Chapter Fourteen |Year Three|

Soon after the party at the Malfoy's, it was time for all the children to head back to Hogwarts. Camille was, of course, ever the dolled-up guinea pig and acted as if going to King's Cross and riding a train was as if they were attending a fancy gala at Paris. Nevertheless, Amelie submitted to Camille's constant nagging of wearing something nicer, and putting on a making her hair look better, and -

"Oh shut up, Camille, I get that I look horrible and stuff. I let you pick out my outfit and do my hair, didn't I? Now please stop whining to me about this. It's getting annoying," Amelie said to her sister dryly.

Camille pouted. "But it's true! Besides, I lent you my Burberry heeled boots, didn't I? Who's the good sister now?" she said shrilly. "I realized you wanted to look good, for your scrawny little boyfriend - "

"Wait, what? Back it up?" Amelie said, confused. "If you know who my boyfriend is, great, why don't you introduce us? 'Cause I sure don't have a clue."

"Don't be immature," reprimanded Camille for technically no reason. "I'm talking about that little blonde one, you know, Malfoy? I saw you two dancing. You looked cute, for once."

Amelie rolled her eyes. "Be quiet. I always look cute... I think? Besides, not the point. Draco and I are just friends. Nothing more to it."

Whilst Camille was making Amelie look tres magnificque, the younger sister was thinking about that night. To be honest, Amelie and Draco really hadn't been friends for that long. Yes, he was nice at... their study session, the Christmas Party, and all the time between that. Which was, like, two weeks.

But she somehow felt a connection between the two. While it wasn't explosive, she could sense it was there, like a ladder. But he was dating one of her best friends, Astoria. Eh. It was probably a silly infatuation or such, anyways. She turned her attentions back on Camille, who was ranting about her nose.

Finally, Camille was done with her silly, silly hair situation. Amelie looked herself in the mirror, saw that she looked quite quaint to say the least, and stuck out her tongue at Camille. "Ha, I look cute. Nya."

It was clear the brunette had gained some confidence in herself during her time at Hogwarts. Usually she would spend 75 % of her time looking in the mirror by saying she was ugly. Face. Ugly. Eyes. Ugly. Nose. Ugly. Mouth. Ugly.

But now, she didn't seem that self-depracating, so that, of course, was a good thing. Camille rolled her eyes so hard at Amelie's little comeback that she felt she had probably gotten it stuck in its socket.

"Come on, girls. We're leaving! " came the voice of their mother from downstairs. Camille's smug facade washed away and the two shared sheepish glances. Every time they left for Hogwarts, it seemed they were late to get downstairs.

They hauled down their suitcases down the stairs, not bothering with a levitating charm. Even with a adult in the house, they didn't want to break the rule of no magic outside of school. In Amelie's exceptionally heavy trunk, however, were a few tools she was going to use to prank people at Hogwarts. With the help of Harry, respectively. After all, marauders of the second generation.

Amelie saw her mother casting half-amused, half-alarmed glances at their appearances. Both girls wisely said nothing.

"Was their some event or gala I was not warned of, girls?" she asked, her expression finally betraying (mostly) humor. Amelie shook her head.

"Nope - "

"Well, remember, I'm meeting up with my boyfriend, Jaxon. Remember him? The hot one? Mum, I've no idea why Amelie got all dolled up, though," she said, her nose wrinkling. "Probably being a wannabe. Of me."

Amelie's jaw dropped open. "Mum, that's not true! Camille nagged me for forever to get some dirt on me and do my hair. You know I'd never look this way voluntarily!"

Mrs. Santerre chuckled nervously. "Well, well... no questions! Let's leave now!"

The three piled into the car, as Mr. Santerre today was at an important meeting at work. Amelie took the handles of both her and her sister's trunks and lifted them into the car, then shut the back. She slid into the back of the car, as Camille was taking up the passenger's seat.

Halfway through the ride to London, Camille got impatient and started ranting. She seemed to be doing that a lot these days. Probably the separation from her beloved boyfriend. Note the sarcasm.

" - Ugh! Why did we have to take a measly car to London! It's a muggle thing! The wizards there are gonna think we're muggleborn or something - "

"And what's wrong with that?" cut off their mother sharply, giving Camille a venemous glare. Sure, they were muggleborn supporters (or blood traitors, as the Slytherin liked to remind them often), but sometimes Camille needed some reminding about that.

Camille sighed " - fine, fine... but think about it! It will be so embarrassing... plus, it's so slow. We still have,like, two hours. That's the reason we have to wake up so early! Fuck everything! -"

"Language," warned the ever-watching mother.

