Dark Arts this year?" Fred said as they watched the first years file in from the back. Just last year Josie had been standing up there with the first years, waiting to be sorted and standing out like a sore thumb. She remembered looking and seeing the twins at Gryffindor table, and now she was sitting here between the two of them watching as the new first years listened to the sorting hat sing the same awful song it did to her. George took her hand under the table and squeezed it tightly.
Soon enough the feast was underway, and the food was as delicious as she had remembered it to be. "Is it me or do the professors look antsy?" Marina said, pushing a piece of bread around her plate to soak up the remaining leftovers. "I agree, like they're all keeping a secret." Lee added through a mouthful of potatoes. "Whatever it is, Charlie, Bill and mum knew about it." Fred said, crossing his arms on the table and eyeing the long table of professors as they ate. "I wish they'd get on with it already." "I'm sure they'll tell us soon enough, calm down." Josie said with a laugh, dragging Fred back into his seat when he jokingly jumped up to confront the long table at the front of the room. The room was in a roar, voices laying over each other until they became one noise. Looking around, Josie spotted Arya talking to the rest of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team with Henri by his side, Bijou talking to Neville Longbottom down the table from her, and Charlie laughing with what looked like to be a group of friends as who Josie recognized to be her brother wiped whipped cream off his face. Everyone seemed so at ease, so happy despite the pounding rain and dangerous wind blowing outside.
As soon as the headmaster stood, the storm made itself known as everyone fell silent. "So, now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention while I give out a few notices." Dumbledore started. "Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include-""Take notes you two, he's talking about you." Lee joked to Fred and George. The twins smiled in return, winking at their friend before going back to listening as Josie laughed between them quietly. "It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." "What?!" Lee, Josie and Marina yelled, looking at the twins expectantly. They could only stare wide eyed, mouths agape before setting into a hard line as they looked down the table to Alicia and Angelina, then to Harry Potter, the entire Quidditch team all sharing the same shocked expressions. Josie quickly looked to Arya and his Quidditch team at the Hufflepuff table, who were talking in hushed tones to each other as Arya held Henri's hand tightly.
"You can't cancel Quidditch for an entire season." Lee argued before being shushed my Marina. "Apparently you can." Josie said quietly, her thumb running circles over the back of Fred's hand as she rubbed Georges shoulder to try and comfort the two. "For a good reason it sounds like." She added. "There is no good reason to cancel Quidditch." Lee argued. "You're not helping Lee." "Well I'm sorry but I don't understand what could be so impor-" The door to the Great Hall threw itself open as the most sinister man Josie had ever seen walked through the tables, all eyes watching as he drug himself towards the front of the hall where he was offered a seat next to Dumbledore as the students stared in astonishment. "May I introduce our New Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody." The hall was deadly silent as Hagrid and Dumbledore applauded to welcome the new professor. "Dad went to help him this morning, that's Mad Eye Moody." George commented quietly, turning to look at the rest of them. "Wonder how he got that nickname." Josie said, her voice laced with sarcasm as she watched the new professor make himself at home. "This year should be interesting."
The quiet awe at the new addition to Hogwarts staff ended quickly as Dumbledore began to speak again. "We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century." The five friends shared a look, everyone tensing to hear what was coming next. "It is my great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year." The hall was silent for a moment, and only a moment, before Fred Weasley said what everyone was thinking. "You're joking!" he yelled, rising from his seat just a few inches. The hall erupted in laughter, Josie falling into a fit of giggles against George as Dumbledore answered. "I am not joking Mr. Weasley, though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about troll, a hag, a leprechaun who will all go into a bar…." Josie was laughing too hard to notice who exactly stopped the headmaster from finishing his joke, George's laughter behind her shaking her as she tuned back in.
"Some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely." Josie sighed, sitting back against George to listen idly. She knew of the Triwizard tournament, her father had talked about it once or twice when she was younger, but she never expected it to happen again during her life time. " The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of Wizardry-" Josie froze. "Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang." She couldn't listen anymore, the words became warped and muffled, yet they were still registering. She knew she had blanked out but she didn't know for how long. "The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October." Oh please no, not again.
"I'm going for it!" She vaguely heard Fred yell beside her, the twins oblivious to her imminent break down. She felt Marina watching her, analyzing her, but she couldn't move. She felt the glimmer of excitement around her as the rest of the students listened, but all she felt was dread. The moment the headmaster called for bed she was gone, barreling down the tables with Marina hot on her heels as she heard the twins yelling in frustration behind her. She didn't make it into the common room, she didn't know the password, so instead she lost Marina as she turned and headed down a hallway to sit and wait until she heard someone who did.
Soon enough she heard the twins go through, and after minutes of waiting she followed after, muttering the password before stepping through the secret door hoping no-one had noticed her absence.