KING'S CROSS
"Hurry up, Dad!" exclaimed a little girl with a cascade of dark brown, curly hair that fell to her hips, pulling her plump, piggy-eyed father by his arm along the station. As they came towards platform 9, Dudley Dursley recollected the memory of leaving his cousin there twenty-four years ago and jeering at him for hunting imaginary platforms.
"Now,Dad" the girl said, shaking Dudley back to his senses. "Where is Uncle Harry?"
"He'll probably be here in a few minutes, Emily. I've written to him about your letter and he said he'll be here to help you find your platform," he said as he checked his watch and gave the crowded station a sweeping look.
"I can't wait to see him, Dad!" Emily said, jumping with excitement.
"Neither me, Em. I've not seen him for ages. He was quite glad to know that you got a letter. He said you were called a muggle-born or something..." Dudley said when a tall, bespectacled, black-haired man , a woman with bushy brown hair, two black-haired boys, one of them slightly shorter, bespectacled and exactly like his father and a small timid girl clutching her mother's hand, emerged from the crowd. Harry had no difficulty in identifying his cousin as he was exactly like his father, Vernon Dursley, except for the bushy moustache.
"Hey, Dudley!" Harry said, took Dudley's ham-like hand and shook it vigourously. Dudley grinned at him, exibiting all his clean, white teeth. Dudley had long since started liking witches and wizards and become very Un-Dursleyish by willingly accepting the fact that his only daughter, Emily, was a witch.
"Just walk straight through the barrier in between platforms 9 and 10," Harry told Emily "Like this," he said and walked through the barrier as if it was completely hollow and dissappeared from sight.
Dudley and Emily followed him without a word. On the other side, the five Potters and the two Dursleys stood on the crowded platform, James and Emily pushing their trolleys laden with a trunk and an owl cage.
"This is James and its his first year at Hogwarts too," Harry told Emily and Dudley. "This is Hermione, Albus and Lily ," he continued, pointing to each of them.
They edged their way through the crowd towards the scarlet steam engine.
"I hope I'm sorted into Gryffindor," James said nervously.
"You will be, I'm sure. But it doesn't matter to us which house you're in," Hermione said.
"It does to me," he said as he hugged his parents. "Bye Mum, Dad, Al, Lily, Uncle Dudley," James said.
"Keep writing to me often," he told his Mum.
"I'll write to you seven times a week if you want me to," Hermione said and grinned at her eldest son. Harry muttered something about howlers which was louder than he had probably meant to say it.
"What?"she asked, quickly turning her head towards Harry and gave him a look not unlike the one a mother who was forcing the truth out of her son would give him. With one last look at Harry, Hermione, Albus, Lily and Dudley, James and Emily went into the train to find themselves a compartment.