Slow, Love, Slow [Claire]

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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September 1st, 2017

The second to last excruciatingly painful trip from Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts was finally underway. The only reason it was such a hassle for Juniper was because she quite literally lived in Hogsmeade and was still required to travel all the way to London to take the train to the school that was a five minute walk from the front door of her house. There were no exceptions made, not even for a relative of the Headmistress. All Hogwarts students were required to travel to school via the Hogwarts Express. Thus, she was taken via side-long apparation every year just to take the hours long train ride back to Hogsmeade. Every year her parents and older siblings laughed and waved at her when she got off and on the train, driving it home that they'd all gone through the same inconvenience that she was now in the midst of.

Being grumpy on the train ride was a normal occurrence. At least between terms, when 'heading home' for Christmas, she had work to take up the time or shopping to look forward to right after being picked up. The ride on the first of September was a waste of time though. No one ever wanted her to sit with them in a compartment, so she usually ended up with a group of younger students in the general seating who didn't know her well. If she wanted to be bossy, she could be. Especially now that it was her seventh year. No one was going to tell her how she could or couldn't act during her last year of schooling. Except maybe Rhys. Who she hadn't seen yet but also didn't want to bother him during the train ride. They had the rest of the year to do whatever and she didn't want to disrupt the good mood he was bound to have seeing all his friends. She didn't mind being the odd one out.

With an advanced Transfiguration book flipped open on the table in front of her, Juniper half-read, half-watched the train fill up. Her watch said they were bound to leave any moment now. The telltale lurch of the train getting ready to start was due to happen fairly soon. Merlin this was such an inconvenience...

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 378 ● Song by Artist

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[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

SHEDDING HER BROTHER LIKE A FRUMPY OLD coat on Platform 9 3/4, Claire got on the Hogwarts Express with all the gall of every fifth year. She was practically a grown up now, her shiny Prefect pin burning a hole in her pocket. She'd have worn it with her casual clothes if Grey hadn't given her that long, humiliating stare when she'd been measuring it upon the front of her dress that very morning. He hadn't said anything, but he needn't. It wasn't cool to broadcast her position so early. She had to be casual. Unfortunately, the words 'Claire Slater' and 'casual' never seemed to quite fit together.

Claire found the prefect compartment first, depositing her trunk and smiling thinly at her fellow prefects. She knew they would have a meeting once they donned their robes later, but Claire had other plans for the beginning of their train journey. She excused herself quietly, without much protest from the others. She wasn't exactly among her peers, as it was. Claire was something of an acquired taste.

Moving through the train, she peered into each cracked compartment with a questing eye. Juniper McGonagall was the girl Claire was looking for. Her face firm with determination. It wasn't without provocation, she reminded herself. Juniper McGonagall was up to something. All summer Rhys had sent his owl's and every time the parchment was marred with Juni-this, and Juni-that. It was disgusting. The rumour mill was chugging forward, and Claire mightn't be popular, but she had a good set of ears. Rhys was absolutely batty for the girl and it was turning his brain. Gone were the owl's full of good book recommendations, or progress reports on personal challenges. He barely even read at all during the summer! The icing on the cake came in the form of her nitwit brother coming back from Diagon just a week prior, prattling on about how he'd seen Rhys Greyback bat off two pretty girls for his date. Date! Right before his final year, his final NEWT's!

"McGonagall!" Claire greeted the girl the moment she caught wind of her downturned head. She was tucked away in a back corner, surrounded by a barrier of teensy first years all sitting with deer eyes and twitching fingers. "Why on earth are you sitting with the first years?" She asked without pause, her face screwed in judgement as she opened the compartment door fully. "The trolley's about out," Claire told them, waving a hand toward the door impatiently. "Go buy some chocolate frogs and give is a minute, would you?" Attempting to appear tough and tall, she was almost stood on her very tip toes. "Please!" She added shrilly through her clenched teeth. 

