When Love Strikes (A Marauders Era Fanfic)

Chapter Four

Chapter four

The sun was shining brightly in the blue sky above. There was no cloud to be seen and no breeze to be felt.

The heat that the sun brought with it, was radiating off the many shops in Diagon Alley. It was so hot that you could actually see heat rising from the cobbled street below. The warmth even created illusions of rippling water in the distance.

For what must have been the fifteenth time since she had arrived here, Grainne wished that she had been wiser in her choice of clothing. She was wearing a dark blue dress of a fabric rather too thick for a summer's day like this. The black Muggle All Stars she was wearing as footwear had also been a bad choice.

She tried to think about other things, for the more she thought about her clothing the more she became aware of an irritating feeling that was growing inside her stomach.

Of course the way her aunt had behaved towards her over the past weeks was also playing a part in the way she was feeling.

Ever since her aunt had read her acceptance letter of Hogwarts, she had been going on, non- stop, in how lucky Grainne had been.

She had told her niece that the Headmaster of Hogwarts had probably gone through a lot of trouble in assuring a place for her at his school. She had also given many warnings that Grainne should behave herself at Hogwarts, for this school was her last option.

For if she would be expelled again, her aunt wouldn't send her to yet another school. So, Hogwarts was actually her last chance.

Next to all of this, her aunt had also been saying that Grainne better made sure that she would be sorted in a particular house, a house that had something to do with snakes? Of course she had no idea what her aunt had meant by this.

I bet my cousin could explain that to me, she thought.

As a matter of fact, she was on her way to meet her cousin at the ice- cream shop called Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour at this very moment.

She had come to a halt in the middle of the street, looking around for the shop. She knew she was close, but because of the many people she had a few difficulties with finding the exact location.

“Grainne! Over here!”

Grainne turned around and searched the crowd. In a few seconds she recognised her cousin, sitting by a table in front of the ice-cream parlour. She quickly walked to where Areihn was sitting and with every step she took, her smile widened.

When she had finally reached her cousin, the last one got up immediately to embrace her in a suffocating hug.

“Oh! I can't believe you are here, Grainne!”

Grainne felt herself grinning and tightened her embrace, “I know! It's been too long!”

“Yes! Way too long! Almost nine years I believe!”

Many emotions were felt by the cousins upon realising this. They hugged each other even harder, if that was even possible, and could feel tears forming behind their eyes. But the most overwhelming feeling was one of utter happiness.

When they finally pulled back, tears were indeed rolling from their cheeks and they couldn't help but grin at each other.

Then her cousin's eyes went over her, “Oh, you haven't changed a lot! You are still very pretty!”

Grainne laughed, “I think you've got that backwards! Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? You're the pretty one cuz.”

“Oh, don't start! Then we are both pretty, okay?”