The train whistled as it came to a halt. Patrick Elliott looked out of the window, by which he had been sitting next to for the last 10 minutes. It had been a short ride, but was fine nonetheless. He was old enough now to head to London without his mother. Being 14 years old, he was used to it now. He stopped looking at the boring sight of the train station and stood up from his seat. There were not many people in it, so he did not have to wait a while to get out of the train. Stepping off the stairs and on to the platform, wearing denim jeans and a brown shirt with a dark green coat. He looked around at the platform, searching for an exit. He spotted an escalator and headed for it, seeing more and more people, the realization of busy London was hitting him. He just wanted to get to his destination quickly, without the hassle of going through crowds of muggles.
5 minutes later, he stepped out of the final escalator he had to take, and the soft, warm breeze blew through his dark blonde hair, his green eyes shining with the reflection of the sun. He quickly took off his coat, wrapping it around his waist. He looked around into the streets of London and sighed. It was busy. He didn't mind this at all; he liked the busyness, unlike his mother. His mother preferred silence, and that was one of the reasons she had not come with him this day. Unlike her, he liked the sense of millions of people. No one had to notice him, which he knew no one did, but he felt like it all the time, ever since he had found out what he was. He was different. He passed through the many muggles, heading for the pub he went to every year. He smirked at the thought how different the people passing him by in the streets were. They were completely different. Patrick was not a normal 14-year-old kid. No, he was a boy who was about to commence his 4th year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, heading for Diagon Alley, where he would buy all his materials. His sister, also a Hogwarts student had not come, as she had already gone weeks ago. Patrick had decided to go the same day as a lot of his friends were. He couldn't wait to see their faces. It was hard to do things with friends in the summer when you went to a school like the one he did. There were people from all round Britain, and you couldn't exactly go to the opposite side of the country for a day in the sun. He hadn't done anything with them, apart from occasionally seeing his good friend Isabelle Mackay-Sim, who lived in London, not far from where he lived, in Staines. Isabelle was a fellow 4th year, in the same house as him, Ravenclaw.
"Finally," Patrick muttered as he reached the Leaky Cauldron, which anyone could miss, as it was very small, shabby and looked as if it had only been there to fill up a small space between the two stores beside it. He opened the door, and adjusted his eyes from the large sunlight of London, and into the dark light of the pub. It was noisy, and was filled with smoke. The door closed shut behind him, and a few people turned heads to look at him as he had just brought some of the light in. Most of them were glances, as wizards frequently came here. It was one of English wizards' most favourite place to have a drink, and was also where the entrance to Diagon Alley was held.
Not taking his time to stop for a drink, as he knew no one who came here, he walked straight across the room, avoiding large tables of laughing wizards and witches.
"Hello dear," A plump waitress spoke as she passed him with a tray of firewhiskies.
"Hi," Patrick stopped to turn around and smile back. He walked on and opened the door to the back. He knew he didn't have to ask, and so closed the door behind him, glad that he was now back in the light of the day.
He looked around at the small closure, covered by a brick wall. He grinned. He was so close to getting there, he couldn't wait to see all of his friends, and he couldn't wait to buy his things, the excitement of going back to Hogwarts, the world of magic. He reached in his jeans pocket and swung out his wand, pointing it out in front of him. "3 up, two across" He said out loud, as he patted three bricks up with his wand, then two across. He stood back as the magic began. Brick by brick, it all seemed to disappear until it finally formed an archway. Through the arch was a whole lot of bustle. Wizards and witches, wearing their robes, some in muggle clothes, all browsing through the shops, sucking on their acid pops with sour faces, children running after each other for a game of pretend-duel. It was Diagon Alley. He walked through the arch and began to walk down the alley slowly, observing the shops he passed. He had no idea where to begin. He stopped to take a second for looking at his list, which he took out from his back pocket. There weren't many things he needed for this year, he just needed to refill his normal supplies mostly, and buy The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 by Miranda Goshawk. He took one more glance at the list before shoving it back into his back pocket then he looked up as he heard something. He had heard his name.
"PAT!" Another cry came and Patrick grinned.
It was one of his best friends, Amelia Roughley.
"Hey!" Patrick greeted, putting up his hand, trying to look at her over the crowd. He pushed past the wizards, making sure not to knock over a little old lady who was balancing piles of crates full of butterbeer. He finally got to his childhood friend and brought her into a tight hug.