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Her compartment had filled with fast-talking, nose-dripping soon to be first years. Some were sobbing uncontrollably as they waved goodbye to their parents through the compartment windows, others already excitedly talking about how they were going to be in Gryffinpuff because that one had the best view of Great Hall. Juniper sat quietly in her corner as she listened to that conversation bubble into existence, choking back a myriad of laughs that wanted to desperately fill up the cabin. Most would migrate into other parts of the train as the trip went on. It always happened that way. A few had already asked her silly questions, mostly about what magic she knew and what to expect at the Sorting Ceremony. She got the impression that those asking had older siblings who had tried pulling a fast one on them, as their information was only semi-accurate. Her sister had done the same to her during her first year.

While answering one of these innocent questions, Juniper looked up to see that a girl standing in the entrance to the compartment as she heard her name called. Before she could say anything, the kids were told to leave and find the trolley for candy, which sort of seemed to work. But why was this girl trying to shoo them away? What was the big deal with sitting with them? It wasn't like she had any other friends aside from Rhys. Besides, she didn't know if she could handle listening to Nell Ollivander apologize for the thousandth time over the potion spill.

Closing her book and neatly setting it onto the bench beside her, Juniper watched as the last first year filtered out. She had briefly noticed the flash of gold of a Prefect badge, which meant this girl was at least a fifth year. Abusing power like they always did, of course. Somehow she knew who Juniper was though. "Who're you again?" she responded with her own question. There was no way she was answering anything else until she knew who this girl was.

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 342 ● Song by Artist

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[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

THE TITTER OF DISGRUNTLED FIRST YEARS echoed in the cramped compartment. Squeezing past Claire with upward, watery glances. None quite brave enough to stand up to her as she straightened her spine, making a concentrated effort to look down her nose at them as they passed. She slid the door behind the last one, almost catching his shirt in the mechanism in her hurry. She didn't have time to dawdle, after all.

Turning back towards 'Juni', Claire pressed herself against the door. Sweating palms hidden behind her in an effort to appear composed, and not at all nervous. Then Juniper spoke and Claire's mind went blank in surprise. There was something uniquely humiliating about being completely unrecognisable. Hadn't Rhys spoken of her at all? She certainly heard enough about Juniper. And it wasn't even comparable, Rhys was supposed to be her friend. Her mouth pinched, Claire made a show of straightening the bottom of her dress, surreptitiously wiping her clammy palms as she did.

"It's Juniper, right?" Claire asked after a long beat of tense silence, curling her hair around both ears and ignoring the slight entirely as she crossed the compartment. Sitting primly on the end of the seat opposite of Juniper. She was tense, unsure of what to say suddenly as she drummed her fingers on her knees, clearing her throat twice before she decided to speak. "Why were you sitting with the first years?" She asked again, blinking at Juniper and tilting her head. "I guess I'm just surprised, is all," She interjected before Juniper could speak. "I figured you'd be sitting with Rhys Greyback," She narrowed her eyes. "Or have you shrunk him to keep him in your pocket?" 

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This was hilarious. The Prefect clearly had some sort of issue with seventh and first years sitting together, which was ridiculous. She'd sat with older students in the past and they had never found it weird. And what was wrong with this arrangement anyways? The incoming first years had a lot of questions, and she was willing to answer them. By the time the real questioning had begun, Juniper had leaned back into her seat and crossed her arms, neither interested nor concerned by what this was about.

Apparently the Prefect knew her first name, though that was obvious by how she'd screamed out 'McGonagall!' only moments before, as if Juniper had just shoved a toad down the nape of her uniform. And then it became very obvious what this was about. Rhys. Somehow it always was. People couldn't understand why they were dating. Why she would associate herself with a Greyback. A werewolf. Juniper did her best not to roll her eyes at the girl, maintaining as neutral of a face as possible. Which was hard to do because she really wanted to rip this girl to shreds already. A gold Prefect badge didn't give a person carte blanche power, though some new Prefect always let it go to their head every year. This was just another one of those situations, and Juniper happened to be the target for some reason.

While she took issue with the comment about 'shrinking' Rhys to keep to herself - because that insinuated that she believed she owned him - she kept her mouth shut. Whatever this girl believed, she was wrong. Plus, Juniper had already told herself that she wasn't saying anything until she knew who she was talking to, which the other girl had failed to do. "Wait...who are you?" Juniper repeated, staring directly into the Prefect's eyes in an effort to unnerve her.

