Can't Stop the Rain

"EXTINGUISH LINGUISIO!" Ron yelled at the top of his voice as the compartment door opened to reveal...three boys?
One had whitish-blonde hair with piercing blue-grey eyes, the other two behind him were very large in stature, one was a little taller than the other but they were both just as fat.

And ugly.

Their eyes were beady little dots in the middle of their faces and they both had a look on their face like someone was waving something tantalizing in front of their faces. The blonde boy opened his mouth as if to speak but, as predicted, no sound came out. Everyone in the compartment first stared in surprise because, obviously, these three were not Fred and George. Then everyone burst into fits of laughter. At this point the sleeping boy woke up and looked at the blonde boy. He then shrieked, got up, ran and sat down between Harry and Ron, squirming. I didn't really understand what he was freaking out about. Everyone was still laughing at the blond boy and his friends until another girl came along and spoke.
"Oh really, Ron, I know for a fact that that hex is reversible, RETURNUS LINGUISIO!"
She waved her wand and the boys' speech was returned. The blonde boy, furious and red in the face, quickly regained his cool.
"Oh let me guess who was behind this brilliant act, Potty or Weasley? Well, Weasley, judging by the fact that your ugly face is as red as your hair I'm guessing it was you. Well you'll pay for that, EXPEL-"
"No don't hurt him! He wasn't supposed to get you! We were trying to get back Fred and George for tricking me!" I said, cutting him off.
At this claim he looked me up and down and smiled.
"Oh so you're the one I came to see I suppose. I heard that there was a beautiful new girl on the train and I just had to come and introduce myself. Draco Malfoy, pleased to meet you."
He bent down low and kissed my hand and gestured back at the two boys behind him.
"These two are Crabbe," the one on the left nodded. "And Goyle," the one on the right nodded. "We're all fifth year Slytherins. What year and house are you?"
"Well I'm fifteen so I guess that makes me also fifth year but I'm not sure what house I'm in yet."
I tried to hide the fact that I didn't have a clue about 'houses'. Draco smiled and spoke.
"Oh well we'll see. Let's all hope you get chosen to be in Slytherin as we all know that's the best house," he cast a smug look around the compartment to which Ginny replied by sticking out her tongue. "Watch it, Weasley. You might want to keep that disgusting tongue in your mouth before I remove it," he snapped. "Oh hello, Longbottom. Enjoying your new quarters? Your compartment is quite nice. I rather doubt you'll ever sit there again, I rather like it. Well goodbye, Alexandra, it was a pleasure."
And with that he left the compartment.

After he left, Ron exploded.
"Aargh! I really can't stand him. Stupid, filthy, Malfoy. Neville, what was that all about?" We all had turned to Neville to see what 'that' was really all about. Neville sucked in his gut and looked around first as if to see that Draco was truly gone and started talking.
"Malfoy came into my compartment, it was just me and Trevor and my things. Anyways, he barges in and says to me 'Well, well, Longbottom, you've managed to snatch yourself quite a nice compartment and you've got it all to yourself haven't you? Pity you're not worthy of it. Get out.' I told him 'Please, Draco I haven't done anything. Can't you just leave me alone?' He just laughed and told Crabbe and Goyle to kick me out. They grabbed all my stuff and chucked it out into the hall and Malfoy grabbed Trevor and hung him out the window and said, 'Actually, Longbottom, now that I think about it, I don't think you're worthy of this toad either.' He was dangling Trevor out the window. I begged him not to, I begged him to please leave Trevor alone, I told him he could hex me but just to leave Trevor alone. Then he laughed and put Trevor down and Trevor jumped out in the hallway. I went to go after him when Crabbe and Goyle grabbed my arms and Malfoy said 'Where, Longbottom, do you think you're going? You said I could hex you if I left Trevor alone so I will.' He raised his wand and I braced myself but luckily Pansy came and called him so he left me. I went and found Trevor then I met Ginny in the hall and she invited me to come back here so I did. Then I fell asleep."
Neville took a long breath and then, startled, looked at me and asked Harry in a whisper,
"Who's she?"
I laughed and warmly said to Neville,
"Oh sorry, hi, Neville, I'm Alexandra Evans. I'm really sorry that he acted so horribly to you. Now can someone explain to me what 'houses' are? And what's the whole deal about Slytherin 'being the best house'? And what houses are you guys in?"
"Oh I'll tell you," said Hermione.
"Of course," everyone said in unison.
Hermione continued.
"In Hogwarts, there are four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. When you arrive at Hogwarts you are sorted into a house. A house is like a team. You live with your house and each house has its own dormitory. As teams, we compete for house points. When you do something good, you get points and when you're bad, points get taken away. At the end of the year, the House Cup is awarded to the house with the most points. Also each house has its own Quidditch team and they compete. As for Malfoy saying that Slytherin is the best house, that's because he's in Slytherin and as everyone knows, almost all Dark Wizards came from Slytherin house and they are all lovers of the Dark Arts. As for your last question, we are all in Gryffindor."
Hermione finished her speech with a smile. I giggled and said,
"Wow, Hermione, you're like a tutorial, can I come to you whenever I don't know something?"
Everyone laughed, including Hermione.

