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booksmarts and broomsticks
act i , a lovelorn lockaby
chapter two , losing toads and tempers

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➖ THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS ➖
september 1991

       "WHAT DO YOU MEAN you didn't go with them to Diagon Alley?"

       The few days that once stood between the Lockaby children and their trip to Hogwarts had passed them by in a series of shouting matches, shoes being thrown and the overall anxiety that came with packing the majority of their belongings into one suitcase.

       Now, by some miracle, the family had arrived on the platform with ten minutes to spare before the departure of the scarlet steam engine, that puffed clouds of smoke from its funnel, before them.

       After dragging her two siblings out of their awestruck dazes from looking on the engine in wonder, Dria had taken them — with their trolleys, clicking in time with their steps — to one of the platform stewards, a balding man in his forties, who assured them he'd packed with the upmost care. Although, Dria could have sworn the second she turned her back, she saw him throw their luggage very unceremoniously into the carriage.

       And now the three of them returned empty-handed — with the exception of the cat carrier, containing Figaro, held tightly in Dria's grasp — to where they'd left their parents across the platform minutes prior. And it came as no surprise to Dria when the sound of raised voice cut through the air as they neared the pair.

Allan Lockaby looked on his ex-wife incredulously as she clearly had relayed to him, in some way or another, the fact that she hadn't accompanied their children to get their school supplies.

"I had other things to do, Al."

"Jules, it's important—!" His eyes widened in desperation as he took a hand through his dark hair, clenching his jaw — a nervous habit he shared with his son. "They were getting their first wands, for Merlin's sake!"

"It was wicked, Dad, I made the ceiling crack!" Michael cut into their argument, with a proud grin as he held out the wand Mr Ollivander had sold to him, three days prior.

"And I blew out the lights!" Maisie added in the same effusive manner, flourishing her own wand proudly before.

"And I was scared for my bloody life!" Dria chuckled, eyes widening as she looked on her father.

The three had finished their shopping trip in Diagon Alley with visiting Mr Ollivander and purchasing wands for the boy and girl, she shuddered slightly as she remembered the incidents in the wand shop, and the nervous glances she and Mr Ollivander had shared at the level of destruction the twins' wand testing had produced.

       In the end, they had very bashfully left the shop with two very happy eleven year olds bearing new wands, and behind, an old man making a note to move all valuable items into the back of the shop.

       "If it was so important, where were you, Al?"

       Breaking out of her minor daze, Dria found her parents impressively still arguing.

      "For the millionth time, I can't help it if I'm needed at the hospital!" Her dad replied, exasperated. "I would have loved to be there, but my patients need me!"

       Allan was an experienced Healer at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and was often at work saving the lives of witches and wizards on a daily basis. While his job was very all-consuming he still made the greatest effort to spend time with his children whenever they stayed with him, unlike their mother.

       To Dria, her dad was her hero, and part — if not, most — of the reason why she aspired to be Healer.

       "Oh, here we go once again! The whole my-job's-better-than-your-job gambit!"

       "That's not what I said, Jules—"

       The three Lockaby children found themselves looking between one another with extremely tired expressions, having seen this scenario too many times before.

       "Merlin, give me strength." Michael muttered, as he looked on the pair incredulously.

       "Don't you love it when the family's all together?" Maisie said with a hint of sarcasm, masked behind an insincere grin.

       Dria could hardly remember the time that her parents were as in love as they claimed to have once been. And now, it seemed they couldn't get within ten feet of each other before ripping each other's throats out.

        As their commotion grew more heated, Dria began to notice other witches and wizards casting alarmed glances in their direction as they tried to say goodbye to their own children, but struggled over the cacophony of the two adults arguing like school children. 

       "Mum! Dad!" Dria called, after realising she should do something about the situation, "Hi!"

       She took a step closer to them as their babbling died down a bit, sparing apologetic glances to the other magic folk on the platform.

       "You maybe want to — oh, I don't know — for the love of Merlin, shut up?"

       The two adults became as quiet as could be at the words of their daughter, suddenly becoming aware of the scene they had caused.

       "Right, yep."

       "Sorry, Dria."

       Letting out a large sigh, she met her dad's sorry gaze as he stowed his hands away in his pockets and sent further looks of apology towards the twins. Her mother, however, seemed fixated by the watch on her arm.