"Oh my god!" Millie exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth as they let go of each other. "I've missed you so much!"
Patrick grinned and nodded vigorously. "I know!" He replied. "I can't believe it's been almost 2 months!"
Millie laughed and shook her head. "It's been too long, we should never do this again."
Patrick chuckled and they stood around for a bit before Millie gave another squeal and pulled him into another hug. It was too much excitement seeing your closest friends after months of not seeing each other at all.
They both laughed and then began walking down the alley again.
"Have you done your shopping yet?" Patrick asked.
"Nope, I just had a butterbeer with Roy," She replied.
Roybinson Weasley was Millie's boyfriend who she had began dating the previous year and had gone serious with.
"Oh cool" Patrick replied, poking her in the stomach suggestively. "So have you seen anyone else?"
He couldn't wait to see any of his other friends. He had gone close with people over the 4 years of living at Hogwarts, especially Simone Daly, Fleur Cribb, Isabelle, Thomas Baxter and Asya Baker-Finch. They were mainly Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, though he was close friends with Rachel Walters of Hufflepuff and Zoe Lucas from Slytherin.
"Not anyone from the group," Millie replied, brushing a strand of her dark shoulder-length brown hair from her hazel eyes. "But I have seen Ethel Fawcett and Simon McLaggen."
Patrick nodded; he didn't know either well, but knew they were both Millie's friends from Gryffindor. He was still quite surprised he was such good friends with people from out of Ravenclaw, not many people had inter-house friendships like the ones he and his friends did, but his year was different, it was known for out. They were the loudest, had the most drama, and to Patrick it was the best year he could have ever been, he couldn't imagine living a life without the friends he had today.
"So have you done any of your shopping?" Millie asked as they passed Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour, not helping to stop and drool at the wonderful ice creams on display, with even more colours than the ones on the rainbow. Patrick was a bit confused with the title of the shop, as the owner wasn't Florean Fortescue, it was a woman called Lydia. Though he had heard something about Florean dying in the war.
"Huh?" Patrick asked, shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Oh. No, I havn't yet. I just got here. I was thinking we could do it together. I can't wait till Hogwarts starts again!"
Millie laughed. " I know, I wonder where everyone else…." Then there was another one of her excited squeals.
Patrick laughed again and turned around, then his face turned into another huge happy face. It was Simone!
"Hey guys!" Their blonde friend, with high cheekbones walked over with a grin.
"Hey!" Both Patrick and Millie said as they brought Mone into a hug when she finally got there.
"How have you all been?" She asked, the grin still apparent on her voice.
"Great!"
"Good, thanks."
"Fleur and Isy are just in Flourish and Blott's" Mone said, motioning to behind her.
"Oh awesome, we havn't gone there yet," Patrick replied, looking over at the ginourmous bookshop.
"Cool, let's go, I need to buy your birthday present Millie!"
Millie laughed and blushed. "Oh forget about it! It's all right!"
Mone chose to ignore her and lead the way into the shop.
The bell rang as the door opened, and then closed behind them and Patrick looked up the see the huge bookcases that hit the ceiling at the top.
"Guys!" Fleur said, looking up from a book in one of the bookshelves. She waved, surprisement all over her face.
Isy grinned waving too. "Hey!"
Patrick and Millie greeted as they walked over.
"Why do you look so shocked to see us?" Millie asked confused.
"Oh," Fleur said, laughing a little. "I didn't know you guys were coming! It's cool though, how were your holidays?"
Patrick and Millie both replied politely then looked around the books.
"Have you bought your books yet?" Mone asked, browsing the bookshelf too, obviously in pursuit for a good book for Millie.
"Yeah, we're just looking through some others," Isy said, taking out a book on some types of antidotes, and flipped through them.
"Ok, I'm just going to buy mine," Millie said and walked over to the counter, where there were displays of all of Miranda Goshawk's books of standard book of spells.
"Yeah, me too," Pat said briefly and followed her.
After buying their books, they all walked over to the Apothecary to fill up their potion making kit.
Shuddering at the fact they had scarab beetles among other strange things, Patrick walked out of the shop with his friends, carrying his parcels. He wished he had brought a backpack or something, knowing he would have more by the end of the day.
