"Where the bloody hell were you?" Lee asked loudly, Josie flinching. "Lee stop." The twins and Marina said together, Marina pushing Lee down onto the couch and shushing him. "What happened, I turned around and you were gone." Fred said, helping her down into a chair and pushing her hair out of her face. "It's dumb, don't worry about it." Josie muttered, covering her now bleeding fingers. "It's not." "You're upset." Josie sighed. "It's Beauxbatons." She sighed, shrugging off her robes and leaning back in the chair. "What about them?" George asked, his brow furrowed. "You idiots, she used to go to school there." Marina sighed, pouring Josie a cup of water before handing it to her. "So?" "Merlin…" Marina sighed before smacking him in the back of the head.
"Don't you think if she left there to come here then she must have a reason for leaving?" All eyes turned on Josie, whose skin crawled with their gaze. "I thought it was because she didn't like it." George said, taking Josie's hand in his. "What did they do?" Shaking her head Josie took her hand from his and crossed her arms over her chest, sighing loudly as she sunk down into the chair. "They didn't do anything to me, the teachers are fine, and the headmistress is a wonderful and understanding woman. I just didn't fit in. The other students," Josie sighed. "They're all beautiful, thin, polite, confident, and I'm not. I felt judged, I didn't belong, I wasn't comfortable in myself. It all made my anxiety and how I felt about myself to be worse than it is now. I was heavily medicated for my attacks, my grandmother wasn't allowing me to change schools, I felt trapped." Choking on her own tears, Josie ran her fingers through her hair before continuing. "I don't hate Beauxbatons, I'm not fond of many of the students because of how they treated me, I don't personally like how you're taught and expected to act, I hate how it's glorified and I hate the position I was put in there. I'm scared I'm going to be forced back at any moment and that I'll lose everything I have now. It just brings back bad memories."
The room was silent for a long time, no-one moving except for Josie to wipe her eyes. Fred was the first one to shift the thick air, picking Josie up from her seat before sitting there himself and cradling her in his lap. "You're not going back." "We'll fight to keep you're here" George added as he sat in front of her, taking her hands in his and smiling up at her. "I know, I just can't help being afraid." She said, sniffling as she stood up and straightened out her skirt. "Look at me, first night and I'm already a mess." She sighed, laughing softly. "I think most of us are usually a mess." Marina smiled.
The next morning she laid in her bed for a long time before she decided to get dressed, walking down to breakfast after everyone else had already sat down and begun eating. George and Fred moved immediately when she appeared, separating for her to sit and smiling at her. "How many classes did you overload yourself with this year?" Fred asked as McGonagall passed out the students schedules for this year. "Too many, as usual." George added as he took Josie's schedule from her. "How many?" "Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Alchemy, Transfiguration, Apparition, Charms, Ancient Runes, and Ghoul Studies." George listed, shaking his head at her before kissing her temple. "You're ridiculous." He laughed. "I like to learn!" she exclaimed, smearing jam on her toast and threatening to stick it to Fred's face.
"You seem better." Lee commented as he sat at across from them, immediately piling eggs onto his plate. "Marina had a long talk with me last night, so yes I feel better." Josie said, licking butter from her thumb. "About what?" "None of your business." Marina added from across the table. "So, are you boys going to try and sneak your way into the Triwizard Tournament?" she asked, turning her attention to the twins. Josie sighed loudly, shooting her a look as she grinned.
"Of course!" "Why wouldn't we?" "It can't be that hard." The twins said, grinning proudly. "You're not going to get in." Josie said, smiling when they both turned to her. "Oh yeah, why do you think that?" "Because you can't beat something like this, it's structured to keep people out who aren't of age for a reason. You two are extremely talented but I'm afraid this may be out of your league boys, some magic can't be beaten." She smiled, leaning over and kissing their cheeks in turn before standing up. "Oh yeah? Watch us." They said together, standing up after her and following her Defense Against the Dark Arts, Josie urging them to hurry up so they could get there early enough to avoid angering Professor Mad Eye first thing in the morning.
"Who pissed in his pumpkin juice?" Marina sighed as they finally got out of class, the five of them heading outside into the warm air to relax before. "You'd be harsh too if you'd been an auror for a millennium." Lee said, throwing himself down into the grass and sprawling out. "He's an arse." "I think he's brilliant." The twins said together. "I think he's dreadful." Josie replied, sitting down on the grass and crossing her legs. "It cause you're girls." Lee said, throwing an apple up into the air and catching it. The twins groaned loudly. "There he goes." "He's done it again."
"Excuse me?" "Excusez-moi?" Josie and Marina exclaimed. "Next time keep your foot out of your mouth." George sighed, pulling parchment out of his bag. "What do you mean 'because we're girls'?" Josie asked, brow arched under her bangs as she joined Marina in staring Lee Jordan down. "I just mean that sometimes girls don't understand what its like for someone to go through all that, all the stuff it takes to do a job like an auror." "Lee Jordan if you do not shut your mouth right now you can forget getting any of this for a while." Marina said. "I'm just saying, it's a fact." Lee replied, tossing his apple into the air again. It took seconds for Josie to flip her wand between her fingers and stop the fruit inches away from his outreached fingers. "Girls understand what it's like, there are aurors who are women Lee. Girls just don't allow things to turn them into gruff jerks with no sympathy for others and excuse their behavior with their occupation." "Name one auror that's a girl." Lee shot back, yanking his snack out of Josie's spell and taking a large bite out of it. "Neville Longbottom's mother." Lee stopped, teeth embedded in red skin as juice dripped down his chin. "That's what I thought."