" - and if we apparated to a friend's house in London or something and then it'd be way quicker to get to King's Cross! Or you know, just apparate to the station itself. Then, I might actually get some decent beauty sleep! I need to look gorgeous! I - "

"Really can tell you're a ditzy veela right now, Camille," Amelie stated casually from the back. She had been listening to Camille's rant about the world for quite some while now, and she felt the urge to comment. Anybody would.

Camille gave her a withering look. "As I was saying, I need to look gorgeous! Now that you brought it up, we veela need to showcase ourselves in more ways than one! Not just be gorgeous, but gorgeous and stunning! Gorgeous and stunning and beautiful! Gorgeous and stunning and beautiful and smart! Gorgeous and stunning and beautiful and smart and - "

"We get it, Camille."

"And, oh, Jaxon's going to see me in all my gorgeous and stunning and beautiful and smart-ness! Oh, have I ever told you about how hot he is? So hot. One time, when we kissed, I put my hands in his gorgeously tousled brown hair, and stared into his gorgeous chocolatey eyes, and then his hips - "

"Keep it PG, darling," echoed Mrs. Santerre. She loved her daughter, but sometimes, she could be too much. If only Camille could claim to be as innocent as her younger sister...

"Well, alright - "

"Look! We're here!" shouted Amelie a bit too loudly. Camille sighed.

"Fine, sheesh, cut it out."

They parked in front of the large train station, and Amelie quickly jumped out. Her legs were cramped and sore from all the nonstop driving, and she jumped up and down for a while before settling down.

She grabbed her luggage out of the car trunk, then lugged it behind, leading on Camille and her mother towards King's Cross Station. She couldn't wait to see Hogwarts and her friends again.

"Slow down, monkey," she heard Camille mutter behind her. Contradicting what Camille had just said Amelie sped up her pace and speedily walked towards the brick wall where she would run through.

She turned around, making sure Camille and her mother were still in seeing distance, waved a little, which caught their eye, and disappeared soundly into the wall.

Amelie successfully made it through the wall, and looked around Platform nine and three-quarters. It was just the same as she remembered it in her mind. Camille appeared behind her, as did Mrs. Santerre, and Camille scowled at the overeager third-year.

"What was the rush for, Melly? You couldn't have- "

Amelie tried to hide her grin as a tall, good-looking boy made his way over to Camille. He wrapped his burly arms around her, and Camille squealed excitedly as she saw who it was. "Jaxon! I missed you so much!" she squealed.

"I missed you more, babe," he said huskily, and Camille leaned forward. The two started eating each other's faces. If Amelie didn't know better, she would've thought they were cannibals, munching on each other happily. This had been the first time Amelie had actually been glad to see him. He was a good distraction from Camille blowing up at her. Amelie didn't know what was wrong with her, rants and all. Probably just PMSing...

"Amelie!" a familiar voice cried out, and Amelie turned around to see Hermione Granger walking towards her, looking bitter, with her orange cheese ball of a cat in her arms. Amelie hoped it wasn't her she was bitter at.

" 'Mione!" she greeted back, and gave her friend a hug, and then patting the cat's pelt. They hadn't been talking much lately, and even their language lessons had been skipped quite a few times. She turned around, nodded her head at the snogging couple, and gestured at them. "Save me!" she squeaked, miming dead.

Hermione snickered. "Seems like you're having fun."

"Totally," Amelie agreed sarastically. "So hey, how's your break been?"

Hermione frowned. "Not so good. Let me explain. Ron hates me right now, because apparently Crookshanks, my cat's name, you remember, right? Yes, well, he was allegedly accusing Crookshanks of trying to eat his useless rat, Scabbers. His mind's hopelessly savage. I'm so glad he and Harry actually came to the station to ride the train this year. Last year, the two blundering idiots stole Mr. Weasley's flying car and flew it to school."

Amelie winced. "Ooh. Sounds howler-worthy. Bad consequences, I'm guessing?"

Hermione nodded. "You bet. Huge howler went to Ron from Mrs. Weasley. Absolutely horrid. Harry was actually feeling lucky he doesn't have any living relatives, otherwise - " she gestured to the air.

Amelie embraced the awkward silence that filled the air. Harry's parents weren't a subject to be talked about much, she was sure. "That's horrible. Wouldn't have liked that to happen to me," she said, shaking her head. "I can actually see the two doing that, though, mind you!"

Hermione laughed. "Yep, that's them!"

--\_~*~_/--

Amelie remembered her promise to Draco about sitting with him on the train, and that promise did she keep. After her talk with Hermione, she searched around for a pair of startling grey eyes, and found her target. She skipped over to her friend.

"Hey, Draco!" she greeted him.

He turned around. "Oh, hi, Amelie. How was the rest of your break?"

