LAZY [SEAMUS FINNIGAN]

01 | LONGBOTTOM & LEPRECHAUN

ONE || LONGBOTTOM & LEPRECHAUN

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    SOPHIE WASN'T REALLY fond of old ladies who pestered her non-stop. Unfortunately, Augusta Longbottom happened to be one of them. 

    "Those rowdy boys can't be the only brothers you have," she said, glancing at Teo and Gianni, who were currently slipping a worm into their older brother Joaquin's shirt.

    Sophie bit her lip. The two were standing at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, where the Hogwarts Express was resting in front of them. Sophie was to start her third year at Hogwarts, but it seemed like it would have to wait. When Mrs. Longbottom started a conversation, it would not stop until she wanted it to. 

    "Well..." said Sophie. "There's Benny-"

    "Benny?" said Augusta. "That can't be his actual name,"

    "It's his nickname," Sophie said, and it was hard not to clench her teeth. Old Augusta, as Sophie's father liked to call her, was known by the wizarding inhabitants of Puddlemere to be a severe and needy woman. Tall and bony, she towered over Sophie, who unwillingly felt weak and small in her presence. Her dark green hat topped with a stuffed vulture gave her the appearance of a hawk, ready to swoop down upon Sophie at any moment.

    This was one of the reasons Sophie didn't like Augusta Longbottom. Her dislike had less to do with Augusta herself, but more of the aura the old lady gave. Whenever Mrs. Longbottom talked, looked, or even just stood a few feet away from the Roper girl, Sophie suddenly felt insecure and not at all the woman Ms. Crawford had wanted her to be.

    Mrs. Longbottom seemed to carry herself with as much grandeur as one would show Albus Dumbledore, a high-ranking member of the Order of Merlin and headmaster of Hogwarts. This superiority Sophie couldn't stand. It was one thing to stand in someone's shadow, but another to feel inferior.

    "You must not lose the self-esteem that holds you, Sophie," Ms. Crawford had frequently told her. "Your self-esteem is the base of your success. If one does not have self-esteem, they are destined to crumple under the sheer weight of tasks they think they are incapable of doing,"

    Sophie did not want to crumple. She wanted to shine, to succeed in everything that came across her path. And she would not let Augusta Longbottom get in her way.

    "My brother's birth name," she said, puffing out her chest slightly, "Is Benvolio. If you are confused as to why my parents named him such, I will tell you that Benny has been nothing but a peace-maker among our quarrels, which is the meaning derived from his name. And yet, Benny is too modest to take pride in his special title, so he chose a common nickname instead,"

    The last part of her speech was simply made up by Sophie. She really didn't know why or how Benny was Benny instead of Benvolio. However, she hoped she had surprised Mrs. Longbottom with her boldness of her tone.

    Augusta did seem rather affronted that a thirteen-year-old girl spoke to her in such a rude tone, when she had simply asked a question. However, she said nothing of the matter and asked Sophie a different question instead.

    "Well...even with Benvolio, you must have more brothers," she said, eyeing Sophie sharply.

    Sophie indistinctly growled under her breath. She was prone to get easily ticked off at little things, like an old lady asking her questions when she wanted to board the train.

    "Mateo's the next eldest," she said. "And that's his birth name, since you won't have anything else,"

    Augusta had just enough time for her nostrils to dilate before her grandson, Neville, ran up to her, panting hard.

    "Gran-"

    "You've lost your toad again?" said Augusta, rounding on her grandson, but not before giving Sophie a sharp glare.

    Neville colored and nodded slowly, shuffling his feet. Augusta, on her part, let out such a deafening sigh that Sophie scrambled away out of fear than to be free of the old lady.

    Or perhaps a bit of both.

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   SOPHIE HAD NOT gone far when she bumped into another person. Given her luck, it happened to be the one and only Seamus Finnigan, and he was probably laughing his arse off at the sight of her humiliation.

    Sophie grabbed to pick up her fallen luggage, but not before she heard the familiar irish accent holler at her.

    "Why in the name of Merlin's breeches did you bump into me, Roper?"

    Sophie turned around to face him, and inwardly smirked when she saw that he was as disheveled as she was.

    "Why not?"

    Seamus's mouth dropped open in disbelief, but Sophie had turned and marched toward the gigantic crowd that was her family. 

    Seamus followed the girl with his eyes until she disappeared out of sight, then rounded on Dean Thomas, who had watched the whole scenario happen.

    "'Why not?'" Seamus said, mimicking Sophie's voice. "Honestly, you'd think she was Fudge with the temper of a leprechaun,"

    "A leprechaun?" said Dean, furrowing his thick brows.

    "Yeah, a leprechaun, all right," said Seamus. "I don't care how tall she is, she's still an angry leprechaun to the core,"

    Dean cleared his throat loudly. "Um...the train's about to leave in five minutes," he said. "Don't you think we better hop on?"  

    But the boy could tell that his sandy-haired friend was not exactly listening. In fact, he had that slight twinkle in his eye, that Dean was sure meant trouble was stirring. 

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poor Dean the smol bean