Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Well, would you look who it is?" she said, coming to a stop ahead of Lily.

Through the window to a compartment, Lily saw the four other members of the sextet, laughing. She made eye contact with Hugo, who stood from his seat beside the window and slid open the door.

"I'm sorry," he said, the door only open enough for him to fit his head through. "Only cool people are allowed in this compartment."

"Ha. Ha," Lily said, grabbing for the door when Hugo shut it suddenly, almost closing Lily's fingers in the process. Lily recoiled to save her fingers.

Before Lily could say another word, Hugo slid the door open a sliver as wide as his mouth, "Like I said, only cool people allowed. No annoying, female cousins."

"I'm not your annoying, female cousin," Cassie said.

"Alright, I suppose you can come in Cassie, but not you, Lily!"

"And why not?" Lily asked, placing her free hand on her hip.

"Because I like to annoy you."

"And you say that I'm the annoying cousin."

"Correction: I said that you were an annoying, female cousin. The keyword being female. I am not your annoying, female cousin."

"No, you're my annoying, male cousin."

"Hugo, just let them in the stupid compartment," Rudy said.

"No, Lily's insulted my integrity," Hugo said. "And I can't let Cassie in because if I let her in, Lily will just come in right after her."

"What? You can't hold off your own cousin?" Eli asked.

"Have you seen me?" Hugo asked. "My physique is that of a limp noodle."

Lily couldn't deny that. Hugo was growing like a weed, and his weight was not keeping up. Her Uncle Ron liked to joke that the wind could blow Hugo over.

"Hugo," Lily said, tilting her head to the side and trying not to break out into a smile. "I don't even know what the word physique means."

"SHE'S STEALING MY SHTICK!" Hugo yelled loud enough for the entire train to hear.

"You don't know what physique means?" Cassie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I do," Lily said. "I just said that to annoy Hugo. It's fun."

"Mission accomplished. Entry granted," Hugo said, shaking his head and sulking back to his window seat.

"I guess you just have to annoy him enough to break him down," Cassie said, walking into the compartment.

"It's something that I've learned over the years," Lily said, entering the compartment and closing the door.

"Welcome into the compartment, finally," Nora said, laughing and getting up to hug Lily and Cassie.

Lily hugged her friend, said hello to the boys, and put her trunk up on the rack before sitting down in between Hugo and Rudy. They talked quickly about their Christmas holidays before Lily decided to bring up a pressing matter.

"So Hugo, did you bring them up to speed on everything?" Lily asked, ready to talk to her friends about the revolution.

"Was I supposed to?" he asked.

"No, I didn't tell you to," Lily said, shaking her head. "I was just curious. I didn't want to rehash everything if everyone already knew."

"Knew about what?" Eli asked.