What next?! (Lyn, Lyra, Blake and Aoife)

"Wow, I feel so old!" Hunter announced loudly as he pulled open the door to the train car that his sisters were in and flopped down in a seat across from the two of them. "I'll be a third year next year. I'll be fourteen in a few months! It's crazy!" It really was crazy. Fourteen sounded so old - obnoxiously old, really. He couldn't imagine how old Jack must feel, since he was about to turn fifteen. "It will be good to get home, though, for a bit. I haven't played a video game in way too long. Not that Jack will give me even half a minute to play games when he's been stuck doing all the chores all year," Hunter grinned.

As he glanced around the compartment, a flash of red floating past the window caught his attention. "Just a minute," he said to his sisters, jumping to his feet and running out of the compartment just in time to catch Aoife as she headed down the hall. "We're in here!" he told her, catching her by the arm and dragging her with him. Maybe she had already seen them and had planned on sitting with someone else, but that was just too bad. "How's teenager Aoife doing today?" he said jokingly, knowing that her thirteenth birthday was a particularly controversial point in her life. "Have you had the sudden urge to wear loads of pink and put on all kinds of makeup?"

Hunter kind of hoped not. No matter how old she became, Aoife in pink would just be wrong. All wrong. Either way, once he'd dragged her with him to rejoin the twins and taken a seat beside her, he pulled his bag down from the overhead and started going through it. With a grin, he emerged with the most amazing thing ever - Butterbeer! "I have to say, this working in Hogsmeade thing pays for itself in Butterbeer," he said, passing one to Aoife and offering one to each of his sisters. Ever since he'd started working at Zonkos, he'd constantly been bringing stashes of Butterbeer back to share with Aoife and Blake, since second years couldn't go to Hogsmeade really. Hunter was only allowed for his job. But the twins had never tried it - they were definitely in for a treat! "I have one for Blake, too," he said, suddenly realizing that they were one person short. Not that Aoife would mind. "Have either of you seen Blake?" he asked his sisters, knowing better than to ask the red-head sitting next to him. She'd hardly be any help where Blake is concerned.

You gits are all lucky that I love you because I posted this instead of taking a test I godmodded a bit but I figured it was fine. Hunter will bring up Aoife and Blake coming to spend summer with them when Blake gets there.

Lyra had been chatting happily with Lyn - mostly her talking rather than her sister - when Hunter strutted in like the git he was. "Yeah, you're really old," she smiled. "We're still young and cool." She nudged Lyn gently. Hunter and his friends were way too old and stupid for them now, even Aoife. She was thirteen now too. Only a few of their friends were still young. Like Ariel. But in April next year they'd be thirteen. That was a while away, though.

"You're right!" Lyra groaned at the realisation of all the chores which were going to be piled on her the minute she stepped through the door. "Lyn, you get to see Toby and Aidan Turner and all the other animals!" Providing Jack hadn't eaten all of the pigs in their absence. But she didn't add that because her twin would be very sad and worried, which they didn't want. Because Lyn in a sad and worried state wasn't good.

"Hi Aoife!" Lyra beamed when Hunter practically dragged her into the room. However old she was now, she could still have sweets and, if she did, the younger girl wanted some. "I like pink! It's not a teenager thing!" If Aoife wasn't clever enough to like the colour before her teenage years, she probably wasn't going to be madly in love with it now. It was rather funny imagining her dressed in a bright pink dress with lots of pink makeup. A scary thought, actually.

Butterbeer! Hunter was giving them butterbeer! "You're officially my favourite brother!" she grinned. "Well...maybe not." Lyra didn't have to say that since he'd already handed over the apparently-amazing drink. She opened the bottle and took a huge sip of the warm, bubbly drink. It was amazing! "Yes, you are my favourite brother!" she added in between huge gulps. "I don't know where he is," she shrugged. She'd never even had a conversation with the second-year boy.

Another year gone by, as quickly as usual. It had been a fairly good one, with the few lower points. Of course, Professor Elddirs left, hopefully eaten by werewolves or something. But, unfortunately, they got Leo Malfoy instead, who was half as bad. She’d spent lots of cool best friend time with Hunter, but had been forced to endure a few unpleasant conversations with Blake. She was old enough to work in Hogsmeade now but she was probably soon going to turn into a horrible teenager. So the year had been about even, probably.

