The first rays of dawn began to filter through my formerly closed curtains and I could feel the phantom kiss of a soft breeze blow across my face. It was shaping up to be a beautiful, crisp early autumn day. Disgusting.
Even more disgusting than my morning lit room were my sister's antics. She was unceremoniously sprawled across my back; kicking and punching my poor, abused body with her unnaturally cold hands all the while yelling that I had to get up.
"Aren't you excited for your fifth year?" her shrill voice screamed into my now cold tipped ears.
Warmth where are you?
I growled and dug deeper under my covers, seeking warmth in the asylum that was my bed.
"Get up!" she had been saying- screaming this, sounding very much like a howler on repeat, for Merlin knows how long.
"I know that I'm excited to be a second year- no more first year jokes out of anyone." she burrowed her bony body under my sheets, kneeing and elbowing me with the force of a train. Oblivious as always I received no apology from her still blabbering mouth. "-Katie won't it be grand. Now that I'll be a second year I can finally start dating and pick fun classes, but I don't want to have to deal with those annoying first years... Ugh, I heard that Alanna Wood is going to be a first year. She thinks she's all that just because her parents are rich. Not that I even care." As usual, Georgie was complaining while claiming to not really be complaining.
I flipped over my other shoulder, pushing myself as far away from her as possible all the while trying to maintain some semblance of warmth and darkness.
"Georgie first of all, you were 'an annoying first year last year' and second of all I honestly don't give a flying snitch about who you dislike that is six years younger than me. If she's so annoying then punch her or ignore her and lastly, get out of my bed!" I gave one mighty kick that sent her bony body flying right out of my sheets, off my bed and onto the hard floor below.
As expected she began to wail and wallow about how nobody understood her and how everyone hated her. The basic angst of a prepubescent stick child.
"Now Kathryn was that really necessary?" the deep rumbling voice of my older brother, Nicholas, sounded from the doorway. I could feel his disapproval as Georgie undoubtedly went to cry to my parents after seeing that Nic would offer no coddling.
"Yes." I snapped, rolling over to my former spot in the center of my bed. Georgie's bony body had left strange divots and bumps in the mattress that made me want to cry as my perfectly outlined sleeping space was now ruined.
"She's right you know, you do need to get up and pack." he had already moved on from his chastising, seeing that it was useless to have me try and act humane this early on.
"Don't you have a house to be moving out of and a desk to be sitting in?" I snapped, knowing how he hated the fact that he was being assigned desk duty for the first few months of his job.
"Better a desk that one gets paid to sit in, then a desk that one is forced into." The jovial voice of my grandfather hummed as he hobbled by. At ninety-one years old he was spewing proverbs left and right. His reasoning was that advice from a man who has lived as long as he must be told before all his wisdom was lost and he was buried. Honestly, most of what he said didn't even make sense, but he had his moments.
"Exactly- Papi you know you're not allowed to floo travel. Where do you think you're even going?" Nic cried as he hurried after the surprisingly speedy man. The last time he had tried the Floo network he had forgotten where he had wanted to go and had ended up three towns away at his old house, which muggles happened to be living at the time.
Imagine their surprise when a rattled and slightly crazed old man crawled out of their lit fireplace while they had been trying to- ehemm get to know each other a little better. He had almost caused an international incident in classic Papi troublesome innocence.
"Kathryn Bell when I walk into that death trap you call your room I best not see you still lying in your sheets." Ah the sweet croon of the ever-loving Ysme, my dear, sweet babysitter. Just kidding she's the devil.
"Of course you wont Meme (pronounced maymay)." I chirped back, all the while mentally spitting and cursing like a sailor as I regarded my already pre-accioed shit (courtesy of Ysme) and shoved everything inside. Thank Merlin it was charmed to grow internally in size, because I had neither the skill nor the patience to fold it all. The only things I actually carefully packed were my broom, quidditch gear, quaffles, padding and one or two pictures.
Ysme waltzed into my room with a grimace, regarding me with a frown as I sat atop my trunk and attempted to close it. She snorted and walked out at my theatrics, as I was grunting and groaning as I pushed down with all my might. When it finally shut I rewarded myself with a quick cool down, meaning I laid on the floor until I heard Ysme walk up the hall and launched my stiff body into my closet.
