Chapter 1
I shut the lid on my trunk, clicked the lock and turned around. I sighed. I was alone in the dormitory. As I looked around, it was hard to believe that I would never be here again. It had basically been my home for the most part of seven years. Without realising what I had been doing, I had left the Gryffindor common room through the portrait hole and had started walking through the castle, taking in the familiar sights of corridors and classrooms, statues and suits of armour, and fought hard to hold back the tears.
For the past few days, the castle had been gloomy. Gloomier than usual I mean. No one really knew whether they should be celebrating the fact that Harry Potter had won the Triwizard Tournament, or mourning the death of Cedric Diggory. Of course, Harry being the talk of the castle is normal and, I can't say that this is true, but honestly, he should be used to it by now. However even he was rarely seen in the common room, he spent as much time as he could in his dorm by the sounds of things.
When I eventually reached the great oak double doors, Professor Flitwick was there, ticking off names as he had done on the first and last day of every school year ever since I had been here. I walked up to him.
"Name?" he asked, without looking up.
"Miranda Cottle" I had to whisper my reply as my voice and strength seemed to have deserted me.
"Ah Miranda," he said, and his eyes glistened. I had been one of his favourite students, and he was one of my favourite teachers. "This year was your last, wasn't it?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Well, I think I speak on behalf of all of the teachers when I say… well… goodbye, good luck and we will miss you"
"Thank you Professor," I said and turned away for I was worried that I would miss the train.
I ran down onto the platform and gave my luggage to one of the porters. Hagrid was shouting at me to get on the train. I jumped on just as we started to leave the platform, and by the time I had found my friends, there was no sign of Hogwarts. I turned to my two best friends; Meredith Saunders and Charlotte Mackel (although we call her Lottie).
"Guys that was our last year there." We looked at each other and our eyes glistened as the finality of it all set in. Sure, we had been of age for over a year but now we had left our school, left our childhoods, behind. This was a finality that we didn't enjoy.
Looking at my friends, I realised that we had so much in common, but we wouldn't see much of each other anymore. We were all going separate ways and lived in different areas of the country. This was too much for me.
"I'm going to change" It was the first thing that came to mind, but I knew they wouldn't believe it. We hide nothing from each other. However, they all understood and let me get my clothes. I left. Instead of heading towards the toilets, I headed to the front of the train. The trolley lady would be there, she was always chatty. But I just wanted to walk and savour my last moments as a... child.