✧✦✧

ALL ABOARD THE HEARTBREAK TRAIN

act one  ━  chapter three

.  .  .  .  .  .

━ THE WEASLEY TWINS ━
september 1993

"I THINK IT'S DISGUSTING."

"Good thing no one cares what you think."

September first had arrived in a whirlwind of last-minute school preparations, heaps of folding and packing and far too many cups of coffee than Oliver Wood would like to admit. But at least he was wide awake as the clock that hung high on Platform Nine and Three Quarters struck eleven o'clock, and as he passed over his luggage to the train employee for it to be stowed away.

As Oliver followed the Weasley twins and headed for the hooting bright red train ─ Angelina Johnson, her girlfriend, Maxine O'Flaherty, alongside couples Bianca and Adrian, and Leo and Alicia all trailing closely behind ─ Katie Bell on his arm, Oliver's final year at Hogwarts loomed over his head, accompanied delightfully by the impending thought that Gryffindor was yet to win the Quidditch cup as well as Fred Weasley describing him and his girlfriend's subtle PDA as disgusting.

"Weird thing to say when our minds are more or less synced, don't you think?" Fred cocked his head to one side aimed at his brother George, as they boarded the train and began their search for an empty compartment. "Or maybe you've forgotten we're identical twins."

"Not forgotten," George shrugged, "just phasing out."

"That's physically and theoretically impossible," Fred countered, momentarily discarding his close-up scanning of each of the train's compartments by peering his head inside, to deadpan at his brother.

"Probably genetically impossible too," Oliver chimed in at the thought.

Katie laughed nervously from beside Oliver at Fred's initial statement, describing her relationship as disgusting. Thankfully, after knowing the ginger twins for four years, she had learned to block out their immaturity.

Having found an empty compartment, the rowdy group of ten all squeezed onto the two benches, five on each.

"You excited for the World Cup next year, Adrian?" Oliver asked the Slytherin Chaser, who had chosen the spot opposite the Keeper, besides Bianca and Maxine.

"Is he?" Bianca scoffed, stowing away her bag on the overhead shelf. "It's all he talks about. It's not even like it's soon ─ it's next summer."

"Exactly," Adrian replied, "next."

"You made any predictions yet based on the lineup rumours?" Maxine was slipping her coat off, elbowing Fred in the process, who was jammed in by the window opposite his twin.

Oliver shrugged off a smirk, "I fancy Scotland's chances."

"That's bollocks mate," Adrian laughed to himself, silently ignoring the English National Quidditch Team's bad track record.

"Since McCormack left, you lot don't stand a chance next year," Angelina joined in from next to her girlfriend.

"She's replaceable," Oliver shrugged off the very fair point made by his teammate. Catriona McCormack had been carrying the Scottish National Team on her back since the sixties. It's why she didn't opt for earlier retirement.

"By who? You?" Maxine joked.

"Watch it, O'Flaherty," Oliver smirked. "Hufflepuff are gonna get smoked this year."

"You say that every year, Cap." George was still very focused on the prank in his brother's hand, but it didn't stop him from taking in the conversation unfolding beside him.

Oliver felt a little tug at his heart. Quidditch meant a lot to him and it hurt that in all his years as captaincy, he had not once brought Gryffindor to victory. And coming from his own teammate, it was difficult to hear that that may never happen.

He laughed it off and trained his eyes out the window and onto the bustling platform behind the glass.

Oliver still wasn't used to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. London was still an enigma for him. It only just occurred to him that this could be the very last time he ever experienced the hidden platform. The only reason he was there this year was because he had spent the last week of summer with Katie and her parents in Cornwall. Oliver still lived with his parents in Scotland and so used the Floo Network to get to school most holidays. He almost wished he lived in England just so he got to soak up the cheery atmosphere of Kings Cross.

The train then screeched against the tracks, pulling out of the station until it was well behind them and all that was ahead was nine long hours and not a lot of legroom.

Ten minutes into the train journey, the Hogwarts Express was rolling out of the city and Oliver was already tempted to ask Katie if she wanted to find somewhere else to sit. Fred and George had already pulled out their new prototype dung bombs, and Adrian's new unauthorised pet lizard, Michael, had been staring right at him for far too long. He felt uncomfortable with how stuffy it was in what felt like a tiny compartment, which definitely wasn't designed for ten people and Oliver was hoping to get some sleep so he could sneak in some time on the pitch in the morning before everyone else.

