𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐑 [g. weasley]

chapter eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

DAPHNE BLACK GROANED as she roamed within the seemingly endless hallway of the train, her grey eyes searching through its compartments to find her childhood friends with an urgency she had never felt before. Her judgment was clouded as her heart began to thump through her ears, the noise of the wind whispering to the quivering child beneath her cold exterior.

     Daphne's thoughts waltzed back to her friends. Where were they? The grey-eyed girl's mind couldn't comprehend a reality in which they would've abandoned her.

     She shook the thoughts away from her head. To her, the weight of her trunk was greater than any worry that could haunt her thoughts. She was growing tired and needed to settle down. That was her grounding thought. And in an almost twist of fate, her eyes wandered down to the compartment habited with two redhead boys.

     Daphne Black's mind had set its claws on the empty seat beckoning her to rest. And with that, the young girl pulled her lips into the warmest smile she could muster as her muscles ached to rest.

     "Hi," said Daphne as the boys turned to look at the blonde girl through the door as her lips moved into the mimicry of a smile. "Mind if I join you two? The rest of the compartments seem rather crowded."

     "Not at all," said the younger twin, seemingly enraptured. "Right, Fred?"

     "Yeah, sure," replied the older twin, raising his brow to his twin before turning back to the blonde at the door. "Need a hand with that?"

     "That would be delightful."

     Fred Weasley shot up from his seat with his brother as they dragged the trunk inside. George's giddy expression faltered as the weight of the grey-eyed witch's luggage suddenly jolted through his ribs.

     "Put your whole house into this, have you?" spoke George as Daphne's face broke into the tiniest bit of a grin, almost suddenly as if life had decided to burst through her cold, clouded eyes — a glow to the mercurial grey that blinked owlishly at the boys.

     "It's better to be overpacked than to have missing things around."

     "True," said Fred as the young boys took the seat across from Daphne's. "Is this your first year?"

     "Yeah. I reckon it's the same with you two."

     "Yeah!" said the older twin. Then, he stretched his hand for Daphne to shake. "I'm Fred Weasley. And this starstruck git next to me is my brother, George Weasley."

     Daphne Black found herself giggling like a little kid as she shook Fred Weasley's hand, the tug on her lips melting the stiff and calculated tone of her poise. "I'm Daphne Black."