The Toad
It took them twenty minutes to reach King's Cross on foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius, in dog form, scaring a couple of cats for their entertainment. Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through onto platform nine and three quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over the departing students and their families.
As Mrs Weasley hugged everyone goodbye, Fred and George ran to Lee to "discuss business" and Emmie found Juniper.
As the pair found an empty compartment Emmie told Juniper about her time in number twelve Grimmauld Place.
"And then Ginny walked in so we stopped but I don't know if I wished it... Escalated you know?"
"You know what I would do," Juniper replied as they sat down, "but it's really up to you. You said you wanted to take things slow but you know you can go back on that,"
"Yeah I guess. I don't know," Emmie shrugged.
As the train gathered speed, Harry and Ginny came to the doorway of the compartment.
"D'you mind if we join you, everywhere else is full?" Ginny asked, "yeah, of course come in," Emmie replied smiling.
"Where's Ron and Hermione?" Juniper asked, "prefect carriage," Harry replied rolling his eyes.
"So, did you have a good summer, Juniper?" Ginny asked as they sat down. "Yeah pretty good," Juniper replied before smirking, "I know Emmie had a brilliant summer,"
"Yeah," Ginny laughed, "shut up you two," Emmie shook her head but laughed along with them.
"Why, am I missing something?" Harry asked, "oh no, it's nothing."The food trolley came passed followed by Hermione and Ron.
"I'm starving," said Ron, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat next to him. He ripped open the wrapper, bit off the frog's head and leaned back with his eyes closed as though he had had a very exhausting morning.
"Well there are two fifth-year prefects from each house," said Hermione as she took her seat next to Ginny. "Boy and girl from each."
"And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?" Asked Ron still with his eyes closed.
"Malfoy," replied Harry at once, "course," said Ron as he stuffed the rest of the frog into his mouth and took another.
"And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson," said Hermione, "how she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll... "
"Who are Hufflepuff's?" Emmie asked, "Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott," Ron replied, "and Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw," Hermione added.
At last, the train began to slow down, Hermione and Ron quickly left the compartment so they could supervise everyone and Emmie, Juniper, Harry and Ginny grabbed their luggage.Finally they arrived at the school and filed into the Great Hall for the start of term feast. Emmie and Juniper took their seat at the Hufflepuff table and gave a quick wave to Fred, George and Lee on the Gryffindor table.
"Who's that?" Juniper pointed towards the middle of the staff table.
Emmie's eyes followed hers to the woman sat beside Dumbledore who resembled an ugly toad dressed all in pink. Emmie grimaced, "I suppose it's the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher,"
"I bloody hope not."The new first years were sorted into their houses and the feast appeared. "Yum, steak and kidney pie," Emmie said loading it onto her plate, "this school always do the best roast potatoes," Juniper replied.
"Well, now we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start of term notices," said Dumbledore when all the students had finished eating. "First years ought to know that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students. We have two changes in staffing this year, we are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher."
There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause before Dumbledore continued, "tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the -"
He broke off as Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "thank you, Headmaster," she simpered, "for those kind words of welcome. Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say and to see such happy little faces looking up at me. I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends."
"That's likely," Emmie heard the twins say in unison from her table.
Umbridge cleared her throat again, "the Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance and every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to this historic school. I am here to help us move forward into a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability, intent of preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited." She sat down and Dumbledore applauded her.
"What does that mean?" Juniper whispered to Emmie, Emmie shrugged, "I think it means the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts,"
"But why would they do that?"
"Have you been reading the Daily Prophet?" Juniper shook her head, "well they all think it's bullshit, what Harry said about You-Know-Who returning,"
"Is it not?"
"What?" Emmie asked, "well I just thought, it probably is bullshit, you know," Juniper shrugged, "what are you on about, of course it's not. He killed Cedric,"
"Well you don't know that, do you?"
"Are you kidding me?" Emmie asked, "what?"
"You're telling you don't believe that he's back?"
"Yeah," Juniper shrugged, "what is wrong with you,"
"Gulping gargoyles why are you being so soft?"
"What? I'm not," Emmie replied, "why are you being such an idiot?"
"Oh yeah, that's me. An idiot as always," Juniper replied, "you know you're not as bright as you think, believing all these conspiracy theories."
"Jesus, you sound just like my mum."- Princexiero xx
YOU ARE READING
Bumblebee (A Fred Weasley Fanfiction)
Fanfic~COMPLETED~ Emmie Nightingale is going into her fifth year of Hogwarts when she meets a pair of mischievous twins. Can she maintain a relationship with Fred Weasley while a war is starting around them?