BREATHE - Marlene McKinnon ✔️

TWO.

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chapter two, the train
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EVERYONE BUT NORA were able to see Aria off. She was okay with it, she knew Nora had work. The fact that Mason came was impressive enough. He even gave her a hug before looking for food. Aria could relate to the food problem. No matter how much she ate, she always wanted more. As Kate said, her stomach was a bottomless pit.

"I'll miss you," Scout whispered to Aria, her arms tight around her. "Good luck with your Quidditch games and be careful." The idea of Quidditch always scared Scout. She didn't like heights or the fact that it was only a broom keeping Aria up in the air. Everything about it terrified her, but she supported Aria no matter what.

"I will. Good luck with your volleyball games. Write me how it goes." Scout had made her school's volleyball team and loved to tell stories of practice and the girls. Aria would listen to it all with a smile on her face.

Scout loved softball more but that season wasn't till the spring so she turned to volleyball. Aria doesn't know how she does it. The sports, school, and being a pretty good person. Ignoring Weston definitely helps.

"Bye dad, I'll see you later." She gives one last hug before pulling her stuff with her onto the train and into her's, Kate's, and Lucy's compartment.

Lucy was the first one there, as always. Lucy was a fellow Gryffindor in her year that didn't like playing Quidditch and loved pie. Any kind of pie. Cherry pie, apple pie, blueberry pie, peach pie. Just pie. Aria had seen Lucy make and eat a chocolate caramel pie. She doesn't know how she made it, or such thing could be made, but Lucy did. Aria was able to get a total of two bites before Lucy finished it.

Lucy was also knew a lot of random facts. From what Aria could tell, she never spent time finding them just to impress people with, she just knew them. One time, Aria looked them up to see if they were actually true: they were.

"Hey Luce, ready for another year?" Lucy, it looks like, was once again looking over her O.W.L. grades.

"What did you get on your O.W.L.s?"

"Umm... Acceptable in Transfiguration, DADA, and Care of Magical Creatures. Dreadful in History of Magic and Potions. Poor in Arithmancy. But I also got two Outstandings! One is Charms, can you guess the other?" Lucy perked up for a moment, before sinking again realizing the only other class her friend took.

"Was it Muggle Studies?"

"Yep!" Lucy rolled her eyes but nonetheless said she was proud. It was surprising enough that she only failed three classes. The only class Lucy was good at was Charms ( and Muggle Studies but Aria was the only one who counted that one ).

Lucy looked through her bag — probably to find some drink she stashed away for later — when Kate came in.

"Quick quick! Tell me! Is Professor McGonagall gonna let you play with your grades?" Aria froze, looking out the window and not at Lucy.

Aria should've known that Potter would hear. He could be on the other side of the country and hear.

"What!" James shoved his way in. "What did you do? Aria whatever-your-middle-name-is Sawyer, so help me, if you are banned from playing we will have trouble. You are grounded young lady, until your grades get better."

"Potter! Nothing even happened yet! McGonagall just... insinuated that if I did bad on my exams and O.W.L.s or whatever, then I wouldn't be allowed to play Quidditch." His eyes bugged out of his head, collapsing onto the seat.

"It's honestly a surprise she hasn't said anything yet." Kate comments, stealing a bag of candy from Aria.

"It's bad enough we lost Cassie and Tony. That means, we need a new seeker and a new chaser. Marlene said she'll fill in for seeker if we need it but then we'll need another beater and she and Sirius already work great together." Potter rubs his temples before shooting up. "That's it! We are studying every night! I'll even get Moony and Lily to help! No more failing for you!"

Aria sighed, standing up and pushing Potter out of their compartment. "Bye Potter."

"This is not over Ari! It is not over!"

"Yeah yeah." Once he was gone, Aria stole back her bag of candy. "Geez, he's such a mother." She absentmindedly picked through the bag for the red jellybeans.

"I cannot believe you. You can't just eat the red ones! What about blue! And green! And all other ones! You don't do jellybeans justice." Kate ripped the bag away from her, ignoring the whine Aria made.

Pouting, she curled up and ate the few red jellybeans she could grab.

Aria was always a picky eater. She liked oranges, but not orange juice. She liked mashed potatoes, but not baked potatoes. She only liked red jellybeans. She could eat four pieces of broccoli, but no more than that. Apples, but not apple sauce.

It all gave Kate a headache.

"What are you going to do about your grades?" Lucy asked, trying to pull the conversation back to something that mattered.

Aria shrugged, she hadn't thought about it. "They don't really matter to me. As long as they stay afloat long enough for me to play Quidditch, we're good."

"You can't just count on Quidditch to get you through life." Says the genius, Aria thought bitterly. Kate and Lucy were both smart, smarter than she would ever be. What one didn't know, the other did. She didn't understand how they could know so much and their heads not explode.

Knowing Quidditch strategies, techniques, games, teams, that was all different than knowing what plant puts people to sleep. Quidditch was actually fun, it kept her moving, it was her comfort thing. Most people had a comfort food, Aria had a comfort hobby ( her comfort sport was soccer, but Quidditch was the next best thing ).

"Well I am."

"That's a mistake Aria."

"But it's my mistake to make."