"Downtown Train"

or

"Inez loves to rant"

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SUMMER

The school year was over and it was finally time to go home for the summer. Betty wasn't looking forward to it as her parents wanted to keep her in lockdown the entire summer.

But she did enjoy the journey home. It was always peaceful and beautiful. She could stare out the train window for hours.

Setting next to her was James who had a small frown on his face. "What's wrong James?" She asked.

     "Nothing." He sighed, looking away from her gaze. She was so confused but brushed it off.

After a few minutes Inez and a couple of their other friends, including Daniel. James gave a sour face when he saw him walk into the compartment. "So, what are you guys doing this summer?" Inez asked to everyone in the compartment.

      James, wanting to only speak once said "I'm just hanging out with my family."

     Daniel's eyes widened as he remembered who James' family members were. "Wow, it must be cool to have Harry Potter as a parent."

     "Yeah, the coolest." James mumbled under his breath.

For the rest of the trip they talked back and forth, all except James who was silently watching the back and forth between the friends.

The train pulled into the station and every jumped up to see their family members. Betty walked with James until she saw her older brother swinging his keys around in the air. She turned to James and gave him a quick hug. "Have a great summer!" She yelled back to him as she ran to her older brother. James sighed and looked around for his younger siblings so they could find their parents.

FALL

Betty was sitting in the great hall with Inez waiting for all the first years to be done with their sorting. Her eyes kept wandering over to the Gryffindor table. A few of the people surrounding James would look over to her, not in pity or sympathy, but in aversion. She didn't understand why but clearly Inez had found out why.

"I heard that James was saying that you were with Daniel this summer." Inez said in a whisper.

Betty sighed in exasperation, "That's insane, I could barely leave the house this summer!" She looked over angrily at the Gryffindor table, "He's acting like what he did didn't even happen."

Inez looked panicked for a second, "Shh shh just think about the party."

"Party? What party?" a girl a few seats away from them asked.

With a big smile on her face Inez turned to the girl, "Oh Betty's throwing a party this weekend, be sure to tell all the sixth and seventh years."

Betty brought back Inez's attention. "What about James?" She said with a worried expression upon her face.

Inez gripped onto Betty's shoulders, "That good for nothing didn't come to the dance, what makes you think he'd go to a party?"

SUMMER

James was sat in his room reading a book, trying to distract himself from his wandering thoughts. He still couldn't get over when he saw Betty and Daniel seemingly dancing to a slow song.

It's all he thought about while eating dinner with his family, his silence didn't go unnoticed by his parents but they figured that he would tell them about it if it was important.

As he went to bed he was silently hoping that things would get better, but because of him things would get so much worse.

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I feel like the word I used most in this chapter was Inez.