Packing up for the summer holidays is the worst thing to do. You can't forget anything or else the house elves will steal it. I made that mistake first year. I forgot a blouse, thinking that it will just be mailed to me over the summer. But when I showed up for second year I saw a house-elf wearing it as a dress.
Clarissa no longer talks to either Emma or me. She doesn't even look in my direction when I wish her a happy holiday before I leave the dorm. It hurts, quite a lot. But I'm happy that it happened now rather than years into the future. Knowing where she stands is important. Figuring out where I stand is important too and I think I've finally started to accept that its okay to go against your family when it comes to certain beliefs.
"All packed Draco?" I ask him when I see him in the common room.
"Yes ma'am. Checked under my bed and everything." Draco waves to his friends and promises to sit with them on the train. He follows me to the common room door and we head off to the train together.
"How'd you like your first year?"
Draco shrugs, his trunk hitting mine as we leave the dungeons. "It was good. Too much classwork though. It would have been better if Potter was sorted into Slytherin. Then there wouldn't have been a Weasley running around. I could have been his friend." Draco starts on one of his rants about how much of a better friend he would have made in comparison to Ron but I have mastered the art of tuning him out and that is exactly what I do.
"Wait, Violet. Who takes care of the common room cat while we are away for the break?" Draco asks.
Truth is I haven't thought of it. "I assume it falls on the house-elves." Draco and I leave the castle, along with a group of other students. We load our trunks in the self pulling carriages and they drive us down to the train platform. Students bustle back and forth, saying goodbye to their favourite professors and such. Draco and I pass Hagrid, who is hugging Harry tightly. Draco gags.
"You know. If you didn't do stuff like that, I'm sure Harry would be your friend." I haul my trunk onto the train and then step back onto the platform to help Draco. Walter and Emma get off the self-driving carriages and come over to help me with Draco's trunk.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you won't be sitting in the Slytherin car?" Walter says once we are all loaded into the train.
"You don't mind do you?" I ask them.
Walter and Emma look at each other before Emma responds. "Actually, we were wondering if we could sit with you and the twins."
"And Lee of course!" Walter says cheerily. Together we walk towards the car that Fred called me into the first time we went to Hogwarts. They have sat there every year since, and they gently bully people out of the booth if someone gets there first.
I knock politely on the door, Fred slides it open. "You need a place to sit?" he says in the same voice he used three years ago.
"Do you mind? I've brought some friends along." I step into the booth and Emma and Walter follow.
"More the merrier!" Lee says cheerily.
I sit beside George and lean my head on his shoulder. Emma sits beside me, Walter sits on the opposite bench with Fred and Lee. For the next few hours, we joke and remember the year together. I try to soak up as much of it as possible, knowing that during the summer it's going to be nearly impossible to see George and Fred. And knowing my Uncle it's going to be hard to talk to them too. Uncle Lucius is notorious for intercepting mine and Dracos mail. Once the train pulls into kings cross station, all six of us are changed into our street clothes. Everyone but George and I leave the booth.
"Try not to forget me over the summer holidays," I say to him once we are alone.
George laughs quietly. "As if that's even possible" He whispers, pulling me close and kissing me gently.