xxv.
CARRIAGES
"IT WAS A RAINY first night back at Hogwarts. You couldn't even see the stars in the sky as the students boarded the carriages to carry them up to the castle, and as much as Willow loved the rain, the cold air mixed with the rain pouring down aggressively made her want to just curl up in the common room by the fire.Willow and her two friends step off the train, holding their robes close to themselves and squinting to keep the raindrops from contacting their eyes. Willmur had the hood of his robe up and covering most of his face, while Willow was holding one of her trunks over her head. Dawn didn't care about the rain, she let it sink into her hair and even tilted her face upward to the sky to let the rain hit her face, which had a small smile on it.
"Hey, Jacobs!"
A voice called over the sound of the pouring rain, grabbing not only Willmur's attention but his two friends as well. When the three turn their heads, they see Cedric Diggory staring back at them, his hair wet but still somehow looking perfectly placed atop his head.
"You can ride with us if you want!"
Cedric was avoiding Dawn's eye, maintaining his focus on Willmur and Willmur alone. Willow glances to Dawn, who had her eyes narrowed and her mouth clamped shut. Willow knew she wasn't going to say anything out of protest, so Willow reaches out her hand.
"Go," she says softly to Willmur, pushing his shoulder forward. He turns to look at her for a second, before nodding. He had the tiniest glint of excitement in his eyes before he takes off down the platform to join his friends. Willow looks to Dawn again and shrugs her shoulders.
"See? Look how easy that was."
Dawn rolls her eyes, shaking her head.
"Now we're going to have to share a carriage. Thanks, Will," Dawn simply replies, turning around and walking towards Professor Flitwick, who was assigning people to carriages.
"Why, hello Miss Turner!" Flitwick says as he sees the two girls approaching him.
"Hey Professor Flitwick," Willow says. She knew what he was going to say next, and she had mentally prepared herself for it.
"I'm going to miss Conrad this year, he truly was the star of Ravenclaw. Made me so proud," Flitwick says with a warm smile. Willow nods, only responding with a small "yeah."
"So, just the two of you?"
The two girls nod, and Flitwick leads them to a carriage a few feet away. "This one has a group of four already, so you two can slip in with them."
Dawn and Willow nod and Flitwick steps away to go scold some fourth years for trying to pile a group of eight all in one carriage at once.
"Six to a carriage! Only six!"