Fred and George walked back into the compartment and everyone laughed remembering the Draco incident. I looked at Fred and George and spoke.
"Hi, Fred," looking him in the eyes. "Hi, George," also looking him in the eyes so that they would know that I had figured it out.
They grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry, Alexandra, we were just having some fun, hope you're not mad?"
"Of course not."
The train lurched around a curve and a castle on top of a hill came into view.
"We're almost there, we should change into our robes," Harry said.

My grandmother had gone shopping with me a week before school started to get robes and a wand and books and everything else that I would need. All I was missing was some kind of pet. I pulled out my school robes and all of a sudden, even though I wasn't facing everyone else, I felt an awkwardness hang in the air.
Neville finally broke the silence.
"Um, you guys? How are we going to change? The bathrooms are all full and there are no
empty compartments."
Everyone remained quiet.
"Oh really everyone, we're not children. We'll just all turn to the wall and change. Since none of us are perverts I can trust you all enough to say that you won't peek at each other. Just, Alexandra, please lock the door and draw the curtains and, Harry draw the window curtains," said Hermione.
I locked the door and drew the curtains and Harry did likewise. Everyone paused for a moment, still uncomfortable, until Ginny spoke.
"Oh really!"
Then she turned around and started to undress. Everyone else hastily turned around and changed. After changing we all sat down. Then I got up.
"I'll be right back, you guys, I just need to go to the bathroom."
I turned to head out of the compartment when I realized that I didn't know where the bathroom was. I turned around and asked sheepishly,
"Uh, can someone just tell me where the bathroom is?"
"It's all the way down at the end of the corridor. Can't miss it," Hermione said.
I smiled in gratitude and walked down the hall and saw the sign for the bathroom. I headed towards the girl one. I placed my hand on the handle and heard noise from inside but figured that some girl was just having 'problems'. I pushed the door open and saw Draco making out with a girl. She wasn't even that attractive. Apparently they were so busy with themselves that they hadn't even notice me come in. Then he pushed her off and turned to me and blushed.
"Shit, sorry I just needed to go to the bathroom. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to um...walk in on you guys...sorry," I said and turned out, blushing.
While the door was shutting I heard the girl yell,
"But, Drakie! I love you! Come back!"
She was probably his girlfriend or something.
"Shut up, Pansy!" I heard Draco yell back at her.

Ha ha, Drakie.

I returned to the compartment still laughing. Everyone looked at me quizzically and I just waved my hand and sat down. Still giggling, I sat down and saw the station coming into sight. The train pulled into the Hogsmeade station and I saw a bunch of horseless carriages ready and prepared. We all stepped off the train and grabbed our luggage. Everyone headed toward the carriages. They had a ghostly quality about them....then it occurred to me, carriages can't move by themselves...something must be pulling them.

As we all strolled over to the carriages, chatting animatedly, I got in front of the carriage and stood up on my tiptoes and peering inside made an observation.
"Uh, you guys? These carriages seat six and there are eight of us? How are we all going to fit?"
"Well we can't, can we? We'll just split up into two separate carriages," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"Well there are eight of us and six seats right? Why don't two of us just sit on each others laps? Hermione and I can unless Ron wants to sit in Neville's lap?" Ginny said.
Everyone sniggered and Ron blushed.
"Uh no, that's a good idea."
"Well alright, as long as Professor McGonagall doesn't see us or else we'll be in trouble," Hermione sighed.
Everyone laughed and said in mock-Hermione voices,
"Oh no! God forbid we should get into trouble!"
"Well alright, since you're all so smart, how are we going to do this?" Hermione said with a smirk on her face.
"Well its really simple isn't it?" said Ginny, "I'll sit in Harry's lap, and you can sit in Ron's. Fred, George and Neville sit by themselves and Alexandra can also-"
"Lay across Fred's, George's and Neville's laps!" I laughed. "I need to stretch; I'm all stiff from sitting on the train for so long."
The words had flown out of my mouth before I had even realized what I had said.
"We don't have a problem with that," Fred and George said smiling.