"When I walk in there, I better find that trunk ready to leave and you beside it." she warned, her thick accent making it sound like she wanted me to be inside the trunk to an untrained ear. However, after living with her for so long her strange accent was like a second language to me.
"I'm just changing!" I blindly reached my hand into my clean laundry pile and began to change into the first items I grabbed. "You know me, absolutely must look my best for the new school year!' I hollered from behind the shut door. I was pulling my hair into a ponytail when I realized my wand was nowhere to be seen. Well shit.
She snorted with contempt, knowing me to never be one who put much stock into my appearance. I dropped to my knees and began to run my hands across the horribly fuzzy carpet. The fibers were so thick that my slim wand could be hidden anywhere and I would never know.
My fingers were splayed wide and my arms wind milled wildly in an attempt to search as much of the surrounding area as possible in the shortest amount of time. If my wand wasn't in here then I honestly didn't know where it could be.
"I have grabbed your wand already now get off the ground and get into the car. Honestly, all you do is give me gray hairs." I picked myself off the floor and flipped off the figure I knew was strutting out as I had my fit. She was on top of everything as usual.
As I heard her clop down the stairs like the big, fat horse I knew she was I looked down at the clothes I had grabbed- a neon running top and tight fitting running tights. It was suitable for a morning workout, but for Hogwarts? Not at all. But I would be wearing a robe… I shrugged and burst out of the room, nearly killing my cat in the process.
"Time to go Mr. Kitty." I hefted him up and into my arms, grabbing his cage as a last minute idea and sprinting down the stairs and through my house.
"Better late than early!" hollered Papi as I brushed a quick peck across his age spotted cheek and rushed out the door.
"Other way around Papi!" I hollered before shutting the door, effectively silencing his undoubtedly faulted logic about his word choice.
I launched myself over the hedges, narrowly avoiding a charmed hedge clipper in the process, as it angrily began to snap at my heels. I sped up to avoid being made into human shrubbery and crossed the stupidly large garden, flowers dying underfoot, and launched myself into the open shotgun seat.
"What have I told you about touching the garden!" Ysme shrieked as she hastily pulled out, obviously distraught over the idea that her favorite kids, the flowers, could be bent out of shape.
"We are going to be late and there are going to be no good compartments left thanks to you. Plus I can hardly walk anymore after your attacks on me so it's going to take me extra time to make it to the platform. When you put the five minutes you were late, plus the ten extra minutes it will take me to walk there, then I'll be fifteen minutes late." Georgie wailed in the back seat.
I could barely make out her white haired head in between the trunks and as she continued to whinge I could just picture how one sharp turn could bury her underneath the luggage and finally shut her up.
The ride went as smoothly as could be expected, each passenger mad at me for one reason or another. Ysme was playing the silent game while Georgie wouldn't shut her mouth and all the while Mr. Kitty was shedding all over me. Oh how I adored road trips.
By the time we arrived at the station we were three minutes ahead of schedule due to Ysme's severe disregard of traffic laws. I practically threw myself out of the car, packing all my belongings together in record time. I was about to sprint off when she stepped into my escape route.
"Now Kathryn you'll be taking yours O.W.L.S this year," I opened my eyes and blinked dramatically, honestly she acted as if I didn't know a thing. "Don't you give me that look." she thrust a bony finger into my face and looked me square the eyes and spoke firmly.
"I should be having to warn you about the distraction of men, but obviously that's a talk I need to have with a different young lady." she sent an incriminating look Georgie's way, who had been trying to silently slink away to avoid the annual 'Talk.' "But for you I feel like you are more distracted by Kiddish, no?" Confused, I blinked and attempted a translation. Ah! She meant quidditch.
"Well it is not everything. It is fun? Yes! Of course it is fun! But you know what is not?" her hands were now in full expression mode, flying everywhere to add emphasis to each word. "Failing. Now that is not fun. Now go study and please find a boy, you are too pretty to end up old and alone like me." She grabbed my bewildered face in between her dry, skeletally bony hands and gave me her customary four kisses on my cheeks.
I smiled and bowed, as it was custom, before sprinting off much to Mr. Kitty's displeasure. As I pushed and shoved I marveled at how I was being told to find love and how my 12-year-old sister was being told to avoid it. Funny how roles reversed our roles were. I mused as I shut my eyes and ran through the platform, feeling my mind scream at me to stop before I felt the passage give way and I was thrown out and into something. Or perhaps someone.