Hello there! Here is chapter 8 of my story... It's beginning to pick up! They just began their second year, which I don't plan to drag out. So, please enjoy! And pretty please review!
"BETHANY THORNE!"
I whipped my head around to see who was calling my name. Looking through all the busy people in platform 9 ¾ I saw two gingers with identical grins waving at me. I squeezed my way through the crowd to get to my friends.
"Fred! George!" I said and hugged them both tightly. Maybe it was just me, but I swore they grew at least four inches over the summer.
"What, no hug for me?" A deeper voice said.
"Lee!" I ran and hugged my other friend. "I like your hair!"
Despite Lee's voice getting deeper, he decided to dreadlock his hair. It suited him very well.
"Merlin I've missed you guys." I sighed, smiling up at the familiar faces in front of me. Still the same freckled, quirky faces I missed all summer. And Lee looked precisely the same except for his new hairdo.
"Bethany, don't hog our friends to yourself!" Angelina ran up and playfully bumped my hip.
She grabbed the three boys and pulled them into a tight hug.
"I want to go finish saying good-bye to my parents, meet you on the train?" I said, smiling at the group in front of me.
I wormed my way back to where my parents stood with my luggage and Dragon. My mum's belly was now huge, as the baby only had a few more weeks. I spent a lot of my time over the summer helping to paint and decorate the babies room. My mum needed help around the house doing chores, and when my dad was at work I stuck around to help her.
Angelina had taken to practicing her flying over the summer. Late at night when everyone had gone to bed, we snuck out to a nearby cornfield with our brooms to practice. I was flying cleansweep. An older model of broom, but still swift. Angelina had a Comet, which was a slightly newer model and just a little bit faster than mine. We would practice our flying late into the warm summer nights, sometimes until we could see the sun beginning to peak in the horizon. Close to the cornfield was a small pond that we sometimes cooled off in if we got tired of flying.
The boys convinced us to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team with them this year. Angelina and I decided to try out to be chasers together. It soon became clear that Angelina was a much better flyer than I, seeing as she rarely lost her balance. She certainly had the passion for the sport.
"Bethany, dear, you'll write to us every week?" My mum asked me as we were saying our farewells.
"Of course. I want to be informed of everything with the baby!" I exclaimed, placing my hand on her stomach.
"I'll see you soon, baby brother." I whispered, patting her tummy.
"Study hard, sweetheart." My father said.
"I don't need to study, I'm just naturally smart." I boasted, tossing my hair over my shoulder.
"If you're anything like me, a little studying won't hurt." My dad chuckled, bringing me in for a hug. "Be safe, we'll write to you as often as we can! Every day if you want. You'll be coming home for Christmas this year?"
"Yes!" I cried. "I have to meet the baby."
"I love you very much, darling," My mum said.
"I love you too."
The Hogwarts express gave a warning howl that it would be leaving soon. Steam began to rise from the exhaust pipes, and several students were sticking their heads out the window, waving excitedly at their loved ones.
I grabbed my luggage and ran towards the train, waving to my parents behind me.
I boarded the giant train and a wave of happiness washed over me. Stepping on the train felt almost as magical as stepping into the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Familiar faces surrounded me and students chatted excitedly amongst themselves, each one eager to catch up with their old friends. All summer I couldn't wait to return. Spending the summer with Angelina and my mum was great, but I missed the twins and Lee terribly. The twins wrote every week, mostly, and Lee wrote a few times from Paris, each time sending a photo with his postcard. One was a photo of him smiling and waving in front of the Eiffel Tower. Another photo had Lee and his parents sitting in a booth at a French cafe smiling and raising their glasses to the camera.
I walked through the cramped corridor of the train looking for the compartment my friends were in. I walked by a compartment that accompanied Alicia and a few other girls I'd never seen before. I stopped to wave at Alicia, hoping the awkwardness of last year would be done.
To my surprise, Alicia offered me a small smile. My heart expanded with the thought that perhaps Alicia was ready to be friends again.
After a minute or two of walking through the train I found my friends in one of the very last compartments. I pressed my face against the sliding glass door of the compartment, squishing my nose and making a funny face. The twins burst into uncontrollable laughter at my antic, while Angelina just rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Will you just get your butt in here!" She shouted, giggling a little.
