when i saw her standing there -- louis weasley

chapter one

It was the morning of September 1st, the start to another year at Hogwarts. Sixteen year-old Louis Weasley was still in bed when his sister, Victoire, called up the stairs.

"Louis! Dom! Get up, you've got a train to catch today!" Louis stirred and could hear his other sister, Dominique, exiting her room across the landing from his room. He rolled over and rubbed his eyes before getting up and going into the bathroom that connected to his room and the guest room.

A couple minutes later, he was making his way down the stairs in his pajamas and fuzzy socks. When he entered the kitchen, Victoire turned around from her place at the stove where she was scrambling some eggs.

"Morning, Lou. Eggs will be ready in a minute."

Victoire was a very beautiful girl. She shared the same looks as their mother, that she and Louis had both inherited. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Recently she had cut her hair, it now stopped at her shoulders instead of her hips, and she reached up to play with it every now and then.

"Where's Mum and Dad?" He asked, taking his regular seat at the table in the corner of the kitchen.

"Dad's downstairs doing the last load of laundry for you two and Mum is still asleep, I think." She stepped into the hallway and called up the stairs again. "Dom! Breakfast!" Then she returned to the stove and flipped the eggs once more before serving them onto five plates. Dominique soon appeared in the kitchen, yawning.

Dominique didn't look anything like her siblings. Sure, they shared some features, like they all got the same Weasley nose, but the only trait she had gotten from her mother was the blue eyes. Other than that, she had wild, long red hair, the same shade as her father and the rest of the Weasleys. She also wore glasses, which were normally a pair of round tortoiseshell frames, but today she had her contacts in.

"Morning, Dom. Your plate is on the table. Would you get glasses and orange juice out while I wake Mum up?" Victoire then took the stairs two at a time and they could hear her footsteps across the upstairs landing. Louis started eating and Dominique retrieved the glasses and orange juice and brought them to the table with her before sliding into her seat beside Louis. About fifteen minutes later, Victoire had returned with their mother, Fleur, and their father, Bill, had come up from the basement with a basket full of clean laundry. They all sat down for breakfast and ate together before they each left to get ready for the day.

"Lou, Dom, remember to be down here at half past ten to get to the train station, alright?" Fleur reminded them. Both kids nodded and disappeared up the stairs into their bedrooms. She then felt two arms circle around her waist and a kiss pressed to her cheek. She smiled and turned around to see her husband. Bill and Fleur were a beautiful couple. Bill was around six feet and Fleur was at five foot seven inches and they were a visually attractive couple. Fleur looked very similar to Victoire, just older, and was starting to get some grey hairs at her roots. Bill looked like every other Weasley, except for the tattoos on his upper arms and the scar across his face from when he was attacked by a werewolf.

Soon, just as Fleur had told them, all five Weasleys were in the front room in front of the fireplace, with their jackets on and the two trunks in tow, they stepped into the fire and disappeared to the train station.

As they entered King's Cross Station, the two kids grabbed trolleys and loaded their trunks onto them. They boarded the train, chatting with their friends and waved goodbye to their parents as the train pulled out of the station.

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Once on the train, Louis and Dominique made their way down the little hallway, after having dropped their trunks off in the luggage compartment.

"Dom! Louis! Over here!" They looked ahead and saw their cousin, James, leaning out of a compartment, waving to his cousins. Louis waved back and he and Dominique joined them in the compartment. Dominique immediately joined Roxanne and Lucy by the window and Louis sat down with James and they started setting up a game of Exploding Snap. Louis had his head down, shuffling the deck of cards through his hands when James bumped his arm.

"Mate, somebody's trying to talk to you." He gestured towards the compartment door where a dark haired girl, waving at Louis. He reached over and slid the door open and greeted her. 

"Hey, Melissa, what's up?" Melissa Jeremy was a fellow sixth year, but she belonged to Ravenclaw house. They had had classes together in the past and were kind of friends.

"Oh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime? Like at Hogsmeade or something?"

"Are you asking me on a date?"

"I mean.. not really. We are just friends, Louis," she lowered her voice," but my friend Lenna kind of likes you and wants me to bring you with us to Hogsmeade."

"Oh, sorry, I'm going with my friends. Tell Lenna I think she is very nice, but I'd rather stay friends."

"Alright, I'll tell her. See ya later, Louis!" She waved goodbye and ran off to her compartment and Louis shut the compartment door.

"One of your many admirers, Lou?" James grinned at his cousin. Rolling his eyes, Louis sat back down in his seat. Reaching for a Chocolate Frog, he unwrapped it and studied the card. "Bet you she likes the blonde hair..." James continued, but Louis had tuned him out, reading the Chocolate Frog card in his hands. It wasn't a particular interesting card, but Louis always read them, wanting to know more about powerful witches and wizards of the past. He had at least ten of the cards of Minerva McGonagall and one of each Harry, Ron, and Hermione, his uncles and aunt.

James and Louis played a round of Exploding Snap before Louis drifted off to sleep and woke up barely in time to get changed before they arrived. The train pulled into the station and hundreds of students stepped off. In the distance, he heard Hagrid call for the first years while he entered a carriage with James, Dominique, Roxanne, and Lucy. The carriages were pulled by thestrals, who were invisible to anyone who hadn't watched somebody die. Thankfully, none of the Weasley cousins had seen anyone die, so they couldn't see the creatures.

When they were settled in, and the carriage started moving, Roxanne asked, "When should we schedule the first sleepover of the year for?" The Weasley sleepovers was a tradition that Victoire and Molly had started when they were at Hogwarts. About once a month, all the Weasleys would have a sleepover in the Room of Requirement since they were all spread throughout the four different houses. The tradition had continued on even after Victoire finished her time at Hogwarts.

Lounging in his seat, James replied, "Roxy, we always do it the second week back at Hogwarts, let's keep it the same to avoid any confusion."

"I agree," Louis added.

"Okay, don't forget about it then. We don't want only half of us showing up like last year," she gave Lucy and Louis a look, "Look at that, we're here already!" Roxanne busied herself with making sure she had her cloak securely around her shoulders, as it was pouring down rain outside the carriage.

Louis peered out the window as the carriage pulled up to the school. "Get ready, guys. We're gonna have to make a run for it!"

Once the carriage had stopped right outside the gates, the five Weasleys held their cloaks around themselves and dashed for the castle. Once safely inside, the group caught their breath and shook the rain off.

"Good evening, Weasleys. I expect the rest of you should be coming in soon?" Professor McGonagall approached the group.

"Hello, Professor! As far as I know, we all made it to the station this morning!" Roxanne cheerily responded to her Head of House.

"Excellent, you'd better get into the Great Hall. The first years will be here soon!"