       "Oh God, is that the time?" She gushed, before pressing a hand to her chest in apology. "Sorry, I'm going to have to head off, I'm meeting Shaun—"

       "Who in the hell is Shaun—?!"

       "Oh, and wouldn't you like to know, Al?"

       Rolling her eyes at the scene becoming of them once again, Dria couldn't help but throw he hands in the air to cease their argument.

       "Mum!" She called, with a hopeless sigh, before continuing in a smaller voice. "It's fine."

       After sparing a final challenging glance at her ex-husband, Julia Appleton began to retreat towards the platform's exit with a giddy smile, blowing kisses as she went.

       "Alright, have fun, my darlings!"

       The three children nonetheless spared her small smiles as they waved back in response.

       "Fun? She gets that we're going to school, right?" Michael cut in with a grimace, earning a laugh from his father, before his twin shoved him in the side.

       "Just smile and wave." She hissed in his ear, before looking back at their retreating mother, vanishing from sight.

       As soon as she was out of view, the group of four collectively let out sighs of exhaustion and allowed both their hands and smiles to drop.

       "I am sorry, Dria." Her dad further apologised to his eldest daughter who merely offered him a small smile.

       "It's fine, Dad." The blonde shrugged, readjusting her grip on the cat carrier in her hand. "She drives us nuts too."

        "Yeah," Michael butted in, in agreement. "Except, we just don't tell the entire platform about it."

        The laugh Allan would have emitted at Michael's statement was drowned out by the harsh chirp of the train whistle, signalling the train would be departing in five minutes.

        The sharp sound seemed to be enough to whip the four of them back into focus, and their father to remember how to parent them for a moment.

       "Alright, have you forgotten anything?" He asked, looking around at all three of them expectantly.

       "Probably."

       "Most definitely."

       He couldn't mask the smile that spread across his face at the antics of his youngest children, as he shook his head knowingly.

       "I'll send Gizmo with it, then." He rolled his eyes, earning a chuckle from his oldest daughter, assuring the twins to send their forgotten belongings with their family owl.

       In a quick movement, her father crouched ever so slightly so as to embrace the twins in a hug, pressing a kiss to each of their foreheads, earning a groan from Michael in disgust.

       "Behave yourselves, alright?" He asked of them, to which they responded with obedient nods. "And your mum's right, you can have some fun too."

       Sharing a smirk between them, the two twins scarpered from where they stood with their sister and father, and ran in the direction of the train with extreme excitement.

       "Love you, Dad!"

       "Love you too." He replied amidst a chuckle, shaking his head at their antics much like his other daughter.

       Dria remained where she stood however, watching her two siblings as they went, ignoring the irritated mewls of Figaro from within the carrier as she tried to remember how she felt on her first train ride to Hogwarts.

       "Alright, you."

       Her dad's address of her, and the feeling of his arm being thrown around her shoulders broke her out of her daze.

       "Don't work yourself into the ground, please." He asked with a smile mixed with slight wanting and amusement, knowing her typical nature.

       "I'll try." Dria smirked in reply, knowing full well she couldn't stop herself even if she tried.

       "You know I'm very proud of you, and so is your mum, she just doesn't—"

       "Show it very well." Dria cut her father off in a tired voice, having heard the same sentiment from him for years on end. "Yeah, I know."

        With a sympathetic look, her dad pulled her into his embrace and she hugged him with all that she had in her, as she continued to ignore the objectionable howls from Figaro at the action.

       Withdrawing from the hug, just as he had done with the twins, her father pressed a loving kiss against her forehead.

       "Write to me," He looked on her expectantly, "And make sure Thing 1 and Thing 2 do as well."

       "Sure thing, Dad." She nodded, amidst a chuckle, a little regret filling her heart as she wished she could have spent more time with him that summer

       "Have fun." He told her with a playful push towards the carriage, to which she gave him a light hearted scowl.

       "Love you." She paused, turning around with a sincere smile.

      "Love you, too." He returned to endearment with the same smile, before quickly rolling his eyes at her meagre attempt at stalling her departure. "Now, get on the shitting train!"

        "Alright!"

