Floating in the Ether

Every year, since I first met him on the very first train ride to Hogwarts, Dean reads just about the whole time. I use to be offended, as if I wasn’t good enough company, but now I realize that Dean resurrects his ability to read a book in it’s entirety on the train ride back to Hogwarts; Potions books will kill your desire to read anything. Potions will just kill you in general. Unless you’re Malfoy, that git always—

I looked up at Dean as he said, “I want to write when I grow up, I just don’t know what I want to write about.” He licked his dry lips, coughed for a second, and then said, “It’s a quote from this book.”

I nodded.

He went back to reading.

I stared out the window and considered telling him to stop randomly reading out loud to me. I guess I never do tell him because, even though it annoys me immensely, I’m going to miss it once we’re out of Hogwarts. This year, then Seventh, and we’re done. Do we graduate? My mum said that muggle kids have graduations, but I never hear about it here. Maybe the Seventh Years celebrate together. But I have some time before I have to worry about it anyway.

I’m going to miss Dean’s annoying reading out loud, as if I cared about his books-for-leisure. Sometimes he randomly reads excerpts from the Daily Prophet, and I look at him quizzically since he follows it with something like, “Oh, I don’t find it interesting, but maybe you would.” Why would I find it interesting? I don’t care about what Rita Skeeter says. Unless my mum makes a big to-do about it, but even then, it’s only because she bombards me with—

“Patrick actually used to be popular until Sam bought him some good music.”

I sighed internally. This quirk in Dean is something I only like when I’m trying to sleep and it puts me to sleep. Or stirs up a nice dream. But on the train… C’mon, talk to me. Don’t talk at me—

“Then I—”

“Dean!” I pounded my right fist against the seat just once, “I’m thinking!”

He’s use to my anger outbursts. They’re not really angry or outbursts though. They’re just me; Dean nodded, “Alright, mate.”

I drew in a deep breath and looked out the window and at the pink, swirled clouds. The whole train ride has been relatively quiet. The only thing changing being Dean’s thin novels, quotes, and my position on the seat. And the clouds outside. Their color, at least.

Ginny walked in, cutting off Dean’s next quote and my thought process. Too bad Ron’s such a git, because Ginny is rather cute. Spunky, too. I don’t know why she’s interested in Dean. The only people who are interested in Dean are Neville and I. But not a romantic way. He’s a nice guy and all, but I don’t like the idea. Never mind. I guess he needs to find someone who has a romantic interest in him. Maybe Neville hooked him up. Neville did take Ginny to the Yule Ball a couple years back.

“I feel infinite.”

Ginny smiled politely and gently closed the sliding door behind her. She sat next to Dean, forcing us to look directly at each other. I smiled awkwardly, “Dean reads random excerpts out of whatever he’s reading. He thinks I care.”

Ginny chuckled and then looked at him.

Dean marked his page then looked at Ginny. “Did you see Neville on your way over here?”

I sighed with pure irritation. They both looked at me, so I looked at Dean. “There’s a pretty lass here for your attention, but you’d rather ramble on about nothing with Neville?”

Ginny blushed while Dean leaned forward defensively, his face contorting with mild offense and surprise. He pointed to himself with his right index, “Hey now, we don’t ramble on about nothing, okay?”

I sighed, “You know, I really was just wondering if you were gay for Neville.”

He cocked his head to the right and glared at me. “Jealous Seamus?”

I rolled my eyes, “If you don’t want to flirt with Ginny, I will.”

Dean rolled his eyes. Her blushed darkened. Dean turned to Ginny and started to talk with her. He handed her the chocolate frog he was saving and explained the wizard on the card to her.

“She’s not retarded—”

“Shut up!” He snapped at me and immediately went back to talking to Ginny.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms against my chest while sliding down the seat a bit, but my satisfaction couldn’t resist forming a small smile upon my otherwise annoyed face. The clouds kept whirling around, not forming any particular, recognizable shape, but shapes still. The curved part of the railroad signaled twenty minutes left to Hogwarts. It also changed the scenery a bit.

The sliding door slammed opened. Luna stiffened a bit from the sound, but then looked at the three of us, separately, with awkwardly long periods of time between. I scooted a bit closer to the edge of the seat and the wall. I must have contorted my face into a scared disgust since Dean looked at me and instantly laughed. I ignored him, though, and so did Luna.

Her soft voice sounded just like whom she is. Whimsical. Odd. Always lost in a daydream. Yet still focused and never a wasted thought. “Have any of you seen Neville?"

“See!” Dean turned and snapped at me, pointing his left index, “I’m not the only one who wonders about him!”

I shrugged, “Yes, but Luna is straight for him—”

“Oh shut up.” Dean sighed.

I chuckled.

Ginny drew in a deep breath and looked at Luna. “We don’t know where he is, Luna. Do you need him?”

“Dean does—”

Dean groaned angrily and loudly.

I could not stop myself. “Is that the sound he evokes?”

Dean ignored me. “He’s probably off looking for his toad.”

Luna’s eyes sparkled suddenly, “I found him, actually.” She suddenly pulled Trevor out of his pocket, “Do give it to him. You’re his roommates and all.” She tossed Trevor at Dean and quickly shut the door behind her as she skipped away.

Dean shouted like a little girl with a spider on her face and then swatted Trevor at me. I screeched for a second, too, caught Trevor, then tossed him back at Dean. We kept going on like this until Ginny told us we were both pansy boys, grabbed Trevor and stroked him a few times so he could calm down. She turned to leave just as a nervous, rather sweaty Neville slammed the door open and shouted in one, blurred word, “HAVEYOUGUYSSEENTREVOR?”

Ginny went to hand Trevor to Neville, but Trevor squirmed out of her hands and hopped away. Neville turned and lunged after a squatting Trevor. I elbowed Dean, pointed to Neville’s mid-squat-bum, wiggled my brows and quietly “mhhmed.” Dean looked at me with a hard, not-amused stare, and then said, “And I’m the one that’s gay for Neville?”

I patted Dean on the back, slid my hands into my pockets, and started to walk out of the compartment, “Acceptance it is the first step to recovery.”