She smiled. "Oh, just getting ready some pranks. Might want to watch your back."

"Didn't know you were that type of person."

"You don't know a lot of things," Amelie said back amiably, shrugging. "And the reason I came over here is because I'm sitting with you during the ride, remember? I promised, didn't I?"

Draco grinned and nudged her. "Yep, Blaise and Crabbe and Goyle will be there too."

"Blaise I can do, but the other two? Why are those blundering idiots sitting with us?" Amelie said, raising an eyebrow at him. Draco knew there wasn't exactly any long-lost love between Amelie and the Grabbe duo.

Draco sighed. "You know why. They might be idiots, but they're my friends."

"Sure, okay. You keep saying that. I have to find Lexi and Daphne to say hi to them,and I'll be right back. By the way, just so you know, calm down the PDA with my best friend. It's kinda weird to walk in to your friends sucking their faces off each other."

Draco rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He was going to break some news to her, and he didn't know if she'd like it... or punch him in the face multiple times. "Well, here's the thing... IkindofbrokeupwithLexibecauseyouknowyeahIguesslikeyousaidIwasn'treallybeingfairtohersoIbrokeupwithherjustthoughtyoushouldknow," he spilled quickly.

Amelie quirked an eyebrow at him. "It sounds like you just said 'My bro Lexi wasn't being cool because she broke a chicken wing.' So say that again. This time, slowly."

"Um, well, I kind of broke up with Lexi, because of what you said and stuff, so um... thought you should know."

"Okay, we're going to have a talk."

Draco bit his lip nervously. "A big talk?" he said jokingly, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Yep," stated Amelie. "On the train. For now, I needed to find my best friends and say hi to them. I told you already."

"You know what else is big?"

Amelie cringed. "Get rid of pervy Draco before we have that talk. See ya."

When Draco didn't budge, she looked at him. He was staring at her, with slight fire in his eyes. He leaned closer and then -

Amelie spotted her friend and sprang away from Draco. "Um, I see her - s-see you later, D-Draco!" she stuttered, and ran away, leaving him standing there.

Once she was away from the blonde boy, she breathed in deeply. Was it just her imagination, or did Draco Malfoy just almost kiss her? Either way, she had just made a fool of herself and acted dumber than Crabbe or Goyle put together. Mentally facepalming herself, Amelie collected herself and walked calmly towards Daphne, whom she had just spied.

"Daphne! Hey!" she called. Daphne spun around, and grinned at her friend who was making her way towards her. Suddenly, the splendid reunion of the two was ruined by a tall man swinging his suitcase into Amelie's abdomen. How the suitcase had reached so high was beyond her.

"Sir! Watch where you're going!" she spat angrily.

"Watch where you're standing, next time. And watch your mouth, missy," retorted the man. Once his back was turned, Amelie flipped a rude gesture at him and muttered a string of inaudible profanities at him.

Daphne stifled her giggles. This Amelie was different from the Amelie before Christmas, and she liked it. The kitten had turned into a tiger.

When Amelie reached her, she smiled brightly at Daphne. "Hey! How was your break?"

"Great, thanks. Woah, nice one with that dude."

Amelie shrugged. "Hey, he deserved it. Selfish prick."

"Yep, the kitten definitely has gone feral."

Amelie let out a tinkly giggle. "Oh really,"

Daphne giggled too. "Yes."

The young French girl's face suddenly turned serious. "Hey, did you hear that Draco and Lexi broke up? Well, I was thinking that, you know, Draco promised you a date, you can know get it because he's single again. "

Daphne hugged her friend. "Yay! I've been dreaming of him since like, - "

Amelie put a hand on her friend's mouth. "We've heard." she took her hand of Daphne's mouth, who was laughing sheepishly. "Anyways, I'm happy for you. I'll get you two together, don't worry."

Daphne grinned. " 'Kay. You're sitting with me on the train ride, right?"

Amelie displayed an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm sitting with Draco, Blaise and the two goons."

Daphne giggled again. "The two goons have names, y'know."

Feigning shock, Amelie put a hand over her heart. "Really? I never knew!" she said, and the two burst into laughter. "See you later!"

Wandering around aimlessly, searching for Draco, she found him after picking off every person on the crowded platform. She walked towards him, and she could see that he now was accompanied by Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Wassup," Amelie greeted them as she arrived at the little group. Draco gave a look of relief. "Finally. I was worried you'd got lost."

"And tripped over my suitcases or something, and fell onto the train tracks, and then the train rushed over, and then I died."

Draco chuckled. "Yep. That."

Blaise gave Amelie a friendly hug, which, when Draco surveyed them, triggered emotions of jealousy. Don't be ridiculous, he scolded himself. You don't even like her.

Or did he?