"Don't underestimate girls-" "They'll get you in the end." The twins chuckled. "I assume you know this because of Ginny?" Josie asked, placing her wand back into her robes before shrugging them off and lying back until her head rested in Fred's lap behind her. "Of course." Fred replied smiling as he looked down at her. The group fell quiet for a while, enjoying the breeze blowing through the trees and the sun shining down on them. Josie almost fell asleep when Fred began to run his fingers through her hair, the only sound Lee chewing and the waves of the lake. Josie finally opened her eyes when fingers brushed over her cheeks and cradled her face. She looked up to see Fred looking down at her, shaggy hair hanging around his face and his tie hanging loosely and askew around his neck. "You've gotten more freckles." He said softly, grinning widely. Her already hot cheeks warmed more as she blushed, her own hands coming up to cover his. "Probably from being out in the sun more than usual." She replied, curling her fingers around his palms and holding on as he dropped them to rest beside her head. "It's adorable." Movement in the corner of her eye caused Josie's head to turn, George looking up from the parchment he was working on to smile at her. "He's not wrong." George said, setting his things aside to move closer to her. His knee bumped against her hip as she let go of one of Fred's hands to take his.
"Get a room." Lee groaned. "You're making me sick." Fred and George shared a grin before the latter stood up quickly, pulling Josie up with him and ignoring her shriek of surprise as he scooped her up into his arms. Josie could hardly register where the ground was he moved so fast, gripping at his robs around his neck for stability. "Alright-" "-race you there then." They said as Fred snatched the apple out of Lee's hands and tossed it into the lake before taking off running up the hill, George close behind him with Josie clinging onto him for dear life. "Oi! Not fair!" Lee called after them as he scrambled up after them. "You idiots left everything!" Josie heard Marina yell, barely audible over her own laughter.
The first weeks of school passed by quickly, Josie keeping herself busy with school work and helping the twins with their creations. She liked helping them decide clever names and color combinations for the wrappings, but wouldn't dare try any of the nasty sweets they finalized. She hadn't seen the two of them all morning, and suspected they had locked themselves up between classes in their hide out testing and creating new things. Josie had busied herself with reading ahead in her classes for most of the morning, but she desperately needed a break. Slinging her bag over her shoulder she stood from the common room table and headed out of the room, skipping down the stairs and beginning her walk around the castle. Most all was normal; it wasn't until she doubled back around to the front entrance of the castle and saw the group of students huddled around the sign in front of the staircase that something tipped her average day.
"Triwizard Tournament: The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast." Josie read to herself, feeling her heart sink into her feet. "Merveilleux, absolument merveilleux." She muttered to herself, hiking her bag higher up on her slumping shoulder. "You'll start to look like a Unicorn if you don't stop with the long face." A voice said beside her, Josie jumping before turning to look at who had spoken. Charlie Camson popped the green bubble she had blown with her gum before smiling at her widely. "You doing alright?" she added, pushing her bangs out of her eye and pinning them in place with a bobby pin. "I'm fine, thank you for asking." Josie replied, stepping away from the growing crowd and pressing her back against the opposite wall. "Are you not ecstatic about this life threatening event that's going to be over running our school for the next few weeks?" Charlie leaned against the wall next to her. "Not entirely. I'm assuming you have the same opinion?" "I think everyone is far too excited over something they can't even participate in." She said, watching as a group of third years Hufflepuffs bounced excitedly.
"I'll agree with that." Josie smiled. "How are the boyfriends?" Charlie changed the topic so quickly Josie's head almost spun. "They're fine, doing as they usually do." "Causing mischief?" Josie couldn't help but laugh. "Of course." There was a pause, before Josie asked a question she had wanted to ask for a while. "Anything interesting in your life? I never hear much about you." Josie didn't like that their friendship was so one sided, Charlie seemed to know so much about her but she knew nothing about Charlie. It was rare for the girl to mention her own life and it was only ever in passing. Charlie had begun to answer her when she was cut off from a passerby, the drawling voice floating over the two girls. "Fraternizing with the enemy again Camson?" Josie couldn't help but laugh at Charlies expression, an over exaggerated eye roll and a raise of her lip in disgust. "Quidditch is over Malfoy, the enemy now is the other schools." "Still, this will only last the year." Josie couldn't help but watch the two of them interact, it was highly entertaining. "Exactly, a year for you to get the hell over it." The smile that twitched on Charlie's lips as she bantered with the boy made it obvious that Charlie did not hate the other Slytherin as much as she was trying to pretend she did. "Besides, you're the one planning to fraternize with the enemy; you're practically oozing over the guests from Durmstrang. You're more excited than the girls are." Charlie's eyes lit up when Malfoy stuttered over a response and slunk away before she turned back to Josie.
"It's fine, same old as usual." Charlie smiled stepping away from the wall and smiling at the curly haired girl who came to stand next to her. "Ready to go?" the other girl asked, smiling politely at Josie before closing the compact she had been holding. "See you around Josie; yell if you need me to knock anyone to the floor." Charlie joked, following after her friend and leaving Josie alone. Once again Josie got nothing out of the younger Slytherin girl. Wondering if Charlie kept her life to herself on purpose as she continued her walk, Josie headed towards the great hall for lunch.