Fandom lumos ｡･ﾟﾟ･ { harry potter rp w/shieldmaiden }

[TarantulaHawk]

She really hoped that this year of Hogwarts wouldn’t be as bad as her entire morning had been.

Edie had luckily woken up on time, though the moment she went into the dining room for breakfast, she was practically accosted by her grandfather; as usual, their fight consisted of how he was going to be furious with her if she didn’t pick up the slack this year at school and how she would have been an embarrassing disappointment to both of her parents, who had been dead since she was eight years old. So, she had gone to grab her things for the train in a huff and, only when she got to the station did she realize she had left something behind. But it was far too late to collect it, so she’d have to leave it alone. And then, when she got on the train, her wonderful cousin decided that it was time to get in her way, which caused her to struggle to find a seat.

She wasn’t sure how she managed to find an empty compartment, but she was sure glad that she did. However, the second that she had sat down, a young boy came barging in asking about a toad. She had simply responded in her usual snarky way that he should’ve kept track of his pet and shut the door in his face.

“Some people just don’t have their lives together, do they?” She asked her cat, who had gracefully hopped onto the seat beside her just as the train began to move. And when the cat regarded her silently (and with a surprisingly judgemental look), she rolled her eyes. “Oh, what do you know? You’re a cat.”

Edie then turned her attention to the window, looking disgruntled. It had been a rough morning and she was exhausted, but she knew sleep wouldn’t come for her until far too late in the night. She wondered if it was too early in the year to miss one of her morning classes. She pulled her class list from her pocket and mulled over it for a moment, quickly finding herself a little annoyed. Her first class happened to be Transfiguration, which was her favorite, and one she would hate to miss — she had to acknowledge that she absolutely would multiple times during the year, though. She hated waking up and getting up early, and honestly, just being awake in general.

 

[callisto]

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The chaos of the first day of Hogwarts had a tendency to invigorate Fred and George Weasley. It was not chaos inflicted upon them, of course. They had a perfectly lovely morning - starting the day off right with a plate of eggs and sausage, before their mother ran them out of the Burrow for messing with a sleeping Ginny. The twins maintained that her hair got that way on its own, but Mrs. Weasley refused to believe that gravity had formed consciousness and decided to avoid the area surrounding their younger sister's hair on such an important day as this one. Their loss, that.

They were in for a day of watching first years run unceremoniously into brick walls and spiking the candy cart with treats of less-than-savory rapport. Well, they would have been, were it not for the fact that they had chosen to sit in the same carriage as Neville Longbottom. The boy had enough anxiety to put off a dementor, and somehow, that same anxiety made the chaos all the less fun for the twins. As much as they loved messing with people, they had an almost palpable worry that something too obnoxious might bring the fourth-year to tears.

As of right now, Neville was loudly rifling through his bag, patting down the seats, and pressing his face to the carriage's hopefully-clean floors. Fred and George glanced at each other in amusement, tinged with light concern.

"How's the weather down there?" Fred voice called out to the gawky teenager.
"Cloudy with a chance of dust bunnies?" George followed.

"I'm looking for Trevor, but he's run off again!" The boy nervously chattered to his compartment mates.

"Maybe he's gotten out into the hall?" George offered. The comment seemed to strike even more worry into the young Neville's face. As if that was possible.

"Oh no, if I lose him again, Gran will have had it with me!" The words seemed to barely escape his mouth before he bolted out into the hall.

Suddenly, Fred felt something unpleasantly sticky on the back of his neck. With a glance of suspicion at his brother, the mop-headed boy reached back and pulled a rather ugly toad off himself. He supposed he should be glad it wasn't a more difficult-to-clean prank from the hands of George. At least frog slime was minimally disgusting. George spotted the toad quickly, tut tuting Fred with a playful sigh.

"Didn't you hear, Freddie? His gran is going to have it with him." Fred brushed off the words, playfully shoving his brother, toad in hand.
"I promise, I did not steal Neville's frog."
"Toad. He's going to want that thing back, you know."
The older Weasley frowned. "God knows why."