Aoife skipped along the train halls, singing the Mustachio song to herself like usual. For the first couple of compartments, she looked in to see if anyone she liked were in there. Obviously there were a couple of nice ones like Aylee and Kynan and that Wade Malfoy boy who she’d never talked to but suspected was a kind-hearted fluffy bunny of a boy. But she didn’t want to sit with them. Eventually, she gave up on stopping to look into compartments and just enjoyed skipping along, occasionally twirling or jumping.

It was a little bit of a shock when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into a compartment. But it was only Hunter. She resisted the temptation of hitting him because it was the end of term and she was in a nice, ladylike mood. Well, maybe not ladylike. But a good mood, nonetheless. She dumped her trunk in the little cupboard thing and sat down next to Hunter. The twins were already there too. “Gooooood morning afternoon evening!” It wasn’t like she knew what time it was! It was then she remembered Smartie! He was trapped outside the door, poor kitten baby. She reached out, grabbed him, then put him on her lap to pet him. “Who’s Auntie Aoife’s little baby?” she cooed. “You are, you are, you are!” The VanDerbergs could think of her as weird, she didn’t care.

“Actually, yes,” Aoife said seriously. “I’m going to get home and raid my sister’s wardrobe for all her pink dresses and makeup. Then when I come back to Hogwarts next year, I’ll be totally different.” Her tone was so unusually serious, she wondered if they’d fall for it. Hunter wouldn’t, obviously. Maybe Lyn or Lyra would. They were gullible first-years after all. She was so wearing that lip makeup stuff next year to see what people thought. And she was bringing some of Claire’s weird teenager clothes too and wearing them to the feast. Haha, people’s faces would be priceless.

She shook her head. “The minute I get back to Hogwarts, I’m getting a job in Hogsmeade,” she said determinedly. “I don’t care where. I just want butterbeer and ice-cream. I’ve never tried Hogsmeade ice-cream and I NEED TO.” Since Aylee had convinced them to go to the Three Broomsticks first when they snuck out in first-year, she never got the chance to have ice-cream. “Thanks,” she smiled as she opened the bottle. She bet Hunter had never given Seren butterbeer. Because he liked her more.

Her smile faded when Hunter mentioned Blake. Did that git have to sit with them? He’d probably gone to hand out with Seren. They were both terrible, horrible people so they were a good match. If he didn’t turn up soon, she was drinking his butterbeer. Hers was rapidly disappearing. Aoife was thirsty. It was the end of term. That resulted in thirstiness.

Blake was making his way to the grounds, trying to locate someone he knew and could talk to. He felt the sadness wash over him as he crossed the threshold to Hogwarts at the Entrance Gates. It was always an odd site seeing the gates open, they were usually kept locked by powerful magic only opening for special occasions such as Hogsmeade trips or days like today.

Blake blended in with the students as they poured through the gates an he idly wondered why they kept the gates locked. Its not like he ever had any inclinations to leave the place, maybe it was to keep people out?

Blake strolled past the row of carriages, discretely peaking in the windows as he walked by. He was busy searching for Ariel. His train buddy, not that he had ever said that to her but now it was official he decided. He wondered if she had gone on with Darcy, well that would be even more enjoyable if he got to share the train journey with both Wilde siblings. A spring appeared in Blake's step as this thought occurred to him.

As he was walking by one carriage that appeared crowded he could hear snippets of conversations drifting over to him. Of course, it was Aoife he thought as her voice registered with him. He was about to continue walking as he rolled his eyes at their recent conversations. All they seemed to do was talk about how old they were and considering that Hunter was going to be fourteen before he was even thirteen he didn't really feel like listening to it anymore. They were clearly too mature and full of life experience to need him anymore. Blake could clearly hear Aoife ranting on about dressing up more next year and Blake snorted to himself. Nothing could help that girl.

