𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙎𝙤 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 ―𝐣𝐬𝐩

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 - 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

Martha

We were all squished into the car. Mom and Dad were in the front, and I was crammed in the back with Nate and Merthin. Jack, Liz, and Aspen—who called dibs for the middle seat, avoiding my twin and her twin—occupied the middle. Jake and Claire were Apparating with little Noah, who always got way too excited to visit the platform, so it was either that or have him yell the entire ride to King's Cross Station. I was in the middle of both my brothers, with Merthin's leg slightly on top of mine and Nate's elbow on my left knee.

Quite comfortable, am I right? Note the sarcasm, please.

"Will you move?" I glared daggers at Merthin, who seemed unbothered. Instead of removing his leg from mine, no, he thought it would be funny to put it completely on top of me. I pushed his leg away with my hands, and he scowled at me.

"Nate."

"Mhmm?"

"Take your stupid elbow off my knee!" He turned his full attention to me and quickly removed his elbow. In the front seat, I could hear Mom and Dad talking about work, Jack and Liz about Hogwarts, and smug Aspen was staring at me with a smirk on her face.

Meanwhile, I was stuck at the back of the car with a sleepy Nate and a drooling Merthin. Yeah, that's right, Nate had his face pressed against the window, his blonde hair sticking up in all directions, and Merthin had his head on my shoulder while drooling all over his face.

Ew. So fucking gross. Seriously, how do girls back at Hogwarts find them even remotely attractive?

"Hey! Drool Boy! Wake up." Merthin breathed loudly and then closed his mouth, but his eyes stayed shut. I rolled my eyes at his sleeping figure, when I heard my little sister snicker. I pulled at her blonde curls in an attempt to shut her up. She whined but stopped smirking and rolled the window down to take a selfie with her hair being blown by the wind. Like, what the actual fuck, Aspen.

"Martha?"

"Yes."

"Take my hoodie." Why? He started taking his hoodie off, but I put my hand on top of his arm, gesturing for him to stop.

"I'm not cold. But thank you anyways." He cocked an eyebrow and smirked at me.

"It's not because of the cold, silly. It's to cover you up." Excuse me?

He proceeded to take off his sweater and placed it on my lap. Then, he poked Merthin's cheek, who in turn woke up and blinked for like one whole minute until he laid his head back down on my shoulder and kicked his shoes off. I was still confused as to why Nate would want me to cover my clothes with his hoodie.

"Cover me up from what?" I asked, frowning at Nate.

He grinned wickedly. "Well, Em, I didn't want to mention it, but you seem to have a bit of Merthin's drool on your shoulder."

"What?!" I looked down and, sure enough, there was a dark, wet spot on my shoulder. "Merthin, you disgusting slob shit!" I shoved him off my shoulder, and he finally woke up properly.

"Huh? What happened?" Merthin rubbed his eyes, completely oblivious.

"You happened! You drooled on me!"

Merthin shrugged. "It's just a bit of drool, Martha. Nothing to freak out about."

"Nothing to freak out about? This is your disgusting bodily fluid on my clothes!"

Aspen snickered again from the middle seat. "Well, at least it's not puke."

"Oh, shut the fuck up, Aspen," I snapped, trying to wipe the drool off with Nate's hoodie.