Lion's Roar

three

"Lana, thank Merlin," I said hugging my friend from behind. "I thought I was going to have to find a compartment by myself."

"I would never leave you alone," she said with a chuckle. The train lurched and I let go of her to steady myself before we began to head down the train until we found an empty compartment.

I flopped down, stretching myself out. It was gonna be a long ride so I might as well be as comfortable as possible. I pulled a book out from my strewn bag and opened it to where my I'd bookmarked it.

"Stop rolling your eyes," I said not looking up.

"I'm not rolling my eyes!" Lana exclaimed, her voice going slightly higher at the end. In turn, I rolled my own eyes, but didn't say anything more. I was only a few pages in when the compartment door opened again.

"Hullo ladies," a George Weasley said, followed by Fred and Lee Jordan. Lana let out a squeak and dived from her seat to my stomach, burrowing her face in my book.

"Bloody hell," I said pushing her off of me. She fell to the floor with a loud THUMP before scuttling back into her seat. "Merlin, are you trying to kill me? I mean you felt like a sack of bricks the way you landed on me. Might've even broke something. Oh no, I could be dying right now."

"How would you be dying from that?" Fred asked as he moved my feet and sat in their spot. I smacked my boot clad feet onto his lap and he looked conflicted on whether to move them or not.

"Maybe she broke a rib and it punctured my lung and now I'm dying!" I exclaimed, dropping my book and dramatically putting a hand to my forehead. "Better admit your undying love for me now as I might not be alive by the time we arrive."

"I think you'd feel it if she had broken a rib," George said grinning at his brother, "but you're probably right, we should admit our undying love just incase. Fred can go first."

"She's not dying," Fred said pointedly, his eyes avoiding my direction. His finger was tapping out a rhythm on my ankle.

"I could be. You don't know." I scooped up my book from the ground. There was a bump and I wound up face planted on the ground instead. "Are you bloody kidding me?"

Rather than get up, I flopped over so I was laying on the dirty, dusty ground.

"Juniper?" Lana said leaning over me. I squinted up and waved a hand in response. She leaned back in her seat, allowing me to continue my staring contest with the ceiling.

It took nearly the whole day before we arrived at Hogwarts and, even after six years, I was batshit crazy by the end of the trip. I had finished my book in record time, before bouncing between every seat in the teeny compartment. It was only when the twins pulled out Exploding Snap did I settle down and even that barely lasted.

"Bloody hell," George said rubbing at a spot on his head that I had accidently hit when my cards had exploded and I had jerked my head back. "How much energy can one small person have?"

"You wound me Weasley," I said placing a hand over my heart. "We all know I am not a 'small person'. Everybody else is just particularly larger sized."

"Yeah, yeah," George said shooing me off the train. I jumped down, waiting only a second for Lana before dragging her off to the carriages, muttering something about needing a good seat at the feast.

We were on one of the first carriages and before it had even stopped at the castle I had a hold on Lana's arm and was jumping out. I landed and immediately started running towards the castle, tugging her with me all the way. Almost as soon as my feet hit the ground, thunder rumbled overhead and ice-cold rain started pouring down.

"Juniper!" Lana finally yelped when I tripped and pulled her down with me. When had landed in a small pile of mud and I laughed at it splattered on her. She tried glaring at me, which only made me laugh harder. By the time George, Fred, and Lee had caught up to us, she was laughing along with me, both of us clutching at our side.

"You two alright?" Lee asked and I tried to speak. When I struggled to get any words out past my laughter, I just nodded and pushed myself up, using Lee's arm as a handle to help. He steadied me with a hand on my elbow. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," I said once I had caught my breath again. Lana was trying to glare at me again, but sputtering out giggles instead. "Merlin June, you need to watch out next time okay? Or at least don't pull me down with you."

"I didn't pull you down on purpose!" I argued as I helped her up.

"Uh huh, sure you didn't," Lana said with a smirk.

"I think she had some ulterior motive," George said with a grin and Lana gave me an accusing look.

"I knew it!"

"Bloody hell George! Don't turn my only friend against me! That would be just a slight bit rude!" I shouted as we made our way inside. McGonagall was standing just inside the door and gave me a look when she heard me. I grinned and waved, lowering my voice a bit as we walked through the giant wooden doors into the Great Hall. "I would rather not be friendless. Then I'd really be pathetic."

"Oh, like you're not already pathetic enough," Lana said standing on her tiptoes to push me down into a seat. I stuck my tongue out at her, but sat down anyway. We were near the back with the boys across from us. Students filtered past, each one happily gossiping with friends as their tummies rumbled.

Soon enough every student was sitting in a seat, with spots scattered around the room for the incoming first years.

10.14.2017 Gooooooooood evening ladies and gentlemen. How are y'all doing? It's been a wild couple of months (like over a year) since I last updated. hehe oops. Okay, so I'm another year older, another year sadder, and another year behind on all my faaaavorite TV shows. Currently watching Once Upon a Time and wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life and basically I'm trash. Okay, good day, pip pip diddly doo, have a nice day all.