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Chapter Three: My Friends Are Jerks
The rest of the week passed by uneventfully and soon it was the morning of September first. The Clayton household was in a frenzy. Juniper was in her room getting some last minute packing in. Outside, she could hear her sister stomping down the hallway calling to their mother, who was downstairs.
"Mum, where's my Hair Volumizing Tonic?"
Juniper heard her mother's faint voice yell, "Did you check the medicine cabinet?"
"Yeah, that's the first place I looked!"
"Then ask your sister!"
Sure enough, just as Juniper was unlocking the fourth lock of her enchanted seven-lock trunk where she usually stuffed her broomstick and other Quidditch belongings in, Jaenelle appeared in her doorway.
"Hey, you didn't happen to borrow my Hair Tonic, did you?" she asked rather flustered.
Juniper shut down the lid of her trunk and locked it. "You know I don't really use that stuff. Didn't you leave it by Ferdy's cage when you used it yesterday?"
Jaenelle was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "Oh, I guess I'll go check there, then." Her hazel eyes fell upon the pile of clothes that was on Juniper's bed. "Geez, it's nothing but jeans, jumpers, and t-shirts." In another pile was Juniper's usual uniforms and robes. "Why not pack a dress robe or two?"
Juniper grimaced and looked towards her closet. She only owned two dress robes. One in a dark blue color and the other a buttercup yellow. "They look weird on me," she muttered.
Jaenelle rolled her eyes and went to Juniper's closet, perusing the two choices before taking down the dark blue one. "We are so going shopping at Hogsmeade the first chance we get." She set the dress robe on the bed.
"And I will kick and scream the whole way," Juniper muttered. She hated shopping more than she hated sitting through Transfiguration.
"You'll change your mind one day," Jaenelle said casually. "There's half an hour left before we need to leave, so you should probably hurry before Mum comes in here and reams you a new ass."
"You're one to talk," Juniper retorted, pouting slightly as she stuffed the dress robe carelessly into the second compartment with the rest of her clothes not caring if anything got wrinkled.
Jaenelle gave her twin a smug grin. "I'm pretty much done. All I need to do is grab one or two more things and I'll be all set."
Juniper opened her mouth to say something, but figured it wasn't worth it and went back to her own packing. She loved her sister and got along fairly well with her, but sometimes Jaenelle could be so annoying. Finally, after about ten more minutes, Juniper finished packing. She grabbed her wand from her bedside table and slipped it into the pocket of her hoodie and peered outside. The forecast revealed that it was going to rain and, for once, the weatherman was right, unfortunately. The darkened sky had opened up and water poured down in sheets.
Mrs. Clayton poked her head in. "You finished packing, yet?" she asked.
"I think so," Juniper replied.
"You got all your books, your robes, everything?"
Juniper nodded. "All in here." She lightly nudged her trunk with her toe.
"Good. It's time to head out now." Juniper followed her mother downstairs and outside. She stood under the porch while their mother cast a barrier around the three of them to protect them from the rain. Courtesy of their parent's job, they had been provided with a Ministry Car, complete with a driver waiting patiently behind the wheel. Once the girls had their trunks packed away in the boot of the car, they made themselves cozy in the back, while their mother sat in the front passenger seat.
Juniper stared out the window her left foot drawn up onto the seat, watching the rain come down while Jaenelle talked a mile a minute about anything and everything.
"Juniper, get your foot off the seat," Mrs. Clayton chastised. Juniper looked at her mother and did as she was told. To the Muggle eye, the Ministry car looked like any other normal car, but it was enchanted to go places where Muggle forms of transportation could not, including the most narrow of alleyways. The Claytons arrived at King's Cross at 10:42. Mrs. Clayton rushed frantically to grab two trolleys for her daughters despite the fact that they had a little over seventeen minutes before they were due to board the Hogwart's Express.
As soon as the three of them were past the barrier, Mrs. Clayton drew her daughters into a hug. "Be good this year. Jaenelle, try and take some time out of your social life to write me every once in awhile. Juniper, try and pay better attention in your classes this year. I really don't want another letter from your professors again explaining that you're not doing too well."
Juniper's shoulders slumped. Why did her mother have to remind her about those letters that had been sent over the past few years? It should have been good enough that she, at least, passed her exams with acceptable marks. "I'll try, Mum," she said, but without much enthusiasm.
"I mean it. The next few years are definitely going to be the hardest for you. You really need to buckle down."
Juniper merely nodded before receiving another hug from her mother, then boarded the train with her sister.
"I'm going to see if I can find Marisa and Lori," Jaenelle said.
"Sure." Juniper watched as her sister wheeled her trunk down the narrow corridor. Juniper wasn't really very close to Jaenelle's friends, so she opted out of inviting herself to come along. With a sigh, Juniper dragged her own trunk through the corridor. She accidentally stepped on a few toes in the process before finding an empty compartment.
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"Juniper caught a glimpse of honey-blonde hair belonging to Kaylynn Lamdar, one of her friends. The Hufflepuff dragged her trunk in and stored it on the top rack before helping Juniper with her luggage.
"I don't stand out very much. That's probably why you couldn't find me at first," Juniper said as she sat down.
"Oh, stop," Kaylynn chastised. "I won't have you constantly putting yourself down this year."
"Hey, so how was your trip to Hawaii?" Juniper asked changing the subject.
"It was so amazing! Check out this tan I got!" Kaylynn held out her arm. Sure enough her skin was a few shades darker. Juniper thought that Kaylynn was probably one of the prettiest girls at Hogwart's. "I also met this boy. He was a full two years older than me and he actually thought I was the same age as him!"
