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Chapter One

Another year at Hogwarts, my fourth year precisely and Oliver’s seventh. Which reminds me, it’s his last year. The end of this year, he’ll be leaving. He’s still the same, still Quidditch mad, still the same scheming thick-skulled moron I’ve liked since first year. Now that you know I like him, it’s also true that either he’s really, really thick and can’t recognize a thing I’m saying or he doesn’t return my “affections”. Not that I’m severely affected by that but if you had the same case like mine, wasting a whole four years of your life liking someone who doesn’t notice, you’d be sort of hurt, right? Well, I guess so.

So here I am again, standing in front of the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ thinking about all these crappy thoughts inside my head. Ah well, I guess I better get going or I will miss the train.

I briskly walked into the barrier and into the Platform; as usual, I was greeted by the bustle that I encounter every year: owls flying about, cats screeching and clawing at unsuspecting ankles and I shouldn’t mention the toads and the squelching sound they make when trolleys go over them. ANYWAY, I started walking back and forth looking for the compartment Angelina and Alicia are in since I’m nearly always late. That is, until I squelched another one of them goddamned toads. And a girl started screaming.

“Mr. Squishy!!” she screamed, and I kept on wondering how appropriate the toad’s name is. “Uncle Oliver, Mr. Squishy’s dead!!!!”

Let’s just say the state of the toad wasn’t good. And I could already hear footsteps behind me, yep, I was dead.

“Bell?” someone behind me asked. I looked behind me and there was Wood. “What are you doing?”

“I—uh—toad—um,” ok, that wasn’t such a smooth line to woo the guy but hey, considering the situation that was all I could manage.

“Uncle Oliver!!!! He’s DEAD!” the girl wailed louder.

“Quiet Maggie, you’re disturbing people.” He said, moving closer to the girl. “I’ll get you a new pet. You want an owl?”

Immediately, Maggie stopped crying. “Alright,” she said.

“Go with your friends, I have to talk to Katie here, ok?” he said and Maggie went skipping off to a bunch of bug-eyed girls at the adjoining compartment. Now that I noticed, HEH, took him four years to call me Katie eh?

“I’m sorry about—um—Mr. Squishy.” Motioning the—er—lump that was the toad under my trolley.

“That’s alright, Bell,” he said grinning at me, “That toad was getting too much to bear lately.”

“Right,” I said, dragging my trunk up into an empty compartment.”

“You need help with that?”

“No, no, I’m alright!” I said, waving away his offer. Okay, so I wasn’t the world’s best weightlifting champion but I have pride for Merlin’s sake!

And so my pride has to pay. What if I struggled actually lifting the trunk at least one foot high up on the ground? Ok, so I did. Damn it. Wood was just standing there, grinning that infuriatingly cute grin of his. Damn him! It’s not my fault I looked like a chipmunk trying to lift a coconut.

“Stop smiling at me like that Wood.” I snapped.

“Move away from the trunk, I’ll do it.” He said, lifting the trunk easily into the compartment.

“Er—thanks for that Wood.” I said uneasily walking into the compartment and dragging the trunk along with me.

“That’s alright, you can sit in this compartment with me,” he said plopping into the opposite bench. “I think your friends are a bit busy with Fred and George.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” I said, rolling my eyes. “So I guess you’re stuck with me today, eh, Wood?”

“Yeah.” He replied, grinning again.

“What are you smiling at Wood?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“That’s it I’m going to sleep.”

“Suit yourself.”

So, despite the hammering beat of my heart, I still managed to have a decent nap on the train. It seemed like I’ve only been asleep a couple of minutes when Wood shook me awake.

“You better get changed, Bell, we’re nearly there.” He said and added, “You missed the Dementors by the way.”

“Dementors on this train? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Well, they skipped our compartment because they heard your loud snores.” He chuckled.

“Shut it!” I shouted at him as he went off to get changed.

Author’s note: Hey guys! It’s me again, I made the fan fic Love Actually but I had to discontinue it. I hope you like this one. Please review. Thanks a lot.