He was not going to be able to do that here.

But before he got the chance to run the idea by Katie, she was already nudging his side and trying to grab his attention away from Michael, whose eyes were so yellow, Oliver felt a little hypnotised.

"Hey, Ollie?" Katie spoke quietly as if she didn't want anyone else to hear her. Oliver was a lot happier to look at his girlfriend than he was at Adrian's reptile and so turned to look at her, from where she was bunched up against the wall of the compartment.

Oliver raised his brows as if to encourage her to say what she wanted to.

"Can we talk?"

❋❋❋

"YOU NEED A REBOUND."

As the English countryside whizzed past them in a blurry haze, the Hogwarts Express soared on towards Scotland.

Morgan Samuels had vouched to try her best to act happy and content with life after her unexpected, uninvited breaking up with Herbert Fleet because she didn't want to bother her friends with her moping. But, it seemed that, upon Herbert's sister's comment, it was evident that her acting wasn't so successful after all.

"A really fit one," Beatrice added, her eyes momentarily leaving her copy of the Daily Prophet to raise her eyebrows in Morgan's direction.

Morgan was huddled into the corner of the bench, closest to the doors in their compartment, the hood of her jumper falling just before her eyes. She probably could have done a better job at playing I'm perfectly fine even though I've recently been dumped. She had barely said a word to any of them since they boarded the train because nine hours is a long time to try not to cry.

She didn't want to talk about it. It being Herbert, their breakup and any form, type or mention of the concept of love. And she had been lucky that none of them had brought it up.

That was until Kira Fleet picked up on how quiet Morgan had been when the group had been ranking their long list of Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers and decided to attempt to lighten Morgan's spirits.

Casper pointed a finger at Morgan, before placing his next card on the small table by the window opposite his Exploding Snap opponent, Edie Cunningham. "But not as fit as you."

"I don't need a rebound." Morgan hugged her knees into her chest.

Bea shrugged her shoulders. "Everyone needs a rebound."

Beatrice Fisher had had her fair share of relationships over the course of the five years she had attended Hogwarts. The longest one of them lasted was a month, and so Morgan hardly feels that Bea has ever needed a "rebound" from the exes that she had broken up with.

"It's either that or an emo phase."

Over the past week, Kira Fleet has tried not to feel guilty about Morgan's breakup. She tried talking sense into her brother, but Herbert wasn't going to budge. And Kira hated herself for it. She hated Herbert for it too and had spent the rest of the summer trying to get him in trouble with their parents, but something about her brother breaking her best friend's heart didn't sit right with Kira.

Morgan wasn't sure if her friends were going to ever agree on this with her, but she was going to try nonetheless. She didn't want to embarrass herself because of this situation even more by getting rejected in an attempt to "rebound". Nor did she want to scare people away by changing.

Morgan was hoping her friends would either come up with a better solution to make her feel better or just drop it entirely.

"I don't need either."

"You do," Greg shrugged, leaning over Edie's shoulder to watch the match more closely. "It's human nature."

Morgan stared out of the window from afar, unable to decide whether she'd rather be closer to home or closer to Hogwarts. "I'll be fine."

Morgan didn't like the looks of pity she was receiving from her friends. She needed some kind of material to break the sorrowful tension that had built up since the topic of her breakup came up.

I'll be fine.

She had to repeat those words a few times over in her head just to convince herself she believed it.

It reminded her of something. A song title, to be specific.

And then it came to her ─ her scapegoat, a way to convince her friends she actually was going to be okay.

Morgan spared them all a sheepish, mischievous shrug.

"I'll Cry Instead."

Bea caught on immediately. As did the others, but approached Morgan's joke with a subtle smirk or concealed snort.

Bea took a different approach. "Okay, absolutely not." She slammed her newspaper onto her lap. "You are not using your breakup as an opportunity to pelt me with more Beatles puns!"

Morgan's legs fell from the seat onto the floor. "That's not fair!" She exclaimed. "I'm the depressed one ─ I should get to choose. And we're not attacking you specifically. Think of it as more of a universal joke."

"Morgan's right," Casper nodded, biting down a smirk. "And besides, we were Getting Better, no?"