I slid the door open and carried my heavy luggage in. I lifted up my huge suitcase and tried to put it on the luggage rack above the windows. Despite standing on my tiptoes, I still couldn't reach the luggage rack. I turned around and blew a piece of hair out of my face.
"Need some help?" Fred asked, raising one eyebrow and smiling.
"That would be nice." I said.
With no problem, Fred lifted my suitcase and put it on the luggage rack.
"Did everybody grow this summer except for me?" I asked, admiring Fred's height.
"Shorty." George said, ruffling my blonde curls.
I glared at him with my honey colored eyes and sat down in between Angelina and Lee.
Suddenly someone knocked on our door. We all looked up alarmed, wondering who would want to sit with a bunch of goofy second years. A small, timid girl with long brown hair and pale skin was standing at the door with luggage half her size and a cage with some sort of animal in it.
"Hello, my name is Katie Bell." She said. "I don't really know anyone and I wondering if maybe I could sit with you guys?" The last part of her sentence came out more like, "?"
"Er, of course." I said, holding open the door for her.
Lee helped her put her luggage on the rack and she sat down next to the twins, opposite from me.
"What do you have there?" George asked, glancing at the cage.
"This is my cat, Timber." She said. She opened up the cage and pulled out a tiny, fluffy gray cat with bright blue eyes. The cat clung to her lap and leered at all of us through slanted eyes.
"I don't think your cat likes us very much." I said, amused.
"No, she's just shy. Usually she's very friendly." Katie said, petting Timber behind the ears.
"So are you a first year?" Fred asked.
"Yes, how about you guys? And I don't think I caught your names..?"
"We're all second years... Gryffindor. And my name is Lee. Lee Jordan." Lee chimed in.
"Angelina Johnson, and this is my best friend Bethany Thorne." Angelina introduced us.
"I'm Fred."
"I'm George." The twins said at the exact same time.
I laughed, remembering last year's train ride when they had done the exact same thing to me. Although this time I knew which one was which, and I also knew that they switched their names. Fred introduced himself as George, and George had introduced himself as Fred. I wonder if they had done that to us last year?
Angelina also seemed to pick up on this, because she covered up her mouth and snickered.
"Nice to meet you!" Katie said unaware, happy to be accepted to quickly. "My mum also went to Hogwarts. She was in Gryffindor like you guys. I think that's where I'll be."
"Did your dad go to Hogwarts, too?" I asked.
"My dad is, er... My dad is dead." Katie said, looking down at her lap.
Why did I have to ask that? Leave it to me to make things uncomfortable.
An awkward silence followed, and everyone shifted in their seats.
The train lurched, beginning the long journey to Hogwarts. It began picking up speed and wailed it's loud horn.
"I'm so sorry..." I started.
"It's okay." Katie said. "I was very young, and I have a step-dad now. He didn't go to Hogwarts, though. He's from America."
"Is he a wizard?" I asked, taking an interest in her American family member.
"Oh, yes. The schooling there is different, though. So, do you guys have any pets?" Katie asked, obviously trying to change the subject. Katie probably regrets ever deciding to sit with us, I thought.
"I have an owl named Dragon." I said.
"Ooooh. I wanted an owl, but I fell in love with Timber the second I saw her!" Katie exclaimed, still petting her cat. Timber was now curled up on her lap sound asleep, purring lightly.
"We're too irresponsible for pets." George said simply.
"We would end up burning the thing." Fred said.
"It's true." Angelina agreed. "They would."
Katie and I began laughing.
"Stick with us and you'll never have a dull moment." Lee chimed in.
Katie smiled up at us, her warm brown eyes gleaming with excitement and her grin reaching from ear to ear.
The rest of the journey was spent taking turns telling jokes, but no joke compared to the naughty centaur joke that Lee told. Every time it was Lee's turn to tell a joke, he repeated the same joke until our stomachs ached from laughing so hard and tears gathered at the corners of our eyes.
"FIRS' YEARS. FIRS' YEARS THIS WAY." Was the first thing we heard getting off the train.
"That's Hagrid, he'll take you to the castle on the boats. We'll see you at the sorting ceremony, Katie!" I bid farewell and turned to my friends. "Now where do we go?"
"Just follow the crowd." George said.
"You kids need help?" A snooty voice came from behind us.
"You're the one who needs help getting your head out of your rear end, Percy." Fred mumbled.
"That's no way to speak to a prefect!"