They all made plans to go have an ice cream, but Patrick said he'd meet them later as he decided to go Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions first, as none of the others did. He'd had another growth spurt and his school robes were now way too short for him.
He passed Quality Quidditch Supplies, Eeylops Owl Emporium, making sure to observe them along with other shops before getting to the robe shop. He walked into the large shop, with robes hanging everywhere, hats, a lot of stuff.
"Hello!" A squat Madam Malkin greeted him. "Excited for school?"
Patrick chuckled. "You have no idea,"
He picked up a robe and let her drag him over to a stool so she could make the length proper.
Looking down, worried the woman would stick a pin in his leg he hadn't noticed someone else had walked in to the shop. When he looked up again another girl was being fitted next to him.
He'd seen her around Hogwarts; she had long black hair with pure green eyes and strawberry lips. Absolutely gorgeous.
She noticed him looking at her, and she gave him a smile.
"Hey," Patrick said, all of a sudden self-conscious about how he stood and the way he was holding his face.
"Hey," The girl smiled.
There was silence as both of them were having pins stuck at the hem of their robes, and then Patrick rummaged through his mind to think of something to say.
"I'm Chelsea," She spoke before he found something, and Patrick got a bit of a shock. She was talking to him.
"Patrick, Patrick Elliott," He replied, grinning.
"Are you a 4th year?" She asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" He replied, furrowing his eyebrows, he had no idea what year she was in.
"Oh," She replied, blushing slightly. "Seen you round, you know."
Patrick nodded. "Yeah, so what year are you in? Well about to be in?"
"3rd" She nodded. "Ravenclaw,"
"Awesome!" Patrick turned more to her. "I am too."
Chelsea giggled. "I know,"
"Right," He nodded, and then broke into another nervous chuckle.
"You're all done, dear," Madam Malkin said, standing up from her squat and beamed. Patrick looked over at Chelsea. He really didn't want to go.
"Well," He began to speak.
"See you at school," She smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, see you," He said, smiling again and turned around. He was about to pay galleons for some stupid robe, but really he would pay more to stay a bit. Girls had always been his weakness, well the ones he liked more as a friend that was. And this one seemed to like him, not think he was a total idiot. Well he hoped so anyway.
"Hey!" Fleur greeted him with a wide grin as Patrick met them back at the ice cream parlour, sitting down at the long table outside.
"Hey!" Patrick said, noticing Asya and Rachel were there too.
"Hey guys!" He said, more to them now.
"Hi!" Asya waved.
"Hello!" Rachel said, putting her ice cream down to speak.
"Do you want an ice cream?" Millie asked, who was sitting next to him.
"Umm," He began to think, then shook his head. "No, actually."
"Really?" Mone asked, who seemed to have already finished two.
"Yeah, really," He smiled. He'd much rather think about Chelsea. What was her last name? He couldn't wait to find out.
'Ravenclaw 3rd year' He remembered.
As all of his friends laughed, reminiscing, gulping down the best ice creams of Diagon Alley, and laughed at each other whilst Patrick was somewhere else.
This was going to be a new year. Something new. He could tell, different things were about to happen. He might actually have a shot at a girlfriend, which he hadn't had in a long time. It wasn't just that though. There was something else, yet he couldn't quite make it out.
"What you thinking about, Pat?" He heard Fleur say.
He looked up and saw everyone staring at him.
"Yeah, you seem kind of' quiet" Isy remarked.
Patrick shrugged. He didn't want to talk about his stupid feelings. However, he didn't want to look like an idiot, so he sat up and decided to join in the conversation.
"So anyway, continue, what's the story of Florean Fortescue?" Millie said looking curiously at Fleur.
"Well," Fleur explained, "In the last war, you know with Lord Voldemort, he was dragged out of his shop and then it closed down. He was found dead after Voldemort was killed by that famous Potter guy, and it wasn't a few years until it reopened."
"So…Lydia is-" Isy wondered.
"His niece," Fleur finished off for her.
"God, we were all so young when the war was on, yet I can remember it so well,"
Patrick nodded in agreement. He could remember it all too well, as he knew all of the others did. It wasn't something you would forget. He hadn't understood it well at the moment, but he knew now what exactly happened. It was to do with a prophecy. Harry Potter was the chosen one.
"Well at least it's ended now," Rachel said.
"Yeah," They all agreed. It was all over now. He didn't want to think about some evil dark lord, some evil war. He hoped there would never be something like that again. He wondered what the future would hold.