Bea's face slowly morphed into one of growing annoyance, but that only fueled Greg's enthusiasm to keep going while the chance was there. "Morgan needs a way to make herself feel better," he said. "She's just Fixing A Hole."

Morgan let her shoulders sag as she looked longingly at Beatrice, resisting all urges to give her next joke away with her tempting smirk. "Yeah . . ."

Bea arched a brow in warning. "Don't you do it."

Bea had experienced enough of this to predict what was coming next.

"I'm making myself feel better . . ." Morgan echoed Greg.

"Don't."

Morgan could already feel all her sorrows and reminders of heartbreak flutter away in this brief moment of hilarious bliss. "With A Little Help From My Friends."

Bea flicked her newspaper up in her hands so she held it right in front of her face, concealing the smiling faces with its large printed pages. "I honestly am trying to figure out why on God's green Earth I'm friends with you."

Almost as if the universe was providing Beatrice with an explanation, one of the navy cards that had just left Casper's hand, gave a loud bang as it exploded on the table, coating the window in a light sparkling dusting.

Casper flicked a blue speck from the card's debris from his arm. "Charming."

A knock on the glass pulled everyone's attention away from Morgan temporarily until they all digested that the person knocking on the door was Morgan's brother.

Shutting her eyes for a moment, knowing full well that her recent treatment of Bea is just going to make this encounter with her older brother even more infuriating, Morgan took a breath in and Jason knocked again.

When she finally met his gaze, Jason was indicating that Morgan leave the compartment by tilting his head back. With a sigh, Morgan obliged and a second later she was standing in the narrow aisle, her brother towering over her, while his friends, Jeremy Stretton, Roger Davies and Randolph Burrow all looked on unbothered.

"You okay?" Jason asked once the door was shut behind her and her friends had resumed talking about something or rather in her absence.

Morgan crossed her arms, confused as to why all four of them had gone out of their way to search the very long train, filled with very many students just to find her. "Why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

Jason tucked his lips into his mouth and didn't blink as he stared at her. "I'm not going to answer that."

"I'm fine."

"Mum's making me check up on you regularly."

"Why?"

Jason looked from side to side hoping that in the silence Morgan would figure that one out for herself.

But when she didn't speak after an awkward few seconds, Randolph butted in and called out from behind Jason. "Because you tried to burn the house down."

Morgan hinged her body to the side to address her brother's friend. "Thank you, Randolph." She smiled sarcastically and then recentered herself to confront Jason with an arched brow. "You tell your friends everything or just the embarrassing highlights of my tragic life?"

"I'm also not going to answer that."

Morgan spotted her friends side-eyeing her conversation with her brother from inside the compartment but brushed it off once they had looked away a second later.

With a sigh, she returned to the matter at hand. "I'm fine. Please leave me alone."

Jason sucked in a tight judgemental breath. "Not sure if attempted arson counts as "fine"."

"Jason." Morgan drawled warningly.

"Okay," he said. "Shout me if you need me."

Morgan faked a wide smile. "Unlikely, but thanks."

"Just so you know, M," Jeremy leaned in closer over Jason's shoulder so she could hear him, "we're more than willing to beat Hebert up if he bothers you anymore."

"That won't be necessary, but thanks, Jeremy."

"Just keep us in mind, alright?" Roger winked at her from where he was the tallest of the group.

"Will do, Roger. Will do."

Jason spared his sister one last wide-eyed look that read I'm seriously here for you before Morgan unlocked the hatch on the compartment door and pushed it to. As she slipped inside, her brother and his friends strolled back to where they came from.

"So does this mean I can date your sister now?"

"Randolph, I swear to God."

❋❋❋

OLIVER WOOD NEVER HATED SOMETHING SO QUICKLY. And that something happens to be life. He hated school and having to face it now this had happened. He hated his mother for giving him her naive tendencies. He hated Katie. For tearing out his heart and wrapping it in two. But most of all, he hated how he didn't hate Katie because that is impossible. That's what makes this so painful ─ how had he managed to lose something so perfect?

"You want to . . ." Katie had never heard him speak so quietly before. He's the captain of their Quidditch team and Scottish ─ quiet isn't in his vocabulary.

"You want to," Oliver repeated, "break up?"

This didn't quite make sense to Oliver. Where had it come from? Had she planned for it like this? Did she tell anyone she was going to do it? How long had she wanted to break up with him? They had just spent the summer with her parents.