Fred stood up, turning to his brother and backing up to the door. "I better go return it to him before someone finds him comatose in carriage three." With a playful salute, he exited the room, following the direction that the frazzled student had taken moments before. Though Fred didn't fancy himself to be much of a samaritan, what with returning the toad and all, he certainly enjoyed the idea of freaking out the new first years with an unpleasant-looking amphibian. He'd gotten a few delightful squeals from the younger students as he made his way down the train, ever so often stopping to ask if anyone had seen 'that odd kid with the large teeth and a penchant for nervous stuttering about toads'. At least he knew he was headed in the correct direction.

At one point in his journey, the sixth-year had stopped upon a carriage with a lone girl in it. She looked familiar, with her clear pale skin and startlingly brown hair, but Fred mused to himself that it was probably just some kind of coordinated Slytherin getup. She had their look about her - brooding, stern, a generally-unpleasant to be around - traits that Fred and George assumed all of the green-and-black house shared. Yet, she looked serene, in that compartment all by herself.

A welcome emotion for the farceur to butt his way into.

Fred pushed open the door, poking himself and the toad into the small space.

"You haven't happened to see a very twitchy boy in need of a dentist run through here? Perhaps looking for this toad?" He held the creature up to the girl, who greeted her with a gutteral croak.

 

[TarantulaHawk]

She didn’t have much of a chance to examine her class list further when her compartment door was opened and someone walked in. A ginger boy with a mass of freckles, as well as a sort of messy, second-hand appearance. It wasn’t hard for her to figure out that he was a Weasley. And at the comment about the boy, she rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Yeah, I saw him alright, don’t know or care which way he went, though.” Edie answered easily.

She, out of the corner of her eye, spotted her cat lifting her head. It was obvious what she had her eyes on and Edie didn’t say anything to stop her. If she went after the toad, maybe that would stop that boy from losing it; hard to lose something you didn’t have.

“Might wanna leave the toad wherever he was sitting.” She said, pushing some bangs from her face and, realizing how annoyed she was with the second intrusion to her compartment, she looked back down at her class list. “Maybe he’ll find it by sitting on it.”

Her cat settled back down after a moment, but her green eyes lingered on the toad and she swiped its tongue across her mouth. Edie had heard of a pet or two going missing at Hogwarts before and no one could find the culprit, and she honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if Fern ate the pets. The cat had a knack for being quite the pest when she wanted to be.

 

[callisto]

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As the words left her mouth, Fred Weasley felt a twinge, subtle and gnawing, bubble up in the back of his throat. A twinge of irritation, mixed with.... "irk"-ness. Judgement irked him. Slytherins irked him. This girl irked him.

"Oh, my apologies, I didn't realize that the Headmistress of Beauxbatons was riding with us today." While on the surface, his words were as coy as always, a venom dripped that only his brother would've noticed. And unluckily for the girl who looked at him with the same passive disdain that all Weasleys were used to, he didn't have George around to play bureaucrat. Fred knew he should probably just drop the whole thing and leave the cart, but it always bothered him how Slytherins tried so hard to get the last word. It was never enough to just be pompous and pureblooded all by themselves - they had to show everyone how wonderful they were for being in the "best house".

Fred found himself only more peeved when she looked down at the paper in her hands- as if she was dismissing him. Nevermind the fact that Fred had, in fact, intruded on her. The twin's pride was enough of a deterrent from him taking his leave.

"Yeah, I appreciate the advice," he sarcastically responded to her toad-squashing suggestion. "I'm sure I'll find him all the same, with or without your assistance, Madame."

The boy paused, before reaching into his coat pocket with a toad-less hand. He took a moment, rummaging around in a space that seemed far too large to simply be a normal-sized pocket, before pulling out a small box of Bertie Bott's jelly beans. With that same cocked grin, tinged with mischief, Fred held out the open lid, toward the unpleasant girl's direction.

"Want one? They're jelly beans."

 

[TarantulaHawk]

Edie gave him an instant look of displeasure at his comment. A student of Beauxbatons? She supposed that most people would assume that a well-dressed Slytherin girl with an attitude (as pretty much all of them seemed to be) would be so self-assured and stuck up. Edie was neither of those things; she was just tired and really wanted to be left alone, honestly. She didn’t have any patience because of how her day had gone so far and he wasn’t helping.

When he called her madame, she was instantly snappy. “Call me that again and I might hex you, Weasley.”

