yo, sorry for the three month (ish) delay but i had annoying sisters, mock exams and personal issues to deal with, so TPoP got pushed down the priorities list a little! anyhow, hope you enjoy it :) (things are just about to get interesting ehehe)
Steam gradually started to cloud the window, smudging the faces of the slowly increasing number of people on the platform until they were merely a blur. Stressed adults and impatient teenagers were crowded on the other side of the glass, but they were completely invisible to the pair on the train, despite the mash of colours and the inhumane noises that could have tempted their attention.
"No, Rose was the best companion!" Jehan insisted, enthusiastically, leaning forward in his seat, "They were in love Courf, how could you not see that?"
"Eh," Courfeyrac's clothes were crumpled and the relaxed arrangement of his limbs suggested disinterest, but his eyes were bright with excitement, and his lungs a little short on air from the constant chatter, "Didn't really understand the fuss with her. Yeah, she was great, but she broke the Doctor's heart, y'know? Donna at least cheered him up a bit. Unlike that Martha - she was a complete cow."
"Hey!" The blond instantly jumped to the fictional character's defence. "Martha was great. But the thing is, the Doctor never had to tell her - did you get that? She knew she was great. That's what makes her so good."
"What, so she's arrogant enough? Pssh, yeah, okay."
Bickering ensued, but was soon cut off by the slam of the train door, and Enjolras entered, looking suitably irritated. As the blond threw himself on the seat beside Courfeyrac, he muttered something under his breath that caused Jehan to let out a small gasp.
"Enjolras!" He chastised, "That was unnecessary."
"It was extremely necessary." The irritated blonde spat, surprising Jehan even further. "You weren't there."
"Oi," Courf suddenly sat up a little straighter, a touch of anger rising in his tone and in his eyes, "Don't speak to him like that."
Before Enjolras could respond and spark an argument, however, the door slid open for a second time, and Combeferre came in, a mildly annoyed expression on his features, which was a new thing for them all to witness. Guilt flashed across Enjolras' face as soon as he saw his companion, and he opened his mouth to apologise.
"It's alright." Combeferre got out, before Enjolras even began, "I just feel bad for your mother, that's all."
Irritation swept through the compartment before the blond mumbled something similar to "It was her fault, anyway". A quick glance was exchanged between Courfeyrac and Jehan, but they decided that it was best not to press anything. As the most sharp-witted of the group, Combeferre picked up on this exchange too, and silently agreed.
"So, what were you two discussing before we got here?"
He accompanied this remark by taking a seat, and pointedly ignored Enjolras and his childish pout, instead focusing his attention on the pair by the window, noting how much more relaxed they seemed around each other than before the holidays. (A quieter section of his brain made a mental reminder to investigate this further at a later date).
"Doctor Who."
A beat of silence. (Or as silent as silence can be when seated on a busy train on the edge of a teeming platform).
"What the hell is that?"
Both teenagers paused for a moment, unsure as how to best explain it.
"It's..." Jehan began, but furrowed his brows, too muddled to continue. "It's complicated."
"It's a muggle television show about a man who travels in space and time." Courfeyrac said in a strangely determined tone, "He travels in a blue police box, which is bigger on the inside. He has friends - companions - who come with him."
"Right." Combeferre leant forward in his chair, intrigued by the idea, "What happens?"
"Well," The brunette spoke again, "They save the world, the Doctor and his companion."
"What Doctor?"
"The man who travels in the TARDIS. He's called the Doctor."
"Just the Doctor?"
"Yes. And people normally go 'Doctor Who?' when he says it, hence the title." Jehan piped up, enthusiastic to get involved, "Honestly, it's the best bit of the programme."
"And he travels through space and time in a- what was it? A box?"
Almost ten minutes later, after a good few people had joined them and the train was blowing it's whistle to depart, Courfeyrac smacked himself in the face with the palm of his hand, letting out a groan that did funny things to Jehan's stomach.
"It's impossible to explain it without sounding like a lunatic." He managed, finally, sitting back in his seat in defeat. Around him, Enjolras, Combeferre, Maria and Feuilly had gathered, confused but enthralled.
