LOVE ISN'T EASY (but it sure is hard enough)

MAY 28TH, 1995

Lee Jordan was the best friend anyone could ever wish for. Fred and George Weasley had known this since the day they had first met him.

On September 1st, 1989, Lee boarded the train to Hogwarts feeling completely alone. In an empty carriage, the trees looked as though they went on for miles. There wasn't much else to look at, his breath fogging up the window as he searched for something exciting.

He didn't have to wait very long to find it. Or rather, for it to find him.

Two identical sounding laughs came from down the corridor, a knock on the glass window of the carriage door.

"Can we sit with you?"

"Everywhere else is full."

Lee nodded, narrowing his eyes at the identical boys who now sat opposite him.

"I'm Lee."

"He's George."

"And he's Fred."

After that moment, even for years after, Lee could've sworn that he had never stopped smiling.

The rest of the journey was a blur, his new best friends telling countless stories about pranks they had pulled and tales from the place they called The Burrow, laughing the entire time. Lee even laughed after their boat had tipped over into the lake, the girl who sat with them looking miserable as Hagrid pulled her out of the water. But the twins kept laughing.

The sorting ceremony was incredibly nerve wracking, his peers whispering the most insane ideas about what they would have to do. Fred and George had been convinced by their two oldest brothers that they would have to wrestle a troll, Lee's head spinning at the thought.

He was incredibly relieved to see that it was only a beaten up old hat.

Lee had remembered the sorting of a quiet brunette girl with a ribbon in her hair, the hat sitting on her head for only a few seconds before deeming her a Hufflepuff. She blushed at the applause, avoiding eye contact with everyone before she sat beside a smiling brunette boy.

George's attention was on her as she walked to her spot, and as soon as he saw Lee watching him, he turned back to the stool.

Lee was sorted next, and he felt as though he could have been sick as the hat spoke directly to him, the hall deathly quiet.

It didn't take long for him to be sorted into Gryffindor. Fred and George were the loudest cheers out the bunch.

The students fell silent as a girl was called up, whispers carrying around the room. He recognised her last name, but didn't realise who she actually was. She was sorted into Slytherin, and nobody he was sitting around seemed surprised at all.

Fred was sorted first, looking far more confident than his brother who watched him. The hat had barely touched his hair before it called out Gryffindor. Lee cheered, a grin spreading over Fred's face as he took a seat opposite his new mate. George followed not too long after, his energy far more nervous than Fred's.

Lee met Juno for the very first time at fourteen years old.

After a particularly excellent prank, involving the Slytherin common room and some Peruvian Darkness Powder, the three boys had been split up into separate detentions. Fred with Snape, George with Filch, and Lee with Lockhart.

In some ways, Lee felt as though he was the unluckiest out the bunch. Over the years, he had served countless detentions with the caretaker and the potions master, but he felt his head start to ache at the thought of spending an hour alone with the big-headed DADA "professor".