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 313 ● Song by Artist

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[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

IT WAS QUITE A STRAIGHTFORWARD QUESTION, thought Claire. Which meant one of two things: Juniper McGonagall was frightfully dull, or she was being intentionally obtuse. For her ego, Claire preferred the first. Going by the slouched posture, and the smirk curling at the corners of Juniper's mouth, Claire feared the latter. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, mirroring Juniper's position of crossed arms before reframing and sitting on her hands instead. She worried she might start tapping her fingers, which was a ridiculous sign of weakness, her mum thought it was unseemly.

There was a horrible stretch of undeterminable seconds where neither of them spoke. Where Claire's questions fermented in the space between them, losing weight. Where Juniper appeared to grow twice the size, looking frightfully tall in the carriage and Claire worried she'd begun to slouch. She sat up just as Juniper took a questing breath and finally spoke, releasing the tension in Claire's lungs when she did.

"I-" Claire made to answer immediately but lost steam. She drew in a stuttering breath, throat dry when she attempted to swallow. "Claire." She finally managed, her voice awfully quiet compared to how loud and sure it had been when she'd initially entered the carriage. "Claire... Slater..." She mumbled, feeling utterly silly and seared to the bone. She blamed Rhys, it was all his fault after all. She used her frustration at her terrible friend to power her next attempt. Straightening her spine and curling her hands into fists where they lay under her thighs.


"Who I am doesn't matter!" She snapped, narrowing her eyes and pursing her small mouth. Juniper McGonagall was a blight against wizardkind, Claire decided. She brought the very worst out in people, which made her an awful person. There was no other explanation. "Are you- is Rhys studying with you?" She asked Juniper sharply. "He's supposed to study with me he- well, it's- I mean he practically promised." She sniffed, wrinkling her nose afterward as she felt scrutinised, forced to reveal her hand much too soon. 

juniper minerva mcgonagall

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Claire Slater...that didn't ring any bells. Juniper sort of scrunched her face as she shrugged. It honestly didn't matter who the girl was, because she knew something like this was bound to happen eventually. Rhys had admirers now that he was 'off the market' or whatever they called it. She'd heard the whispers in the corridors all spring term. As if any of them ever would have attempted it. The mere thought of it had her currently rolling her eyes, and Claire Slater got it as well even though she hadn't said anything important enough to deserve it yet.

"It sort of does though," Juniper countered. "Can't exactly have a proper chat if we aren't acquainted with one another, can we?" Though this was anything but a normal conversation and she had no intentions of being 'acquainted' with Claire Slater past whatever this was. The girl was rude and demanding. Juniper disliked that.

A small smile cracked onto her face when the Prefect asked if she and Rhys were 'studying together'. Sure. They could call it that. Definitely a lot of studying was going on there, both with books and bodies. She realized then that the younger girl had absolutely no idea what she had put herself into with this brief fit of jealousy. The trick now was trying to find a way to get her to leave the compartment without coming across as the bad one here. And if Rhys had made a promise to tutor her, she didn't want to answer for him either. "Sure, we study together a lot. I didn't know he was going to be tutoring a-" she paused to stare at the Prefect badge again, "You're a fifth year?" The tone was almost accusatory in nature, questioning Claire Slater's authority all at once without actually going that far. Juniper looked her up and down again before letting out a long exhale. It was going to be easier if she just cut to the chase. "Listen. We've been dating since Christmas break. If you had it in your head that he was going to fall in love with you over a study session or whatever, it's not going to happen now." It didn't sound as harsh as she thought it would be, but there was always room for that. "And if it really was only ever about the studying, then you wouldn't be talking to me. Right?"

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 403 ● Song by Artist

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[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

THE BLATANT LACK OF RECOGNITION OR EVEN mild consideration stung a little bit. Claire wasn't popular by any means, but she thought at the very least Rhys would mention her as his friend. Perhaps while he was spending time with her and bailing on Claire. At the very least he might have the decency to mention her while making overlapping plans, if only in passing. God, it was terrible being lonely.

