Younger Than Springtime

Chapter One

Julianna opened her eyes to the sound of birds chirping out her window. She sat up, refreshed from a good night's sleep, and rolled out of bed to get ready for the long train ride. She was excited. Her sixth year as a Hogwarts student. Although there was clearly tension in the Wizarding World due to You-Know-Who's return, and her father being heavily involved in such matters, it wasn't any of her business, therefore she shouldn't be concerned.

After a final brush of her hair, a straightening of her shirt, and a deep breath in front of the mirror, she met her brother at the top of the staircase as she was heading down to breakfast. "You ready for the best year yet?" Graham said with a grin on his face. "I'm prepared for the studying, but definitely not prepared for whatever you and Theo have planned." She replied with a nudge to his shoulder as they descended the long staircase to the dining room. "Oh no" he said, shaking his head. "We are planning to be very well behaved this year." As they reached the dining room he stopped and whispered in her ear, "Except for the parties with the weed and drinks, and the pranks we're gonna pull on old Flitwick during class." He pulled back with a smirk on his face as she narrowed her eyes. She had a soft spot for her head of house, and despised the Slytherin in her brother when he teased her about it. Although she was nice to everyone she met, she only deeply cared about a certain number of people, and Graham Montague took advantage of the fact that he was one of them whenever he could.

The twins only had twenty minutes to eat their food before their parents were hurrying them to stand with their luggage so they could apparate. Not yet being old enough to apparate by themselves, Graham was with his father, Julianna with her mother, and they all arrived on Platform 9 ¾. A hug and a kiss goodbye to each parent, and Julianna was on the platform with Graham, looking for their groups. They found the Slytherin compartment first. "Hello everybody" Graham said as he slid into one of the two remaining seats. "Hey guys" Julianna greeted from the door to the compartment. "Jules!" Pansy squealed as she leapt from her seat to greet her friend. "Pans!" Julianna replied embracing her childhood friend that she practically considered to be her sister. "It's been absolutely ages" the black haired girl said as she continued to hug Julianna. "It really has. How did you all fare over the summer?" Was her reply to the rest of the group. "Not nearly as well as I would have if you came to visit me Jules." Julianna rolled her eyes as the flirtatious Theodore Nott continued to flash his handsome smile at her, before getting up to hug her as well. "I think we are all going to have to agree with Theodore on that one" Blaise said as he too came to hug Julianna. "Especially Draco according to how his summer went" he continued. "Aw did you miss me Mr. Malfoy?" Julianna asked with a grin on her face. Draco rolled his eyes and replied in as serious a voice as he could muster "I dreaded the day I would have to see your face again Montague." but he couldn't finish the sentence without a smile coming to his face as he got up to hug his friend. "Good to see you" he said as he hugged her. "Good to see you too" she smiled. "Well I better be off to find Padma. I'll see you all later." She called as she continued down the train to find one half of the Patils. "Bye Jules." the Slytherins replied as she walked away waving with a smile on her face.

Her relationship with her brother and the rest of the Slytherin group was very special, and very important to her. The first thing she thought when she got sorted into Ravenclaw was that her brother and best friend would hate her because she wasn't in Slytherin. But her worries were put to rest when they told her they weren't mad at her at all, because at least she wasn't in Gryffindor. That would have made them angry. So, because Ravenclaw as a whole was in a neutral stance between the Gryffindor and Slytherin feud, she was welcomed into their group whenever she felt like joining, and in so became very close with all of them. Pansy Parkinson was her long lost soul sister, Astoria Greengrass was her best friend, and she truly felt like Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle were her brothers, while of course Graham Montague was her actual brother. She loved them all so very dearly.

As she was walking down the train she bumped into the last member of the Slytherin gang. "Tori! darling I've missed you so much." She exclaimed as she hugged her best friend. "Oh Jules you have no idea how much." Astoria replied as she returned the long awaited hug. "This summer has been absolutely awful with me not being able to see you or the rest of the group." she frowned. "I completely agree, which is why it is absolutely killing me to tell you that I have to go find Padma immediately to discuss potions and such, but I'll see you after the feast. Everyone else is in the compartment at the very end of the hall." "Thank you darling. See you tonight" Astoria waved as she set off with her luggage to go find the rest of the Slytherins.

Julianna finally found the compartment with her Ravenclaw friends, and after greetings and hugs, sat down to discuss their academic plans for the year. "Well of course I'm excited about Astronomy and Charms, but I'm absolutely dreading Potions." Julianna was very smart and was in the top five for almost every single class, but the one subject she struggled on and was very glad to be rid of, was Potions. She was surprised when she got an Exceeds Expectations on her Potions OWL (she thoroughly expected to get a Troll) but relieved because at least she wouldn't have to take it for her sixth year since Professor Snape only would take on students who received an Outstanding. However, that feeling of relief was short lived when she was informed that the new Potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, was more than willing to allow students who got an Exceeds Expectations on their OWL to take his class. There was no way she would be able to keep up this year. She had barely retained the information from the past five years on the dreadful subject, she would not be able to successfully complete a sixth. Although it was a humiliating thought, she was carefully considering asking someone to tutor her.

"Oh come off it Anna you're gonna do fine" Terry Boot responded. That was one of the differences between the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws. The group in green gave her the nickname "Jules" while the blue group called her "Anna". The other difference was that, while with the Slytherins she felt like she belonged, with the Ravenclaws, she truly felt like an outsider. But now is not the time to be thinking about herself and her feelings about the cliques. She was starting her sixth year. She was a NEWT student, and she was going to have the time of her life. Nobody was going to stop that.

Many hours later, the train stopped at their destination. Julianna, Padma, Terry, Michael Corner, and Miranda Flockton exited their compartment and made their way to the carriages. Julianna petted one of the thestrals manes and back before climbing in and taking a seat between Padma and Miranda. She was one of the few people she knew who could see the thestrals. You could only see a thestral if you had seen death. She had been with her family as she watched her Grandfather take his last breath just three years ago. It was hard on her. She still missed him, and every time she saw the beautiful black creatures a little nudge in her heart occured, and she wished she could have given him one last kiss on the cheek.

"Earth to Anna" Miranda waved a hand in front of her face. "We asked you how your summer went?" "My apologies" Julianna faltered after being awoken from her day dreaming. "Pretty boring if I'm being honest. Graham and I weren't allowed out of the house so we were stuck playing board games and practicing quidditch every day for hours on end." "Why weren't you allowed to leave the house?" Michael questioned. Shoot. Her daydreaming made her lose her focus. "Oh, we had a nasty case of the flu that spread throughout the entire household. Took the whole summer to be rid of it." She replied in a hopefully very convincing tone. "That's nasty" Padma said as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Indeed" Julianna agreed. The conversation bounced back and forth as everyone talked about their summer, from exiting the carriage to sitting down in the great hall.

Julianna was glad she didn't have to talk too much. She was feeling quite tired after the long ride, and she couldn't trust herself to talk about recent events without accidentally revealing some part of her family's secret. The Montague's were very involved with You-Know-Who before his fall, and so they had to be very careful how they played their cards now that he is back. Graham and Julianna weren't allowed in public in case people decided to question them, and they didn't want to bring attention to the fact that meetings between the adults were being had on a weekly basis, so they were holed up for the whole summer. Dumbledore's speech was short, and the food was soon gone. Julianna made her way to Ravenclaw tower to change into comfy clothes before making her way down to the Slytherin dungeons.