       Sparing the man one final wave and a shake of her head, the blonde girl — with a disgruntled cat in hand — boarded the train, and immediately relished in the chaotic bustle and loud chatter of the train.

Shuffling along the narrow corridor of the train, it wasn't long until she found the compartment she and her friends had claimed near the end of their second year. She made to grasp onto the handle but was slightly delayed, and instead found herself being pressing against the wall of the corridor as some young boys ran past her in a fit of laughter.

Sparing a soft chuckle at the air of excitement around her, she reached out and fastened her grip around the door handle, smiling through the glass at the familiar face inside the compartment, whose head was buried in the latest issue of Witch Weekly.

       "Hello, stranger." Dria addressed Tess, whose magazine flew out of her hands once she'd heard the familiar tones of her friend.

       "Alright?" She grinned, standing up to wrap her arms around her friends, and all the while Figaro still howled in his carrier.

       "Yeah, not bad." Dria chuckled, withdrawing from the hug and setting the carrier down upon the nearest seat, "Alright, you mongrel, be free."

       With her final words, she twisted the fastening on the carrier and the door swung open, followed very quickly by an eager grey tabby cat who shot his owner a look of disgust for keeping him in such a place.

       "Alright, Your Highness, my apologies." The blonde scoffed in response to her cat's look, as she jumped ever so slightly so as to tuck the carrier up onto one of the overhead shelves.

       Seemingly satisfied with her apologetic response, Figaro gave a short meow before jumping to the other side of the compartment and greeting Tess, who happily began scratching his head.

       "Where are the M&Ms?" The dark haired girl asked above the loud purrs of the tabby cat, crawling all over her.

       Dria scoffed at the name her friend used for the twins — that Jackie had originally come up with the previous year — as she responded with a shrug, taking a seat on the other side of the compartment.

       "Wreaking havoc somewhere, I'm sure." Dria chuckled as she let her shoes fall of her feet, so she could curl up on the seat, her back facing the doorway.

       "Whaddup, sluts?"

The greeting spoken made the two girls in the compartment chuckle, knowing before they turned to face the doorway just who the unmistakable voice, bearing an Irish lilt, belonged to.

Their fellow fifth year and friend, Jackie O'Hare stood in the doorway to their compartment with a her famous shit-eating smirk on her pink lips and blatant mischief glinting in her hazel eyes as she surveyed them. Her nose bore a hoop through her right nostril — a piercing she had got on a dare in Hogsmeade, two years prior — and her hair sat just above her shoulders as it always had. Although, Dria couldn't help but notice that instead of the dark brown colour that her hair usually was, instead it was now a light blonde with faded pink running through the ends.

"Nice hair, Tonks." Tess scoffed upon seeing her friend's new look, although her reaction only seemed to broaden Jackie's smirk as she slipped into the compartment.

"Well, someone's got to be the Hogwarts Metamorphagus, haven't they?" The Irish girl smirked, as she threw herself down onto the seat next to Tess, and throwing her Doc Marten-ed feet upon her lap, much to the detest of Figaro. "And I've selflessly taken it upon myself to perform the task of filling the enormous shoes of the late Nymphadora Tonks."

"She's not dead, Jackie!" Dria scoffed, with a chuckle at Jackie's choice of words, as Figaro bounded back over to her side of the compartment, looking very unimpressed with Jackie.

Nymphadora Tonks was a Hufflepuff who had completed her seventh year at Hogwarts at the start of summer. She was very popular among the students for her abilities as a Metamorphagus and the countless occasions she had gotten into trouble for using them, as well as being renowned for her extreme clumsiness. Nonetheless, Jackie — her fellow Huffeluff — absolutely idolised her, and had clearly decided dying her hair was a suitable way to pay tribute.

"Still, I'm a Metamorphagus now." Jackie went on, as Tess pushed her feet off her lap with a chuckle.

"Brilliant, except you do realise you're not?" The dark haired girl chuckled, as the Hufflepuff beside her pulled her legs up onto the seat and mirrored Dria's position.

"You say that like it'll stop me."

"Metamorphagi are born, Jackie." Dria explained, as she nodded for Tess to toss her the copy of Witch Weekly. "You can't just become one at will."

"Well, not with that attitude."

Dria couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend's eccentric wish, as she caught the edition of Witch Weekly from Tess, trying to contain her laughter as the Hufflepuff launched into a speech defending her ambition.