If there was anything she hated, it was being addressed with a title. Even when teachers called her Miss Lottway she got irritated. She supposed it was her general displeasure with authority and people who thought they were better than her (ironic, with how she was currently acting).

She watched him quietly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of Bertie Botts Flavored Jelly Beans. She was instantly confused when she was offered one, but after a moment, she sighed.

“You know what? Fine.” She grumbled, reaching out for one. “I’ll take one. Maybe it’ll make you leave faster.”

 

[callisto]

☆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

"Excellent. If you get one that's sour, maybe you'll finally be in like company." He dipped his head back with the box, catching a few beans in his mouth at the same time. Eugh... he made a face to himself. Pineapple, strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice cream, and envelope glue were an atrocious combination.

"Well then, what can I call you?" He leaned against the doorframe, chewing thoughtfully, and painfully complacent with how unwanted he was. "Jellybean-girl? Hinkypuck? Slytherin #5?" He went on, absentmindedly offering the toad a bean. Fred wasn't stupid. He knew when he wasn't wanted. And yet, the idea of slightly miffing off some other student was a welcome change to the chaotic anxiety of one Neville Longbottom.

Fred would most certainly be on his way soon - either to go find Neville or return to his brother. After all, the two were rarely seen apart, and not having his best friend by him for too long was an odd sensation. But all of that could wait - he had someone new to bug!

 

[TarantulaHawk]

She rolled her eyes at his comment and decided against firing back as she took the bean and popped it into her mouth. Their expressions seemed similar as she began to chew. Spoiled milk was even more foul as a jelly bean flavor. The idea of chewing milk was absolutely unappealing to begin with.

And then she looked at him. She was surprised that he was still hanging around, and she couldn’t exactly figure out why. Maybe her bad luck was just so awful that day that now she had a Weasley bothering her. Maybe he’d never leave.

“My name is Edie Lottway,” she said with a sigh, “So Edie will do. And should I just call you ‘Weasley’ like everyone else?”

Not everyone called him that, but it was a fairly common Slytherin title for anyone that had red hair, whether they were a Weasley or not. It was just easy to remember, really. And it was also a snarky way to insult entire family.

 

[callisto]

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Just as he was about to respond, he felt a jostle behind him. As quickly as Neville had went - he had returned, trotting with worry back to their shared compartment. Fred was about to pay him no mind, before he remembered the toad he had been clutching the whole time. He dipped out of the doorframe, waving the creature in the air with one hand.

"Longbottom!" He called, but recieved no response as the younger boy jostled past the Honeydukes Express, bumping chocolate frogs and sherbert lemons to the ground. "Ah," Fred frowned, mumbling to himself. "Mental, that one."

With a soft exhale, he turned his head to Edie. His lips pressed together as she called him by his last name - like everyone else. It wasn't like he wasn't proud of his family, of course. The Weasley's were the Weasley's - a team through thick and thin. Though being called just... "Weasley" bothered him more than if someone had simply mistakenly called him George.

He didn't necessarily mind, much of the time. After all, surnames were an easy nickname to give someone. He'd done it, himself, to a professor or two, and been promptly smacked for it. It was the way the word snaked past Slytherin lips with disgust and pity that really bothered him. Fred couldn't read the girl well enough to tell if she meant it that way... but he'd expect nothing less from her lot.

"Yeah, you can call me that," he gave a dry smile that didn't move past his lips, "if you're just like everyone else."

Giving a small salute, Fred slid the door shut and followed after the wandering Neville. His voice rang out across the train cart as he slipped further and further away from Edie's compartment. "Neville! I've got your toad! He's been sat on, but I'm sure he'll reinflate!" The statement was followed by a sharp cry.

....​

When Fred returned to his compartment, Neville & toad in tow, his brother looked up at him, smiling.
"Ho! The Knight of the Toad returns. How goes your quest?" Fred grinned at George, glad to be back at his side.
"Very well, my good man. I only made Neville cry once." George slapped his brother's shoulder, making room on the seat for him to sit down.
"Traumatize any first-years on your trip?"

Fred smiled, popping a jelly bean into his mouth. Honey. He thought of the frustrated girl with the almond-shaped eyes, glaring at him from her seat in the train compartment, and so very desperate to be done with him.
"I'm not sure if she was a first year."