NOTHING BELONGS TO ME BESIDES DELILAH! ALL CREDIT GOES TO J.K. ROWLING

My alarm blared loudly as my eyes slowly opened. I pushed back the covers and slid out of bed, wiggling my cold toes. I looked around longingly. This would be the last time I'd wake up in this room until Christmas. Three months ago, this all would've seemed like a dream, but the pile of stuff at the door made it real. I pulled on my robe and walked downstairs.

My mother was sitting at the table reading "the Daily Prophet". I poured myself a cup of coffee. "Morning Del." She said. I yawned and nodded in response.

"Anything new in the news?" I asked.

"Oh you know. Same as it was three months ago."

I put a bagel in the toaster and leaned against the counter.

"Did they catch that Voldemort guy yet?"

Voldemort is a Dark Wizard who has been terrorizing all of the magical world for the past five years. My mother winced at the mention of his name. She put down her paper.

"Delilah, You-know-who is an extremely powerful Dark wizard. He grows stronger every day. One does not simply catch this fiend. You destroy him. And DO NOT say his name"

She picked up her paper and began to read again. So far, the conversation was going the right way, avoiding the s word. I yawned again. "Are you ready for school?" my mother asked. There it was. The s word. School.

"I'm not. Are you ready for school?" I added in with a little bit of sass.

"I am ready for school. Why aren't you?" she asked.

I blinked in astonishment. As if she didn't know. Ever since the "incident" last year, I haven't admitted any weaknesses. I struggled to say this, and I mean I really struggled.

"I'm going to be all alone, that's why."

You're probably thinking, "well that wasn't so hard to admit, right?" Wrong.

"Alone?" she cackled. "Why on Earth would you be alone?"

"Well it's not like I'll be going in 1st year, I'll be going in 6th year. Everyone already knows each other, everyone is already friends…"

I put my head down on the table. "I'll be so...alone."

Tears began to fill my eyes. My mom put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey," she said softly. "You're good at making friends. I know that it'll be difficult, but you'll have friends. Don't worry."

I sniffled and smiled slightly.

"Go get dressed. We'll leave in about 20 minutes, hon."

With those words she sent me upstairs. I pulled on a sweater, a pair of leggings, my lace-up boots, and pulled my long curly black hair into a low ponytail. I looked at myself in the mirror. In the reflection, a flashback of my summer ran through my mind.

I saw me and my mother painting my walls and decorating them. I saw all my books scattered around the floor while I tried to shelf them. I saw my closet, stuffed full.

Except for the walls, everything was bare. The bookshelf was deserted and my closet was hardly overflowing. When I moved everything in, my room felt small, and pocket sized. Now, it feels big. Too big for me to manage.

A soft breeze blew in through my window. It wasn't a regular breeze. No, it was a breeze that came once a year, reminding you that summer was over and all your time would now be devoted to studying. I crossed my room and closed the window. I looked around my room one more time. I had just gotten used to this place, and now I have to leave. I picked up my bags and began to walk. Just before I made it out of my doorway, my magic red panda, Suki, jumped onto my shoulder. Three years ago, me and my mother rescued Suki from a traveling magic circus in China, chained up and abused.

I laughed as she landed on my shoulder. "Haha. Couldn't forget you, Su."

I pointed to a cage in my hand. As soon as she saw it she shook her head vigorously. I should have known. She spent a good deal of her life locked up in a cage, so I let her stay on my shoulder. (I like that way better too) "We're gonna go someplace new, ok? And we're gonna stay there for a while." As I said this, she jumped off my shoulder and tried to go back into my room. The moment she lept, I grabbed her by the tail and pulled her onto my shoulder. "Oh no you don't. If I'm going to this place for nine months, you're going with me."

I walked down down the stairs to where my mother was waiting. We walked to the car and soon arrived at Kings Cross Station. Hundreds of people were flooding in. Both No-maj and Magic alike.

"So," I began. "How do we get to this 'Platform 9 ?"

"Oh it's simple. We just walk through the wall."

"Sorry, we walk through the what?!"

"The wall. But I've heard that running is easier."

She stopped suddenly and pointed a finger at a red brick wall between platforms 9 and 10. "There" she said. I watched as students and parents ran through. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Ready?" my mom asked. Before I had time to answer, she grabbed me on the back of the shirt and began to run. I had no choice but to run with her. As we got closer it looked as if we were going to run into the wall. At the last second we went right through.

We emerged on the other side of the wall. I looked up and saw a sign that said: Platform 9 . A great big scarlet train was steaming as students boarded and said a final goodbye to their parents. My mom set off to enter the train so I followed. She walked to one side of the train, and when I tried to follow, she stopped me.

"Woah. where do you think you're going?" she asked.

That was a stupid question.

"I'm going to sit with you, obviously."

"Oh no you don't. I have to sit with the lame-o teachers up by the front of the train.

You don't want to sit up there. Why don't you go find a compartment down the other end. maybe someone to talk to?"

My mother was very persuasive. It's one of the things that makes her special. I walked down the hallway looking for an empty compartment. It seemed that every compartment was either occupied by polite looking people, which I didn't want to talk too, or occupied by mean looking people, which I definitely didn't want to talk to.

Finally, I found one with only one person inside. A boy.

"Hi." I said. "Can I sit here? Every other place was full…"

The boy nodded slightly. I sat down, not knowing what to do. The boy looked like he didn't want to talk, so I didn't say anything. What a strange and unusual boy.