"Don't give up now!" Maria encouraged enthusiastically, "So what happened to Rose?"
Both males with knowledge of this winced, causing the interested party to start in their seats and pester for more information. After a few seconds of this, Jehan silenced them.
"Alright, alright!" He agreed, a little reluctantly, "Well, basically, he left her in a parallel universe where he can never see her again, otherwise it would create a paradox."
"Wait, why?" Feuilly sounded alarmed, despite having known this character less than five minutes, "How could he do that to her?"
"It's... complicated." Courfeyrac reasoned, "He didn't really have a choice."
"There's always a choice." Feuilly's tone was slightly threatening, as if Courfeyrac himself was responsible for leaving Rose in the alternate universe.
Rubbing his face in frustration, Courfeyrac led to put his hands up in defeat.
"Right, let's make a deal." He said, decidedly, "In the summer, we're having a marathon. From the Ninth Doctor onwards. I dunno how long it'll take, but we'd have a whole summer to do it."
"Excellent."
Briefly, Courfeyrac wondered what on Earth he'd subjected them to, but it was soon pushed out of his mind at the sight of Enjolras stiffening in his seat and shuffling further down the plush red material, appearing to be trying to hide from someone.
Apparently, Courfeyrac wasn't the only one who picked up on the blond's shuffling - Combeferre noticed too, and the pair exchanged a curious glance. After a split second, however, the source was revealed.
"Get the fuck off me!"
James Potter's voice rang through the train carriage, and the entire compartment snapped to attention, every single person hyper-aware of how badly this could go wrong, and how likely that the worst case scenario would probably occur within the next few minutes. As they watched through the pane of glass, a scared looking First year darted across the hall, and soon the man himself was on show, with a couple of his elder cousins to back him up, it appeared, if needs be.
"Ah, excellent - it's the freaks. Shall we pop in and say hello?" The sarcastic drawl filtered through the glass, causing every aforementioned 'freak' to shrink in their seats and draw in a universal breath of nervous apprehension.
Gracefully, the door slid open to reveal the teenager behind it, a smug grin sat upon his lips.
"Well, well, how are we all?"
"Well, clearly so much better now you're here." Courfeyrac snapped sarcastically before he could help himself, and instantly regretted it. A sharp glare was sent his way, and James Potter suddenly turned to face the brown-haired wizard.
"How about we have a proper reunion, then, if you missed me so much? Just outside, in the hallway."
Whilst his tone sounded perfectly innocent, the snickering of his cousins behind him was a total giveaway: if Courfeyrac so much as stepped into that hall, he was going to get his arse duelled within an inch if his life.
"In front of so many Prefects?" He responded with, putting his feet up on the spare space opposite and trying to appear relaxed, "My, my, Potter, you've really raised the stakes this year."
Looking around the compartment, the Potter boy seemed to realise what a mistake it would be to start a fight around all these people - all these people with authority. Raising his eyebrows, he tried not to look annoyed but the emotion was clear on his face, and it gave Courfeyrac a small sense of pride, but he quickly squashed it.
"Maybe we'll have our reunion some other time, then." The black-haired boy offered, stepping back out of the compartment with a arrogant smile, "Farewell, then, you fucked-up bunch of half-wits."
With a slam of the sliding glass door - which held remarkably well for the amount of force applied to it - he and his henchmen disappeared, leaving an eerie silence to settle over them all.
After almost two minutes of silence, Joly stood and mumbled an excuse before sliding out of the compartment, his face very pink, and no one objected to it. Despite rarely being the centre of the Potter boy's attention, the hypochondriac didn't take conflict very well, and instead usually stepped aside for a few moments after these interactions to try and calm his nerves.
"Well-" Combeferre began, clearly in the hope of lightening the tension, but a movement out of the corner of his eye caught him, "Wait, hang on just a sec-"
Almost before anyone could respond, Combeferre was out of his seat and halfway down the carriage, catching the shoulder of the teen he recognised quickly but lightly, an easy grin settled on his face. However, nothing could have prepared the poor boy for the pure acid on the other male's expression as he turned around. In a split second it had been wiped clean, but the damage had already been done.