Everyone bundled into the carriage. Ginny sat in Harry's lap, content as could be, while Harry blushed. Hermione sat stiffly on Ron's lap as if she was sitting on a metal chair, balancing precariously on his knees. He glanced at me not knowing that I was looking at him too and then he caught my look and lowered his eyes, blushing. Climbing into the carriage, which was growing cramped now what with the eight of us sharing, I stood in the middle of the carriage while Fred, George and Neville sat and got comfortable, taking their time in doing so.
"Ahem," I cleared my throat; "would you mind?"
"Of course not, m'dear," they chorused as they settled down.

Stretching myself across Fred's, George's and Neville's laps, I yawned. It was uncomfortable, lying like that, stretched out stiff as a board across their laps, but I knew that if I got into a more relaxing position, I would fall asleep and that I would sit up half the night like some sanity-deprived vampire. Fred didn't make the situation any easier on me when he kindly whispered, due to the fact that everyone was already asleep, from the end where my head was,
"Here, Alexandra, you can rest your head on me if you want."
"No thanks, Fred," I replied, trying to resist temptation.
"Oh come on, Alexandra," his voice teased, "you know you want to..."
I thought about it for a second.
"You know what, Fred?" I responded, "I kind of do, I'm really tired..."
"Bet you are." He grinned. "Here,"
He adjusted himself in the seat so that his back was pressed against the corner of the carriage. Leaning my head on his chest I said,
"Thanks, Fred. I'm exhausted, just whatever you do; don't let me fall asleep okay?"
"Sure," he agreed all too quickly but I didn't care anymore, I just needed to relax.
He stroked my hair gently and slowly, putting me to sleep.

Fight it Alex, I thought, I was so warm and comfortable and he was so warm and smelled so good, like...something I couldn't quite identify but it reminded me of something pleasant.

Looking out the window, the last thing I saw were small windows of light coming from a castle on top of the hill I was on and the last thing I felt was the carriage lurch forward, tottering slowly up the hill...
"Alexandra? Alexandra?"
I heard a voice calling me. It seemed like they were calling from another land. A vast land across the sea. I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. As I came to consciousness, I realized that the waves crashing against the rocks were really the wheels clacking against the pavement and that the voice was not across the sea but right there. I slowly opened my eyes and looked up at Fred.
"Hello, sunshine. Sleep well?" Fred whispered.
Nodding slowly at first, then I realized and slapped him lightly on the chest.
"Fred! You said you wouldn't let me sleep! Now I won't be able to sleep tonight!"
"Shh, shh, Alexandra, quiet!" he said, clamping his hand over my mouth; I didn't get why he was whispering but then realized that everyone else had been asleep too.
The two of us were the only ones up. He spoke in an undertone.
"I let you sleep because you needed it and because I couldn't to bear to wake you yup, you're cute when you sleep you know that?"
I looked around the carriage.
"Oh my God look at them all!" I said to Fred.
He nodded and smiled, looking at me. I tore my eyes away and looked around.

Ginny had fallen asleep, her face nestled into Harry's neck. Harry had one arm behind his head and the other on her shoulder. Next to them were Ron and Hermione. Hermione had turned herself around, facing the other side of the carriage and leant back so that she fell asleep with her back on Ron's chest. Ron's arms were at his sides and Hermione's were folded across her chest. George and Neville were leaning on one another. Neville had drooled all over George and I couldn't help but wonder how he would react once he woke up. They looked silly, like if I blew on them they would fall over. Fred and I looked at each other and gave each other a look that signaled 'this will be our little secret'.