But then he heard his name and something about butterbeer. Well no way he was passing up that opportunity. That was one positive thing that came from Hunter's maturity, he could get a job! And it certainly had perks. "I'm here, you can stop worrying now!" Blake said as he clambered into the carriage. He quickly gauged the seating plan and sat beside the twins, trying to avoid being seated next to Aoife.

He quickly grabbed his butterbeer from Hunter swigging it down as he didn't think he was imagining Aoife greedily eyeing it up. "Hi guys," Blake said, reserving a smile for Hunter and Lyn as he didn't particularly feel like smiling at Aoife and didn't know Lyra too well. He wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt after he had downed his bottle of butterbeer. "Anymore?" Blake asked Hunter, cheekily raising his eyebrows at the boy already knowing the answer. "One thing I'm going to miss this summer is all the free butterbeer." Blake whined as he sat back in his seat, beside Lyn, getting more comfortable.

School was officially over for the year! Lyn was going to miss Hogwarts, really, but she knew she'd be back in three months. Instead, she focused on all other things she missed- mum, dad, Jack, Aidan Turner, Toby, Kay, and all the other animals on the farm! Although she hated chores as well, she missed them during her school term because she was used to them so much! Getting lost on the way to class usually helped Lyn with keeping fit and exercising but she missed helping with the harvest and feeding the chickens and fighting with Jack and Hunter when they ate bacon. If that counted as a chore. She was excited to go back and tease Jack with her wand and tell Kay all about her adventures in Hogwarts and chase Aidan Turner around the farm like she always did. And try to wake up earlier than Lyra, and hugging Toby and naming loads of new animals. And running around on the farm, blowing dandelions away, playing "he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not" games on the flowers, watching animals play, laying down, cloudwatching...

As she was thinking about these things, she hadn't noticed that she was already boarding the train with her siblings. Lyra was talking about something but Lyn was hardly paying attention. Then she saw Hunter pulling open a compartment door and Lyn followed. Apparently Hunter was complaining about the fact that he was going to be a fourteen-year-old-third-year. "What's so bad about it?" she asked. "You get to go to Hogsmeade, count yourself lucky!" When Lyra said something about being able to see Aidan Turner and Toby, Lyn beamed and said, "We have some serious naming to do now! One called Aoife-Oh-Donnell-Hunter's-one-true-love-of-his-life..." But then she shut up when Hunter dragged Aoife into the compartment.

Luckily, Lyn was sitting in the window seat so she could stare outside and enjoy the scenery if she ever got bored. "Hi!" she greeted Hunter's friend, then gasped when Aoife started playing with her cat. "Oh my god that cat!" she exclaimed. It was so cute, she could barely keep her eyes off it. Aoife then said that she'd be raiding her sister's wardrobe, and Lyra commented that it wasn't just a teenager thing. But Lyn found herself asking, "You have a sister? Does she come to Hogwarts?" That probably sounded off-topic. She felt her face redden and looked out of the window, deciding to stay quiet.

Suddenly Hunter was handing out butterbeer! She'd only tasted butterbeer-flavoured stuff before, like Hunter's birthday cake, but if the flavours were delicious she thought that the real thing would be even better. Lyn tried to contain her excitement as she took a bottle and opened it. She took a few gulps and beamed. "It's delicious!" Then Hunter was asking where Blake was, and Blake himself suddenly popped in. Lyn recognized the nice person who helped her find her way back to the Hufflepuff Common Room, and greeted him with a smile. She watched as Blake took a butterbeer and plopped down next to her, and was saying how much he would miss the free butterbeer during summer. "Where do you live? Hunter could send you a whole stock by owl, I bet," Lyn told him brightly. Of course Hunter would have a whole stash of butterbeer hidden in his suitcase- who wouldn't do something like that?

"LYN!" Hunter said sharply as his sister started to go on about naming one of the chickens after Aoife or something. He shot her a glare, hoping that Aoife hadn't heard what she'd said on her way in. The last thing he needed was for his sisters to make Aoife think he liked her in that way. He didn't, and if she suspected it she'd probably shun him for life for being teenager-ish. Luckily, Lyn covered it up pretty smoothly by immediately gushing over Aoife's stupid cat. Hunter hated cats, but he refrained from kicking the thing because Aoife would probably kick him if he did. He'd like to kick that stupid pest of Evan's that runs around the castle, but it was pretty good at evading him.

