Mountain Fold (Oliver Wood)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Anna could swear she could feel all her bones being crushed by the hugs her parents were giving her, she wasn't sure she'd make it to her seventh year at Hogwarts if they kept this up. Even after all her years at Hogwarts, they hadn't gotten used to saying goodbye to her, they probably never would.

"You better remember to write," her Mother warned.

"I always do," she reassured.

Zinnia was receiving the same treatment from her Mother and little brother. Her little brother, Josh, looked up at Anna and Zinnia with big eyes, "I wish I could go to Hogwarts with you."

The girls exchanged glances, the likelihood of two muggleborn from the same family having magic is extremely unlikely, but they had noticed that Josh was a little different.

"Don't give up hope, you never know what might happen," Anna tried to reassure him, but it didn't look like it worked.

"I guess so," he mumbled.

Zinnia hugged her brother again and they said one last goodbye to their families before they made their way towards the train.

"Do you think that Josh will actually be able to go to Hogwarts?" Anna asked Zinnia.

"I don't know... sometimes odd things happen, and I start believing that he might. But I also don't want to give him false hope, it's incredibly unlikely that two muggleborns from the same family have magic."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I think he will be. He makes me wish I had siblings."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you actually had siblings," grumbled Zinnia.

They wave to their families one more time before boarding the train with the intention of finding a compartment. Although they didn't get far before their search was interrupted. By two identical redheads no less.

"Hey Anna, how was your holiday?" They said at the same time.

"Hey George, hey Fred. It was good, what about you?" she greeted.

"Very productive," one of them said before yhey both looked to Zinnia expectedly.

"This is Zinnia," Anna introduced her friend, knowing she would be more comfortable that way.

"Pleasure to meet you," the twins said politely.

"You too," Zinnia said.

"Can I help the both of you?" Anna asked.

"Can we not greet our friend? What makes you think we want something?"

"Well if you don't want anything, we'll just be going."

"Woah woah, okay maybe we want to ask you something."

"We can't trick her Fred, she can see straight through us," George joked.

Anna snorted before looking at them expectantly.

"Well we were wondering about the thing we asked you about before we went on holiday."

"You mean the baking? Can we at least get back to school first?"

"Of course, of course. We were just wondering," George reassured.

"I did practice what you wanted, they taste pretty good," Anna admitted.

"Brilliant! We weren't really going for taste but that's a bonus I guess," Fred mused.

"You two better not get me into detention, I did enough of that last year," Anna warned.

"Compared to us you barely did any detention last year. But have a little more faith in us, we know what we're doing."

"Judging by how many detentions you got last year, you have no idea what you're doing, so I think have the perfect amount of faith in you."

"Sure sure," George looked confident of his abilities but then looked as if he remembered something, "you'll never guess who we saw today."

"Are you actually gonna make me guess?" Anna asked, she didn't think she would have to wait long, both the boys looked like they were bursting to tell her.

"Harry Potter!"

Anna felt her eyes widen in shock, Harry Potter was without a doubt the most famous name in the wizarding world, and he was on this train!

"Wait seriously?"

"Yeah, he asked us how to get onto the platform," George told her excitedly.

"Amazing," mumbled Anna in awe.

They didn't spend much longer chatting, Anna could sense that Zinnia was starting to feel awkward. She had spent the first half of the conversation looking at them all suspiciously, wondering why the twins were so interested in her baking. They resumed their search as they parted from the twins.

"Wasn't Harry Potter that guy that beat the dark lord when he was a baby?" Zinnia asked, when Anna and Zinnia had first realised that Zinnia had never heard of Harry Potter they were shocked and quickly filled her in.

"Yeah that's the one," Anna confirmed.

"He sounds pretty amazing, what's he look like?"

"No idea," Anna admitted, "but we'll find out during the sorting ceremony."

They found an empty compartment, to Anna surprise, they were usually all full by now. Anna heard Zinnia let out a large sigh of relief and Anna looked at her in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"Oh, I just had something important to tell you," Zinnia admitted sheepishly.

"It's not anything bad!" She added when she noticed the concerned look on Anna's face.

"Okay... if you say so."

They both walked into the compartment, Anna was still worried though. Zinnia had a very nervous look on her face and it put Anna's nerves on edge. Zinnia entered the compartment first followed by Anna but, what neither of them noticed was that someone else entered the compartment. Someone very short and very croaky.

AN: I'm so sorry it took so long to update! I'm reaching the final weeks of this semester at uni so I have so many assignments due in! I also have exams throughout most of November so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next, which kinda makes me feel bad about the sorta cliffhanger. But after November I should have a lot more free time for updates :)