I got up slowly and went to wake up Harry and Ginny while George woke up Ron and Hermione. We did it at the same time so that no one would see anything. This way no one would have seen any of them all cuddled up. I woke Harry and Ginny up. At first they kept sleeping but then I prodded them again. Ginny woke up, saw me and started blushing. Harry turned pink in the face. I said nothing but winked at the both of them. I saw that Fred had roused Ron and Hermione. They were also red in the face. I hoped that neither 'group' had seen the other but somehow I didn't think so. However, there was still the matter of the waking of George and Neville. We all smiled at each other. Suddenly it seemed like Fred and I had had the same thought for we had both headed towards them. We looked at each other, read each other's thoughts and grinned. Then we cupped our hands around our mouths and yelled,
"GOOD MORNING, BUTTERCUPS!"
Needless to say, George and Neville were scared out of their robes and they fell out of their seats. Everyone cracked up and didn't stop until we felt the carriage slow to a stop. I sat down and closed the curtains.
"All right everyone, let's all calm down and wait for Professor McGonagall to come unlock the doors so we can get out," Hermione said.
We all remembered at the same time but it seemed that Ginny and Harry beat everyone else to saying it.
"McGonagall!"
We had all completely forgotten that we would be in trouble. There were two too many people in the carriage plus Ginny, Hermione and I were still sitting in Fred's, Harry's and Ron's laps. How inappropriate could that be?

Wait, why am I still sitting in Fred's lap? I'm stretched out. There are enough seats for me to sit by myself-

"You guys! She's coming! She's six carriages away! We'll be in so much trouble! What are we gonna do? You know what she's like; I don't want to get in trouble on the first day."
"Okay, Neville, calm down," I said. "Here's what we'll do. Do any of you know an unlocking charm or something like that?"
"Yes we all know one," Hermione answered.
"Okay, here's what we'll do. Hermione you-"
"You guys! She's five carriages away!"
"Neville, calm down," I continued, "Hermione since I feel that you are the smartest one here judging by the amount of books you had your nose buried in on the train-" everyone sniggered, "do the unlocking charm on the other door, not this side that McGonagall is on but the other one. You'll unlock it-"
"Four..." Neville whimpered.
"Ahem. Like I was saying. You'll unlock it, we'll QUIETLY sneak out and by the time she gets, Neville I swear to God you interrupt me one more time and I'll give you a black eye I'm TRYING hatching a brilliant plan here, GOD," I said rolling my eyes.
I glanced over at Fred and grinned. He returned it and I continued speaking.
"By the time she gets here, our carriage will be empty, she'll figure that another professor unlocked it and let us out, our luggage gets carried up to the castle, and we'll be home free!" I finished with a smile and looked around.
Everyone seemed happy until Neville broke the silence.
"Um, Alexandra I don't mean to interrupt but MCGONAGALL IS TWO CARRIAGES AWAY!"
"Oh, so she is, Neville, so she is," I said calmly. "Alright, Hermione, do your stuff."
Hermione nodded. She pointed her wand at the lock and said,
"Alohomora!"
I heard a click and then a screech. Like the lock was broken or something. Hermione looked, dazed and confused at the lock and tried again.
"Alohomora!"
Nothing.
"You guys! SHE'S RIGHT THERE!"
Neville was panicking. I hugged him and said,
"Neville, its okay. Hermione, just try a few more times and it's bound to open."
Hermione nodded.
"Alohomora! Alohomora!"
Still nothing. She shook herself and gripped her wand with determination. I heard a key turning on McGonagall's side.
"Hermione!" we all whined.
"Alohomora!"
I heard the lock click all the way. I pushed the door open just as I heard McGonagall's lock click open. Luckily the curtains were drawn so she couldn't see us scrambling out. I got out last and shut my door just as McGonagall opened hers.
We stayed quiet until I heard McGonagall's robes swishing away.
"Whew! That was close, you guys," I said with relief.
"Oh my goodness, we could have gotten detention before school even started!" Hermione whined.
"Oh my goodness, we could have gotten detention before school even started!" We all mocked her in baby voices before breaking into laughter.

"Come on, you guys. Let's go up to the castle. I want to get sorted!" I said breaking into a grin.
Everyone looked nervously at each other. I looked at them before getting it.
"Oh come on, I'll for sure get into Gryffindor. There's nothing to worry about. My family's been in Gryffindor for generations."
Then all of a sudden I felt something hit me from behind and a girl's voice saying,
"DISCONSCIOUSNIO!" and I hit the ground...