Frozen Lily

Chapter 2 - Return of the puppy dog

I'm shaken awake by Mia and have just enough time to yawn, rub my eyes and pat down my hair before the compartment door is slid open and the rosy-cheeked trolley witch leans in. "Anything from the trolley dears?" she asks, santa-like twinkle in her eyes. I fumble in my pockets and bring out a handful of Sickles. "Two cauldron cakes, a box of Bertie Bott's and pumpkin juice please."

We have a game in the compartment with the every flavour beans. It's sort of like a russian roulette, but worse because you have to stick with the aftertaste of the jelly beans for ages. I watch Chloe take a white jelly bean from my open box and warily bite down on it. She pulls a face.
"Spearmint."
Everyone turns to me and I take my time choosing one from the box. It's a odd green. I take a glance at everyone else and know they won't let me choose a different one. I throw it in my mouth and chew quickly, trying not to get any of the taste. It's pear - praise the baby Potter.

By the time I'm done, Mia's already picked a chocolate brown one and triumphantly puts it in her mouth. We all laugh as she makes a face and spits it out, coughing. "Water... I need water..." I pull my water bottle out of the side pocket of my trunk and offer it to her, giggling. At that moment the compartment door slides open again and one of my least favourite people appears. Not Meredith. Aaron. He's Mia's little brother - a first year - and is completely crazy - he has this weird crush on me like some obsessed puppy and won't take 'no, sorry' for an answer. I hurriedly lean backwards in my seat and hide behind Jessica's bushy auburn curls.

"Mia, mum gave me your lunch instead of mine, there's no roll up in it... I specifically asked for a fruit roll up... No, i didn't eat it and try to have your lunch..." I hear him pause. "Who do we have here? Future Mrs Atkinson I see." I let out a sigh of annoyance at his nasal voice and sit up. "I'm not your girlfriend, Aaron. I don't remotely like you. I've told you before." I stick out my tongue immaturely and slip behind Jessica again, while he pretends to act hurt.
I can't invite Mia over because of Miley and Riley, and neither can I go to hers because of Aaron. I narrow my eyes at his gelled up black spikes and defiant grin.
"We'll see about that. Anyway, gimme your roll up Mia."  She reluctantly hands over the roll up, grumbling.
"He'll just get worse, better not give him a reason to be as bad as last year..."

I grimace at the memory. Last year was Aaron's 1st year at Hogwarts. Aside from following me and Mia around for the first 6 months, once he swapped Mignon's owl treats with Dungbombs. Mia had to take her to the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Grubbly-Plank Jr. On Valentine's Day I had the misfortune of having a gnome follow me around between lessons, singing a cheesy and embarrassing love song at the top of his voice. Pfft. No guess who that came from.

Eventually the train turns a corner around a copse of trees and we can see Hogwarts coming up in the distance. I slowly stand up, stretching and yawning as I pull my robes over my head, the rest of my friends doing the same. I smooth out my robes and take out a hairbrush before brushing out the accumulated tangles and knots in my wavy blonde hair.

"We're supposed to put our robes on now - " a snide voice states. I turn to the doorway and see Lana Arboin, a French Ravenclaw girl in my year, poised as she takes in our compartment. I look at the others and notice Mia flailing around with her robes tangled around her head, her bright yellow Adventure Time t-shirt standing out like a sore thumb amidst the black robes.

I struggle to hold back a giggle as I reply to Lana. "We're fine, we know - Mia do you want any help there? - Oh no, you've knocked over Mignon's cage..."

I smile apologetically at Lana and go and pick up Mia's owl's cage, setting it back on the chair. I poke an owl treat through the bars and finally stand up, tugging Mia's robes down and grinning at her.

"Anyway, the driver says we're arriving in a few minutes, so you'd better get ready." She looks meaningfully at Mia's messy brown bun and wrinkled robes before turning and stalking down the corridor. Mia walks up to the door and blows a raspberry at Lana's retreating figure, just loud enough that she can't hear. I collapse in my chair, overcome by the giggles as Mia closes the door and sits back down next to Chloe, who was also holding back a laugh.

I peer out of the window and see the Hogsmeade station coming up on us fast. I take down my trunk and check over our seats, making sure I haven't left anything behind. As the train slows to a stop I head out into the corridor, pulling my trunk along with me. I step off of the train, Mia, Chloe and Jessica close behind. Jumping off of the platform, I hurry to one of the carriages and leave my trunk on one of the luggage trolleys. I vault into a seat and am closely joined by Chloe and Mia.

I peer outside of one of the windows and see Jess, fifty feet back, talking to Professor Longbottom, the Herbology teacher. What he's doing out here I don't know, but eh.

"JESS! Get your skinny butt in here!" Chloe yells, and luckily at that moment Professor Longbottom had an almighty sneezing fit. I turned back into the carriage and saw Mia, hastily stowing her wand away and high-fiving Chloe. I snicker as Jess throws open the door and squishes herself into the seat. The carriage begins trundling along and I turn and see Professor Longbottom look around, bewildered. I glance back at Jessica and grin.

"What'd I miss?" She states, looking back and forth at us.

"Nothing, just some of Mia's amazing spell accuracy..."

I turn back to the window and watch the landscape go by as we near Hogwarts.