You can hinder me, but you'll never stop me

Back to School

On the day of september 1st Jay found herself standing on the train platform, waiting to board the giant red steam train. For the past few days she'd been staying in the muggle world, having disappeared from the Wizarding World once again. It wasn't hard to keep herself from being found, even if there were loads of people looking for her. She'd seen them looking for her when she was in Diagon Ally to buy her school supplies. No one had noticed her though, and she'd simply ducked her head a bit more to hide under her hood.

Now though, she could see her parents and Charlie accompanied by -of course- Remus and Sirius out of the corner of her eyes. Charlie had casted her a few stares, but if it were because she was wearing a hood or if her suspected it was her, she didn't know. She knew Remus was sure it was her, as he csted one look at her and subtlety gave her a small nod with a half-smile.

She could appreciate that from him, and she knew he realized that their treatment of her wasn't good and he didn't really agree with her parents. But unfortunately, his loyalty to her parents won out most of the time and he let the treatment go on.

The person in front of her finally made it in the train, and she was able to make it in the train herself. She began looking for an empty coupe, hoping to get a few more hours of peace before reaching the school. After a bit of searching, she found one in the first train wagon and settled down. She pulled a book out of her pocket and started reading.

Her peace didn't last long though, since after only a few minutes of peace her coupe door opened. She lifted her head to tell the person to find another coupe to sit in, but the words died in her throat before she spoke them.

"Finally, I thought I was never going to find you!" A happy voice spoke. Neville was the one standing in the doorway with a big smile on his face.

"Neville! Oh dear Merlin I've missed you!" Jay spoke, rising to give her best friend a hug.

Neville returned the hug, chuckling a bit. "So have I, and lady, where have you been? About half the auror department was turned upside down when you 'disappeared'." Neville said, a cheeky grin on his face as he releases his friend.

"Now that, that's a bit of a story." Jay replied finding her way back to her seat. "Then again, we've got a few hours to kill don't we?"

"Indeed we do. And girl, when I heard that you were gone, all I thought to myself was, 'Damn, I wish she'd taken me with her!'. My gran didn't think it was that funny though." They both laugh. "These are the type of stunts I expected from you, y'know."

Jay turns to him with a confused look. "You know, like, going to parties, playing pranks, and not listening to what anyone has to say about it either. It suits you better as the ideal princess. And you look a lot happier now as I've ever seen you."

"Yeah. It felt really good to be free and be myself. Though the fallout I have with my parents was quite the ordeal."

"You had a fallout?" Nev asks, leaning a bit forward. "How bad was it?"

"Bad. Really bad. My mom and I had a bit of a screaming match -which I won by the way- and moral of the story was that if they want to parent me, they frist have to act like parents to me. When I told them what I thought of their parenting, my mom smacked me across the face. They were really angry with me for taking off, which I can understand. But did they really expect me to stay indoors for and entire two months plus? So then I left the room and went to my bedroom. You know how much I have my bedroom right?" Neville nodded, a bit silent at what his friend was telling him. "Well... I gave it a slight remodeling and set fire to the things I didn't want and smashed pretty much all of my pictures. Then I left through the window and stayed in an inn for the past few days."

"Holy... wow you've definitely got some problems then." Was all Neville could say.

"Yeah. But I think we both knew it was long in the making. I just stopped caring for right now. It's ust a big mess between me and the rest of the fam."

"Are you okay? I mean... I couldn't have been easy to do that. To leave that place."

Jay thought for a moment, "Actually, it was scarily easy, and I realized that I didn't miss it in the slightest... which is really conserving now that I think of it." She's looking a bit unsure now, a sorrow expression on her face and her eyes casted down at the floor. "I just... I don't even know if I want to go back at all. I was just so, so happy when I was away. And it was so nice to be myself. I think that scares me the most, to be honest. The fact that I'm holding on to something that has been broken for years... and I can live without it just fine, I've discovered now." She lifts her head and Neville has never before seen her so... small, vulnerable. "I don't want to go back to the way it was before. I don't want to live that lie anymore, knowing fully well that it will hurt the others. Does that... make me selfish? A bad person?"

Neville is on his feet in a split second, and hugs the girl close. "No, never. You're allowed to do what makes you happy, and they don't care for that. It doesn't make you selfish, it makes you human Jay. Everyone wants to be happy, and that life you had before? If you can even call that a life, it just doesn't it you anymore. And from how you're telling it, I don't think it ever has, you just stopped lying to yourself. And no one but you gets to decide how you are happy, the only person that can decide that is you. And in a way, I'm happy that you're admitting to yourself that you're miserable there, because now, you can change it."

Jay is crying now, tears slowly dripping down her face. "Thank you." Is all she can say to her friend, one of the only people to have ever understood her. The person that is now holding her in a tight embrace, trying to smooth her.

"For what?" Neville asks, a bit of confusing present in his voice.

"Just... for everything. Being my friend, helping me out and just being here for me." Jay replies, not even having to think about it for a heartbeat.

Neville looks down at the girl in his arms and rests his head on hers. "You don't have to thank me for that, that's what friends do. And I care if you're happy or not."

They sit like that for a bit, not saying anything but not ready to let go of one another just yet. Eventually they let each other lose and Neville moves Jay until her head is sitting in his lap. He tells her about his vacation, about how his grandmother was so proud of his grades, how he found a new type of plant to grow in his greenhouse and how he laughed when he got Jay's card from Romania, with a picture of her wearing a fake mustache and a tablecloth as cape, while standing in a hero pose on a cart pulled by a donkey. What was happening when that photo was taken was a mystery to him.

Slowly Jay's smile returned to her face, and she laughed as Nev told her how he once again lost his toad, only to find it in his underwear drawer.

A few hours later, they arrived at Hogwarts. All the way to school they were laughing and making bad jokes, all the while to the school trying to trip each other. They hadn't forgotten about that morning, but in the light of the moment, both couldn't care less.