"Imagine if someone had said that to the guy who first wanted to become an Animagus, huh?" She asked, her eyes wide in judgement. "'Sorry John, you can't transform animal because you weren't born an animal.' Tell me, Dria, where would we be?"

"Ah, yes." Dria merely chuckled at her friend's viewpoint, "How I've missed you, Jackie."

       Jackie spared her friend a wicked smirk and a wink, before her gaze drifted off towards the window.

       "He definitely wasn't called John—"

       "Oh my God!"

       Tess had made an attempt at further ridiculing Jackie sentiments, but was cut short as Irish girl's eyes widened on something she saw outside the window, and moved closer to the glass panel to inspect it.

        "Is that your dad, Dria?"

       Dria felt her smile drop once more as she could practically hear the smirk Jackie had on her lips, as she gazed upon her father, who still resided on the platform, waiting to see the train off.

       "Jackie, don't—!"

       Ever since she had introduced her friends to her father at the end of their third year, the Hufflepuff had developed an irritating habit of constantly reminding Dria how attractive she found him.

       "Has he grown his hair?"

       "He does look good, Dria." Tess interjected as she craned her neck from where she sat to get a better look at Allan Lockaby.

       "People, please, for the love of Merlin, stop objectifying my father!" Dria exclaimed, rising from her seat to pull her friends away from the window.

       "We can't help that he was literally crafted by the gods, Dria!" Tess retorted, shaking off her friend's grip on her arm as Jackie merely laughed along.

       "He seriously doesn't age, does he?" Jackie gushed, casting a look back at Dria only to be met with an expression of serious disapproval. "Is he still single, Dria?"

       "Yes, but—"

       Before Dria could so much as muster a warning in Jackie's direction, the Hufflepuff had reached up to the top of the window and opened the small seal, immediately flooding the compartment with the sounds of the continued bustle of the platform.

       "Jackie, stop!"

       Stepping up onto the seat at the side of the compartment, Jackie stretched herself across the window and promptly shouted through the open seal amidst Dria's protests.

       "Hi, Mr Lockaby!"

       Upon hearing his name, Allan started slightly before his gaze landed on the compartment just along the platform where he could make out two waving figures — that he knew to be the friends of his oldest daughter — and one in between them with her head in her hands. Chuckling at the sight, the dark haired man raised his hand and waved back at the enthusiastic teenagers just as the train gave a loud whistle and began its departure.

       "Why am I friends with you people?" Dria groaned from inside the train, where she watched her friends animatedly wave at her father.

       "Dria, come and wave goodbye to your father!" Tess ordered, yanking the sleeve of the blonde's jumper and pulling her to the window, so she too could wave goodbye to her father.

       Stomaching her displeasure for a moment, Dria spared a wave in the direction of her father, silently swearing to herself to make sure to smack her friends, very firmly, across their heads, the second the platform vanished from sight.

***

"OH, HE IS DELICIOUS."

"You've been talking about my dad for half an hour, Jackie." Dria groaned, sliding further down in her seat, "Please, stop."

"What's so bad about it?" Jackie shrugged, who now sat crossed legged opposite the blonde girl, her Doc Martens now laying discarded upon the floor of the compartment. "I'd be a far better mum to you than yours is."

Dria quirked a brow at her friend, incredulously. Admittedly, her mother left much to be desired what it came to being a mother, but Dria never wanted to imagine Jackie in that position — in fact, she nearly gagged at the thought.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just said that, Jackie." The Lockaby girl nodded, hiding her face behind the pages of Witch Weekly once more, outstretching her legs along the seat before her.

The compartment containing the three friends fell into a comfortable silence after that. However, Dria knew it wouldn't last long, not with Jackie's short attention span and Tess' need for gossip — although, when the silence broke, Dria was surprised that neither of those factors caused it.

"There she is!"

At Tess' cry, Dria's gaze shot to the doorway just behind her and set the magazine down upon her lap, smiling softly upon the fourth and final member of their group, Penelope Clearwater.

"Where the hell have you been?" The blonde found herself asking as Penny entered the compartment with a tired sigh.

"Prefect meeting."