Katie sat opposite him. They found a compartment to themselves and within a matter of seconds since closing the door, trapping out the sounds of the happy students, Oliver was single.

That's another thing he hated ─ how quickly she had done it. Like ripping a plaster off that had been on for so long. Like it meant nothing once it was over and done with. Except, the difference between the plaster scenario and this one was that there was no relief after it was done. Maybe for her, but Oliver was stuck in a depressing spiral he thought would never end.

"Yes," she replied softly. Oliver hated how softly she spoke. In fact, he became overwhelmed with how much fondness for every little thing about her overcame him when he looked into her eyes just as she happened to be breaking his heart.

"I'm sorry, Ollie."

Oliver hated how she called him Ollie. She wasn't allowed to do that.

But then, of course, he didn't hate it. He loved it. He loved how it rolled off her tongue so naturally as if she was the only person that was ever supposed to call him that.

"I just don't see this working out for us in the future." She placed a gentle hand on his leg. And oh how he wanted to push it away. How he wanted not to enjoy the warmth she gave him. How he wanted to despise every fibre of her being.

Oliver wanted to ask why. Why do you not see this working out in the future? He did. He saw the two of them together, getting married and raising children. He'd teach them how to ride a broom and she'd be there with a cup of coffee when he came home from work. She'd warm him up after a cold day on the pitch. And then they'd grow old together.

So why didn't she see that too? What did he do to not assure her their future would be perfect together? Why did this have to happen to him?

"Please can we stay friends though?"

Oliver didn't reply. He just looked deeply into her eyes. Katie didn't think he was going to say anything else. How could he? Their lives were so intertwined. If she liked him enough to want to stay friends, why did she break his heart so cruelly?

And so she left him. Literally and figuratively.

Oliver waited for the sound of the sliding door clicking into place and for his peripheral vision to be clear of her hovering figure before he showed the first signs of weakness.

He wouldn't let himself cry. Mainly because he highly doubted ─ no, he knew ─ Katie wouldn't even shed a tear at their parting ways.

So instead, he sat very still, slumped onto the sofa, rocking gently with the sway of the train, not doing much at all.

As the train rolled through the Scottish Highlands, eventually coming to a scratching halt at Hogsmeade station, the Hogwarts Castle standing tall above them, Oliver Wood could do nothing but stare out into the dark abyss, and watch the rain trickle down the window of his empty compartment, wondering where it all went wrong.

And then a girl, who had experienced the same painful doubts and worries just a week before. A girl who still felt exactly like Oliver did in that moment strolled absently by his empty compartment, behind a chorus of idle chatter from her friends in front of her.

Morgan Samuels didn't mean to glance briefly inside the compartment to her right. It just seemed so still, void of any moment, void of any life.

Inside, she was surprised to see a silent, unmoving Oliver Wood ─ the first person she told she had been dumped.

She wondered where his friends had gotten to.

"You okay in here?" She asked tenderly, a timid smile creeping up onto her face.

Oliver didn't want to talk to anyone right now. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to find the words.

But when he looked up and saw Morgan Samuels, the girl he had met in the Quidditch shop just last week who had been unexpectedly dumped by her boyfriend, Herbert and resorted to hiding out in the changing rooms, he just about managed to find the words.

"Honestly? Not at all."

Oliver was very glad when Morgan didn't ask any questions. And almost weirdly delighted when she responded with:

"Me neither."

Morgan had immediately noted how alone Oliver's compartment felt. Chilly, but not frozen. Quiet, but not silent. And most certainly, melancholy. Morgan knew what it felt like to feel that way. It reminded her of her bedroom a little bit. The least she could do was give him a helping hand.

Morgan shrugged, her friends getting smaller and smaller as they hurried down the train's aisle.

"Wanna find a carriage and mope together?"

Oliver had never thought he would think a suggestion like this one could be such a brilliant idea. But he couldn't face seeing his friends, who were also Katie's friends and he liked the idea of an alliance with a girl he had just met.

Still wishing he could stay on the train forever, maybe until it rode off to the edge of the world, Oliver reluctantly grabbed his bag and followed the sixth-year Ravenclaw out into the rainy night.

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫!

oh how i miss writing adrian pucey

brb, gonna go watch chamber of secrets just for him x