"Argh," Mone groaned. "Can we talk about something else?"
Asya laughed. "Lets'"
"Ooh how about this wonderful ice cream?" Rachel suggested.
Mone groaned again, putting an arm around her ice cream full stomach. "Not that either."
"Pig," He teased.
Mone gasped and scrunched up her napkin then threw it at him.
Pat laughed as it landed in his lap.
"I'm so temped to use my wand now," Mone joked, glaring at him playfully.
Patrick laughed. They all knew that magic wasn't used outside of school; severe consequences would follow if used.
"It's a shame we didn't do anything this summer," Fleur sighed.
Patrick nodded. "Yeah, ah well we'll be doing plenty of things at Hogwarts this term, I'm sure"
Rachel nodded. "Yeah. I wonder if anything social will happen to the students who aren't in the stupid slug club."
Patrick smiled. It was a fair point. However, he didn't want to argue too much, he felt bad already; he was in the Slug Club. He was in it through friends. Fleur was in it, as she was very smart in most subjects, and Millie was in it as her boyfriend was related to the famous Ronald Weasley, who helped in the defeat of Lord Voldemort.
"Well," Patrick said, standing up. "I've still got to buy some more quills and rolls of parchment, anyone want to join me?"
"Actually, I've probably got to go," Fleur replied.
"Yeah, me too," Isy said.
"Aw, ok" Patrick sighed. It wouldn't be too long before the train came, but it was still a pain to see everyone go.
"Well we'll see you on the train," Isy said as they both stood up from their seats.
They all hugged each other and assured each other it was only a week until they would see each other again, instead of 2 months.
After Fleur and Isy left, they all stood up from their tables, waving to the shop keeper and setting foot back onto the main alley way.
"I've still got to buy my quills and parchment too," Millie reminded them.
"Well we've still got some time so we'll come to" Asya said.
Mone picked up her arm and looked at her wizard watch, which Patrick had never understood, having 12 arms, which pointed at various different planets.
"Argh, I've got to go, I told my parents I'd be back home by 4, I have to get ready for some party we're having, a goodbye sort of thing before I go."
"That's ok" Millie said, as Patrick hugged Mone.
"Aren't your parents here?" Asya wondered.
"No, I traveled by floo powder" Mone explained.
Patrick nodded understandably. It was a type of traveling through fireplaces, which Patrick had never done, though wanted to, as it was quite intriguing.
"Bye!" She waved, and they all waved back. They watched her leave before entering the stationary shop, Scribbulus Everchanging Inks.
It was a circular room full of quills showing off the inks they had been dipped in, which were all sorts of colours.
"Oh look!" Millie said, rushing over to a pink-feathered quill that was drawing scribbles that changed all colours from the rainbow.
"Millie," Pat shook his head disapprovingly, as a joke.
Asya laughed at Millie, and then stopped abruptly as she noticed another feather quill just like the one Millie was staring at, but this one orange.
"Hey, they're actually really cool!"
"Right," Rachel said and then both her and Patrick rolled their eyes.
"We're not allowed anyway," He pointed out. "We need black."
Millie pouted before turning around and walking over to the other side of the room with the others, where the black ink bottles and casual feathered quills stood, limp and just made them seem even more boring than they were.
"Perfect," Asya said sarcastically.
"For school!" Patrick insisted and picked up 3 inkbottles full of black ink, and two eagle feathered quills.
After he bought the supplies, he walked over to the seats stood by one of the windows at the back with Asya and Rachel.
Millie returned with a bag, and Patrick noticed a bit of pink fluff coming from the top.
"You know we can see that," Rachel said, raising an eyebrow.
"Damn!" Millie said, tucking the pink-feathered quill deeper in the bag.
They all had one last laugh before they realized it was time to go, they had all finished their shopping.
One by one, they all left the shop, returning to their houses that they had stayed in for the 2 months. The houses, which they had used to live in permanently when they were younger. The may not notice it now, but really Hogwarts was now their home. Hogwarts had been there home for 3 years, and now would be for another 4. It was after that that they would be in search of their new home. The reason they had missed it so much was because of this, which they still hadn't realized. Their family may be back where they used to live, but that didn't mean anything. Family was family. Home was where your heart belonged. Hogwarts. Hoggy hoggy Hogwarts.