"Combeferre!"
Grantaire's voice was so pleasantly surprised that Combeferre couldn't quite believe that he'd witnessed the pure hatred on his features a split second earlier. The shock on his face must have showed, as Grantaire had the decency to look guilty.
"Sorry to startle you like that. Just had a run in with Arrogant Arse the Second."
"James Potter?" Combeferre queried, although he was pretty sure he was right, confirmed by a nod from the other, "Yeah, we just got a round of him too."
A sympathetic nod was sent his way, before Grantaire sighed heavily, and motioned to the corridor in front of him.
"Well, I better get walking. Scorpius and Rose said I can come back at two on the dot, but until then, the compartment is booked."
"But it's only, like, eleven thirty?"
"Yup." Grantaire shot a dark look down the end of the train he'd just come from, showing clearly what he thought of Rose and Scorpius' 'alone time'. "Don't I know it."
"Well, why don't you come sit with us?" Combeferre offered, without even thinking about it, "It's better than wandering out here, for sure."
The uncertainty on Grantaire's face was clear as day.
"You sure?"
"Sure." The brunette shrugged. "I mean, everyone's there."
Just before he moved to open the door, however, he turned back to look Grantaire in the eye, an underlying smirk present on his features (something that was not normally present on the innocent teen's expression).
"Enjolras too."
From there, he left the door slightly ajar, inviting Grantaire in without being either too blunt, or too suggestive.
This spurred a major dilemma in Grantaire's mind: should he go in? For almost two whole minutes, he debated the pros and cons of each option: on the one hand, going in there and talking to these people would be a great distraction from the tick-tock of the clock, counting down the minutes before he could go back to his compartment (not to mention seeing Enjolras again, whose presence he had missed dearly over the two weeks away). On the other hand, however, it might be unbelievably awkward, especially if someone asked how his Christmas was: how was he supposed to respond to that?
A thought niggling in the back of his hand almost touched the conscious area of his brain, but he pushed it away; right now he had to focus on his decision.
In the end, he chose to fuck it and go in.
"Ah, Grantaire!" Jehan's overjoyed voice managed it's way over the babble of chatter in the compartment, "Oi, budge up Enjolras, you're taking up about four seats! Let Grantaire sit down."
"Oh, really, it's alright, I'll stand-"
Grantaire didn't even finish his sentence before Jehan had pulled Grantaire's arm down so that he was sat next to him.
Unfortunately, Grantaire was still recovering from the violent torture he'd been put through over Christmas break, paired with the fact that his arm was still painful from his incident before the holidays. This led to him releasing a sharp hiss of pain when Jehan grabbed it, and the attention of the entire compartment on him.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Jehan panicked, releasing his arm at once, "Are you hurt? Can I help?"
"No, no!" Grantaire responded with hurriedly, sitting down on the seat and trying to avoid the eyes of everyone around him, "I just twisted it a bit funny earlier. It's fine."
"Do you want me to take a look?"
Strangely, these words didn't come from Jehan's mouth, and instead came from the other side of Grantaire, where the blond leader was sat. Slowly, Grantaire turned to look at his angelic features for the first time in two weeks, and tried not to seem too flustered.
"It's fine, really. Probably be alright by tomorrow."
"So it's not alright now?" The blond asked, his eyebrows raised, but Grantaire shook his head.
"That's not what I said-"
"But that's what you meant." He replied, before turning back to his book, "If you change your mind at any point, just ask."
By now, most of the compartment was starting to feel a little awkward, and were shuffling in their seats. However, after a beat or two of silence, Feuilly asked, innocently:
"Grantaire, have you ever heard of a muggle programme called 'Doctor What'?"
"It's Doctor Who!"
The train journey continued in a similar fashion: small arguments, mini conferences, a few dull games and a total ruckus when the food trolley finally made its way down to their end of the train, but it was only at half past three - when Scorpius came to try and find him - that Grantaire realised that Combeferre knew about him and Enjolras, and had openly said it within distance of the rest of the group hearing.
The rest of the train ride was spent inwardly debating if that was a good thing or a bad thing.