Dria brought her legs up to her chest to make room for her friend to sit, and fastened her hands around her cat as well, placing him on her lap, where he continued to purr in a deep slumber.

"Ah, yes." Dria mused with a grin, as she surveyed her friend, proudly. "My apologies, Madam Prefect."

Penelope was by far the most composed of the four friends. She didn't have Jackie's eccentricity, Tess' excitable nature or Dria's fumbling nervousness. Perhaps that's why Professor Flitwick had chosen to appoint her as a Prefect for her house. She was a Ravenclaw, and was one through and through. While Dria was book-smart, Jackie was street-smart and Tess was people-smart, Penny was smart in every walk of life and positively made the others look like a group of baboons, but she balanced them out. While she gave them some composure, they brought her out of her shell and taught her that being an idiot from time to time isn't too bad.

She brought her hands to her face as she sank into her seat, before running through the curling black locks that curled atop of her head and cascaded down to just above her shoulders. She'd been a prefect for less than a hour, and the job was clearly already taking its toll.

Sensing her clear exhaustion, the three of her friends exchanged glances between them before Jackie cleared her throat and addressed the prefect from where she sat diagonally from her.

"Just how many points are you planning to take off me this year then, Pen?"

At the sound of her friend's voice, a smile broke across the face of the Ravenclaw girl, as she slowly removed her hands from her face and revealed her dark brown eyes that squinted slightly as she chuckled, and her mood lifted.

"Thousands." Penny retorted with pursed lips, narrowing her eyes playfully at Jackie.

"Ah, my reputation will stay intact then." Jackie grinned, raising her eyebrows at the girl. "Good to hear."

"I'm surprised McGonagall didn't pick you for Gryffindor, Dria." Penny commented, turning slightly to face the blonde Gryffindor curled up on the seat beside her.

"She did."

"Oh?"

"I didn't want it, I suggested she gave it to Hettie." Dria shrugged, tossing Witch Weekly back across the compartment to Tess, having read it cover to cover in the last half and hour.

"That's very unlike you," Tess scoffed, as she caught the magazine thrown her way, and set it at her side. "I thought you were all about the credit."

"I thought about it," Dria admitted, before her face contorted into a grimace as she thought of the reason why she'd declined, "Then, I remembered it would involved spending my free time with Perfect Percy and so happily declined."

"Oh, I forgot about that sod." Jackie's nostrils flared in distaste as she groaned at the reminder of the golden boy of their year.

"Oh, come on, Dria." Penny rolled her eyes at her friends' clear dislike of the boy, "He's not that bad."

"You're just mad because he got a mark higher than you in Transfiguration last year." Tess cut in, siding with Penny and offering Dria an arched brow in challenge.

"You make it sound like that's not a valid reason to hate someone's existence."

"He's taking all twelve OWLs, you know?" Penny told the group, whose eyes widened at the news.

"How?!" Dria cried in exasperation as she started in her seat, only just not waking the sleeping cat in her lap.

"Fuck knows."

Dria had managed to cram her timetable full with taking ten of the OWL subject, having dropped Divination and Muggle Studies only one term into starting them. Nonetheless, while the thought of being beaten academically by another student made her blood boil, she had one thought to keep her mind at ease.

       "As long as I beat him in Potions, I'll be happy." She said with a smug smile, bringing her hand up to stroke the Figaro's fur.

       "Dria, face it, you'll beat everyone in Potions." Penny scoffed with a light chuckle.

        "I know."

       Before their conversation could proceed any further, the four of them found their attention being captured by a small figure at the door. Craning her neck around to look, Dria could make out a young girl with extremely bushy brown hair, dressed in first year robes, looking intently into their compartment.

       "Excuse me, have any of you seen a toad?" She asked, looking after at the three girls with a polite smile. "A boy named Neville's lost one."

       The four girls looked away from the girl in the doorway and to each other, before collectively shaking their heads in response, leaving to Tess to answer verbally on their behalf.

       "No, sorry."

       Sparing the group a final smile, the first year continued on her search and left the four girls wondering how some idiot had already managed to lose a toad.

       "Did you guys get to see the Nimbus 2000 in Diagon Alley?" Jackie asked with an excited smile, after a moment or two of silence between the group.

