Back to Hogwarts (OPEN)

After staying up most of the night having a movie marathon with her sister, Aoife hadn’t been in the best mood when her mam woke her up to go to the train station. As soon as they arrived, she managed to lose her family in the crowds, so decided to just get on the train. She walked along past a couple of compartments, but since they were filled with younger students, nobody she knew, she just got into an empty compartment, put her bag to the side and went straight to sleep. It made the journey go nice and quickly, since it was almost time to get off when she awoke. And when she got onto the carriages, she still couldn’t see any familiar faces, so sat by herself there as well. It wasn’t a long trip to school, so she amused herself by drawing sheep on her hand in bright red lipstick. Haha.

Unintentionally, she was one of the first into the great hall. So she took a seat at the end of the almost-empty Gryffindor table and watched people walk past. Gosh, she was so old. Eighty percent of these people walking past seemed to be younger than her. Sixth-year, wow. She’d done her OWLs. FunHogwarts was over now, she imagined. It was the stupid NEWTs, and studying, and having to grow up in time to leave school. She banished these boring, old person thoughts away in an instant, and took some haribos out of the pocket of her robes. This year, she’d come to the feast prepared, so that while they waited hours for the sorting to end, she wouldn’t starve. Hogwarts should change the system so that the sorting happened while they were eating. Nobody liked watching endless eleven year-olds have a hat put on their head, over and over.

People - and by people she meant friendly housemates - better start turning up soon, because she’d only been here thirty seconds and she was already bored out of her mind. A tiny part of her wanted Hunter to turn up so that she could wave her amazing OWL results in his ugly face. He’d be so jealous. But anyone else would be better company. Then again, she didn’t talk to so many of her housemates. Maybe Phin could come and sit at her table. She wasn’t going to go and sit with him and his Hufflepuff friends, anyhow.

Suddenly she remembered Sinead, and felt really guilty. She’d abandoned her ickle first-year niece at the station, not got the train or the carriages with her, and only just now remembered that she existed. Oops. It was okay, she would just make a big fuss of the girl when she got sorted into Gryffindor and came to sit at the table. But she couldn’t see the first-years yet. They were probably still on those adorable little boats.


Yay! I decided I'd go ahead and make this for once. It's open to everyone, even if they don't interact with Aoife. ALSO, Suzzy, I can't remember if Sinead starts this term or next term so if it's next term, tell me and I'll edit!

Unsurprisingly, Lyra had had another shit summer. She wasn’t being pessimistic, or trying to be difficult about the situation, but it was just really hard. People didn’t understand what it felt like, and she couldn’t help but find apologies fake and really annoying. She couldn’t go into the village to the store without someone coming up to her and gushing over her, saying pointless, meaningless stuff. It was mainly people she didn’t really talk to before - news spread fast in the village, even though in this case the news wasn’t exactly true, because the muggles thought the murderer was one of them, not an evil psychopath wizard on the loose - but some people were friends, old friends anyway. And she knew she was depressed because suddenly she didn’t want to talk to these people, especially not to hear them sympathise and give hugs.

At least, this summer, she had come to terms with it more. She had come to admit that Jack was dead. Jack was never going to come back to life, she would never see him again. And while she still blamed herself, she realised there was nothing she could do anymore. Towards the end of summer, she started to talk again, watching movies with Lyn, chatting with her mom while she did chores, exchanging a few words with Hunter. The latter was the hardest. Sometimes Hunter really reminded her of Jack, and that was hard to deal with. Her interest in ice-cream and constant cups of tea started to return. She wasn’t the same as before, and she didn’t think she would be anymore but at least she wasn’t a total mess. She still cried to herself sometimes, and had nightmares about James Morgenstern, but it was better. Much better.

Unfortunately, by the time she got on the train, there were no totally empty compartments. Lynhad gone off to sit with some Hufflepuffs and Lyra didn’t feel like tagging along with Hunter, so she took a seat in a compartment occupied by a third-year reading a book, who left her alone for the whole journey. Good thing she still had a reputation. She read herself for a bit, then slept, then studied these new OWL textbooks for the rest of the journey before they reached school. Then she walked alone to the carriages, wincing slightly when she saw the thestrals again. They were sort of cute, but she’d read about them, and just the whole idea of why she could see them put her off.

Upon entering the hall, she went over to the Gryffindor table, eyeing Lynnie at the Hufflepuff table as she went. Suddenly her twin sister was the one with friends. Not that she was jealous or anything. She saw Aoife sitting there, and considered sitting by her, but then remembered her brother. Hunter was in love with this girl - she still genuinely believed it - and now that he had broken up with Seren, she was certain he’d be making his move. That meant following her around creepily even more than he already did. And Lyra didn’t want to sit with sixth-years like them, so she managed a small smile towards Aoife before sitting down a bit away. Surrounding herself with strangers was always good.

She still wasn’t sure whether or not escaping to Hogwarts for the year was good or not. Being away from her family. Parents, anyway. She couldn’t escape her living siblings. But now she’d started to find comfort in being at home, it didn’t much matter. At least she was getting this wonderful magical education. Sucked that they were making the year do OWLs now. It was okay. She’d been studying for the past year, she was prepared already. She looked down at the table and stared at it as though it was the most interesting thing ever. No eye contact.

It had been a year. No, it had been over a year. And it still killed him to think about it. Still made him want to throw the nearest object into the nearest wall or blow something up or lock himself in his bedroom and ignore all of the irritating, stupid other people who could never understand. But it had been over a year. And despite the miserable reality that his brother's role in his life was over, Hunter knew that he couldn't shut himself away. Not anymore. He'd done that already - retreated within himself. And he'd hurt a lot of people in the process. Ariel. Seren. His family. Not that it mattered who he hurt - none of them mattered when he'd lost someone as important as Jack. Except that they did matter. A lot more than he'd realized. And he'd found it out the hard way.

