Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter.

Bríd and Aria dashed up the train in search of their friend Lee Jordan and his giant tarantula. Bríd was excited and wanted to see the wonderfully hairy spider, but Aria was a bit more reserved at the thought of the hand-sized arachnid. As long as the Lee's tarantula stayed in its' box, Aria thought she'd be fine, thought she had a nagging suspicion Bríd would want to hold the creature.

They both stopped when they heard a scream and Bríd shouted happily. A few more compartments up, they spotted Lee Jordan's thick brown dreadlocks amongst a throng of excited students.

'There!' Bríd pointed, grabbing her cousin's hand and sprinting the last bit of the way.

'Bríd!' Aria protested as Bríd dragged her along, but Bríd ignored her and within a matter of seconds they were shoving their way past their classmates until they were stopped right next to Lee.

Aria shut her eyes and cringed as Lee pulled the spider out of the box. Bríd shouted in amazement and Aria took her cousins' momentary distraction as a chance to wretch her wrist away.

'Lee, let me hold it!' Bríd insisted and Lee carefully handed over the tarantula.

'His name's Jantu,' Lee told her and Bríd let Jantu crawl up her arm.

'Jantu's legs feel funny!' Bríd laughed. 'They're sort of sticky. Aria, loo – Aria?'

Aria had slowly been backing away, wanting to put as much distance as possible between herself and the adorable, sticky-footed Jantu. She kept backing up until she back up right into something solid. Jerking her head to see what she'd backed into, she saw one redheaded, freckly-faced Weasley twin beaming down at her.

'Scared, Ar?'

'Shut up, Fred!' Aria snapped defensively. Fred just grinned.

'It's just a spider.'

'Just a spider the size of my hand! It's very cool. As long as it stays in it's box. Or way, way over there.' Aria watched as Bríd stroked the spiders' back with a finger and laughed with Lee over something. 'It will be far less cool if it comes anywhere near me outside of his box.'

Fred laughed and squeezed her shoulder.

'Stop making fun of me, Frederick Gideon Weasley!' Aria crossed her arms over her chest.

'Awww, lighten up, Ar,' Fred's laughing smile never left his face. 'I'm just teasing.'

Aria stuck her tongue out at him. They watched as Bríd handed Jantu over to George, who parroted her comment about the spiders' sticky legs. Bríd laughed as Jantu darted up George's arm and tried to go under the collar of his jumper.

'Oh no you don't!' George cried, grabbing the spider before it could.

'Georgie, you have a boyfriend!' Bríd joked as George struggled to keep the spider from attempting to crawl beneath his jumper. 'Ohhh, Jantu looooooves you, Georgie!'

Lee leaned against Bríd's side as he laughed heartily at his friend and his spider. He doubled over as George grabbed Jantu by the leg and dragged him from where he was trying to sneak under George's sleeve. Aria shuttered. Jantu could stay far, far away.

'Can I have him again?' Bríd asked George, who gladly handed the tarantula over to the eager blonde. 'Where'd you get him, Lee?'

'My older brother, E.J., brought him back from Saudi Arabia,' Lee explained loudly enough for Aria and Fred to hear. 'E.J. went there to study this summer. He brought back loads of cool stuff. Like Jantu and he brought Mum back a magic carpet.'

'A flying carpet?' Fred called out excitedly.

'Yeah! I mean, it's not exactly one of the really good, expensive ones. It can only go a mile or two before it needs a rest, but it's still really cool,' Lee told them with a huge, wide grin. 'I wish I could have gone, too. But E.J. sent tons of owls with pictures and stuff.'

'The only exciting thing I did was go to visit Granny and Granda in Ireland,' Bríd said wistfully as she put Jantu back in his box.

'At least you got to go somewhere,' Aria told her cousin as she and Fred got closer now that Jantu was put away. 'Our Granddad just came to visit us. Didn't even get to go visit him in London.'

'Don't you guys have the same grandparents?' Lee asked, making sure Jantu's lid was secure. By now, the crowd had dissipated and the five friends made their way into their compartment.

'Our dads' parents are both dead,' Aria reminded him. 'So we just have our mums' parents. Bríd's mum's parents live in Ireland. My mum's dad lives in London.'

'You told me that before, didn't you?' Lee put Jantu's case in his bag and sat next to Bríd.

'Probably,' Bríd answered for Aria.

'You and your funny Irish mum,' Fred teased Bríd, pulling a handful of toffee he'd nicked from his mum's candy jar out of his trouser pocket, tossing one to everyone. 'And your funny Irish names. Breeeeeej…'

Bríd retaliated at Fred's drawing out her name in a faux mocking fashion by throwing the balled up wrapper at him as she popped her toffee in her mouth. She was about to say that her mum was not funny (except when she meant to be, of course) and neither was her name, but their compartment door slid open before she could.

'Gráinne Lasagna!' Fred cried merrily at the sight of the second set of twins standing in the doorway, 'and Pecan Siobhán!'

'More funny Irish names!' George called out with a laugh.

Gráinne scowled at the smiling redhead, adjusting her grip on her still-purple cat, 'Stop rhyming our names with food, Fred Weasley! Or I'll start calling you "Dead Fred!"'

'Dead Fred! I love it!' George grinned. 'Gráinne, do one for me!'

Her threat did not produce the effect she'd wanted and short, freckly brunette dropped Aibell and scowled as Fred began shouting phrases like 'Scourge George' and 'Engorge George.'

'Scourge doesn't work,' Gráinne snapped with her hands on her hips. 'It doesn't rhyme properly!'