Claire didn't have very many friends, people found her 'bossy' and 'abrasive'. Or, so she had been told. Rhys was one of the only other student she knew that didn't find her company unpleasant. And he was clever, too, which made his company all the more appealing because Claire suffered no fools. To discover that she was so utterly forgettable, well it couldn't help but hurt. She refused to let it show though, her brows pulling together, but her eyes remained dry as she maintained her sharp eye contact. "No, not really." Claire disagreed with a slight scrunch of her nose. "Isn't that the point of 'small talk'?"

Spluttering out her demand could be explained by her lingering discomfort over Rhys's misgivings. That didn't make it any easier when all Juniper could do was smirk. It was a nasty thing, thought Claire, an expression that promised a blow. Juniper said one thing, but Claire suspected she meant something else. It was the way she said it - 'studying', like it was a bad word. Claire felt something in her chest shrivel. "He's not tutoring me, that's a rich assumption!" She interjected, her hands coming out from under her thighs to grip the seats edge with an angry squeeze. And then it hit like a cold handed slap: 'dating'.

The most revolting word for any repressed 15 year old to hear. Even worse for Claire, who had long since decided that Rhys had all the charm and appeal of an atomic wedgie. The horror of Juniper's accusation swung like a second blow to the face and Claire reeled backwards, as if she were physically slapped. Gawping like a fish, she jumped from the chair in her shock. "You're as vile as you are dull, Juniper." Claire declared, a flush of humiliation and disgust colouring her milky complexion. "He- Rhys had plans with me to study- yes, study." She spat, emphasising the word with a sharp enunciation, lest Juniper get any more vile ideas.  "He's supposed to be my friend and- and he let me down." She sniffed, her face so hot it made her eyes water- or so she told herself.

"I don't love him, he- he talks when he chews and he folds the corner of textbooks to keep his page like a hapless oaf!" Claire ranted on, waving her hand and leaning so far onto her tip toes that she almost teetered off her feet. "If you can bear to take a break from sucking face- or... whatever it is you two brainless nitwits do together, you tell Rhys he's all but dead to me." She curled her lip and dropped her hands to her sides, turning on her heels to storm out of the carriage and leave the smirking Juniper to her own devices. However, before she managed to wrench the door open and leave, she turned on her heels one last time. "Also, your shoes are untied." She added, as if it were a searing insult, pulling the carriage door open with only a little difficulty in her clumsy rage. 

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This Claire girl was one of the more curious cases of Rhys’s sudden popularity. Juniper had seen a few futile attempts from others once it became public that the two of them were dating. How did this little Prefect not know that already? Was it blissful ignorance, or an unrealistic dream that it was all but a rumor? With the way others spoke about it, it was like Juniper had ripped away a commodity from the rest of them. As if they had been observing the goods, waiting for them to become the best price and she jumped the line and paid extra for it. The whole thing was sort of gross in her opinion. Most didn’t care about who Rhys was, aside from what muscles he managed to develop and how he probably looked with his shirt off. All gaudy comments that she heard whispered behind her back. She was fine playing the horrible wench that stole Rhys Greyback off of the eligible bachelor market that literally no one knew he was a part of until they became a couple. Juniper was so ready to be done with all of this school related nonsense. If Ollivander hadn’t been a clumsy fool and never tipped over that cauldron in Potions, she very well could have escaped Hogwarts without it. But she was glad it happened this way. Deflecting bimbos like Dolohov and putting those like Claire Slater in their place felt good. She liked being in a position of power.

Because of this, she tuned out the girl as words bumbled out of her mouth. Something about how Rhys wasn’t tutoring her, blah blah blah, and that Juniper was supposedly vile (yes, it was so mean of her to date the person that she liked). There were some additional details about chewing and talking, and Juniper yawned in the middle of it. She had half the mind to cast a silencing spell on the girl, because it felt like she was going to continue to yap all the way to the Hogsmeade Station. Blinking a few times as a flurry of motion in front of her announced Claire’s departure from the compartment, Juniper stared down at her shoes to see that they were indeed, untied. Curious.