       Out of the group of four, Jackie was the resident Quidditch expert fanatic and expert. She was the Keeper for the Hufflepuff team and had been since her second year at the school, and her brother played professionally for the Ballycastle Bats, in Northern Ireland. 

        "Didn't get the chance." Penny shrugged in response, as she — much like her other friends — had already done began untying her shoelaces.

       "Me and Dria saw it the other day." Tess put in casually, resting her head against the window of the compartment.

       "Don't remind me." Dria muttered, leaning her own head back against the wall behind her.

       "What happened?" Jackie asked, a grin slowly growing on her face as she turned to Tess.

        Casting her gaze in the direction of Tess, Dria was met with a devilish grin that caused her jaw to harden.

       "Nothing." Dria said with a tone of finality to her voice as she looked on Tess with warning.

       The teasing she'd endured from one of her friend had been hard enough to live through, adding Jackie and Penny to the mix would be even greater torture. But, of course, whenever could Tess not spread gossip.

       "Wood was there!"

       "Really?" Penny asked with a knowing smirk.

        "Ah, brilliant!" Jackie cackled, as her eyes landed of Dria's less than amused expression.

       "Tess, for the record, I hate you."

        Tess merely smiled at her friend's words, which honestly made her hate her even more in that moment.

       "I love you too, pookie."

       Dria narrowed her eyes, and readied herself to reply with some form of malicious retort but her words fell short as another voice echoed into the compartment from the corridor.

        "Have you guys seen a toad anywhere?"

       Another first year, this time a boy with a heavy Irish accent, was stood in the doorway with an impatient expression upon his lips as he leaned in the doorway.

       "Nope, have not seen a toad." Jackie stated, sparing the boy a blatantly forced smile, before dismissing him quickly in a rude manner that only she could really get away with. "Now, piss off, pipsqueak."

       No sooner did she send him away did he leave, seemingly very startled by her words which ultimately earned a tired groan from Penny.

        "Jackie, you can't keep telling first years to piss off—"

       But Jackie had very little interest in however way Penny was trying to reprimand her and turned to face Tess with an excited smile, her thought still on the news disclosed before the boy's interruption.

       "So, what did she do?"

        Dria sent Tess her most deathly stare in the hope it would convince her from spilling the information; in vain hope, it was.

       "Tess, I swear to Merlin—"

       "She hid behind me, under the window ledge!"

       Dria couldn't help but continue to scowl at the black haired Gryffindor sat by the window, as Jackie's loud cackling laughter filled the compartment.

       "God, Dria, you're messed up."

       "How can I get off this train?"

       "Oh, shut it." Penny shushed her, slapping her friend's leg lightly in objection to her statement. "You need to either do something about this crush or get the hell over it."

       "What? Why would you say that?" Jackie groaned with an incredulous look at Penny that soon morphed into one of devilish glee. "What would laugh about if not Dria making a fool of herself in front of Wood?"

       Dria narrowed her eyes at the Hufflepuff opposite her, nearing drowning in the overwhelming urge to jump off the train and run away from the nightmarish people she called her friends.

        "Ha ha ha." She forced out a fake laugh.

       "See? Even she thinks it's funny."

       Their laughter continued mildly for a moment, as Dria let her head fall back against the wooden panel behind her, in defeat.

       "You guys haven't seen a toad, have you—?"

       Dria didn't even have the time to clock if the person at the door was a first year or not, before the girls all collectively answered, fed up of being the same question repeatedly.

       "NO!"

       The sound of retreating footsteps were enough to prove to the blonde girl that their irksomeness has done the job of scaring away the inquirer.

       While part of her would have laughed at the situation, the hopeless embarrassment at the reminder of the incident in Diagon Alley left her in a humourless stupor.

       She calmed slightly when she could hear their laughter begin to cease and felt Penny's hand gentle stroking her skin in comfort.

       "Look, you've liked him ever since he accidentally threw a quaffle at your face in third year," Jackie surmised, in a slight calmer tone, "And honestly I'm pretty sure your feelings for him are because you're still concussed."

       Dria did chuckle lightly at that, causing her friends to laugh along with her, happy that her friend had regained her sense of humour.

       "It did break my nose."

       "Yeah, what was it exactly about that incident that attracted you to him, Dria?" Tess chuckled, folding her arms as she too brought her feet up to rest upon the seat.