'Oh, c'mon, Lasagna,' Fred grabbed her arm and pulled her over so he could ruffle her hair. 'I bet you can come up with good food names for us! We'll be those weird twins with food names.'

Gráinne tried hard not to smile, but in the end she mumbled, 'Bread Fred and Porridge George' under her breath.

'Bread, Porridge, Lasagna and Pecan!' George's smile took up his entire face. 'Perfect. What do you think, Pecan?'

Siobhán smiled shyly and nodded, but didn't say anything.

'Bríd,' Gráinne turned her attention to her older sister, 'can Aibell stay here for a bit? Neville Longbottom lost his toad Trevor and Siobhán and I want to help him look for it. But it's hard to look holding a fat, fluffy cat.'

'Sure, sure,' Bríd mumbled around a mouth practically glued shut with very sticky toffee, anything to get rid of her annoying little sisters so she could continue hanging out with her friends.

'Thank you!' Gráinne and Siobhán were gone before the five third years could change their minds. Siobhán waved to a worried, round-faced boy down the corridor and he gave a small wave back. 'C'mon, Neville, don't worry. We'll find Trevor.'

'That's right, Neville,' Siobhán gave him a wide, reassuring smile, very glad to focus on Neville's toad instead of worrying whether or not she would be sorted into a house. 'Trevor will be fine. I'm sure we'll find him right away.'

'Gran's going to be so upset if I loose Trevor. My great-uncle Algie gave him to me for getting into Hogwarts,' Neville wrung his hands, distraught at the thought.

'You don't have to worry,' Gráinne assured him, 'because your gran won't be upset, because we'll find Trevor straight away. Neither Gran nor great-uncle Algie will ever find out that Trevor had his own adventure on the train.'

'Really?' Neville looked hopeful.

'Really,' Siobhán squeezed his hand. 'Come on. Let's check that next car and see if Trevor is there.'

Gráinne slid open the door to the first compartment on the left while Neville and Siobhán went to the first on the right. Gráinne asked loudly if any of them had noticed a loose toad. The three older students sitting there looked around to check before saying sorry, but no, they hadn't.

Neville looked close to tears at the announcement, but Gráinne beamed a thank you, closed the door and moved on to the next door. The trio repeated their actions all the down the train, enlisting the help of a bushy haired girl with large bucked teeth who introduced herself as Hermione Granger.

Hermione declared she was going to try the other direction and was gone before Siobhán could tell her that they had just come from that direction. Gráinne shrugged and pulled open the next compartment.

'What do you want?' spat a pale, pointy-faced boy with platinum blond hair. A pug-faced girl sat next to him and across the compartment two gorilla-like boys stood, cracking their knuckles threateningly.

Neville cowered, but Gráinne just asked, 'Have you seen a toad? We've lost ours.'

'A toad?' They pointy-faced boy started laughing. 'What sort of pathetic person brought a toad? I'd rather die than bring a toad.'

'No one asked you to keep it!' Gráinne's face darkened angrily. 'I just asked if you'd seen it.' And with that, she slammed the compartment door shut. They could hear the laughter through the door.

'I'm never going to find him,' Neville moaned tearfully.

'We'll find him, Neville,' Siobhán patted his arm.

There was a great shout of excitement and two boys tore down the corridor, chasing a whirling, flashing something as it whirled and flashed past them. A tall, lanky black boy ran past first, followed closely by the short, sandy haired boy who had knocked into Gráinne on the platform.

The sandy haired boy was far less graceful than his taller friend and he knocked into Gráinne a second time. His foot landed on hers as he tried to follow the other boy's path between Gráinne and Neville and Gráinne lost her balance, crashing backwards into the door of the rat-faced boy's compartment.

'Dean, wait up!'

'Hurry, Seamus!'

Seamus didn't turn back to apologize for knocking Gráinne over and Gráinne scowled furiously. She started to push herself back up with Neville's help just as the compartment door burst open.

'You again!' The blond boy's face was cruel. 'Crabbe, Goyle –"

'What's going on?' Kain stepped out of one of the Prefect compartments. 'Gráinne, Siobhán, what's all the noise about?'

'Some stupid boy knocked me over,' Gráinne grumbled as she brushed off her bottom. The compartment door slid closed quietly. Apparently, Kain's shiny Prefect badge held at least some weight with the snooty boy.

'Why are you two up here, anyways?' Kain asked, looking from Gráinne to Siobhán. 'I thought I had you two settle farther down in the train. And where's your cat, Gráinne?'

'I left her with Bríd,' Gráinne was rubbing her elbow, which hurt a bit from hitting the metal door.

'What are you doing up here?' Kain repeated his question.

'We're looking for a toad,' Siobhán explained.

'What toad? You brought a toad?' Kain looked from girl to girl, baffled.

'I brought a toad!' Neville sniffed miserably. 'My great-uncle gave him to me and I lost him!'

'What's your name?' Kain asked him.

'Neville Longbottom,' Neville rubbed at his red nose.

'I'm Kain Desford. I'm Gráinne and Siobhán's cousin. I'll help you find your toad, alright?'

Neville nodded and gave a weak smile. Siobhán squeezed his hand encouragingly while Gráinne moved on to the next compartment and threw the door open.

'Have you seen a loose toad anywhere?'

A/N:

Yayayayay~~ forever flailing. I dunno why. Just wanna flail.

THANKS FOR READING! Please, tell us what you think, good or bad!

Love, Thalia and Peri