Glancing back up, it looked like the girl was having difficulty with the door. ”It sticks a bit,” she commented lazily before returning to her book, cracking it back open to the section she had been reading before the nuisance arrived. The chapter was on extended conjuration of multiple objects at once, the example given, oddly enough, all of the tableware that Hogwarts utilized at every mealtime in the Great Hall. She had never thought about that before, but here it was in her textbook and making so much sense. Unlike silly Claire here, who still hadn’t left. Juniper figured she’d give the girl a bit of a nudge, speaking again, ”I’ll make sure to tell him whenever we come up for air after shoving our tongues down one another’s throats,” Juniper added, her sarcasm thick. ”I’m sure he’ll be thoroughly disappointed in never having to speak to you again.” Without looking up from her book, Juniper waved the girl away. "Goodbye."

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 538 ● Song by Artist

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[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

THE SOUND OF JUNIPER'S COOL TONE GIVING directions about the train door just seemed to make Claire even angrier. She gave the door a good yank and there was a sinister crack as it slid reluctantly from its hinge and opened an inch. She had half a mind to blame the girl for trying to humiliate her, but she'd already done a good enough job already. Claire had never felt so utterly dismissed in her life. Not even her worst tutor growing up had made her feel so terrible. Her gut roiling as if she might just be sick.

"Don't bother," She grumbled, shoving her shoulder into the stiff door so that she could attempt to squeeze through, feeling all the more ill at the vision of Juniper and Rhys sucking face. As she turned to slip out of the door, she caught sight of Juniper again. Her head bent over her stupid book, face impassive, as if Claire wasn't even there. She truly was an awful girl. 

Something vile brewed alongside all the rotten acid in her gut, and Claire found herself reaching for the wand. It was kept tucked in her gifted dragonhide holster, something she'd begged her parents for months to buy for her, and even then they'd made her pay half with her pocket money. Wand in hand, Claire drew in a short breath and reacted before she could chicken out. The hex was spoken under her breath, spitting angrily out of the end of her wand and sailing into the room to spark against the pressed pages of Juniper's book. All of a sudden, an explosion of paper gusted up and into the air, tearing free from the glue of the spine and creating a great hurricane around the carriage.

Claire moved quickly, pulling the door closed with a hard snap and staring through the glass as the room was engulfed in a swarm of loose leaf book pages that knocked even the luggage from the above shelves in its frenzy - the hex one she'd used on her brother once or twice over the years. Claire felt a bit of panic then, the realisation of what she had done settling into her bones, but she still held the door shut to stop Juniper from immediately exiting. From inside, she spotted her, hand clasped hard against the handle as she caught her eye through the mess and scrunched her face before she stuck out her tongue and then made a final run for it. Let her tell Rhys that, she thought bitterly. 

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The sound of struggling by the pesky little Prefect at the cabin door eventually relented, which Juniper was thankful for. The girl really was obnoxious, storming in here and acting like she owned Rhys. Neither of them did, obviously, but it was quite clear who the winner was. And it wasn’t the blonde. Juniper didn’t think she had been particularly mean until the end, when the girl started to deserve it. If she really wanted to be nasty, she could be. It would have started with transfiguring small personal belongings here or there, making the poor girl wonder if she misplaced them or if they were gone for good. Juniper could do it, but what was the point of fighting when she’d already won without even lifting a finger? That seemed unbelievably petty, especially against a fifth year who she would never see again after this year. This girl was completely unimportant…

A sudden blast ripped the book in her hands into the air, pages tearing out every which way. Completely caught off guard, Juniper watched helplessly as her book self-flagellated itself. A few sharp corners reflected off of her oversized glasses, and for once she was happy to be wearing them. In the whirlwind of pages that had erupted around her, she saw the door to the cabin slam shut, and immediately knew what had happened. Jealousy had reared its ugly head. How pathetic. And from a Prefect too. If she ever remembered what the girl’s name was, she’d have a talk with her Head of House. That unfortunately took time and effort, neither of which Juniper wanted to put into this.

Dodging the billowing pages Juniper produced her wand from her pocket spun it around a few times. Everything stopped where it was, floating in an almost freeze-frame. It gave her enough time to think about the best course of action, and several well-thought-out counter-curses later and she had the pages slowly returning to their rightful place within the book binding. While annoying, it was only a brief inconvenience. The girl should have just started with that instead of making Juniper waste words on her. Sinking back into her seat cushion, she lazily watched as her book slowly returned to normal. Hopefully the younger students that had been with her previously would return. At least they were half-decent company.

[The End]

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