Then Lyn was asking about Aoife's sister, and apparently she found the question embarrassing somehow because she did that Lyn thing where she gets all quiet and looks away when she thinks she said something stupid. "Jack will be so disappointed in you," Hunter said to Lyra with a grin when she called him her favorite brother because of the butterbeer. "Though I'm sure when he tries some himself, he'll completely understand!"

Hunter rolled his eyes when Aoife's face fell at the mention of Blake. "Really, you two still can't get along?" he said to her in exasperation. That was really going to be an issue in light of the news he had to give them about the summer! But hopefully they'd be mature enough to get over it. Well, Blake would be. Hopefully Aoife would be mature enough to get over it.

Before he could chide her any further on it, there was Blake snatching up his butterbeer! Which was a smart move, because Aoife was eyeing it like she was going to down it at any moment. Hunter leaned back and watched in amusement as Blake drained his drink in about half a second. "But now you don't have any for the rest of the train ride!" Hunter joked, grinning at him. "Of course I have more, but after watching you destroy that one you think I'll be giving you another? It would all be gone before I even got home!"

Great, this was perfect timing! "Yeah, I could send you some..." Hunter said, trailing off mysteriously. "But that would be a bit pointless when you can just pop into the kitchen and grab one for yourself." Well, actually, Hunter wouldn't keep them in the kitchen. His siblings would drink them all, but that wasn't the point. He waited for half a moment to see if Blake got what he was implying, but quickly grew impatient and launched into an explanation, a grin spreading across his face.

"You're staying with us this summer! Well, at least for a bit of the summer," he said excitedly. "You're coming with us right from the train, Mum sorted it all out already!" Of course, his mother hadn't sorted out anything because Blake didn't have any parents to sort anything out with, but Hunter didn't want to bring that up in front of the others. He knew that Blake would understand. His mother was more than happy to open her home to Blake for at least part of the summer after learning about his family. "That is if you want to, of course," Hunter went on, shrugging his shoulders casually and leaning back.

Okay, now to break the news that Blake wouldn't like. Better to just get it over with. "Oh, and Aoife, Mum said you can come and stay with us for a week as well! Took a bit of convincing since you're a girl, but I told her you're the twins' friend as well, so she said it's fine!" Okay, now to see if the two of them could get over their stupidity enough to both say yes! He looked between the two of them expectantly, waiting for their reactions.

She noticed Hunter glaring at Lyn and the girl looking a bit guilty, but ignored it because she was trying to be less nosy. And the adorable little Hufflepuff liked her cat! Aoife held her arms out for Lyn to take him. Hufflepuffs should really be called Hugglepuffs, they were like little huggly bundles of light. “His name is Smartie!” she grinned. Then she asked another question, but seemed a little embarrassed afterwards. She smiled at her. “No, all my brothers and my sister are muggles. Poor them.”

The next exciting event in her life was Blake strutting in like the git he was. “Because I was SO worried,” Aoife murmured quietly. She didn't much care if the rest of them heard it, but she wasn't about to repeat it louder. What was the worse they’d do, tell her off for being mean? Then he was whining about missing the free butterbeer. She rolled her eyes and stared at the ceiling, willing for it to fall down, but only on Blake. Not for him to die or anything, just for him to get severely injured. And maybe so badly he couldn’t come back to Hogwarts next tear! But no, it wasn’t happening. Nevermind, she’d survive.

Hunter and Blake started a happy little conversation so she looked away again, uninterested. She stared out of the window, hoping the train journey wouldn’t be too long and boring. Blake would only make it worse. But then Hunter told him that he was coming to stay! That was so unfair! She shouldn’t care, because she got to go home, but she did. Rather than burst out with shouts about how unfair it was, she swallowed and looked back at the window. They couldn’t know she cared.