       "I don't know!" Dria groaned in slight exasperation, yet the smile on her face did not falter as her mind thought of the certain Gryffindor boy. "And it's infuriating."

       "He is a dick." Jackie cut in with a grimace, offering her opinion on the Keeper.

       "You only think that because he's a better Keeper than you." Penny scoffed, from where she sat across from the Irish girl.

        "You take that back, you piece of shit—!"

       "Jackie, stand down!" Tess threw herself up from her seat so as to prevent Penny being victim of Jackie's wrath. "We're getting off topic."

        The Hufflepuff narrowed her eyes challengingly at the Ravenclaw as she sunk back down in her seat, while her friends merely chuckled at her antics.

       "Look, I'm more than happy sticking my head in the sand." Dria stated, nodding at each of friends in turn with a content shrug, "I'm ostrich, and that's fine by me."

        "God, you're stupid."

       "Oi, Jackie—!"

       "Ladies, please!" Tess cried, clapping her hands together to call order, "For I have had a thought."

       "Did it hurt?"

       "Ha ha."

       After sticking her tongue out in Penny's direction, the Robbins girl turned her attention back to her blonde friend still huddled in the corner with her great tabby cat on her lap.

       "I am declaring it now." Tess said with confidence, sitting up straight. "This is the year, Dria. This is the year that Oliver Wood will notice you, I'm sure of it."

        "Whatever you say." The blonde Gryffindor roller her eyes, before turning her attention back to the purring cat in her lap.

"Sorry, have you guys seen—?"

Dria's jaw clenched at the question and replied before she even had time to register the Scottish lilt with which it had been asked, and the excited smiles that spread across her friends' face as they recognised the speaker.

"No!" The blonde girl cried, in exasperation, still wound up from her friend's teasing. "For the hundredth time, we haven't seen a fucking toad!"

The question ceased to be completed and fell to silence as Dria narrowed her eyes at her friends who looked at her with gobsmacked expression as they pressed their lips together to suppress their laughter.

"Alright, then."

Dria's blood ran cold at the sound of the voice which she had now registered, her eyes widening as she turned to face the doorway, wishing the ground would swallow her whole as she recognised the warm coffee colour of the boy's eyes.

Oliver Wood leant with both of his hands against the doorway so he could look in on their compartment for the lost toad, wearing the same expression of thorough amusement that Dria's friends wore, as he looked on her with a soft smile.

"Thanks, anyway." He smiled, with a short nod before tapping the doorway and setting off further along the corridor, a light chuckle on his lips as he went.

       The second the Gryffindor Keeper disappeared from the doorway, Jackie's cackling laughter echoed out into the compartment followed promptly by the laughs of Penny and Tess.

       "Oh my God." Dria shook her head slightly, eyes still wide as she brought her hands to her face in shame. "No, no, no, no."

       "That was everything I ever hoped for!" Jackie howled, amid her laughter as she clutched her chest to help herself breathe.

       "Kill me. Kill me now!" The blonde girl cried, looking desperately around at her friends before settling on Jackie. "Jackie, kill me!"

      "Why me?"

       "You're the only one that could handle the time in Azkaban!"

       "She'd probably scare the Dementors away." Penny chuckled, as her own laughter began to die down and earning herself a smile from Jackie.

       "Penny, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

       "No, no!" Tess interrupted, throwing her hands up, her face still bearing a huge grin. "Guys, guys, guys, this is good!"

       While Dria looked on her incredulously with her eyes still wide, the other two spared the dark haired Gryffindor looks of curiosity.

       "At least he finally noticed her."

       "Yes, because I verbally attacked him, Tess!"

        The small interaction seemed to be enough to fuel another fit of laughter to encompass her friends, while the Lockaby slouched in her seat with a firm scowl across her lips.

       "I'm glad my shame is amusing to you!" She grimaced, frowning at Jackie let out a snort amid her fit of giggles.

        Hitting her head firmly against the wooden panel behind her, she looked at the cat on her lap who looked exceptionally disgruntled by the loud clamour of laughter.

       "Figs, if I ever find that person who lost their toad, I swear I'm going to strangle them!"

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
okay, so this ended up
beinga shit ton longer than
i anticipated, my apologies
but i did bloody enjoy writing,
god i love these characters

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