Hunter wasn't delusional - he knew that he was hardly a saint. Knew that of all the people in the world, he was one of the last to deserve any kind of real happiness. He was by most people's standards a terrible human being who had done completely unforgivable things. Out of jealousy and selfishness and grief. Jack wouldn't have thought twice about stepping up - he'd never put himself before anyone else that mattered. He'd lost his life for their sister, and Hunter couldn't even handle his grief enough to help their family get through the busy season at the farm. People had always said they were similar - Hunter and Jack. But in his death, he had proven just how different they really were. And as Hunter pulled on his Gryffindor robes on the train, he sighed. Because muggle or not, Jack was a true Gryffindor. Hunter was nothing. But even so, there were people who needed him. His family. Ariel. And it was about time that he start caring about the people who mattered. Start listening to his brother's voice in his head, telling him to man up and quit being a git. Start letting Jack back into his life. He had to find who he used to be, before all of this.

So, as he stepped into the Great Hall that night, it was with the intention of being a better person that term - or at least not being such a masochistic, uncaring git. Of course, some habits are hard to shake. But just the fact that he was trying - or at least planning on trying - had to amount to something, right? Familiar faces greeted him as his eyes scanned the crowd. He smiled at Lyn as he made his way toward the Gryffindor table. Ariel wasn't there yet. Neither was Blake. But Aoife and Lyra were, though they weren't sitting together. Maybe he should have sat with his sister, but Lyra was always the hardest to talk to. Jack's loss was like a barrier between them. Because the greatest reminder that either of them had of their brother was each other. But Hunter had at least tried to repair their relationship, and as he passed her, he tugged on her hair jokingly and gave her a grin before eventually taking a seat next to Aoife, drawn as always to her flaming red hair.

"Hi," he said casually, offering her what he hoped was a decently sincere smile. Ignoring that stupid, annoying feeling in his stomach that was an instant reaction to seeing her after not seeing her for so long. No, not ignoring it. Crushing it. Because he was not going through the trouble of having any sort of feelings for Aoife O'Donnell. Not again. That was nothing but a suicide mission. He tried to imagine her with blue hair instead of red and continued. "Have a good summer? Any new sheep or anything?" he asked with a grin. "I guess you passed your OWLs, then, since you're here?"

Phin smiled as he peeked into the great hall! It was now late enough for him to come down, with out him being to early. He had taken a nap in the common room, and had gotten a snack from the kitchens so he didn't have to starve during the sorting ceremony. He even brought some extra cookies in case he were to run into Aoife. He jumped the last couple stairs and walked in.

He didn't want the whole great hall to know that he had been skipping... That would be embarrassing. Phin smiled when he spotted her red hair. That beautiful vibrant red hair. He mentally smacked himself. Aoife was meant to be with somebody else. Somebody that could possibly make her happy.

He grinned to himself as they where sitting next to each other, and there just so happened to be an empty spot a crossed the table, and as none of Hufflepuff had shown up yet, he felt that it would be alright to go and join them at the Gryffindor table! Any normal Hufflepuff would be terrified to join the Gryffindors. But, Phin was different. He was... Special. As he put his legs through the benches, he said, "Aoife! How was your Holliday!? Uncle Chad and I went to Italy!" It was true.

Their trip had been quiet trumendous. He loved Italy, and hoped to go back some day. Mainly for the pasta...but it was still a cool place. But he was glad to be home. He politely awknowledged Hunter with a nod. After all, if he was the best friend, and Hunter was who she was supposed to be with, he had to pretend to like him at least.

Aoife was so tired. And hungry. She was considering just leaving and going to the kitchens to grab some food, then going straight to the dormitory to go to sleep. No crazy partying in the common room tonight. This way she could just skip all the stupid feast waiting and waiting and not eating and watching endless children have a hat put on their head. But she realised that the house elves would be busy preparing the awesome food she could have here. Anyway, lots of people were arriving now, so she wouldn't be completely bored and alone the whole time. So she shoved another handful of haribos in her mouth in the hope they'd help her stay awake throughout the long and boring feast that was to come.

Then her third favourite fifth-year Gryffindor turned up and she couldn't hold back a grin. "Hello, git!" She threw a haribo somewhere in his vague direction, but it didn't really matter since he might not catch it. "No, obviously not. The new sheep were back in spring, dumbass." Summer wasn't about new lambs, it was about frolicking with the existing sheep. "But yeah, I had a great summer!" She'd learned to cook some stuff. Her mam said it was about time she started doing stuff for herself. So now she could make chocolate cake, lasagna and chicken soup. "Actually, no, I failed every single one, so I'm here to repeat fifth-year and retake my OWLs." Because she was still shit at lying, she couldn't help smiling. "But seriously, I got a D in Potions," she added. She didn't need that dumb subject, though, in her career choices. "And a fucking O in Care of Magical Creatures! Who's the dumb one now?" There was no way she could not boast about her awesome exam score.

And then Phin! Her bestie! "It was good, thanks," she beamed. "Italy?! That's awesome! Did you bring me back pizza? Or pasta? Or ice-cream?" That stuff was Italian, wasn't it? She loved pizza. She really hoped that Phin had remembered to bring some for her. Like, chicken pizza. Or pepperoni. Or... really it didn't matter. Pizza was pizza, and that was what best friends were for. Feeding each other pizza and ice-cream. She could get Phin the ice-cream, she just wanted the real genuine Italian pizza in return. Aoife saw the nod Phin gave Hunter, and shot them both a suspicious glance. They weren't supposed to like each other, or get on, or whatever. Were her babies finally growing up?