BUT IT WAS OKAY TOTALLY WONDERFUL AND FINE. She could go as well! Aoife grinned, speechless for a couple of seconds. She sort of bounced on her seat a little bit and her face went red. But that was just because she was REALLY excited! “It’s going to be so much fun!” she finally said. Other than Blake being there. But she could try and avoid him as much as possible. If she did, though, most of her time would probably be spent with the twins. Blake would be hanging desperately onto Hunter all the time so she probably wouldn’t get near.

"Smartie?" Blake tried not to scoff as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the cat was being shoved close enough to his face to make him cringe. Of course the girl would have to have some sort of pet. Blake had seen the ugly thing creeping around the common room before, now that he thought of it. He should have annihilated it when he had the chance. Now he was stuck for the whole train ride beside one. Cats did not seem to like him very much, he returned the cat’s glare and decided it did not deserve anymore of his attention.

Blake was getting agitated in his seat, wondering when the lunch lady was going to show up as the buttebeer had only managed to increase his appetite. Blake was thinking of all the things he was able to order, without looking like a pig when Hunter mentioned something about butterbeer. “Why, would I go to your kitchen, its miles away.." Blake trailed off, his mind still on future events circling around food. "Oh!" Blake exclaimed finally getting it just when Hunter began spelling things out, probably for everyone else's benefit. It seemed Hunter had been true to his word and had kept silent about their conversation early one morning. "Brilliant, all the butterbeer I could ever want now!" Blake was laughing, trying not to smirk at Aoife and rub it in. Yep, she was certainly going to be jealous. But Blake's thought were immediately brought back to the not so distant future where he was going to live it up with his good friend's family for some of the summer. He wasn't returning to the crowded orphanage where he refused to stay most nights and with this comforting thought Blake's mood visibly lifted as he began grinning manically.

But then the unthinkable happened and Blake felt his grin faltering when Hunter looked over to Aoife. Don't invite her, don't invite her; Blake kept repeating over and over in his head trying to stop the inevitable. Of course she’d be there he was so stupid to even overlook that. The only thing about summer that he had been looking forward to was a break from the O’ Donnell girl and now he felt like he was being forced to spend extra time with her. Blake really felt like he was being punished, some bittersweet holiday it was going to be. Blake stared pointedly at Hunter, wondering if he had concocted this plan. Blake would not put it past him, thinking he'd bring them closer together. Although for some reason Hunter thought Blake had it in him to be more mature, did he expect reconciliation over the summer? If so, he'd be sorely disappointed. Blake was too grateful to his friend though to bring it up, he could go on deluding himself for a little while longer.

Well at least Hunter lived on a farm and had plenty of siblings to hang out with besides the girl. Although he was starting to wonder if Aoife had gotten to Lyra, she didn't appear overly friendly around him. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but just in case he was going to try damn hard to keep Lyn on his side! And the farm would probably be as big as Hogwarts grounds, or at least that’s how Blake imagined it the way they talked so grandly about it. Anything less and Blake would be gravely disappointed. “So how are we getting to the Netherlands then?” Blake questioned, hoping they’d use magic. He’d heard of floo powder and would love the chance of travelling by a different method that didn't involve ridiculous heights.

Lyra grinned when Aoife magically produced a cat from nowhere. "He's adorable!" she exclaimed. As much as she loved her and Lyn's owls, cats would be nice too. But owls were more useful, so it was good in a way. It was a shame Hogwarts students could only have one pet. The rule was stupid. Why did it matter how many pets there were wandering the halls? If it was up to her, she'd have about six pets at school with her. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take Lyn long to get hold of the cat, whose name was apparently Smartie. Cute!

Blake turned up next. He smiled at Hunter and Lyn, but not her. Why? Did he not like her? She just shrugged it off because he might have just forgotten to smile or something. He was probably nice enough, since Lyn liked him so much.

It was a huge surprise when Hunter suddenly just casually invited his two friends to stay with them! "Why didn't you tell us?" That was great! Aoife would meet Jack! What would her real favourite brother think of the eccentric redhead? And Blake too! Even though he hadn't smiled at her earlier, Lyra shot a smile at Blake as well as Aoife. He asked how they were getting there, but she didn't know. Since she'd been kept in the dark! She shrugged.