"You're not a prefect yet, Perc. You're only in fourth year." George stated.
"I will be, just you see. Do you need help or not?" Percy asked, irritated.
"Just point us in the right direction, if you don't mind." Angelina said.
"See those carriages over there? That's where you'll be headed. They take anyone from second to seventh year to the castle." Percy responded, avoiding eye contact with his brothers.
"Thank you, Percy." I said.
"Just you wait, I'm going to be a prefect." The twins mocked their brother once he was out of earshot.
"I swear, every year he becomes an even bigger prat." George said.
"He's just ambitious is all. You're right, though. He does act snooty." I admitted.
The five of us climbed onto one of the carriages and it began to take us towards the castle.
Upon entering the giant castle a rush of excitement coursed it's way through me. My heart sped up and I couldn't help the smile that was forming on my lips. My eyes danced with happiness from returning to my favorite place in the world. I grabbed Angelina's hand and gave it a squeeze. She returned my squeeze and smiled at me. Nothing was better than the enchanting air that filled Hogwarts.
The mob of chatty students formed their way into the Great hall and sat at their respected house tables.
The ceiling showed that the sun would begin to set soon, and flickering candles floated throughout the air above us.
At this moment last year we were being led into the school by Professor McGonagall. I recalled the way Miles had introduced himself to us, quite rudely I might add.
I glanced over to Mile's sitting at the Slytherin table. He was talking to a group of his peers, who seemed impressed. No doubt Miles was telling some tall-tale about his summer. I knew, though, that it wasn't nearly as exciting as he made it out to be because of his Hufflepuff sister.
I scanned the Hufflepuff table for his sister, but I didn't see her. Maybe last year had been her final year at Hogwarts.
The tall doors to the Great hall opened suddenly, causing everyone to turn their attention to the nervous first years walking in.
"I can't believe that was us last year." Lee whispered.
"Look at that one girl, she's shaking from head to toe!" Angelina said, pointing at a girl with short black hair.
"There's Katie!" I exclaimed. I waved at her and she gave a nervous wave back. The twins gave her thumbs-up.
"Attention Students!" Dumbledore's merry voice echoed across the Great hall. "Welcome new students to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry! And to our old students, welcome back! I don't wish to keep us from our feast much longer, so please, let the sorting ceremony begin!"
"When I call your name, please come up to the stool to be sorted." Professor McGonagall said.
"Katie Bell!" Katie was the first name to be called. She walked up to the stool confidently and sat down.
"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted. Katie's face broke into a big grin, and she skipped over to sit with us.
"I knew you'd be with us!" I said, side-hugging her.
"Looks like our little group is back to six." Fred said, high-fiving Katie.
The rest of the sorting ceremony continued on, and we applauded eighteen nervous new Gryffindors into our house.
That evening was spent with Fred and George showing us all the good quality pranking items they had acquired over the summer. Fred admitted that they had been experimenting with making their own fireworks. They told us the story of how they accidentally caught fire to their little sister Ginny's bedroom, and how their mum was so furious that she made them do chores nonstop the entire week.
"I think we managed to make a firework that doesn't burst into flames, though. We successfully tested it a couple times." Fred said.
Katie Bell was absolutely ecstatic to have found friends so quickly. Her eyes gleamed with happiness and she took a particular fondness to George. Every now and then I caught Alicia watching us from the other side of the common room. I considered asking her to join us, but I figured if she wanted to she would approach us on her own.
"Did you boys get any of the reading done at all?" Angelina asked the twins, who were attempting to float a chocolate frog across the room and drop it on a first year's head.
"Now why would we do that?" George asked.
"Spend a perfectly good summer day reading?" Fred continued. "It's as though she never met us at all, George."
"Homework loads will be piling up this year." I said, snickering. "I just hope Snape doesn't give us any on our first day back."
"Oh, I've heard about professor Snape." Katie said. "One girl said he tested a potion on her last year that went horribly bad."
"That sounds about the sort of thing Snape would do. He loves to assign essays, too." Angelina said.
"I wish I could have class with you guys." Katie said.
"No you don't. The twins have a knack for landing us in detention." I said, glaring at the boys who were grinning sheepishly.
"Perhaps we should call it a night." Angelina said, yawning.
"I agree. After all, quidditch tryouts tomorrow!" Fred said, winking.
Review review review!
~JS~