"That's neat. So you had your own summer romance? Was he wizard or Muggle?"
"He was a wizard. He goes to one of the American wizarding schools." Kaylynn dug into her purse and produced a photo of a rather handsome boy with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. "His name is Michael."
"He's cute," Juniper said with a light smile. "So, are you two going to continue your long distance relationship?"
"I don't know." Kaylynn slipped the photo back into her purse. "We promised each other that we'd send owls as much as possible, but long distance relationships are so hard to keep up. I won't be surprised if it fails."
Juniper had never actually had anything remotely close to a boyfriend, so she didn't really have the experience to give her best friend relationship advice. "Well, I guess if it's meant to work out, it will." That was really all she felt comfortable saying on the subject.
"Probably." Kaylynn made herself comfortable in her seat and drew her wand and started to play around with it, creating red and green sparks. Juniper and Kaylynn had been friends since the second week of their first year at Hogwart's. Kaylynn was the kind of person Juniper wished she could be.
James waved good-bye to his parents as his siblings and he boarded the train. Almost immediately. Almost immediately, Albus found two of his friends standing a little further down the corridor
"Hey, there's Scorpius and Rose!" He jogged away to meet up with the Slytherin and his cousin. Lily went her own separate way to find her own friends as soon as she had stepped onto the train. James tried not to bump into anyone in the crowded corridor as he searched for a compartment. He stopped when he saw Juniper and her friend, Kaylynn through the window of one of them. They were laughing about something and James' heart skipped a beat to see Juniper smiling. Not wanting to just stand there and spy on them, he slid the door open.
"Hey, ladies. Mind if I join you?"
Kaylynn grinned. "Sure, take a seat." The honey haired Hufflepuff smirked at James as he sat down next to Juniper. "So, James, Juniper was just telling me about your date her in Diagon Alley just before you got here."
"It wasn't a date!" Juniper protested. "We just hung out together."
"Well, from the way you were telling it, it seemed like a date to me. He even bought you ice cream."
"So, I've bought you ice cream before," Juniper muttered sliding down in her seat, looking like she wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor.
James chuckled. "Even if it wasn't a date, Junie and I still had a good time together." He slung his arm around the Hufflepuff beside him and gave her a one-armed hug. Juniper pretended not to notice and was busy pretending to be interested in the sleeve of her hoodie. The compartment door opened again and one of James' friends, Seth poked his head in.
"There you are, James. You have to see the tarantula Liam got. This thing is huge!"
James sat up. "You wanna come see, Juniper?" he asked.
Juniper scowled. "I really don't like spiders. You go on ahead."
"I'll be right back," he promised as he left the compartment. Sure enough, Liam did have a new tarantula. James and the rest of his male friends stood around admiring it and some were even brave enough to hold it and even spook a few girls with it who were curious enough to find out what was so interesting. Soon, James found himself being coerced to sit with his friends, even though he did want sit with Juniper. He was halfway tempted to go back to her compartment and ask if she wanted to sit with him, but he knew she didn't feel too comfortable around crowds, especially his friends who could be a bit overwhelming, even though they were pretty good guys.
"I can't wait for Quidditch practice," Liam said. "Let's hope we can replace Garrison with someone just as good."
"Trust me, we will," James said confidently. "I know a few people who would love to try out, including my sister, Lily."
"It'll be awesome having her on the team," Jordan said. He was a Beater on the team. "Your sister is really hot."
The rest of the guys snickered, but James glared at the brown haired Gryffindor. "Watch it. That's my little sister you're talking about." He may have found Lily annoying, but it would be a cold day in Hell before he ever let any of his friends even think about dating her or just making a move on her in general.
"Sorry, mate. I was just speaking the truth. Your sister is really pretty and you know I have a thing for red heads."
"So then date one of the other many red heads that go to Hogwart's," James suggested. "But my sister is off limits to all of you. That goes for Rose, too," he said adding his cousin as an after thought.
The boys were silent for a few minutes. Liam and Jordan were looking over a copy of a rather dirty magazine that Liam had snatched from his father's office and James was cleaning the handle of his broomstick. Finally, Seth spoke up again.
"Hey, Potter, what were you doing sitting next to Juniper?" he asked.
James looked up from his broom. "She's my friend. I just wanted to say hi to her."
"You two have nothing in common," Liam said closing the magazine. "I swear that girl barely talks at all and when she does, you can barely hear her."
"If anything, you should definitely be hanging around his sister. Now that's a girl who knows how to have fun," Jordan said smirking.
"What do you know about Jaenelle?" Liam asked.
"Let's just say that the girl is a very good kisser. I had the privelege of snogging her in one of the broom closets last year. She's aggressive too. I swear, she just grabbed me, definite wild streak in that one."Jordan looked at James. "You should give it a try, sometimes. I doubt she'd say no to you."
"Jaenelle isn't really my type," James said, narrowing his eyes at his promicuous friend.
"Yet you like Juniper who looks almost exactly the same," Liam said.
"Too bad she's so frumpy," Jordan chortled. "I wonder if she even has a body underneath those baggy jumpers and hoodies that she usually wears."
Liam and Jordan snickered, but Seth shook his head. "Hey, she's not so bad." He glanced at James who had his fists clenched and looked like he wanted to punch someone in the throat. "She's a really good Quidditch Player and she is kind of cute in that awkward kind of way.
James chose not to lay into the two of his friends, but he was thinking that they were major jerks right about now. Fearing that he would drive his foot up both their asses if they said anything else demeaning about Juniper, he excused himself to go sit with her since he had promised that he would return, and that was almost forty-five minutes ago.
